Cut off from the world, connnected?

I am at the motel, and because I stepped into the virtual world of the internet, bloggers and Facebook - I have been connected to the past few minutes, days and hours. And my contact with all the present people that are here to meet is totally gone as I find when I return to a locked door. It is lunch time, there are other places to be - in the end much of this is a moving conversation about our lives in otherwheres and othertimes - and when a few of us step out of the moving voice and herd - and don't stay linked by cellphone nor texting.... why we have just disappeared.

Oh, I could go take care of the stuff I have to do in preparation of departing tomorrow, or start early preparation for this evenings activities which are just a dressier-up moving conversation at another location with food and beverages - skipping lunch to have room for the dinner is like stepping out of the conversation so my mind will have room for listening and speaking intently in the brief time I will have... flavor of food and drink improves with the rarity? Does the coversation and contact of limited but engaged presense make it more memoriable? Certainly, combat to the death will always be remembered long after the critical moment - so should love shared be that rare and deep that a few minutes out of the year are thirst quenching?

Read a short journal note about a soldier marching with his unit towards Gettysburg, and a Northern woman offering him a drink of milk. Having been on long marches, I know I would have written about that drink as he did. It would be that rare and still that wonderful - memoriable.

Col. David Ireland's 137th NY on the Road to Gettysburg - his bugler appreciates their reception in Frederick - "sweet milk" and "pretty girls":
James Hyde diary entry:
June 29: We started this morning very early before we got our breakfast. We marched through Frederick just after daylight. This is a very pleasant pla...ce not quite as large as Binghamton. Flags were hung out all through the village and lots of pretty girls were at the windows. Our march today was very hard as the road was full of wagons and the reserve artillery. We passed some Union families and one woman gave to the soldiers all she had to eat. I got some sweet milk. A great deal was given away in this way. We marched 20 miles.

 

From Cleutz on Facebook, this is a great time to re-enact the battle.

 

I visit the Memorial... for all the right reasons...

With time to kill I ride my Trusty Triumph to find Soldiers Field and the Veterans Memorial. My aunt made sure that her brothers were honored there, she may have encouraged others in the family to contribute to the effort - but she made it happen. Normally, I would jog to the park, up the River Walk and into the park for visiting the Memorial but I have't a home nor hotel room yet and I am still riding. I turned into the park on 9th S, and decided to ride across the bridge - about halfway I figured this is meant as a pedestrian or bicycle bridge, but I don't do U-turns on bridges and I continued into the park to find the road I should have been cruising.

Still there, very impressive, I park and go to find the named markers, Lynn E Dungey and Donald D Dungey. They haven't moved, although the engraving is deep enough, the letters haven't been darkened. That is okay, my father wouldn't want to confront anyone and disturb them. I always use the engravings on the wall to find the markers. My cousin Merl flew Chinooks in Vietnam and I jumped from perfectly good (according to the Aircrews that would talk to us) with a parachute in mass tactical formations - may all your jumps be only simulated combat.

It was comforting to sit and think about all those men honored by this Memorial. What disturbed my tranquility was the American flag flying as a streamer... it wasn't connected on the lower grommet to the lanyard, and since it was electronic, I couldn't correct it. Pictures to follow at 11. Then I walked around the whole thing, reading the Revisionist History presented. This is Minnesota, and they do have a tolerance for Political Correctness. Most of the state is working too hard for the politicians to disturb them much. But none of the facts fit the World History - exactly - as I would have taught it.

Do you ever wonder if the records of Babylon, Egypt or Rome would have had the same problem, those with political points to make - and honor - and increase their personal power, may never had any truth within them? That whole Mayan Calendar deal was likely just a curse on someone's family and their time remaining. I should take a few days and write that autobiography - so everyone will know that I really never meant to hurt anyone and I was only doing it for posterior's sake. Should have done everything for the glory of the Lord and the love everywhere.

Here I am and I will now go get some duds....

I have arrived, unexpected but by twelve they will have a room for me. So there is Walmart and a motorcycle shop to visit until... others arrive and I am prepared to join the family.

This sounds like a Facebook post.

So how tough was that ride?

I see that NFO mentioned the death of blogging - or that some bloggers aren't anymore.

I have my excuse, it is so fascinating to read Facebook.  But then I don't text either so am not typical.

I am in Albert Lea, Minnesota. That is Freeborn County, which I have always held to be a great name for a County and a people. This is where I come from, my mother used the hospital here and brought me into the world.

I do have to find some coffee, the unit in the room doesn't make it - how I figure out that I have outlived my usefulness, the machines are all smarter than I.

Rained upon me gently in the Cascades, dressed for it in Montana, took the rainsuit off and put back on in Montana (Montana is just like Texas - it is forever and you are still in Montana). Large chunks of the trip have been places so beautiful that one wishes they weren't traveling at seventy-five trying to stay upright on two wheels. But get your eyes back on the road, Earl. I like South Dakota's I-90 better than Minnesota's. Seems that the road buckles up and gives you a bump to bounce you and make you wake in Minnesota - probably a design feature. There don't seem to be as many windmills as I remember passing before here - but then that was in the dark and I was counting red blinking lights....

My trip has been really improved by my taking a little time to talk to strangers on the move, too. What we talked about gives me more hope for their future and not having network news to monitor my errant thoughts while on the Trusty Triumph has likely cleared tons of garbage from my mind. I had only two hymns to repeat over and over as I rode, I should have many more and likely do when someone else gets the music started.

Well, go get some coffee. Y'all play well while I am gone.

I am off!

See how relaxed I can be at a picnic? Goodtime had by all.

Off to church, then the highway.

So I am off to the English Ministry picnic at North Fort of JBLM...

Although my mind is on I-90 to Rochester, Minnesota - all 1782 miles worth, with a couple of detours for visiting and viewing (I was thinking scenic highway in the Badlands of South Dakota). The Google Map program tells me I should make it in 26 hours at about seventy miles per hour. With fuel and rest stops and say hellos it should take more - but not as long as a trail drive or slow ox cart nor the buffalo migration.

I am traveling light, only leathers, rain gear and snacks. Regular food stops will only be at Subway - can't wait to get to Sheridan and see if the Visitor Center will still allow me to find Facebook and my email. No I am not taking any electronics of my own - that rainstorm wiped out too much that last trip. Just my little camera in a zip lock bag.

So if you are somewhere on my route, and you want to say hello, just get on your motorcycle and catch me, if you can. Or, say something before I leave the church on Sunday. I had better cut the lawn before dark tonight. Take care and God bless all your best.

Don't I love missing all the 'new culture'...

I loved reading Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm series, and they don't write them like that anymore. So I just finished the latest Jack Reacher in my local library, while I wait for some other requests of books by long dead authors. And it was well written, kind of, it was interesting and I could see how only Jack Reacher could help the FBI in Nebraska and Iowa as he was on his way to Virginia.

But as the bodies start falling in conflict with Jack, he hasn't found one man with a knife in his pocket so he has to use a key to cut through some kind of tape holding an FBI undercover agent to a chair. WHAT? Jack doesn't have a jack knife? What kind of man is that? Then I remembered the author is from England and likely thinks all knives have to be registered. Or, even worse, there are now more people not carrying a knife with a sharp edge and a pointy point. Because TSA won't allow them to travel, because they might cut themselves or decide to stab some poor person twenty-seven times before they cut their heart and liver out to eat - like the rebels in Syria have been video taped doing. I do know, having seen inmates use them, keys can be used to cut through a lot of stuff, even as a poor weapon but better than nothing.

Well, I am trying to get better, and I bought Pacific DVD set and a DVD set about the Korean War - so since I must wait another day to get my motorcycle back from the shop, he actually said I might think about new tires, but I will see if I can make Minnesota on the ones I have - I have only 31,000 plus miles on the bike and it is the second set of tires on now.  Maybe it is time, I will keep my eye on them.

I think that America should withdraw entirely from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. And continue to send women as ambassadors to all Muslim countries. But then you do understand that Earl doesn't put more money into bribing my enemies nor worrying about their feelings based on their culture or illusions of importance. And Earl will never be asked to represent America to the world.

And lastly, since Good Morning America and other news shows have continued to point out to Earl and the rest of their audiences that Kim Kar- and Paris Hil- had to release sex tapes to become important and famous. Well, I never saw the tapes, and I am not releasing any of mine. Like I would do more than those few I have done on my shooting. Time to go read one of those dead authors. 

Perceptions abound... all around...

My wife doesn't want me to be a Muslim man, she wanted me to wear shorts at the YMCA yesterday. Color me shocked and shy.  Personally I don't care if I don't wear any clothes for myself unless it is cold or wet. But I can walk around naked all day - what my mother instilled in me was not to affront anyone else - so if I cover myself it isn't because I am sure I have something to hide but that you really aren't interested. Just an old wrinkled fat man, balding and not beautiful. God sees right through fig leaves and into one's soul.

So I did, I wore shorts all day at the YMCA and will again today, it doesn't matter to Earl, I will sweat and clean up after I am finished with the machines. I was in my normal running shorts on my jogs this week, trying to find that run stride. I seem stuck in jog, maybe I should try skipping a bit, and some silly prancin'?

ONCE UPON a time, a younger Earl was a jogger and road runner, and thought that 3 miles just wasn't enough and certainly not cool. So since my trot around the block is 3.1 miles I am not happy, if it were only a 5k. It always sounds farther in metric, doesn't it?

Rifleslinger has issues - isn't that the way the women would say it? He shoots well, except he wants to shoot better than that... and awesome is where I would rate him. Roberta doesn't see the same person I do in this picture, but her expectations color her view. Her description of riding that machine did no justice to the cool. And the PC leadership making politicians happy are working on making women be all the can be in the services. I remember wanting to be a Ranger, wear the tab and such. But I never wanted them to change the standards so I could play. Watch Blackhawk Down again, and tell me where you wanted to put those women in that battle. Where did you want them? The military is supposed to defend the country and win the wars. Everything else isn't worth paying for, you could put women in the IRS and they can go farther, and the TSA is in need, so there are positions to be filled, just not in the combat arms - Ripley was a creation of the movies. Alien and Ripley have about the same reality in my reason.

Other women told my wife she had a handsome husband, but they need glasses may no longer be married and always could have no standards -- for sure, I am not interested in other's perceptions. They might think America has a reason to worry over Syria. Isn't Afghanistan enough?

Depart from ordinary...

Somehow, I missed weighing, medicating and measuring yesterday -- and I didn't expire.  didn't eat the right foods either - and didn't suffer the loss, nor the less.

Totally a great day, now back to the regular scheduled program.

What were you going to be when you grew up?

I was always going to be a real soldier - but I also knew I was going to be a DAD.

I never knew my father - the way my brother and sisters did. I would only have glimpses of the husband my mother married. I was the first child I had to break trail, negotiate new rules, learn to live in our house and quietly go out to conquer my world. He would always be there when I fell on my face, busted my nose, wrecked the motorcycle we had rebuilt together - he had the wrench turning down to a science - I just had the desire for freedom.

We didn't talk enough, he left when I had finally found my adult voice and I was a proud father with a son going to Europe on his first long tour. I am of the personal opinion that he didn't want to put up with my mother's fiftieth wedding anniversary, and he didn't want to go out like his father - long, slow and feeling useless. He knew that we have lots of widows in our families and few widowers. He slipped away while my mother wasn't looking.

I was really lucky to have had my father - free haircuts as long as I lived at home, standards I could grow into or I would hear about it. Questions about why I wanted, or would or what had I done - he wanted to share life with me. I never saw his life, he would have shared - I don't care what one says - men hardly talk or the conversation is critical. I did better with his teasing.

You know, of all my regrets, I can never be the fine father he was. Didn't have enough children, and I never ever saw him run anywhere - especially in an emergency. I hope I handled all the emergencies with his poise.

If you want my opinion of the world's troubles - they didn't have the benefit of my father's care. Looking at my cousins, around the world, they seem to have done well - similar fathers? Actually, since their fathers, and mine, were very quietly focused on our Heavenly Father that seems to have been a key. And I won't ever be that good either, but I am trying .

We know they are monitoring everything...

Yes we do know. Subject of books for years, a government that will control us, watch us, pick us off one by one. New books come out where the person disappears - goes off the grid. And the government fears that. 

Verizon fears losing all its customers, but most of you think you must have a telephone, many think it should be in your pocket, with email, GPS and instant gratification.

So, as I watch the business news, I remember that much of the turmoil on Wall Street, or any market is information, and knowing  before the market moves, and the computers are faster and faster - the movement of money is so quick. So does SEC monitor the phones? the waves? Do you understand why messengers are used to keep secrets? Yeah, same system that George Washington used - send the mail and have trusted agents to do your work.

Well, so off the grid, no GPS broadcasting thingy in my pocket, on my wrist, under my skin and the Sunshine calls me to the road this morning.  One day it will be illegal to drop off the monitoring not that anyone beside computers will be looking at the trillion of bits and bytes. Yes, it will.

TGIF it is a great day to be Thankfull for...

So shouldn't every Friday be great? I think so...

I am feeling a bit tired, have been at the YMCA working out and getting that hard body, which I can only find portions on on me - after I have been pumping iron and working out a bit. So I put the garbage cans on the curb had breakfast and coffee and prepared to get the Trusty Triumph out the doors and down to the shop for service and safety checks.

I heard the ravens mobbing some predator bird and looked to see which one, if I could find it. I did it wasn't flying but perched upon a limb in the edge of the Green Belt - the back woods, behind the backyard. So I pulled my little Canon out and zoomed in to get the shot. So I could share how cool it is to be backward backwoodsy kind of folk. Too Cool.

I started my bike up, got properly prepared (sunglasses under full face helmet, gloves) and rode off a little. Then stopped and took some more pictures - this has no telephoto lens, just 4x by 4 digital. Pretty good for a cigarette pack size camera without film.

 It was lightly drizzling as I went, not even enough to wash off the bugs on the shield. Get to the shop, talk to the mechanic, get my order in, and then wander around looking at all the other bikes on display, talking to the other male customers about motorcycles, gear and goings (one is thinking about Iowa to see parents) - I mention going off to Minnesota soon. We talk fool experiences a bit (when we were wrong and it laid down). When my wife picked me up for the trip to the YMCA -- I realized it was just like talking firearms and shooting at the range. There may be bigger or better but this one is mine - and all that I can do with it - this one is mine.

At the YMCA I hit a few machines and worked some calories and heated up. And as it is the end of the YworkWeek (I may go tomorrow - but will probably shoot and cut grass instead). I feel like the Tea display I caught as I got my 24 oz of  black coffee from the barista. And a nap and covers is in the immediate future. Have a great weekend and make the NSA jealous, and the IRS plotting to get you cause you rock and don't have fears enough without them hounding you.

Pork Belly and six left turns to go...

A high school friend catching up after forty plus years told me proudly that she had abs, finally. Which was not impressive to Earl as it was to her. I was more impressed by her position in career choices and  business success - is it a guy thing? But I have long known about the recliner fat feature of where your fat pools as you laze back and mindlessly entertain the brain. And even working men don't normally look like the WWE hunks, unless you have been following the old school ones like Brute Benard with his big belly.

All that came to mind as I did my skin cancer self examinations, always looking for signs of trouble. As I pulled skin around and tightened it, I found I had abs! Which I had seen before in High School football locker room in about 1964. Presently they are hidden behind that pork belly that is much looser and doesn't protrude like it has in the recent years. So the time spent working out (rowing and biking and some weight machines) at the YMCA has been positive for my fitness and health. But then I do have time, I am so retired.

Anyway, the showers are scattered today, so in the break I decided to go for a gentle jog - just to prove I can still do it, slowly and steadily. It is away from electronic tethers, and only the spy satellites will wonder as I wander about what I am doing away from the forms of electronic monitoring - ie, Blogger, Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, Outlook and cablevision service. I took my best thoughts, started out with a prayer for World Peace and then moved on to other religious reasoning, interrupted by story lines of heroic action adventures of Earl (only I will ever know what difference a daydream will make). So, fifty three minutes and fifty seconds later I am back home safe and sounder than when I departed.

Time for breakfast and more coffee - a day is a whole twenty-four hours to make.
 

So, what me worry?

No, I am not worried about the government having all my data, emails, letters, calls and history of everything Earl has ever done. I will go to war with the government if they declare war on me - and I know the government doesn't have any real control of any or all its agents. Case in point, all the current problems with truth and perceptions on the media, the number of assaults by soldiers upon other service members, or rogue IRS, 

They do hide behind what they call the law. IF the agent does something illegal, it must be investigated and pondered. If Earl does something illegal, Earl gets arrested and threatened until Earl pleads guilty to maybe a lesser charge. Notice a difference?

Studying History, I will give you a great Christian institution to look at: The Roman Catholic Church under the Pope. The need to protect the faith from false preaching, values, Muslims and Jews, and a few Wiccans and Witches&Warlocks working for the Devil.  They created the Inquisition, and it grew in power as it threatened the population into compliance and quiet. And they could get you and keep your soul from Heaven, or so they thought. The English monarchy used religion for centuries to suppress the efforts of the Pope. Half the war on the Irish was because they wouldn't convert to a Protestant faith, all the Irish war with the English was because the English and Scots weren't Irish nor well behaved tourists.

I am sure that people can design programs for computers to influence human activity, look at the last Presidential election. I am sure I wasn't influenced - but I am smarter than the computer and the programmers and most certainly than the President's party and staffers. Look at the mess they have made of the country that they control - truly anti-Rights laws (about guns, guys) passed stupidly.  Same kind of politicians in Washington DC as in the Blue State governments. But there is talk of splitting from New York, California, Illinois and Colorado and forming a new state from the Red State folks held in bondage by the Blue State folks in charger there.  Check out West Virginia, they had differences with the Old Dominion in Richmond. The Civil War settled the question about leaving the Union, but established the precedent of counties leaving a state.

I would like all Americans to decide to disconnect from the services that have complied and assisted the government (GOOGLE!) in capturing the truth? about all the folks. At least the folks on line, using telephones - those that hand write their communications, or meet face to face only have to worry about security cameras, and the Gestapo, which we don't have because we don't speak German and have NAZI party in charge - do we?

If I win the Lottery, I will pay my taxes and my tithe, then give some money away (my wife will tell me to whom) and then buy some land and leave. Y'all be good and be blest mightily. Don't worry about the government - they only tied in Korea, lost in Vietnam and blunder about making the world afraid of their power projections - mainly because they are so irrational.

So you are going to change

Restless night, and sure enough some things aren't the same in the morning. More improvement in my health and will have to work on the fitness. That second step is going to be slower, but has to happen.

Just one aside: the fellow that ran to Hong Kong after exposing the NSA to the same attention the NSA subjects the world.... that was a great paying job you left. Also, no matter that our people know what the government was doing and could do with what they have --- we already know the godless Chinese Communists are hacking away to get the same information - or the portions they would like. Hasn't anyone heard of data sharing? Spies looking at spies, bad governments looking at the other bad governments - could write a book or two about that.

Now, the real problem isn't the gathering. It is what happens with it, don't give it to the terrible IRS, CIA, FBI, or Homeland Security. And since the elected officials and their fine civil servants seem to have no sense of shame, honor nor competency - don't let them have it either unless it is shredded first.

Anyway, my paper targets shouted at me instead of politely talking to me. The problems with paper data. it isn't as hidden as the computer files -- right in my face on my desk. Well, have had breakfast and on my third mug of coffee, the sunshine outside calls to me, have much to do and places to be. Don't blog forever!
LIVE!!!!

You can find everything on the internet...

The President is who?

Might not be true, he could be a French model.

Ah, is my face red!

One Appleseed in Washington was canceled so I got to go to Oregon to shoot at an Appleseed there this weekend, at the Douglas Ridge range - which is having some land use problems because of the discovery of wetlands! Everything in the west of the Great Northwest is wetlands, flood plain or tidal waters - water, watter everywhere and then it rains! Wetlands indeed!

Anyway, as I drove the three hours down to the range in Oregon, I thought about how the movement of shooting has crested - partly from the cost of shooting stuff, and partly from the cost of living and gasoline. But mostly because handling of firearms safely and proficiently and learning about the Heritage of 19 April, 1775 will get you bombed up by Cheicken Terrorist without a cause, or even have some government agency notice your activity and send the IRS or the FBI SWAG to your doorstep. What was Nathaniel Harrington doing on the green in Lexington on 19 April 1775? Well, maybe the terrorists will only attack the large crowds watching the runners and  not families on a rifle range in the middles of somewhere... Well, everyone get back on the streets and announce the opportunity to learn marksmanship to 4MOA and the Heritage and tell them to visit RWVA forum for more information.

Well, I arrived (early) I was noticed and greeted and became a good thing to talk about the good old days. Not only all the instructors but the returning shooters from Appleseeds years ago. It was good, and I even made some new buddies. Other old men from long ago wars, and younger men working for a Rifleman patch.

Including me, twenty shooters, just enough to make the words flow and the shooting slow down. So, no matter what Fred has said about fewer words and quicker training, it can get away from our best efforts and good intentions. They did one AQT by the end of the day, they had the two Redcoat targets, all positions, transitions and marksmanship and safety were taught, just not as much practice. Since we had an AQT and some good shooters returning from other Appleseeds, there were two that earned a Rifleman patch. No pictures since they may have declined - many did, and they NSA and Homeland Security will have to look for satellite coverage to find out who got the patch.

I never got to the AQT except to staple one up on my target backer. Seems that I am healthy, after having troubles last year - but that doesn't mean I am fit to fight. Or do the transitions from standing to seated or prone quickly with the muzzle in a safe direction. I need many more dry practice getting up and down with a rifle without making everyone in the general area afraid.  I also see a need for speed - even giving up two shots will still need a faster surrender to gravity and the ground.

Anyway, I supported a black powder shooter mounting a scope on his rifle - I talked he worked. I also got lots of sunshine and sunburn (yes. I had sunscreen, but one must apply it). So, looking at my targets (bad enough that I didn't take pictures for sharing, but did take the paper to shred in a controlled environment - home!) It was great to shoot the M1 Garand (always) and I did improve - someone should buy me a bunch of ammunition or reloading components and I can continue to improve. Still, without the live ammunition - the dry practice, including the transitions from standing to seated and prone, are what I must improve and can afford to do. The difference between healthy and fit is HUGE!

You do understand the danger, don't you?

I could be talking about the Federal Reserve Banking or the Pentagon or the stupidity of Governors of states that are fools in charge -- lots of dangers but they are now coming to a point.

I was left alone yesterday and started watching television between bouts of well written war stories. Sure enough I was traumatized. The telephone rang, but I couldn't answer it.

Seems that the National Security Agency has been conspiring with Verizon to publish my telephone to my enemies. So the twenty times my wife claims to have called the house that I never answered - it was because I was paralyzed by my fears of  being found in contact with her.

I have thought about disconnecting, just cancelling the telephone service entirely. Since the cable company, Comcast, has a telephone and computer connection I could use that - or I could get a dish.... but then upon more paranoid reflection, I now know that they are giving up information, too. They are everywhere, EVERYWHERE!

Only that service, but my free Google and Facebook, seem to have been designed to mine my mind - to know what I am thinking, want to buy, indulge in, or vote for. The Cable companies know what the television is tuned to, they use the information to sell ad space. Control freaks everywhere. So harmless, aren't they?

But if it were only one political party, or two, or one business I wanted to work with, for or against - that is something even very old folks could handle. But it isn't the President, any of the last sixteen or so, but the larger groups of employees of the various levels of government, the unions, the law enforcement forces without work, those depending on government goodness delivered monthly.

You ask how I know there is a problem? The Internal Revenue Service has become the cancer on the Constitution, but the spin offs new caneers in the FBI, FEMA, and the Agriculture Department. It just doesn't pay to play, it isn't the Congresspeople, the Executive Branch - it is the low level wild clerk in the catalog system of the Congressional Library that is conspiring to make you all better, for your own good.

Ron Paul tried to warn you, so did Benjamin Franklin, add Earl - I won't say I told you so, since this communication has been monitored. Pascali's Island is a fine story about what happens to empires that have so much information that 'no one reads it any longer'.

Go ahead, wear running shorts this morning...

Just because you put them on doesn't mean you have to go run, does it?

You do know it is D-Day, don't you? The D stands for day, the H stands for hour, and there were D-Days for every operation, H-Hours for the moment of attack. But D-Day is the Longest Day, the attack on Normandy - King Harold's Revenge? The Liberation of Europe. In 1984 I wanted to get to jump in the re-enactment - only gravity still works exactly as it did so long ago - I missed my chance. Still, I have walked the famous cliffs and beach, visited the graves and noticed how young most of the dead were, and what day they were killed, thousands of crosses and some stars - real Americans. Don't forget the Canadians, British and Free French - don't forget the Naval forces that had to get them there, the Air Corps that dragged the gliders, dropped the paratroopers, that bombed the heck of anything they suspected of being a strong point. When you drive around France, Normandy is beautiful, and the part still recovering from WWI is still recovering... all worth the visit with the spirits of the fallen. Although we have the movie industry, computer projections of real photographs - none of it would even come close to reading the books of those that survived and wrote it down. And each of those authors were self editing. D-Day.

Healing from illness, accident and trauma does take longer as one is now scheduled for slow destruction. Those growth hormones and careless youthful - time sense meant I don't really remember how long it took to get whole again.  I remember breaking a cast off my hand in the field at Fort Bragg - it was in my way. Now I have time to notice how long it is taking, and I can blog again and again how I am not as good even once as I once was... great song, Toby.

Just think, that the German response to the operations on Normandy was slow, imperfect and exactly wrong - and centralized in the leader. Don't allow that to happen in America, in America people step up and take charge and do stuff - waiting for leadership, good sense or perfection just won't get it done. Washington, DC will stonewall and lie, no matter what happens. Good luck with that as a survival technique.

78degrees and we are almost melted here in the Great NorthWest...

But a man has to do what a man has to do.... so I done it.

That was much better than it looks, and so  much fun!

Top Shot All Star edition....

Well, they finally stopped the drama of Reality television, and got back to head to head shooting and cool targets and cool firing devices. Still, I had quit watching after the second season, with just a couple of shows from the third it was so bad. Not the shooting, not that weapons, just the drama. Teams and voting off, so junior high school. It doesn't really matter, they will never invite me to play, and the really great shooters out there have sponsors, or have honor. Some may have both.

I spent the morning making sure the calendars were flipped, and found it didn't matter, my first two checks I wrote had May as the month - just until I looked up how to spell June. Went through two thousand dollars in just the time it took to write and stamp and address properly. Don't tell me there isn't inflation - I had just as much or more with less in 1973, and still have the books to prove it.

I did go and pick up my shooting jacket with the inside pocket for stuff, it will work. I also put wire fence up for the garden stuff to climb up, my wife is pleased and immediately tried to train the climbers onto the wire and up. Patience, dear they will find it. Will wear it this weekend at the Medicine Lake Appleseed. That will be a wrap for a bit. After I get back from that I start preparing for a motorcycle trip to Minnesota. Family reunion.

Okay I can put the guns away now... for a little bit

I rushed after a very light workout at the YMCA to the sewing shop to find out that they weren't ready and hadn't finished my jacket with the inside pocket improvement. Was a time I would have been upset, angry or irrational about it. I won't even tell you the name of the shop so you never darken their doors and fatten their pocketbook. I felt sorry for them. If I die soon enough they may never make any money from my request. Will pick it up on Monday.

I did like Idaho, visiting the Redneck Roost hobby farm, seeing the changes, and appreciating the wild life (that term would work on the Redneck clan if they weren't so grounded in good work).  No that is not the name of the place, but since edible farm animals are so picturesque, it fit my blog post. I should ask what they call the place, except home.
 
I was helping on the first day of the Appleseed at Lewiston. Only one shooter and three instructors - and if you think multiple instructors can be a problem, chiming in or adding comments and techniques, how would you like to be the only one of four that isn't sure of the language being used - since those three are speaking it so rapidly it can't be absorbed. Rain on Sun dried and baked clay - does no good.

Well, I did shoot at the end of the day and every day not shooting humans for their improvement is a great day to be a Rifleman when shooting. I busted all the times, single shot rifle is my excuse, the truth is closer to 'old and slow', but made a 210, barely. Didn't clean the Redcoat - but I still love that rifle and engaging with it. I still love my wife and engaging with her -- and will work on improving both relationships, knowing why and which is important.

Having had the joy of shooting beside the shooter, I am getting closer to the time I will think that instructors shooting beside shooters in an Appleseed might be good for the shooters. Not there yet, but could be convinced. I was sure that as level headed and polite as our shooter was - it wasn't comfortable having three sets of eyes on oneself as he is asked to perform things he hadn't perfected, yet.


At the table in Redneck's home, the conversation got around to my goals in work, the suggestion of teaching or tutoring Civics/Economics was put forward by Shawn. That was an interesting idea, and I will continue to mull upon it a bit. She was looking at in the Homeschooling realm. It does seem that my mind is a terrible thing to waste, having a life long experience with institutions I am leaning towards more work with real people that might be accepting of my help.

I need to call and make my reservations for Rochester, Minnesota 28-29 June, will leave here on Sunday afternoon heading hard and fast to the East, should still be light in Idaho when I get to the Redneck Roost. After that I will be sleeping on rest stop picnic tables and benches. Do you think I can get well measured at Men's Wearhouse in Tacoma and pick up a suit in Rochester from same company? I once wore a cousin's suit to be fit as his best man or groomsman at his wedding, but I am not a skinny fellow any longer.

I heard a comment about someone wishing you could carry guns in church, and that someone  would carry concealed. I told the speaker that people were carrying guns in church and that concealed is so those that fear guns won't be afraid. Criminals are carrying guns, I am sure in a state where one of seven has a Concealed Carry permit many would be carrying, always. If I weren't such a fat man I might be carrying, hardly seems to be room for me in my clothes some times. Spend more time at the YMCA, working on the yard, and start running the road again. I will only die once, may as well go doing what I love. Take care out there, another Appleseed weekend ahead and I might need to pick the one in Washington, and drop off the one in Oregon.