What Has Happened to It?

It is an erie morning for me.  The weather is perfect and the air is still.  Not a sound, no traffic.  I never thought I would see this day come.  Ever since I can remember I have waited, anxiously for this day each year.  I read about what I should do, prepared myself and my equipment for the event and visualized success.  During my years as a warden, it meant a weekend of work, hundreds of  miles on rough roads in the hills, talking to lots of armed people.  I enjoyed the excitement of it all.  But around here it seems to be over.  No sounds of shots in the surrounding mountains, no people in red fluorescent clothing, no antlers exposed in the back if pickup trucks.  It is the opening of the 2011 deer hunt.  To see a deer is rare, a buck even rarer.  If you do see any, they will be in a subdivision.  The biologists don't know where they went.  The old excuses like winter range destruction, predators, weather, chronic wasting disease or anything else don't answer the question.  The kids are probably playing with their phones as the old man desperately scans the hills.  At least the family could get together and ride OHV's and drink beer.  That will end next year when the DWR breaks up the state into micro units.  Then, even if you own private ground with some deer, you can't hunt it unless you draw out on it.  But for the hunters with big money, there will always be a place for you to buy a deer if you have enough $$.  Apparently, commercialization of wildlife is legal if the State does it.  It is over.  Thanks Utah Wildlife Resources.  

Age and Birthdays

Today, since it is my birthday, I am going to talk about myself.  I was born after WWII to an Australian bride and Navy man who went back to Australia, married her an brought her to farm in Utah.  I vaguely remember birthdays as a child, don't remember my 21st birthday and since that time they have come yearly and uneventfully but in my mind I didn't age.  I remained in my early twenties acting the part for years and years.  People around me said I should grow up and I said "look how old I am now".  I thought I could do anything and was on the edge more times than not.  I never purposely exercised for exercise sake but have always be active since I can't stand to sit still.  At the time, the years seemed to pass slowly until I watched my kids grow up.  The passage of time accelerated then and I realized everything was changing but my perception of myself,  What seemed to be a couple of years ago turned into twenty year ago.  All of my old friends started to look old, but not me, or so I thought.  I could still work hard but I don't get as much accomplished as I thought I should have.  I now read obituaries and wonder why do so many people die my age.  Then I look at the "rockers" who abused their bodies beyond belief are still going .  I have been lucky.  I have peered at deathmany times but have never been in a hospital.  I guess it is because I still think I am 22 in my mind even though my carcass is 63 today.  I hope to die old in years but young at heart.