Another catch-up

All I can say is, "Well shit..."

I know! How's that for a greeting?!

For some ungodly reason I have felt busy, tired, incapable of getting on the computer after work / remaining in touch with people / truly relaxing / or even honestly smiling consistently. It's been a bizarre coupla weeks. Part of that I know is work-stress, but the rest is just me. I feel like I'm constantly busy, but in reality I'm not. I always have a list of things to do but a lot of times I just cannot convince myself to do them. I peck here and there at the list, then do something that is entirely unrelated. If anyone has a revelation, you'll be talking to welcome ears!

So, to catch up...what's been going on with Tom? Well, the fishing never took hold of me but it sounds like it's picking up on the area lakes and rivers, so that may be a possibility in the future. Honestly though, I can ask, "what are the chances?" Probably pretty low unless I seriously commit to it. Spring turkey season is over as of the 25th. I went out pretty strong in the beginning and then just started taking the shotgun with me on walks with the dog, drives, and morel foraging outings. Oddly enough, I saw more turkeys on the drives...because they all seem to congregate in people's yards or where hunting isn't allowed...go figure! But I had some neat experiences. The best was probably with Lucca (again.) We were headed into an area to look for morels and me taking the shotgun was a serious afterthought. I had to go BACK into the house after loading up the truck to get the gun. We headed down to burn area and sure enough, there were three toms around the corner feeding down the road. Another classic Lucca-sneak got us to within 50 yards when they spotted me through the brush and ran and took off into some pretty tall trees. Well, no luck there but we were both pretty excited and proud of ourselves for being able to sneak in the open! No morels were found, but heading out I heard a gobble! Down the hill we went to just check out an opening. Sure enough, the sound of feathers and a large bird flew down to where we were going. The odd thing was that there was already a tom down there and the bird that flew attacked him! Never saw a turkey fight before! After those two rounded the ridge, another tom flew down to join them. I thought they were long gone so Lucca and I poked around for a bit looking for mushrooms. As we sauntered up the ridge I saw three turkey heads! A winter of trap shooting had the shotgun to my shoulder, the safety off, and me tracking the lead bird at about 30 yards within a second or two. I couldn't tell if they were males or not so I held off long enough to watch them fly off...tracking the one the whole time. It would have been an easy straight-away, but I couldn't convince myself of the sex. All things told, after they were roosted in an EASY 125-foot Grand Fir another turkey decided it had enough of me being so close and took off...clearly a hen. CLEARLY! Dammit all. Sometimes it makes me think I just need to start pulling the trigger and hoping for the best. But, I was taught hunting ethics at a very early age so I guess it's ingrained in my soul.

I planted our "garden" last weekend. It consists of a lot of large pots in a corner of the yard, but I'm thinking perhaps this weekend I will build some raised beds. REAL raised beds...on 2x4 stilts. (We still want the grass to grow under them.) As it is, we have a couple sick looking tomato plants that a fellow coworker raises in a greenhouse entirely too early. They are all pretty spindly and don't seem to like the harsh reality of outside life too much...even after a lot of babying. Alongside those we have a couple green pepper plants, jalepeno, habenero, a zucchini, some herbs, and a new tomato plant in one of those topsy-turvey things working along nicely. My goal is to get those raised beds built and fill them with carrots, lettuce, spinach and whatever other seeds catch my fancy. Then I want to invade our landscaping with some snap peas...covertly. Match all that with some sunflowers by the bird feeders and we'll have our own little backyard industrial garden. I desperately want a place with some land to work with...but that's in the future.

Other than that, I've spent a bit of time collecting morels. Sarah and I went out a couple weeks ago and got about a gallon. Since then, it's been pretty sparse...but following the mushrooms up in elevation seems to be keeping the pace fairly well. Last night was the first time I've ever breaded them in cracker crumbs and fried them...who knew!? The plate was gone within a minute! Awesome.

The weekend before last, we headed down to the Joe for a camping trip. Unfortunately, roadwork kept us from the campsite we were shooting for by about 500 yards! Son-of-a-gun! But we found a good one next to the main road and after the bad weather cleared around 1600, we put up the hammock and just lazed around.


Camp in the grove


Firepit RIGHT next to the river


Perfect relaxation conditions


Ahhhh how cute is that?

We are NOT going out this Memorial day weekend, which I think will be a good thing. Most folks will be gone and I believe town will be fairly quiet even with the forecast of rain. Perfect time for us to use the three days to be comfortable doing whatever the hell we feel like. Sarah is running the CDA 1/2 marathon on Sunday and I'll be helping as a cheerleader and waterboy. Doesn't sound like a relaxing time to me, but then again, I don't understand the joy of running.

I've got to tell ya, I've done a damn good job of not bitching in this post. You're lucky I didn't spout off about my job and the little stuff that people just assume I'll do because, "you're kinda like the computer guy right?" ... "Why can't you take notes at our meetings? What do you do in them anyways?" ... uhm..that's taking me down a bad road. I'm done.

I need a break and am missing my yearly rafting trip that typically comes this time of year. HOWEVER, July is going to be a good month. Sarah and I are headed to the east coast on the 8th for about five days. We'll be on the Maryland beach for a couple days, then spend a day or two around her hometown and D.C. A family-visiting trip. I've never been to D.C. and am fairly excited about that...not to mention the food! Maryland's famous for crab! Following that, the crew and I managed to finally pull a launch date on the San Juan! July 25th through whenever! Paul had a great quote and said, "Well, packing should be easy. Just bring a pair of shorts." I'm desperate to resume my post as a hood-ornament, bobbing along a muddy river and doing nothing but drinking beer, taking photos, and taking it easy!"

So, with that....cheers.