Cindy, the kids, and I recently drove to Madison Wisconsin to pick up our new dog "Cash". We bought him from Sally Mcarthy Munson at Shamrock Acres. He is a fine animal.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Shamrock Acres Cold Hard Cash
Cindy, the kids, and I recently drove to Madison Wisconsin to pick up our new dog "Cash". We bought him from Sally Mcarthy Munson at Shamrock Acres. He is a fine animal.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Emo, What the crap.
So you take a high school kid, stuff him into his sisters super tight pants from the gap, sag the pants about 3 inches below the butt crack, Throw some old red converse cloth shoes, and a black t-shirt and you have yourself an Emo.
Oh yeah the dude can also wear his sisters nylons on his arms if he wants to.
What the crap posesses this new fad? This makes disco fad from the 70's look tough.
I guess the word Emo is short for emotional, which is the type of music they listen too. A type of music that the musician puts his emotion into the music.
I personally think the emotion comes from the tight pants.
Sure I get it, the little dudes are mad at their parents for being mean to them. Yeah thats nothing new, but when I was a kid at least kids rebelled a little tougher, they threw on their Mettallica T-shirt and black pants, grew their hair out and smoked camels.
That was at least tough and rebellious, that made a statement.
Now its, "Dad, I'm mad at you so to show you, I'm going to steal Sallys tight pants and wear them to school. Maybe I'll even steal some of Mom's Panty hose and wear it on my arms.
Come on kids there has to be a better and more comfortable way to make a statement.
Until today,I've often wondered, What if a fat kid wants to be Emo?
Pick up a pair of Mom Pants from the 80's, (You know the type with the elastic waistbands, giant hips with the tight ankles, usually acid washed and hiked up over the belly button). Throw on a pair of those bad boys and sag em like you stole em?
Oh yeah, that'll show dad.
Well today I wondered no more. I stopped by the Wal-mart and while puchasing some childrens tylenol for my little girl, I spotted a rare Emo treasure.
He was probably 15 years old, 5'5", 250 lbs tucked into a pair of pants that he had to have purchased at the baby gap.
He had on Converse shoes and a black shirt with some band name on it.
His face was blue enough from the tight pants that a person could probably confuse him for a giant papa smurf. Only if he had a red hat.
I watched that rare gem for a minute, grabbed my tylenol and walked away.
Kids, I can dig the cuts on the arms, the black shirts and converse shoes, even some of the music isn't half bad, but loose the Arm nylons and the baby gap pants. Go pick yourself up a pair of large Rustler pants from the K-mart, steal a pair of your dads tube socks and wear them on your arms. I promise your arms will be warmer in the cold and your business wont hurt.
Plus, I don't think anybody enjoys seeing your tonsills when they look at your pants.
Just a suggestion.
Oh yeah the dude can also wear his sisters nylons on his arms if he wants to.
What the crap posesses this new fad? This makes disco fad from the 70's look tough.
I guess the word Emo is short for emotional, which is the type of music they listen too. A type of music that the musician puts his emotion into the music.
I personally think the emotion comes from the tight pants.
Sure I get it, the little dudes are mad at their parents for being mean to them. Yeah thats nothing new, but when I was a kid at least kids rebelled a little tougher, they threw on their Mettallica T-shirt and black pants, grew their hair out and smoked camels.
That was at least tough and rebellious, that made a statement.
Now its, "Dad, I'm mad at you so to show you, I'm going to steal Sallys tight pants and wear them to school. Maybe I'll even steal some of Mom's Panty hose and wear it on my arms.
Come on kids there has to be a better and more comfortable way to make a statement.
Until today,I've often wondered, What if a fat kid wants to be Emo?
Pick up a pair of Mom Pants from the 80's, (You know the type with the elastic waistbands, giant hips with the tight ankles, usually acid washed and hiked up over the belly button). Throw on a pair of those bad boys and sag em like you stole em?
Oh yeah, that'll show dad.
Well today I wondered no more. I stopped by the Wal-mart and while puchasing some childrens tylenol for my little girl, I spotted a rare Emo treasure.
He was probably 15 years old, 5'5", 250 lbs tucked into a pair of pants that he had to have purchased at the baby gap.
He had on Converse shoes and a black shirt with some band name on it.
His face was blue enough from the tight pants that a person could probably confuse him for a giant papa smurf. Only if he had a red hat.
I watched that rare gem for a minute, grabbed my tylenol and walked away.
Kids, I can dig the cuts on the arms, the black shirts and converse shoes, even some of the music isn't half bad, but loose the Arm nylons and the baby gap pants. Go pick yourself up a pair of large Rustler pants from the K-mart, steal a pair of your dads tube socks and wear them on your arms. I promise your arms will be warmer in the cold and your business wont hurt.
Plus, I don't think anybody enjoys seeing your tonsills when they look at your pants.
Just a suggestion.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Music
In order to win back the loyalty of Rickki Sixx, at his request, decided to play music from a list of his preferred music.
This list was sent to me in a letter that included a threat. This is how the letter went.
Super Dave,
I can appreciate the fact that you are trying to break back into the world of blog.
Even though you left your readers high and dry for many months, I, as a loyal friend and relative have continued to check in periodically to see if you have made any recent attempts to entertain the masses.
To my dissapointment, the writing has been shotty and the music is so bad that I can't help but to throw up in my mouth every time I open your page.
If you want to keep me around any longer you will play the music from my list for the next three days.
Here is my list:
Iron Man by Black Sabbath
I never Dreamed from Zach Wylde's band Black Label society
Mr. Crowley by Ozzy
and Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Paul and Mary.
If you do not play this list I will never come back. Not only will I never come back but I will command my family to black ball your site. That's right Super Dave, that would pretty much eliminate all of your readers dude.
Love,
Rick
So at Rick's Request, here it is.
I apologise in advance for the Peter Paul and Mary.
I had no choice.
This list was sent to me in a letter that included a threat. This is how the letter went.
Super Dave,
I can appreciate the fact that you are trying to break back into the world of blog.
Even though you left your readers high and dry for many months, I, as a loyal friend and relative have continued to check in periodically to see if you have made any recent attempts to entertain the masses.
To my dissapointment, the writing has been shotty and the music is so bad that I can't help but to throw up in my mouth every time I open your page.
If you want to keep me around any longer you will play the music from my list for the next three days.
Here is my list:
Iron Man by Black Sabbath
I never Dreamed from Zach Wylde's band Black Label society
Mr. Crowley by Ozzy
and Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Paul and Mary.
If you do not play this list I will never come back. Not only will I never come back but I will command my family to black ball your site. That's right Super Dave, that would pretty much eliminate all of your readers dude.
Love,
Rick
So at Rick's Request, here it is.
I apologise in advance for the Peter Paul and Mary.
I had no choice.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The Demasculanization of Society:Part 2
Last Friday we went to a Christmas party at church. It was a nice program, good dinner, a talent show, some music, and Santa.
My little family and I sat down near some friends and sat back and enjoyed the show while eating.
At one point a singing group from the local High school performed. A couple of girls from the church were in the group and though I'm not really into that kind of stuff, admit that I enjoyed it for the first 15 seconds. That is until I noticed one of the boys in the group. There was this boy prancing around with purple highlights in his hair, femininity radiating so strongly that the girls in the group seemed to morph into men.
My gaydar went off so loud that I actually looked around to see if any one else heard it.
I started to feel uncomfortable. I just wanted to stand up and yell; "Holy Crap, am I the only one who just noticed that there is a homo in Wyoming?"
I looked down the table for my friend Todd. His gaydar had to have gone off, he would have to be looking around.
To my disappointment he was just sitting there acting like he was enjoying the show.
I looked down and noticed that his wife was holding the handle of a fork that was embedded into Todd's left hand pinning it to the table.
I could see that the snooze button had been pushed on Todd's gaydar alarm.
I looked across the table at one of more masculine of the two missionaries. Nothing.
I looked over at my wife thinking surely she would have some sort of 'gaydar by association' just from being my wife.
Perhaps it went off on her and she would appreciate one of my comments.
I was wrong,I could clearly see that she was enjoying the show without prejudice.
There I was left to my own thoughts and designs.
These are my thoughts:
How could this happen? In the past 15 years there has been such a radical change in society that it is now popular for Tinkerbell to flutter his delicate wings out into society and yell: "I'm gaaay and you have to accept it asth normal or you are violating my thivil righths!"
How did this happen?
My new theory?
Cartoons and children's shows.
What the heck happened to good cartoons? When I was a kid we had He-Man now it's Pokey-Man. Enough said.
When I was a kid We had Sesame Street, that show was hard core, I mean they taught you street skills like how to steel Cookies like a monster, how to count with a vampire, and Play with grouchy dudes that lived in trash cans. Sure Burt and Ernie were gay but they kept it in the closet.
Now kids have the fricken 'Wiggles' I mean come on! There is nothing gayer than a bunch of British dudes dancing around with a fricken octopus. Captain Feathersword? What the crap? Yeah that's pretty darn gay in my book.
When I was a kid we had Transformers. Robots that turned into cars and guns that killed each other. Thats masculine!
Now kids have Sponge Bob square pants. Oh yeah, nothing like a sponge eating crabby patties to raise the testosterone levels.
When I was a boy we had shows like The Fall Guy, a stuntman that moonlighted as a bounty hunter with a secret compartment in the bed of his truck.
We had the A-Team, a team of crack commandos who were convicted of a crime that they didn't commit. If someone was in trouble the A-Team showed up with Mr.T and welded some badass invention together and beat the crap out of the bad guys.
I remember as a kid dreaming about being the fall guy or one of the A-Team.
Now kids get to watch shows like Will and Grace and Queer Eye for the straight Guy.
There isn't a TV show on today that doesn't have a queer part.
I fricken can't stand it.
Lifetime Television for women should have its name changed to Lifetime Television for homosexuals and Lesbians.
I'm to the point that I don't even think I'll let my boy watch TV unless its a sporting event or the outdoor channel.
I know what you are thinking, Dave has so much masculinity in his blood that his kid could watch Queer Eye for the straight guy all day every day and still define manhood, and you are probably right but my manliness is an exception to the rules.
All of these borderline "bicurios" kids are almost shoved over the fence to Sodom and Gomorrah by the Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow push coalition.
I seriously didn't watch the show King of Queens for the first year of it's airing because I thought it was about homosexuals.
Ladies and Gentlemen homosexuality is not a civil rights issue it is a wicked practice.
Turn off the television shows that teach homosexuality as a norm and turn on wholesome entertainment like Ultimate Fighting.
Let us all band together and Remasculanate society.
My little family and I sat down near some friends and sat back and enjoyed the show while eating.
At one point a singing group from the local High school performed. A couple of girls from the church were in the group and though I'm not really into that kind of stuff, admit that I enjoyed it for the first 15 seconds. That is until I noticed one of the boys in the group. There was this boy prancing around with purple highlights in his hair, femininity radiating so strongly that the girls in the group seemed to morph into men.
My gaydar went off so loud that I actually looked around to see if any one else heard it.
I started to feel uncomfortable. I just wanted to stand up and yell; "Holy Crap, am I the only one who just noticed that there is a homo in Wyoming?"
I looked down the table for my friend Todd. His gaydar had to have gone off, he would have to be looking around.
To my disappointment he was just sitting there acting like he was enjoying the show.
I looked down and noticed that his wife was holding the handle of a fork that was embedded into Todd's left hand pinning it to the table.
I could see that the snooze button had been pushed on Todd's gaydar alarm.
I looked across the table at one of more masculine of the two missionaries. Nothing.
I looked over at my wife thinking surely she would have some sort of 'gaydar by association' just from being my wife.
Perhaps it went off on her and she would appreciate one of my comments.
I was wrong,I could clearly see that she was enjoying the show without prejudice.
There I was left to my own thoughts and designs.
These are my thoughts:
How could this happen? In the past 15 years there has been such a radical change in society that it is now popular for Tinkerbell to flutter his delicate wings out into society and yell: "I'm gaaay and you have to accept it asth normal or you are violating my thivil righths!"
How did this happen?
My new theory?
Cartoons and children's shows.
What the heck happened to good cartoons? When I was a kid we had He-Man now it's Pokey-Man. Enough said.
When I was a kid We had Sesame Street, that show was hard core, I mean they taught you street skills like how to steel Cookies like a monster, how to count with a vampire, and Play with grouchy dudes that lived in trash cans. Sure Burt and Ernie were gay but they kept it in the closet.
Now kids have the fricken 'Wiggles' I mean come on! There is nothing gayer than a bunch of British dudes dancing around with a fricken octopus. Captain Feathersword? What the crap? Yeah that's pretty darn gay in my book.
When I was a kid we had Transformers. Robots that turned into cars and guns that killed each other. Thats masculine!
Now kids have Sponge Bob square pants. Oh yeah, nothing like a sponge eating crabby patties to raise the testosterone levels.
When I was a boy we had shows like The Fall Guy, a stuntman that moonlighted as a bounty hunter with a secret compartment in the bed of his truck.
We had the A-Team, a team of crack commandos who were convicted of a crime that they didn't commit. If someone was in trouble the A-Team showed up with Mr.T and welded some badass invention together and beat the crap out of the bad guys.
I remember as a kid dreaming about being the fall guy or one of the A-Team.
Now kids get to watch shows like Will and Grace and Queer Eye for the straight Guy.
There isn't a TV show on today that doesn't have a queer part.
I fricken can't stand it.
Lifetime Television for women should have its name changed to Lifetime Television for homosexuals and Lesbians.
I'm to the point that I don't even think I'll let my boy watch TV unless its a sporting event or the outdoor channel.
I know what you are thinking, Dave has so much masculinity in his blood that his kid could watch Queer Eye for the straight guy all day every day and still define manhood, and you are probably right but my manliness is an exception to the rules.
All of these borderline "bicurios" kids are almost shoved over the fence to Sodom and Gomorrah by the Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow push coalition.
I seriously didn't watch the show King of Queens for the first year of it's airing because I thought it was about homosexuals.
Ladies and Gentlemen homosexuality is not a civil rights issue it is a wicked practice.
Turn off the television shows that teach homosexuality as a norm and turn on wholesome entertainment like Ultimate Fighting.
Let us all band together and Remasculanate society.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Master Cleanse: Day 7 ,8,9 &10
Day 7: I've got to admit wasn't hungry any more but pretty weak
Day 8: My wife told me that My eyes looked sunken in and my face was pale. Other than being extremely tired I was doing ok.
Day 9: I decided that I needed to reintroduce food back into my system slowly so I ate a banana and a granola bar during the day oh and a whopper Jr last night.
Day 10: Today is going to be my big eating day so I will eat a little until a big dinner.
Day 8: My wife told me that My eyes looked sunken in and my face was pale. Other than being extremely tired I was doing ok.
Day 9: I decided that I needed to reintroduce food back into my system slowly so I ate a banana and a granola bar during the day oh and a whopper Jr last night.
Day 10: Today is going to be my big eating day so I will eat a little until a big dinner.
Today will wrap up my master cleanse.
I'll have to admit, I do feel better today than I did a week ago. I'm not as hungry and feel a little lighter on my feet.
I quit caffeine about three days before master cleanse, and to be honest I really don't crave it any more. That may not seem like much but If you were familiar with my daily caffeine intake it puts thing into perspective.
So here I am decaffeinated, and to be perfectly honest, I'm happier and feel better.
I don't think I'm as edgy and I don't think about punching people all the time.
Perhaps there is something to that.
I don't know If I will ever fully endorse master cleanse because It's a chick diet.
I will endorse it for the fact that I think it flushes your system and I think its a good way to kick some bad habits.
I also think that sometimes we get sloppy with our eating and overdue it to the point that we loose control. This kind of gives that control back.
That is if you are man enough to do it.
Oh yeah,
I quit my job at the king and went back to my old engineering firm an begged for my job back. After a few tears were shed they welcomed me with open arms.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Master Cleanse Day 4,5 & 6
OK, This is where I'm at.
Day 4: Cindy, Zach, Allie and I went to Billings to do a little Christmas shopping.
That was the hardest day so far. I cheated a little bit by eating two single french fries, a gold fish, a bite of a chicken nugget and an m&M.
I think it evened out because I didn't drink the full 2 quarts of master cleanse. I also got home late and didn't do the salt water turd explosion method.
Day 5: It was fast Sunday so I ended up not eating or drinking anything. I was so dang hungry. At the end of the day I drank a little master cleanse but again I skipped the salt water turd expulsion.
Day 6: I'm back to the regular master cleanse my first glass I decided to leave out the Cayenne pepper, I mean what the heck is Cayenne supposed to do?
My second glass will contain Cayenne, and I will flush tonight.
SO I haven't been religious in following master cleanse to the T but I think I doing pretty damn good.
I've lost 12 pounds as of this morning and will go 100% mastercleanse tomorrow.
I've noticed that I am not my usual pleasant self, about an hour ago some lady ordered a bacon whopper with cheese on it. After receiving her order she sat down, ate half the sandwich and returned to the counter complaining that she didn't want cheese on it, and that she wanted a new burger.
I told her that I specifically remembered her ordering cheese and that she wasn't going to get another burger.
The lady called me a "Cracker redneck" and asked for my manager.
I told her that I didn't have a manager, took her burger, opened the bun and began to peal the cheese off the burger with my fingers. She started to say something and I looked up, grabbed her by the throat and said: "YOU WILL BE SILENT WHILE I FIX YOUR BURGER!"
I let go of her throat and she just stood there frozen in horror. I noticed a tear trickle from her eye as I continued to pick the cheese from the burger.
After I got most of the cheese off of the burger I grabbed the patty and wiped any remaining cheese off with my armpit. I then placed the patty back on the burger, put the lettuce back on and covered it with the top bun.
I then neatly wrapped the burger and handed it to her.
She was still in shock as I told her: "Thank for coming to Burger King, Home of the Whopper."
As she turned around and began walking away I said in a whisper:"Lady, If you ever tell anyone about this I will find you and hurt you. Nod if you understand."
She nodded and walked away.
Hopefully tomorrow I will be in a better mood.
Day 4: Cindy, Zach, Allie and I went to Billings to do a little Christmas shopping.
That was the hardest day so far. I cheated a little bit by eating two single french fries, a gold fish, a bite of a chicken nugget and an m&M.
I think it evened out because I didn't drink the full 2 quarts of master cleanse. I also got home late and didn't do the salt water turd explosion method.
Day 5: It was fast Sunday so I ended up not eating or drinking anything. I was so dang hungry. At the end of the day I drank a little master cleanse but again I skipped the salt water turd expulsion.
Day 6: I'm back to the regular master cleanse my first glass I decided to leave out the Cayenne pepper, I mean what the heck is Cayenne supposed to do?
My second glass will contain Cayenne, and I will flush tonight.
SO I haven't been religious in following master cleanse to the T but I think I doing pretty damn good.
I've lost 12 pounds as of this morning and will go 100% mastercleanse tomorrow.
I've noticed that I am not my usual pleasant self, about an hour ago some lady ordered a bacon whopper with cheese on it. After receiving her order she sat down, ate half the sandwich and returned to the counter complaining that she didn't want cheese on it, and that she wanted a new burger.
I told her that I specifically remembered her ordering cheese and that she wasn't going to get another burger.
The lady called me a "Cracker redneck" and asked for my manager.
I told her that I didn't have a manager, took her burger, opened the bun and began to peal the cheese off the burger with my fingers. She started to say something and I looked up, grabbed her by the throat and said: "YOU WILL BE SILENT WHILE I FIX YOUR BURGER!"
I let go of her throat and she just stood there frozen in horror. I noticed a tear trickle from her eye as I continued to pick the cheese from the burger.
After I got most of the cheese off of the burger I grabbed the patty and wiped any remaining cheese off with my armpit. I then placed the patty back on the burger, put the lettuce back on and covered it with the top bun.
I then neatly wrapped the burger and handed it to her.
She was still in shock as I told her: "Thank for coming to Burger King, Home of the Whopper."
As she turned around and began walking away I said in a whisper:"Lady, If you ever tell anyone about this I will find you and hurt you. Nod if you understand."
She nodded and walked away.
Hopefully tomorrow I will be in a better mood.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Master Cleanse: Day 3
Last night I think that I finally reached the Master Cleanse "mecca" or "nirvana" and finally crapped lemonade.
No longer will I sit in ranks with the rest of you, and of the free clogged boweled world. (Yes ladies and gentlemen my bowel is no longer hindered with the smelly peanut filled fecal matter that the rest of you turd banks have to carry on a daily basis.)
Does this make me better and cleaner than you?
Yes it does.
If someone were to tell me that I am full of crap, I can reply, "Well, actually I'm not, I'm full of lemonade."
Can you do that?
I don't think so.
Do your farts smell like lemonade?
Mine do.
In fact I don't even fart any more but if I did I'd bet a dollar that it would smell like lemonade.
Am I hungry?
I don't even know how to explain my hunger without using the F-word, so I won't. Needless to say, I am hungry very hungry.
I apologise for the insanity but that is the price you pay for a clean engine.
Ive got burgers to flip.
hasta burrito.
No longer will I sit in ranks with the rest of you, and of the free clogged boweled world. (Yes ladies and gentlemen my bowel is no longer hindered with the smelly peanut filled fecal matter that the rest of you turd banks have to carry on a daily basis.)
Does this make me better and cleaner than you?
Yes it does.
If someone were to tell me that I am full of crap, I can reply, "Well, actually I'm not, I'm full of lemonade."
Can you do that?
I don't think so.
Do your farts smell like lemonade?
Mine do.
In fact I don't even fart any more but if I did I'd bet a dollar that it would smell like lemonade.
Am I hungry?
I don't even know how to explain my hunger without using the F-word, so I won't. Needless to say, I am hungry very hungry.
I apologise for the insanity but that is the price you pay for a clean engine.
Ive got burgers to flip.
hasta burrito.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Master Cleanse: Day 2
Well I have completed a full day and am nearly done with day two. Last night I got pretty hungry. I went and wrestled for a while with some of my young men and felt a little weak.
On the way home I wanted badly to stop somewhere and buy something to eat but I didn't.
After arriving home I realised it was time for the dreaded 32 oz saltwater slam. I mixed my tablespoon of saltwater with the 32 oz of water and slammed it like a case of Old Milwaukee.
about 30 minutes after the saltwater bonging, I felt a slight rumble and sure enough, I got my happy ending.
Thats fricken messed up. What normal person slams 32 ounces of salt water?
That can't be healthy.
Today hasn't been too bad.
Early on, Conlin from my office brought me some jerky. I actually felt bad about turning him down.
I decided to do some research on this colon cleansing phenomenon by searching the internet. I would suggest not doing any internet research. You wouldn't believe how many people take pictures of their fecal matter in the name of colon cleansing.
I opened one page as my boss walked in and it was a picture of some lady dangling a long stringy turd on a stick.
There was kind of an awkward silence for a minute as my boss got up the nerve to fire me.
I am typing this from the computer at Burger King, which by the way smells absolutely delicious.
By the way I lost 5 lbs yesterday.
On the way home I wanted badly to stop somewhere and buy something to eat but I didn't.
After arriving home I realised it was time for the dreaded 32 oz saltwater slam. I mixed my tablespoon of saltwater with the 32 oz of water and slammed it like a case of Old Milwaukee.
about 30 minutes after the saltwater bonging, I felt a slight rumble and sure enough, I got my happy ending.
Thats fricken messed up. What normal person slams 32 ounces of salt water?
That can't be healthy.
Today hasn't been too bad.
Early on, Conlin from my office brought me some jerky. I actually felt bad about turning him down.
I decided to do some research on this colon cleansing phenomenon by searching the internet. I would suggest not doing any internet research. You wouldn't believe how many people take pictures of their fecal matter in the name of colon cleansing.
I opened one page as my boss walked in and it was a picture of some lady dangling a long stringy turd on a stick.
There was kind of an awkward silence for a minute as my boss got up the nerve to fire me.
I am typing this from the computer at Burger King, which by the way smells absolutely delicious.
By the way I lost 5 lbs yesterday.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Master Cleanse: Day 1
Master Cleanse, Have you heard of it? You mix Lemon juice, Cayenne pepper, and Maple syrup into a delicious drink and you live off of it for two weeks.
You get 2 liters of the crap and you drink a bunch of water during the day and at night you drink a liter of saltwater and crap your guts out.
Sounds awesome huh?
My little bro was telling me about it and, well after a heavy Thanksgiving, I've decided to give it a shot.
My goal it to make it 10 days. My little bro only made it three.
Iv'e decided to keep a journal of my experience.
Day 1
So far this master cleanse isn't so bad. The drink is really good and is really taking care of any hunger pains.
I've had to pee at least 75 times today, luckily for me, I really enjoy peeing.
Though I'm looking forward to having a clean colon, I'm not looking forward to the saltwater flush later tonight.
Monte, a guy that I work with keeps coming in and offering me chips and candy. I just smile and brag on my will power.
While using the restroom I found a penny on the floor next to the urinal. After a little work, I got it unstuck from the floor and put it in my pocket.
I can tell this master cleanse will bring me much more luck in the future.
You get 2 liters of the crap and you drink a bunch of water during the day and at night you drink a liter of saltwater and crap your guts out.
Sounds awesome huh?
My little bro was telling me about it and, well after a heavy Thanksgiving, I've decided to give it a shot.
My goal it to make it 10 days. My little bro only made it three.
Iv'e decided to keep a journal of my experience.
Day 1
So far this master cleanse isn't so bad. The drink is really good and is really taking care of any hunger pains.
I've had to pee at least 75 times today, luckily for me, I really enjoy peeing.
Though I'm looking forward to having a clean colon, I'm not looking forward to the saltwater flush later tonight.
Monte, a guy that I work with keeps coming in and offering me chips and candy. I just smile and brag on my will power.
While using the restroom I found a penny on the floor next to the urinal. After a little work, I got it unstuck from the floor and put it in my pocket.
I can tell this master cleanse will bring me much more luck in the future.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Catch up.
I guess I better play a little catch up.
The last few months have been very eventful. During Bow Season I shot this Antelope at 50 yards. It was large enough to make Pope and Young.
I shot him with my friend Todd and my little boy Zach.
Todd and I tracked him until 2:00 AM.
It was an awesome hunt.
Hunting season has been awesome. I am nearly done. I still have to kill an elk and a few birds. Ive had hunts this year that people wouldn't even dream of having, but no hunt in the world would compare October 30th, when my wife gave birth to our little girl Allie. She weighed 8lbs, is very healthy and a good baby.
Cindy is healthy and beautiful. You would never guess that she had a baby a week ago. I'm a little sore but doing Ok.
This is our little girl:
I'll post more pictures when I get a chance.
I hope everyone is doing well. I love you all.
Dave
The last few months have been very eventful. During Bow Season I shot this Antelope at 50 yards. It was large enough to make Pope and Young.
I shot him with my friend Todd and my little boy Zach.
Todd and I tracked him until 2:00 AM.
It was an awesome hunt.
The Rifle hunt went even better. I saw a lot of big deer. My little brother Gregg even came down for a visit.
The last night of the Mule Deer hunt I shot this pig. I was with my friend Todd again and we decided to split up just as we were walking away from each other I spotted him a little over 600 yards away. It was 10 minutes from dark so I decided to go for it. Before you get critical remember that I am probably one of the best shooters in the world. A 600 yard shot is do-able with my skills and a flat shooting gun like a 300 Ultra mag. Uncle Rick the Physicist criticized my shot saying that it was impossible.
We had a series of emails and I would like to share them with you.
My first Email said:
Dear Rick,
Shot a nice buck the other day.
Hit it at a little over 600 yards. (Yeah I had a witness.)
Enjoy, Dave
Rick wrote back:
That's bullshit...no one takes a shot at 600 yards. You may have hit the state of Wyoming at 600 yds. I call your witness a liar. :) Nice deer though!!!! It;s awesome when you can run them over with your truck.
I wrote back:
The guy that I was hunting with had a rangefinder that maxed out at 500 yards.
I was shooting a 300 ultra mag. With 180 grain Nosler accubond bullets. The ballistic coefficient is around .5o5. The muzzle velocity was chronographed on my reloads at just over 3350 fps. There was no wind. As I had my scope set at 12X and adjusted the parallax to over 500 yards. I aimed 2.5 ft above the top of his back for the second and killing shot. I won't tell you about the first shot that I missed and saw how low it hit.
I will tell you about the second shot that went right through his heart.
You’re a physicist, do the math. I don't know if they have a coefficient for bad ass in your equation but I suggest you find one.
Love, the greatest hunter in the world.
Dave
Rick wrote back:
Dave you are right. I wouldn't doubt that you are the greatest hunter in the world. I thought you were all talk until I went fishing with you and you made me look like a complete fool with your fishing skills. You out fished me in every sense of the word.
I've never seen anyone come close to your natural abilities of just being a man.
I count myself lucky to be in your presence.
You are my hero.
With the greatest love and respect,
Rick
If you find yourself among the doubters please read my email as if you were Rick.
Here's my Buck:
Hunting season has been awesome. I am nearly done. I still have to kill an elk and a few birds. Ive had hunts this year that people wouldn't even dream of having, but no hunt in the world would compare October 30th, when my wife gave birth to our little girl Allie. She weighed 8lbs, is very healthy and a good baby.
Cindy is healthy and beautiful. You would never guess that she had a baby a week ago. I'm a little sore but doing Ok.
This is our little girl:
I'll post more pictures when I get a chance.
I hope everyone is doing well. I love you all.
Dave
Friday, September 12, 2008
Hunting season antisocialite.
Hunting season officially started for me September 1st.
On September 1st I was not hunting I was standing at an elevation of 14100+ ft on top of Pikes peak near Colorado Springs. I think it was the 1st. That doesnt matter. Dates do not matter I know that hunting season started on the first and I was not hunting.
Though the site was magnificant and the air was thin my one track mind was caught up into hunting season.
I will say that Pikes peak is really bitchen.
The Colorado trip was fun and it was great to catch up with our friends Jeremy and Heidi.
Now that I am back in Sheridan my mind has taken me into the hunting season anti-socialite mode.
That kind of sounds messed up, but I am messed up.
I don't know what hunting season does to me but my neck flares up and instead of complete sentences in conversation my talk has transformed into grunts and knods.
I have turned my treadmill from facing the television to facing the large window that looks out into the pasture so that when I run in the mornings I can watch deer.
This morning while running I thought it would be a good idea to shave my head bald so I wouldn't have to worry about using scent removing shampoo.
After I completed my fourth mile I went in to the bathroom and shaved my head.
My wife woke up only to shake her head in dis-approval of my newly acquired hair cut. I don't know if the numerous cuts on my head were the culprit in providing her with a look of disgust but something didn't quite make her happy. I personally thought the cut looked pretty sweet.
I thought I looked like a Marine but as I walked out the door my wife told me to stop by the tatoo parlor and get a swastica tatoo to match my cut.
That kind of made me feel bad.
Not that my blogging has been good lately at all but I don't imagine it will get better anytime soon.
I will try to post pitures of kills if you are into that sort of thing.
I tried to post a little video of nice buck that I saw last night but it didn't work and I just didn't feel like messing with it.
I hope everybody knows I love them and though I am not thinking about you, If I were not hunting I would be.
I have got to get back to work so I can get stuff done so I can go hunting.
P.S.
I know there are a few out there that are considering holding an intervention with me, don't do it you will be wasting your time.
That's all Iv'e got today. I am sure that you are dumber today for having read my blog. I'm sorry.
On September 1st I was not hunting I was standing at an elevation of 14100+ ft on top of Pikes peak near Colorado Springs. I think it was the 1st. That doesnt matter. Dates do not matter I know that hunting season started on the first and I was not hunting.
Though the site was magnificant and the air was thin my one track mind was caught up into hunting season.
I will say that Pikes peak is really bitchen.
The Colorado trip was fun and it was great to catch up with our friends Jeremy and Heidi.
Now that I am back in Sheridan my mind has taken me into the hunting season anti-socialite mode.
That kind of sounds messed up, but I am messed up.
I don't know what hunting season does to me but my neck flares up and instead of complete sentences in conversation my talk has transformed into grunts and knods.
I have turned my treadmill from facing the television to facing the large window that looks out into the pasture so that when I run in the mornings I can watch deer.
This morning while running I thought it would be a good idea to shave my head bald so I wouldn't have to worry about using scent removing shampoo.
After I completed my fourth mile I went in to the bathroom and shaved my head.
My wife woke up only to shake her head in dis-approval of my newly acquired hair cut. I don't know if the numerous cuts on my head were the culprit in providing her with a look of disgust but something didn't quite make her happy. I personally thought the cut looked pretty sweet.
I thought I looked like a Marine but as I walked out the door my wife told me to stop by the tatoo parlor and get a swastica tatoo to match my cut.
That kind of made me feel bad.
Not that my blogging has been good lately at all but I don't imagine it will get better anytime soon.
I will try to post pitures of kills if you are into that sort of thing.
I tried to post a little video of nice buck that I saw last night but it didn't work and I just didn't feel like messing with it.
I hope everybody knows I love them and though I am not thinking about you, If I were not hunting I would be.
I have got to get back to work so I can get stuff done so I can go hunting.
P.S.
I know there are a few out there that are considering holding an intervention with me, don't do it you will be wasting your time.
That's all Iv'e got today. I am sure that you are dumber today for having read my blog. I'm sorry.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Shazam.
Well, crap.
I haven't blogged for a while and when I blog the blogs have been few and far between.
At one point and time I really enjoyed blogging but as of recent I have found it somewhat of more of hassle to blog than something fun.
I think the blogs that I have thrown out lately have been somewhat boring and have even found myself bored of what I have written.
I don't think it is for lack of inspiration due to the fact that my mind is something of a rubber room full of hyperactive nut jobs just bouncing around and throwing out wild tales of nothingness.
But I guess it is due to almost feeling like I am just wasting my time.
I have found myself just writing things down to have them written just in case I were to loose my mind and forget them.
I don't keep a journal, and when I have kept one in the past I have been glad that I have it.
I guess the blog has been kind of a journal or something. I think if my grand kid's, grand kid's ever read this crap they would positively know of the dementia that I am suffering from.
Something that I have hoped to have shared with my readers.
I know that I have a few faithful readers with and emphasis on the word 'few".
I think as time has passed and my blog has morphed from somewhat entertaining to down right boring my readers have almost become non-existent.
I guess that when a writer becomes non-existent his readers more than likely follow.
When I was in seventh grade, I sat by a red headed kid named Jake. We didn't hate each other, or even not get along.
Jake was bigger than I was, and slightly overweight.
One day, while sitting in class, I was being my usual cocky self, and was explaining to Jake how tough I was.
Jake listened and told me that I may be tough but he was tougher. I kind of laughed and thought he was joking. After a minute I realised that Jake really thought he was tougher than me.
I told Jake that he wouldn't have a chance in a fight with me, and he continued to disagree.
My friend Cory that sat in front of me, turned around and with a smile threw out the suggestion that Jake and I fight in the hall at the next break.
Not to be outdone by each other, Jake and I agreed to fight at the next break, which was in about ten minutes.
I wasn't mad at Jake, and he wasn't mad at me. We were just two boys that felt the need to lock horns and establish dominance.
I watched the clock as it ticked away and didn't feel nervous or scared. I looked over at Jake and could tell that he didn't feel nervous or scared either.
In my mind I thought about what I would do and how I would do it. I thought about where I would punch and how I would punch. I thought about what I was trying to accomplish.
I decided that this was a real fight and anything would go. I also decided that I would direct all punches to Jake's face.
I didn't want to loose, and I wanted to make sure of that.
As the break bell rang, we all got out of our seats and walked out in the hall. I walked to the old stand up drinking fountain and got a drink, only to hear Jake's voice say:"I'm waiting".
I knew that was my cue, and that Jake was serious.
I walked towards Jake, with my adrenalin flowing.
A crowd began to form, and I knew it was business. I thought of other fights that I had in the past, and due to my wrestling nature, a lot of the fights had ended up on the ground. Though I felt that I had dominated the fight, those unfamiliar with wresting sometimes had room to question who won.
I would keep this fight on my feet.
As I walked towards Jake my hands came up in striking position. He took a step forward and decide his first move would be to push me.
Immediately as I felt his push I threw a left jab which landed squarely on his kisser, followed up by a hard right that landed in the same spot.
In his eyes I saw rage flaring up as he recovered and came for me a second time.
He must have felt the push was effective so he tried it again. I followed up with another left to the mouth being chased by a hard right that landed on the soft spot between his nose and upper lip. I knew the right was a great punch because not only did his eyes begin to water but a little blood began to trickle from his mouth.
Jake, in a wild rage came back for another shove only to be answered by another 1-2 punch again hitting his mouth.
I could see the tears in Jake's eyes were becoming more serious and as he tried to smile it away, the spaces in his white teeth were slowly filling with blood.
I was oblivious to the crowd that was around us and strangely enough didn't feel any rage or anger in this fight, just a collected boy doing his business.
Jake came back for one final shove. I remember thinking, why the hell doesn't he punch, doesn't he see that the shoves are doing nothing?
His final shove was answered once again by a well placed left jab to the mouth followed by one hard right punch to the chin.
Following my punch I heard "DAVID RIDDLE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
I turned to see my teacher Mrs. Fotheringham walking towards us.
I dropped my hands, and so did Jake.
Mrs. Fotheringham took us both back into the classroom and into her office.
I tried to turn on the best charm that I had, and explained that we just had little fight and that we were sorry.
It must have worked because she gave us a little speech and sent us to our desks. No principal, no trouble, just no breaks for 3 days.
As Jake and I sat down in our desks Jake looked at me and complimented me on my punches, and I complimented him on his shoves and It was over. I told him I was sorry and he said the same.
There was never any bitterness after that.
Later as I thought about the fight, though I had clearly won, and my status was elevated among the other 7th graders, I realised that the fight was rather pointless. There were a few times that I thought of Jake's bleeding mouth and felt bad, and after carefully weighing out the situation, I came to the conclusion that the fight was a waste of my time.
I'm kind of wondering if my blogging is just a waste of my time.
I haven't blogged for a while and when I blog the blogs have been few and far between.
At one point and time I really enjoyed blogging but as of recent I have found it somewhat of more of hassle to blog than something fun.
I think the blogs that I have thrown out lately have been somewhat boring and have even found myself bored of what I have written.
I don't think it is for lack of inspiration due to the fact that my mind is something of a rubber room full of hyperactive nut jobs just bouncing around and throwing out wild tales of nothingness.
But I guess it is due to almost feeling like I am just wasting my time.
I have found myself just writing things down to have them written just in case I were to loose my mind and forget them.
I don't keep a journal, and when I have kept one in the past I have been glad that I have it.
I guess the blog has been kind of a journal or something. I think if my grand kid's, grand kid's ever read this crap they would positively know of the dementia that I am suffering from.
Something that I have hoped to have shared with my readers.
I know that I have a few faithful readers with and emphasis on the word 'few".
I think as time has passed and my blog has morphed from somewhat entertaining to down right boring my readers have almost become non-existent.
I guess that when a writer becomes non-existent his readers more than likely follow.
When I was in seventh grade, I sat by a red headed kid named Jake. We didn't hate each other, or even not get along.
Jake was bigger than I was, and slightly overweight.
One day, while sitting in class, I was being my usual cocky self, and was explaining to Jake how tough I was.
Jake listened and told me that I may be tough but he was tougher. I kind of laughed and thought he was joking. After a minute I realised that Jake really thought he was tougher than me.
I told Jake that he wouldn't have a chance in a fight with me, and he continued to disagree.
My friend Cory that sat in front of me, turned around and with a smile threw out the suggestion that Jake and I fight in the hall at the next break.
Not to be outdone by each other, Jake and I agreed to fight at the next break, which was in about ten minutes.
I wasn't mad at Jake, and he wasn't mad at me. We were just two boys that felt the need to lock horns and establish dominance.
I watched the clock as it ticked away and didn't feel nervous or scared. I looked over at Jake and could tell that he didn't feel nervous or scared either.
In my mind I thought about what I would do and how I would do it. I thought about where I would punch and how I would punch. I thought about what I was trying to accomplish.
I decided that this was a real fight and anything would go. I also decided that I would direct all punches to Jake's face.
I didn't want to loose, and I wanted to make sure of that.
As the break bell rang, we all got out of our seats and walked out in the hall. I walked to the old stand up drinking fountain and got a drink, only to hear Jake's voice say:"I'm waiting".
I knew that was my cue, and that Jake was serious.
I walked towards Jake, with my adrenalin flowing.
A crowd began to form, and I knew it was business. I thought of other fights that I had in the past, and due to my wrestling nature, a lot of the fights had ended up on the ground. Though I felt that I had dominated the fight, those unfamiliar with wresting sometimes had room to question who won.
I would keep this fight on my feet.
As I walked towards Jake my hands came up in striking position. He took a step forward and decide his first move would be to push me.
Immediately as I felt his push I threw a left jab which landed squarely on his kisser, followed up by a hard right that landed in the same spot.
In his eyes I saw rage flaring up as he recovered and came for me a second time.
He must have felt the push was effective so he tried it again. I followed up with another left to the mouth being chased by a hard right that landed on the soft spot between his nose and upper lip. I knew the right was a great punch because not only did his eyes begin to water but a little blood began to trickle from his mouth.
Jake, in a wild rage came back for another shove only to be answered by another 1-2 punch again hitting his mouth.
I could see the tears in Jake's eyes were becoming more serious and as he tried to smile it away, the spaces in his white teeth were slowly filling with blood.
I was oblivious to the crowd that was around us and strangely enough didn't feel any rage or anger in this fight, just a collected boy doing his business.
Jake came back for one final shove. I remember thinking, why the hell doesn't he punch, doesn't he see that the shoves are doing nothing?
His final shove was answered once again by a well placed left jab to the mouth followed by one hard right punch to the chin.
Following my punch I heard "DAVID RIDDLE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
I turned to see my teacher Mrs. Fotheringham walking towards us.
I dropped my hands, and so did Jake.
Mrs. Fotheringham took us both back into the classroom and into her office.
I tried to turn on the best charm that I had, and explained that we just had little fight and that we were sorry.
It must have worked because she gave us a little speech and sent us to our desks. No principal, no trouble, just no breaks for 3 days.
As Jake and I sat down in our desks Jake looked at me and complimented me on my punches, and I complimented him on his shoves and It was over. I told him I was sorry and he said the same.
There was never any bitterness after that.
Later as I thought about the fight, though I had clearly won, and my status was elevated among the other 7th graders, I realised that the fight was rather pointless. There were a few times that I thought of Jake's bleeding mouth and felt bad, and after carefully weighing out the situation, I came to the conclusion that the fight was a waste of my time.
I'm kind of wondering if my blogging is just a waste of my time.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
50 miler - Summum Bonum
I looked at Todd laying on the trail, and looked down the trail at the oncoming boys and the thought of the boys watching Todd die made me cringe a bit.
Todd was laying on his side facing away from me. I walked around the other side, nudged Todd and asked him if he was dead. With a groan he said:"No, but pretty close."
I told Todd that I was going to leave him with the boys and run out to get help.
As the boys caught up, I could see that Hayden was fighting off tears seeing his dad on the ground.
I started unpacking Todd's gear from my bag and told the boys that I was running out for help and that they need to take care of Todd.
I handed Alex, Todd's map and had him open it.
I showed the boys where I estimated that we were at and told the young men where I was going, and I showed the boys which direction to hike if they were able to move Todd any further.
With more seriousness than I would liked to have had with the boys I told them that for no reason do they leave the trail. If they were confused at where to go that they just stop and stay on the trail.
I made them go over the plans to make sure that they knew what I wanted. Alex was on top of everything.
I looked the young men in the eyes and asked if they would be able to do it. they all looked back at me an nodded.
Alex looked at me and said:"Dave, we left our purses at home."
The young men all nodded and smiled.
I looked down at Todd and asked if he wanted me to get his cousin with four wheelers or full blown paramedics. Todd looked up and said weakly:" You better get paramedics.
I nodded, gave a few more directions to the young men, snugged up my backpack, and with a couple of skips and a hop, was off on a run to get help.
We had a day and a half left on our trip so I knew that I would have to make good time.
It was late afternoon and being deep into the wilderness, I wondered what type of wildlife I would run into. With the fast pace and me being alone, I hoped that I wouldn't surprise any bears or moose. I thought about making some noise as I ran but just didn't feel like singing or talking. I just felt like Forrest Gump and felt like running. I prayed for a strength and stamina, and felt it. My 45 lb pack didn't feel heavy and my legs felt strong. My lungs felt good and I even felt that If I came across a bear or a moose, that they would have their hands full if they blocked my path. I knew that the Lord loved those boys and he loved Todd, and that he was with us.
I didn't worry about the boys. The look in their eyes gave me confidence and they had proven themselves in they few days before.
I had come the the realization that if the Lord was giving an old fat man like me the strength that I was feeling at the time, that the young men would have three times the advantage that I had.
About a half mile into my run, I came to a large creek crossing. The trail was confusing and took off in about 3 different directions. I pulled out my map and decided on a path that seemed right. It also looked less traveled. I hoped the boys wouldn't get lost from it.
Later, I found out that they got confused there and didn't go any further after that point.
As I continued my great escape from the wilderness, I was still amazed at the beauty of the woods. There was no one there. It was raw and untouched. Even the trail hardly showed any signs of being traveled on.
I started to enjoy the run only to be imposed upon my thoughts of my buddy dieing in front of the young men.
About mid-way out I came across a cow moose. I told the moose to get out of the way and she did.
While running, I payed attention to the trail making sure that an ATV could make it out. I moved a couple of trees that had fallen in the trail so the ATV's could make it up in.
As I exited the wilderness area, I had run out of water, so I stopped at the creek and pumped some more water. I still had a few miles to the trail head, and didn't know if I would have anyone at the trail head or if I would have to run to the main road.
During the last stretch, I heard elk squealing and wanted to stop and look but didn't. I also saw a nice buck.
It was starting to get dark so continued on to the trail head.
As I arrived I noticed two forest service vehicles. Both were locked and thought I might break into them to use their radios, but decided against it as I looked across the valley and saw a parked truck in the distance.
When I got to the truck, there was a group of people camping, I rehearsed what had happened and they showed me where they were getting cell service. They were drunk and I could tell that I had confused them more than they wanted to be.
A gentleman and his teenage son walked me to the spot where they were getting cell service.
I called 911, talked for a minute and lost them. When I called back, they actually dispatched me to a deputy from Buffalo which happened to be Todd's nephew.
After I got off the phone, I realised that I was a little out of it from the run. One gentleman from the camp invited me to sit down with them and have some water. He told his kid to take my pack and carry it for me. His kid threw it on his shoulders only to fall down from the weight. I kind of laughed when his dad grabbed it and grunted "holy shit", under his breath.
I sat with the group of people for about five minutes and decided that I was kind of bored telling stories and listening to drunk logic, so I grabbed my pack and headed over to where I was to meet the paramedics.
While I was waiting it was getting cold so I threw some pants on. I walked around a bit and found another place that could get cell reception.
I called Todd's wife, which wasn't that fun, and I called the Bishop to come out and pick us up. The Bishop, who knows Todd and I well, said:"Dave, I know you and Todd are just up on a hillside laughing and giving me a hard time." I said:"Bishop, a few things I won't joke about, that's cancer, heart attacks, and death." He could tell the seriousness in my voice, got directions to our location and headed up.
About 30 minutes after I had talked to 911, Todd's deputy nephew arrived at the trail head. He was followed shortly by an ambulance and search and rescue.
I waited at the trail head as they went in, and luckily a guy from the forest service was there and he really knew the trail.
I stayed at the trail head with the ambulance driver. He was a nice kid of 20 and we talked about school and life. I broke open some of my food, and I think he ate more than I did the whole trip.
Around 11:00Pm my Bishop showed up. He had been in such a hurry that he had lost his camper shell from his truck. He got out of the truck and realised it.
He was visibly shaken. I updated him on what was going on, and we decided to go and find his topper. We drove down the road about 3 miles and found it. We moved it out of the road and headed back to the ambulance.
By the time we got back, the ambulance driver said that search and rescue had reached Todd and he wasn't dead yet. We were pretty happy.
The ambulance driver asked me for some more trail mix. I was happy to get it.
The Bishop and I climbed into his Dodge Cummins pickup, talked for a minute, I closed my eyes for a second and fell asleep.
After a few minutes I woke to the sound of ATVs It was the group with Todd. We got out of the truck, and watched them pull in. I was surprised that Todd was able to ride on back of the ATV, and it was apparent that Todd had thrown up on the ATV numerous times.
His son Hayden was on the back of another ATV. He jumped off and had a relieved look on his face. He came over and gave me a big hug said a few things gave me a hug again and watched the paramedics go to work on his dad. I talked briefly to Todd and he told me that he still was thinking that he was having a heart attack. They loaded him up and let Hayden ride with him and took off down the rough road to the hospital.
In the mean time, I talked with the search and rescue and they said the other boys would be walking out that night.
I talked the search and rescue guys into going back into the wilderness to get the boys on thier ATV's and they did.
By the time we loaded everyone up it was around 3:30AM.
I had already called Todd's wife and she was waiting for him at the hospital.
The ride home with the boys that night was fun. The boys were all in high spirits and after they had all settled down, the first thing they told the bishop was how they had taken whizzes at 11000 ft.
What a Journey.
The next morning I talked with Todd's wife. There was no heart attack, It was Todd's diabetes, he had gone into a ketoacidosis attack and didn't know it. She said that the doctors told her that if we hadn't gotten him out that night he would have been dead by morning.
Later that day Todd and I talked and he told me how the boys took care of him after I left. He said Jamin and Alex took charge, trekking through the woods dodging wild animals to try and find a high point to get cell service while Hayden and Corbin swatted mosquito's and kept him awake. (Which by the way if he had fallen asleep would have slipped into a coma.) The young men prayed for strength and help and became a team with the single purpose of saving the life of their friend and that indeed is what they did.
Todd was laying on his side facing away from me. I walked around the other side, nudged Todd and asked him if he was dead. With a groan he said:"No, but pretty close."
I told Todd that I was going to leave him with the boys and run out to get help.
As the boys caught up, I could see that Hayden was fighting off tears seeing his dad on the ground.
I started unpacking Todd's gear from my bag and told the boys that I was running out for help and that they need to take care of Todd.
I handed Alex, Todd's map and had him open it.
I showed the boys where I estimated that we were at and told the young men where I was going, and I showed the boys which direction to hike if they were able to move Todd any further.
With more seriousness than I would liked to have had with the boys I told them that for no reason do they leave the trail. If they were confused at where to go that they just stop and stay on the trail.
I made them go over the plans to make sure that they knew what I wanted. Alex was on top of everything.
I looked the young men in the eyes and asked if they would be able to do it. they all looked back at me an nodded.
Alex looked at me and said:"Dave, we left our purses at home."
The young men all nodded and smiled.
I looked down at Todd and asked if he wanted me to get his cousin with four wheelers or full blown paramedics. Todd looked up and said weakly:" You better get paramedics.
I nodded, gave a few more directions to the young men, snugged up my backpack, and with a couple of skips and a hop, was off on a run to get help.
We had a day and a half left on our trip so I knew that I would have to make good time.
It was late afternoon and being deep into the wilderness, I wondered what type of wildlife I would run into. With the fast pace and me being alone, I hoped that I wouldn't surprise any bears or moose. I thought about making some noise as I ran but just didn't feel like singing or talking. I just felt like Forrest Gump and felt like running. I prayed for a strength and stamina, and felt it. My 45 lb pack didn't feel heavy and my legs felt strong. My lungs felt good and I even felt that If I came across a bear or a moose, that they would have their hands full if they blocked my path. I knew that the Lord loved those boys and he loved Todd, and that he was with us.
I didn't worry about the boys. The look in their eyes gave me confidence and they had proven themselves in they few days before.
I had come the the realization that if the Lord was giving an old fat man like me the strength that I was feeling at the time, that the young men would have three times the advantage that I had.
About a half mile into my run, I came to a large creek crossing. The trail was confusing and took off in about 3 different directions. I pulled out my map and decided on a path that seemed right. It also looked less traveled. I hoped the boys wouldn't get lost from it.
Later, I found out that they got confused there and didn't go any further after that point.
As I continued my great escape from the wilderness, I was still amazed at the beauty of the woods. There was no one there. It was raw and untouched. Even the trail hardly showed any signs of being traveled on.
I started to enjoy the run only to be imposed upon my thoughts of my buddy dieing in front of the young men.
About mid-way out I came across a cow moose. I told the moose to get out of the way and she did.
While running, I payed attention to the trail making sure that an ATV could make it out. I moved a couple of trees that had fallen in the trail so the ATV's could make it up in.
As I exited the wilderness area, I had run out of water, so I stopped at the creek and pumped some more water. I still had a few miles to the trail head, and didn't know if I would have anyone at the trail head or if I would have to run to the main road.
During the last stretch, I heard elk squealing and wanted to stop and look but didn't. I also saw a nice buck.
It was starting to get dark so continued on to the trail head.
As I arrived I noticed two forest service vehicles. Both were locked and thought I might break into them to use their radios, but decided against it as I looked across the valley and saw a parked truck in the distance.
When I got to the truck, there was a group of people camping, I rehearsed what had happened and they showed me where they were getting cell service. They were drunk and I could tell that I had confused them more than they wanted to be.
A gentleman and his teenage son walked me to the spot where they were getting cell service.
I called 911, talked for a minute and lost them. When I called back, they actually dispatched me to a deputy from Buffalo which happened to be Todd's nephew.
After I got off the phone, I realised that I was a little out of it from the run. One gentleman from the camp invited me to sit down with them and have some water. He told his kid to take my pack and carry it for me. His kid threw it on his shoulders only to fall down from the weight. I kind of laughed when his dad grabbed it and grunted "holy shit", under his breath.
I sat with the group of people for about five minutes and decided that I was kind of bored telling stories and listening to drunk logic, so I grabbed my pack and headed over to where I was to meet the paramedics.
While I was waiting it was getting cold so I threw some pants on. I walked around a bit and found another place that could get cell reception.
I called Todd's wife, which wasn't that fun, and I called the Bishop to come out and pick us up. The Bishop, who knows Todd and I well, said:"Dave, I know you and Todd are just up on a hillside laughing and giving me a hard time." I said:"Bishop, a few things I won't joke about, that's cancer, heart attacks, and death." He could tell the seriousness in my voice, got directions to our location and headed up.
About 30 minutes after I had talked to 911, Todd's deputy nephew arrived at the trail head. He was followed shortly by an ambulance and search and rescue.
I waited at the trail head as they went in, and luckily a guy from the forest service was there and he really knew the trail.
I stayed at the trail head with the ambulance driver. He was a nice kid of 20 and we talked about school and life. I broke open some of my food, and I think he ate more than I did the whole trip.
Around 11:00Pm my Bishop showed up. He had been in such a hurry that he had lost his camper shell from his truck. He got out of the truck and realised it.
He was visibly shaken. I updated him on what was going on, and we decided to go and find his topper. We drove down the road about 3 miles and found it. We moved it out of the road and headed back to the ambulance.
By the time we got back, the ambulance driver said that search and rescue had reached Todd and he wasn't dead yet. We were pretty happy.
The ambulance driver asked me for some more trail mix. I was happy to get it.
The Bishop and I climbed into his Dodge Cummins pickup, talked for a minute, I closed my eyes for a second and fell asleep.
After a few minutes I woke to the sound of ATVs It was the group with Todd. We got out of the truck, and watched them pull in. I was surprised that Todd was able to ride on back of the ATV, and it was apparent that Todd had thrown up on the ATV numerous times.
His son Hayden was on the back of another ATV. He jumped off and had a relieved look on his face. He came over and gave me a big hug said a few things gave me a hug again and watched the paramedics go to work on his dad. I talked briefly to Todd and he told me that he still was thinking that he was having a heart attack. They loaded him up and let Hayden ride with him and took off down the rough road to the hospital.
In the mean time, I talked with the search and rescue and they said the other boys would be walking out that night.
I talked the search and rescue guys into going back into the wilderness to get the boys on thier ATV's and they did.
By the time we loaded everyone up it was around 3:30AM.
I had already called Todd's wife and she was waiting for him at the hospital.
The ride home with the boys that night was fun. The boys were all in high spirits and after they had all settled down, the first thing they told the bishop was how they had taken whizzes at 11000 ft.
What a Journey.
The next morning I talked with Todd's wife. There was no heart attack, It was Todd's diabetes, he had gone into a ketoacidosis attack and didn't know it. She said that the doctors told her that if we hadn't gotten him out that night he would have been dead by morning.
Later that day Todd and I talked and he told me how the boys took care of him after I left. He said Jamin and Alex took charge, trekking through the woods dodging wild animals to try and find a high point to get cell service while Hayden and Corbin swatted mosquito's and kept him awake. (Which by the way if he had fallen asleep would have slipped into a coma.) The young men prayed for strength and help and became a team with the single purpose of saving the life of their friend and that indeed is what they did.
Todd was in ICU for three days and was released without any permanent damage.
We went fishing three days after he was released. He said he was feeling about 85%
We fished until 2:30 in the morning. By the time we were done he was back down to 50%.
He has since made a full recovery.
Summum Bonum is a Latin Phrase meaning: Highest or supreme good in which all moral values are included or from which they are derived.
I titled this post Summum Bonum because this little 50 mile journey gave me a chance to see every one of the young men forget themselves and dig deep into the summum bonum of their souls to save the life of someone else. It impressed me more than I can describe.
If that isn't a good high adventure, I guess I don't know what is.
Friday, August 1, 2008
50 miler - Almost the end but not quite.
Morning came at around 6:30 AM for me. I woke up to find a real heavy dew had covered the area that we had camped in. There was no rain but there was enough dew to seem like it.
I got up and everyone was still asleep.
Some of the boys wanted me to wake them up to go fishing before we took off on our days journey. After a few nudges I realised that I was on my own and that I'd be fishing on my own.
I grabbed my rod and hiked down to a pool in the creek below the campsite. I made a few casts a got a couple of good hits, only to loose my good lure from a snag.
I decided to walk back to camp.
By that time Todd and his son Hayden were awake and wanted to walk 150 yards to Misty Moon Lake.
Hayden and I walked over, we argued about who was the better fisherman between the the two of us most of the way.
Hayden and I really like to give each other a hard time. I think at one point and time the argument went from fishing skills to 4'6" Hayden was giving me a hard time about my short legs. We got to the lake and I stood about a foot away from Hayden, waiting for him to cast only to cast over the top of his line.
I caught two fish casting over him and he didn't catch any.
On a side note: Hayden reminds me of a young Dave Riddle, Obsessed with hunting and fishing, Gives everyone a hard time, obsessed with knives, Cigarette lighters demand his complete attention, and he loves wrestling. I've told Todd many times that he must have bought Hayden at the same store that my parents bought me.
In the midst of a line tangle Todd showed up and we decided to go to a different spot to fish, we walked over and fished for a while. After a half hour we decided that we should wake the other young men up and get on the trail.
Back in camp we started getting the troops up, wake up was a little slow followed by a few questions about the days journey while eating breakfast.
The ranger showed up and fortunately we hadn't built a fire. We talked for a while and told him that we would be hiking a high pass. He warned us of a possible thunderstorm and suggested that we make the 11000 ft+ pass as soon as possible.
The ranger also talked about having to bury some other campers poop. Todd told the ranger that I had a poop tube (a pvc pipe that you store all of your poop in to pack it out) The green peace ranger looked at me and smile and proudly said "That is awesome that you are that considerate." He then proceeded to tell us of his method of packing out his poop.
After his story, I felt a little guilty (and a little queasy) and told him that I really didn't use a poop tube.
The ranger lost his glow in his eyes, looked down, wished us luck and left.
Even though Todd and I were laughing we felt a little bad so we told the boys that if they took a dump near camp to go throw a rock on it. The boys groaned a little and hid their poop.
After we packed up we filtered some water and headed out.
We had a pretty good climb to make that day and I was glad that we started early.
About a mile into the hike we passed a shallow creek with fish trying to climb higher. I pointed them out to the boys and immediately packs came off and they were trying to catch the fish with their hands.
Hayden caught a small golden trout.
After messing around we hiked back down to our packs.
A couple of boys slid off around some boulders to go to the bathroom, after their return, I asked how it felt to take a whizz at 11000 ft. They laughed,and not to be out done, the rest of the boys decided that they wanted to take a whizz at 11000 ft.
Boys will be boys. I think Todd and I decided to take a whizz while we were there.
While packing up, our favorite Ranger showed up out of nowhere, and we talked for a minute and continued on.
The rest of the trip would be down hill.
After passing Florence lake we stopped and filter some more water. Near the creek was a monument set for A US Bomber that had crashed in 1946. There are still parts scattered across the mountain, hence the name "Bomber Mountain" was born.
After the fill up, we hit the trail again. After a few hundred yards I realised that I didn't get a picture of the monument so I told Todd to lead and I would hike back up to get the picture and catch up.
After I took a few photos I began working my way back down the trail. The group was ahead of me quite a bit so I picked up the pace.
I caught up to the group while they were passing a large snow drift. We took a few pictures and continued down Florence canyon. About 100 yards and the groups stopped. Everyone was feeling fine, and I looked at Todd. He was laying back a bit and looked a little out of breath. I asked him how he was doing, and he told me that he had gotten a little queasy.
I asked him how his blood sugar was, and he said he thought it was pretty good.
We sat there for a minute and then continued on down the canyon.
After getting through the rough part of the canyon, Todd pulled me aside and said that he wasn't feeling good at all, and that he couldn't get his heart rate to fall.
He also informed me of a pain that he was feeling in heart.
We decided to stop and take a break. I told Todd to find a nice spot in the shade and lay down for a minute.
We didn't say anything to the boys about the problem, we thought it would be better to not get them worried.
I had the boys cook a delicious dinner of Top Ramen.
While my water was heating, I walked over to Todd to check his condition, and he said that the pain in his chest was getting worse and his arms were hurting. He sounded worried in his voice and I could see it in his eyes.
I started to get a little worried, because on top of his diabetes, I knew that he had high blood pressure, I knew that his family had a history of heart problems, and I knew that Todd's dad died of a second heart attack at 51.
It didn't help when Todd said: "Dave, I think I might be having a heart attack."
I was a little worried and asked Todd if he needed a blessing. Todd thought that would be a good idea. So I gave Todd a blessing. I won't go into details of my thoughts and feelings during the blessing, this is the world wide web, and I don't know that it's appropriate to get that deep in this kind of situation.
But to say the least, I did have a calm assurance that things would be alright.
After the blessing Todd got up and he walked out into the sun, he said it was a little cold and layed down again.
The boys were beginning to catch on that all was not well in Wyoming.
A couple of boys asked me if Todd was alright I told them that Todd was a little sick, and we just didn't know.
Hayden and Jamin walked over to Todd to talk to him and check him out. While they were talking to him, Todd began to vomit pretty fiercely.
That had me a little worried, because I knew how important it was for Todd to hold down food with his diabetes.
I walked over after Todd was done buying a Buick, and he was looking pretty crappy. I asked him what he wanted to do. He thought we should try to keep going, at least to somewhere that we could get someone to get him out. I walked over and started unloading his backpack and loading his stuff into mine.
We discussed the possibility of his condition being due to elevation sickness. I really wanted to believe that was it even though in the back of my mind I knew that we had just spent the last 4 days above 10000 feet. Perhaps the big climb may have given it too him, or perhaps not.
It was easier to tell the boys that he may have elevation sickness. Especially his son.
I could Hayden was getting a little more concerned as his dad got sicker.
As we continued on Todd was visibly struggling and we were doing a good job not to worry the young men. All but Hayden.
Todd thanked me for carrying his stuff and asked me if it was too much, I joked and told him that he probably wouldn't get it back and not to worry, that I was pretty damn tough.
We tried to lighten things a little by Joking, Todd told Hayden that if he died, to not worry about packing him out in one piece but to quarter him up like an Elk just like he had taught him. That brought a nervous laugh and he decided to keep the joke between he and I.
While we were walking I told Todd to remember that if he killed over it was going to be me that would have to give him mouth to mouth and that I might even use a little tongue out of spite for killing over on the 50 miler. We laughed a little and he said he would do his best not to die.
A serious moment came when we were away from the young men and he got quiet and said, "Dave, I don't know if you can see the fear in my eyes, but this really might be it for me."
Trying to keep it positive, I said: "Well, bro. I don't think its a heart attack because I've never heard of anyone blowing chunks after a heart attack."
Todd, raining on my parade said:"Actually when my dad died of a heart attack, my mom said that he stood up, held his chest, threw up and died."
"Your not making me feel any better." I said.
"If it helps, I'm not feeling any better either." Todd groaned.
We hiked to a river crossing and the boys were out of water so we decided to stop and pump some more water. While we were doing that, Todd began puking again, but a little more violently.
Haden, came up to me fighting away tears and said :"Brother Riddle, if you want to finish the hike with these guys, I'll get my dad out of here."
I told Haden:"Buddy, that's pretty tough of you, but we are in this together, and we will all get your dad out of here."
While pumping water, Todd decided to walk ahead due to his slow pace with Hayden while we pumped water.
While we were pumping the water, I decided to let the other young men know what was going on.
I think that they had noticed that I had gotten into serious Dave mode.
While we were pumping I said:"Young men, I'm sorry to get serious on you but I'm going to need all of you to get serious with me for a second. As you know, Todd is sick. What you don't know is we think he may be having a heart attack. I'm going to need you guys to forget yourselves a little, forget about any little aches and pains or hard hills, and man up. Jamin, I'll need you to follow the rear, and I will need all of you to keep a maximum of 20' spacing at my pace until we catch up to Todd and Hayden. Are you guys good?"
They all looked me in the eyes and said yes. I knew they were up for the challenge.
We finished the the water and continued on.
I kicked in a pretty fast pace, and the boys never let their spacing be more than 20 ft. There was no whining and they really kept a positive attitude.
Shortly after, we caught up to Todd and Hayden. Hayden fell back with the other boys and I carried water for Todd, and we talked a little more.
After about a mile we came to another creek crossing, Todd and I crossed, and continued ahead of the boys while they were putting their dry boots on.
Todd's condition was getting progressively worse and I was a little glad that the boys were behind us.
After a minute, Todd sat down and threw up again. I was getting a little worried about the vomiting, because he wasn't keeping any water down at all.
Todd and I talked about a few options. I told Todd that I could run out and get help pretty fast. We both agree that was our best option.
Todd then layed down on his side. For a second he went still and I wondered if he was dead.
To be continued.
I got up and everyone was still asleep.
Some of the boys wanted me to wake them up to go fishing before we took off on our days journey. After a few nudges I realised that I was on my own and that I'd be fishing on my own.
I grabbed my rod and hiked down to a pool in the creek below the campsite. I made a few casts a got a couple of good hits, only to loose my good lure from a snag.
I decided to walk back to camp.
By that time Todd and his son Hayden were awake and wanted to walk 150 yards to Misty Moon Lake.
Hayden and I walked over, we argued about who was the better fisherman between the the two of us most of the way.
Hayden and I really like to give each other a hard time. I think at one point and time the argument went from fishing skills to 4'6" Hayden was giving me a hard time about my short legs. We got to the lake and I stood about a foot away from Hayden, waiting for him to cast only to cast over the top of his line.
I caught two fish casting over him and he didn't catch any.
On a side note: Hayden reminds me of a young Dave Riddle, Obsessed with hunting and fishing, Gives everyone a hard time, obsessed with knives, Cigarette lighters demand his complete attention, and he loves wrestling. I've told Todd many times that he must have bought Hayden at the same store that my parents bought me.
In the midst of a line tangle Todd showed up and we decided to go to a different spot to fish, we walked over and fished for a while. After a half hour we decided that we should wake the other young men up and get on the trail.
Back in camp we started getting the troops up, wake up was a little slow followed by a few questions about the days journey while eating breakfast.
The ranger showed up and fortunately we hadn't built a fire. We talked for a while and told him that we would be hiking a high pass. He warned us of a possible thunderstorm and suggested that we make the 11000 ft+ pass as soon as possible.
The ranger also talked about having to bury some other campers poop. Todd told the ranger that I had a poop tube (a pvc pipe that you store all of your poop in to pack it out) The green peace ranger looked at me and smile and proudly said "That is awesome that you are that considerate." He then proceeded to tell us of his method of packing out his poop.
After his story, I felt a little guilty (and a little queasy) and told him that I really didn't use a poop tube.
The ranger lost his glow in his eyes, looked down, wished us luck and left.
Even though Todd and I were laughing we felt a little bad so we told the boys that if they took a dump near camp to go throw a rock on it. The boys groaned a little and hid their poop.
After we packed up we filtered some water and headed out.
We had a pretty good climb to make that day and I was glad that we started early.
About a mile into the hike we passed a shallow creek with fish trying to climb higher. I pointed them out to the boys and immediately packs came off and they were trying to catch the fish with their hands.
Hayden caught a small golden trout.
and Alex caught a pretty good golden as well
After messing around with the shallow-water fish we continued the hike. The trail was steep and the boys were getting worked a bit. Alex kept up with me so I pushed a little harder at a quicker pace to see if we could reach his limit.
As we neared 11000 ft. I could feel the elevation and my breathing had stepped up a notch. I felt good and Alex was able to match my pace. Every now and then I would hear Hayden a couple of hundred yards back yell to wait up so Alex and I would stop and let the rest of the guys catch up. Everyone seemed to be doing well. No blisters and pretty good morale.
Todd carried up the rear and seemed to be feeling pretty good. Every few hours I would ask him how his blood sugar was and he seemed to be doing great.
As we climbed higher it was quite a bit cooler, and we found ourselves crossing a few deep snow drifts.
Finally after a few hours of hiking we reached Florence pass. The high point of the trail.
We all stopped and took off our packs for a little break. We were near Florence lake and there was still quite a bit of ice on the lake.
I pulled out my GPS to check the elevation and we were about 40 ft shy of 11000 ft.
Todd suggested that we leave our packs and climb up a saddle to reach the 11,000 ft. Plus, we figured that we might get cell service, to let the boys call home to tell everyone they were all right.
We climbed to the top of the saddle and exceeded 11000 ft by a couple of hundred feet. The view was awesome. We messed around and took some pictures. We had 3 bars on our phones but still couldn't get any calls out or in.
After messing around we hiked back down to our packs.
A couple of boys slid off around some boulders to go to the bathroom, after their return, I asked how it felt to take a whizz at 11000 ft. They laughed,and not to be out done, the rest of the boys decided that they wanted to take a whizz at 11000 ft.
Boys will be boys. I think Todd and I decided to take a whizz while we were there.
While packing up, our favorite Ranger showed up out of nowhere, and we talked for a minute and continued on.
The rest of the trip would be down hill.
After passing Florence lake we stopped and filter some more water. Near the creek was a monument set for A US Bomber that had crashed in 1946. There are still parts scattered across the mountain, hence the name "Bomber Mountain" was born.
After the fill up, we hit the trail again. After a few hundred yards I realised that I didn't get a picture of the monument so I told Todd to lead and I would hike back up to get the picture and catch up.
After I took a few photos I began working my way back down the trail. The group was ahead of me quite a bit so I picked up the pace.
I caught up to the group while they were passing a large snow drift. We took a few pictures and continued down Florence canyon. About 100 yards and the groups stopped. Everyone was feeling fine, and I looked at Todd. He was laying back a bit and looked a little out of breath. I asked him how he was doing, and he told me that he had gotten a little queasy.
I asked him how his blood sugar was, and he said he thought it was pretty good.
We sat there for a minute and then continued on down the canyon.
After getting through the rough part of the canyon, Todd pulled me aside and said that he wasn't feeling good at all, and that he couldn't get his heart rate to fall.
He also informed me of a pain that he was feeling in heart.
We decided to stop and take a break. I told Todd to find a nice spot in the shade and lay down for a minute.
We didn't say anything to the boys about the problem, we thought it would be better to not get them worried.
I had the boys cook a delicious dinner of Top Ramen.
While my water was heating, I walked over to Todd to check his condition, and he said that the pain in his chest was getting worse and his arms were hurting. He sounded worried in his voice and I could see it in his eyes.
I started to get a little worried, because on top of his diabetes, I knew that he had high blood pressure, I knew that his family had a history of heart problems, and I knew that Todd's dad died of a second heart attack at 51.
It didn't help when Todd said: "Dave, I think I might be having a heart attack."
I was a little worried and asked Todd if he needed a blessing. Todd thought that would be a good idea. So I gave Todd a blessing. I won't go into details of my thoughts and feelings during the blessing, this is the world wide web, and I don't know that it's appropriate to get that deep in this kind of situation.
But to say the least, I did have a calm assurance that things would be alright.
After the blessing Todd got up and he walked out into the sun, he said it was a little cold and layed down again.
The boys were beginning to catch on that all was not well in Wyoming.
A couple of boys asked me if Todd was alright I told them that Todd was a little sick, and we just didn't know.
Hayden and Jamin walked over to Todd to talk to him and check him out. While they were talking to him, Todd began to vomit pretty fiercely.
That had me a little worried, because I knew how important it was for Todd to hold down food with his diabetes.
I walked over after Todd was done buying a Buick, and he was looking pretty crappy. I asked him what he wanted to do. He thought we should try to keep going, at least to somewhere that we could get someone to get him out. I walked over and started unloading his backpack and loading his stuff into mine.
We discussed the possibility of his condition being due to elevation sickness. I really wanted to believe that was it even though in the back of my mind I knew that we had just spent the last 4 days above 10000 feet. Perhaps the big climb may have given it too him, or perhaps not.
It was easier to tell the boys that he may have elevation sickness. Especially his son.
I could Hayden was getting a little more concerned as his dad got sicker.
As we continued on Todd was visibly struggling and we were doing a good job not to worry the young men. All but Hayden.
Todd thanked me for carrying his stuff and asked me if it was too much, I joked and told him that he probably wouldn't get it back and not to worry, that I was pretty damn tough.
We tried to lighten things a little by Joking, Todd told Hayden that if he died, to not worry about packing him out in one piece but to quarter him up like an Elk just like he had taught him. That brought a nervous laugh and he decided to keep the joke between he and I.
While we were walking I told Todd to remember that if he killed over it was going to be me that would have to give him mouth to mouth and that I might even use a little tongue out of spite for killing over on the 50 miler. We laughed a little and he said he would do his best not to die.
A serious moment came when we were away from the young men and he got quiet and said, "Dave, I don't know if you can see the fear in my eyes, but this really might be it for me."
Trying to keep it positive, I said: "Well, bro. I don't think its a heart attack because I've never heard of anyone blowing chunks after a heart attack."
Todd, raining on my parade said:"Actually when my dad died of a heart attack, my mom said that he stood up, held his chest, threw up and died."
"Your not making me feel any better." I said.
"If it helps, I'm not feeling any better either." Todd groaned.
We hiked to a river crossing and the boys were out of water so we decided to stop and pump some more water. While we were doing that, Todd began puking again, but a little more violently.
Haden, came up to me fighting away tears and said :"Brother Riddle, if you want to finish the hike with these guys, I'll get my dad out of here."
I told Haden:"Buddy, that's pretty tough of you, but we are in this together, and we will all get your dad out of here."
While pumping water, Todd decided to walk ahead due to his slow pace with Hayden while we pumped water.
While we were pumping the water, I decided to let the other young men know what was going on.
I think that they had noticed that I had gotten into serious Dave mode.
While we were pumping I said:"Young men, I'm sorry to get serious on you but I'm going to need all of you to get serious with me for a second. As you know, Todd is sick. What you don't know is we think he may be having a heart attack. I'm going to need you guys to forget yourselves a little, forget about any little aches and pains or hard hills, and man up. Jamin, I'll need you to follow the rear, and I will need all of you to keep a maximum of 20' spacing at my pace until we catch up to Todd and Hayden. Are you guys good?"
They all looked me in the eyes and said yes. I knew they were up for the challenge.
We finished the the water and continued on.
I kicked in a pretty fast pace, and the boys never let their spacing be more than 20 ft. There was no whining and they really kept a positive attitude.
Shortly after, we caught up to Todd and Hayden. Hayden fell back with the other boys and I carried water for Todd, and we talked a little more.
After about a mile we came to another creek crossing, Todd and I crossed, and continued ahead of the boys while they were putting their dry boots on.
Todd's condition was getting progressively worse and I was a little glad that the boys were behind us.
After a minute, Todd sat down and threw up again. I was getting a little worried about the vomiting, because he wasn't keeping any water down at all.
Todd and I talked about a few options. I told Todd that I could run out and get help pretty fast. We both agree that was our best option.
Todd then layed down on his side. For a second he went still and I wondered if he was dead.
To be continued.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
50 miler continued
Before bed, we looked at the sky and considering the fact that we were on the west side of the Big horn mountains, we knew that it wouldn't rain.
I covered my pack just in case.
As the young men tucked themselves under their new shelter, I yelled over to them to not go getting themselves into trouble that night. I think that only one was still awake to even laugh at my bad Joke.
At around 1:30AM the lightning picked up and was followed by rain. I yelled to Todd to see if he wanted to cover his pack. He just mumbled something and went back to sleep.
Morning came, and I found myself awake around 6:00 AM. I couldn't sleep because I was a little worried about the days journey up the hill. We had planned on hiking up some crazy terrain to go fishing, but I thought that Alex would be the only young man that would be able to make it.
The lake was beautiful that morning and I decided to skip fishing and take some time consulting with the big man. Everyone was asleep and would be until after 8:00AM.
I picked up my map and hiked up a rocky hill side to do a little praying and a little thinking.
I thought about the whole trip and wondered if I was a fool to take a bunch of young men deep into the wilderness. From the previous days hiking, I really wondered if they could make it. I knew Alex would make it, I hoped Hayden could make it, If Jamin wasn't so sick, I knew he could make it, and I really wondered if Corbin could make it. I never worried about Todd. He seemed to be keeping his diabetes in check and was feeling pretty good.
That morning my prayer on that rock consisted of some thanks, some questions, and some pleadings for a little strength and morale for the boys. I came off the rock with some answers and a little peace of mind.
As Todd woke up we discussed plans and decided to take a little break that day and to skip hiking the crazy trail to catch some golden trout. Instead we would spend until noon fishing Lake Solitude.
As the boys woke up we all decided to walk down to the lake to do a little fishing. Quite a few fish were caught. Mostly Splake, Lake Trout, and Brook Trout. We decided to keep a number of them and cook them up.
Back in camp, Todd convinced me that we needed a fire to cook the fish on. We had little stoves, but a fire just made it nicer. Unfortunately, in the cloud peak Wilderness Area, fires are prohibited above 9200 ft. We were at about 9250. We built a fire anyways.
Todd and I are good examples.
For breakfast that morning we had oatmeal and fish. I think by the time we were done we all felt pretty good and morale was lifted.
We talked to the young men and told them that we wanted to get on the trail a little early so we could beat the hill and get it out of our way.
As we were packing our bags a Ranger showed up. Our fire was out but very noticeable. I became his buddy quick. We talked for about 15 minutes until he looked over at the fire. He asked if that was our fire. All of my young men looked at me to see if I would lie. I aknowleged that it was our fire. The ranger got serious and asked if he could talk to me off to the side.
To save typing time, I will say that I got out of the ticket. Unfortunately about an hour later the Ranger had talked himself into coming back to give us the 275.00 ticket. The second time he was bound and determined to give it. I pulled him aside and got a little serious. Todd joined in and between my salesmanship and Todd's mind games we got out of our ticket a second time. We made the deal with the ranger to never speak of the situation. We looked at him and said what situation?
After the ranger left we pulled the young men aside and told them that we didn't want them telling anyone about the ranger. That was part of our deal with the ranger.
Alex told the story in sacrament meeting the next Sunday so the secret was out. That is the only reason I wrote it today.
The fish and oatmeal breakfast must have done something because the young men were tougher. Perhaps the previous day's hike had toughened them up.
Earlier that morning Corbin and I had a nice talk about mental toughness, and I think he got it.
I don't think Corbin had spent a lot of time in the wilderness and I don't think he has ever had a dad around to teach him to be a man.
Needless to say Corbin and I didn't need to have any "man up" talks for the rest of the trip.
As we hiked that day he kept up and didn't complain once.
If it is possible for a boy to mentally become a man in one short day, Corbin pulled it off.
Just to put things in perspective, I have written a lot about dealing with Corbin, for a clearer picture, realise that when school starts at the end of August, Corbin will be starting the 8th grade. Show me a pre 8th grader man enough to take on a 50 mile hike with 3 large Rambo Survival knives, a tackle box, 15 lb steel toe boots, and a 40 lb pack with little camping or hiking experience. The only other young-young man was Hayden, Todd's son, who Todd took care of during the Hike. Jamin was about 1 week off of turning 18, and Alex (who is probably the best natural athelete at anything, that I've ever known) is 15 with summers and summers of camping and hiking experience.
I don't want to paint a picture of any of the young men being sissy boys because when taken in perspective every one of them are pretty darn tough.
Another example of thier toughness (off the subject) instead of church basketball the young men wanted to do church boxing. I won't get into that too far, I'll just say it was a blood bath in the church gymnasium, and I may go to hell for it. Needless to say, I did take some pretty damn tough young men on a 50 miler.
Later that day, we arrived at our base camp near Misty Moon Lake. The camp site overlooked Lake Helen.
We set up camp, ate, packed small packs of water and fishing gear and hiked to a few nearby lakes. That evening as it got dark we absolutely slaughtered the fish. Cast after cast we caught them. All Splake. It was awesome.
We retired to bed that night happy to be alive, and happy to be together. The young men enjoyed each others company, and I didn't hear a swear word from any of them the whole trip. I think that I'm the only one who swore the whole trip. Nothing serious just a couple of damns, a few Hells, a puss, and I think shit might have slipped out once while talking to Todd.
Not too bad if you ask me.
That night as we settled in for the night,we were happy. Jamin gave a little spiritual thought, we prayed together and started to settle in.
Corbin was the first to lay down and get inside the shelter that the young men had made. While we were rummaging around Corbin sat up and said: "Sick! Who Farted?". We looked down and reminded Corbin that he was the only one in his shelter, and that he was the inadvertant culprit. We all laughed and went to bed.
Todd and I B.S.ed a little and the young men told stories to each other, quoted television shows, and solved the worlds problems. little did we know what the next day would bring. If we would have known, I don't think that we would have slept as well as we did.
To be continued..
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
50 miler
A few months ago, my friend Todd and I decided that we would try to talk the young men into going on a 50 miler for their high adventure. We thought it would be a difficult task because previous high adventures usually involved water skiing or more recreational activities.
We sat the young men down, and introduced to them what we wanted to do. We made it sound exciting, and between Todd's mind games (he's a shrink) and my salesmanship, we helped the young men feel good about a 50 miler for their high adventure.
Planning started early for Todd and I. We were pretty excited to buy new toys and figure out routes to the best fishing spots. Todd is an outdoors man like myself, and it seemed like we spent an hour every other night planning and talking about cool stuff we had bought. By the time the trip came around we were prepared, perhaps overly prepared. Between the two of us, we had both spent enough money to feed a small country for at least a year.
I think our wives and kids were a little tired of our excitement. I'd call his house and as his son would hand him the phone I'd hear in the background "Dad, it's your boyfriend." He'd call my house and when I'd get off the phone my wife would ask what my gay lover wanted. Luckily, we were both comfortable enough in our masculinity and our strict belief in heterosexuality to not take any of the persecution to heart. Needless to say, Todd and I became pretty good friends through the whole deal.
Finally the day came that we were to leave for the Big Horns. Two nights before the trip we traveled to each of the young men's homes to check packs, weigh them and make suggestions. We had punch lists, and the boys seemed prepared for the most part. Early on Todd and I made it a goal to get in shape for the adventure. I wanted to be in good enough shape that I wouldn't have to worry about having to get packed out. Todd had the same goal. I kicked off about 20 lbs for the trip. Todd is a Type 1 diabetic, so he remained skinny but got in pretty good shape.
At 5:00 PM we loaded the Bishops truck with packs, said a prayer and headed off for the Big Horn Wilderness.
On the way, I looked back at the boys and said a few things like; "I hope you boys left your purses at home." and "Enjoy being boys because in four days you will be men." We all laughed and had a good time on the way up. As we passed our pick up point, I told the boys to pay close attention to how far away we actually would be traveling the drop off point to the pick up point. 50 miles is a long way to hike with a 45 lb back pack on your back. We planned on hiking between 13 to 15 miles per day.
Around 6:45 PM we arrived at our drop off point. The West Tensleep trail head. We unloaded our stuff, sprayed down with bug repellant, took some pictures, and headed off for a place to camp for the night.
We hiked in about 1.5 miles before finding a nice camping spot for the night.
The sky was clear and the only shelter that the boy had for the hike was a tarp each and some parachute cord. We wanted them to work a little on their survival skills.
As we settled in to camp, we suggested to the boys that they build shelters in case it rained. They all declined and said that they would just wrap themselves in the tarps like "burritos". Besides, it wasn't going to rain anyways.
So we took a few pictures, and wrestled around a bit.
Todd had a nice one man tent to sleep in and I had a Bivy sack. A bivy sack is a waterproof sack that fits over a mummy bag that is waterproof. You can zip it up over your face if it is raining hard and is quite handy. My bivy wrapped around a new Marmot 800 fill sleeping bag that I purchased with Zach's college money.
After messing around we all went to bed. About 15 minutes into the night lightning started to pick up. I looked over at one of the boys (Corbin) who had his bag exposed, and told him that he needed to wrap up better than that. He fiddled with his tarp and the rain came and man did it come.
About 2 minutes into the hard rain I hear Corbin: "BROTHER RIDDLE, I'M WET AND I'M FREEZING!"
By this time I'm tight in my bivy sack, I hear Todd laughing, and I automatically start laughing.
I yelled through the rain to Corbin:" Buddy, you are just going to have to man up! If Todd or I have to get out we will get wet and then we'll all get wet!" I look over at Todd in his tent and we start laughing again.
Corbin:"BUT MY HANDS ARE FREEZING AND I'M REALLY WET!
Me:"CORBIN, I PROMISE I WONT LET YOU DIE, YOU HAVE JUST GOT TO BE A MAN! YOUR BODY CAN TAKE A LOT MORE THAN THIS, TRY TO KEEP COVERED THE BEST YOU CAN, AND WE'LL FIX IT WHEN THE RAIN LETS UP!"
Corbin:"OK,"
The rain fell hard for about two hours before letting up. After it let up two of the four boys were soaked. Corbin and Jamin.
Todd and I decided to put his son Hayden in his one man tent with him, and Corbin in Hayden's bag. I thanked Hayden for taking one for the team.
Jamin on the other hand said he would man up and sleep in a wet bag. His bag was soaked to the bone. He grabbed Corbin's bag and teased Corbin because it was hardly wet.
I worried a little about Jamin, because we were at 9400 feet and it was still pretty cold.
Finally we settled in and went to sleep. Every hour or so I would check on Jamin. The rain came pretty consistent through the night, and around 4:00 AM I hear Jamin:"Brother Riddle, what time is it? I'm frozen!" I look over and Jamin is standing there with his shirt off, shivering with rain dripping off of him.
I thought to myself: "Dang, I hope we don't give him pneumonia." I climbed out of bed and got into my dry back pack, grabbed a thermal blanket, my waterproof jacket and a beanie. I fixed Jamin up and he went back to bed.
Around 6:30 AM, I got up and Jamin was just shivering and not saying much. I heated some water and made a big batch of Oatmeal for Jamin. He ate about half of it and began blowing chunks.
I felt pretty bad, and the boys were up to watch the show.
After eating everyone spread their bags and wet gear on some rocks to dry in the sun. I watched Jamin, and he seem to be feeling better and was joking around.
Around 11:30 AM we had our gear dry and packed up. We pumped some water out of a spring and headed out. I told the boys that we would have to hit it pretty hard to get 15 miles in before night fall.
And hit it hard was just what we did. I stayed out in front while Todd brought up the rear.
We stopped for a few breaks and took a few pictures the country was beautiful. A couple of times we stopped because Corbin's knee was bothering him. Todd and I discussed the situation and really wondered if it was really the knee or if it was just a matter of needing to toughen up. We were pushing a pretty hard pace.
At one point and time Corbin fell down holding his knee. I told Todd and the Others to go ahead. I looked down at Corbin and asked him how his feet were. I was a little worried because he was hiking in a pair of 15lb Steel toe work boots from Wall-Mart.
He told me that he thought he may have a couple of blisters.
Luckily, I had packed a pair of my running shoes. Even more luckily Corbin was a size 11 like me. I gave him my running shoes, and we tied his boots on to his bag. After another mile Corbin layed down on a rock whining a little and holding his knee.
I was a little suspicious because I didn't see a limp at all.
I walked back to Corbin and started loading some things from his bag into mine. I took his 15 lb boots, his gas for his stove and a few other things. I told Corbin that he was just going to have to man up and there was no other choice but to finish the hike. I said the only way out of there was by helicopter, and I knew that neither he or I could afford a helicopter. He looked up at me hopefully and said:"I have medicaid."
I shook my head and mumbled under my breath that medicaid didn't cover being a puss. "What brother Riddle?" "Nothing." I said. We talked it out for a minute and I talked to him about manning up. I told him that he had two choices, man up or die. I told him that I wouldn't let him take the second choice.
We moved on.
As we passed the 10 mile mark, the boys were getting visibly fatigued. Most of the hike had been up hill as we climbed from 9000ft to over 10000 feet.
As we continued our hike we reached a high point and then the hike took us back down to lower elevations. There weren't many places on the hike that we would backtrack except for a stretch of about 5 miles. That worried me a little because that stretch was covered that first day. It was all down hill. In fact very steep down hill. That wouldn't have bothered me except I knew that we would have to climb out of there the next day.
Every 15 minutes the boys would yell to either me or Todd. "How much farther?" Todd's answer was always the same "thirty minutes!" My answer was always the same " Just over this hill!" By the time we arrived at camp the boys were exhausted, all but Alex. Todd and I weren't tired, but were a little worried because moral was a little low.
Jamin was still sick, so he just layed down in the grass. I looked over at Corbin and he had layed down, said something like: "I just want to go home" and passed out.
Alex and Hayden began working on a shelter. I noticed that Corbin had lost his tarp on the way, So I asked the boys to just build a shelter that they all could share. The boys griped a little about the other sleeping beauties but submitted and built a shelter for all of them.
That evening the boys were able to fish. Catching Splake, Lake Trout, and Brook Trout, did wonders for morale.
Corbin and I had another talk about being a man.
We ate dinner and went to bed.
That was the last day that I heard a complaint from any of the boys.
From here on out, I will refer to them as men.
To be continued....
We sat the young men down, and introduced to them what we wanted to do. We made it sound exciting, and between Todd's mind games (he's a shrink) and my salesmanship, we helped the young men feel good about a 50 miler for their high adventure.
Planning started early for Todd and I. We were pretty excited to buy new toys and figure out routes to the best fishing spots. Todd is an outdoors man like myself, and it seemed like we spent an hour every other night planning and talking about cool stuff we had bought. By the time the trip came around we were prepared, perhaps overly prepared. Between the two of us, we had both spent enough money to feed a small country for at least a year.
I think our wives and kids were a little tired of our excitement. I'd call his house and as his son would hand him the phone I'd hear in the background "Dad, it's your boyfriend." He'd call my house and when I'd get off the phone my wife would ask what my gay lover wanted. Luckily, we were both comfortable enough in our masculinity and our strict belief in heterosexuality to not take any of the persecution to heart. Needless to say, Todd and I became pretty good friends through the whole deal.
Finally the day came that we were to leave for the Big Horns. Two nights before the trip we traveled to each of the young men's homes to check packs, weigh them and make suggestions. We had punch lists, and the boys seemed prepared for the most part. Early on Todd and I made it a goal to get in shape for the adventure. I wanted to be in good enough shape that I wouldn't have to worry about having to get packed out. Todd had the same goal. I kicked off about 20 lbs for the trip. Todd is a Type 1 diabetic, so he remained skinny but got in pretty good shape.
At 5:00 PM we loaded the Bishops truck with packs, said a prayer and headed off for the Big Horn Wilderness.
On the way, I looked back at the boys and said a few things like; "I hope you boys left your purses at home." and "Enjoy being boys because in four days you will be men." We all laughed and had a good time on the way up. As we passed our pick up point, I told the boys to pay close attention to how far away we actually would be traveling the drop off point to the pick up point. 50 miles is a long way to hike with a 45 lb back pack on your back. We planned on hiking between 13 to 15 miles per day.
Around 6:45 PM we arrived at our drop off point. The West Tensleep trail head. We unloaded our stuff, sprayed down with bug repellant, took some pictures, and headed off for a place to camp for the night.
We hiked in about 1.5 miles before finding a nice camping spot for the night.
The sky was clear and the only shelter that the boy had for the hike was a tarp each and some parachute cord. We wanted them to work a little on their survival skills.
As we settled in to camp, we suggested to the boys that they build shelters in case it rained. They all declined and said that they would just wrap themselves in the tarps like "burritos". Besides, it wasn't going to rain anyways.
So we took a few pictures, and wrestled around a bit.
Todd had a nice one man tent to sleep in and I had a Bivy sack. A bivy sack is a waterproof sack that fits over a mummy bag that is waterproof. You can zip it up over your face if it is raining hard and is quite handy. My bivy wrapped around a new Marmot 800 fill sleeping bag that I purchased with Zach's college money.
After messing around we all went to bed. About 15 minutes into the night lightning started to pick up. I looked over at one of the boys (Corbin) who had his bag exposed, and told him that he needed to wrap up better than that. He fiddled with his tarp and the rain came and man did it come.
About 2 minutes into the hard rain I hear Corbin: "BROTHER RIDDLE, I'M WET AND I'M FREEZING!"
By this time I'm tight in my bivy sack, I hear Todd laughing, and I automatically start laughing.
I yelled through the rain to Corbin:" Buddy, you are just going to have to man up! If Todd or I have to get out we will get wet and then we'll all get wet!" I look over at Todd in his tent and we start laughing again.
Corbin:"BUT MY HANDS ARE FREEZING AND I'M REALLY WET!
Me:"CORBIN, I PROMISE I WONT LET YOU DIE, YOU HAVE JUST GOT TO BE A MAN! YOUR BODY CAN TAKE A LOT MORE THAN THIS, TRY TO KEEP COVERED THE BEST YOU CAN, AND WE'LL FIX IT WHEN THE RAIN LETS UP!"
Corbin:"OK,"
The rain fell hard for about two hours before letting up. After it let up two of the four boys were soaked. Corbin and Jamin.
Todd and I decided to put his son Hayden in his one man tent with him, and Corbin in Hayden's bag. I thanked Hayden for taking one for the team.
Jamin on the other hand said he would man up and sleep in a wet bag. His bag was soaked to the bone. He grabbed Corbin's bag and teased Corbin because it was hardly wet.
I worried a little about Jamin, because we were at 9400 feet and it was still pretty cold.
Finally we settled in and went to sleep. Every hour or so I would check on Jamin. The rain came pretty consistent through the night, and around 4:00 AM I hear Jamin:"Brother Riddle, what time is it? I'm frozen!" I look over and Jamin is standing there with his shirt off, shivering with rain dripping off of him.
I thought to myself: "Dang, I hope we don't give him pneumonia." I climbed out of bed and got into my dry back pack, grabbed a thermal blanket, my waterproof jacket and a beanie. I fixed Jamin up and he went back to bed.
Around 6:30 AM, I got up and Jamin was just shivering and not saying much. I heated some water and made a big batch of Oatmeal for Jamin. He ate about half of it and began blowing chunks.
I felt pretty bad, and the boys were up to watch the show.
After eating everyone spread their bags and wet gear on some rocks to dry in the sun. I watched Jamin, and he seem to be feeling better and was joking around.
Around 11:30 AM we had our gear dry and packed up. We pumped some water out of a spring and headed out. I told the boys that we would have to hit it pretty hard to get 15 miles in before night fall.
And hit it hard was just what we did. I stayed out in front while Todd brought up the rear.
We stopped for a few breaks and took a few pictures the country was beautiful. A couple of times we stopped because Corbin's knee was bothering him. Todd and I discussed the situation and really wondered if it was really the knee or if it was just a matter of needing to toughen up. We were pushing a pretty hard pace.
At one point and time Corbin fell down holding his knee. I told Todd and the Others to go ahead. I looked down at Corbin and asked him how his feet were. I was a little worried because he was hiking in a pair of 15lb Steel toe work boots from Wall-Mart.
He told me that he thought he may have a couple of blisters.
Luckily, I had packed a pair of my running shoes. Even more luckily Corbin was a size 11 like me. I gave him my running shoes, and we tied his boots on to his bag. After another mile Corbin layed down on a rock whining a little and holding his knee.
I was a little suspicious because I didn't see a limp at all.
I walked back to Corbin and started loading some things from his bag into mine. I took his 15 lb boots, his gas for his stove and a few other things. I told Corbin that he was just going to have to man up and there was no other choice but to finish the hike. I said the only way out of there was by helicopter, and I knew that neither he or I could afford a helicopter. He looked up at me hopefully and said:"I have medicaid."
I shook my head and mumbled under my breath that medicaid didn't cover being a puss. "What brother Riddle?" "Nothing." I said. We talked it out for a minute and I talked to him about manning up. I told him that he had two choices, man up or die. I told him that I wouldn't let him take the second choice.
We moved on.
As we passed the 10 mile mark, the boys were getting visibly fatigued. Most of the hike had been up hill as we climbed from 9000ft to over 10000 feet.
As we continued our hike we reached a high point and then the hike took us back down to lower elevations. There weren't many places on the hike that we would backtrack except for a stretch of about 5 miles. That worried me a little because that stretch was covered that first day. It was all down hill. In fact very steep down hill. That wouldn't have bothered me except I knew that we would have to climb out of there the next day.
Every 15 minutes the boys would yell to either me or Todd. "How much farther?" Todd's answer was always the same "thirty minutes!" My answer was always the same " Just over this hill!" By the time we arrived at camp the boys were exhausted, all but Alex. Todd and I weren't tired, but were a little worried because moral was a little low.
Jamin was still sick, so he just layed down in the grass. I looked over at Corbin and he had layed down, said something like: "I just want to go home" and passed out.
Alex and Hayden began working on a shelter. I noticed that Corbin had lost his tarp on the way, So I asked the boys to just build a shelter that they all could share. The boys griped a little about the other sleeping beauties but submitted and built a shelter for all of them.
That evening the boys were able to fish. Catching Splake, Lake Trout, and Brook Trout, did wonders for morale.
Corbin and I had another talk about being a man.
We ate dinner and went to bed.
That was the last day that I heard a complaint from any of the boys.
From here on out, I will refer to them as men.
To be continued....
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Five things my Mother never taught me.
My last post addressed "Mom Blogs" and my mother's comment nearly turned my "Man Blog" into a "Mom Blog". So I would like to take a moment to write about my own Mother.
In fact I would like to write about Five things my Mother never taught me.
1. My Mother never taught me to backbite.
All of my life watching my mother interact with other people I cannot ever recall hearing my Mother say anything bad about a person behind their back.
2. My Mother never taught me to steal.
When I was a very little boy, I worked a few funny jobs for my mom and collected every bit of loose change that I could find so that I could buy a Stomper. I don't know if anyone remembers stompers but it was a little truck a bit larger than a matchbox car that took a AA battery. The stomper had a switch to turn it on and it would slowly creep across the floor. The stomper's headlights would light up and the stomper usually came with two sets of tires, foam and hard rubber. If I remember right, the stomper usually cost around a dollar twenty.
After scrimping and saving for a period of time the day finally came that I had saved enough change to buy the stomper, I placed the change in a small plastic sandwich bag and asked my mother if we could go to town to buy a stomper. My mother told me that later that day she was going grocery shopping and that we could go then.
I remember waiting and pacing for what seemed like forever until my mother, with a smile said; "Bubba, (that's what my mom calls me)are you ready to go?"
Before she could get an answer I had my bag full of change and was climbing in to our old Ford Torino.
My mother stepped into the car and we took off to the store. Our first stop was Lin's Thriftway. My mother had some grocery shopping to do so I followed her with my change bag in hand as she loaded the cart.
In my stomper excitement I took a little detour and walked passed a shelf with whole peanuts that you could buy by the pound. I loved peanuts and didn't think much about it and decided that I would like to eat one, so I reached up and grabbed a peanut.
As I walked back to my mom, I cracked open one half of the shell and ate one of the delicious peanuts. It was wonderful. When I arrived at my mothers shopping cart, she looked down and said:"Bubba, what is that?" "A peanut," I said. "Bubba, where did you get that? I pointed to the large stash of peanuts. "Did you pay for it?" My mother asked. "No", I said.
"When you take something without paying for it, that is stealing," My mother said. I knew what stealing was, but it was just a single peanut. "But mom, it was just one peanut," I said. "It's still stealing, so you will have to pay for the peanut that you ate." My mother said in a kind voice.
So my mother walked with me to the checkout line peanut shell in hand. She lifted me up to talk to the cashier.
"Tell her what happened David." My mother said.
"I stole a peanut over there and would like to pay for it." I sadly said.
The cashier looked at us kind of funny as I handed her the empty peanut shell, she pushed a couple of buttons on the cash register and said, that will be seven cents.
I slowly reached in to my plastic bag and handed her a nickel and two pennies.
The cashier took it and put the change in the register. I looked down at my bag of money and new I didn't have enough for the stomper.
I told my mom of my concerns hoping she would give me 7 cents. She just smiled, gave me a hug and told me I would just have to save more money.
I felt pretty bad that day but that lesson stuck with me deep for a long time, at least until I was a teenager.
One day as teenagers my older brother and I went shopping with our mom.
We were in high school and a little rowdy to say the least. While shopping with our mother something caught our eye, it was a the dry ice cooler. My brother and I loved dry ice. Not only because it was neat, but because you could make bombs and get into a lot of trouble with it.
As my brother and I walked closer to the dry ice cooler, temptation got the better of us. We walked over to the cooler and opened the door. Steam lifted off the white gold as it beckoned to us to take it. Off to the side were a couple of chips of Dry ice a little smaller than a golf ball. My brother and I couldn't take the temptation so we each reached into the cooler and each took a chip of ice. We shut the cooler about the time my mother was getting the groceries rung up.
We played around with the ice, putting it in our mouths and rolling it on our tongues, pretending we were blowing smoke from a big cigar, burning each other, and just having a good time.
As my Mom walked out of the store we followed her and the bag boy to the car, all the while playing with our new toys of frozen gas.
While the bagger was setting the groceries into the trunk of the car he looked at my mom and said (and I swear these are the exact words): "I don't want to be a narc, but your boys took that dry ice without paying for it."
My mother looked at him and thanked him. She shut the trunk of the car and marched her two teenage boys to the cashier. Almost automatically my older brother looked at the cashier and said: "We took some dry ice without paying for it and would like to pay for it." I followed up with a quiet "yeah."
The cashier looked at us funny as we placed our small dry ice chips on the scale. The total bill was 17 cents. My older brother was kind enough to pay my part of the bill.
I don't remember what was said on the way back to the car, I don't think there were any Ill feelings, and my mom may have possibly called us little shits. But that was that.
We new our mother loved us and expected more from us.
My mother never taught me to steal.
3. My mother never taught me to overlook those have been overlooked.
I have never seen a kinder person to the elderly than my mother. Throughout my life I have watched my mother spend countless hours listening, talking to, and helping the elderly.
Rarely an evening went by at our house that my mother didn't get a phone call from an elderly lady that just needed someone to talk to. She always listened and always genuinely cared about what they had to say. I don't think that we ever had a Thanksgiving or a Christmas dinner that my Mother didn't invite an old widow that lived down the street to eat with us.
I have never seen my Mother belittle anyone no matter who they were, and it's impossible to not feel like a million bucks when you are around her.
4. My Mother never taught me to throw my hands in the air and give up.
When I was younger, the trucking company that my dad worked for went out of business. So my dad did everything he could to provide for us. That meant a lot of hours during the day doing odd jobs and driving a mail route through the evening and all night.
With my Dad gone it left raising four fighting boys to my mother for the majority of the time. Many, Many times my brothers and I would really get out of hand only to find my mother patching things up and really trying her best to help us all be happy. Every night and every morning my Mother made sure that we all as a family took time to pray together. Looking back, I know those times had to be extremely difficult for her but she was always strong and I never saw throw her hands up in the air and give up, when I believe most people would have.
5. My mother never taught me what it was like to not be loved.
In my whole life, there has never been a time that I have wondered if my mother loved me. Growing up and especially in my high school years I was kind of a rascal. I did a lot of things that at the time I didn't think warranted love from anyone. But no matter what I did, no matter what the circumstance, I always knew that my mother loved me.
I just hope that no matter what, my Mother knows that I will always love her.
In fact I would like to write about Five things my Mother never taught me.
1. My Mother never taught me to backbite.
All of my life watching my mother interact with other people I cannot ever recall hearing my Mother say anything bad about a person behind their back.
2. My Mother never taught me to steal.
When I was a very little boy, I worked a few funny jobs for my mom and collected every bit of loose change that I could find so that I could buy a Stomper. I don't know if anyone remembers stompers but it was a little truck a bit larger than a matchbox car that took a AA battery. The stomper had a switch to turn it on and it would slowly creep across the floor. The stomper's headlights would light up and the stomper usually came with two sets of tires, foam and hard rubber. If I remember right, the stomper usually cost around a dollar twenty.
After scrimping and saving for a period of time the day finally came that I had saved enough change to buy the stomper, I placed the change in a small plastic sandwich bag and asked my mother if we could go to town to buy a stomper. My mother told me that later that day she was going grocery shopping and that we could go then.
I remember waiting and pacing for what seemed like forever until my mother, with a smile said; "Bubba, (that's what my mom calls me)are you ready to go?"
Before she could get an answer I had my bag full of change and was climbing in to our old Ford Torino.
My mother stepped into the car and we took off to the store. Our first stop was Lin's Thriftway. My mother had some grocery shopping to do so I followed her with my change bag in hand as she loaded the cart.
In my stomper excitement I took a little detour and walked passed a shelf with whole peanuts that you could buy by the pound. I loved peanuts and didn't think much about it and decided that I would like to eat one, so I reached up and grabbed a peanut.
As I walked back to my mom, I cracked open one half of the shell and ate one of the delicious peanuts. It was wonderful. When I arrived at my mothers shopping cart, she looked down and said:"Bubba, what is that?" "A peanut," I said. "Bubba, where did you get that? I pointed to the large stash of peanuts. "Did you pay for it?" My mother asked. "No", I said.
"When you take something without paying for it, that is stealing," My mother said. I knew what stealing was, but it was just a single peanut. "But mom, it was just one peanut," I said. "It's still stealing, so you will have to pay for the peanut that you ate." My mother said in a kind voice.
So my mother walked with me to the checkout line peanut shell in hand. She lifted me up to talk to the cashier.
"Tell her what happened David." My mother said.
"I stole a peanut over there and would like to pay for it." I sadly said.
The cashier looked at us kind of funny as I handed her the empty peanut shell, she pushed a couple of buttons on the cash register and said, that will be seven cents.
I slowly reached in to my plastic bag and handed her a nickel and two pennies.
The cashier took it and put the change in the register. I looked down at my bag of money and new I didn't have enough for the stomper.
I told my mom of my concerns hoping she would give me 7 cents. She just smiled, gave me a hug and told me I would just have to save more money.
I felt pretty bad that day but that lesson stuck with me deep for a long time, at least until I was a teenager.
One day as teenagers my older brother and I went shopping with our mom.
We were in high school and a little rowdy to say the least. While shopping with our mother something caught our eye, it was a the dry ice cooler. My brother and I loved dry ice. Not only because it was neat, but because you could make bombs and get into a lot of trouble with it.
As my brother and I walked closer to the dry ice cooler, temptation got the better of us. We walked over to the cooler and opened the door. Steam lifted off the white gold as it beckoned to us to take it. Off to the side were a couple of chips of Dry ice a little smaller than a golf ball. My brother and I couldn't take the temptation so we each reached into the cooler and each took a chip of ice. We shut the cooler about the time my mother was getting the groceries rung up.
We played around with the ice, putting it in our mouths and rolling it on our tongues, pretending we were blowing smoke from a big cigar, burning each other, and just having a good time.
As my Mom walked out of the store we followed her and the bag boy to the car, all the while playing with our new toys of frozen gas.
While the bagger was setting the groceries into the trunk of the car he looked at my mom and said (and I swear these are the exact words): "I don't want to be a narc, but your boys took that dry ice without paying for it."
My mother looked at him and thanked him. She shut the trunk of the car and marched her two teenage boys to the cashier. Almost automatically my older brother looked at the cashier and said: "We took some dry ice without paying for it and would like to pay for it." I followed up with a quiet "yeah."
The cashier looked at us funny as we placed our small dry ice chips on the scale. The total bill was 17 cents. My older brother was kind enough to pay my part of the bill.
I don't remember what was said on the way back to the car, I don't think there were any Ill feelings, and my mom may have possibly called us little shits. But that was that.
We new our mother loved us and expected more from us.
My mother never taught me to steal.
3. My mother never taught me to overlook those have been overlooked.
I have never seen a kinder person to the elderly than my mother. Throughout my life I have watched my mother spend countless hours listening, talking to, and helping the elderly.
Rarely an evening went by at our house that my mother didn't get a phone call from an elderly lady that just needed someone to talk to. She always listened and always genuinely cared about what they had to say. I don't think that we ever had a Thanksgiving or a Christmas dinner that my Mother didn't invite an old widow that lived down the street to eat with us.
I have never seen my Mother belittle anyone no matter who they were, and it's impossible to not feel like a million bucks when you are around her.
4. My Mother never taught me to throw my hands in the air and give up.
When I was younger, the trucking company that my dad worked for went out of business. So my dad did everything he could to provide for us. That meant a lot of hours during the day doing odd jobs and driving a mail route through the evening and all night.
With my Dad gone it left raising four fighting boys to my mother for the majority of the time. Many, Many times my brothers and I would really get out of hand only to find my mother patching things up and really trying her best to help us all be happy. Every night and every morning my Mother made sure that we all as a family took time to pray together. Looking back, I know those times had to be extremely difficult for her but she was always strong and I never saw throw her hands up in the air and give up, when I believe most people would have.
5. My mother never taught me what it was like to not be loved.
In my whole life, there has never been a time that I have wondered if my mother loved me. Growing up and especially in my high school years I was kind of a rascal. I did a lot of things that at the time I didn't think warranted love from anyone. But no matter what I did, no matter what the circumstance, I always knew that my mother loved me.
I just hope that no matter what, my Mother knows that I will always love her.
Monday, June 16, 2008
David Riddle Blog
So, I have been thinking a little about this whole blog thing. It's kind of an interesting phenomenon.
I like to click on links from friends and family's blogs and even read blogs of people that I don't even know.
I think the majority of the blogs are "Mom Blogs" which usually consists of the family name with a picture of the family in the title while a mom tells heartwarming adventures that she has had with her family that day or week.
I think the Mom blogs are nice, and It seems like Moms have nearly taken over blog space. It's kind of a nice way for families to keep other family members in touch with each other.
The only problem I have with "Mom Blogs" are the comment sections. Rarely do I read a Mom blog with a rude or smart @$$ comment. For the most part, "Mom blog" comments are almost too sweet. I know women are meaner than that, so why not write what they really feel. Instead of, Oh how sweet is that or that is the cutest thing, why not say what you really feel like. Why not write the comment you made out loud as you looked at and read the blog. If you said, "Oh how darling!" Please write it, but if you said "Oh gag me!" write that. If the kid isn't cute write it, they need to know. Throw something out like: "yeah, your kid is cute if you are into giant foreheads" Ya know something like that. There is no need for other bloggers to be under a distorted perception of reality. They would be better off knowing the truth.
If I go to the doctor and have cancer, I want to know if I have cancer, I don't want him to smile, give me a hug, and tell me that I'm pretty. I want to know what I have so I can fix it.
I think I have a pretty good idea of what is going on inside the mind of the Mom bloggers and I guarantee that 90% of the comments are a little off of what they really feel.
This is the Internet. When you put something on a blog, anyone in the world can read about your personal life. I think when someone creates a public blog, they should welcome public comments even if they cause hurt feelings.
There you are telling the world how your kid is the cutest and best kid in the world. You better expect to be compared to the whole world, and sooner or later someone with a cuter and smarter kid is going to come across your blog, look at your kid and say: damn, that's an ugly kid, and possibly post it. Ive done that before to random strangers, and I don't do it anonymously, not to be mean but because I think they need to know.
I think it is funny when I see a "comment deleted" in someones comments, I try to imagine what was written because I know somewhere deep there was something that would have been much more entertaining than "Oh how cute, that was to die for!" Somebody had the cajones to say something and I just wish that I would have read it before it got deleted. Maybe I would have agreed and maybe I would have disagreed.
I have never deleted a comment from my blog. I do not think that I ever will.
If I was that worried what other people said I would privatize my blog. If you are worried about what someone says or thinks privatize yourself, because weather you know it or not your site probably gets hit 25-80 times per day, not just by strangers but by people that know you that are just bored and wanted to see what you were up to. Most people don't comment because they think that you might think they are weird for just randomly checking you out. Hell, I randomly Google people all the time, some people I like, some people I don't like, and some people just to find out if they are in prison or not. It's pretty entertaining and I'd be willing to bet that we all have at one point and time been on someones blog that we wouldn't want them to know that we were there.
When I surf blog world I usually just surf the friends links of friends links of friends links because I don't dare push the "Next Blog Button" in fear of what I might come across.
When I first started blogging, I got a phone call from my little brother, he said that he pushed the next blog button and got some kind of porn blog. This is how the phone call went:
Dave: Hello?
Gregg: (in a disgusted voice) Dave, (pause, pause,pause) What the hell?
Dave: What?
Gregg:Bro. I pushed the "next blog" button on your blog and it took me to a porn site!
Dave: (Laughing.) You did?
Gregg: Yeah, What the hell? (Now stuttering mad.) Really bad stuff. What the hell?
Dave: I'm sorry bro. I have pushed the next button once and got something bad too, I just don't push the next button any more.
Gregg: What the hell? Why are you linked to a porn site?
Dave: Gregg, I'm not linked to a porn site, it's just random, and I think that since they started letting videos get posted a bunch of sickos came out of the wood works. I was going to put a warning on my blog but I figured everybody would start pushing next just to see if it was true.
Gregg: Oh, that stuff made me feel bad.
Dave: Sorry bro. don't push the next blog button any more.
Gregg: I won't.
So needless to say I try to avoid surfing blog world by pressing the next blog link.
You may have your friends or friends friends come up to you and ask who is dave riddle? He left a crazy comment on my blog.
Yes, I leave random crazy comments on peoples blogs. Even people I don't know, and yes sometimes I say something rude if I think they need it. Nothing too rude, I may tell them their kid looks like he has an Afro with a chinstrap but only if he or she does.
I think that most people are sensitive when someone talks behind their backs. If they hear about it happening, it usually is accompanied by hurt feelings. It shouldn't be. Everybody talks behind everybodys back, and for the most part it isn't out of malice it's just conversation.
If you are honest in your blog comments, it will come as no surprise to someone who hears you said it to someone else and you won't make them feel as bad.
I'm not proposing that every one tap into their inner mean self. I'm just proposing that everyone make their posts a little more real. Then I would really enjoy blog space.
I like to click on links from friends and family's blogs and even read blogs of people that I don't even know.
I think the majority of the blogs are "Mom Blogs" which usually consists of the family name with a picture of the family in the title while a mom tells heartwarming adventures that she has had with her family that day or week.
I think the Mom blogs are nice, and It seems like Moms have nearly taken over blog space. It's kind of a nice way for families to keep other family members in touch with each other.
The only problem I have with "Mom Blogs" are the comment sections. Rarely do I read a Mom blog with a rude or smart @$$ comment. For the most part, "Mom blog" comments are almost too sweet. I know women are meaner than that, so why not write what they really feel. Instead of, Oh how sweet is that or that is the cutest thing, why not say what you really feel like. Why not write the comment you made out loud as you looked at and read the blog. If you said, "Oh how darling!" Please write it, but if you said "Oh gag me!" write that. If the kid isn't cute write it, they need to know. Throw something out like: "yeah, your kid is cute if you are into giant foreheads" Ya know something like that. There is no need for other bloggers to be under a distorted perception of reality. They would be better off knowing the truth.
If I go to the doctor and have cancer, I want to know if I have cancer, I don't want him to smile, give me a hug, and tell me that I'm pretty. I want to know what I have so I can fix it.
I think I have a pretty good idea of what is going on inside the mind of the Mom bloggers and I guarantee that 90% of the comments are a little off of what they really feel.
This is the Internet. When you put something on a blog, anyone in the world can read about your personal life. I think when someone creates a public blog, they should welcome public comments even if they cause hurt feelings.
There you are telling the world how your kid is the cutest and best kid in the world. You better expect to be compared to the whole world, and sooner or later someone with a cuter and smarter kid is going to come across your blog, look at your kid and say: damn, that's an ugly kid, and possibly post it. Ive done that before to random strangers, and I don't do it anonymously, not to be mean but because I think they need to know.
I think it is funny when I see a "comment deleted" in someones comments, I try to imagine what was written because I know somewhere deep there was something that would have been much more entertaining than "Oh how cute, that was to die for!" Somebody had the cajones to say something and I just wish that I would have read it before it got deleted. Maybe I would have agreed and maybe I would have disagreed.
I have never deleted a comment from my blog. I do not think that I ever will.
If I was that worried what other people said I would privatize my blog. If you are worried about what someone says or thinks privatize yourself, because weather you know it or not your site probably gets hit 25-80 times per day, not just by strangers but by people that know you that are just bored and wanted to see what you were up to. Most people don't comment because they think that you might think they are weird for just randomly checking you out. Hell, I randomly Google people all the time, some people I like, some people I don't like, and some people just to find out if they are in prison or not. It's pretty entertaining and I'd be willing to bet that we all have at one point and time been on someones blog that we wouldn't want them to know that we were there.
When I surf blog world I usually just surf the friends links of friends links of friends links because I don't dare push the "Next Blog Button" in fear of what I might come across.
When I first started blogging, I got a phone call from my little brother, he said that he pushed the next blog button and got some kind of porn blog. This is how the phone call went:
Dave: Hello?
Gregg: (in a disgusted voice) Dave, (pause, pause,pause) What the hell?
Dave: What?
Gregg:Bro. I pushed the "next blog" button on your blog and it took me to a porn site!
Dave: (Laughing.) You did?
Gregg: Yeah, What the hell? (Now stuttering mad.) Really bad stuff. What the hell?
Dave: I'm sorry bro. I have pushed the next button once and got something bad too, I just don't push the next button any more.
Gregg: What the hell? Why are you linked to a porn site?
Dave: Gregg, I'm not linked to a porn site, it's just random, and I think that since they started letting videos get posted a bunch of sickos came out of the wood works. I was going to put a warning on my blog but I figured everybody would start pushing next just to see if it was true.
Gregg: Oh, that stuff made me feel bad.
Dave: Sorry bro. don't push the next blog button any more.
Gregg: I won't.
So needless to say I try to avoid surfing blog world by pressing the next blog link.
You may have your friends or friends friends come up to you and ask who is dave riddle? He left a crazy comment on my blog.
Yes, I leave random crazy comments on peoples blogs. Even people I don't know, and yes sometimes I say something rude if I think they need it. Nothing too rude, I may tell them their kid looks like he has an Afro with a chinstrap but only if he or she does.
I think that most people are sensitive when someone talks behind their backs. If they hear about it happening, it usually is accompanied by hurt feelings. It shouldn't be. Everybody talks behind everybodys back, and for the most part it isn't out of malice it's just conversation.
If you are honest in your blog comments, it will come as no surprise to someone who hears you said it to someone else and you won't make them feel as bad.
I'm not proposing that every one tap into their inner mean self. I'm just proposing that everyone make their posts a little more real. Then I would really enjoy blog space.
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