I *should* be on a sit for deer right now. But...
So first there is all the stressors of trying to load up both on day before and day of. Since I check the weather and it's going to be below freezing the entire week and I've not done multi-day hunts in these condition before.. and I don't like the cold, so I'm stressing about making sure I'm not forgetting anything.
Because of the temps and relatively close proximity of my vehicle to the spots... my plan is to sleep in the back seat area of my Crew cab. Talking with others somebody mentions the Lil Buddy Heater and I'm like "Oh Yeah! I got one of those!", so then was a stressful last minute dash to Home Depot to buy those little propane tanks, and... a new lock for securing Cooler to bed of truck (since I usually just put it in my back seat area, but I will be sleeping in there this time, so I don't want to have to deal with hefting the heavy filled up cooler up and down into the bed each morning at butt-thirty in the morning.
Then... dang it.. can't seem to find this cable I used to use for locking down my moto.
AND... for whatever reason... I can NOT find my cellphone! Calling it and listening.. in house..in car... in garage... = no ring. Dang it. So ya now. you're feverishly trying to run thru your memory of the timeline of events. And I remember taking a picture of a dudes tires on his jeep while leaving Rite-Aid to goto Home Dpot for the propane tanks.
I've never NOT been able to re-find a cellphone because I take a leave-no-stone-unturned approach... and yet... WTH?? I STILL can't find it!!
So naturally.. my mind immediately starts forming adaptive plans of attack. I consider going with the cellphone, since I have the Garmin InReach anyway..but then.. oh no.. what about taking pics! Sh*t! Then I thought... wel I do have that DLSR, I supposed I could take that. But I still for sure have to go get another lock cable for the cooler.
There is still enough time.. that I figure if I HAD to. I could potentially go buy a new phone (the thought of which makes me cringe in terms of the expense). So... I hop in the Truck and "tick tick tick tick tick..."! What!? Seriously!? Are you kidding me with this right now? WTH?? Did I somehow perhaps leave a door ajar at end of pre-loading up the other night?? And as this is happening... and this started in the morning with having VERY high blood pressure... I'm seriously on the verge of a panic-attack/meltdown/stroke/heart-attack type of deal because I'm uber keyed-up as the stressors and challenges and delays keep mounting up.
BTW... it's a 2014 model I bought used in 2018 and it's 2021. And it looks like the OEM battery and it's got a sh!t-ton of Zinc deposits on both terminals.. and oddly.. the positive terminal for some reason those deposits are blue?? So anyway I obviously realize with that amount of years and this new cold coming on... it's most likely the battery has reach the end of it's service life.
It was then, sitting all busted-and-disgusted behind the steering wheel that my mind reaches an epiphany about how I'm here damn near murdering myself with the stress of it all.. legit feeling fight-or-flight response within myself... that I had a pivotal moment...
"G... this is the Universe sending you a sign. Clearly the Universe doesn't want you getting out there on time. Chill the f*ck out... this is your precious PTO, it's supposed to be about doing stuff to make you feel better and refreshed from work stuff."
So.... New Game Plan. I figure the next day I borrow Mama's car and go fetch a new battery. Mama comes home reminds me she's going on a hike tomorrow so we go fetch new battery that night, I figure sleep on it.. let my body get rest and calm down to get my Blood Pressure back down to more tolerable levels. Cool. Sucks that I'm missing the first day, but oh well.. it is what it is.
And I make sure to buy an AGM battery, so I can get more CCA's and less worry about the cold. Mama says you gonna take a picture of the battery? I explain to her should be necessary, they just plug in make-model-year stuff and their system will already show them what choices are available. We go.. we get the battery. Cool.. I go to sleep with the thought that tomorrow I wake up and install the battery, then we go buy a new lock cable, them I calmly and relaxedly make the drive on up.
Well.. sigh... so go out there this AM to slap in the new Optima RedTop battery and.... "MOTHER F*CKERS!!!!!.... You had one job... ONE JOB!!!!" Sigh.. they didn't give me the correct size... and now... of course.. Mama is off on her hike, so stranded with no vehicle.
Sigh... so... I think about it again... and conclude "Well. so today is likely blown, which means tomorrow becomes the drive-out which means Monday becomes first actual day. So I try to say to myself "Meh... who knows... maybe the Monday thing will help with drive-up being easier and possibility of less hunter pressure." So ya now at least trying to look on the positive side of things.
Meanwhile besides the stressors no doubt effecting me. I'd been a little "off" last few days in a row leading up to all this. And.. reflecting upon my prior outings lately... got to thinking about this symptom I have that sometimes presents itself when I'm out there. Typically it's been when exerting up an ungodly steep slope. SO I'm like oh well... you're over 50 now and you had a real bad go of covid.. chances are high you've likely got left behind damage in there somewhere.
So then you read myocarditis and pericarditis are some issues folks are being left with in the aftermath of Covid. So alright... I search up the symptoms of myocarditis... and I'm reading along and I hit the phrase "air hunger" being used to describe some of the symptoms patients report with, and the light went on in my brain. Ding Ding Ding! "Aw sh*t man... damn.. that would make a lot of sense. The now even higher blood pressure, the palpitations and "air hunger" now seeming to happen at what I perceive to be odd times that don't always necessarily have to do with exertion.
So when I couple that with my long bout of inactivity during the week since Covid and my back injury thing getting made worse from it... and due to being held hostage in my home continuously due to work, then fatherhood responsibilities, which as you all know are freaking endless and you know... she's mostly no help at all, except for laundry and dishes. So yeah... all that looked at together and I'm like ya "betta slow ya roll there pawtna!".
So here's me asking the Universe to bless you all with trouble free hunts. And I'd appreciate it if you could see it in your heart to ask the Universe to bless me with a buck once I finally drag my butt out there. Just any legal buck, that's all. To help my spirit, I desperately need a success here. And hopefully the serenity of out there and being away from a screen can help this curious recent upswing in my blood pressure which was crazy high upon waking Friday. I'd lowered my head to look downward for putting on some sweats before exiting the bedroom and noted some equilibrium / dizziness type of feeling. And tension in back of neck (which I've learned is a sign my BP is up again) so I go back and check with my cuff and it's like 176/100 57bpm. Typically upon waking I'm like 145 over like 85-75 and similar bpm. Which is still high and above average, but lowered enough that you're not in the territory of Stroking out. But once that diastolic number starts creeping up... you're in dangerous territory.
EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot... I got VERY lucky with my cellphone and FOUND IT!
The boy is in Water Polo. They had an away game for just the Varsity team, he's a freshman and so didn't go. They do a group TXT thing (that's annoying as hell, but...) he and I were talking while I'm sitting in my office chair... and during a pause in convo... a brief "Buzz" went off! (from one of the beginning TXT's of the onslaught of Water Polo TXT's) So I perked up, immediately realizing that had to be my phone! So I instruct the boy to TXT me. We both hear it... but not quite sure of locaton. "Do it again" again comes the buzz... we think it's one of two areas.. and luckily somehow when attempting to rise from my office chair my hand managed to bump the top of the cellphone! It had slid out of this particular pair of pants where I've had the phone slide out from it's pockets before while driving (I decided to throw those pants away). The cellphone had slid out and fallen in between where the arms of the office chair meetup with the seat cushion part, and there's is a slight gap in-between. So there's no way I would have found it by all the regular means I'd methodically go thru to find it. So I'm very happy to not have to cough up the loot for another one of these.
So first there is all the stressors of trying to load up both on day before and day of. Since I check the weather and it's going to be below freezing the entire week and I've not done multi-day hunts in these condition before.. and I don't like the cold, so I'm stressing about making sure I'm not forgetting anything.
Because of the temps and relatively close proximity of my vehicle to the spots... my plan is to sleep in the back seat area of my Crew cab. Talking with others somebody mentions the Lil Buddy Heater and I'm like "Oh Yeah! I got one of those!", so then was a stressful last minute dash to Home Depot to buy those little propane tanks, and... a new lock for securing Cooler to bed of truck (since I usually just put it in my back seat area, but I will be sleeping in there this time, so I don't want to have to deal with hefting the heavy filled up cooler up and down into the bed each morning at butt-thirty in the morning.
Then... dang it.. can't seem to find this cable I used to use for locking down my moto.
AND... for whatever reason... I can NOT find my cellphone! Calling it and listening.. in house..in car... in garage... = no ring. Dang it. So ya now. you're feverishly trying to run thru your memory of the timeline of events. And I remember taking a picture of a dudes tires on his jeep while leaving Rite-Aid to goto Home Dpot for the propane tanks.
I've never NOT been able to re-find a cellphone because I take a leave-no-stone-unturned approach... and yet... WTH?? I STILL can't find it!!
So naturally.. my mind immediately starts forming adaptive plans of attack. I consider going with the cellphone, since I have the Garmin InReach anyway..but then.. oh no.. what about taking pics! Sh*t! Then I thought... wel I do have that DLSR, I supposed I could take that. But I still for sure have to go get another lock cable for the cooler.
There is still enough time.. that I figure if I HAD to. I could potentially go buy a new phone (the thought of which makes me cringe in terms of the expense). So... I hop in the Truck and "tick tick tick tick tick..."! What!? Seriously!? Are you kidding me with this right now? WTH?? Did I somehow perhaps leave a door ajar at end of pre-loading up the other night?? And as this is happening... and this started in the morning with having VERY high blood pressure... I'm seriously on the verge of a panic-attack/meltdown/stroke/heart-attack type of deal because I'm uber keyed-up as the stressors and challenges and delays keep mounting up.
BTW... it's a 2014 model I bought used in 2018 and it's 2021. And it looks like the OEM battery and it's got a sh!t-ton of Zinc deposits on both terminals.. and oddly.. the positive terminal for some reason those deposits are blue?? So anyway I obviously realize with that amount of years and this new cold coming on... it's most likely the battery has reach the end of it's service life.
It was then, sitting all busted-and-disgusted behind the steering wheel that my mind reaches an epiphany about how I'm here damn near murdering myself with the stress of it all.. legit feeling fight-or-flight response within myself... that I had a pivotal moment...
"G... this is the Universe sending you a sign. Clearly the Universe doesn't want you getting out there on time. Chill the f*ck out... this is your precious PTO, it's supposed to be about doing stuff to make you feel better and refreshed from work stuff."
So.... New Game Plan. I figure the next day I borrow Mama's car and go fetch a new battery. Mama comes home reminds me she's going on a hike tomorrow so we go fetch new battery that night, I figure sleep on it.. let my body get rest and calm down to get my Blood Pressure back down to more tolerable levels. Cool. Sucks that I'm missing the first day, but oh well.. it is what it is.
And I make sure to buy an AGM battery, so I can get more CCA's and less worry about the cold. Mama says you gonna take a picture of the battery? I explain to her should be necessary, they just plug in make-model-year stuff and their system will already show them what choices are available. We go.. we get the battery. Cool.. I go to sleep with the thought that tomorrow I wake up and install the battery, then we go buy a new lock cable, them I calmly and relaxedly make the drive on up.
Well.. sigh... so go out there this AM to slap in the new Optima RedTop battery and.... "MOTHER F*CKERS!!!!!.... You had one job... ONE JOB!!!!" Sigh.. they didn't give me the correct size... and now... of course.. Mama is off on her hike, so stranded with no vehicle.
Sigh... so... I think about it again... and conclude "Well. so today is likely blown, which means tomorrow becomes the drive-out which means Monday becomes first actual day. So I try to say to myself "Meh... who knows... maybe the Monday thing will help with drive-up being easier and possibility of less hunter pressure." So ya now at least trying to look on the positive side of things.
Meanwhile besides the stressors no doubt effecting me. I'd been a little "off" last few days in a row leading up to all this. And.. reflecting upon my prior outings lately... got to thinking about this symptom I have that sometimes presents itself when I'm out there. Typically it's been when exerting up an ungodly steep slope. SO I'm like oh well... you're over 50 now and you had a real bad go of covid.. chances are high you've likely got left behind damage in there somewhere.
So then you read myocarditis and pericarditis are some issues folks are being left with in the aftermath of Covid. So alright... I search up the symptoms of myocarditis... and I'm reading along and I hit the phrase "air hunger" being used to describe some of the symptoms patients report with, and the light went on in my brain. Ding Ding Ding! "Aw sh*t man... damn.. that would make a lot of sense. The now even higher blood pressure, the palpitations and "air hunger" now seeming to happen at what I perceive to be odd times that don't always necessarily have to do with exertion.
So when I couple that with my long bout of inactivity during the week since Covid and my back injury thing getting made worse from it... and due to being held hostage in my home continuously due to work, then fatherhood responsibilities, which as you all know are freaking endless and you know... she's mostly no help at all, except for laundry and dishes. So yeah... all that looked at together and I'm like ya "betta slow ya roll there pawtna!".
So here's me asking the Universe to bless you all with trouble free hunts. And I'd appreciate it if you could see it in your heart to ask the Universe to bless me with a buck once I finally drag my butt out there. Just any legal buck, that's all. To help my spirit, I desperately need a success here. And hopefully the serenity of out there and being away from a screen can help this curious recent upswing in my blood pressure which was crazy high upon waking Friday. I'd lowered my head to look downward for putting on some sweats before exiting the bedroom and noted some equilibrium / dizziness type of feeling. And tension in back of neck (which I've learned is a sign my BP is up again) so I go back and check with my cuff and it's like 176/100 57bpm. Typically upon waking I'm like 145 over like 85-75 and similar bpm. Which is still high and above average, but lowered enough that you're not in the territory of Stroking out. But once that diastolic number starts creeping up... you're in dangerous territory.
EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot... I got VERY lucky with my cellphone and FOUND IT!
The boy is in Water Polo. They had an away game for just the Varsity team, he's a freshman and so didn't go. They do a group TXT thing (that's annoying as hell, but...) he and I were talking while I'm sitting in my office chair... and during a pause in convo... a brief "Buzz" went off! (from one of the beginning TXT's of the onslaught of Water Polo TXT's) So I perked up, immediately realizing that had to be my phone! So I instruct the boy to TXT me. We both hear it... but not quite sure of locaton. "Do it again" again comes the buzz... we think it's one of two areas.. and luckily somehow when attempting to rise from my office chair my hand managed to bump the top of the cellphone! It had slid out of this particular pair of pants where I've had the phone slide out from it's pockets before while driving (I decided to throw those pants away). The cellphone had slid out and fallen in between where the arms of the office chair meetup with the seat cushion part, and there's is a slight gap in-between. So there's no way I would have found it by all the regular means I'd methodically go thru to find it. So I'm very happy to not have to cough up the loot for another one of these.
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