A snow safari with the big white hunter;-))

With frostbite still on our faces, we look back at a couple of lovely days in the Appalachian
Mountains. Memories of blazing gas fires and scenes from "First Blood"
and "Commando" pop up occasionally and warm my heart as I watch Finley
collect sticks that look like guns in an attempt to shoot us before
doing his signature shoulder roll. Perhaps, I should have put him to
bed before the films started. I may have been mistaken thinking that
Rambo and the likes are educational programs.
However, the damage is
done and the words "shoot you" and "bang" are with us and with his
classmates at school. One mom was a little surprised when she saw
Finley outside school, collecting twigs that looked like guns in anattempt to shoot whoever needed shooting!!
I guess he is just a little more advanced and cares more about survival techniques than Thomas the boring tank engine.
Luckily, he did not only learn to shoot in the Allegheny
Mountains, no, he also had a go at snow boarding and learned that
Starbucks is one of those things in life you cannot live without,
especially when it is -1F outside and the wind is so cold you need a
face mask that makes you look like the guy from "Texas Chainsaw
Massacre".
Here we go, another learning curve for the boy to make his parents proud.
I
did not ski or board since hauling myself down a mountain side unable
to see my own feet did not appeal to me. Instead, I played mom and
cooked goulash for everyone until they got sick of it, especially on
day three, when they had to have what was left of it for breakfast.
Our dinner conversations where awesome. Phil's brother Craig-the big white hunter-told us anecdotes of his hunting trips in Africa and we all listened, awe inspired, to every story whether it was about massive crocks
eating their own kind or people surviving being trapped underwater by
one of those prehistoric beasts. We all want to go hunting with Craig
in Africa and shoot elephants and other big game, or maybe just sit on
a huge tree and watch him do itinstead.
In the meantime, however,
the only animals in need of terminating are the rats in my garden and
judging by the holes they make in my flower beds they probably are as
big as elephants.