The Think Tank

Mom and I bailed out of town just ahead of the snowstorm that has dumped several inches on the Portland area, and headed to Las Vegas for the annual World Archery Festival.

Friday was sort if rough for me. Last week I traded my 2012 dominator for Matt Anderson’s 2013 dominator, and it had been shooting so well the last few days that I decided to shoot it for the first day of the tournament. Unfortunately it’s mojo seems to have worn off: I shot a 297/19x (with an 8 no less). Given that I have been shooting 299-300 with 22-24 x’s pretty consistently this year, the ’97 was disappointing. That was good enough for 90th place, out if about 850+ archers. Also disappointing.

I switched back to the blue bow and practiced for about an hour last night, then mom and I spent the afternoon with our friends Craig and Karen who live just outside Vegas in Henderson.

Today went a little better. I tried to pay special attention to my bow arm today as I was letting my shoulder sag some yesterday, and that proved highly beneficial (as it always does). I dropped my first arrow, which sucked, although I really thought it was a pretty well performed shot, so I couldn’t get too upset about it. After that I rattled off 22 straight X’s, which I think might be a record for me. I got a little nervous and my shoulder was hurting pretty bad the last couple ends, and I dropped three more X’s, but the shots were pretty well executed, so I’m good with that.

I ended the day with with a 299/26x. The X’s were pretty good although the ’99 was a little disappointing. However, as I said, I felt I shot 30 good arrows today, which was what I was aiming for and something I haven’t been able to say for a while. Many of those 30 were about perfect.

Unfortunately being down four points isn’t going to do me any good from a placement perspective and my overall goal of shooting my average score for the weekend is now unattainable. However, there are still some positives to be had:

1. 299/26x is a personal one-day best at Vegas.
2. 22 X’s in a row is a tournament best for me, and may be a personal all-time record.
3. 30 consecutive arrows without an ill-performed shot in a big event is a big step. It’s tempered by the miss as well as the fact that I was effectively out of contention yesterday, but still, it was a goal achieved.
4. Even though I was very disappointed about my shooting on Friday and about the 9 today, I recovered very well and just kept doing my thing. I never got upset or made a fuss or anything. That has been a bugaboo of mine in the past, and both days I handled adversity well.

More to come to Tomorrow.

Last night was our annual holiday party.  Getting everything ready was a bigger challenge this year than normal because we took some time out to go to Montana for Thanksgiving this year.  It was a great time, but it did cut into the decorating time quite a bit.

The party was a lovely evening and I am very grateful to everyone who came.  It was an odd party both in terms of who came, and who didn’t:  Stephanie was noticeably absent, only the second party she has missed in the last 35 or so years; and on the other hand, Chuck & Jon Reali came for the first time in almost twenty years, and Lorene and Lorielle  Ludeman came for the first time in many many years as well! And Donna Thurlow was here after a year long absence do to cancer treatments and surgeries.

The only bummer of the evening was that the Blazers fooled around enough to let Dallas beat them.

We finished up our pumpkin carving tonight, with a grand total of 27 jack o’lanterns.  I think they turned out excellent!  Thanks to everyone who came and helped: Joel & Sarah; Jim, Jamie & Camden; Alan; Marcie & Brett; Miranda & Kyle; and then of course Mom, Maure and Shannon.  Here is a peak at this years crop, and I’m sure there will be more to come after the big night tomorrow!

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/77946448[/vimeo]Hi everyone!  As you know this is my favorite time of year.  We did a great job of getting all the Halloween stuff up pretty early this year.  I’ve continued to mess around with a few things, but everything has more or less been up and running since around the 10th of October.

Saturday night was our annual Pre Halloween Party, and it was a really nice night.  The weather cooperated beautifully, and we had about 20 people over the whole night.  Some of those folks were old friends, and several were folks from the neighborhood we met as they were admiring the display out front.  The other part to the Pre Party is to test out all the effects and props, and that went well too: the teeter-totter died and had to be fixed, and the air line for the Crypt Popper sprung a leak as well.  Hopefully that will be it now, and Halloween night can go without trouble.

For those of you who aren’t going to be able to make it over this year, I used my shiny new iPhone to shoot a video tour of our haunt.  Hopefully I will get some more on Halloween night with the hoots and hollers of scared kiddies, but this should suffice for the time being.

Talk to you soon!

Kyle, Joel and I are riding in the Seattle to Portland bike ride this weekend. We got to Seattle late last night because Kyle had work calls planned all afternoon, and we thought it would be better to get up here Thursday night so we could get a good nights sleep before the ride. And if you get injured in a bicycle accident, a Boston, MA bicycle accident attorney should be able to help you file a claim.

Of course, that is not how it actually turned out. Our friends Connie and Jennifer were in Seattle on vacation from South Carolina to tend to a few things at Marcie’s house in Seattle, so we stayed with them Thursday night, and there were a few projects that needed taking care Friday after work, so we didn’t get to the camp area (right by the start line) until around 11 o’clock. Mom and Connie dropped Joel off around 8 so he was already in his tent by the time we arrived at 11, coincidentally enough right at the same time as Kyle Boyd, who had spent The day with his family and friends.

About the time I was getting in bed, a fellow biker parked a few cars over from the van came over because he had locked his keys in his car and wondered if we might have something he could use to get in it with. We fished around and came up with some metal skewers and electrical tape, and he set off to his task. A few minutes later we checked in on him and he was still having trouble getting in, so mom and I started helping. Around 12:30 we finally got the car open, thank goodness. So now I am in my tent and going to sleep. We will be getting up at 5am so we can be on the road by six, hopefully.

I’ll try to post some more and maybe a few pics when we get to Centrallia tomorrow.