The bad news: Walking out to my car this morning I just happened to notice a HUGE tear in the sidewall of one of my tires. Thank you, Michigan potholes.

The good news: I didn’t discover this sidewall tear while doing 70 on the freeway, or while I was 200 miles from home over the weekend. Can’t really bitch too much, considering that…

I’m off to the tire place at 8 AM tomorrow for new rubber at all four corners. Only the one is damaged, but they’re all six years old and have 52k on ‘em. Might as well spring for a whole new set.

… was more of the same; no deer for the Mighty Hunters. Maybe next year. It was still a damn fine weekend, and I’m thankful I was invited to join in.

The drive home was made considerably more exciting by the big stretches of black ice on the 127; I passed at least 5 or 6 serious-looking accidents and consider myself lucky not to have been in one myself.

Swung through Lansing to visit a friend and grab a bite to eat. She’s in the sex biz and gifted me accordingly:

Yep, a big pile o’ condoms. Ribbed, flavored, colored, latex, polyurethane, Magnum, and, uh… female. Not entirely sure I understand that last one. Regardless, I now have enough rubbers to last me through my mid-80s, assuming I maintain my current work rate. I need to get out more.

Had to crank up Electric Warrior and Diamond Dogs full-blast to stay awake through the last hour of the drive. Yeah, I know. It was only because I broke one of my own cardinal rules: Have a copy of Raw Power available at all times.

Made almost the entire 440-mile round trip on one tank of gas, averaging just under 29 mpg. A pretty decent performance for The Unforgiving Sable.

Still drag-ass tired today, thanks to Clancy pestering me all night. Little guy missed me, it seems. I kinda missed him, too.

No sightings of actual deer, but we saw plenty of sign. Better luck tomorrow, maybe. The CZ carries surprisingly well for a 9-lb rifle (I don’t use slings on hunting rifles). It was promptly nicknamed “The Monster” by ernunnos, and watching the rest of the guys’ faces as they tried out the set trigger was entertaining. ernunnos himself is packing a nifty little Steyr .243 that makes me want to get one of my own.

My fellow hunters are a fun and friendly bunch, and remarkably tolerant of asshattery (i.e. me). The food’s been good, the booze better. Not a bad way to spend a weekend!

Oh, and I should publicly thank pdb for helpfully texting me, “Zomg a deers rite bhind joo!!!” Unfortunately, it must have snuck away by the time I retrieved my phone from under 4 layers of winter clothing. How did he know?!?

I’m just about to leave for deer hunting. I can only hope that my 9.3x62mm is up to the task of tipping over a whitetail.

Not sure if there will be intertubes access up at the cabin, but I’ll have the laptop with me just in case. Maybe the change of scenery will inspire some blogging.

Just dealing with a lot of not-very-much-fun stuff right now.

If all goes well and nobody else dies, I’ll be deer hunting this weekend with ernunnos and one of his friends, which should involve napping under a tree in the woods by day and boozing it up in a cabin by night. At this point, I damn well need it.

unix_jedi: How many goddamned women *do* you piss off daily to not pick up the context?
td: oh it’s typically in the dozens