Time Well Spent

As everyone knows, we find ourselves with a good deal of down time while away on a training camp. With practices bookending the days, I find that there is only so much time sleep will take up before I need a break from even that. So I've made an effort to diversify my life a little. With the advent of Rock Band, my interest in video games has fallen drastically. I mean, rockin' out is fun, but if I'm playing video games, I really just want to kill things. I'm not that interested in the artificial fans, roadies and groupies that come along with the band.

I've targeted four things to work on while down hear in South Carolina. 1.) I've bought a compound bow and tomorrow I'm taking it to the range for the first time. We'll see how that one goes. 2. Daytona is only a month away so we've started a fantasy Nascar league... Bass fishing will follow once ESPN.com sets up the league for this season. 3.) I've been reading a lot. Amazon.com might run out of books soon at the rate I'm going. 4.) I've volunteered some time to help Senator McCain's campaign in South Carolina. Since my free time is not set, and rowing comes first, they've given me a list of potential voters to call and get out to vote. We'll see. I really hope he wins.

I'll only dwell on the book aspect for now, since that's a hobby that I've brought with me and its not really new. I've been on a pretty big scifi kick recently, devouring everything that Robert Heinlien ever wrote. He's written some incredible things, and 4 of his books won Hugo awards (Starship Troopers, and The Moon is a harsh Mistress are the two Hugo winners that I've made it through so far), which is a big deal in that genre. Most of his work is real literature. If anyone loves a Don Quixote type story I recommend they pick up the book Glory Road. But remember, "If you choose to walk the glory road, you may find that it is a little rocky".

I also just picked up two books by Jimmy Buffett. As any parrot head will tell you, he is a master storyteller, and these books are no exception. The first is titled Tales from Margaritaville. Its a collection of short stories that all emphasize the experiential side of life (you can't take it with you when you're gone). It is written in the style of Mark Twain's Following the Equator, meant to be opened to any page and read for as little or as long as one wants. The other book that I purchased by him is Where is Joe Merchant. It is a wonderful story of romance and adventure in the Caribbean. Both are books that I've read and reread a few times already, and it was getting to be about time that I reread them once more.

In case anyone cares, Margaritaville is calling me once more, so I'll stop here, but I'll try and remember to update everyone on how my other hobbies are going.