Better days ahead

Neither Larsen or I could concentrate on practice Sunday, and it showed.  Larsen broke for a pheasant.  He  hunted for himself, caught a few traps, and his deliveries were messy.  For my part, I was distracted and did not give him clear and timely instructions either on the whistle or voice.  In many ways, it's worse than no practice at all, since we practiced bad habits.  Larsen's water blind was more self-hunting and unsuccessful, even though he came back and I re-casted him.

On a curious note, I pipped Larsen to a sit when he flushed up a pheasant.  The knuckleheaded pheasant strutted away like a big pigeon and did not fly.  Larsen for his part continued to sit (he was sitting and not pointing), though he leaned forward and sniffed as hard as he could to the pheasant not more than a yard away.  We were all at a loss as to whether to call Larsen or somehow make the bird fly.  Finally, the bird flew, Shoni shot it and Larsen had a retrieve.

Sunny looked all the more like a Senior Hunter.  Bing quartered nicely.  Humphrey found Larsen's missing bird on the blind.  Zelda found her bird as well and performed well.  

    

Fall Fling 2012

Around 35 people and 30 dogs made it to the Fall Fling at Circle W for a day of training, picnicing, and camaraderie.  

Many thanks to Cathy V. for making the Fall Fling such a good time.  Thanks, too, to Aki, for managing the coffee-klatch and lunch, taking pics, and socializing puppies and baby Greer.   

Thanks also to Bill, Shoni, Al, Roger, Allen, Gary, Johnny for shooting and Susan, Marilyn, and Cathy, for heading up the three dog flights.  

Some memories:  

• Felix's tail was non-stop as he hunted for Jody, who now has two possible entries in the WSSCA test this November!  
• Jan's Skip used the wind with great intelligence, taking several angles and attacks to finally get a bird that had hidden itself in a dense clump of grass, surprising everyone but himself.
• Sunny is really one of the prettiest Welshies in the field.  You need to watch her.  She loves hunting for Shoni.  
• Rowdy hunted with drive, and he let everyone know what an awesome hunting dog he was by parading by all of us with his trophy.
• Cathy knows more than ever that Bing has big attitude.  Once he's been read to from the book, he promises to be one of her best clumbers yet.  
• Larsen is getting more steady-ish, and I was able to amp my "sit" command down from 11 to 9.

And those are just from my group.  Aki told me that Eve, an 18-month old, has it all, and loved being in the field.  Susan W's new puppy couldn't believe her good fortune when she found her way into the canvas tote filled with my bird bags, and so she proceeded to pull them all out.   

More hot days ahead, I'm sure, but that was really the fall kickoff for a lot of us.  

Eve fetches her first bird.

Jody thanks Felix for his fine field performance.

Bill and Hampton take a breather.

Shoni and the others provided safe, reliable gunning.

Frank M. works with a Welsh pup.

Rowdy showed enthusiasm in the field.

Larsen waits for instruction.

A wet and tired puppy.

HP 12C - 31 Years

Iconicism is everywhere it seems, but if you've gone to business school in the last couple of decades, you'll be familiar with this tool of the MBA crowd, which truly deserves to be called iconic.  It's the HP 12C, Hewlett Packard's financial calculator that, among other things, uses Reverse Polish Notation for number entry.  (With RPN you enter A, B, + instead of A+B.)  Once you get used to RPN, all other pocket calculators seem faintly ridiculous.  Need to know how many days between September 13, 2012 and November 10, 2012 (the date of the WSSCA Hunt test)?  You've got 58 days to get your dog ready.

The HP 12C is virtually unchanged, at least on the outside, over the last 3 decades!  According to an AJC article pubished in 2004, the HP 12C is the oldest consumer electronics item still made.  Long ago, geekism might have been a slide rule hanging from your belt.  A pocket protector is still a good tell.  But modern geekism, thy name is HP 12C.

Blue moon

Labor day weekend.  Did you see it?

Blue moon seen from porch in Asheville, NC.