Dealing with In-Season Injuries

We're one week into the 2012 Archery Season in Missouri and I already had to take a weekend off, but not because I filled my tag. Had a great opener last weekend seeing lots of deer moving and some close encounters with little bucks, but this weekend was different. After driving back to mid-Missouri Friday night, I had to drive a couple hours east on Saturday morning for a funeral. My Aunt Marty had passed away, and even as a hard-core hunter, it's a pretty easy decision to forego hunting for a chance to say goodbye to Aunt Marty. We arrived home too late to hunt on Saturday night and I had church this morning. 

This afternoon, I was out in the backyard with our two labs and my wife. We were just playing fetch with the dogs and I got my feet tangled with our youngest lab and went down hard. I knew as soon as I hit I was hurt - I just couldn't tell how bad. I came down at a bad angle, twisted to one side, and heard a "pop" when I hit the ground. The impact knocked the breath out of me and I spent the next two minutes just trying to catch my breath. That's a feeling I haven't had to deal with in a long time. 

 

After my wife helped me up, I tried to take stock of how bad it was. Externally, no broken hands or arms, but I'm thinking I have a couple ribs. After trying to move the rest of the day, I'm now wondering if my back is out of sorts as well. Everything hurts. A lot. As I was laying on the ground, though, I just kept thinking, "at least this can't be as bad as Jeff Simpson's injury". My heart goes out to the guy, but man, I hope this doesn't jack my season up too. 

My hunting season is already a bit out of sorts. The last few years, I've tried to go West for an early season archery hunt, but a new job in a new state has me concentrating more on learning new products, people and marketing campaigns and a little less on hunting. I'm still planning on hunting Missouri for archery and have rifle hunts planned in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. And I'm going to try to round out this year with a late-season bow hunt in Mississippi. That is, those were my plans until tonight. 

 

Tonight I'm trying to take it easy, keep my feet up and stay up on pain medications. My wife already had to help me load my truck for the drive over tomorrow. Not sure how I'll deal with this week, but I'll just have to figure it out. Sometimes life is like hunting season. You can make a lot of plans, but sometimes things just happen, and you have to figure out how to improvise, adapt and overcome. 

 

If I can't pull my bow back, I'll still be in the stand with a camera for some friends. I may be moving slowly for the foreseeable future, but I still think I can devise a pretty mean marketing plan. All things being equal, it could have been a lot worse. It also was a reminder of the importance of living in the moment and appreciating the little things. Just like hunting season, you just have to figure out how to deal with it. So I will. 

Anticipation

Tallboy - one of my neighborhood deer

This morning, I had a lot on my mind as I walked out of the house where I'm temporarily living in suburban mid-western city. My life is a bit in flux right now. this summer, I took a job working for a new company in the outdoor industry. It's a great job with a fantastic team and solid brand, so I'm excited to be here, but I'm also still in transition. I'm living in the new city while my wife is in our former town selling our house.

Since everything is in flux, I'm always looking for touchstones to remind me of who I am and that this situation is temporary. When I can, I find the backroads outside of this city so I can drive around and look for deer. Last night, I drove down a rural backroad and watched a pretty decent 10-pointer and some smaller bucks as they mingled with a group of does less than a hundred yards off the road. Watching the deer helped.

This morning, as I left the temporary house, I realized it was still dark as I was heading into my office. I'm leaving at my normal time, so this means the days continue to get shorter. Rationally, I get this happens every year and I know Fall is coming, but it was a big reminder this morning. This is a pretty big deal right now because my home state's archery season opener is Saturday.

Last weekend as I was home (which will not be my home for much longer), I completed my final pre-season prep. I shot broadheads instead of field points to check my final flight and zero at distance; packed my backpack with the gear I will need in the stand and did one final check of my trail cams; and washed all of my clothes, hung them outside to dry and then packed them into air-proof containers.

I'm ready for Saturday. Since I'm a hunter and not a farmer, Fall has always been my Spring. Hunting season is my time of birth, my renewal. Sitting in a tree stand is a time of solid rejuvenation for me. Wherever you are on Saturday, or whenever your archery season opens, I wish you the best of luck. Not necessarily that you'll shoot a nice deer, which I sincerely hope you will, but that you will enjoy every moment you have in the deer woods. I know I will.