Here I am, 23 years into this profession, 29 years working with kids. The little darlins can still surprise me and I can still get choked up. This morning my plan was head on out right after school for a weekend in the mountains. I'm heading out in a few minutes.
Yesterday I played this kinda corny video for the kids. They really liked it. Today, my afternoon gang asked if I'd play the video again. They started singing and dancing around. It was spontaneous and sincere, not obnoxious, like you often get from middle-schoolers. It's moments like that which remind me why I got into this profession and why I'm still at it.
During the last couple of weeks I've debated whether or not to even to continue this blog. The blog's title doesn't really apply anymore. Thanks to a good talking-to from my doctor late this spring, and thanks to a few weeks this summer with a certain blonde someone who brought passion back to my life, I have lost 35 pounds, am in the process of losing many more, and have ten times more energy than I've had in over five years. It's been like waking up from a long, hazy dream. I'm no longer so interested in parking my ass in front of the computer, and after this summer, I don't think anyone besides me will read this here blog, anyway.
For some reason after our sing-along today, I felt compelled to get this down as soon as I walked through the door. This might be the last hoorah of Days of Sloth and Gluttony, if so, it's not a bad way to go out. If anyone reads this, I hope you like the video.
Happy Trails,
Ken
Friday, September 17, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
It's $#&@ing Fall!
Fall has arrived! School has started and the first king salmon of the season are now in the freezer.
"Best of all, he loved the fall..." Those timeless words were written by Ernest Hemingway in a eulogy to a friend who had died in a bird hunting accident. It was 1939 when Hemingway read the eulogy in the cemetery in Ketchum, Idaho. Those words have been etched in my mind and heart since I first read them when I was living in Ketchum, more than fifty years later.
Winter has the snow and winter steelhead. Spring is the return of the sun, trout fishing, and track season. Summer is two months of freedom. But fall is life at its peak. The bugs are gone, the nights are cool, the fishing is the best, and hunting season is in full force. To me, fall is the true beginning of the year, from a professional view as well as a natural one. It is the time of year when I don't want to waste a single day, minute, second.
This weekend was full of grouse hunting, deer scouting, and trout fishing over in the Methow Valley. So here's to barbecued king salmon, fresh corn on the cob, fresh peaches, grouse pesto pasta, elk steaks, and cold beer. Don't waste a second of it.
Damdovids
I was looking through pictures for the next post and thought it would be fun to put in these videos from the last Damdochax adventure. Check out "Clarity" Clint Starwalker, Aileen "The Rainbow Warrior", and of course, guiding us all, Hannah the "Damdochick." You'll want to turn up the volume for the insightful commentary.
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