Outdoors | Piss and Moan

Avoidance

Posted on February 16, 2021 by backuphill

It snowed for about 36 hours this last weekend. The snow was light and fresh and was covering everything. We got about 9″ of the white stuff.

For a short time, the world was quiet. Peaceful even. There is something very comforting in watching it snow. For me, it causes me to slow down and enjoy the stillness. Silence. Fresh.

But, under that blanket of white there is a yard that just makes me cringe.

I can honestly say this is the time of year where I just think the NW is plain ol’ ugly. The trees are naked. The grass isn’t green yet. Everything feels grey and cold, not to mention sopping wet. The snow helps hide this dreadful scene.

With the snow, the yuckiness is gone. It just goes away. It can be avoided, put off, ignored. The ugliness is replaced by something beautiful, divine, perfect.

So, while the snow lasted, I avoided even thinking of all the work that has to happen in the yard before Spring arrives. Now the snow is melting quickly and the sopping, rain soaked ugliness is returning.

Avoidance is no longer something I can hold on to.

I am just gonna have to do it.

Disc disc

Posted on October 1, 2020 by backuphill

OK, I am about to complain about something I am still learning and haven’t a lot of knowledge on, but that’s what this blog is for – complaining, or pissing and moaning.

What is the topic of the day? Disc Golf.

Over the last several months I have had the chance to play disc golf with a buddy. He was looking for someone to go with him and I had done it a couple times while in college and I knew there were a few places here locally to go and play, so I said yes.

And I had a lot of fun!

Of course, there is a learning curve with this sport and I am a little short on technique (as well as just being short) but I had fun nonetheless. So much so, that I bought my own set of beginner discs. There is skill in trying to throw a disc accurately and for distance. Something I am gonna have to spend time learning to do.

Anyway, my buddy took me to a local course that is relatively open. I guess in the disc golf circles, this would be considered a good “beginner’s course.” Yes, there are some trees and other obstacles on the course, but not in a way that would make it overly challenging or accessible.

Now the complaint…yesterday, my buddy took me to a course across the river. He said it was a more difficult course. And it was! It was full of trees. Everywhere! The best example for how many trees there were, think of playing frisbee in a cemetery, where every 7th headstone was a tree. Yeah, that’s a lot of obstacle to play around. No good sight lines. No straight shots.

Anyway, I fared alright considering it was my first time there but I still lost (yes, I am competitive). I got to looking last night at the stats for the two course: both are a par 54 course with a total difference in distance of 121 feet (5193 to 5072). My complaint here is the par for the course.

How can a course with very few straight shots and trees over the entire course still be a par 54, the same as a course with much fewer trees? Who rates these things and decides the par? Obviously, trees add to the challenge but that should also increase the par, shouldn’t it?

Again, I am learning this sport. I don’t know how these things work. I just kinda felt like I played the course better than my score would reflect. Truth is, though I complain, I still had fun! That’s important right?

Well, and winning too. But fun is most important…or so I have been told…

Mass-debate

Posted on September 16, 2020 by backuphill

It seems the governor of my state hasn’t a clue and he takes every chance he can to prove it. He likes to think he is a climate change expert, but it’s just a poorly veiled attempt to tow the party line of climate alarmists.

Governor Doofus (Jay Inslee) said the other day that the fires in Washington weren’t wildfires but “climate fires.” He blamed them solely on climate change.

Here’s the thing, there are still scientists that are debating the true impact of climate change or whether it even exists. “Proven” science isn’t really, since information can be manipulated to show what you want it to show.

Cliff Mass, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Washington, says the governor needs to put on the brakes and drive in the other direction. He says the governor’s claims about the fires are flat out wrong. While Mass broadly supports climate change as a whole, he disputes how the information is used and seems to believe that it isn’t always used in a matter that informs the public accurately.

Anyway, I’m sure we’ll hear more about the Mass-debate when the jerk off governor has more to say about climate change and fires.

Let it burn

Posted on September 14, 2020 by backuphill

The West is on fire.

We should let it burn.

The exception to that, of course, would be to protect life and property as much as possible.

The West is on fire not from climate change, but from poor natural resource management.

Fire is natural. Fire is useful. Fire is not always bad.

Why are the fires so bad now? Because people think that fire should always be stopped, all the time. Forests have been left to grow out of control with no management. As such, there is a lot of undergrowth that has gotten out of hand. This provides fuel to a fire that eventually gets so big that it gets into the canopy and then spreads easily, creating it’s own wind (from consuming the air around the fire) and causing it to spread uncontrollably.

Forest management and use of fire isn’t a new concept and it still gets used, but not to the extent that is should be. What is new is that groups of activists who have no desire to manage forest lands so much as to stop all activity in forests. This is an issue of environmentalist being out of control and locking down good, demonstrated practice.

If you wanna stop fires so bad, how about we send them environmentalists out there to fight them? Let’s see if they can stop what they have set in motion with their emotions instead of science and management.

Old sport

Posted on August 25, 2020 by backuphill

Over the weekend I tried a sport/game (whatever you wanna classify it as) that I hadn’t really done since college. It’s a novel sport, as in it doesn’t enjoy widespread popularity but is becoming more and more popular. How do I know? Well, you are probably seeing these weird contraptions show up in public parks – a wire and chain basket on a pole.

Disc golf.

I had a friend in college who was an avid disc golf fan and he always managed to get a group of us out to go play with him. It was fun, but I wasn’t sure at the time that I really liked it.

I liked actual golf better. Let’s just say that.

Anyway, I had a friend invite me out for a round of disc golf over the weekend. I hadn’t really considered it, even though I am seeing those baskets all over the place now. So, I said yes.

We met at the park. There is a learning curve and technique to the game. But, I had fun. And it got me off the couch and outta the house. A win-win.

What I didn’t realize would happen is that I am an OLD sport, meaning that I am really sore today (two days after the fact). My arm and shoulder are not used to that motion and I am fully aware of those parts of my body today as they scream at me even while moving my arm to type.

Old.

The reality of being able to recover quickly from activity just isn’t the case any more. I miss those days. But, it’s reality today.

I am sport, just an old sport.

Fight me

Posted on August 10, 2020 by backuphill

Photo by Ashutosh Sonwani on Pexels.com

Perhaps I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Ever have one of those days where you just wanna punch everyone?

After a week or so of built up frustration, this morning just feels like I wanna pick fights just so I can punch someone.

I won’t, of course. I am not an animal and I do have some self-control.

And I pretty much work alone, all day in my garage, so there really won’t be any harm inflicted on anyone.

But good golly, I just wanna break stuff.

I am tired of people. I don’t even see that many people most days. But I am still tired of them.

I can understand why people like to live off grid. Away from other people. Away from society. I might not like the complete isolation, but it sure can be appealing at times.

Really appealing.

Watch your face. And I’ll watch mine.

On the scene

Posted on August 3, 2020 by backuphill

Photo by Terje Sollie on Pexels.com

Masked silliness.

It’s particularly hard to watch the news these days. No, I mean like actually watch it. Like tuning into your local news broadcast news and watch reporters reporting from the scene. Any scene.

Anyone else irritated by the fact that a reporter who is reporting from outside, in the open air, still has their mask on?

There is literally NO REASON to have the mask on while you are out in the fresh air. None. Well, other than if you are following (and trying to reinforce) the narrative being crammed down our throats, oh, and if you are virtue signaling.

We all know how the reporting thing works. We’ve seen how you do it for years. We know the person operating the camera for your “on the scene” reporting is likely more than six feet away from you. The reporter isn’t interviewing anyone for this “on the scene” report. Thus, there is no practical reason for having the mask on.

I see it time and again. The other day I saw a reporter who was along the side of a highway, where the wind blows furiously, with his mask on while reporting about cars parked along the highway. Like, he does know he is outside, right? He does know the wind is blowing like the dickens, right? He does know there is not a chance that he can catch or spread the virus while her reports here, right?

It’s actually kind of stupid that these reporters are perpetuating the fear instead of accurately reflecting the guidance we have been given about being out of doors. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen one reporter yet who actually has done a report of this kind without a mask. So, have then been instructed to perform this way?

That’s not objective reporting.

But, we already know they don’t really do that any longer.

Project overload

Posted on June 22, 2020 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Spring and summer…

…mean projects.

Somehow, I keep adding projects to my list instead of actually finishing the ones I have already going. I am getting to project overload. Or is it projects overlord? Either way, I have enough to do for the rest of the summer.

I gotta stop this.

I can only track so many things at once. Men have “boxes” and too many “boxes” means that we can’t get anything done because we are trying to arrange and balance those “boxes.”

As such, focus is lost because now I am worrying about how to make those boxes work.

Time to dump boxes and focus on one.

Which is most important? One thing at a time. Please.

Dreary

Posted on May 14, 2020 by backuphill

selective focus photography of corrugated metal sheet of house during rainy daytime

Photo by Nur Andi Ravsanjani Gusma on Pexels.com

The weather is dreary today.

I feel like the weather.

I have lost any and all motivation.

Whether or not the weather makes any changes will likely also have an affect on whether or not my attitude changes. It would help if the weather was sunny and warm, but the weatherman hasn’t given me any indication on whether that will happen or not.

So, dreary it is.

But, I suppose it could go downhill from there too. Whether that happens or not will also depend on the weather.

But dreary for now.

Day 1

Posted on April 6, 2020 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Vacation, Day 1:

It’s sunny outside. Finally.

After weeks of rain off and on, and short periods of dry but not dry enough to do yard work it is finally sunny today. the high is supposed to get to 60 (of course, that is only a prediction).

It’s sunny outside. BUT, I have done activities outside the last two days despite it not being sunny and warm. It was dry however and so I took care of things like gutters, the lawn, splitting kindling for firepit/campfires, and little chores here and there.

Now that it is sunny, I don’t have any motivation to do any other yard work. I know I should, but I don’t. The flower beds need cleaned up, weeded, and bushes trimmed. All things I know I should do, but don’t really want to. Well, I want to but I don’t want to, know what I mean?

Maybe my attitude will change as the day goes along. Perhaps this afternoon it will be better.

Day 1 of vacation is nothing to write about, yet I am. Nothing exciting will take place today. There is nothing on the agenda that is exciting. There is nothing exciting to even put on the agenda. Lockdown has killed even things though could have been possible plans.

This is going to be the worst vacation ever. LOL