Life

Step back and look at yourself

/ hsoi

I just finished a dry-fire practice session.

I’ve been noticing in my dry-fire lately that I’ll draw to ready then have a tough time finding the front sight. I figured it was something with my grip or presentation not being “just right”. So I tried to work on those, but it never felt natural.

I just slowed down a bit and realized what I was doing.

For some reason I was pressing my right cheek into my right arm/shoulder on the presentation. I don’t know why, but my guess is an unconscious effort to get my right (dominant) eye lined up with my right arm, which lines everything up with the sights and so on. I think it’s from all the rifle shooting I’ve been doing lately.

As soon as I stopped myself, as soon as I kept my head centered, lo, there was the front sight! The little red fiber optic beacon shining brightly at me.

Always good to slow down, step back, and look at yourself once in a while. You may be doing things you don’t realize.

On muscovy duck behavior

/ hsoi / 19 Comments

The pond near our house is home to a lot of ducks. When we first moved to the area it was mostly mallard and black duck varieties, but the past few years have seen a dramatic shift to a muscovy duck population. They wander the neighborhood looking for food and places to nest. We have one particular male muscovy that I believe has claimed our house as his house. We call him our “guard duck”, so beware. 🙂

Actually the crazy thing with him is we joked about him being a guard duck, but he’s rather a large male and has become a bit too conditioned to us feeding him. He will fly directly at people in hopes they have food, and when you see big him with his large wingspan coming straight at you, it is intimidating the first time you see it. Certainly makes delivery guys and others visiting the house step back a bit. But no, I don’t consider him any sort of serious part of a home security plan; it’s just funny.

Within the past some weeks, we noticed a sudden upsurge in the number of muscovy’s that visit our house. We might have a dozen, given or take a couple, at one time. Of course, this makes for some interesting bird watching because they have rather interesting mannerisms, behaviors, and interactions with each other. I find myself just watching them for large stretches of time because well… I’d like to figure our what they’re doing, and I can do all of this watching from the comfort of my home.

For example, all of this head bobbing and tail wagging:

Exactly what makes one bob better than another bob? Whoa! Jim there was really bobbing his head something fierce today! better stay away from him!  🙂

Or we’ve recently observed female muscovy’s fighting. Much flapping and jumping about, then “tangling” up their necks in an attempt to get on the other one’s back. When the one female wins she essentially stands on and over the other (dominant position), much head bobbing ensues by her and others around her, but what’s really interesting is how the loser flattens herself on the ground and just lies there even tho there’s nothing truly holding her town.

Granted on the base level you can figure out what they’re doing, but I can’t help but wonder about the nuances in their behavior and what it’s actually communicating. It’s fascinating to watch.

Thing is, it’s hard to find anything online about behaviors. You find a lot about cooking them (supposedly very tasty), about raising them for food, maybe some basic information, and even found a whole website dedicated to them which was one of the better resources.

Happy New Year

/ hsoi

And so, the time is once again upon us… that time when we will spend the next month putting the wrong date on things. 🙂

No resolutions for me, because I think it’s a bit silly to set things based upon a rollover of the calendar; you should always be setting and achieving goals. That said, a few months ago I did set some goals for myself that I put “end of 2010” as the deadline for. A few I’ve already accomplished, such as starting to reload my own ammunition and trying out action pistol competition. I’ve got more things set for myself, my hobbies, my career goals, my wife (more and regular date nights!), and my kids.

Looking back, it was generally a good year. Some challenges in the day job, which I know took a toll on my mental, emotional, and even physical health and well-being. But in the end it panned out well and I think things are overall better off for it, both for me and for the company and project. I didn’t get to spend as much time with the wife and kids due to the job situation, but now that the job returns to normal (so to speak) that all should be something to remedy. For instance, I really want us to go camping once the weather warms up a bit. Time outside, with the family, fishing, renting canoes, just enjoyable time together.

I also want to go hunting more. My deer lease just did not work out on a number of levels (money lost, but education is usually not cheap), but I did get to bag my first deer, which was a high point. I’d love to bag some hogs every now and again over the coming months, including taking the kids out for their first hunts.

So while life hasn’t been perfect, that’s OK. If life was always grand well… it wouldn’t be very interesting. You need some low points once in a while to help you recognize the high points and truly appreciate them. When I look at the sum total of the past year and my overall life, it’s certainly in the black. Life is good. I’m thankful for what I have and I do what I can to keep and improve it. Like I say every morning to myself when I wake up, “Daub, don’t fuck this up.” 🙂

If you reflect back upon your past, I hope that it too has been one that meets or exceeds the expectations you set for yourself. If so, I hope you can continue the upward trend. If not, I hope you’ll continue to work to bring things in line with what you want. Life’s what you make it.

Peace and love to all.

Thank God for my Leatherman Wave

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Ah…. Christmas morning.

The sounds of children tearing into wrapping paper as they open their gifts.

That’s the easy part.

The hard part is Dad having to tear through all the packaging to actually extract the toy. 🙂

I am so thankful for my Leatherman Wave. Knives for cutting out packaging. Pliers and wire cutters for removing those !*%@ing twist tie-downs. Screwdrivers to open and close battery compartments.

For my Leatherman Wave, I am thankful. 🙂

Merry Christmas, y’all.

Fish and trust

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

An old high school friend posted to her Facebook status that her kids’ pet fish died. She was wondering what to do: buy a new one, don’t buy one. I trust it was the first death experience for her kids, and this is nothing to take lightly… even tho it’s just a fish, for the kids the loss still hurts.

What got me was the number of people commenting that she shouldn’t tell the kids, don’t let them know, and to just go out and buy a new fish and pretend nothing happened. I grant it’s “just a fish” but that approach doesn’t feel right to me.

Death is a part of life. In fact, it’s truly the only guarantee in life (taxes don’t have to be). You will experience death throughout your life and IMHO it’s better to have a healthy understanding and acceptance of it. Avoiding the issue, what good does that serve? Sure maybe it spares the child a bit of hurt now, but life is full of hurt. Shouldn’t we be teaching our children how to be strong and cope? To allow them to feel the emotion and pain of loss, and learn how to manage it so they can better deal with bigger losses later in life? While I certainly try to prevent my children from being hurt, I also understand that sometimes a little pain now could save them from big pain later in life.

A fish also happened to be the first death my children experienced. It was painful for them; I can still hear how Oldest sounded when he was crying and lamenting the loss. We comforted the children. We had a little burial out in the back flowerbed. We talked a lot. The kids didn’t want to get a new fish, but they also didn’t want to throw out his fish bowl either. We just went with the flow from day to day. We didn’t want to hide anything (we couldn’t… they were the ones that discovered the fish had died). We didn’t lie to them.

To me, that’s the crux of it all. If you don’t tell the kids and just go buy a new fish, that’s lying. We teach our children not to lie, so shouldn’t we best teach it by setting the proper example? To me, trust matters a great deal, especially in your relationship with your children. I know as I enter these teenager years, trust is going to become even more important. I’d rather be honest with my children so they know they can always trust me. Life isn’t always pretty, and to me lack of trust makes it even less pretty.

The things my kids do and say….

/ hsoi

Oldest also received a deer call in his Christmas stocking from Grandpa.

He’s sitting at the back door making some doe sounds, seeing if he can get a buck to wander into the backyard area.

Youngest is sitting next to his brother adding in his own calls like…. “She’s available!!!”

Heh heh. 🙂

Robertson’s Hams & Choppin’ Block

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Directly off Exit 285 of Interstate 35 in Salado, Texas lies one of the world’s most wonderful places.

Robertson’s Hams & the Choppin’ Block.

All sorts of wonderful little gifts and food-stuffs, but the best part? Their jerky.

Now some love the Robertson’s old-fashioned hickory smoked stuff. Me? I don’t care for it. But I love the Choppin’ Block jerky. That mesquite-smoked stuff is just wonderful. Smoked strips of beef. Good seasonings. Just the right thickness so it’s got some substance to it but it’s not too tough. Not too dry, not too moist. Without question it’s my go-to favorite.

Any time I drive by, I must stop in and pick up a 1 pound bag.

This past weekend I tried a few other things out. They now have a “hot” jerky and a buffalo jerky.

The buffalo was good. Thick chunks of meat. Very hearty. But you better love black pepper. It was very peppery. I enjoyed that, but my kids didn’t… just too much for them.

The “hot” would vary in heat. Some strips would leave a really good heat in your mouth, some strips would be nothing to sneeze at. The recipe also had a hint of sweetness to it, which I think complemented the heat.

Certainly I’m not giving up on my standard mesquite smoked jerky, but from time to time I’ll pick up a small bag of the other two depending how I’m feeling.

Now that I think about it, I should have picked up one of their smoked hams for Christmas dinner. Mmmm.

Ah, what a time

/ hsoi

Spent the weekend with the in-laws. Good times.

Father-in-law got me a Woods Wise “Buc-N-Doe Plus Snort” deer call. Video tutorial and in action. I’ve got some practice to do. 🙂

Also got a gift from the FedEx man. Rifle gunpowders and primers. Looking forward to working on that .223 load over the next couple weeks.

Next couple weeks should be relaxing and fun.