I've got priorities

I become single-minded in the fall, thinking of little but hunting.

Even in this election year.

Oh, I watch the news, listen to the radio and read the newspaper. But it’s hard for me to care what the candidates are saying when all I can think about is that last missed shot – at a sharptail flying straightaway in easy range. Maybe I didn’t get my head down, didn’t raise the gun on the follow through. Heck, it probably was the gun. I must need a new one or at least a different box of shells. I often blame the gun and the shells.

Then I begin to worry I’m spending too much time chasing the dogs in pursuit of birds. After all, I have other tags to fill. I should be down in the Breaks looking for sheep or scouting for elk instead of piling up miles in the short grass.

It’s raining today and I’m stuck in the house. After a couple of hours in front of the television I’ve heard all I can take about tax returns and emails and one of the Kardashians getting robbed in Paris.

I’d leave the house and hunt ducks, but the roads are a mess so I dwell on that missed shot. It looms larger than the ones I made.

I wish I had a short memory. I don’t.

I start thinking about the last duck I missed. It was a passing shot and I’m sure I didn’t lead the bird enough.

On the truck radio I hear someone predict gloom and doom if a particular candidate gets elected. All I can think about, however, is how long it will take the roads to dry. I worry I won’t be able to reach my antelope hunting area, just south of town, let alone get all the way down into the Breaks.

Until I get back out I can’t erase the missed shot, can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing something far bigger. CNN does nothing to ease my anxiety. Neither does the Today Show.

I look at the calendar and count the days left in the season. There are less than three months remaining.

My wife points out a Facebook post about one of the candidates. I should care, but I don’t. I have a wallet full of tags, the dogs won’t let me out of their sight, and it’s already October.

It’s time to get my priorities in order.

Parker Heinlein is [email protected]