Welcome to my personal rant that gets me fired up traveling to and from work, and really, anywhere in between. I struggle with other people sharing my roadways. Thanks Dad! In an effort to not take part in a road rage incident, I’ve decided to express my frustrations in a healthier manner. Right here. For you.
Person A: You won’t be happy until you are the only person driving out there.
Me: How do we make that happen?
Offense: Waiting too timidly at an intersection to pull out
Tip: The car that you are waiting for is a mile away. You can safely pull out.
Why do I always get behind these people? The one that must wait for all traffic to clear before they will pull out. I’m not suggesting anyone pull out into oncoming traffic, but for the love of Jesus, the farm tractor that is slowly approaching from a half mile away is not going to suddenly come up on our tailpipe! I promise you!
Here is a song from the latest Blabpipe release, appropriately called, Tuesday. Check out the Blabpipe page, where we focus on promoting bands and musicians facing the exact same crisis of getting our music out to people.
Who says southern hospitality isn’t really a thing? As I am rather new to this blogging thing, I have been overwhelmed by the support of what I would call my regular followers. One of those is The Portly Politico, from South Carolina, who was one of the first that reached out and corresponded with me. He also featured me in his regular Supporting Friends Friday post that features fellow bloggers, which I greatly appreciate. As part of a type of Pay It Back campaign, I am introducing him here.
The Portly Politico brands himself as ONE SOUTHERNER’S UNIQUE, ERUDITE, CONSERVATIVE PERSPECTIVE IN A HECTIC WORLD. I find him to be a talented and engaging writer whose posts I look forward to reading. He has a Monday Morning Movie Review, with assessments from 1931’s Dracula, all the way to 2021’s Halloween Kills. In fact, I believe if you are a Halloween buff in general, you will find you have plenty in common with him.
Furthermore, TPP is a musician. A link to his bandcamp page is here: https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com/community. Anyone who knows me personally is aware how much I respect other musicians and support their creativity and art, in addition to the firsthand knowledge of the trials of getting the music to the masses.
It’s the first Friday of November, which means it’s another Bandcamp Friday! That means it’s the best possible time to purchase my music. Indeed, my entire discography (seven albums!) is just $19.98, a whopping 35% discount (just £14.64 as of 1 November 2021, according to Bing, for my British readers). That’s $2.85 (£2.09) per release, the kind of deal you only get on cassette tapes at the gas station (or from yours portly!).
I’m also sitting on a lot of great, but unsold, Spooktacular merch, including my shocking original painting “The War on Halloween.” If the price tag is too rich for your blood, contact me and we’ll work something out.
The woods were silently still that morning. A fresh snow of four inches had littered the landscape overnight, drastically altering the scenery from just one day before. Gone was the obnoxious crunch that accompanied every footstep. In its place was a wintry morning doing its best to act as a silent film.
I followed Dad down the trail through the timber, mainly open hardwoods, with patches of green ferns, more prevalent in some places than others. Not much was going on, save for random squawk of a blue jay, a bold chipmunk protesting our presence on his land, or the unassuming trickle of the occasional brook. Yes, the setting was quite peaceful regardless of the void of action.
With every step, my mind began to wander more. Homework, friends, girls. The lack of anything suggesting that deer were indeed on this mountain at all afforded me the opportunity to daydream so. Ah, but I was about to learn a lesson, one that Dad had attempted to teach before.
He stopped suddenly, cocking his head to get a look up the steep mountainside. I turned my head sharply to the right to get a look. What was he looking at? I frantically scanned the ridge, at any moment expecting to see movement. Nothing. Must’ve been a branch blowing in the wind or a bird flying away. These sorts of things happen frequently in the deer woods.
He pulled his rifle up, carefully adjusting the scope. He sees something but what it is, I have no idea. For what seemed like an hour, but in reality, lasted about a minute, he kept pulling the gun up, desperate for a more superior vantage point. Apparently, it never came. His shot woke up the sleepy forest and startled me out of my boots.
My eyes traveled in the direction of the bullet. To my amazement, I still saw nothing. Dad injected another shell, put on the safety, and took off up the hill. Totally confused by this point, I followed, my teenage body struggling to keep up with a middle-aged man on a mission. We reached a thin shelf on the ridge and Dad began to search for something. I asked him what the heck he was shooting at, and he stopped, looked straight at me, and asked, “Are you serious?”
Fresh deer tracks blanketed the shelf we were standing on. Of particular interest was the five running tracks scampering up the mountain. Once we followed and determined that his shot was a clean miss, Dad brought me back to the shelf and showed me one deer track in particular, that which was made by a huge deer. Dad was stuttering a little as he tried to justify in words the size of the rack this deer was carrying. “It was frigging huge,” he kept saying over and over again, flabbergasted that such a beast would find its way into his scope. Further study of all the tracks, including the path of travel each deer took to get to this spot, suggested that this brute was mingling with four does.
I turned and looked back down the mountain to where we were standing at the time of Dad’s shot. A thick undergrowth forced me to take several steps to see the trail we were previously on. We could determine that Dad shot at this deer through whippets and a small stand of thin trees from approximately 150 yards away. Most surprisingly, I never saw any of the five deer before or after he shot. The degree of difficulty that he faced proved to be too much.
I learned two valuable lessons that day. The first one was the aforementioned theory that just when you think nothing is happening, it’s about to go down. The second lesson was that even on a white landscape, deer have the uncanny ability to blend into their surroundings. These lessons (and countless others) have helped me become a more patient and successful deer hunter. Thanks, Dad.
A two minute read. In the United States, someone accused of a crime is nonetheless innocent until proven guilty. But no one wanted to kill William Charles Mason of Parma, New York. Other than his stepson, that is. No one has confirmed how Bill Mason died. The absence of flesh may make it impossible to […]
The Cincinnati Bearcats held at No. 2, but not by much, as the AP Top 25 was released on Sunday after Week 10 of the FBS season. The Bearcats, who were No. 2 last week, eked out a win over Tulsa on Saturday. But, it was enough in the eyes of voters to keep them […]
The Ravens are coming off an emotional overtime win against Minnesota. Perhaps a letdown here? Nah!
Baltimore 23 Miami 14
Sunday, November 14:
New Orleans at Tennessee
The Titans got themselves a big road win against the Rams, while the Saints lost a heartbreaker to the Falcons. You know I’m a big “trap game” proponent, right?
Tennessee 21 New Orleans 17
Buffalo at NY Jets
I wonder if the Bill will be mad.
Buffalo 34 NY Jets 7
Detroit at Pittsburgh
I feel bad for the Lions. I really do.
Pittsburgh 26 Detroit 13
Jacksonville at Indianapolis
Two in a row for the Jags? Nah!
Indianapolis 23 Jacksonville 6
Tampa Bay at Washington
The Bucs had an extra week to stew over their loss to New Orleans.
Tampa Bay 28 Washington 17
Cleveland at New England
The Patriots have won three in a row. The Browns no longer have an Odell problem but need to prove they can sustain this past week’s performance.
New England 23 Cleveland 20
Atlanta at Dallas
The Falcons have looked better of late, but the Cowboys are going to be angry.
Dallas 33 Atlanta 27
Carolina at Arizona
Are the Cardinals the best team in the NFL?
Arizona 34 Carolina 16
Minnesota at LA Chargers
Every time I turn on the TV to watch football, the station cuts into the Vikings game in overtime.
LA Chargers 26 Minnesota 20 OT
Seattle at Green Bay
Russell Wilson vs Aaron Rodgers? The Packers will be another ornery team this week.
Green Bay 31 Seattle 17
Philadelphia at Denver
Did we write off the Broncos too soon?
Philadelphia 22 Denver 20
Kansas City at Las Vegas
Will the Chiefs get their offense going? How do we measure the Raiders at this point?
Pictured above: Brandon SwansonPicture source: KSTP.com 19-year-old Brandon Swanson disappeared in the early hours of the 14th of May 2008 whilst driving home in Minnesota, USA. Swanson got his car stuck in a ditch and called his parents to ask if they could pick him up from somewhere between Marshall and Lynd, where he believed […]
Whipped Owl 