Drift Creek

J.C. and I hiked into Drift Creek on Wednesday and caught a couple of nice salmon, a 10lb. Coho and a 30 lb. Chinook. We released them both and it was good that we did because I sure had a hard time climbing back up that trail. I don't think I could have packed a 6" Trout out of there.When we got home Carol was so worried that she called one of the paramedics she works with to come over and take my blood pressure. It was fine; 130 over 70, so I guess I was just having a bad day. Plus, maybe I'm starting to get old?

Why I don't watch (much) pro football anymore.

A rant by Bob

I used to be a big football fan.

When the chill of Colorado's fall was in the air, I knew that my Sunday's were going to be spent in front of the TV watching pro football. I even went to some of the games at Mile High stadium and watched the old AFL Broncos play. Over the years I had my heroes, Johnny Unitas, Walter Payton, Bart Starr, Brett Favre, John Elway and even O.J. Simpson to name a few. They seemed to be good sports, tried to be good role models for kids and it looked like they enjoyed playing the game. There were a lot of players like them, and I respected and admired them.

Then for me, things gradually began to change. Maybe it was just my turning a blind eye to the faults of my heroes, (like O.J.) but I began to wonder about all of the mocking, strutting, and in-your-face taunting that was becoming more and more common in the games. Instead of tossing the ball to the ref and returning to the sideline after a touchdown, the scoring player felt obliged to do a dance, or in some cases, before they outlawed it, an entire vaudeville routine. After a good tackle or block, we have to endure chest beating, taunting and bragging. How often now do we hear the announcers mention “sportsmanship” or “humility” or “gentleman?”

It seems to me that the higher the player's salaries go, the more repulsive their behavior becomes.

Their idea of being an off-field role model is to dress like a pimp, get busted for drugs, drunk driving, wife-beating or murder, and then use their high priced lawyers to beat the rap. On the field they act like the over paid, primping, posturing, publicity seeking, selfish, steroid popping prima donnas that they are.

There are still lots of players who are good role models for our kids, but I'm afraid they're getting harder and harder to find in the media. I guess one of the problems is that the good players deeds are overshadowed by the bad press that the prima donnas make.

Oh well, maybe I'll watch a little bit of of the Green Bay Carolina game. After all, Bret Favre is one of the good guys. (Or maybe I'll go up to JC's and watch the Seattle game in Hi Def.)

Last Apple

Well, the crows finished off the last of the apples. Taz did manage to find one they left behind and he fiercely guarded it until he could eat what was left of it. His breath may improve now that the apple season is over, as he usually smells like fermented apple juice. Could be worse, I guess.

Chewy woke us up at 3:30 this morning to go out and pee. Even though he's blind, he usually can find his way back in OK by his sense of smell, but when it's raining he just goes around in circles. By the time I got dressed, put on a raincoat and carried him back in I was wide awake so I put on the coffee and started another early morning.

Carol answered a call to a very bad wreck yesterday right across from J.C.'s driveway. A lady lost control of her car, or maybe hydroplaned on the wet road, knocked down 5 trees and landed upside down in the yard of a new manufactured home. They had to use the “Jaws of Life” to extract her. The whole crew was soaked by the time they got the patient stabilized and ready to transport to Newport. They tried to get a medical helicopter to take her to Portland but they were refused because of the bad weather. We haven't heard if she lived or not.

Carol seems to be able to handle those kind of situations really well, even though Tony, the head paramedic, worries about her. I actually think she does as well as, or maybe even better than he does. They do have counseling available if anyone needs it.

Weekly Barbecue

We had our weekly barbecue yesterday; it was our turn, so we set up the patio furniture and Carol cooked up a feast of grilled Salmon, home made biscuits, brussels sprouts and salad.

As usual, after eating, and several glasses of wine, the reminiscing began.

J.C. Usually has a story or two about his days working for E.G.&G. tracking down radiation leaks all over the world, or about something his kids did when they were little, which reminds Carol about our kids escapades, and I'll remember something that happened while I was working for Coors or working in the mine, and after another glass of wine the stories really start flying.

At one time I thought that maybe we should have a tape recorder set up to save our conversations for posterity but then I thought again, maybe not!

Daylight Savings Time

Well, we got all of the clocks set back yesterday morning, except for one... the fuzzy one. Now he's waking me up at 3 instead of 4 am. How do you teach a dog to spring forward and fall back? It's beyond me.
Carol had a busy day yesterday with 3 transports to the hospital, she has trouble with headlight glare in the evenings so she's changing her duty hours from 6am to 4 pm instead of 6 to 6. Now that she's taking 2 days off every week she's averaging about 20 calls a month, which is plenty.
I've been doing this blog for a year now, and I have to admit that I've enjoyed it, even though hardly anyone reads it. It's meant for family and friends, anyway.
The sunrise picture was from last week, I just unloaded the camera yesterday and found it.

Adam?

I saw a picture like this on "Flicker" I think, so i thought I'd try it.
It took a lot of attempts because every time I'd get ready to snap the shutter, Taz would run up and steal my leaf. I finally had to throw one of his squeaky toys as far as I could , and then quickly shoot the picture before he got back.

Another trip into Drift Creek

It was a beautiful day yesterday when Kelly, J.C. and I hiked in to Drift Creek. We got to the trail head around 7am and discovered that there were a couple of trucks and a campsite in the parking area. We needed flashlights to see the trail until it started getting light.

We got to the stream in about an hour but there were already 5 guys fishing when we got there. The water was perfect but there weren't many fish in the spawning beds, and we got pretty discouraged since our favorite fishing spots were already taken.

One of the other fishermen hooked into a bright salmon and we watched while he landed it. It was foul hooked so he reluctantly released it.

Then I started getting some action, hooked one, and fought it a while until it jumped and threw the spinner. The next two I had on decided that they wanted to go back downstream to the ocean, and there wasn't much I could do about it except tighten up my drag until something gave. Fortunately the hooks pulled out before they could take all of my line with them. They were all big, bright Chinook salmon in the 35 to 40 pound class. It looks like the run is just starting so we should be able to make some more trips as long as our bodies hold out.

J.C. and Kelly both had a hard time coming back up the trail because of the colds they both have. I went ahead of them, collected some Chantrelle mushrooms, and waited for them at the beer stops. (We stashed a beer apiece at two different spots along the trail going in.) They sure tasted good!

I forgot to take my camera, but Kelly took some video of an old guy fighting a fish and another one watching.

Fall

Well, Fall is here and we had our first storm. It blew a few limbs down, tangled up some wind chimes and destroyed one of our little wind mills, but otherwise it wasn't too bad.
JC and I went to the farm supply in Philomath to get electric fence posts so we could fence off the south and west sides of the back yard. It's just temporary, but hopefully it'll keep the puppy in and the bears out. It's not about the apples that they eat, it's about all the damage they do while they're eating them. We found out from the dept. of fish and wildlife that for some reason bears are terrified of electric fences, so we tried it and it worked. Last year we waited too long to put it up and they hit us again, knocking down the back fence, busting limbs out of trees and crapping all over the place.
Taz got zapped three times before he figured it out. Now he stays way clear of the new fence and hasn't gone near the places where he was getting out of the yard.
It rained most of last week so we couldn't make our annual opening day fishing trip in to Drift Creek, but it looks like Monday will be a good day for it.

Webs

Last Tuesday, after a misty rain, we were amazed at how many spider webs were in the back yard. Usually they're almost invisible, but the beads of water turned them into beautiful designs.
The Orb Weaver spiders had really been busy and we spent the morning admiring their work.

Maple tree

The leaves on one of our Big Leaf Maple trees has some interesting colors this fall. The trees really put on a show this time of the year.
We had a good rain yesterday and the sun's peeking out this morning. Hopefully the rain will move the Salmon upstream so we can catch some early ones.