Sunday, November 05, 2006

A Little "Yankin" of the Chain

Most of the time I try to write about happy things because I believe humor can be found in most every situation.Today I'm inspired to change the tone a bit.I have too many friends who have forgotten how to live.Some are over 60 like me, and some are not even 40.When I was a kid I thought that when I got "over the hill" I would probably stop going out, and kick back and take it easy.That is what most folks done that I knew. My Dad was getting ready to go on a bear hunt when he passed away. He wasn't about to slow down and hang it up.I have learned, to my amazement, that "slowing down" doesn't have to be the case. For all of you youngsters I have some news for you. When the years seem to be catching up on you, it doesn't have anything to do with your desire to hunt, fish, hike, play football, or anything else.I can almost hear the old codgers saying, " Yeah, but I can't walk very far, or my old legs are too shakey."Another excuse is," My old arthritis is too bad for me to do anything."Some old gassers have told me that I probably didn't have any "ailments" to slow me down.Well, I had to have surgery to have cancer cut out. It took me almost three years to get things half way back to normal. Every morning I have to massage my hands to get them loosened up from arthritis, so I can tie my shoes. I've got a pinched nerve between my shoulder blades that is driving me nuts. I guess packing moose quarters hasn't helped it much.It would be easy to waste space on pain. We all have our share, and when the old carcass gets more years on it, it only gets worse. How you handle it is what's makes the difference.It's all too easy to let pain make you get "old" in your head. It's all too easy to sit back and give in to it. Once you do, it's all over for you. Once you let pain slow you down, it also slows your metabalism, and once that happens everythings comes to a screeching halt. Once you become "inactive", you sign your "death warrent".Too many folks retire, set down, become inactive and are dead in a year. They work all of their lives to be able to kick-back, and the "kicking-back" slows them down. The pounds pack on, the circulation slows down, the muscles began to weaken, and soon life gets soo tired.Life is much too short anyway. Why waste time making excuses on why you have decided to grab the old recliner, instead of getting out and doing what you USED to do?I erased the word "CAN'T" from my vocabulary many years ago. If you are hanging out with a bunch of "can't" people, it's time you had a big change of friends.If you have been reading my posts, you'll soon see than instead of slowing down, I have just rigged up my atv with tracks. In a couple of days I'll be out there hunting wolves with another old geezer who hasn't given up.Right now I'm counting the days until the lakes freeze up so I can get out there and yank those rainbows and silver salmon out of the ice. I can do it and I'm going to do it. Yeah, old "pain" will tag along, but he will have to wait to torment me. I have always been as stubborn as a mule, and I refuse to let this "body" dictate what I'm doing.Today it's zero out side. I am pre-heating my atv and truck. As soon as I'm done with this blog, I'm getting out there and loading the atv on the trailer, in case I may need to go play.I will never croak in a hospital, and the thought of an old-age home scares me worse than a mad grizz. Besides, if I was in a rest home, I would be driving all of the others nuts "talking" about bear hunting.One old codger I know was a truck driver most of his life. I hate to visit with him because all he talks about is a "run" he made 50 years ago. He drives me nuts trying to carry on a conversation. I know that I would be as bad as him if I didn't contain myself.I tell youngsters that I have a 40 year handicap. I am a 23 year old in a 63 year olds body. As far as I'm concerned they can stuff that 40 years. My mind and attitude is still 23. My outlook, goals,and dreams are as eternal as my spirit.As I wrote in my book, "The Wilderness Trail", " My Heart belongs to my Family, My Soul belongs to my GOD, and My SPIRIT belongs to the wind and the wilderness.I, as you, don't know when our number is up, but I'll tell you one thing...I'll have my hunting boots on!

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Bad Things Happen

Last week I got the new set of tracks for my Arctic Cat Prowler. My sweet little owner finally gave her approval.I had mentioned how happy I would be if I had tracks to go ice fishing this winter.Being the clever rascal that I am, I didn't do what I usually do, which is look sad until she came through.That approach had worn out years ago. Instead I just mentioned it in passing and spent hours on the web looking for a nice set of tracks.Being the sensitive gal that she is, she let it ride for a couple of weeks. Then one evening she said, " Well I guess if you want those tracks, you'd better get them ordered before winter is over."It wouldn't have been possible to contain the glee, but I really did try. It was probably over-shadowed by the way I dove down the stairs to get to my computor. I don't think I hit more than two of the steps.She yelled down," If you break your neck, the tracks won't do you much good."The tracks arrived a couple of days ago and I used my neighbors shop to install them.The first bad thing to happened was I drove the machine into the shop only a couple of feet inside of the door.That wasn't so bad because I had plenty of room. The problem came when I set up the light pole, with the two 500 watt lamps in that 2 feet of space. That even wasn't too bad. The problem came when I tried to slip between the lamp post and the front of my machine. It seems that the hook on the wench caught on the front of my trousers, holding me firmly. The lamps were at my back-side with a full 1000 watts of power.Have you ever tried to back up to two 500 watt lamps? Well, there I was, hung up on a wench hook with my "hind-end" toasting. Since the wench cable was rated for 3000 lbs, there wasn't much danger of breaking it, so with a great lunge I managed to rip off one of my pockets.The event ended with a little dance and the dropping of the trousers.I barely got my pants back up when my neighbor returned and asked how I was doing.My reply was, " Not too hot". I told him what I had done, which was a mistake. It seemed to bring a lot of joy to his heart.I wasn't able to really look at my machine with the tracks on it, because it was dark. I did drive it home and parked it in front of the house.The next morning it was 6 above zero. I went to the window to admire my work and couldn't see the machine very well. I walked out on the porch wearing little more than my shorts and slippers to have a quick look.You guessed it! The door locked behind me. I'm glad that I live in a wooded area where no one could see me. It may have looked strange for an old geezer running around looking for the spare house key, wearing little more than his pelt.I also made the mistake of telling my brother, Gib about it. He also seemed to get some enjoyment out of my miss-adventure.I don't run around looking for bad things, but sometimes they still seem to catch me at moments when I least expect them.I thanked my little Honey for the tracks, and told her that I would consider them my Christmas and next Birthday present.She always has a way of saying the nicest things..." Consider it to be all of your next 20 years of Christmas and Birthday presents."How Kool is that!! I don't have to shake presents for the next 20 years!