What are the sounds of Summer?

Doesn't that sound like Spring should be warming up?

Well, I went away and found some fine people...

So I awake very early on Saturday and drive to Whidbey Island for an Appleseed weekend.  No computer and no television and lots of things to do. Mainly find willing students for the training, the History and the encouragement.

First Rifleman on his way overseas soon.

Thee basic positions taught

Looking to lock the Natural Point of Aim

Just when you think you have nailed the shooting Rifleman, we change the picture.

Great instructors, host range, Shoot Boss and hosting family (with two IITs working our lines). Cooper did a 2nd Strike that sticks in my mind, the video clip is part of her tale. Helped a lot of good shooters become better, and Americans feel most honored to be of the posterity those Patriots fought and died for on April 19, 1775.

Good news this morning, my son is back in San Diego, his men will be returning soon from their deployment.

Signs, don't they just work?

I have always disliked signs that said 'Keep off the grass'. Long before it became a anti-drug slogan. I liked the green lush grass and I liked to roll in it, play on it, and get stained up properly.  When I was an Airborne First Sergeant I found that I had some real power, and my troopers were in awe that I had stopped everyone from carelessly walking across the grass in a short cut to get  around the barracks. I called it teaching them responsibility and discipline but we never talked about it, they just knew I would be on them if they disappointed my expectations. But I never needed a sign.

Well, the military has changed a lot, seems everyone needs to read the signs and that will protect us. I got very alarmed when I went shopping at the Commissary with my wife and I saw the sign for fools with firearms to have a gun free zone. I could see them stacking up the young folks and the old retirees like cord wood  as we were wiped out by the fools with the firearms that weren't going to read, nor honor the signs. Too sad, still I shopped, since I may be one of those fools not reading the signs. You pick the battles you want to win, sometimes the battles pick you and your life depends on it.

Don't you worry none there is also a No Smoking outside the door of the building, we are very safe.

It just isn't the same any longer...

So there I am getting old, and making an observation on the shooting line that one shouldn't droop over one's rifle like a daffodil. Which got a chuckle from a shooter.

But I can't do as much as I once did, the weekend wipes me out a bit, my wife has gone on her second hiking with friends in the mountains, she comes back and the next day has a long nap in recovery. Yep, it isn't like it once was... but we are trying.

I do notice that the rest of the world is driving on, marriages happening, children learning well their letters. God is good, we are being replaced by better models.

Dreams don't bother me, education does...

I had lots of strange dreams last night, went to bed early and dreamed away.  Many military dreams, and then some dreams about one of my favorite games which grew some shrines and Holy trees both which improved powers and must be protected from raiders -- the game isn't built with those features. Dreams don't hurt me.

I went over the Program of Instruction for this weekend's Appleseed this morning. I don't see where we will shoot enough AQTs but if everyone moves Quickly, Quickly, Quickly, we should cover everything. That is marksmanship education with real standards and award for earning the title.

Which makes me wonder why after fifty plus years the education is worse than it was when  I was a student. What happened, why can't it get better? It isn't class size, it isn't text books, it isn't the standards, and systems do work. What is wrong with our system>

I am on top of it...

Bombs go off in Boston. Not the North Koreans nor their special agents. Not the Islamic Terrorists, they have no idea what Patriot Day, nor the Marathon celebrating it is about. So there are only two guilty parties setting bombs in Boston. First some ultra-Rightwing Nut Jobs, and second the BAFTE doing more undercover work to promote locking up the potential dangerous for cause (they might).

Only the East African runners and the North African long distance ones care about winning that race, so they wouldn't bomb Boston. Like I said about North Korea, Little Kim has no idea what a coupe an attack on Boston for that day would be.

So, only those that identify April 19th with fighting oppression (Ultra Rightwing Nut Jobs) and those that want to frame the innocent for burning the Reichstag  (The BAFTE and all their undercover operatives). Since the Oklahoma City Bombing showed how much better the UltraRightwing Nut Jobs are at bombing the innocent, I will have to think the BAFTE did these bombs just big enough to make the statement we have to live in fear, but small enough that when their case falls apart on investigation they won't be hated as much as they deserve.

I am sure they have their evidence lined up and the perfect suspects. And calls for more surveillance by the Democrats in Congress.  If those folks in Washington DC had known that there already was a Patriots Day in New England they wouldn't have named 9/11 the same way.

You don't really think it was the ghost of King George the Third, or a few of his kin that think we should get back under their protection, do you?

Drop out of the North Korean impact area...

Go to your local Sportsman Club and be part of an Appleseed. Worked for me. In Poulsbo, Washington.

Two hard tiring days of teaching, coaching and telling the tales that every American should know by heart. Five new Riflemen awarded the patch and three loud Huzzahs! Families and friends, serious couples all enjoying the event and the learning. I watch a couple in perfect sync while changing magazines, firing their rifles and shifting onto another target and squeezing off the next rounds... they couldn't have practiced that rhythm and impressed me more. So over twenty two shooters, and not one crime committed because they were using rifles.

I would jump up and down and shout 'I told you so' but those against my idea of a good time with firearms would reference the Governor of New York, Connecticut or California as evidence of my foolish idea of fun. But then they do get armed guards and lots of money for reacting to irrational fears and their jobs don't look like fun, just power applied in stupidity.

On day two, fresh homemade cinnamon rolls sent for us to enjoy, they were lovely. The scattered showers were able to scatter all around us and miss the range mostly. I now have a light sunburn on my paleface... y'all take care out there.