Tea and Chironomids

Spent some time tonight playing with my new Gorillapod. Very cool addition that will even further diversify the potential applications of the Pentax Optio... It allows one to basically set up a camera anywhere - attached to a tree limb, stuck in the gravel bed of a stream, or wrapped around one's own head. Thanks M & S for the gift.

Tied up a few blood worms - three small for trout and three in #14 3x long - maybe for carp if I ever get out fishing again... check out how the hook shank actually plays so well the part of the dark innards seen in the natural bug - nice effect. Thanks to my wife who picked up 1000 of these beads at her local hobby joint.

Nice evening.

Spring Wind

I lived awhile without you,
darn near half my life.
I no longer see our unborn children,
born to you my unwed wife.
But yesterday I had a vision,
beneath the tree where we once talked,
of an old couple burning
their love letters so their children
won't be shocked.

[chorus:]
Love calls like the wild birds--
it's another day.
A Spring wind blew my list of
things to do...away.

My friends are gettin older,
so I guess I must be too.
Without their loving kindness,
I don't know what I'd do.
Oh the wine bottle's half empty--
the money's all spent.
And we're a cross between our parents
and hippies in a tent.

[repeat chorus]

In a mucked up lovely river,
I cast my little fly.
I look at that river and smell it
and it makes me wanna cry.
Oh to clean our dirty planet,
now there's a noble wish,
and I'm puttin my shoulder to the wheel
'cause I wanna catch some fish.

[repeat chorus]

Children go to sleep now--
you know it's gettin' late.
I know you don't like to miss nothin'
and school ain't that great.
Oh, I'll dance with you when you're happy,
and hold you when you're sad,
and hope you know how glad I am,
just to be you're Dad.

[repeat chorus]

Darlin' it's been a hard go
but I think we'll be okay.
I know I say that all the time
like everything else I say.
Oh, I've been gone so often,
but every time I miss you,
and I don't really know nothin',
Except I like to kiss you.

[repeat chorus]

by Greg Brown

A Letter from a Friend

Got this note the other day from a good friend. Time to get back to this... it's time to say that the "admin" parts of life are to be put on hold and the core components of life are to be pursued... even if that seems inconvenient or difficult given circumstances of life. If one doesn't check oneself now and then on this, one will slip into focusing on means instead of ends... slip into admin/maintenance of life and forget to achieve some of these "goals" as outlined by The Sand Farmer below.

"I confess my own leisure, to be spent entirely in search of adventure, without regard to prudence, profit, self-imporvement, learning, or any other serious thing. I find that these serious things are a good deal like heaven; when they are too closely pursued as conscious objectives, they are never attained and seldom even understood." (presented at a class at the Univ. of New Mexico, circa 1920s)

....and speaking of adventure....he includes it with

Leopold's 6 "necessaries of life"

- adventure
- work
- love
- food
- air
- sunshine

Upon all of your own urging, in your various ways to me, I picked up the Leopold biography (Aldo Leopold, His Life and Work, Curt Meine, 1988) again last weekend, and came upon these gems. Thanks friends.

Merry Christmas

Chris Doleman

Tonight while working out I watched the first quarter of the 1987 Thanksgiving Day game: Vikings at Dallas. Tommy Kramer vs Danny White. Anthony Carter vs Mike Renfro. Joey Browner vs Everson Walls. Chris Doleman vs Too Tall Jones. Herschel Walker vs Darrin Nelson. Greg Coleman vs Mike Saxon... etc. What I watched wasn't close - Vikes dominated and were up 14-0 when I turned it off. It's funny how folks are always so down on Darrin Nelson... watching that game and the many others I have on old VHS it's clear he was a hell of a runner - quick little dude. In the quarter I watched tonight, he thoroughly outplayed Dorsett and Walker.

The highlight though was watching Chris Doleman blow around the end on three occasions. Here is one of them... this is the best I could do for capturing old footage.

Note those big ol' paws reaching high and coming down hard... see ball flying from poor Danny's hand off to the right.








6'6" 262 lbs out of Pittsburgh. Dominating Defensive End. In 1989 he logged 21 QB sacks... 151 total in his 232 career games played. Stats are here, among other places.

Can I have your package, Daddy?

That wasn't a line I heard on entering the pub last night, but rather one spoken by my first son, as I was crossing the threshold of our home after returning from work.

Said package was in fact a hefty parcel from an obscure distributor on the west coast. We made sure the kids were not in spray-shot and cut the box open... to find one dozen deluxe juice boxes, sent to us by Spilseth LLC, out of Los Angeles. JD was fascinated at this - getting JUICE via mail... very excited he was.

We thoroughly enjoyed the beverage last night, and it went well with leftover venison backstrap for lunch today.

Thank you Mr. Spilseth, for your generous gift of a fine product.