Still out of work, I awoke early to usher the kids off to school and the wife to work. It was a gray, gloomy day. The rain had stopped, but the clouds hung low and the air heavy and damp. After a breakfast of a couple of hard-boiled eggs, black coffee and a banana, I went to physical therapy for my shoulder. I do that 3 times a week, for about 90 minutes a session. It was productive today, that brought a smile to my face.
Afterwards, I stopped to share a cup of coffee with my Mom, and see how she is holding up. We buried her mother, my grandmother, on Wednesday. Her death was not unexpected, she had been very sick for about two months, but previous to those 8 weeks, had lived a pretty vigorous and full 91 years, something that most of us would be happy to do. My Mom was doing well, which brought a smile to my face, so my brother and I decided to take a short walk out behind her house to check our turkey blind. Turkey season is rapidly approaching and I wanted to make sure the blind was ready. We never made it to the blind. Less than 100 yards from the house, a thunderous gobble shattered the gray gloom of the overcast day: no need to go any further. I watched as two long-beards followed a hen towards our blind. We high-fived and smiled, then walked back into the house, visited with Mom a little longer then parted ways. My brother went to split some firewood for the both of us and I went home for lunch.
As I pulled in my driveway, I noticed a male bald eagle circling overhead. That was a happy sight and would be the third time I have seen him here, twice before right in my backyard, probably looking for my wifes cat. I fixed a quick (yet satisfying in many ways) lunch of venison sausage and Zatarins dirty rice. It was leftovers from last nights dinner, but as I re-heated it, I fondly recalled the hunt that ended with that deer in the freezer, and you can find it by going back to the November archives in this blog to Last Minute Buck.
After lunch, I began to go through the pile of bills on the kitchen table. There is also a pay stub there that shows the same thing it did almost three years ago when I maxed out in my pay grade. State budget cuts have frozen contract negotiations, and things are still at a stalemate. April and May are bad months. My property taxes are due May 1st, and if you live in New Jersey, you know how painful that is. For those of you that don't, let's just say I could buy a new Saturn almost every year for the amount I pay in property taxes. Then there is the mortgage, homeowners insurance, car insurance and car payment all due by the end of the month. Oh yeah, our car insurance is about the highest in the nation too, and to insure mine and my wifes vehicles, costs about as much as my quarterly property tax payment, if you can believe that.
My propane bill is due...what was once $.79 a gallon for heat is now $3.49 and filling a 500 gallon tank brings a lump to my throat. Our electric rates have gone up between 12 to 14 percent a year for the last few years, and with all the extras...cable TV, internet service, cell phone bills, etc... the "pinch" is starting to leave a red mark. As I go over my ever enlarging bills, I realize that if I hadn't scrimped and saved for several years, and then only bought the house I could afford, I could be in trouble right now. I could have taken the easy route, or bought more than I could really afford, but right now I would be paying for biting off more than I could chew.
As I finished filling out my insurance papers I noticed a ray of sunlight breaking through the clouds. I picked up my cup of coffee and walked towards the window to catch a glimpse of blue sky and saw a huge long-beard strutting and spitting right in my back yard, as he followed a hen into the neighbors yard. That would be the first time I have ever seen wild turkeys in my yard. The sun shining off the colorful plumage of the gobbler brought a smile to my face. I raced for my video camera but by the time I returned, both birds had vanished as if they were only a mirage in the first place.
Inspired by the sight, I decided to get outside for some unconventional physical therapy. I grabbed my ultra-light fishing pole with a Pather Martin spinner tied to the line, and headed for the farm pond down the road. As I neared the ponds edge, a rabbit burst from the briar tangle on the bank, and two mallards exploded from the still surface of the pond and streaked across the sky. I smiled again.
My first cast was quicky met with a strike, and a small bass landed. That scene was repeated 4 more times and unbelievably, I caught a bass on each of my first five casts. To say I was smiling would be an understatement. I fished for about an hour, catching another five bass, about 12 very large bluegills and 3 crappies, two of which were truly huge. I had alot to smile about as that was one of the best fishing trips to that pond I've ever had.
I returned home and set about making dinner for the family. Venison sloppy joes on whole wheat rolls, with green and yellow wax beans from my garden last summer. The beans aren't the best after being frozen but still beat anything out of a can. In the process of thawing out the beans, I glanced out the kitchen window and spotted five deer making their way across the back of my property. I smiled again, as they playfully chased each other around the woodline, knowing they would not be harmed.
After dinner and the dishes were done, me, the wife and two kids made our way to the back yard to play a little pitch, hit and catch with the softball. This will be Samantha's first year playing softball so were are getting in a little extra practice for her. I was relegated to mainly watching, and cheering, as I can't throw or swing. She is doing well. Watching them play happily made me smile as well. I decided to make a quick run to the convenience store as they wrapped up "practice". The gnats were getting bad so it was going to be an early evening. At the store I picked up a cup of coffee and small container of Moose Tracks Ice Cream to share, while we watched a movie on the televison later in the evening.
After leaving the store, I drove along the country road back to my home, carefully sipping my hot coffee. My attention was diverted to the winter wheat field that is now bright green, as a brown form moved across the back of it. I could clearly see it was a deer. My eyes made their way back to the road in front of me just in time to see 3 deer skip across the pavement towards that green field. I tapped my brakes as a reflex, but the deer had made it passed the white line seconds before I reached them. As I drove slowly by, they stared at me from the shoulder of the road, then sprinted across the neon green growth towards the naked hardwoods. I had to stop for gas on the way home too, my truck gets bad mileage and visits to the gas station are very frequent. At $3.15 a gallon, they are not very pleasant either.
As I arrived home, the sky was fading from pink to black. I parked, got out of my truck and smiled as I watched two geese flying low across my back yard, honking, and heading for what's left of the ponds that once dotted the woods. Now, there are mostly houses there. The dam was taken down, draining the small lake that once held bass, pickerel and sunfish, because the residents of the new housing development feared their children would drown there. This is what it used to look like.
Now, it's barely a puddle. That didn't make me smile.
As I finish writing this wrap-up of my day, I realize a few things. First and foremost, I have alot to smile about, and secondly, I drink too much coffee.
Sure times are tight. Everything is getting more expensive, but I also realize that I have ALOT of things, and that is part of the reason there are so many expenses. I don't think it's fair to say times are really tough if we are complaining about car insurance, property taxes, cable TV, cell phone bills or internet costs going up, when we are fortunate to have those things in the first place. Can it really be said times are tough when we have soooo much?
As I look around and see and hear friends and associates complain about how bad the economy is, or how we are in a recession, or, as some talking heads now proclaim, a depression, I wonder if we really know what that means. The people I hear say these things have at least as much as I do, and in many cases they have more, yet they seem to dwell on how bad things are. Is it really that bad, or are they just spending too much time listening to the press in this hotly contested election year?
Maybe the whole recession/depression thing is a matter of perspective and those who see the doom and gloom, just haven't looked at the sunlight shining on the colorful plumage of the strutting gobbler, or are able to fondly recall how dinner made it to the table, or the seen the splendor of a bald eagle flying overhead, or smiled at the kids playing in the back yard, or the geese flying across the pink sky, or the deer frolicking along the field edge, or the...
