Not Much Blogging Going On

Sorry for the lack of posts. I have been fairly busy and have had the pleasure of spending a couple of weekends with the little man. These weekends include party times at 3am, and plenty of naps during the day. Here are a few pics for my readers. And yes, his eyes are that blue. Nothing here is photo shopped!

Got Wood?

Halloween marked the opening day for duck season. I have to be honest, I wasn't as fired up as my dad and brother. My experience with hunting is walking or sitting in the freezing cold winter of Nebraska, and watching Geese fly way over head, or Pheasants cruising just out of range. We were all awake by 4:30 am and on Lake Quitman by 6:00. It was cool, but not unpleasant. The lake was spewing fog into the air, a nice effect on the morning of halloween. My gear included hand me down waders, borrowed jackets and cycling clothing that works well for the outdoors. My Remington 870 express has seen a lot of shells go through it, but I love that gun and I am good with it, so no expensive automatics for me.

We were loaded down with the four of us, Kota, guns, enough ammo to start a small war, and 48 decoys in my dads duck boat. We found a nice little cove to hunt out of with natural cover, seats and a great view of the lake. Setting up decoys was easy enough and we settled down with minutes to spare before sunset (when you can start shooting.) As we were sitting there waiting, a couple of wood ducks flew into our decoys. Kota wanted to go check them out so bad she was shaking! They disappeared before we heard the thunder from Lake Fork made by all the hunters there. Not 10 minutes after sunrise we saw some Wood ducks coming in. Everyone else worked the calls and I waited. My dad yelled "take em" and I stood up and blasted the lead duck. My adrenaline was pumping and I was ready for more! But since this was Kota's first hunt too, we settled down. She did an excellent job on the retrieve, even though she didn't see the duck come in! A year of work finally paid off for my dad. When she brought it in it was a beautiful drake wood duck. One shot, one kill, one retrieve, one fun morning. I was nice to Kota for the rest of day since she was nice enough to swim the cold water to get my duck!

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful as most of the ducks are still up north. I had the only kill for us, but considering most of my stuff was borrowed and stolen, the duck was all of ours! When we get enough duck meat to eat I suppose we will take a weekend for dads special duck recipe. Most of all, I enjoyed hanging out with "The Guys," and generally acting how men act.

Thanks for reading. And please vote YES or NO on the beard! I hate it.....

A Weekend With Little Man

Sometimes we all need a good cry. Well I got mine on Sunday when I had to take Lucas back. I seriously haven't cried in a while and I guess I was due! Unfortunately he was sick again so it was a long weekend, but we a had a great visit again and managed to get through the weekend unscathed. That boy might have been sick, but he still doesn't know how to slow down. He was constantly climbing, crawling and bawling. I kept telling him "you might feel a bit better if you would slow down for a few minutes."

Saturday night I basically pulled an all nighter so I was a bit tired on Sunday, and just chased the little man around all day. I apologize to all the Whichita Fallsiens that I haven't seen when I go to visit. One of these times he won't be sick and we will make the rounds. Extra thanks to those that come visit us (Adam and Ellen), and for our most hospitable host (Mike).

I will end my post with this. I know my family has the cutest boys, maybe I am biased, but this boy has got to be cutest of all the little boys worlwide!

Brake-ing Even

I must say that I am bummed to have completed my last/third race of the season. While some people are nice to point out I won the field sprint for 5th place, in reality I was dropped from the lead group after collecting the first $50 prime, and then won the field sprint for 5th. Check out The Adventures of Francis for pics and a full report! Oh ya, I named this mini post Brake-ing Even because in three races I broke even on entry fees, gas, and prize money. Something I have never done in one season! Congrats to Francois on his first P12 win. That kid was flying around those turns! I could only brake and stare as he rode off into the rain.....

In the Nick of Time

Lots of people were asking how my first races back went, so I thought a post here would be best. First of all, thanks for all the inquiries. Some of you really know me and know how hard it is for me to not race. Let me say its been a long three years! Last year I did about three races, and only a mountain bike race the year before. Of course I am always riding, but riding for fun and riding to reach goals are different, and I prefer the latter type of riding.

I was nervous on Saturday but the (money) places went 25 deep, so I started with the goal of snagging one of those spots. The course was amazing. Very technical, up and down, a true crit course in my opinion. I knew after a few warm up laps that the wind and hills would make it a race of attrition, and I was right. There was no sugar coating on my first race back. I sat on the back a lot, lacking confidence in my handling and really unable to put the effort to get near the front. That and Stefan constantly drilling it! I hung on for dear life and pretty soon people started popping. I stayed with the main field untill about six laps to go and blew up on an uphill section. I thought to myself "Pull it together man! There can't be more than 30 guys left..." I recovered a bit and managed to stay on the lead lap and finished... 24th! When they say "never quit" sometimes it really pays off! I was happy having reached my goal, especially knowing I am far from competitive. I was a happy camper, tired, but happy.

Sunday was nice because we raced early and it was cooler. I finished 8th on this course a year ago, but the big boys were missing then. I wanted to basically finish and just get in some much needed speed work. The course Sunday again showed my lack of endurance and I got dropped after getting held up by a wreck (I was cooked anyway) at around seven laps to go. I cut my losses and pulled out to watch the finish.

It was great seeing all the guys from the Falls, and "My people" at the races. It's an atmosphere unlike any other and I surely missed it! It was just like old times with my Dad, I quickly put him to work and was glad to have him along side me. Next year is going to be loads of fun, and I can't wait for the early season races! Thanks for reading, and as always thanks for the support from everybody who believes in me!

Stay tuned for my next and last race of the season in Texarkana.

Dirty Diapers and Barking Spiders

I finally got to spend the weekend with my baby boy! Nothing makes a Dad more proud than when his son smiles at him like he was never gone. We got into our routine pretty quickly, the only difference was that he is mobile and gets to where he wants in a hurry. We had fun staying with uncle Mike, watching cartoons, taking lots of naps and destroying magazines. We didn't go outside much with the rain either.

On a couple of our attempts to get some fresh air however, we came across some rather interesting creatures (I would imagine for a little guy.) Uncle Mike and Lucas first stumbled upon a lizard trying to escape the rain. This got Lucas' attention real quick! Unfortunately Lucas pulled his tail off in his excitement. The Reptile struck back by threatening to crawl up someones diaper. Lucas jumped, quite surprised by this tactic and ran the lizard under the rug. The lizard was then released back out into the wild, I am sure feeling good about his escape from near death.

That would have given us enough laughs for one day, but luck was on our side. A couple of hours later, Daddy came across a Walking Stick and thought "lets see what the boy thinks of this!" Lucas was reserved with this odd creature and though he didn't mind the bug walking on him, he had no intentions of pulling his tail off, this guy looked a lot more dangerous.

We both felt we had a successful day of adventure, even for being stuck indoors. I hated to take him back to his Mom, and wonder how my Dad did it for so many years. I am grateful I got a couple of good days of fun though, and some fresh memories. Lucas is a thief of hearts, including mine, and anyone who has met him knows why! Thanks uncle Mike for letting us hang out at the pimpin pad.

A Word from Lucas657u

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