I totally feel lost/incomplete... whatever, without our laptop! It still may be 5 days before it comes back. Turns out the hard drive decided to crap out on us - it's still under warranty, thank goodness. The interesting part was when they called today to update us on it, they said they had to order the new hard drive and it could take 3 weeks to arrive (no good, try again) or they had one in the store for $50 they could put in today. So when we called them back to put in the $50 one, and oops!, they didn't have that one there but they had one for $70! Right, of course! Why should we have to pay any amount when it's under warranty?! Well, we went for the $70 one just so I could get my brain back (;P) and hopefully it'll work for a while. I'm on the fence about buying these locally. While any problem that arises with these machines can be remedied quickly (and get 1st priority in their shop), we seem to be having to send this laptop to them a LOT! Oh well. Speaking of being on the fence...
So I have changed my opinion, unfortunately a week too late, about the outfitter/land access initiative on the voting ballot. I was %100 against this and voted as such on November 2. But, after seeing what I saw over the weekend, I wish I had voted for it. I realize it still was voted for, but I didn't vote that way and here's why: I really believed that it would discourage out of state tourism during the hunting season and that would totally affect Montana's economy. Over the weekend, Tony, Dustin, and I (and Aria) were privileged to go with our neighbor, Jeb, who's family owns lots of land north of town here. He took us to a lot of great hunting spots and knows the land very well up there. It was really good real estate up there that both Dustin and Jeb filled their A tags with really nice 3x4 and 4x4 bucks. What was distressing about it all was the abuse of hunters on landowners property. While I walked one coulee on Saturday, I came across 2 gut piles that looked to be not more than a day or two old. Jeb and his family had given permission to no one but us to hunt there. And, of course, no animals at all in that said coulee. We ventured to another coulee later that day and actually discovered Oregon plates on a white pick up truck parked where we were going to hunt! They had no permission and the crazy part is, to get to where they and we were, you have to drive straight thru Jeb's yard! Ballsy, no?! I was really reminded of the importance of land owner permission and how people just think they can waltz in here and hunt where ever their little hearts desire. Another family friend with lots of land up north had stated to us we could hunt his land whenever we wanted as we were the only ones who ever asked for permission to hunt there. He told us on opening weekend, he had quite a few people drive thru his land and not even close gates behind them! This is why hunters will lose the ability to hunt. It has NOTHING to do with in state of out of state hunters. It all boils down to land owner respect. If we lose that, we lose the ability to hunt. Pure and simple. If a land owner decides it's more a headache to open his land to hunting than to post it and kick off any trespasser he wants, our ability to hunt and the all important "land access" means nothing. It's up to the owner who can and can't hunt. Until ALL hunter appreciate the fact that hunting is a privilege and respect land owners, we will eventually lose the ability to hunt, except on BLM land and those who hunt know what kind of prize country that is!
Finally, I completely spaced post my NFL picks for the week. I spent pretty much all day Friday and Saturday walking/hiking coulees and didn't even think of posting till about Sunday evening as I was watching the Cowgirls get pounded by the Packers! Cowgirls fans: UNITE AND WEAR YOUR PAPER BAGS WITH PRIDE!! How's that inevitable Super Bowl run workin' out for ya? For me, it's a dream! Granted, my '9ers are disappointing too, but no one guaranteed a Super Bowl trip like the Cowgirls did. And how about all those games going into OT? And what is up with the Patriots? And who else thinks that while Austin Collie had his bell rung pretty good, it really doesn't warrant a fine from the NFL "no defense is good defense" commish...
So, a bit random, but like I said, I am so lost right now... *sniff, sniff*