How does one do that...

  I had an unexpected great discussion with an older man at the YMCA, and I only mention that he was older because he thinks I am young... he was a priest and is now a former someone from financial management, that plays racquetball. Anyway, something in passing was said by me about being only a two issue voter - gun control and abortion, which stimulated him to discuss my views on gun control - we had an good enough conversation to get to the abortion issue after that was concluded. Neither of us moved our opinions of those issues, but did modify our knowledge and respect for the other man as we talked. Remember I am telling this story, doesn't have to be any truth to it.

  When I get back home after picking up fuel and fluids and saying hello to my chair bound wife, doctor follow up today. I went up on the internet and Facebook and find a picture of one of my FB friends, that was once in the firing battery where I served as 1st Sergeant.  I read the comments and left some of my own, and then had a couple of exchanges with others because of that.  Okay, except about four in the following morning I wake up to panic about how wrong I was about when and where and who the Battery Commander was at that time.... so I moved the largest German Beer Stein and the little box of pictures, to get to the larger box of certificates, EERs and wonderful me paperwork. Where I get the proper names for the proper times and stuff, January 1984, How quickly it all goes bye,

  I may have to go back to bed, but today is my wife's.

Appleseed doesn't keep me away too long...

   Sometimes I have to admit to getting old, and wearing out, but not after standing on my feet for two windy cool days on Whidbey Island in the Great NorthWest.

   It wasn't until the Shoot Boss asked me where to set up, I remembered I was the old hand at this range. Many of the shooters reminded me that I had worked with them before, although from their level of skill I couldn't be certain. We taught them everything, but I did notice our future rifleman thinking too much about his shot (fussing the shot we call it) but by the second day he had it together.

  Over all I wanted more follow through, I wanted better trigger control, and I wanted slings that didn't slip on down to the elbow - prone with a hasty sling is tough if you don't keep the tension on.  I wanted them to be a bit more serious about shooting so many fine center fire rifles and making the hits count.  Sometimes they looked like a club on a social event. But then, that was what this was to them, a club social event. The instructors worked with the shooters over equipment issues. There seemed to be lots of progress, but not consistent. Like learn to do this while forgetting what was learned before that..  doesn't work.

  We told the story of the strikes of the match, and the dangerous old men and dame. Ben also took his flintlock out, demonstrated the loading and shooting and then permitted those interested to fire a shot, too. About six, and one rang the steel target. At twenty-five meters it was close enough that I could hear it ring.  Good time, cleaned up well, only two Rifleman scores earned, but they were better by the second day than they had been on the first. We sent them off to spread a love of Liberty throughout the land...

It  was only twenty miles to Concord and Paul Revere didn't make it on his horse, someone else had to spread the word, and they did.  Won't you?



 

The important question isn't if Donald Trump will accept the election results...

  The important, and unasked, question is "Will 'We the People' accept the election results?"

Read the Declaration of Independence again, and notice that many of those same frustrations were the cause of April 19, 1775. The government's only answer was gun control and force of arms... not much seems to have changed.

   I had thought that I had an original idea there, but found it all over the internet.


Well, your move, ruling elite of government, industry and media -- you just never study History, and it is such a constant repetition of human interaction it and you are predictable.

Make sure you vote, it will wipe out mine...

   I have been long against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as candidates for President, but then always knew the major political parties were not looking for anything but money and a vote from me. And I was leaning towards Gary Johnson, but then he thinks that abortion is not medical murder, but he is more politician than scientist. So I can always fall back on writing my name in for the office, William Earl Dungey, and encourage everyone else (all six of you reading this blog) to write my name in, too.  This could be noted as the year I ran for the highest office in the land.

   I won't complain that the system or the election is rigged, I witnessed Ron Paul's run in the Republican Primary of 2012, and know it is rigged - and the party is fool enough to think that its platform was more important than the candidate. If they had brought Ron Paul into their future that year, about three million believers in his vision would have taken Romney over Obama.

   We have several other parties and candidates here in Washington State on our ballot for President.  Interesting but not for me. I like Evan McMullin and Mindy Finn, so when I find no one writing my name in I could decide to write their names in the correct empty block on my ballot.  Exciting times running for President without too much lying on my part, nor lots of women commenting on how I demeaned them years ago and far away. I know how to handle sensitive material and own no personal server, don't have a smart cell phone and try to leave little behind as I wander the world except for pleasant memories.

I am in so much turmoil, what to do, what to do...

   I like to pretend I am a responsible law-biding citizen, so I am in conflict of how to vote at my kitchen table.

   You know I avoid answering the telephone, unless it is my wife's mobile number calling or one of her friends or the doctor's office.  So the only polling was the Trump Campaigns' questionnaire about what I thought the election or the candidate should do for me.  Since I have only two points to be concerned about (guns and abortions) I am boring.  If the elected representatives would really make sure a dollar was always worth a dollar, I would be happy. That is the best the government can do for the economy. Everything else is restrictive or just outright theft.

   There are folks that think the government should provide free education, and for up to high school it is free - paid for by taxes on property mostly, but then teachers unions got real greedy - not the teachers, just the unions.  Votes for dollars and restrictions on alternate educations, certifications and testing standards... silly unions and politicians. I did notice I had a fine education in public schools, but in today's world I would just live in the library, and would be so much smarter.  By the way young people there are several fine institutions of higher learning, built by the government to get some quality peasants into the officer corps (don't ask President Obama to read that last word). Those fine institutions are free, pay a wage, set high standards and have produced some really fine citizens and some real fools in service.

   Anyway, how many people are answering the poll takers and makers?  If the media is in the tank for one party or idea or another, why would you think the pollsters wouldn't be affected?  No one is using my blog or even my Facebook fantasies to see where I am going to vote, and I am not alone - there are others hiding from giving a free picture for the mosaic that the pollsters are getting paid to make pretty and sell loudly.  So a representative sample I don't think they have, but they sound good and keep folks watching for the latest shift.

   But I am troubled by the Ron Paul effect, so there is a candidate, who understands Liberty and smaller government and running for the Republican office. And he and his supporters get the legs cut out from under them everywhere, and because they and his ideas weren't really embraced by the Old Line Republicans almost two and a half million intelligent people sat out the elections, or voted on other stuff for other candidates. Romney goes down in defeat, you know the Democrats stuff the ballot boxes, drive voters around voting multiple times for the dead or someone that wasn't coming.

   So this year, the Republican Party isn't any smarter, or sharing of power, and has used millions against Trump or for their favorite candidate (normally someone that won't stop the rain of bribes and sponsorships).  But the voters prevailed and that is really frightening, all political parties count on uninformed voters and complacent citizenry.  They don't have them this year.  The Democratic Party is even more elitist, and will denigrate all you redneck, Jewish, Catholic and evangelicals -- they would talk badly about dinks and rag heads, too. They don't want to seem bigoted. In their internal voting for their primary, they stuffed ballot boxes, miscounted and are doing everything to get the first woman elected to President.  I have no problem voting for a woman - not every woman is Jezebel nor Mary.  But the woman I would vote for would shoot guns, not have promiscuous sexual liaisons and not support abortions (which I clearly see as medical murder of innocents).  Realizing my ideal female candidate couldn't be the star of a movie (no sex, no violence, no illicit romance for dramatic effect and stirring of lusts) I find that Americans would wonder at what kind of a woman was she really - since our values seem to come from Sodom and Gomorrah (or Hollywood).

   Ah, well, the point of my rant is that everyone should vote, really and not for a candidate you couldn't live with for the next four years.  There are reasons, MANY, not to vote for either major political party. The Europeans would tell you that our major parties are the same party and we are governed by rich special interests not by the needs and desires of the people. If either of the main political candidates are elected, it will be the final four years of the great American experiment. I expect either one to die of old age in office and then the VP will step up, and the slide will continue that is okay, only nuclear war will kill off enough population to destroy humanity, or a new plague.
Texas, California and New York City can break away and build anew.  When the grid fails, then we will all have to get to work, meet and work with the neighborhood to survive. Once the electronic noise is on mute, we will be able to think.... what did you say, dear?

   

So I have have a solution to the gun violence...

  Really, I do have the solution, not that I expect the ruling elite to like it or to adopt it, but it would work real fast.

  Part of the problem is that people of color, or some kind of minor group of folks is judged as not able to care for themselves.  They could be slaves, they could be poor, they could be gender neutered. For sure they aren't of the rest of us... unless you believe that 'all men are created equal' which for some strange reason the government doesn't believe.

  So quick go to Cook County and Chicago, they have decided that disarming their citizens is the only way to ensure that no one gets killed by firearm. Well, that really hasn't worked. So I suggest that we try what the 2nd amendment and the gun control folks want.  A back ground check for all the citizens that want to keep and bear arms, the training of such citizens that pass the back ground check by certified instructors working for the State or County or City, having passed the qualifications they then be issued a firearm (I recommend a pistol) ammunition for the same, a lock box to store it in when they are asleep, and an appointment at a range to requalify quarterly and be issued more ammunition. The murder rate will fall and the community can get tight with the police, when it stops treating folks as a threat to their lives. 

Going to have to make adjustments in my life...

   Going to the range on Saturday cost me ten dollars for my day and target, and I only fired fifty rounds.  Time to do some serious looking into local ranges, cause I can't afford ten dollars every time I need to break away from my electronic time wasters.   I need many more breaks from the monitors of computer and cable. Don't we all?

   My target from Saturday looks a bit wild, but seriously, I started standing at fifty yards. Those are the upper right ten shots. Then I did some major sight corrections on the rear sight, moving it far left and down then I ended up left of the target still high shooting prone without sling.  So I then adjusted a bit back and shot from the bench with sling and was close enough for the day.  I intend to refine the sights, prone with sling, at twenty-five yards, soon.

    Now that brings up my OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder,  my Stevens model 414 Armory is a beautiful old target rifle, but for me to shoot it where I am aiming the front sight is far right and the rear sight is cranked far left. Which does put my shot on target, but I don't think I am that crooked, the rear sight must have been placed wrong when it was set up.  That makes me think I should put an adjustable sight on the receiver, but then I would feel the loss of the 'cool' in the original purchase that makes me so happy, even now. Constant struggle, luckily, I am so frugal that if it isn't broken, it isn't getting fixed. Unless the Lottery slams my way.  And we are betting that won't happen soon.

I am often shy in public, for good reason...

   Seems that Donal Trump and a young Bush made video history trashing the fairer sex - all they did was not respect the kind of women they dreamed all women would be in their fantasies - maybe not the women's fantasies... Then NBC decided that they would wait until they needed something to disrupt Trump, like a blackmailer for future benefit.  Somehow the tape, saved from Secretary Hillary Clinton's destruction of all that excess bad vibes records missed the tape against Donald. This is why I am so happy that I am much more Earl than my fool fantasies.

   I remember telling lies about sex in high school, and hearing some even better (impossible) ones from other guys that had even less of a clue than I did. See, we didn't have sex education, we had health classes which highlighted health not happiness.  It was better to be shy than shamed.

   I am not qualified to discuss sex and those strange things people lump with sex that don't seem to produce more humans.  I have opinions, but I remember being told by another soldier that I really had no idea what fool or terrible things were being taught to my son in his school.  But I was always sure if he wanted my opinion on something he would ask.  I have a broad reading of many things, and for sure I blame the Hefner Playboy Philosophy for much that was wrong with my era in America. Not that I read beyond the point of noticing that giving women the liberty to be free of moral and community restrictions allowed them to be better exploited by the power structure, normally male.

   Then the government goodness loosened the divorce laws, increased the male penalties for not having a successful marriage and supported women in their solitary liberation from having to partner with a man for survival, the government cares for all the helpless doesn't it?

   What can I say, marriage is a government program regulated to benefit the community and like most government programs not as good as what it took over.  Where families and community were responsible for maintaining the marriage, not the heartless government. Regulate until you control it to death.  I seem to have missed my point about being shy... will get back to it one day.  I respect women, enough that I seldom talk with them, they and men are not on the same frequency and it is very difficult to have a meaningful exchange of ideas.  I am always happy to find the exceptions to that generality of mine, and will then blurt out something that will cause them to wonder at who I really am, as it doesn't seem I fit their expectation.

   Aren't I happy I am so shy? Yes, I am...

No, I am not going to listen to what the Democrats want me to hear from Trump's vulgar mouth...

   I am sure his smut isn't better than my own, and I don't use that language anymore, and can't remember when I was fool enough to publish it to the innocent.  I am sure that he, Donald, doesn't want me to think that he is nonredeemable, he must know that as a Christian I know everyone is flawed, all have been redeemed, and must accept Jesus as their savior for forgiveness...  so, only the godless communists and others need to find the LORD, quick! Because the End is near.  There it is on the internet, so it must be true.

    I went to see the foot doctor on Thursday morning, and it didn't go as nicely as the televised shows and commercials on cable... but then this is reality. A couple of weight bearing x-rays taken, and an appointment scheduled for the 1st of December.  So off I went to the YMCA, and my coach was doing nothing so I complained about not having a strength test since the first one... mistake on my part. The devious fellow made an instant appointment, told me to get in gym clothes and come back and I would take the test... ha, ha, ha...   So I was back in about ten minutes, and we went to the machines he wanted me to work.  He would tell me what my high was six months ago, and I would set what I thought I could do eight times in good form.  If I wasn't straining on the last two reps, he would think I was cheating myself and add ten to twenty pounds for what I should have done, in his mind not mine. Then he ran me a complete new program after plugging in the new maximums. Ugh! Have I a new stress in my life? Yes, I do. So for the last two workouts I have added very few sets, not changed the weights up much, although I have lowered some in my least favorite exercises, and then added sets and did more reps.  Interesting, being pumped up instead of plumped up.

   Conversations of olde men:  Sitting between sets or exercises or while walking something off, there are conversations.  About five Vietnam Vets (American) are my fellows talking about wars and wonders, two of them were end of WWII and Korea and then RVN to retire, and two are just into the Southeast Asia mess and then out to better things, and then I am the youngster - RVN to Gulf War I.
Now the challenge is to remember I came to work out, not socialize with my compadres, what we talk about is always more interesting than sweating or straining against gravity. Not more interesting than yoga pants and smiles from the heart. But we aren't long distracted by beauty, since we want to wring out our lives to hang out with folks that appreciate where we were when we were young, handsome and so foolish -- but always doing our best.  Not all the tales are of success, often a flub or fluke or just fool hardy - but not to be repeated, not by us. Names of people now long gone on, or gone to parts unknown, men we remembered because they mattered  in our lives. Olde men talking, the common term is 'war stories' but you won't get them if you aren't part of the group, trusted. Some times a youngster will listen a bit and then ask a question, looking for an answer they can understand, and the answer will come back depending on the perception of the old man as to what they can understand and what they will do with it.  So often, it is just a lie, tease or less than truth -- no harm intended. The answer isn't in an answer, it was in the story and the triggers going off in the listener's mind. Most minds aren't ready for the stories we tell. So they don't get out in public much.

   Time does fly when having fun, suddenly it will be time to get ready to leave, and I still haven't done my normal ten miles on bicycle, ah, I will do something later.... yeah, maybe so.

  Now to be perfectly honest, I haven't read Hillary's speeches to the FatCats of Banking and Business, but then I am fair and balanced except when I get up to walk or move. Then my eyesight and awareness might be in conflict with the realities of gravity and foot placement.  Am I not so happy that my voters' pamphlet has arrived and the ballots come out on 25 October.  Yes, I am, but I still must hope the contenders clean up, ask forgiveness and respect the voters' choices. We should all work to become better than we knew possible, just like straining against gravity, it will only make us better at living. 

Just because I can I want to make a point...

   Community policing does not mean putting police in charge of the folks and talking to them, it should mean that a well regulated militia is the security of a Free State... yes, I borrowed those words.  In communities where neighbors take care of each other - it happens, sure they may call for the law when it gets beyond the ability of the neighbors, we call for medical assistance and fire but the first people to see the need start taking action.

   Part of the current weakness in American values and virtues is the idea that only the government can handle the problems. But it can't, you really need the people and not just for votes and taxes.  They must be more than subjects of the ruling elite, their bankers and barkers.

Pictures of a near past...

   Photos are history, and we do spend a lot of time taking them and sharing them and then suddenly forgetting about them...
    But they do capture a moment, when you were young and beautiful, and your smile had real teeth. Do they capture your joy, your love, your quietness in the dark?  Maybe not, but then you are quick to change as the time moves right along.
   As I do repetitious exercise my mind is moving much faster than any of my muscles and I can go from thought to thought faster than the speed of light. Honest, I have measured it, NOT. Just seems so.
    When is it going to be normal to see Appleseeds on the evening news? Not any time soon, the safety record is nice, the problems with marksmanship can be measured in inches, converted to minutes of angle and on your rifle into clicks of your sight adjustment. We don't even measure if the heritage of Liberty and standing your ground gets through to the shooter, we just want to set an example of change that can improve your ability with a rifle, and your interest on how we got to the America of today, from the Colonies of yesteryear. 
     Still finishing A Race to Remember: the Peter Norman story interesting how current culture ruins a great story and lives. Seems to happen everywhere that God is forgotten or denied.

  Next objective on my plate seems to be in Idaho, a Known Distance Appleseed, the Shoot Boss expects his crew to shoot, and I like to see if I can handle my 1903A3 the way it should be treated. I tried to buy six hundred more rounds from CPM, but my credit cards don't seem to work on their software, no purchase made, although I have plenty for the preparation and the shooting on the Appleseed, ammunition remains a sound investment before the End of the World as we knew it.

   

Struggling with Microsoft... badly...

   After my last update one of my software programs had disappeared, so I had to work with MS and find a way to find my pictures downloaded from my camera. Ugh! Bill Gates created a company that hates me, if Apple products weren't so dear.

What did I learn while teaching Sunday school, by Tuesday...

   It does seem that the software hates me, it didn't even save the three paragraphs I had written when my finger bumped one of the marvelous fast keys on the more better super sexy keyboard. I went away to a glass of warm milk, and a few solid hours of sleep.

      Again:

   So teaching on Sunday the subject got around to cursive, and all the children tell me that they all write cursive which I thought was fine. Then we went into when they use it, and I demonstrated my signature. Then I attempted to write a sentence, to see if I still could and found it painfully slow...
do you remember that cursive was a faster smoother way to place in ink, words and ideas upon paper?  Not without use it isn't.

  So I started looking for some proper paper to send a hand written letter off to Juan Williams of The Five.  One would think I could just email, but really, does anyone not against Hillary save emails from strangers?  As I wandered the little storage areas of my oldest desk, I found a file folder full of print outs from 1996 through about 2001, not everything sent through my computer, but the favorites and best and the last evidence I have of doing something besides checking in on Facebook. Even pre blogging period stuff.

   As I read through the mail, some from my sisters, mother and me, I noticed real people and emotions and cares and support and stuff that is so different from today. The first thing I noticed the format was of the weekly letters we wrote for snail mail. And that as my list of people to be bothered by my missives grew the receiver addresses grew ponderous - pretty vain to think that many would like to receive my thoughts. I had to hand write my aunt, like I had my parents, until they all got computers. But we didn't change the format, care nor the content as we reached out.  But then maybe we had been weeks or months between messages in the days of boat and rail delivery of mail. One set of my grand parents lived and worked in South America. Boat mail for years and years.

   Very rich, and since my mother is in Heaven the memory even better.  How would that be to one day have my great grand children read and understand more about how she felt about the time after my father past away? So I watched a Chinese movie, titled Home Coming, subtitled just for me. The plot was of the father turned in by his daughter to the authorities - yes, that did happen. He was found guilty and sent to the Northwest to re-education and work camps. While there he wrote letters to his wife, that were on any scrap of paper he could find in the dark and kept secret. Finally some many years later a letter was sent telling her that he was returning on the fifth. She would go down on the fifth and hold a sign with his name waiting, each month. When he showed up, she didn't recognize him. So he pretended to be a neighbor that would read letters from this big box full of letters. Very sad, but very powerful story.

Anyway, back to what I was writing about:

I posted on Facebook this statement:
      "Oh, that was fun, looking for some writing paper and finding a fat folder of emails from ago. Mother, sisters and my exchanges from when we still wrote like it was just the different type of writing and conversation on our loves and lives. Real treasures there for me, since life isn't the same."

reply: "We are all the poorer for the loss of intimately personal correspondence."
reply: "Too true, we pretend not to have time. It seems to be the best way to capture time and the people in their era."
reply: "Imagine if we didn't have the correspondence of our forebears. All we would have, as an understanding of their motivations is the record of their actions."
reply: " We find we may not share their fears nor their values." 

Which prompted this posting from a Fb friend:
  "To my friends, family, and loved ones: Please, write each other. Send a letter to someone you know. Talk about things that are intimately personal. Connect with one another." 

   I do need to get prepared to write that letter. Yes, there is email, telephone and all kinds of almost face to face, but if you don't put it on paper only the heartless NSA will have an idea of what was sent when... and that isn't your heart's history. 

What can be controlled? That is what you will have to control...

   One of my facebook friends is out to control his growing abuse of fast food joints... I told him to carry a sack lunch of apple, pickle and sandwich to a park bench - that he can control, and it would work.  In everything there might be something one could control.

  The fool terrorist bomber from NJ and NY, where they really do such a fine job of controlling guns that only law enforcement and the criminals have them always, has difficulty controlling pressure cookers and home made bombs. And I do understand that, they do very well when finding the bomber, confronting and taking him down and into a fine Christian Hospital system and then a secular jail. Great job folks. But they can never control the madmen and terrorists that randomly attack.

   In a traffic investigation, some policepersons, taze and shoot to death a big man. What was his crime? He wasn't listening nor following orders, I can't tell if the man was deaf or hadn't time for stupid police out of their box, was wanting to get back to taking care of his own life. Maybe if the police stopped you to ask questions they should pay for your time, instead of shooting you? Everyone gets to watch the video, the police need to investigate and then get ready to lose one former officer to the criminal justice system. For sure everyone with an interest in the victim should do a civil suit of the law enforcement agency and the shooter.

  Only Hollywood gets to write the story, from beginning to end, and then present it to warp everyone's ignorance in a particular direction, as entertainment that is fine and useful. But as education it isn't.

   Don't lay your motorcycle down, ride it until you stop. Gravity rules, always.  I do recommend Sully, for lots of reasons - none of which have to do with gratuitous sex, loud pistol shots and lots of blood. Just good guys and gals doing the very best they could when it got out of hand.  Really, see the film and remember, keep flying the plane.

I have been trying to get this out for days...

  I go to the YMCA for a place I can sweat and pretend I will get ripped. Okay, I no longer am concerned about looking as good as those they hire upon the media - what those men and women look like is all part of the illusion, not a reality. Yes, they can be in most excellent health and at the peak of their athletic ability but Tom Cruise is still short. Good actor but vain and arrogant and short.

  One of the better parts of going to the YMCA is talking with the other old guys, we are constantly solving the world's problems and enjoying the tales of yesteryear in wars and service in foreign parts. No WWI vets, but we cover WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the later adventures in failed foreign policy. We also have people that just want to talk a little about anything without getting into an argument. Hmm, not a bad place to do that.

  Still, I get more out of listening to the stories, tales and ideas I would never hold with than I do from watching the media presentations of what they want me to view for their upcoming commercial interruptions. And you know there are hours and hours of ideas I would never hold with in MSM. So if you are worn out and discarded by the world, do go to the YMCA, you may find similar folks just happy to tell you a story and listen to your own.

You really don't know History, just whatever media feed decides you should know...

  So there is one, or many football players and other celebrities that want to make a statement. Go right ahead and make it, make others that have honor, respect and just good manners and kindness so very sad at your problem with reality.

  So more are going to knee, fine don't stand kneel, that is what serfs, slaves and lesser folks  have always done in the presence of 'greatness and nobility' and other high mucky-mucks. To stand in the presence of the King was just like carrying a firearm around the President, something that could very much get you killed or whipped.

   You don't have to stand with me, and if the terrible America you live in continues to oppress you, I probably won't stand for the oppression, but then maybe I don't try to replace my relationship with God, with idols of nationality, tribe, gang or goofs. The America I live in allows you to be a fool, or just an earnest protester of all that the sinful self-centered nature of man displayed in your life. But Prince Estabrook stood with the rest of the men of Lexington against the King's troops in the raid upon Concord. He wasn't sitting in protest, he took up arms to defend his town, part of the training band since 1773. Freed by his owner at the end of the Revolutionary War because of his service. 

  I am so happy to tell you that people aren't all as terrible as you have been led to believe, will be happy to have you stand beside me in all efforts to be better in our lives and as citizens of a country founded upon Liberty, that needs some more heroes.

Just us Americans from the baskets of Deplorables... ah, the ruling elite.

   Being of the unwanted common folk from Europe, I understand the term 'baskets of deplorables', they are the crude material that owes nothing to a ruling elite, whether royal, noble, beknighted or just special because they think they are and have a like circle of worshippers. The kind of folk that would build a new nation and keep it working, until bankers and barkers show up to make them all believe they need a special kind of leadership, or hero to make it all beautiful again.

 Having woken up sure I should be dead, I am always sure that beautiful is in enjoying not being dead.  Now, I am sure the bankers and barkers will still be the major problem when whomever has been selected to 'run' the country, or ruin the country.  Since no one is talking about making our currency sound, paying down or off the debt, or shrinking government the illness will continue, and the nation folds into a historic memory, and who studies History anymore? 

Fifteen years and we aren't celebrating American independence and self initiative.... why?

  So some mention on THE FIVE, at two o'clock in my afternoon on the West Coast, about Flight 93? You, of course know which flight it was, made me want to know more about the flight where the proper politically correct answers were ignored and the government regulations disregarded. God, imagine a world where men were at Liberty and responsible for their own safety. So I went to Amazon.com and ordered the two most frugal books for my kindle about that famous, you do know all about it, don't you?

  So, I have started on the cheapest of the two books, and love the retelling about an American life, most of us are foolishly in denial of.... hey, stupid, you have been wrong before!  I love the book and the writer, and do hope my buying her offering of a story the media fails to trumpet and examine will help her and her family in their grief and pain caused by stupid terrorists and government agencies in their lock step stupidity. Time to go to bed, God does love you, yes, you, more than you understand, you haven't turned off the telly yet, have you? I rest my case, there isn't a hero going to save you from your sinful nature, He already came and died for you, and now, God still loves you, stupid is always a choice.

I now know that knowing where Aleppo is is a Presidential qualifier...

   But I couldn't find it in the US Constitution, nor remember it from my public education, nor does it pose any threat to my fat old man idea of normal. But then I am sure President Nixon didn't know where Firebase Phoenix was either... and they elected him twice. Since he understood the Watergate Break-in, we all figured out how wrong the voters were, although he did get us out of Vietnam. No children, 'breaking-in' wasn't allowing the kids to bounce upon the mattresses until they fell asleep.

   Browsing the Facebook feed I find some glitter of interest, a well written piece about a firearm that I don't and won't own - just because I have limits on my expenditures and it isn't loaded and at hand for the defense of all I love and value... how do you decide which firearm to carry, train with and feed ammunition through on target? How do you that don't want anything to do with 'guns' save yourselves when ugly stomps into your life... Aren't we all glad that most of the ugly is only on the media feed showing us in our soft comfortable safe zones, showing us what to fear, and all the stupid ideas about how one doesn't want to be the new ensign on Star Trek. Don't worry, whomever is selected for the office of President is going to take us to places where such leadership is reactionary, and never addressing the rot in our nation that we could fix with or without a central heroic authority figure. Once a long time ago, I attended a house fire, and the neighbors showed up, the paid professionals showed up soon after and then the media reported about it the following day.  That worked for me, aren't I lucky that I don't attend home fires often in a lifetime?

   Our common shared values, which don't seem to be as many as there were when I was younger, hold us better than something that looks really attractive since the team worked on the image of the candidate, since the experts analyzed the thoughts, plans and opportunity for success and failure... what? failure? that is not an option, it is only how it could go wrong...

  But our lives are mostly, very correctly successful in our own small way - there just isn't enough drama in them, not enough for commercial sponsorship.  Well, maybe tomorrow another thought or two to share, my dreams were of motorcycles and riding around, good dreams.

Recycling, same stuff only harder... you liberals understand...

  years ago, when i was younger and lighter and beautiful, I purchased a 5.11 Tactical Series from the NRA, a fine 5.11 vest to carry concealed and labeled with an NRA over my heart. Sigh, like those looking for firearms would ignore me because of the NRA letters over my heart and ignore the prints of guns under canvas...  Well, I was smarter than that.  I went from a Large which is just barely enough to stuff a firearm under to a XXL, which will hide two and still be useful with pockets and opportunities to carry more and imprint less. Now I think I will donate all the extra fishing and other things vests to the Goodwill folks, for sale, cause I won't use what is impracticable.  I had an idea and much doesn't match it.

  If I could only get slimmer, says the fat man, who still remembers the boy from weddings ago, that said I wasn't fat. He was kind but still wrong, still I do think he was also very right - just not as critical on me as I should be. Love him, Lord.

   I finished my bottle of Drambuie tonight and the Blues are playing, another glass bottle to recycle.

You looked and signed up to help...

  There were twenty shooters signed up to participate in the Appleseed event in Waitsburg (at the other end of no where land America from my end) - only 296 miles away, five hour drive, need to be there by seven thirty, GPS works if the heat doesn't pop it off the windshield, leave at one thirty get there by six thirty, except you know you need to stop, wash your sleepy eyes and move the legs to prevent blood clots.

   What do you take with you? A demonstration rifle with sling, although you have a Mossy Oak sling on it now, check the laser (works!) get a GI Web sling (promptly leave it on the day bed under some other guy gun junk). Your target rifle, business cards, Course of Fire, timer on clip board with cheat sheet for reference. A small tub of cherry tomatoes to snack upon, water bottles, a mug of coffee to drink towards Tiger Mountain... all your normal gun guy stuff - gun guy because your wife isn't. Her car has some of her hiking stuff, her comfort stuff (not for her, for her passengers).  You close the door, start the car, close the garage door and glance at the GPS and the clock and drive away.

   Getting to the range you take a couple of pictures and say hello to Dave, the Shoot Boss and Joni his lively lady.  Then get ready to 'Meet and Greet' as shooters pull into the parking area. By time to start the introductions, to make sure we start off as professional and organized it is still windy but sunny.  Seventeen shooters, some of which have an Appleseed already, or two. If they will listen we will talk, so we probably shared too much to absorb, but it was all good.

   I kept trying to emphasize the breath in, breath out, focus squeeze and follow through over and over again.  Keep it simple and they may stop fussing their shots trying to make them perfect. Each shooter has a thing or two they could fix, but they need to work on it until it is natural, relaxed and repeated.  Boy that wind will get blamed for large groups, but it is always the shooter, their position and trigger control. With the natural point of aim found and soon believed, the groups start to shrink as they get tired. Two AQTs and a Red Coat and I am back on the road on my return trip.

   The important thing is the safe return to the home and my wife, I did stop for a big Mac and big fries and milk shake on the way, but it seemed like I had been on the road driving for a couple of days, but it was all the same long day. What is best is remembered as one shooter coming up to show me that what I had gotten through to him had really worked, and as I looked at his target it showed the truth of his new skill level. Saw one AQT with a hundred and ninety plus score, so I think Sunday will really be good with a night's rest and a little refresher in the morning.

   My Sunday will be great, too.