Thursday, November 29, 2007

Fall holidays.

I had a great Thanksgiving, but spent most of the time relaxing in the woods on a summit known as High Top watching for a deer to shoot in Eastern Oklahoma.  I saw more deer this season, but nothing I could shoot (legally).  I've been urged by our hosts to come back to the same spot for turkey season in April.  I likely will, since I have a share in the land lease, which was neither cheap nor expensive considering the vast size, beauty, and remoteness of the place.  It has a cozy cabin with solar power and a satellite dish and gravity flow water, which is treated but not potable.  Just the stove and the water heater are on propane, and that made the whole thing feel very civilized.  Any camping situation with indoor plumbing, hot showers, and no cell signal gets my approval.  Our hosts had a satellite phone and we used two-way radios for coordinating meal times, etc.

The niece and nephew rode down to Oklahoma with me, and that's always fun.  On these type of trips I get to listen to a lot of Radio Disney on Sirius, which is mostly vapid teeny bop music.  The return trip was no fun.  I got 30 minutes away and realized my backpack wasn't in the vehicle, so time was wasted returning for it.  By the time we reached the higher altitude portion of our trip which goes over Big Cedar, a 2500 ft. ridge in Eastern Oklahoma, there was a soupy thick fog and one could scarcely see the brake lights of vehicles only a few car lengths ahead.  After that, it rained and rained the whole way.  We stopped at Fort Smith, Arkansas for dinner, and proceeded to Joplin where we stopped for a car sickness incident. . . in pouring rain with no service station in sight.  By the time I recognized the problem, got the Jeep from 70 to 0, got out into the rain to grab a plastic bag out of the back, the one strapped in a child seat had coated herself and the seat.  It had to be about 35 degrees.  I did some minor clean-up, but in the name of comfort proceeded to the next truck stop to buy paper towels and wipes, use restrooms, get gas, change her clothes, and get going again.  It was midnight-ish when we got home.  It was 9 hours later.

So far this week, I've been playing catch-up at work, which is typical following a holiday, and I've worked out twice and played hockey twice.  Tuesday night I was playing at the Carriage Club and it was my first outdoor hockey game.  I look forward to more!  Brisk is the word.

And now, you can vote for your favorite presidential candidate based solely on their cookie recipe.  Some of these recipes look really good.

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