Mulling things on my morning ramble
with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.
I reset my Twitter account this morning.
With much trepidation. My Twitter was hacked three times in the space of several weeks.
And frankly, I am not sure about the payoff from Twitter in a field like the outdoors.
It's sort of the antithesis of the experience of the outdoors, which I think at its best is a move toward seclusion and contemplation.
Yet, the reality is that technology has always been a key in the pursuit of the outdoors: from fishermen to hunters and shooters to backpackers and hikers to boaters to mountain climbers.
In the sporting world, I think fishermen are the most gadget oriented, surpassing even golfers in having an affinity for gadgets.
Tight to the west shoreline of the north old clay pit, tight enough I would have missed them if I wasn't on the extended ramble with the meathead, 31 Canada geese swam very quietly, eying us all the while.
Yet, if you think about it, fishermen were among the earliest to fully utilize cell phones and the Internet for fishing reports. The same was true for texting, then Facebook and lately Twitter.
Hunters always seem a step or two behind fishermen in that. To fully explain that would take more than a morning ramble. I tend to drift more toward the hunters' side of this.
Then again, I lean toward the Luddite in general.
The belted kingfisher was on the south pit again, confirming my suspicions that that is where the fish are.
Rail workers, again, were getting out of their vehicles, stretching in the beauty of an easy fall sunrise as the meathead and I rounded back into town.
But not a single squirrel scurried about back in town.
Explain that.
I've been involved with all things internet fishing since 1997, I think, give or take a few months. Fishing you can do every day and report on it on a wide variety of waters, pretty much year round.
Hunting is much more seasonal. A deer hunter that maybe gets into a stand a half dozen times. You go out turkey hunting once. Hunting for doves, pheasant, turkey, squirrels and rabbits maybe two or three times. There's only so much to say at that point and hunters are much less likely to give up a spot than fishermen. I know where some decent deer live and where the waterfowl hang out, but I'm not going to tell you. Okay, maybe you, but the heck with the rest of them.
I'll gladly tell you where I'm fishing 90 percent of the time though, if not give you GPS coordinates to a spot. What do I care, fish are everywhere.
This is something I wanted to talk to you about ever since you put up your Ramble taking the Tribune to task, but I'll call you.
Ken, it is something I think about, mull, a fair amount.