Right Between the Eyes

Yesterday was one for the books. Within two hours of getting out of a 5 hour quarterly review meeting, I found out that two people I have known since high school, if not a bit before, passed away. Both of them had their share of problems, and I can't say we remained close over the years. However, when you go to a small high school, and your brother's and sisters all went to school together, and everyone knows everyone's parents, they are part of your extended family. It is a bit of a shock to hear that two people in their 40's passed away.

My heart goes out to their families and loved ones.

Life is a tenuous thing. Things like this give you a level set on where things are in the priority scale.

Not Telling...

Last week, my wife and I went camping for our vacation, roughly coinciding with our 5th wedding anniversary. It was the first multiple day vacation I had taken since the Boulder Old Boys tour to Chile, which was over a year ago.

After doing some Internet research, looking through some books, and asking around, we selected a campground. This particular campground is pretty much in the middle of freakin' nowhere, does not take reservations, and only has 11 campsites. Because we were taking the whole week off, we figured our chances were pretty good of being able to find a spot to camp. If they were filled, we had some backup plans in the general area, which would have worked, but not nearly as well as this one. As it turns out, we arrived on Monday, and there was one other family camping. That left the other of the two prime spots in the whole campground available, which worked for us just fine. Funny thing about camping, the less people you see the better you tend to like it.

Anyway, we had 3 days of an epic camping trip. The fishing s*cked, but the biking, hiking, and views were awesome. Oh yeah, I spent 4 consecutive days with out interacting with an electronic device other than a flashlight. The weather even held out. During the final 2 days, with the campground beginning to fill in, the trip downgraded from epic to merely awesome... Everyone understood the unwritten rule, be polite, make small talk about what kind of bait/lures you are using and mind your own business. Who could ask for better neighbors.

As to the title of this post, by time we left, the marginal sites were filled up, and people were showing up to find a full campground. The politeness was slowly overtaken by people getting pushy about when you were planning to leave, and how they could guarantee that they got the spot when you left. Needless to say, this was not popular in Camp Dave. When you go somewhere without a reservation, you are rolling the dice. If the dice don't go your way, it's your responsibility to have a backup plan, not to make your problem better by making it someone else's issue. Hence, the fewer people that know how to get here, the fewer people will likely be there the next time we go back. Kind of like a fishing hole, if you find a killer spot, keep that knowledge close to the vest, otherwise the next time you go back, it will be a parking lot.

In honor of the upcoming Independence Day, the fly of the day is the Spirit, courtesy of the folks at Fly Anglers Online.













Tight Lines,

Dave

John Deere LA145 - 1 Year Review

About a year ago, I bought a John Deere LA145 and wrote a post about the new acquisition. Because I have Lijit Search installed on my blog, I can see that readers come to my site pretty regularly after doing a search for for this model. I thought I would provide a post-purchase and actual usage review, highlighting several of the key quality drivers.

Cutting - I live in the foothills with natural grass and weeds making up most of the mowable area. For this purpose it is great. It plows through the most dense clumps of grass and several weeds that resemble trees with no problem. I can't speak to how it performs for finely manicured lawns, but there is no reason to believe there would be a problem.

Reliability - Haven't had a single problem with it yet. It starts, warms up, runs, and mows without a problem.

Maintenance - Maintenance is a snap. Changing the oil is a 5 minute job. Fuel filter, air filter, plugs, belt drive, zerk fittings, etc. are all readily accessible. I have yet to swap out or sharpen the blades, but I can see where that is done, and it will be super simple. It also comes with an attachment for a hose, where you can essentially blow out all the grass from the blade guard.

Drivability - Drives really easy, up hills, down hills, sideways on an angle (which you are really not supposed to do, something about safety). Steering is also smooth. It does not have that zero radius turn feature, but it's pretty close.

Functionality - I'm not sure what else you can ask for. Electronic blade engagement, electronic ignition, blade engagement in reverse with the push of a button, parking break (which actually comes in handy), and did I mention the beverage holder...

Cool Factor - Let's face it, it's a John Deere. Would you rather get on a Deere and fire it up, or fire up that Cub Cadet, ha?

Basically, it's so easy to use, I now mow my neighbors yard for a nominal beverage fee. I highly recommend it for anyone seriously looking at buying a lawn tractor. For the money, it is well worth the investment.

The fly of the day is the Stuck in Shuck Mayfly, courtesy of the folks at the Fly Tyers Page:

Tight Lines,

Dave