Phil is a man of many stories. He has said many times 'I should have written down all the hunts I guided, the people met, etc.'
I'm going to try and capture some for him.
Yesterday, while out at the pool lounging (here in Palm Desert) we were talking about something that got him to remember two coaches that had fished at the ranch.
This is how our conversations start. (This paragraph was been updated since talking to Phil to get the right city). My two friends who were visiting us for 3 days had left 'our' place here in Palm Desert and Phil and I were visiting and chatting. Santa Barbara was mentioned in our conversation. We were talking about Pam's daughter attending UC Santa Barbara. Well, then Phil remembered a coach from UC Santa Barbara who would come to the Wyoming Ranch to fish along with another coach from UCLA. He said their names, but I can't remember them:) And then, he shares how one was a great guy, and the other an arrogant dick.
Well, the first offered him a referee job, which he took. Phil was a basketball ref for various levels - high school, college. That's another chapter in Phil's life. We could go down that rabbit hole too, for days, regarding the adventures encountered on trips taken to referee games (like when other refs get to drinking after games and then want Phil to drive the 3 hours home in the dark and snow, or the food eaten in the hospitality rooms because refs are too cheap to go out and eat - and the food had been sitting there for hours, and they got sick), or epic winter storms driven through (which then leads into that one time when he was in college and his team's bus broke down and they had to walk 12 miles home, late at night, and thank goodness he didn't eat the homemade sauerkraut at the dorm because everyone at home had been in the toilet all night from food poisoning) and the games where he and Rosy or another ref had to be escorted out of the gym so they wouldn't be accosted by mad parents... See how this works? Start with one story and Segway into another!
OK, back to the coaches from the California Universities. Well, one of them, who moved to Wyoming, I think the one from San Diego, had asked Phil if he could bring his deceased dog out to the ranch and if Phil would bury it at the ranch. Phil said yes. If you know Phil, you know he steps up to help regardless of the why. So, they take the dog up to a special place, that Phil knew was sandy, and Phil starts digging. He gets a good plot made, and the coach wants it deeper, 'I don't want badgers digging him up'. So, Phil keeps digging and gets to his waist. Coach still wants it deeper. Phil keeps digging, up to his armpits and says 'that's enough'. He has to crawl out of the plot. They bury the dog. Coach is happy.
Well, coach dies sometime later and his wife calls saying dog #2 died, and can she bring him out to be burred. Phil says yes. He said this time it was a shallow grave, and they stacked rocks on top. He wasn't going to dig another deep plot like coach wanted!
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