Category: Leisure

May 7, 2026 – Try This Out, Rod Covers

May 7, 2026 /

A couple of years ago, I did what I always do. I waited around until the last minute to start Christmas shopping. My dad is not too hard to shop for, he is pretty predictable in that he is using the same fishing rod and reel that he had when I was born. That being said I still need to feel like I need to put out some effort. I was browsing through the fishing isles and I saw these woven rod covers. I had never seen anything like this before.

As I often do, I will go back to my childhood again. I would say that we probably took at least one fishing trip a year. Some years it was four or five and some later years none. But, I will never forget the sound of clinking willow leaf spinning lures as the poles are propped up in the boat as my dad is pulling the boat out of the water. In all those years, I will never say that I remember any rod damage but these things are inexpensive and they couldn’t hurt.

I had kind of forgotten about those rod covers until I was pricing out heavier weights for my ocean going gear and I saw the display. I remembered that I had bought some of those for my dad and that I was interested in how they worked. Now that we spend a couple of days a week at the lake house, I am routinely taking different rods back and forth. I don’t make a habit of leaving my more expensive setup at the house considering the owners still have the right to show and sell until we actually close the deal.

I don’t feel like I need a cover for every rod that I own. Really, I only want a cover for rods that I am taking back and forth. So, I got a couple of the to try out myself. One thing that I learned is to buy them on Amazon. At Sportsman’s Warehouse, one cover costs $12 whereas on Amazon I paid $7 for two. They also come as six and twelve packs (or something like that) at even more of a discount. I just didn’t want that many.

What is the criteria for success? Clearly that is the lack of broken poles and to a lesser degree scratches. They also advertise that you can leave your pole rigged up so the lack of hooks and closures snagging on anything else could be a perceived benefit. As I stated earlier, I have never had a broken pole as a result of transportation. These are items that are mostly about making you feel better about using.

When I started researching the options, I soon discovered that while the combinations seemed vast, actually there really were not that many choices besides color and package quantity. The primary choice is between casting rod or spinning rod. Then, most of them are for rods that are between 6 1/2’ and 7 1/2’. Those are common, safe choices.

When I look at my fleet of rods, I have a 4 1/2’ and a 9’ rod as well as sizes in-between. I would say that the majority of my inexpensive rods fall in the 6’ category making them too short for these cover technically. The other thing I would say is that all of my spinning rods are two pieces. I nearly always break them down for transport. The only time that I don’t is when I am being lazy.

The verdict? I think that if you have a one piece rod that fits the length criteria, this is a good idea. I do worry about the load shifting and breaking the tip off with a well placed force. But, if I had a two piece rod, I would break it down and not worry about it. The only other caveat would be if I left my two piece rod assembled all the time like when rods are stored in pole holders on a boat. That doesn’t match my scenario.

End Your Programming Routine: It’s good to try things out that are inexpensive. Since I am going to use two for sure, this really only cost me an additional $7. I won’t say that I will never use the others, I simply don’t see the value. That being said, I will keep them for some potential use in the future. I have other rods on the wish list.

May 6, 2026 – Seis de Mayo

May 6, 2026 /

If you are anything like me, you are regretting that last margarita from last night. Five AM comes awfully early and I have to hit the ground running. I am kidding, I regret nothing and I am old enough to respect my limits and take my lumps if that it what it comes to. What I am dancing about is that my wife and I went out last night to see how our new town throws down for Cinco de Mayo.

If you are truly like me, then you don’t have a lot of desire to jump into another culturally appropriated holiday like St Patrick’s Day as another example. That being said, I am all gung ho to explore my new home town even if that means I need to have multiple margaritas to do it.

Last week, I agreed to go out to a Mexican restaurant because I wanted to know if it was any good. I was actually pleasantly surprised because my expectation levels are pretty low when it comes to Mexican/American restaurants. So, when I come away thinking not too bad, it is a huge win. That doesn’t mean that I am going to crave this place but it does mean that I am not going to wish I would have stayed home and made peanut butter and jelly if we do choose to go there.

I ran across something pretty neat a few months ago. It is called the Central Coast Food Trail. Take it with a little bit of a grain of salt, I am pretty sure the list is sponsored and not necessarily awarded. Nevertheless it is a good start on getting a bead on some quality food.

As a kid, my family came to the beach for two things. The first was camping but the second was fishing. Grade school and middle schools we typically made a trip to go salmon fishing and consequently we camped the weekend. When the salmon regulations were changed so that there was not a concentrated couple of weeks in late August, we stopped coming to the coast.

On my mom’s side of the family they were fairly smitten with the coast. So much so that several of them had beach houses. They were never fisherman and from the 1990s onward my trips to the coast were almost strictly leisure. They involved going out to eat and shopping. I am aware of some good restaurants in the area but I have a pretty limited experience level with what it offered.

I actually got to the point that I would prefer to stay home as to go to the coast. Many times my wife would spend the weekend with her friends and I would stay home with the kids. I have nothing personal against the coast, it was more a function having no desire to live a life of consumerism. I start to get board going too long into stores that I like, a whole day is dreadful.

I wrote the above to say that connecting with my future community in that way is revolutionary. It is a completely different way to see this area. It is not simply a collection of restaurants that primarily service the weekenders and the spring breaker families but people that are growing and harvesting with the same amount of passion that anyone, anywhere would exhibit.

It is not just restaurants either. I learned that there is actually a culinary teaching center here in our town. I don’t know much about it at this point but I am definitely going to look into it. That sounds like a good date night idea.

I think that it goes without saying but that the ocean translates into seafood. There are opportunities to get salmon, rock fish, halibut, Dungeonous crab, bay shrimp, clams and oysters. Depending of the season, there is also tuna out there. You just have to go way out. Seafood is great, but it definitely needs to be paired with other items. Finding out about local produce and seasonal fair is critical for top notch meals at home.

End Your Programing Routine: I am getting to the age that I don’t need an excuse to drink or eat enchiladas. I like to go to bed at 9:30 after I have made and eaten my enchiladas. That being said, it is kind of fun to open the doors to someplace I have seen my whole life but never stepped inside. While I don’t really want to spend my time frequenting these places but I would like to be somewhat of an authority of my new home town. Last night I sucked up my preferences and hit the town with my wife. You just have to do that sometimes, even if the reason is flimsy.

April 2, 2026 – I Miss ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

April 2, 2026 /

Thursday’s are those days in the week where the eye and the mind start to turn toward the weekend. If you have plans and are a planner like me then those are often the evenings where you are doing the prep so that you can take action as soon as you are off the clock. For instance, if we are leaving for the beach Friday evening you can bet that the goal is to head out as soon as my workday is done. The only way that can happen is if I am ready to step out the door.

Tacticool Thursdays was a cheap and easy way for me to plan my week. It fit into my interest range and I always thought that it would become a business expense. It was the election of 2022 and the passing of Measure 114 that really prompted me to stop doing Tacticool Thursday. I don’t want to be taking pictures of all my stuff and writing about things that were soon to become contraband. That is just not smart.

That is what is called Operational Security or OpSec in the Tacticool world. It certainly doesn’t fit into my ‘gray man’ philosophy. The truth is that I shouldn’t even be writing about this now. It just peels off a scab that is almost healed. The fact remains that I miss doing the segment. I imagine it is what being ‘in the closet’ would feel like. There is a whole world that I don’t dare bring up for fear of the potential consequences.

Thursdays have become much more of a catch all day. It used to be that I would think of things and then wait until they fit into the right day of the sequence. Now it is more like I am writing about whatever comes to mind. That way of working makes it more difficult to plan and execute. I do still try to keep Thursdays focused on recreation however.

For that reason, I am going to talk about fishing again. It is socially acceptable and currently a re-found passion. You might even say that I have kind of gone of the deep end a little bit. I think back to when I was a kid and I had a fishing pole. I didn’t care what type of reel it had or what kind of line was on it. It didn’t matter if it was a casting pole or a spinning pole and the reel type matched to the pole type. More so, the line was within the acceptable specs for the pole.

I don’t know if you have ever taken a charter fishing trip. I am speaking specifically about the ones that you pay and show up. The last one I took, I was looking at the gear that they used and it was all remarkably simple. They were using an Ugly Stick pole with the reel that came with it. The tackle rigged on the pole was rubber jig that we called ‘hootchies’. All hootchies were the same color. That is it.

Was it a salt water pole and reel? Probably not. It was the cheapest option to get things going since it was almost as likely to get lost overboard as it was to catch a fish. I include myself in this conversation because I think that sometimes the details actually get in the way of objective.

This reminds me of a time when I used to work as a chemist. I remember a peer of mine getting a technical service call. The basics of the question were ‘What are the recommended ratios of mixing A and B’? The answer was none because those two items are technically incompatible. We as the experts knew the composition of each as well as the reasoning behind that but it was not public knowledge. Since the caller did not know there was no stopping them.

The right answer is that there are reasons, good ones at that for following guidelines. That however doesn’t mean that things can’t be done, it simply means that there could be consequences for doing things that are not recommended. Maybe those consequences turn out to be less than ideal, long term performance. In the case of fishing, maybe you cannot cast as far or impart the desired action on a lure. But what it does not mean is that you cannot catch a fish. Isn’t that the point?

End Your Programming Routine: I didn’t even talk about the picture. This is my new casting rod. There is a lot of semi-cryptic statements on it. The line should be 8-17 lb test, lures should be 1/4 – 3/4 oz weight. Once you open the package and throw it away, how do you know the lure weight? What if you are trolling or jigging does the reel type actually matter? Guidelines are important when it comes to getting expected results for sure, I am just not sure that it matters that much to the fish.

April 1, 2026 – No Foolin’, It’s Good To Have Box Seats

April 1, 2026 /

Last weekend I went to a baseball game with my Dad. It happened to be a college baseball game with a perennial national contender. The weather was nice, the teams were good and I was looking forward to it. As the OSU team stays chronically good, so does the access. The games are on radio and TV and they get first billing on the local sports report.

Growing up, we had a neighbor whose name is Frank. Frank owned a regional construction company. When I say regional, I mean throughout the western United States, not just doing work but established quarries, trucks, facilities, staff, etc. Frank also happened to go to our church. Even though Frank was our neighbor and went to our church, his kids were four or so years ahead of me and so we were kind of out of cycle. It was a situation where we knew of each other but didn’t necessarily interact routinely.

It has been probably been twenty years now but Frank decided that he was old enough to retire. I am not sure exactly what age that was nor am I exactly sure what in to the decision on how to disposition the company. From what I know, the construction company was started by Frank’s father. Given that I know he has kids, I am guessing that they did not have any interest or possibly ability to run a large regional corporation.

Regardless of the motivations and reasons, the construction company was sold. Frank went immediately into politics and performed a couple of terms as a state senator. I haven’t asked personally, but I assume that he realized it was pretty fruitless to try to accomplish anything in that venue and so then he really retired.

I have already stated that we had some connection. The truth is, I didn’t know him well and neither really did my parents. As us kids moved away from the house and the dynamics in the family home changed, my parents started to get closer, particularly my dad. It was more like a friend of a friend situation. Some church members that were close to my parents were also close with Frank and so that relationship developed. More on this in a bit.

When I was considering career change from chemistry to computer software, I had interview. I remember sitting at a large conference table speaking with a middle aged man. Through the door walked one of the tallest people I had ever seen. He introduced himself as Bill. I hired on and continued to marvel at how tall Bill was.

After working there a few months, another new co-worker was talking about Bill and OSU basketball. It all clicked for me Bill was a basketball legend. He played one year with Gary Payton one of the most successful alums of all time, not to mention an NBA great. And, the year Gary played Bill was the team leading scorer. I was working for one of OSU’s best athletes.

While I worked there, I found that Bill was a patron of the OSU sports teams. The basketball program was not great and there were often eight tickets sitting on the table for tonight’s game. Bill and his co-owner got into football. They had a premium tailgating spot right next to the stadium. I would go to a game or two and so I would stop by and say hi on my way into the stadium.

It has been a number of years now that I have worked at that company. Bill sold out and bought a house in Palm Springs as well as a really nice fishing boat. I am sure that we would recognize each other but I really haven’t seen him in years. I of course deep sixed my position and then went on to work at other competitors after a couple year hiatus.

It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I came to know how Frank has left his mark on OSU. My Dad periodically got some basketball tickets from Frank and these were among some of the best seats in the house. The were mid-court, a couple of rows up and behind the bench. So, you could see all of the action. It was actually the parking that signaled to me the significance of the situation. We were parking against the basketball arena, right next to the entrance door.

After a couple of experiences where I attended games under other circumstances, I couldn’t find a parking spot. I was late to the game and when I did, I had to wait over an hour to get out of the parking lot on a school/work night did I come to know how premium the parking was. Walking into the box to watch a baseball game I looked at the plaque to see the donor’s list and sure enough Frank’s name was near the top. I knew that this was someone that has invested heavily into various athletic programs.

End Your Programming Routine: This isn’t a story of jealousy, clearly I have been a benefactor of Frank’s generosity. I have no idea how much that construction company was sold for but it was a pretty penny. It was enough to get season tickets to every major sport for twenty years, premium parking and still more to build a luxury box and still have plenty left over. I know that Frank is a faithful man, I also know that he inherited some fortunate circumstances. I would even go as far as to say more fortunate than a gifted athlete. I enjoyed the game and we won 19-2.

March 31, 2026 – Could This Be the Best Reel Ever?

March 31, 2026 /

I told you I had fishing on the brain. I am actually at the lake house right now and every time I am there, I try to go to the dock for 20 minutes and try my hand. This is one of those things that is necessary for me to accept moving and downsizing. I have significant access to another hobby that has taken a back seat to others over the years.

In the picture below is my first fishing reel. I can’t remember exactly how old I was when I got it from my grandparents for Christmas but I would guess 12. This was paired for quite a few years with the fishing pole that was given to me by my great grandfather that I never met. I used that setup until my mid twenties when I finally retired that pole because I broke the tip off of it several times.

I replaced that setup with a Shimano Carbomax/Sedona combo that I purchased at a local sporting goods tent sale. It was a carbon fiber rod and sleek, modern looking reel. I thought in my head that my gear needed to match a look as much as perform. The Mitchell reel went on my wife’s super inexpensive fishing pole. I think that we paid $10 for the pole/reel combo that already had line on it.

We still have my wife’s pole, but the reel was junk. I think it lasted a couple of years and something broke. So, my old trusty Mitchell found a new home. Some number of years ago, we went on a camping trip to the beach. If the camping trip is long enough, I find it worthy of packing the fishing poles.

We fished, I caught some bull heads but there was nothing to write home about. This reel has taken some abuse and it happened to get a bunch of sand in it. So I took it apart and when I put it back together, it did not work. That should have been my first clue. A few years later, I was talking to my dad about it and I thought that maybe I should take another look at things. So I did and I found that I had put a compression gasket in upside down. The reel was back in service but I had already replaced the reel on my wife’s pole.

This reel has kind of bounced around homeless since it’s initial pole. I had it on my Shimano pole for several years because I moved that reel to a tiny, gimmicky pole that my wife bought me a number of years ago. I would have put the Mitchell reel on that pole, but it was too big. That finally brings us to today.

This may become fishing week because I have been making a lot of changes in my inventory of fishing gear. But, one of the changes I made was taking the reel off of my backup pole and moving it to another super cheap pole that we purchased for my nephew. When my kids were young (and before I knew that my son was going to be a vegetarian), I purchased some extra gear so that we could go out as a family.

The backup pole happens to be an Ugly Stick when that brand was owned by Shakespeare. I was reading the specs on the pole and it said that it was rated for 6-15lb line. I think I had the original line on the reel so I am guessing it was 8lb line. But the fact that it could hold 15lb line got me thinking that I could set this up as a salmon or steelhead pole.

I had some extra paypal money that came out of some class action settlement that I thought I would find a suitable reel for salmon fishing. I ordered the reel and then about ten minutes later, I thought that I bet the Mitchell reel would be a good fit on that rod. I started looking at the markings on it and it said that it could hold 120 yards of 30 lb mono. That is when it hit me that this could be the greatest reel of all time.

Today’s reels are sized. To get 120 yards of 30lb mono it would have to be at least a 5000 or 6000 series reel. This Mitchell is rated from 8-30 lb line capacity. I looked up the drag specs and this reel is rated for 14lbs. This means that with the drag cranked all the way down, it can stop a 14lb fish. That is definitely salmon sized.

With my primary pursuits being trout and such, I have definitely trended toward the lighter side. I have been lining my reels with either 4 or 6 lb line. But, with my recent goal of moving to the coast, I have started thinking about bigger. That means bigger poles, bigger lines and bigger reels. A reel like this Mitchell is so versatile, it can fill the bill in so many applications, unlike today’s reels that are so specific. I can’t believe that I thought it was outdated and no longer had value.

End Your Programming Routine: Not only did I not appreciate what I had, but I also took a look on e-Bay as well. There are plenty of affordable Mitchell 300s out there. I mean under $30 for functional reels. From what I see, that is half price of almost any other modern option out there. Not only is it flexible but affordable as well. That is what makes it possibly the best.

March 11, 2026 – The Original Pronto Pup

March 11, 2026 /

You know, you think that you are pretty educated about the world around you until you run into a surprise. A few months ago, I ran into an article about a little, fast food shack on the Oregon Coast that claims to be the originator of the the Pronto Pup. They claim that a Pronto Pup is a corn dog that has lighter batter. I always thought that it was a name for the same thing. Of course we had to try it.

A little back story here. I begrudgingly go to the state fair every year. My wife loves it right along with corn dogs. She has even gone to the point of stating that she would like to visit every state fair and trying her hand a being a ‘carnie’ in retirement. Me, I could definitively leave it, but of course I take it. So when I saw this article I said this is a place that we have to visit, even if it just to say we did.

I ordered the giant which is really a foot long hotdog. It was after 1PM and I didn’t eat again the rest of the day. Not that I am a huge eater but that is the scale of the giant. I found it to be difficult to eat due to the size and it being straight out of the fryer. The place is small so be ready to share space with strangers if you are going to eat inside. They have more seating outdoors than inside but this is the Oregon Coast. The day we went, the wind and rain were howling. I am not a fan of eating in the car either.

Honestly, if you handed me an original Pronto Pup and a convenience store, corn dog, I could not tell the difference. The ambience was kichi and it was family run so those are pluses. They have other flavors than just the standard such as jalapeno or cheese. I stuck with the original because I always want to evaluate on the merits, not gimmicks and we crowded onto a wall mounted bar table with some other strangers.

It kind of had the Geno’s vibe if you have ever been to Philadelphia. The place was crowded and sparsely furnished and there was a line out the door. The order took a while to prepare. I would say twenty minutes but it gave us time to chill out. This place is a long ways from home and about as long to the new place. My wife was presenting at a conference that day so this was on our way home.

My wife ordered a regular corn dog, we split an order of fries and had a fountain drink. For $21, we were stuffed for the rest of the day. That is pretty darn cheap, I don’t hardly think we could have ordered fast food for that price let alone not feel like eating again. I am no health Nazi, but it was pretty good value for a novelty meal.

Let me bottom line it now. In my opinion, this is one of those places that you go to for the experience. I kind of feel the same way about Genos as well. It didn’t entice me enough as a must stop each time passing through. Of course, I would much rather have a ball park hotdog than any sort of corn dog any day of the week. Even my wife the aspiring carnie kind of agreed that it was good but not sensational. That doesn’t mean it is not worth a stop, now that I have done it, I wouldn’t.

If you want to check it out yourself, you can visit their website for details.

End Your Programming Routine: I am a sucker for nostalgia, you should know that by now. Planning a stop also earned me some points with my wife. I need all of those that I can get. I wouldn’t go out of my way just to try it but if you happen to be passing by, sure stop in particularly if you are a fan of fair food. It won’t hurt you wallet too badly and you can fill up for the rest of the day.

February 5, 2026 – I Am Warming Up To This

February 5, 2026 /

It should be no surprise that I am not an early adopter. I am not opposed to change if there is a valid reason for it. I guess what I find acceptable is different then a lot of people. In most cases, I don’t need to change anything. I am happy with me, I am happy with what I have and I am happy to live within my means. That being said, not everyone feels the same. My wife for instance wanted to move to the water.

Here I have a shop, a garage, a large lot and even a second house. Why would I want to leave somewhere that I am comfortable and setup? Even more so, why would I want to sell my woodworking pile of wood, spend every weekend going through all of our things and totally disrupt my life when I am already happy? I was looking forward to having a lot of shop time now that my kids have moved out.

Despite the fact that there is only one (personal) reason I would want to move, I have been going into this with the best possible attitude. I want to make sure my kids don’t have to deal with my woodpile and all of that outgrown ski wear. But, if I am going to move, I want to make sure that it works financially and it works for my life. One of those things is deeply re-connecting with fishing.

I have been patiently waiting to try my luck at fishing on the lake. I have fished the lake before, but it has been nearly twenty years ago. My brother’s bachelor party was here, on the north end of the lake. Our house is a couple of miles south of that rental house so long ago. I have always assumed like so many bodies of water that not everywhere is equal habitat. It was no barnburner when I fished it last time.

I did find my pole and tackle amongst all the packed boxes. The forecast was great, it was going to be dry and warm and we were planning to stay over until Saturday. Since I get up so much earlier than everyone else in the house, I pinned Saturday morning as my inaugural attempt to see how lucky I was.

When I got up, I kind of drug my feet. What if the neighbors see me and question whether I belong or not. We are renting the house and I have only met one neighbor so far. What if it is all weedy and I am wasting my time? I finally got over my nerves and rigged up my pole. I also put on the hot water so that I could make some instant coffee. Once everything was done up, I opened the door and headed to the dock.

It was a beautiful morning. The eventual forecast was a high in the lower sixties but it was a bit brisk at 8AM. We are about a mile from the ocean, I could hear it in the background. A blue heron was annoyed by my coming down to the dock and flew off in disgust. The perpetual Canadian geese started swimming away honking. I assume that was their warning noises that something is not right here. I carefully stepped around all of the goose poop in the grass and the dock and started to cast.

It was my plan to only spend about thirty minutes fishing. I wasn’t going to re-rig to try different lures or spend the whole day doing this to get a limit. This is how I intend on fishing when I live here, a few minutes during lunch time or a few minutes before dusk. I am not opposed to taking fish and eating them but I am more interested in the fact that I can catch them or not. Especially now, I am not setup to clean, save or preserve fish. I would have to eat it now.

I did my 270 degree pass around the dock and nothing was doing. My stomach was growling and I started dreaming of heading back to the house and starting breakfast. This wouldn’t be the first trip that I didn’t catch anything. In fact, I didn’t actually expect to catch anything. I didn’t have any sort of vessel to put fish in if I did catch something. I told myself a few more casts and then I would head back to the house when I felt a tug.

It was a lazy tug. I thought that maybe I snagged something. But as I was reeling up I saw that there was a fish on the other end. It was a nice fish too. I would estimate that it was probably twelve inches long and around a pound. It was a rainbow trout, which means that it was put there as a hatchery fish. Now that I had it, what to do?

I really wanted to put it back for another day. The treble hook on my Panther-Martin spinner bait is not easy to remove with a flopping fish. I eventually got it on the dock and was able to get the hook out. I crossed my fingers that the fish would swim away because I had no net if it started floating after I tossed the fish back in the lake. It swam away and my heart was floating. It worked, this is exactly how I wanted this morning to start.

End Your Programming Routine: This is what I talk about when I say do things that matter. Maybe fishing isn’t your cup of tea but I wasn’t thinking about the ridiculousness of the world or what I might write about next or even the things that I wanted to do later in the day, including packing up and travelling home. It was no traffic and no boats on the lake just me and the geese and the heron and the fish. Even though I have most everything I want, maybe this is what I need and moving just gets me closer to that.

February 3, 2026 – The Cure That Ails You

February 3, 2026 /

I went to the neurosurgeon last week to talk about addressing my pain. Granted, it is almost gone, even the numbness in my index finger is barely there. But, there is something like anything aging, it probably isn’t going to get any better. I figured that given this is not debilitating, the fix was going to be routine and somewhat easy. What I heard from the doctor left my mouth agape.

First of all, the recovery time for this surgery is three to six months. There is at least an overnight stay in the hospital and expect to be out of commission for at least two weeks. In that three to six month period, it is light duty only with lifting and moving restrictions. Uh… I am in the middle of moving.

The picture below illustrates some of what is to be done. They bolt a plate between the two vertebrate. Then they scoop out all of the padding between the vertebrate and slip a disc in between the two. It essentially immobilizes the problem disk from moving and pressing on the nerves. Hence, pain is gone.

I will be honest, I am not sure that my pain currently warrants that. There was a time around Thanksgiving where I would have said, ‘lets do it’. But, as it slowly and steadily gets better so does my urgency to do anything. You might even say that I am a little scared. Not to mention, the would finally end my run of never being in the hospital for any procedural reason, no surgeries and I would have to answer yes to having metal in the body. Not to say that this is the best reason, but I have dealt enough with my wife’s situation to know that it is a pain to fill out these questionnaires at the doctor.

Even if I say yes, the lead time on the surgery is about a month and a half. Honestly, this puts me smack dab in the moving period. I cannot afford to be an invalid, bed ridden and high on pills while this is going on. Even if we pay movers and the intent is to not lift a finger, it inevitably will not work out that way. Unless this is desperately needed, I don’t think the timing is good at all.

If I think about it deeper, this also puts the crush on any future summer plans this year. I know that I have talked a good game about hiking again but I have been so consumed with moving and packing, not to mention pain that my training has yet to get started. That doesn’t mean that I couldn’t do some overnighters or something this year. Definitely not if I elect to get the surgery.

They say that the cause is a herniated disk. This means that one of my spinal disks is moving out of place and pushing on the nerve. The cause might be the injury that I had in early June, incorrectly moving the table for my son’s graduation party. Or, that might have just been the trigger for genetic weakness to finally show. I know that my aunt had many back problems and surgeries early in her life. And my father has always had back problems. That is probably not keeping the odds on my side.

I accept that this is probably inevitable. So, I wrestle with timing. Sure, if now is not good timing, then when? I kind of think late fall would be the best. I will have the most accumulated time off and we should be settled by then. I won’t have to give up another summer for medical reasons as well. But, I guess that we will have to see how it goes. As long as I am feeling good now, I can afford to take a little time and schedule in my favor.

End Your Programming Routine: This is pretty silly, but sometimes I like to think about where I would be without modern medicine. Who knows, maybe I would have caught small pox or something. But, the fact that I have had no severe medical issues in my life pretty much suggest that I could be exactly where I am in the 1700s. Of course that is all circumstantial. I could have been shipped off to war or gotten my arm caught in the thresher or kicked by livestock. So that is probably just fantasy. It is a sign that age catches us all. I am realizing that now.

January 14, 2026 – One For the Road

January 14, 2026 /

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me. The original plan in mid-December was to go to the Portland Boat Show with an eye toward trying to find a boat for my birthday. But, due to things changing with our real estate transaction, things are pretty tight financially right now. As much as I would like to go to the boat show, I didn’t think that made a lot of sense for the cost and use of time.

My wife said, what do you want to do instead? I thought about it and I said, I want to go to the range one more time. I had already squirreled away one more range trip’s worth of ammunition for a December visit that I never got to. My annual renewal is due already and I am in the 30 day grace period. So, I am planning on not renewing my membership due to the distance of my potential new home and my current range.

Looking at the activity calendar, I almost panicked. Nearly half of the range was booked for events. Usually that is bad news for the guy that wants to pull up and get a space. I almost cancelled but then I remembered that almost nobody shoots at the shotgun range and we were arriving after the scheduled 4H practice. One of the things on my agenda was to shoot 410 bore out of the new 20 gauge chamber adapter. And, I had a box of targets that I had stacked up to move. If we shoot them all, I wont have to worry about moving them.

I probably should do an after action report now that I have shot all the chamber adapters I talked about in the early Fall time. But, I can say that they do make things go bang. I had zero failures when I pulled the trigger. Whether you can hit anything is another question. From an accuracy standpoint, they all resulted in less than ideal results. Thinking about things, probably a lot of it is that a shotgun is a poor rifle, due to the sights. I tried to use Kentucky windage as my aiming method and was semi successful.

First, we went to the shotgun range. My son is a much better shooter than I am due to his significant more time behind the trigger doing trap for years. He was the first to hit a target albeit it took us probably twenty attempts in order to do it. We found that you really had to jump the target or you had no chance.

My ‘expert’ analysis is that a chamber adapter has no choke on it. For that reason it is considered a ‘cylinder bore’ or no choke whatsoever. This means that the only real shot pattern is what the wad is providing. The closer the shot, the more likely of a hit because once the shot leaves the wad, it is going to spread out tremendously.

Another thing that makes a difference is that in trap, my son was shooting 1 1/8 oz of #8 shot. In this 410 shell, there is only 1/2 oz of #8. This means that there is less than half of the shot then he is used to. A poor pattern with half as much shot means that chances of target breakage is significantly reduced.

Despite all of that, we had fun. I had 50 rounds if 410 and half was 2 1/2″ shells and the other were 3″ shells. We both shot about half of each. I missed every single shot until the very last two. He hit three of them toward the end. Like I said, he is typically an 80% shooter with 12 gauge whereas I am more like a 40-50% shooter. My analysis of the situation is that if you really ‘needed’ a 410 like this, it might cost much more than it was worth to get that rabbit or quail. When you only have one shot, it is low odds that this will be it.

I suspect that if this were a proper 410 shotgun, things would be different. I don’t know if we would have been in the 80% success range but I bet we would have hit more than 10%. Regardless, I enjoyed the time, there was very little recoil so if you could afford to shoot all day, you could do it without bruising. It definitely got me thinking that maybe I should add a 410 to the fleet.

After we got done at the shotgun range, most of the open bays were open. I find that later in the day it is always easier to get a space regardless of the day. People want to be home and winding down at 4pm rather than dealing with the elements. We switched over to shooting pistol rounds rather than shotgun shells and we lucked out that the bay we were in had lights. I didn’t even know that they had them other than one bay.

Wrapping up the day, we chatted in the truck on the way home about his carburetor problems and tools that he was looking to buy. It was the father/son time that I never really experienced. Maybe I was too busy to take notice or maybe we are both changing. But, despite the fact that it was kind of a risky, make-shift plan it turned out perfectly.

End Your Programming Routine: I shed a silent tear as we drove away. I guess that if there was a way to go out, this should be the way. It’s not like I couldn’t become a member again if for some reason we move back but time also has a way of moving on. It is just going to cost double to start over again. Maybe even bigger, we have turned the corner on something my son and I have never had, an admirable relationship rather than an hierarchical one. That is worth the price.

December 24, 2025 – Good Times

December 24, 2025 /

Tomorrow is Christmas. For kids and some, it is a good time. I don’t particularly like it and I sort grit my teeth to get through it. There will be no AltF4.co tomorrow, but I wanted to leave on a high note. I am recapping a little bit of some of the finds I stumbled upon while I was on my hunting trip. This was in my plans for October but got buried under all the things that I didn’t get to. When I look at these pictures, I have a good feeling and so I thought that I would share.

Starting with the upper left, I had some kind of giant bird fly into a nearby tree. I think it was a Peregrine falcon but I am not 100% certain which is why I took the picture in the first place. Strange things sometimes happen in the woods, I have had owls fly around as if they are protecting something that I never saw. Sometimes there are occurrences that I have never experienced just by proximity to new or unusual circumstances. It was odd to have a giant bird land so close to a tree that I was next too.

To the right of that picture is a clear sign of predator activity. It was getting late in the week and the weather had finally changed from Indian summer to wet and freezing in the morning. I was walking a clear area and I stumbled upon some rib bones that were still bright red. If I had to guess, this was a remnant from a hunter’s recent butcher job that got carried away by a coyote. It was the only bones in the immediate vicinity but not the only bones in the area. It reminds us that this is a wild area with real, wild activity, even if it is not seen.

The picture on the farthest left is another thing I ran across in the woods. It is hard to say how old that can actually is. But I will say this, I have never seen a can like that before. This tells me that it was probably in the 1950-60 range. My guess is that this is a remnant from the original timber cutting of the area. Not only that, but I have never eaten canned potatoes. It makes me wonder what life was like back then. Is the person that left the can still alive? What were they actually doing in the woods? I see a lot of trash in the woods, but something vintage has a nice pedigree to it.

The last picture is some kind of plot marker. I spent some time looking at the sign because it was fascinating. First, it was made with super tight growth ring timber, likely ponderosa pine. It had both embossed and painted information on it. I don’t know if the marker was embossed first and then painted or repurposed by the painting. The sign was clearly hand painted and had some kind of cartographic information on it. Finally, it was nailed to the tree. Once again, I would guess that this hails from the 1950-60s.

Last week, I showed a picture of me standing in front of a defunct fire tower. That tower was build in the mid-1990s and taken out of service in 2023 because it was deemed unsafe. It looked pretty good to me but if I had to speculate, I would guess that the galvanized hardware had started to corrode. It is too bad because fire watch today is predominantly done by satellite, airplane and cameras.

There are still a few active fire towers in Oregon. It used to be that people like teachers would camp out during the summer months to keep an eye out for smoke, likely after lightning storms during the summer months. These things would dot the forests from line of sight to line of sight and were crucial on getting the jump on fire response. Some of them are available to stay overnight as a sort of weekend getaway. I helped myself to use of the vault toilet. It was very clean and private and it sure beats digging a hole. It also helped that the best cell phone reception in the area was at the tower. I actually conducted some business up there.

End Your Programing Routine: A hunting trip is a lot more than shooting an animal to me. It’s a good thing too because I haven’t shot any animal in ten years. It was camaraderie that doesn’t exist in the in-between years. It is the treasures that are found, some of which I documented. It is the wonder and mystery of man kind and nature. This is why I look forward to a hunting trip every couple of years. Merry Christmas everyone.