Dudleys Diary

the other day. They are recent shed antlers that came off of the WRS Ranch down in the Texas Hill Country where Dudley and Frank and Jeff went hunting last December. Dudley is going to let Frank make himself a pair of rattling antlers with these. Dudley has an old set of antlers he used for many years he got back in the mid 80's. They were given to him by an old man who was a caretaker on a big ranch in Navarro County. The ranch was one of the first ranches in the state that was high fenced. It was owned by a family with a lot of old oil money. The caretaker took Dudley on a tour of the ranch and through the massive hunting and fishing lodge on the property. Dudley was impressed with the many game mounts from all over the world and the photos on the walls of past adventures. Many of the photos looked like they were decades old. Dudley was there on business but really enjoyed talking to the old man about the deer on the property. Dudley still has those old rattling antlers but they are dried out and don't sound as good as a fresh set. Dudley never did kill a buck he had rattled up but did rattle up quite a few including a couple of mature bucks he would have liked to have shot. Problem was he was hunting on a ranch and only had permission to take spikes and does so Dudley just had to watch the big bucks. It was exciting and Dudley is glad to have had the experience. Maybe Frank will get lucky someday and do something Dudley never did. Rattle up a buck and shoot it, man that would be a thrill!

with Dudley's roofer. The verdict was no damage which was somewhat of a surprise since several homes nearby have had their insurance company pay for new roofs since last springs hail storms. Dudley's roofer admitted that the damage was just not there. It was worth a try, hopefully the damn Insurance Company won't use this as an excuse to deny my coverage. They like to collect those premium dollars but they get a little touchy sometimes when a policy holder has the audacity to file a claim.

to inspect his roof. We had some hail last summer and since then have noticed a few leaks in the interior of the house. More and more homes in the area have been getting their insurance companies to inspect for damage and have been getting new roofs. Dudley has a roofer that has looked at the roof and thinks there is enough damage to warrant replacement. Will know more tomorrow afternoon. Dudley worked for fifteen years in the Insurance Claims business and am so glad to be out of that rat race. Dudley handled mostly severe bodily injury/fatality claims for the majority of the fifteen years he spent in the claims business. Dudley knows just enough about the property claims field to be dangerous and to make an adjuster's life miserable if they wrongly deny his claim.

the other day. It was taken by a duck hunter during a recent hunt. It reminded Dudley of the countless hours he has spent in his life, hunting and fishing in God's great outdoors. We spend most of our lives inside four walls, at least the majority of us do. Nearly all of Dudley's time is spent inside these days. Dudley misses all of the times he spent in a boat out on a lake fishing and just enjoying the solitude and the scenery. Also missed are the many hours he used to spend every deer season silently waiting in a deer stand or perched up on the side of a tree waiting, listening and watching for a deer to make an appearance. Dudley remembers seeing geese fly overhead and listening to their calls. He remembers sitting on the edge of a cut over corn field one morning when a flock of ten thousand red wing black birds landed just yards away in front of Dudley's wide eyes. They fed momentarily and then just as suddenly as they had dropped out of the sky they took off with a mighty roar with the sun glistening off of dark black wings with the brightest red and yellow colors you could imagine filling the sky. The photo above shows one of those sights that every outdoors man or woman sees every once in a great while. While fleeting, Dudley remembers seeing sights of spectacular beauty that were awe inspiring. In Dudley's eyes such beauty could only be created by the hand of God.

after his old one started having issues. Dudley's old phone was a Motorola and this time he is taking a chance with a Sony because it has a better quality camera built in. Hopefully the phone won't be a piece of crap. They all look good online and in the store but you really don't know what you are getting until you open the box and use it for a while. The old phone was less than two years old before it started falling apart. It will be a pain transferring all of the old phone numbers and photos and videos from the old to the new phone. Looking on the bright side Dudley has plenty of time on his hands to compete that task. Hopefully the phone will work out OK for Dudley. Dudley spent over an hour looking at the customer reviews of the model cell phones he was considering. You have to look at the overall rating and take a chance. They all had some reviews that said "this is the worst cell phone ever" but you hope they just got a lemon. At any rate they never last more than a year or two so Dudley will have to live with his choice good or bad. That's kind of the way life is, you make your decisions and live with the consequences.

afternoon. Extraordinary Measures is about a fathers quest to try and find a cure for a debilitating neuro muscular disease that two of his three young children suffer from. The movie is based on a true story and the disease is Pompe disease and is rare. Dudley read there are only around 2,000 cases in the United States. The disease is genetic and can show up at birth in which case the children don't usually survive to adult hood. There is an adult onset form of the disease in which case the life span is much longer but usually is shortened due to the many complications of the disease. Dudley suffers from a form of Muscular Dystrophy but the exact type has not been determined. Dudley's neurologist thinks he may suffer from Pompe disease and Dudley is going to undergo some DNA testing in the near future to see if perhaps he is suffering from this disease. It is a long shot but it would be nice to know a definite diagnosis. Pompe disease is also the only form of Muscular Dystrophy for which there is a drug which has been shown to treat the disease effectively. It will not cure the disease but can stop the progression and possibly reverse it's effects to some extent. Dudley enjoyed the movie and thinks it was worth seeing. Dudley walked away feeling blessed after seeing the young children dealing with this dreaded disease. Dudley has had a much better life than those poor kids could ever hope for. Now those kids have a chance, at some kind of a life. That's all anyone can hope for. And if it turns out Dudley has this disease, there is hope that he can get this treatment at some point in the future. Hopefully before it is too late for Dudley.

to get his income taxes figured for 2009. Dudley got a call yesterday evening with the good news. Dudley and wife are getting another tax refund this year! Dudley got Frank's return completed as well and he was disappointed to learn his refund this year was going to be a lot smaller than in years past. I explained that is because he is single and his income keeps increasing so he gets to pay more and more taxes each year. Every ones taxes are going to increase drastically in the future given the way the Federal Government keeps spending money. Maybe it is time for Texas to secede from the Union.