The Hunt

Next week I’ll be embarking on my first hunting trip of my life. I take no special pleasure in the thought of killing another living being, but I do enjoy fresh meat and I’m not an idiot; something has to die to make my dinner. Justin, Kris and I are all packing up and heading out to harvest game. If we are lucky, and shoot straight, we all stand to come back with several months worth of deer.

I’ll be bringing one of my 30-06s and all the usual camping amenities. My wife has been gracious enough to let me go on this trip; I hope I do not come home empty-handed. Not the sort of guys to go out and down a bunch of beers, Justin and Kris are the ideal type of hunting partners. I can trust them not to shoot me and they can expect the same from me. My worst thought is getting shot by another hunter just being careless.

I taught my son why we fish and this, I hope, will be the type of thing which I can use to get him to appreciate many things. Hard work, respect for living creatures, the danger of a rifle, the usefulness of being an expert marksman and more are all lessons I hope to glean for him. I will take pictures to show him the steps, but none to glorify the deed. People should do whatever they feel inclined to do, but you won’t catch me mounting some poor beast on my wall… unless it was a Wampa. That would go right beside my collection of Sarlak eggs.

Anyways, it should be a good experience for me and my comrades to partake in this event. I plan to go out bird hunting too, but baby steps. My wife is patient, so I won’t push my luck.

Also, thanks to everyone who is supporting me on this trip. Many folks have lent me gear, covered me at work and gave me advice. Hell, the rifle I’m using was a gift…  I have a good life.

Renton Motorcycle Company Lost a Customer in Me.

I’ve thought this over long and hard and the manager of Renton Motorcycles will be getting a letter from me very soon. Instead of me spending my next ten thousand dollars on a toy there, I’ll go elsewhere.

These guys are a huge store down in Renton and they look amazing! Their parts area is full of flashy shit and cool doo-dads and junk. They have sales staff that treat you well and this is where I bought my bike from last year. I have taken it there as part of the pre-paid service agreement which has saved me some cash overall.

The problem is this: Each time I have taken my bike there, I have made it clear that I live far as fuck away and that I expect the priority to be given to me as was promised in conjunction with buying the pre-paid service package.

Another problem is that they have pirate rates on service. To install two sprockets and a chain, they wanted $200 bucks for a job that takes 45 minutes TOPS. Fuck that. I took it to Bellevue Kawasaki and got it done for 86 bucks. Bam!

I dropped my bike off at 9:30 using the after-hours drop box and they managed to blow that shit off… my appointment was at 10:30 in the morning, but I was not about to wait around and talk to the passive-aggressive people at the counter for service.

Mr. Lamphere, if he is still alive, should go fire the service manager and let it be known that piss-poor customer service is not okay. I got my bike back at 5:45 pm and missed my plans that night because of the God-awful traffic that time of day; the job should have been done NO LATER THAN 2:00pm. The guy at the desk gave me some weak-shit apology and was like  “sometimes we forget to check the box”. I wasn’t going to yell at him like a dumbass because I knew he may or may not have had anything to do with this fiasco. On top of everything else, when I went to get the bike, I had to wait for some sloppy shit-sandwich kid to wheel my bike out to the wash area; it was dirty as fuck still. Only one of my five trips there resulted in a clean bike. He asked if I wanted to wait ten more minutes for a wash. I told him “fuck no”.

Anyway, I WAS happy with this place, but only because I had faith that next time would be better. Four “next times” later and they are still a soup sandwich.

If you want to buy a motorcycle, go elsewhere. These guys sell an image, not motorcycles.

Peace bitches.

P.S. : Mr. Lamphere, if you are reading this, I am grateful that you sell so many brands under one roof, but am saddened as to how badly your staff suck balls.

-Jack