Jan 28 – Ninjas and Numchucks

Rebel and I headed back to the Georgetown hole today as I had left my beatin’ stick there the other day.   Now I would not have gone back for just any old beatin’ stick.  This one just happened to be an oak quarterstaff that managed to find its way back to me from my childhood.  When I was a boy, my brother and I fancied ourselves knights, ninjas, or pirates on any given day, and as such, we were forced to have battles as you might guess.  As oldest, I was frequently on the giving end of most of our battles, but on the receiving end of the punishments those battles invariably provoked.

One day in summer, a friend left us a catalog of ninja gear at our house.  In the wisdom that only comes from being 12, we decided to order some gear.   We bought a pair of wooden samurai swords each and a pair of quarterstaffs, envisioning epic battles to follow.  We even managed to cut up one of mom’s broomsticks to make numchucks.  That went over well.

I learned two valuable lessons that summer.  The first and most obvious was that solid wood friggin’ hurts when it smacks your knuckles or anywhere really.  The other was that when your parents find out you have used the credit card to order contraband material, hide your stuff and blame your little brother.

Well somehow, when my parents moved out of the house, that staff showed up and proceeded to follow me on several moves.  It was hiding in my box of gardening implements (which had not been unpacked for at least six moves…) just so it could turn up now to keep me from falling on tough terrain and serve once again as a tool to pummel the enemy, as long as your enemy is a tree or heavy brush.  Obviously, I couldn’t leave it behind, once I discovered it missing.

Sure enough it was there where I had dropped it so with a smile on my face we set out into the woods, armed to fight ninjas should they appear.  None did, so Rebel and I took our fight to the squirrels.

We took our first squirrel in a heavily infested area near our usual first duck slip spot.  As has been the case lately, there were no ducks on the water when we got there, but Rebel immediately spotted a grey squirrel heading for a hole.  She chased it through several trees before finally snagging it out on a limb.   I am reasonably certain that this was no ninja squirrel as his moves were not nearly so nimble as many others I have seen around here.  She carried it a goodly ways off which has been happening with growing frequency lately.  The trade off was smooth and we decided to make one more circle in case the ninjas were going to show up.

In truth, I was actually hoping for a Kamikaze wood duck slip, but they were clearly on to me at this point.  Either that or they had decided to buy in to the American dream and found something to live for like Starbucks and Apple TV. 

Duck was off the menu so we cruised around exploring parts of the property that we had not often seen.  It was a great day overall with good weather, a responsive bird, and the recovery of a childhood memory.  I was all warm and fuzzy heading home.  My bird was clearly confident after her kill and I was much more confident in my chances against any impending ninja attacks now that I had my trusty quarterstaff / beatin’ stick back at my side.