Could anything be finer than a Wednesday in October? I suddenly realized why I love this month, and Wednesdays especially. I suppose it might be a sign of creeping old age when one starts to find comfort in established routines (ruts?), but I’m not ashamed to admit that I wouldn’t mind settling into this rut of hunting in the morning, ogling students in the afternoon, returning home for a round of Doggie Style, and then a new episode of West Wing. So why is October the perfect month for this?
I hadn’t quite realized the total synergy of it all until this week, when October returned after a few days that felt like we’d fast-forwarded directly to November (we approached record low temperatures a couple of nights). But now October is back.
October’s early morning temperatures in the 50’s are pushing the upper limits of good hunting conditions. But, since I’m one of those hunt-to-ride heathens, I’m happy in less-than-ideal hunting conditions as long as it’s a pleasant morning for an invigorating ride through the country. And, since I try to burn only a half-day of vacation for morning hunts, the rising temperature as the morning progresses is my signal that it’s time to remember Arthur’s comfort and head home.
And the temperature continues to rise, so that by the time I arrive on campus, the students have shed some layers, making the walk across campus quite scenic indeed. And then, the temperature tops out at a level where a mid-afternoon stroll across campus to Baskin-Robbins (timed to coincide with class change to optimize the scenery) doesn’t leave me drenched in sweat as it would in August, and the return stroll with a double-scoop cone doesn’t leave me wearing most of the ice cream that melts before being eaten, as it would in August.
And then, after returning home, conditions are perfect for a little bit of yard work, then enjoying some Doggie Style on the back deck. And the early sunset allows for watching West Wing without feeling guilty about being inside before dark. And October usually provides a new episode every Wednesday. Yep, an October Wednesday is definitely hard to beat.
Since I need to prepare a sign for tomorrow’s Bush-bashing, I won’t go into much detail about today’s chase (either AM or PM), except to say there were no catastrophic incidents. Arthur and I communicated well in the AM, and hounds worked fairly well. We didn’t do a lot of running and jumping, but when we did, we did well. We had a nice coyote run right before a couple of us with tired horses and gainful employment decided to call it quits, and a nice hack back to the trailers to cool the horses.