From The Editor

I think my neighbors think I’m a crazy man. I am quite certain my wife Sandy does, but I think she just lacks the ability to appreciate certain things the way I do. At the ripe old age of 41 my senses have matured, enhanced, refined if you will, much further than her 26 year old senses. My ears hear differently and the things that excite me are a bit foreign to her.

This was most recently noted on a crisp and sunny Monday in the recent past when I was happier than you will ever find me on any other day of the year. Labor Day, just typing the words makes me smile. I have quite a ritual that I perform on that day that I have found not to be shared with any other person I have ever met. You see, that is the day that in my mind, that everyone who fills up the camping sites, uses my favorite fishing hole and crowds my hiking trails making relaxing an impossibility, go back as I say to “Wherever the %@#* they came from”. I am sure that they feel the same way about their special niche, so it all evens out in my mind.

As I make it a point to drive on the roads that day I wish a big baaaaaaa-bye to every RV I pass, followed by a laugh. I guess that would not be too unusual except for the fact that I do it out loud as opposed to in my head. I blare Jimmy Buffet’s “Come Monday” repeatedly throughout the day and get pretty euphoric about the exodus of the ‘infringing element” I have endured for three full months. I remind Sandy (and the neighbors in passing), about how the air smells different and how much less claustrophobic I feel, thus in my mind demonstrating my refined senses and tastes. This is not amusing to my lovely wife who is at this point trying to hide behind the dashboard as we drive down the road. What can I say, I love fall. It is a contagion I caught when I lived in the Colorado Rockies.

While it used to be the same experience there as I have now in Pennsylvania, it was more like the experience on lithium having Rocky Mountain National Park in my backyard. Just knowing all of the wonderful things that are happening in the next few weeks and months always made me really excited on my special Monday. The cooler days and excellent sleeping nights with windows open, the smell and sights of the forest in the fall are just getting harder and harder to describe but easier to appreciate with age. I think that is because they are becoming so much more meaningful in life as I realize they are indeed numbered. I am sure that one day Sandy will come back out from under the dash and be able appreciate the experience of the season the way I do, hopefully she will help me pass the feelings on to our children minus the over-the-top aspect the old man has. Until then I will just have to settle for being dubbed crazy, I’m kewl with that.

Welcome to the latest installment of the Water and Woods Online magazine. Our crack staff of Authors have again put together another excellent line-up of material to help prime the tap for fall fishing and hunting. It certainly furthered my anxiety just reading about scouting for elk, fishing for grayling, hunting in Alaska and a sure fire way to zero a recurve bow with the right hardware. If you like big woods whitetails, well get a load of the contribution from Steve Sherk who aspires to join the ranks of the group as a staff writer, more to come on that. Add in the others and presto another great issue.

On a final note, there are so many new things going on at the site that our magazine will take on a new feel and value as we launch with this issue. We are all striving to make a great experience for you the readers, in hopes that you not only enjoy what we bring you, but that you want to share it with others. There are even more offerings coming that will help Water and Woods stand out as a premier place to hang out and grab the best in gear and information. We hope you like the new look and feel as you get ready to head outdoors into the new look and feel of fall 2008.