Sunday, November 25, 2007

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...

...I never thought swinging a controller around like a tennis racket or bowling ball could be fun, but I have to admit it is. It also allows people who can beat you at video games to beat you at every other thing there is....bowling, tennis, fishing, hunting, playing guitar, and on and on.

Disc golfing. We got a foursome together and went to the disc golfing course and played holes 1,2,3,8,9....I think. It was fun but I can see now why you need more than one disc. We played with just the mid range disc and it wouldn't fly very far. My arm is still sore from the strenuous activities of throwing a disc and waving a Wii controller. How can I be that sore? Because I'm using muscles in a different way than I used them before???!!! Really? Muscles were involved?

What strange, but fun, Thanksgiving weekend games. But I am so thankful for such a wonderful family.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Shoddy's Sporting Goods Store

"Come to Shoddy's to buy junk that will break the first time you use it."

Yesterday I was in a tree stand in the woods and when it came time to leave I lowered my unloaded gun, barrel pointing down, like you're supposed to, with the typical string arrangement. I had a new string for just such a purpose that I had just purchased at Shoddy's. It had a plastic clip on both ends for easy attachment to the gun at one end and the tree stand at the other. This allows you to climb up or down the tree without having to hold your weapon.

I was holding onto the plastic clip at one end and as I lowered it the plastic clip broke off of the string causing my 12 gauge shotgun to stick about five inches into the soft dirt at the base of the oak tree I was in. Nice, now I have to clean five inches of dirt out of the barrel or have the barrel blow up in my face next time I use it.

I had nearly given up buying anything at Shoddy's, otherwise known as D___k's because everything I buy there is junk and breaks the first time I use it. In recent memory there was the deer dragging harness. This harness consists of straps you put on your shoulders like a back pack and there is a rope with an attachment at the other end that you hook onto the deer so you can drag the deer out of the woods. Mine broke the instant I began to pull. It's like the manufacturer didn't really expect you to drag a deer with it, only store it in your back pack.

The other piece of junk was a scent dragging apparatus where you apply scent to a pad. This pad is then attached to a rope which you attach to your ankle. This allows you to apply doe scent to the trail where you hope the buck will come. The first step I took, the scent pad caught on a weed, of which there are many in the outdoors, and it broke.

So beware of Shoddy's, otherwise known as D___k's, or other stores such as K___t, or W_____t who carry products they sell for profit but which don't really work.

Wasn't it Plato who believed that everything on this earth was just a representation of the perfect item in heaven? So your table is a representation of a perfect table in heaven, etc. If I'm understanding that right, Shoddy's is a great example Platonic thought. Whatever you see at Shoddy's is just a representation of real sporting goods that actually work in some other store.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

guitar hero




Yes, she is my Guitar Hero. "Slow ride, da da da, take it easy, da da da...

plink, plink, what? I was robbed.

slow ride, da da da, take it easy, da da da...

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

casual shot

A few nights ago I took a casual shot. I should warn you... this post may contain some graphic language that will not be suitable for some. I was standing on a small metal mesh platform 20 feet above the forest floor. It was "prime time"... those precious moments just after the sun disappears over the horizon when the forest comes alive and every animal in the woods is poised to act or react in their role as predator or prey. I held in my hands a compound bow capable of releasing an aluminum arrow at a speed of 260 feet per second. Less than 15 yards away was a coyote, scanning the timber, unsuccessfully using every tool at his disposal: instinct, sight, hearing and especially his legendary sense of smell in an attempt to discover what was wrong and what he needed to do to survive.

I had already drawn back my bow. All that was needed was to touch the trigger of the release. I was finding the right dot of fiber optic, preset pins that indicate distance...25 yards, 20 yards, 15. I didn't have a good broadside shot, just a spine to shoot at. The coyote was looking my direction, not seeing me standing motionless above him. Now I'm hearing something else trotting down the trail. Could this be the buck I've been waiting for? I'll have no chance at the buck with this coyote standing here. Maybe it's another coyote. Should I wait for a better shot, should I just let the arrow fly and nock another arrow for the deer? What if I stick the coyote and he runs away with my arrow? Is a coyote worth losing an arrow? Do I really want to kill a coyote? Maybe the coyote is the reason I haven't seen a deer yet this season. The footsteps are getting closer, I'm running out of light, I still don't have a great shot, I could dull or break my broadhead. What would I do with a dead coyote? Skin it? MKH would love having another dead thing around the house. All those thoughts and more come like the hundreds of leaves falling around me.

Two seasons ago I was standing in this same spot waiting for an eight point buck to step out from behind a tree. He was cruising fields and timber looking for a date for the annual rut. Instead of a receptive doe waiting in the bushes there was a broadhead, a hardened steel point followed closely by four razor blades on the end of a feathered shaft. Ingenious bit of death flying through the air, passing through both lungs and out the other side. Something happened. What happened? He took four or five steps and stood there looking around and in a few minutes seemed to get sleepy, he laid down, still puzzled, and now gone.

That was a careful shot. "Aim small, miss small" as the saying goes.

I released the arrow and in a split second it was buried in the dirt. The coyote took off like a rocket, as did the other coyote that was trotting down the path.

Disappointment and regret came over me as I retrieved my arrow. I did want the coyote, now I was sure. It was a casual shot, a hurried shot, a half-hearted shot, just to chase the animal away because it was in the way of perhaps my real prey. I won't make that mistake again.

How many regrets do we have in life because we are not intentional enough? In relationships, in work, in hobbies, with God. We just sort of fling an arrow at something, pointing at something, aiming large and missing.

Tonight I was back in my stand. "Prime time" came again. An animal came down the trail. It was a coyote hunting along the fenceline. He is downwind of me so he should smell me and run away like crazy. He doesn't. I'm complimented. Before I go to the woods, I shower and use scent killing soap. I wash my clothes in scent killing detergent. I spray scent killing liquid on my bow, my shoes, everything. That stuff must work.

He must be the reason I am not seeing any deer. Next time I'm in my stand I'll have a "rabbit in distress" call. That should draw him in. The challenge is on.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Orthodox


Today I went to hear a lecture by Frederica Mathewes-Green at the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. A friend invited me and I really appreciated the invitation because otherwise I wouldn't have known about the lecture.

Frederica Mathewes-Green is a pretty famous person in her own right, author, sought after speaker, etc. and I probably wasn't very aware of that when I went to the lecture. Mostly I enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time with my friend and I wanted to take advantage of a chance to learn more about the Orthodox Church. I'm not attracted to the Orthodox Church, it just bothers me that I don't understand it.

The lecture demonstrated that our speaker really did know a lot about pop culture. Bottom line...we (Christians) can't change culture except in the way that we interact with people on a personal level. Culture is bigger than one person, one movie, one great book, etc. But culture does change all the time, discarding things that don't work. Society wants to be better and healthier but about the time you get one thing corrected, something else goes wrong.

I thought Mathewes-Brown was pretty astute when it came to culture, but I came away with the usual frustration regarding things Orthodox. I don't get the fascination with icons. In the section of her speech about culture, which was mostly discouraging, but when she got around to talking about "the good news" and I wrote down one of her phrases..."the secret power of icons." "The secret power of icons." That's a part of the good news about Christians and the Church in our culture.

She talked a lot about icons, one in particular which showed the three visitors who came to visit Abram and Sarai. She got a lot of meaning out of that icon. I just didn't see it.
What is the secret power of icons? It's totally a secret to me.