I woke up early this morning and did my usual routine but as I was frantically getting ready (I had a very special person coming to spend the day with me and I didn't want to be late for my sweet, sweet date) the tv was on and there it was on the screen. I stopped and looked and wonder why they would be showing pictures of a car/deer accident, this must have been really bad. I could see the deer draped over the hood of the car, all the while I'm thinking "that's a big one", "look for horns, Pam, look for the horns", wait, maybe it's a moose/car accident or maybe I should get a little closer and look at the tv. That's right it was a car accident but there was clearly no sign of deer or moose.
The deer hunting season is around the corner, so in our house that is the topic of many, many conversations. I have been living for many (okay 30 years) with the mighty hunter. You see, it starts around August with "Maybe I'll get my bow out and bow hunt this year" to which I give my standard answer "sure". Then we move into September " I don't think I have time to bow hunt this year" to which I answer, "why?", as I think to myself , just do it. Then rolls in October, the month when everything changes, there are no longer any maybes or thinks - there will be hunting. There's something about the rifle season that puts a spark in Fernando. I hear about what boots he will wear, the zipper needs fixing on my hunting coat (thanks Gram!), "I'm gonna need some more wool socks," "where are my long johns," "did you see any deer on the drive home tonight," and the ever famous , "is supper ready yet, it's getting dark and I want to go for a ride and look for deer before it gets to late."
When I was growing up my dad was hunter too and I remember his stylish orange hat and ever the fashion statement fluorescent orange jacket. So when Fernando starts getting out the fluorescent orange fashions it brings back the memories...... I can remember the smell of breakfast cooking before daybreak and the noise of all the men arriving. I may have been young but I still knew it was way too early for me to get up, so I would roll right back over and slumber away. I wonder if my kids have those memories, wait.... I know they don't cause there was no way I was getting up that early to cook breakfast for any reason! My response to that early, early, morning breakfast was "Isn't someone around here having a hunter's breakfast?" I'm not a morning person!
So, what about the woman and wives of deer hunters. Why is it that, here it is October and when I'm half way paying attention I see deer accident, when clearly there was no deer involved. Have I been living this for so long that my mind knows - October and deer and I've started blocking things out, or seeing things that
aren't really there. Has the hunt of the mighty deer taken over my fall season. I knew November would always revolve around the hunt but now it's started creeping into my October. I used to ride right home with the radio turned up and signing with the tunes and now I ride carefully looking in the fields and even knowing where to slow down cause the deer sometimes cross in the road. Where are the days when October meant Halloween and apple pie?
I feel your pain and/or pleasure during the fall months called hunting season. As I try to remind them, as I've been told in the past, "It's not about the kill, it's about the hunt!" Sometimes I think our men/foragers revert to their earlier ancestors, the caveman, as they grunt and groan and in general act like primitive men sometimes. Of course the tools for this ritual are a lot more advanced than early caveman with compound bows and a rifle for every type of terrain, animal and weather. But too, the buying of these expensive tools for their expeditions gives us girls an excuse to go shopping for our own tools of the trade. We don't need an excuse, but hey, we'll use it. So now just a few more days to use the compound bow then it's on to the many rifles and stories about those rifles, where they came from, what they've shot with them and how many animals have been taken with that 30/30!! Wait, have you heard the 30/30 stories?? I'll remind Elvin that everybody may not have heard them!!! NOT!!! Elvin and Fernando think that Nick needs a 30/30, but Nick has other ideas! So girls, any shopping trips we can plan? Let's do it!!!
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