I’m Back

The vacation was great, other than being way too short. I’ll keep this sort of brief as I’ve been busy since I got back and look to continue that trend.

The Texas EMS Conference was great, as it has been every time I’ve gone. I think the educational sessions are better than you’ll get at the “big national” conferences, the exhibit hall is every bit as good, and best of all it’s in Texas.  The only down side is that except for this year, it’s the week of Thanksgiving which means that it’s an insanely busy travel week. I’ve flown home both the day before and early on Thanksgiving Day, and the latter is by far the best option.

The Great Hog Hunt 2012 edition. It was fun, even though I didn’t see a hog. Well other than the one that Ambulance Driver shot. The fact that he shot it after sitting in a blind for 30 minutes that I had been sitting in for 2 1/2 days, was just ironically funny. Oh, and deer absolutely know what type lease and license you have because they don’t even pretend to hide if they know you have a hog lease. I swear if they had hands a couple of them would have given me the finger as they walked by the blind I was shivering in. The weather was a bit brisk for Texas and that should have meant that the hogs were out in force, but they’re smarter than we are and all the little piggies stayed home.

There is nothing better (except actually shooting a hog) than sitting out in a cool Texas  night looking up at the sky. Being a city dweller, it’s easy to forget how beautiful a clear sky in a rural area is. I think there’s even a song about it.

People in the south are generally friendly, even to a Yankee like me. It takes some getting used to for a reserved New Englander like me, but it’s nice once you get used to it.

After the conference and the hunting, it was off across a few states to my son’s house for Thanksgiving. I had a couple of days with my grandson, daughter in law, and son before Mrs. TOTWTYTR and my daughter flew down to meet us. A great time was had by all of us. Among other activities I took my son shooting for the first time and helped him buy his first gun. He’s taken to southern culture pretty quickly and wants to start hunting. Maybe he’ll have better luck than I generally do. He’ll also have the benefit of lots of friends who hunt and can teach him what to do and what not to do.

All too soon it was time to come home. The flights went amazingly well and we even got home ahead of schedule. This was the first time I had ever flown with firearms and it’s amazingly simple. Both flying out and flying back were pain free.

Now that I’m back, I’m looking at what we generically call “life changes”. Ending one work chapter and beginning a new one that is related to what I’ve done most of my life, but doesn’t involve working on an ambulance. It’s been a long time coming and is just a little anxiety inducing. I’ll probably have more about that later on, but among other things is will probably change the direction of the blog or maybe mean the end of blogging. I’m still thinking that one through and that has been part of the reason that I haven’t posted in so long.

Oh, and I really, really, have come to hate the cold weather. My hope is that sometime in the next couple of years I’ll be able to move where people don’t know what a snow blower is.

I hope your Thanksgiving was a nice as mine, but I don’t know if that’s possible.