Well the middle of Sept. brings the 2 things that excite me more than anything (other than my wonderful family, shout out to the wife & kids!), college football and hunting. The college football season has gone according to script so far: ranked teams beating up on directional schools. Tomorrow is the first real test of the year for my Ags so we'll see what mood I'm in after that. The hunting, on the other hand, has been outstanding. We've been blasting the lil' tealy birds every time out & they've been as fun to eat as they were to shoot.
That all changed this morning. Today was the opening day of dove season. For the last few years I've had a group of 7-12 guys that I've hooked up with an outfitter. We all meet bright and early on opening day to meet Mr. Dove Guide at whatever country gas station is near the field we'll be hunting that day. We get up at some ungodly hour, meet at Trini's house, pile into trucks, and drive out to the country only to stand around the Shell station parking lot for an hour with 100 other middle aged men dressed up like trees. Then we make the world's most boring parade of 30+ trucks, head to the field, and sit around for hours hoping that the "symbol of peace" will fly our way so we can blast it into oblivion. Most years there are plenty of birds & I get lunches for a week along with some good guy time fun.
Today was different. We hit a cow. No, literally, we hit a cow, at 50+ MPH, A black cow on a black road in the black of night at 4:30 am. It was a ninja cow. Sucker came out of nowhere. One second, empty road, next second Black Bessie on the grill. I was in the passenger seat which took the brunt of the impact. Apparently the back end of Bessie wrapped around the passenger side, took out the rearview mirror, shattered the window, & evacuated every ounce of last night's dinner before bouncing 20 feet into the ditch by the road. The airbags went off, the truck skidded to a halt, and we all counted our parts.
As I opened my eyes & saw the collapsed airbag I could feel a burning on the right side of my neck, wetness on my face & arm, and a sense of relief that I didn't have a cow sitting on my chest. I fully expected to have that sucker's hoof jutting through the now smashed windshield. It turns out the burning was from the airbag & the wetness was from the cowpie shower that came through the smashed window. Luckily a police officer was 20 away as he'd been spotlighting the other loose cows in the field on the other side of the road. An incident report was filed, wrecker called, cow poop wiped off, shirt changed, gear loaded into the trucks, and we made it to the Shell station in time to stand around the parking lot with 100 other middle aged men dressed like trees eagerly awaiting the opening of a new hunting season.
