Git Er Done!!!!!!!!!

LIFE IS NOT A JOURNEY TO THE GRAVE WITH THE INTENTION OF ARRIVING SAFELY IN A PRETTY AND WELL PRESERVED BODY,

BUT RATHER TO SKID IN BROADSIDE THOROUGHLY USED UP, TOTALLY WORN OUT OUT AND LOUDLY PROCLAIMING, WHAT A RIDE !!!!

I always fall into an affair each fall.....And I can't stop it!

Each fall, my longing turns to lust and I fall helplessly.....I'm talking about seeing junky trucks with campers, bargain camoflauge deals at 7-11 and Walmart, reading new deer hunting WINNING STRATEGIES books. It hasn't failed me yet, that ol' thorn in the flesh crops up each time the balmy summer air turns to crisp cool breezes....Pumpkins, dry and brown standing corn, Football, the smell of Thanksgiving, the leaves igniting into a blaze of lustful color.... I'm talkin' about deer hunting, turkeys, rabbit hunting, watching squirrels scurry to prepare for winter, countless hours in the woods and

Many a man who have died young have always said, "Nothing exceeds like excess!" So, I'm going to go "down that wrong road again" (song by Crystal Gayle) and indulge in this yearly cycle of infantile fantasy I have......White Trash Deer Hunting Camper Disease!!!!!!!!!!!

I unexpectantlay bursted into laughter after a long stint of too much extended work hours with little sleep....I was driving along the "divide" and passed this beauty in front of the "Army Store"....And suddenly, the disease kicked into full blown symptoms. I unwillingly swung that ol Ford Interceptor around and went back to indulge....

What a beauty! Just the perfect dosage for my illness of White Trash Deer Season Camper Disease! Truck has body damage.....

Very little ground clearance (3" max by my estimations) which would drive most consumers away....But in the full blown symptoms of the disease I am so blinded that I sluff it off with the old "I can fix that with some helper springs and new shocks." Yeah, ok Jiggers, did you know that this camper exceeds the manufacturers guidelines for the weight by triple?

Just when common sense, reason, and all the things that get in the way of real living step in to ruin everything, another stumbling block to fighting my disease and not having that affair steps in........Look at this! It's a bargain!

So, the end result? Did I buy it?




Nope. Took my reality pill and went home to go to bed. But the longing survives and the White Trash Deer Hunting Camper Disease continues! So much pondering on the way home.....I love my 1/2 hour drive....It is much needed wind down time...I often wonder if you can judge how much a person is at peace with themselves by how far they drive into work.....Short drive=accepting their situation. Long drive=Uneasy, needing that drive to "wind down".

I still tossed around that affair in my mind as I enjoyed the scenery on the way home.......The fantasy is not dead.

Watch Your Targets!

Man do I have pleasant memories of ol' Sgt Friend smokin' a cig at the firing range. Hell, he smoked right in the range house! Always had a pot of chili and a pot of coffee goin. Do you remember him yelling over the loud speaker, "IS THE LINE READY? IS THE LINE SAFE? WATCH YOUR TARGETS!" Do you remember that pungent smell of half treated sewage from the plant right next door? How about the "WARNING!WARNING! TRACK 11 IS MOVING!"

Well today was some quality time sharpening up the TEAM T girls. Watch your targets girls! (Beer cans) We loaded the BB guns to the hilt with rounds and took em out in the backyard. Lots of fun.

Hold your fire! The line is unsafe!




























Some markmanship training!


Stand by, we are re-facing the targets!

I present to you the all girl TEAM T Sniper TEAM!

I'm pretty confident I will never be a Firearms Instructor at work, BUT I'M LEAD FIREARMS INSTRUCTOR/ARMORER HERE!

Birthday Surprise for My Brother!

This year for my brother's birthday, I sat and thought about what he is passionate about. What type of gift would really grip his soul.....Make him feel a connection we share as brothers....Well, I knew right away what he needed....


So I took the head of the 6lb Walleye that I caught after filleting it out and put it in a FOODSAVER bag which pulls all the air out.....Froze it.....Put it in a box and mailed it to him.....Prior to sending it, I began a short propaganda campaign to get him into the surprise......I may have told him a lie and said the following clues:

1: It's something we are both passionate about.
2:It is related to Gander Mountain.
3:Its something you really enjoy to do.
4: Its worth about $300. Really? You might ask. If you saw the $ I've put into lures, gas, launch fees, poles, reels, a$$ kissing to the wife to go fishing-You would think it was easily worth $300 a piece for the three Walleye I've caught this year...


Here SHE IS ALL PACKAGED UP AND READY TO GO! A fresh frozen of the HOG WALLEYE!

LETS HOPE HE LIKES THE SURPRISE!


*******************************************UPDATE********************************************************

Talked to my brother today. His response, "You are an a$$hole!" We laughed together and shared a moment as brothers.

Happy Birthday Brother! I love you!

To my brother: Sometimes I envy you. The path you have taken. I'm proud of you. You have chosen to live in a place I'd love to live. You come and go as you please. Enjoy it!

The Team T Extended Family

Had birthday party/get together.....Here's the fam....Happy Birthday mom!




From left to right, my Dad and Mom, My wife/kids, My Brotherin law and his wife, my sister with their kids. And my younger brother.



I love you family!!!!

A weekend of Sucking the marrow out of life.....It can be exhausting!

It's been a long adventure filled weekend to say the least......Ol' Wierenga stopped over to check out my pole barn at 2330 and we shut her down about 0430.......Thanks for stopping stumpy! And thanks for the precious gift of your dad's fishing boat seat. God rest his soul and I will make sure the memory lives on in the TEAM T fishing boat! A weekend filled with family parties, catchin' hogs, one or two totties, and lots of memories! Overall, I'm exhausted.....But I feel like I'm "good" exhausted....

Rain Date

After three buddies cancelled fishing this morning because of rain, ball games, and a myriad of other excuses, TEAM T went out and hooked some hogs on Gun Lake!

This is my biggest Walleye yet! 6lbs and 27 inches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And a nice 26" pike as well!

Yes, it was storming, windy, rainy........But then again, sometimes ya gotta suck it up and be a man!


The baby blue lettering on this post is dedicated to the three wussies who stayed in bed......D. Wells, Showtime, and Manny.....

Picture of my neighbor's ass.

I have been faced with a dilemna currently at TEAM T almostgunlakers. I have battled with the concept of this post for some time now. You see, I have this crazy neighbor and she is a fan of the blog as well. For several weeks now, she has been begging me to post a picture. I looked at the picture and told her no way. I just felt that the picture had no educational value and pushed the limits a little bit and I didn't want to offend any of my readers. No, it wasn't pornographic.

So after battling over this idea for some time now, I asked myself, "how can you put this picture on the blog?" As I looked at the picture I started laughing. And it was then I decided to share it with you.

You see, it's a picture of my neighbors ass. That's right. She took it outside of her house in the broad daylight. And for some silly reason, she wants you all to see it. She told me that she is so proud of her ass that she wants your opinion.


So, HERE WE GO. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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A surprise from TEAM T Wife

She hit it dead on today......

Johnny Cash-Folsom Prison (cd)

Right on.....Right on....

It was nice after gettin' my ass chewed at work. You know, I forgot the value of a good ass chewing.....Kind of puts a jump in your step....

Fishin' For Memories~~~

Today TEAM T went perch fishin. I took two of my Princesses .....

We were up early to start the day....

Hot homeade pancakes and bacon....

A quick stop to the ornery lady at the bait shop.....I love consistently ornery people....I love being ornery back and getting them to crack a smile through their fake grimace...A picture of her didn't turn out but I will post one soon on another post...

The ducks were out feeding. Which makes me wonder, what do ducks think? I tried talking to this one and he just walked away after calling me a "quack."

Olivia got the only fish on of the day......And it came off at the boat....

Even made it to the ol' faithful Robbin's point and couldn't find my dear perchies.... Here is my top secret Perchin' spot and a storm brewin' above....I love storms!

For once, someone else was having calamities. It was such a breath of fresh air to sit back and see someone other than me involved in a disaster on ol' Gun Lake....I watched as this poor old man buried his truck on the launch. You all remember it wasn't very long ago that I sat in my camo boxers and life jacket holding my lil' fishin' buddy Pepper at this very launch. I was soaked and missing a motor! I haven't forgoetten the fat bellied fisherman who were smoking their cigars and laughing as I struggled to come to a solution. So, I wanted to help this ol' guy.

So, I paged the Commanche Commander into emergency service.....Put her in four wheel drive low....Then snapped his tow strap....WHOOPS. Man is that some power in my ol' girl! We then hooked up a chain and I walked him right out of his misery! The best part was that he never said thank you. Instead, he gave me a look and a nod that said perhaps he saw a glimpse of human kindness not too often displayed in this cold world anymore.

My pleasant surprise at the end of the day was a ticket from the Park Nazi's for neglecting to pay the boat launch fee in the pay tube....Must have slipped my mind:-)" PAY THE TUBE SIR! " My thoughts? it's after Labor day.....Who cares? I let people go on much worse.....RELAAAX.

.......

Today's tally was a bucket devoid of fish, BUT FULL OF MEMORIES!!!Thank you God for all the beauty you have thrown into my life. I'm not worthy to take it all in.

I need your interpretation of the x-rays.

Over the 171 posts on this blog, you have all had a peek into my soul, my mind, and a couple quick looks inside my heart.

Any thoughts?

Remember, you can post anonymously. I have no way to trace it...

Jitters

A lil' something to help me get ready for the day.

Every day I go down to my OWN PRIVATE REALLY MALE BATHROOM DECORATED IN FISHING GARB, there is a lil' guy doin' what I'd rather be doin.......I checked on him this morning and he had a FISH ON!


Keep on fishin' buddy and let me know what to use the next time I get out on the lake.

I'm Disgusted!

The following things frustate the shit out of me:

Complacency
Mediocrity
Laziness
Inability to solve problems.

I am so unhappy with what I see in human kind. Nobody seems to give a shit anymore! Embrace Life. Suck the marrow out of life. Show some passion folks, YOU ARE DYING.

There is hope. Eternal Hope. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about getting excited, passionate, and smiling about a simple fact, LIFE!!!

So, on the way to work, SING LOUD IN YOUR CAR. Smile. Get excited about something, anything. I'm talking about playing your guts out on your instrument on the deck of the ship as she goes down.

Run the race, battle the storms, JUMP ON THE SADDLE OF LIFE AND DIG YOUR SPURS IN! HANG ON FOR THE RIDE! KICK IT UP A NOTCH!

I don't believe in luck.

(Here is a picture of me deep in thought)
I was doing some heavy duty thinking today while mowing my lawn.....Seems like I spend 1/4 of my life with earplugs in my ears and I can't help but glisten through the thoughts going on in my circus head......So,

Here is today's thought for you to wrestle with. I don't believe in luck.......

Lucky people, it seems to me, tend to be busy people. They're people with goals and good humor who go about working hard to get what they've decided on. Surely luck often is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity. Better if we persist and persist some more, for then things begin to happen. We often get what we expect from life. Persistence tends to win out, and reaching goals that seem difficult to others is fairly easy, for the simple reason that so few are really trying, SO FEW PERSIST!

I do believe in persistence.......and God's blessing.

Fall

The perch have turned on. I know one thing doesn't lie about when it's fall, and THAT'S A PERCH!


Fall. A breath of fresh air...

TEAM T GOES WORLDWIDE WITH "ALMOSTGUNLAKERS"!!!

Got a comment from "Tommy".....

That's right, gunlakers has made it to Romania!!!!!!! He is in Romania and reading the blog! Drag your cursor over the above "tommy" or check out the comments on the last couple posts to see his site...

RELAAAAAAAX.....

Tonights agenda? Relaxing. Finally a night off from work!

I made the following purchases:

• Large bag of Tortilla Chips
• Bean Dip and Sour Cream/Chives Dip
• Couple packs o' cigs
• Small box o' beer for mama
• Large "best chest" box of Milwaukee's Best Light for me
• Mt Dew, Coke, Diet Coke

And..........

.

Oh yeah! I'm just gonna relax and see if I can tame these nats flyin' around in my head...What better way than with My ALLTIME FAVORITE MOVIE.......:"WALK THE LINE".

Blog Change!

It's time to give the ol TEAM T "almostgunlaker" blog a new look........It is now in memory of:

The Man in Black.

JOHNNY CASH LYRICS "Man In Black"

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,Why you never see bright colors on my back,

And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.
And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,Believen' that we all were on their side.
Well, there's things that never will be right I know,And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,You'll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,

'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.

Here's Johnny, June, and John Carter (his son).

Staying Positive

My wife got me back for taking a picture of her sleeping........So it gave me this idea for a post:

"Attitude"

I have found that life is made up of 10% what happens to you and 90% of how you respond.



In an effort to remain positive about my current situation, I would tell you that I have found the following benefits to 3rd shift:

1. I get the whole bed to myself! (even though I have to wear ear plugs) There is nothing better than stretching out in the bed and having it ALL TO YOURSELF!

2. TRAFFIC! I get to drive in and watch all the traffic on the opposite side of the freeway while I enjoy my drive in and out of work TRAFFIC FREE!

3. I can't think of any other good reasons but I'm tryin' to be positive. There is nothing "normal" about being up when it's dark and sleeping when it is light out! However, the body does adjust.

My New Love!

Kylie "Love at First Sight" from her "Fever" album.

Thought that I was goin' crazy
Just like one of those games
Didn't know what to do
Then there was you.

and everything went from wrong to right
and stars came out and filled the sky
The music you were playin' really blew my mind

It was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!

Was tired of runnin' out of love
Thinkin' bout' givin up
Didn't know what to do
Then there was you!

Baby when I held you for the first time
Baby, I knew we were meant to be as one!

Are you tired? I am! Tired. Very Tired. Today I got relief.

I have slammed red bulls, snorted "Pixie Stick" candy, ate whole sugar cubes, and drank Mountain Dew like it is going out of style to try and get some energy......Well today friends, I FOUND THE MAGIC ENERGY DRINK!



After feeling absolutely overwhelmingly drained for the duration of this hell I work on 3rd shift I finally FINALLY got some energy! Its my new friend!

Its called ACAI 3 Extreme Energy Formula. Its made from ACAI berries from the AMAZON! I haven't felt this rested, awake, and aware for about 3 years......No booze in it.....Just all natural berries.....One ounce is all you need to take.....It lasted about 13 hours for me. No, I'm not selling it. But you should try it! It may even help me with all the gnats flying around in my head......

and in the words of Kylie......

I just can't get you out of my head!

My Sister

This post is dedicated to my sister....Enjoy Ang!

Let me tell you about my sister.....She cares for her family and is a beautiful sweet (sometimes fiesty :-) ) woman...


She cooks....


She sews.....

Here she is with our dad and granddad....

God bless you sis!
She takes good care of her family..

UPDATE

Tally:

One week of HELL overtime + little sleep=FISHING ON LAKE MICHIGAN IN THE MORNING!

Logged 35 hours of overtime this week, it felt like 105 hours. KABLAMMIE!

Tommorow off to the Big Lake for ADVENTURE!!!!!!! POST TO FOLLOW SOON!

P.S.-Some have been probing questions about the hidden riddles on this blog. If you guess it, I'll tell you.

Do You Feel Overworked?

A note of encouragement for all those working more than their share.....A few quips about work:

Rule #1:
Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

Rule #2:
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor


Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.


And my own concoction:

The perfect plan was that we didn't have to work. Ever. But MAN screwed that up in the first 1/4 of the first day ever. So now we must work 3/4's of the time and get the other 1/4 to sleep.

Here's to a Perfect Gentleman

My sweet little buddy "Pepper" got hit by a car last night in front of my house. Seems that he got out of the house to chase me as I left to go fishing.


Here's to a PERFECT LITTLE GENTLEMAN.


See ya buddy.


I cut off a small clump of his hair, put it in a little baggie, and put it in my tackle box. Now he can always be my fishing buddy.....

The Prodical Son

The boy, my only son, is GONE. TOOK OFF TODAY WHILE I WAS FISHING. GONE. GONE. The dog apparently ran off while I was fishing. Shame on me for not taking him with me. Probably ran off looking for me. GONE.


GONE



GONE



GONE

Happy Labor Day!

This must be what Labor Day is about?