Sunday, October 29, 2006
I’m sitting at home in front of a Saints game. I’m not really watching the game because I’m preparing to go hunting, and in my mind I’m already on the trip. That’s the best part of any vacation, really. You get to leave long before you even get off work. There are only four days to go or, counting this one, four and a half. I know I won’t get to watch much TV while I’m gone, so I am clearing the Tivo, gorging myself on brain candy and the fattening kind too. The sugar rush is a welcome change. I’ve lost twenty pounds over the past two months. This is partly a result of exercise and diet and partly damage control. I was recently diagnosed with a hiatal hernia which means small meals, nothing fried, and no alcohol. These are basically things I needed to do anyway, but the searing pain that results from a violation of any of these guidelines is very motivational. It’s comparable to the sensation of having eaten a box of ten-penny nails, hot-dip galvanized.
This trip physically hammered me last year. The other guys are in much better physical condition that I am. Raimey is a surveyor, so he basically walks for a living. The other two, Kirk and R.J., install and service heating and air conditioning systems, crawling around in basements and attics in the Alabama heat. And then there’s me, the desk jockey. I type, I talk on the phone, and when I really feel like stretching my legs, I walk fifteen feet to the copier or, if I’m feeling adventurous, the water cooler. I’m a modern day Walter Mitty, a legend in my own mind. I’ve had African adventures with Hemingway, Ruark, and Capstick, but our safaris are all within the pages of a book.
8 responses so far ↓
1 ellenbr // Oct 28, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Legends and folklore are formed in the log jams of life found in the basin of Glen Elder. Man & beast, of the canine variety, with the aide of a device which harnesses the expanding power of gas, are pitted in the ongoing saga of a cat and mouse game.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
2 Greg // Oct 30, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Nothing fried!
But you live in the south. What other kind of food is there?
3 stovert1 // Oct 30, 2007 at 3:06 pm
You and I both know that you are definitely NOT sticking to this diet. Oh, well, we all gotta go someway. Might as well enjoy the trip.
4 armchairoutfitter // Nov 9, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Too true, Raimey. As for the diet, remember, these notes are from when I was first diagnosed last year and before I got the whole thing under some kind of control with dietary changes, exercise, and medication.
5 ellenbr // Nov 17, 2007 at 5:58 pm
armchairoutfitter:
I believe your header date is in error by about 1 year.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
6 armchairoutfitter // Nov 18, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Raimey,
Have patience, grasshopper. I’ll get to the 2007 trip, but I want to give everyone who didn’t get to go some background first.
7 ellenbr // Nov 18, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Nothing concerning the 2007 trip, as I have lived it. But look at the date at the top of this thread, unless your Saints game was a year and a month ago.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
8 armchairoutfitter // Nov 19, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Raimey,
That is indeed the case. That post is a summary of my notes written October 29, 2006, as we were preparing to make the 2006 trip. As it happens, I was watching a Saints game in preparation for 2007 as well, but that’s just because that’s my local market and I watch a lot of Saints games. Watching them this year has not been nearly as much fun as watching them last year, but that’s a topic for another day.
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