Adventure!

Speaking of the voice of God. Good Heavens.

The Old Man and I headed out to the woods behind the house tonight to take the coon dog out for a spin. The season's coming to an end and the temperature is still well above freezing so we figured we'd take our chances with the little bit of rain falling. I was kind of excited because I haven't been able to go with him in a long time. Years. And I also figured it would serve as a substitute for an uninspired trip on the elliptical machine.

So we geared up, gave the children their instructions:don't be jerks to one another and don't answer the door. Is that sufficient?

In reality, they received so many stupidly obvious instructions that I'm sure they tuned us out anyway. Baby steps.

Then we loaded the dog up in the old Ford and headed to the top of the hill. Plan was to park at the top, walk our way home, and go retrieve the truck later. Jill barked her head off the whole way there. The most jubilant bark ever, I wished I could have translated it into English.

And then, as the bumper sticker says, "When the tailgate drops, the bull$#*t stops," and as soon as we put her on the ground, Jill was all business. (Isn't that an awful bumper sticker? Gah!)

I hadn't seen her hunt yet, and (what do I know, but) I was impressed. She quit the happy barking and went silently to work.

We humped up the service road in the mud and rain, Jill's nose went up in the air, and Mark turned her loose. Unfortunately the rain was just as determined as Jill. It picked up a bit more, and Jill picked up a trail. She went nuts barking-such a great bark-and all hell broke loose in the trees all around us. The wind was tearing through the trees and LOUD! It was so incredibly loud that I wasn't even sure what I was hearing. Roaring is an understatement.

Jill was on a roll, but I think it's safe to say Mark & I were both equally terrified so we decided to abort the mission and get the heck out of Dodge.

We ran in the dark back to the truck, me with the rifle, Mark with the dog. I just wanted to get as far away from trees as possible. I had visions of me getting smashed by a giant cherry tree. Mark & Jill were ahead of me and I was keeping up pretty well at first, but I started to trail behind as the wind whipped sleet in my face and nearly knocked me off my feet. I could see Mark's light bobbing in front of me, and then. It stopped. On the ground. In the mud. He totally wiped out. Tripped over the dog. That man has fallen down more in the last 2 months than I care to mention. In fact, I would've been more surprised if he hadn't fallen. But he was fine and we hurried into the trusty Ford, forgoing Jill's kennel in the bed of the truck. She rode on the seat in between us.

So that was our big adventure! I wish we could've stayed out longer; instead we returned soaking wet, muddy (especially Mark,) and raccoonless, but I loved it! Scary! Fun!