Monday, March 25, 2013
Daniel Hudson’s not happy with baseball card
(sports.yahoo.com)
Why back in my day…there was nary a peep from Alfalfa Anderson!
Read More...Imagine that you’re right-hander Daniel Hudson of the Arizona Diamondbacks, in the midst of rehabbing from Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery, and you take a break. You head over to the drug store where you find a pack of Topps baseball cards, buy them and open them — just like when you were a kid. Except now you’re a major leaguer, and there’s your card! A head shot. And ... the pained expression on your face looks ...
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< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >Some of my very earliest memories are riding on the back of my Dad's bike out to the tide pools at Long Beach, and turning over starfish and stuff. Asking lots of questions. Getting my hands wet or dirty or both.
I'm going to have to check out that Ed Ricketts book, too. Amazing GF & I keep talking about taking a long weekend and staying at the (very nice) hostel in Monterey, just hanging out, walking on the beach, and reading Steinbeck. We haven't done it yet, but I really really want to.
I've never heard or known of anyone hunting deer with dogs. Birds? of course,
Tresspassing is a big time taboo amongst hunters. Yes, it happens, and in particular it is a chronic issue with a specific group of people (Hmong) and I don't say that solely due to the Vang murders from a few years ago.
Thanks for the thoughtful response. Makes sense to me, and (coke to Shooty) reminds me of how I feel about taking pictures. Dawn and dusk are the perfect times for that as well. Sadly, my love of beer (and sleep) limits my dawn picture taking, but I always enjoy it when I make it out. There's something really cool about watching the land wake up and I love the fog the bay area gets in the morning.
For those who hate camping: have you tried it recently? I think the evolution in camping gear in the last 20 years has been spectacular. Backpacks are almost a pleasure to wear now and, for me at least, the difference between being miserable and enjoying myself is a good sleeping mat. The first backpacking trip that I can remember was with my uncle in the trinity alps in the mid 80s. We had external frame packs (and my uncle made me carry a pretty heavy load because I had offended him by claiming that Bruce Springsteen was better than Elvis), and I couldn't understand why anyone would voluntarily subject themselves to that sort of torture. Now I'm a big fan.
You ... you monster!
The tide pools there, especially in Pacific Grove, are amazing. When my mother still lived in the Salinas Valley, my perfect day was to get up early and hike The Pinnacles then drive to the tide pools for some clambering and then drive a bit north to Salinas River State Beach for the sunset (it's a pretty sparsely visited beach so you can be by yourself) and to watch the seabirds (and often dolphins and otters). If you do that, the area's best seafood and west coast Italian seafood place is right there in Moss Landing for dinner. I recommend the cioppino which for which they (Phil's Fish Market) are rightly famous. That place has gotten more popular and much larger since I was a kid, but it's still pretty great.
If you haven't thrown a young child into a tide pool, you haven't lived IMO.
Also, is that hostel near Monterey the one with the hot tub?
This sounds like a pretty perfect day for us, RIGHT NOW. Negotiations commencing...
I don't think so? It's the youth hostel, right in the middle of Monterey. I've only ever stayed there when it was cold out, but I don't remember a hot tub there.
HOWEVER: DIY pancake breakfast included with the room/bunk!
And, finally, for anybody who likes to check out the migrating birds, I highly recommend the NWRs up around Sacramento. Beautiful spaces, lots of different bird species & ground critters. (and if you're driving south afterwards, there's an excellent cheap Indian place in Dixon)
Does Mrs. Shooty know about this?
You mean I have to find someone to marry?
Naw, she's insisting, actually. I offered to do it in New York or Illinois (where she's from) but she wants to do it someplace nice instead. *rimshot!*
Ah, turns out the one I was thinking of is in Pescadero. Only 100 miles off.
Edit: Coke and congratulations to Shooty!
Some equally relevant (or equally irrelevant) factoids:
Over the past 20 years, Maine has averaged slightly under one hunting fatality per year among about 180,000 licensed hunters, and about 2 moose-collision human fatalities per year. Also 5-6 snowmobile fatals and probably twice that in boating-related drownings.
Hey, if it comes down to hunters vs snowmobilers, I'll take hunters every time.
Deer aren't moose (though zoologically, moose are deer), but I once read that human fatalities average about 1 per 5,000 deer/vehicle collisions. Last I heard, Pennsylvania averaged somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 such collisions annually, and nationwide it must be well into the hundreds of thousands.
That wouldn't surprise me. We need a deal with the deer.
you are definitely right about this, the equipment is substantially improved, I still don't like camping very much. I have the means to buy all the fancy camping stuff, and I do have some of it, but it doesn't change my tune.
btw: for those seeking the opposite of 'Trophy Kill of the Week', then Yukon Men is a pretty good TV program of subsistenance hunting in Alaska, last night replayed an episode of a woman shooting her first Moose, which ultimately provided 700 lbs of meat to the family for the winter. That is a humbling program.
So you're taking her to a hostel. Classy.
I kid, that's a beautiful spot.
Also, which Ricketts bio were you talking about? There seem to be a bunch out there - at least, more than I'd expected.
This is the one I read.
So you're taking her to a hostel. Classy.
Ha! We're not staying there, just the ceremony.
A nice alternative to camping is the sort of point-to-point walking you can do in a lot of European countries (but not easily in the US), where you walk through the countryside all day and then stay in a different hostel or B&B or something every night. You generally can't get out into real wilderness this way, but it's nice for countryside walking. In the UK you at least you can often work it so that you'll get a pub lunch every day as well. It's really great for someone who likes the great outdoors but who doesn't want to monkey around with all of the hassles and discomforts of full-on camping.
EDIT: Also, I'm a vegetarian of 17 years standing, and (generally) pro-hunting. Until we allow mountain lions and wolves to roam the suburbs we'll need to shoot the damn deer to prevent them from ruining their local environments.
I suggest a Belgian beer theme with a Pavement and 60's soul soundtrack.
The cool thing about that book is it takes on the form of a tidal pool. I wrote a long paper in grad school about the relationship between Steinbeck and Ricketts and I'm convinced it's not a coincidence that Steinbeck's best novels were written before Ricketts died.
Congrats!. And this thread has made me miss CA all over again. I need to get back and visit.
I am OK with this. Flock of wild turkeys in the hood a few years back for much of the summer and fall, and it was really cool (though I had to keep my dog away from them - he wanted to go say hello).
You misspelled "encourage."
http://www.grindtv.com/bike/blog/51174/deer+runs+into+and+crashes+mountain+biker+during+race+in+virginia/
On my trips to Florida for spring training (not this year regrettably, 6" of snow last night) I have tried to stay near small lakes just to catch the birds in the early mornings. Developed as central Florida is it is still fantastic for birds and gators.
Tide pools are awesome. I like them best on the central coast around Cayucos. Even in SoCal they are still good, with lots of creepy stuff.
How on earth can you buy meat/poultry/fish and assert that you aren't paying anyone to kill animals for you?
Oh, and deer kill far more people in motor vehicle accidents than deer hunters kill each other.
I'm going to have to check out that Ed Ricketts book, too. Amazing GF & I keep talking about taking a long weekend and staying at the (very nice) hostel in Monterey, just hanging out, walking on the beach, and reading Steinbeck. We haven't done it yet, but I really really want to.
My wife and I spent a weekend in Monterey last year...we rented bicycles near the aquarium and rode around the edge of the peninsula down to Carmel - it is about a 16-mile ride each way and very beautiful.
Your point...?
I suggest a Belgian beer theme with a Pavement and 60's soul soundtrack.
Done and done. Shooty, if you don't get in contact with Traderdave and work in a meetup with us when you're in California getting married and all, we will consider your priorities sadly skewed.
Because we're gonna have the party, with you or without you.
[said in haughty British accent, for some reason]
And Mike Crudale.
I'll pass. Those tend to have too much poop-flinging for my tastes. But congrats.
My point is that deer are really, really fast, and therefore really, really hard to kill. Duh.
Not when they're standing still and the hunter is comfortably camouflaged in deer blind.
Speaking of car accidents, I hit a deer once in an incident remarkably similar to the one that hit that dude on the bike. Same circumstance. I was bombing along at around 50 MPH and this deer with an ap[parent death wish ran directly in front of my car from left to right. I jammed on the brakes but the front right bumper cut its legs out from under her (I think it was doe but it happened so fast it was hard to tell) and her right flank smashed down on the hood of my car, leaving a significant indentation. It bounded off into the woods so it is hard to tell how badly it was hurt.
La Dernière once hit a mule deer in New Mexico in similar circs. No word on the deer, but for a month or so thereafter there was a little swatch of deer fur caught in the lid of her car's headlights.
true story: about 7-8 years ago on the South Fork road* south of Cody, WY, there was a mountain lion that leaped through a family's living room picture window, ultimately being trapped into a bedroom or a garage before a younger kid shot it dead.
*In the valley at the end of the South Fork Road about 30 miles south of Cody is some of the greatest ice climbing in the world, definitely in the lower 48. Pretty cool to drive down there in the winter and look out with binocs and see some guy hanging on to a 100m+ pillar of ice on the wall of a mountain.
ice climbing
A good friend of a good friend was cycling home from school (grad student) near Austin and died this way.
*ducks*
Never been "comfortable" in a blind. Tolerable, yes.
So you see some deer during your two weeks in your blind. At least 60% are does or too small. Some never stop long enough to get a shot. Others stop but they are behind stuff and you can't get a shot. Then you get a big one with a clear shot. The wind blows the wrong way and he smells something funny. Gone in a flash. A twig cracks. You cough. Gone in a flash. Or, gasp, you miss. My point remains, and many others have said so in the thread, the shot itself isn't the hardest part (although many shots are remarkable), it's getting a shot at a very wary and well-equipped animal that is a challenge.
They aren't all that occasionally seen in not-that-far suburban San Jose, CA. The town in which I work was named Los Gatos for a reason.
Holy crap! 2 weeks; is that like non-stop? Is it big enough for a cot or something? Or is it a day thing? It's like those crazy ice fishing dudes that sit in those little houses(that look like outhouses) for long periods trying to catch trout or salmon or something. As I mentioned very early in this post, I've never even fired a gun, so not a hunter. But man, 2 weeks sitting in some little wooden structure when it's cold, that doesn't sound like much fun. I always assumed deer hunting involved tracking the animal(you know like in the movie Deer Hunter...)
#240
I know mountain lions have been protected in California since the 70's or something, but if you are seeing them in San Jose, then there must a programme in place to cull them at certain times? I know the forests between Santa Cruz and San Jose are quite dense so I can see that there'd be quite a few there. I've friends in LA/OC and they get mountain lion encounters also.
I think it's very cool. Count me in the "we need more wolves and mountain lions" camp.
Oh good lord no, they aren't nearly that numerous. They remain rarely seen, but at least a few times each year some unlucky jogger or hiker somewhere gets a scary-and-once-in-a-while-deadly encounter. These cats aren't especially large, but they don't f@ck around.
They don't actually encroach upon human habitat, of course; instead what has happened systematically over the decades is that human habitat encroaches upon theirs.
EDIT: The typical deadly encounter scenario is a lone jogger on a remote trail. The running human (especially, sad to say, if the human is small in size, such as a woman and/or adolescent) presents as prey, and the cat pounces from the rear. Usually (though not always) the human can fight off the attack, but the injuries aren't uncommonly fatal.
By the way, aside from a grizzly, you do not want to #### around with a moose. The bison are typically quite comfortable being near people, some get stressed (their tails rise when this happens) as long as you keep your distance, but a Moose will charge you if you get too close. Moose hunting stories are often amusing, as if the Moose knows they are being hunted and they have no fear in turning the tables. I've never done it, can't imagine ever wanting to try to bring down a 1000-1500lb animal standing 7 feet tall, and then trying to field dress it.
I would find it equally ugly if a slaughterhouse worker took pleasure in the act of killing the animals.
I really don't think I'm turning my nose up at anyone, though. I'm not claiming that I'm better or more civilized. I just don't understand why a person might take pleasure in the snuffing out of a life; it's an entirely foreign (and aesthetically unpleasant) set of emotions to me.
Then again, I don't really understand most of the violent impulse in human beings in general. I can't imagine being provoked into initiating violence outside of pretty imminent threat to me or someone else.
Fighting to protect me or those I love? I have no problem with that. Responding to non-violent behavior with violence? I wouldn't be any more comfortable with someone acting in such a way on my behalf than I would be doing it myself.
As for killing animals, the very idea makes me uncomfortable enough that I wouldn't do it myself, and if I were not so selfish, I would stop eating meat entirely. I'm not noble enough to make that sacrifice if someone else will do the dirty work, but also not completely able to detach myself from the reality that I'm valuing my pleasure over the lives of other creatures. I suppose that's my particular brand of evil; I honestly believe that it's wrong but I am unwilling to change my behavior.
Honestly, I probably won't have time in September when the actual wedding is going to happen, but I'll be in town in a couple of weeks if you want to have this thing early.
When I visit my friend in Valdez AK (every other year or so with the boys) we always go over bear and moose safety tips. My friend has many great bear stories (like when his 10lb dog treed a black bear in his backyard and many more).
Where in god's name are your priorities?
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