moose under fluorescent lights

moose under fluorescent lights
Originally uploaded by faster panda kill kill.

my dad is a hunter. well more of an outdoorsman. he likes to be out in the woods. walking around. canoeing. camping. chillin. he has always gone out with the guys on hunting trips. was his time away from the family i guess. i can respect that. they didn't do the deer feeder point and shoot, but the whole tracking and sitting in lakes for hours. i remember waking up to dead ducks in the sink. he has told me about his trips and that he just really enjoys being out at 4am wading in a lake or hiking through the woods - sorta the excitement of the trip and getting away. and he will spend hours watching eagles and hawks. in fact, i've been on a few trips with him when i was a kid.

i grew up in a small town of Future Farmers of America (if you can believe this, i was FFA sweetheart one year), rodeos, cowboys, hunting, escaping to the woods, playing in ditches and climbing trees. i still have a love for the outdoors and escaping to the woods, but ditched the skoal chewing boyfriends.

course now i give my dad a hard time about it. sorta in jest. we are adults and we both respect each others opinion and can discuss it civilly - it's all good. hell after watching him go through cancer 2 times and make it through - anytime he feels good enough to get outside and do something with his buddies that he enjoys, makes me happy.

i worked at texas parks & wildlife for 5 years and completely loved it - mostly the conservation and parks side of it. but it was always a love/hate as their bread and butter is pushing hunting and fishing. i'm not saying or believe that those activities are all bad - but i can't help but have mixed feelings about it. just another complexity of life.

anyway: he wanted to hit up cabelas in buda. the huge ass hunting store they have now. it's like an amusement park for hunters. i'll have to say, i was curious to see this place myself. there is the largest dead animal display i've ever seen smack in the middle of the store. very surreal. they have a shooting arcade upstairs for adults and the kiddies. damn mamma. i shot a coyote. so, he wanted to get me a goretex jacket and pants. they really love their goretex. and i guess want to know that if the rains come and never end, i can get outside and not get wet.

they are good folks. we have our differences for sure, but what has happened over the years is that even with those differences, we respect and value and love each other. its kinda sweet.