05-JUL-A-4
THINGS ARE NOW HAPPENING ON A RAPID RUSH
IN FAST FORWARD IN THE PREVIOUSLY LAZY INTERVAL OF THE CANCELED
LARGE PURCHASES FOR HOME REMODELING
ARE EXPANDED FURTHER,
AND THE LONG-AWAITED VISIT TO REVIEW THE
NEW GAME ROOM OF BOB AND MARY KILLET IN SYKESVILLE;
THEN AN EARLY MORNING RUN OF THE
SENECA CREEK GREENWAY TRAIL,
A PRE-MISSION MEETING WITH THE ERITREAN
GROUP,
AND THEN I DO A DVD PERFORMANCE FOR
EURASIAN EXPEDITIONS IN A VISIT TO
DERWOOD’S GAME ROOM BY GEORGE SEVICH,
AND A PROPOSED CHANGE OF PLANS TO INCLUDE A
MID-ASIAN HUNT BEFORE THE ERITREAN
July 10, 2005
After a period of drift while hauling a sea anchor, I have moved forwarded in a rush on several areas. First I am settling into my home; Second, packing up and arranging for the next medical mission; Third visiting friends in a postponed round of promised visits; and fourth abruptly making some sweeping plans for squeezing in an adventure summer mid-Asian sporting trip to take place while I am “out of school” and before Eritrea; and fifth, rapidly working up the writing projects for my doctoral program n fast forward mode, since it appears I may be gone after the next week’s now denser and more rapid paced schedule.
First, I am now filling in the vacant master bedroom with a complete and very elegant “Vintage” classic bed and nightstand, all the mattresses, split box springs and beddings, down to and including new pillows, mattress pad, and the sham, sheets, pillow cases and flounce with the duvet and color coordinated scheme for the “Primrose Sprig “ paint scheme. I have changed abruptly from temporizing as though I were waiting for some one or something else to move in to the spaces reserved for each, and followed my sister Shirl’s instructions to “maek of my house something that fits and reflects me.” So, I also bought a Longchamps complete crystal collection to add twelve pieces each of crystal water glasses, highball (or juice) glasses and wine goblets, all in the classic Longchamps pattern that I already have four piece settings of, so I fulfilled her requirements to fill out a complete set of serving places for the large dinner parties I have not yet had in mind. I added other furniture, such as the new nightstand to match the elegant leather headboard of the rather imposing master bedroom suite. I am very happy with the way things are coming together in the rooms not yet finished, and even some of the outside fixtures and furnishings are filing in. It looks like I live here, and am not in the prolonged process of “just moving in.”
Second, I
have met with the team who will be going to
Third, I had left form the large purchases, done al at once at Hecht’s, to drive to Sykesville, to be the first guest in the newly expanded home of Robert and Mary Killet, SCI officers as well as the couple who are SCI master measurers and among the most honored of the US hunters for the completion of their collection, now on display in their newly opened Game Room, where they had hosted me at dinner. I admired the huge collection of trophies he has assembled and took a number of pictures which I will show at a later time to show you the extent of their collections. Besides a good evening, we also went over the wolverine, and on official measurement of the skull, the wolverine places well up in the top ten—perhaps about number four in the SCI record books. He needs only one more of the oxen, and two Asian sheep to get the super slams to put him on the top pinnacle of American hunter/collectors, and I had suggested to him we might join in for a future hunt. I had told him that George Sevich had called me, and that something might come of an offer George had made to me in a recent email which might be for a hunt very soon.
Fourth, I
met with George Sevich after a flurry of phone calls, and he came over to
Derwood, a visit that had been promised for some time but never carried out
because of both of our schedules. He was going to take a few pictures of the
trophies I had collected in each of my several Eurasian Expeditions hunts, and
I had sent him still pictures in the past.
I had also sent in an article which is going to Magnum magazine about
the
George has
hired an experienced cameraman form Albuquerque New Mexico to go with me and
film the entire experience, which he wants to emphasize is an “extreme hunt” in
the truest sense, and not a bus ride up to an enclosed animal farm with a
client being wheeled out to pop the target presented to him, but a vigorous and
challenging true wilderness experience at the fittest level of free chase
hunting. As he and his son Peter made
their first visit to Derwood, they were impressed with the Game Room and the
trophies displayed, and made a DVD of me in impromptu speeches about each of
the adventures that had resulted tin the collection of the trophy on
display. This would be integrated into
several of the still photos also taken, and the whole would be put into a
program for which he said I was a “natural” which he would like to use in
promotion of the Eurasian Expeditions kind of hunting experience. He already has a DVD of a Texan outfitter
type named “Colorado Buck” for the colorful “American cowboy meets Eurasian
Mongol” but now is appealing to a different clientele with an articulate
naturalist who appreciates the hunting experience and the natural and cultural
environment around the hunting experience, and not just the scoring on a
specific animal as trophy—although that will be very much a part of the filming
of this forthcoming DVD and TV production.
So, if this comes off as the change in plans now being worked on, you
may be able to join in this experience in an upscaled version of the caribou
hunt in the northern
Fifth, I got one more of the five outstanding papers required for the doctoral program completed, and will have to complete each of the rest before I can take off, since they would each be due when I am gone and before my return from Eritrea directly into the weekend residence session of the ELDP. I should further also have the presentation made up for the Halsted Society, which I have never assembled before and will be due in early September around Labor Day.
I must remain at home on Tuesday for the HVAC people to come to repair the one thermostat/control monitor for the major cooling/heating zone of the house which quit working the week my sisters were here, so I will try to do some more writing when I am homebound. I must also be around home on Saturday when the Hecht delivery and assembly of the bed, mattress and all the furniture will be scheduled. I already have all the bedding accoutrements already in the master bedroom awaiting the new completion pieces, which look very elegant together in the Hecht showroom as the “top of the line” in the Vintage collection.
I made it to the early morning Seneca
Creek Trail run along the wilderness trails that Ed Schulze has been so
carefully maintaining and improving with the help of other volunteers. I felt a little bit stiff and creaky on
getting up early after returning late from the Killet’s wonderful hospitality,
which followed a brisk eight mile run on Saturday after the completion of one
of my ELDP papers. I knew what I would
find when I came to the Seneca Creek Park as Ed waited for the runners—he had
done a hundred mile run on Friday along the same trails, when they were in
flooded out status, as Seneca Creek had overflowed, and the runners were
actually required to swim across the flooded out stream at several points. Despite this ultra long run, Ed was less
creaky than I after “taking it easy” for a full day on Saturday. He is leaving next with his family to the
beach at Rehoboth and Bethany on
So, yes, the times, they are a’changin’. Since change they will be doing anyway, I have decided to take charge of a few of the changes rather than be floated about by most of them, and I am going to take off in some form of ride along, while I can still shape events—and, now, even my homestead, according to a few plans of my own choosing. And, I, much like others who have written to me recently, might add—“And, it is about time, too!”