Matt D
Well-known member
Sorry in advance for the long wondering post. Can tell pheasant season is drawing to an end I guess. Various threads recently reflecting on a wide swath of topics. I know for me I tend to reflect deeply on life and hunting on long driving road trips. Guess when home don’t have the time to do so. Pheasant hunting is always close to mind as I’m sure it is for most that frequent here. I find myself spending endless hours scouring Google Maps and land ownership maps searching for the next great find. I love that piece of it. My hunting buddy does none of that and I have no issue with that. He gets to experience the results of those searches and brings a ton of other great things to the hunt. A perfect hunting partner IMO.
Part of what brought some of this to mind yesterday was a call from one of the landowners we hunt on. I’ve never met this guy in person. Talk to him on the phone. He will be 92 in a couple of weeks. Has been in and out of the hospital and is now in a nursing home and knows he will not be leaving there until his days on the earth are done. Mentioned a couple times how he missed not being at his house. For 92 he is as sharp as a tack. He shared some stories from his younger days when he was still in SD. Always enjoy hearing them. His wife died in November. Married almost 50 years. Mentioned how he really misses her and sometimes just has to call someone to talk to so he stops thinking about her. Timing seemed ironic as I had just gotten home from a work meeting where we(the executive leadership team) shared with the rest of the management team my plans to slow down and effectively semi retire beginning on 1-1-27. Here I was feeling relieved and such and looking ahead to my upcoming schedule change and Jim was on the phone reflecting on his life and memories of such fully knowing the rest of his life was going to be as it is today in the nursing home. Reinforced the idea that if I’m lucky enough to get to 82 or 92 I don’t want to look back and think about things I wish I had done.
That call also made me really reflect back on what it is about our trips to SD that are special and important. Sure we all like to shoot some birds but it’s much deeper than that. Dogs, people, the experiences, all important and part of the story. As I’ve gotten older the people have become more of the story for me. I genuinely am disappointed when we miss getting to visit with a landowner in person because schedules don’t align. I find great joy weekly when I look at the local newspaper and see friends kids succeeding in sports and their names on the honor role list. Also when those same friends send updates about something going on with their families. Sometimes those are texts I hate to see when it’s centered around a death or something along those lines but such is life as there’s always good and bad.
Not real sure on the over riding goal of this post other then to point out we all bring and get certain things from life and more specifically pheasant hunting. While along the way we may get pissed and frustrated at people both in person and online. But at the end of that day what is your “Why we do what we do” in regards to pheasant hunting, life or anything else?
Part of what brought some of this to mind yesterday was a call from one of the landowners we hunt on. I’ve never met this guy in person. Talk to him on the phone. He will be 92 in a couple of weeks. Has been in and out of the hospital and is now in a nursing home and knows he will not be leaving there until his days on the earth are done. Mentioned a couple times how he missed not being at his house. For 92 he is as sharp as a tack. He shared some stories from his younger days when he was still in SD. Always enjoy hearing them. His wife died in November. Married almost 50 years. Mentioned how he really misses her and sometimes just has to call someone to talk to so he stops thinking about her. Timing seemed ironic as I had just gotten home from a work meeting where we(the executive leadership team) shared with the rest of the management team my plans to slow down and effectively semi retire beginning on 1-1-27. Here I was feeling relieved and such and looking ahead to my upcoming schedule change and Jim was on the phone reflecting on his life and memories of such fully knowing the rest of his life was going to be as it is today in the nursing home. Reinforced the idea that if I’m lucky enough to get to 82 or 92 I don’t want to look back and think about things I wish I had done.
That call also made me really reflect back on what it is about our trips to SD that are special and important. Sure we all like to shoot some birds but it’s much deeper than that. Dogs, people, the experiences, all important and part of the story. As I’ve gotten older the people have become more of the story for me. I genuinely am disappointed when we miss getting to visit with a landowner in person because schedules don’t align. I find great joy weekly when I look at the local newspaper and see friends kids succeeding in sports and their names on the honor role list. Also when those same friends send updates about something going on with their families. Sometimes those are texts I hate to see when it’s centered around a death or something along those lines but such is life as there’s always good and bad.
Not real sure on the over riding goal of this post other then to point out we all bring and get certain things from life and more specifically pheasant hunting. While along the way we may get pissed and frustrated at people both in person and online. But at the end of that day what is your “Why we do what we do” in regards to pheasant hunting, life or anything else?
. If something makes me happy, I turn it up…to 11!!!! Congrats on your great plan, Matt!!! Hope it happens how you envision it…I’ll bet it happens, and then some!