Time To Do A Little Shopping For Fall

September 12, 2006
Gear Hunting
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With hunting season knocking at the door what new gear are you planning to purchase for this year? A new gun…maybe some new clothes…or how about some new boots? For me a big part of enjoying any hunt is having comfortable equipment that fits your style. Maybe your eyesight isn’t what it used to be and you need a new scope on that .30–06. Maybe that old hunting knife is beyond resurrecting with a new edge…and it’s time for something new. Heck, maybe that old tree stand makes your butt sore when sitting for too long and causes you to squirm too much in the process…there’s a lot of choices out there, in case you haven’t noticed.

A few days ago I was paging through an old Herters catalog laying in my office and I was amazed at just how far we have come. Take hunting boots, for instance. Oh, sure, 25 years ago there were options but no where near the amount of choices we have now today. And speaking of comfort and quality…a few decades ago you might have to wear those boots for a while to “break them in” to your feet. Today the choices are so numerous that if you have the time to keep trying on different styles you are bound to eventually find a boot that fits almost perfect right out of the box.

That’s what happened to me tonight. I was shopping at my local sporting goods store not intending to purchase anything except for some hunting licenses when a boot sale caught my eye. Typically I’m not one with a boot fetish so I don’t have several pairs in my closet (at least not to the extent my wife has shoes)…yet I understand the importance of having good footwear while in the field. As I thought about it…the pair of old Danner boots I currently use are almost 10 years old. Truly, some of the best boots I have ever put on my feet and well worth the couple of hundred bucks I recall paying for them at the time.

But as footwear has grown more high-tech in recent years it seems that the value of what you get for the money has also favored the buyer. Tonight I purchased a pair of Browning Gore-Tex Thinsulate boots for about $70 that would have easily cost twice that just a few years ago. There’s some great values out there if you care to look…but sometimes you need to keep your eyes open to discover the deals.

I’m also in the market for some new deer hunting clothing this year. In particular, the blaze orange clothing for firearms season. Many of the old ten-mile cloth duds are getting pretty worn, torn and ratty looking. Here, there are two schools of thought. I have some hunting partners who like to purchase their best outer-wear in camouflage and then wear a blaze orange vest or outer shell to make it legal. This makes sense because then the clothing can be used in the duck blind as well as in the tree stand. Furthermore, on those years when the weather is unseasonably warm you can remove the heavier clothing and still stay legal with the blaze vest or outer shell worn as a lightweight safety item.

This year, however, I’m planning to opt for some nice blaze orange clothing intended specifically for deer hunting. I figure the entire suit will likely set me back about $400, but it’s money well spent when you consider the cost is amortized over time (many seasons of use). Besides, I have a hell of a lot more fun wearing a suit made for hunting than I do a suit made for dress-up occasions.

Indeed, I have a whole laundry list of items I need to pick up in the coming weeks for this fall season. It’s a fun time of the year not only for participating but also for purchasing. If you’ve been putting off buying that new piece of hunting gear there’s simply no better time than right now to make the purchase or at least begin looking. As if you needed an excuse to do so anyway.

If you’re like me this time of the year you go to the sporting goods store planning to make just a few purchases and the experience ends up usually filling the cart with “other essentials.” My friends all know that I am an outdoors gear junkie. It’s one of the weaknesses I have and I’m not ashamed to admit it. And when you think you’re getting a good deal it only further magnifies the enjoyment I receive from the item.

So, what’s on your fall shopping list for hunting season? Been finding any good deals out there that I should know about?

A Day That Changed Each of Our Lives

Stunned disbelief. How else can it be described? We all sat around the TV just a bit numb trying to absorb each of the events as they unfolded five years ago when terrorists struck our country with a true sucker punch of historic proportions. At the time, however, we really were no longer sure what normal meant to our lives…everything was in a state of flux.

In a few short moments of time we saw our world turned upside-down by a bunch of murderers who cowardly inflicted their carnage on innocent people who were minding their own business trying to live their lives. The action angered us…it made us more patriotic…it brought us closer to our church…it opened our eyes to being more vigilant wherever we traveled…and it made us realize the world—our world—will never be quite the same again.

On that fateful morning I had just gotten off from working a 24–hour ambulance shift and was going to my second job as a paralegal. There at the law office I settled in to begin my daily duties when a colleague without Internet access popped in and asked if I would check out the news. They had heard something big was going on out in New York. I attempted to log on to many of the major news web sites and they were jammed. In fact, it was an eery feeling knowing that something in the world was happening and without access to credible news sources I was left mostly in the dark.

Eventually I accessed a news site that described a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. A spectacular crash…caught on film. I decided to leave the office and head back to the ambulance station where I could watch TV and better hear the news reports. I no more than started watching when I witnessed a second plane hit another tower…and then reports came in from Washington D.C. that an explosion had occurred at the Pentagon. Reports started coming in fast and furious that other planes were missing and that a catastrophic event was unfolding before our eyes the likes of which hadn’t occurred since perhaps Pearl Harbor back in 1941.

I continued to watch the sickening news for several hours until I finally decided to go home. You know, when things are not right in the world there’s just something inviting and very comforting about being home. Besides, business and life in general for most people came to a screeching halt as we all “waited for the other shoe to drop,” so to speak. Overnight gas prices sky-rocketed through the roof as gouging occurred by some unscrupulous folks thanks to the general restlessness and uneasy feeling we all felt about the suddenly unpredictable future.

As a medic, at the time, I also wasn’t sure when I might be called into action for some local emergency. It could happen…I knew that because we had all trained for some unusual mass casualty event such as this…a local event might possibly involve me. Albeit, nobody could ever have anticipated the magnitude quite like disaster preparations are made today.

Eventually that Tuesday afternoon I made it home to be with family. I also went home to be near my guns. Silly as it may sound…when the world turns unpredictable and frightening there is some degree of comfort felt by knowing I’m close to my guns. Maybe it was a false sense of security for a 9/11 world, I’ll admit that. But being near my guns in an unpredictable world where nothing could now be taken for granted gave me a small sense of relief.

I remember arriving home that afternoon opening the gun safe and just looking at all the guns I owned. In a sense, they were my adult version of a child’s security blanket. Oh how naked and helpless I would have felt not to own those guns at that moment in my life.

During the days and weeks that followed we all tried to put some semblance of order into our suddenly chaotic lives. Things we could never have imagined before the attacks were now part of our everyday world. Restrictions, heightened security alerts, the fear of future attacks became part of our daily routine…and we had no choice but to accept it.

Our nation’s police officers, firefighters (and to a lesser extent ambulance personnel—which is sort of a bone of contention for me) became public service heroes and the nation rallied behind them. Eventually our troops began preparing for war as patriotism and military enthusiasm surged and the thought of war was viewed by most folks as a national necessity.

Oh, have times changed. Our nation’s public servants are still viewed as everyday heroes but I sense the public passion and support has waned slightly. And what about the war on terror? Five years later our resolve is wearing thin and those with a weak stomach for combat now think the only logical solution is to pick-up our gear and bring the troops all home. I certainly don’t profess to know the right answer…but I must trust that our nation’s leaders with much more information than I have are capable of making the right choices.

Today, as I reflect back on 9/11/2001, I certainly pause to remember all those people who have been victims during the past five years both to terror and to the subsequent war on terror. I also remember driving my truck down main street in town with all the flags waving and the national anthem being played on most radio stations along with a moment of silence. This occurred in the days after 9/11. It was moving. It strengthened my sense of patriotism and belief that we truly live on the greatest country on this earth no matter what happens to us.

No longer do I take any of my freedoms and privileges for granted. I also take every opportunity to tell those in uniform that I appreciate their service to our country. They need to hear it…and after all we’ve been through it would be downright rude not to offer it to these courageous individuals who make the sacrifices necessary to keep our country great.

My Personal Battle Over The Books

September 10, 2006
Books
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In nearly two years of blogging on this site you’re probably noticed I haven’t done many book reviews. In some regards that’s sort of a shame because I absolutely love a good outdoors book…especially a how-to book that focuses on some special kind of outdoor activity. A fine example would be books such as Snares and Snaring by Raymond Thompson or Comfort Below Freezing by Robert McQuilkin. Neither book exemplifies Pulitzer Prize quality of writing by the authors, nevertheless each book serves as a tremendous resource on the respective outdoor topic being covered. Snares & Snaring

Much to my wife’s chagrin I’ve been a collector of outdoor books for over 25 years. As I recall my collection first started with purchasing a host of trapping related books. Followed by fishing books…hunting books…you name it, if it’s an outdoor subject I very likely have a book that covers it to some degree. And that’s where the problem begins for my wife. She understands there are many books I must own for reference. She’s a registered nurse and even has her own small library of medical books that she occasionally consults. But she fails to see my need for books on the wide variety of topics I own.

The problem is my entire library of books has been in storage for about 15 months while we built a new house last year. It wasn’t until this weekend that I decided it was time to do the big move back into the new house and to set up the necessary book shelves once again. Her contention is…if you haven’t used any of those books for over a year…what makes me think I will have any future need for them. This argument is further bolstered by the fact she knows I now do a lot of topical research on the Internet.

Therein lies the problem. Indeed, the Internet is a quick and handy source to look up almost any topic quickly…but is it always a safe way to do things? Granted, information contained in a book can be bogus just as easily as if it’s found on the Internet…but I tend to feel that what gets printed in a book, generally speaking, has more credibility than what is commonly found on the Internet. Now I realize that is not always true, but you still need to be careful no matter what your primary source might be.

You see, my wife is having a dreaded garage sale next weekend so everything she looks at these days (especially if it’s an item I brought into this marriage) appears to her to be good “junk” for the sale. To me, my 300+ outdoor book collection is a prized and closely coveted part of my outdoor life I am not feeling the need to part with anytime soon. She’s trying her best to make me understand I should feel differently. The battle goes on.

Okay, I’ll admit there are a lot of books I have read and will likely never read again. Heck, I might not ever crack them open again if the right situation doesn’t arise. But as a sportsman who occasionally must double-check a fact…owning my very own outdoor library gives me a certain peace of mind. I can almost guarantee you that if I drove to any public library within 25 miles of my house I could not find an outdoors (hunting and fishing) section as complete as the one I have on display here in my home. That’s not bragging…rather, just stating the situation as I believe it to occur.

These days I’m not so sure that most sportsmen value book ownership quite the same way folks used to view them a few decades ago. Certainly my wife is right…if you want to learn a bit more on a topic—such as snipe hunting, for instance—many people will start off with a Google search. And why not! I might be tempted to do it too. Using a computer attached to the World Wide Web is quick and often very thorough tool to get work done. You might even read about someone’s encounter that will give you an idea for a unique slant on a story.

Even so…as I debated with my wife I explained to her that the books I own are no way obsolete because of my computer. In fact, many are probably collector material that you certainly would not want to mass liquidate at some garage sale. I’m not sure…but I think she’s slowly realizing there are two things of mine you don’t touch in this household. The first one would be my guns (she wouldn’t touch them anyway) and now my book collection (which she would rather see in a dumpster than displayed on several nice oak bookcases).

For many years I slowly accumulated my collection of books without ever giving much thought that they would someday undergo such intense scrutiny. And don’t get me wrong…I completely understand now that we have a new house we must carefully choose what items we plan to display and store in our new digs. It’s just that today when my collection of books were de-valued in my wife’s mind it gave me pause to do some introspection if possibly she could be right. Do I continue to own all these books because I really need them? Or do I continue to hold on to them because it’s a habit I’ve developed now for over 25 years running?

That’s when I decided to question her on whether she really needed those Pfaltzgraft dishes she owns. In the nearly five years that I’ve known her we’ve never eaten off them. Worse yet, they were purchased in connection with her first marriage so any sentimental value they should have for her should be highly questionable.

Yea, I realized the counter-tactic was a dangerous maneuver…like walking through a proverbial minefield where one must tread very carefully. But so far it has worked…she’s now spent the day focusing more on her own belongings rather than casting a sinister eye with evil intent toward discarding my precious outdoor books. Again, let’s just be thankful she doesn’t read these blog posts very often.