The roof needed cleaned, so we hired a high pressure wash for the cleaning roof and gutters - I am such a coward, and I don't own a pressure washer. So when I returned from the YMCA yesterday, there was a truck with ladders and equipment and a man, so I said hello and asked him if he knew what day it was. He did, I often have no idea, but he knew. He was a day early to clean the roof, his name was Tom and he could come back tomorrow. Nah, he could start and finish today, even better.
He did a fine job. But still had to borrow - a rake, a trash container, paper and a pen. The last two for a receipt of the cash for the job. While cleaning up the gutters and under the eaves he was surprised by a very fast bird, since the washer was cleaning out the nest the bird flew straight at the attacker and he lost concentration. Ever had something jump at you from a dark hole? it is always a snake, or large rat or ferret, isn't it? Well, the high pressure washer will take paint off as quickly as moss and mold (same stuff in many ways). So now I have new gang graffiti on my home, and will have to repaint the whole area later.
I had forgotten to tell him to miss that area. The nesting pairs had been coming back for years and years. I liked them dancing and darting and catching bugs in flight. I felt very bad. I didn't go to church that evening and ate too much - nullifying all my good work at the YMCA. Sigh. My wife made sure she gave the worker a Coke and an orange, he had also cleaned the concrete on the walkway and driveway, it looked good. After dinner I went back to reading Ken Follett's Fall of Giants, first volume of the Century Triology.
Well, when I woke I decided to clean up some record keeping and looked up some file maintenance on the computer. I have been using the YMCA since mid-December, my weight is down twenty pounds. Good news, I still am a fat man but I have some harder muscles and could continue to improve in many ways. Slowly, but still headed in the proper direction. You want more good news? Well there is a very familiar bird building a nest under the eave, it stared at me with stuff in its beak, daring me to do that again. I won't, I am happy and the Sun is shining.
Nothing of note, unless you find that the government can't be trusted to be news. You shouldn't be concerned, after they forgive themselves and clean up the public opinion and media slants - the government will go back to being corrupt and worse - incompetent.
I had airborne dreams, again. Nice thing about dreaming of jump operations they are mellow dreams, I never had to jump into places they were trying to kill me and I them. Helicopters or tracks are a different matter, and walking is scary in dreams because that in the end is really how one gets close enough to get killed. Although mines and booby traps were around and common enough in my wars, the IED thing is levels of ugly beyond my experience - so my nightmares are fine, thank you.
My wife will be cleaning clams today, and the fern tips she brought back from her hiking trip yesterday are drying on the back porch. I had fresh oysters on Monday - all I have to do is wait for her to return with the harvest and cook it up.
There aren't any old soldiers out there, we are dying off. But I made corporal on a blood stripe, another corporal was reduced to PFC for some transgression and I was given his stripes. It doesn't happen that way now, but when you could only promote to vacancies in your unit, that was one of the ways it was done. While a corporal they sent me off to the Advanced Combat Training Academy, a four week course north of the Imjin River but still south of the American portion of the DMZ. At the end of my second week the Battery Commander and his driver (the unit clerk) visited me and checked on my progress. After talking to me and checking with the cadre they left and drove back to the unit. I was second in the class at graduation, and had watched three people lower in class standings get promoted on stage by their battalion commanders, real promotions and a real pay raise. My battalion commander gave me acting sergeant stripes for my reward, the battalion headquarters always seemed so far from the battery in those days. No pay raise for Earl, but I would have spent it wildly anyhow. The top man in the class got a promotion to Staff Sergeant, a real one with the big bucks. If I told you the change in pay in 1968 dollars you would laugh. I was disappointed that my battalion hadn't been able to give me a real promotion but never mentioned it, kind of.
When I got back to the unit I had my orders for a real promotion in about a week. The date of rank was to two weeks earlier than my graduation so I out ranked all those except the Staff Sergeant promoted on that stage. The unit clerk/BC driver had put in the request for my promotion when he and the commander had returned and the commander had checked with the First Sergeant and signed it. So I proudly put the Imjin Scout patch on my fatigue shirt pocket and become the Fire Direction chief and stand by Forward Observer Sergeant for the FO team. Only three officers in the battery in those days, Vietnam ate up LTs.
This is the weekend I love 'feminism', you know that silly idea that women are the equal of men, and much other foolishness about the position and possibilities of the other gender. I have always known I was supposed to put women on a pedestal and pay them homage.
Being very old and hoping to become older I will confess that I don't know nor understand women, when I was young I thought I knew everything - see what happens when everything starts slip-sliding away? I can become humble.
My mother worked very hard to love me and make me the best of her and Dad's love. That I am not better is not their fault, what is best about me likely is...
It is Mother's Day, and I remember mine, and my son's, and then start to roll through my memory of quiet talks with other mothers that had time to nurture me along the way. What mothers have spills over to other than their immediate family and bring grace, forgiveness and civilization to my world. Being a male, means that I need a lot of civilizing. So thank you all Mothers that have shared your best for my moments.
And for all you women that think being a mother is not the most important thing for you to do in your life, for God and country and your heart, you don't know Jack. And I am sad for your loss.
But we don't really build many Jack models in our systems. Too afraid of them. Fairy tales all had lots of Jack, Giant Killer, and often a knave or a fool for some lovely maiden somewhere. But he wouldn't have made it through our current education establishment, not without being drugged into useless. Ever wonder at modern authors that use Jack (Reacher and Ryan) to identify their main character - almost seems lazy.
The recent saving of the three women, once innocent girls in Ohio - always brings up the question, why didn't they escape earlier? Forgetting years of conditioning to go along to get along, Oprah's sage advice to cooperate with the criminal and survive! It is just common sense. If the evil one has any to use... evil wouldn't be so bad, would he? The Spartan Boys Academy was spartan - one couldn't have any good stuff unless one stole it, won it or was willing to fight for it - duh, and that nation state produced little in art and literature, but they sure could fight and die well.
It is cultural, wanting the right answer, the proper response to keep the wheels turning in production of good stuff. Most government thrives on acceptance of the status of its people working harmoniously. Why they work harmoniously is very important - slavery works, serfdom works, communism works, fascism works, republics with participatory responsibility works. Families work, couples work, friends work.... lots of ways to make things work. Since change is certain, flexibility would be an asset - and one needs more Jacks for more flexibility. But we have difficulty producing them, accepting them, and encouraging them and their testing their powers.
Just thought you should know, that Jesus Christ's gentile name was Jack. Just a thought.
I am sure that you can't tell, but my day hasn't been as planned. I did sleep in, and all the normal start. Then I decided not to take my M1 to the range to shoot today, ammunition being okay but not perfect. So why did perfect start slowing me down - perfect has never been a good reason for failure to perform to standards. I ignored it and loaded up, farewelled my wife and went to the range and took the little video above, every position filled, lots of friends, families and firearms and no space for Earl. There just aren't enough public nor semi-public ranges for all the folks that want to shoot. I should have bought a farm or a large wasteland.
Okay, off to get a short haircut, I get the only male barber and he doesn't cut it short enough but does still ask to attack my eyebrows. The day isn't going badly, I keep my unkempt eyebrows, a hidden trait of Jacks everywhere. I pick up a Mother's Day card, for my wife, my mother being missed here on earth - but I am sure Heaven has been interesting since she showed up. I look and find a pair of work pants in brown that I will spend money on, twenty-five dollars and I think I paid too much but then I might have to adjust my perception of the value of a dollar today.
I go to the YMCA, to get some time on the machines in, make my body hard and burn all that flabby fat, keeping an eye out for the beautiful. But it is Saturday, and most folks are out and about enjoying the Summer time promise, without heat. If I clean up well, early enough I can head back to the range, should be empty by 2:30... or almost. It wasn't, still full up. They did pause for an hour and a half for something that was happening somewhere else on post, a welcome back or a memorial for some deserving heroes. It is still bringing happiness to my heart to see so many happy safe shooters, where is the main stream media? Oh, I forgot, they don't cover good stuff only awful stuff - and then repeat it over and over.
Well, back to home base, find my wife has brought more plants and flowers, will make me lunch and tell me what she has done. Love life is truly a life of love... can go shoot another day.
About nurturing 'Jacks' everywhere - I think a man must tell tales of adventure, encourage risk, and promote thinking outside the box - and always tell them to escape! Down the rabbit hole if needed, get out and do - meet folks and lend a helping hand. Read! Visit your library and make sure you ask the Reference Librarian for the tales of Jack in your reading level.
I am sure that everyone shouting their opinion has that idea, Occupy Wall Street, the Halls of Congress, the West Wing of the White House, everyone thinks they can do it better. Some of them can do it better - but I only control me and that seems to be the problem. That and so many want to help me be controlled.
I belong to the NRA, but they don't control me, my money, nor make my shot any better. I find most of their activities ponderous and constricting. I like the magazines and museum and the annual convention (although I have never attended one yet). I supported Ron Paul ten times more than I did Bob Kerrey, when the Country Club Republicans aced him and his supporters out, we may have voted but we weren't engaged (who would be engaged with criminal activities?).
So I am a fat man, and not healthy, and wanting to return to fewer problems. Some things I can fix. I don't want to go to surgery, so I will have to modify eating and exercise behaviors. Many have reported that the New Jersey (gangster) Governor has resorted to that for his health or for his 2016 election run for President. I think he did it so his children are no longer ashamed of him, or so he is no longer ashamed of himself. I quit drinking long ago because I thought I wasn't going to do well as a drunken fool.
So the weight isn't coming off fast enough, the muscle is firming up, the breathing is okay but I haven't been pushing it and need to.... fears get in the way. Why aren't you going to the doctor, I know he doesn't know anything about ME, and thinks he knows more about making me healthy than I do. And yes, the blood pressure and such are at levels they should be - so he must know something.
Still I do need to make changes, more shooting, more teaching, less watching news programs which are all bad for humanity - since they are concentrating on the failures and doing it for fear and money. The only way to control that, is to not watch it, my television time is shortening. Well, tomorrow will be the first of many busy days ahead. Thank you for all your attention and not helping me control myself. I like that kind of meal, but don't recommend it often - eating crow.
I am not watching the testimony before Congress. The Congress is part of the problem, nice that they are asking, but they really don't care. Honest, they don't care. Four dead in Lybia, over fifty thousand Americans dead in Vietnam, same attitude - they aren't on the ground, problem with current command and control - they don't have to be on the ground, they have drones (they have always thought of service people as drones).
I will know how serious the President and the Congress are about winning a war, when they get armed and move out to the battle site.
Lots of serious conquerors did, a real man will fight and die for what he believes in - and seems many politicians, bankers, and public figures want drones to do the dirty work. Wonder where the heroes went - one labels everyone that moved, even in fear, a hero.
Bill O'Reillyhates me and my guns, says there are some illegal guns somewhere and the Federal government should crack down on them and the folks using them. Sigh, Bill doesn't really know anything about guns - ask him a simple 'you might be a gun nut' quiz. He will fail. At least John Stossel called him arrogant to his face and on his own show. John may not be back as guest.
Then there are the fine folks from Ohio, that lost control of three (or many more) women/girls and no one understands why that could happen -- because we are looking at our navels or the entertainment media hubs in everyone's lives. No one knows anything about their neighbors, or nothing criminal anyway. Aren't you lucky that most people aren't criminals. They aren't waiting for the jury to find them guilty of murder, although the woman confessed to the crime, she then doesn't want to accept a death penalty. She wants to become a ward of the state, free food, bed, hospital care.And if she can get it she will ask for a Baltimore Jail, so she can have babies, drugs and guns.
There is a Justice Report out, that is supposed to disprove all the numbers the anti-gun crowd uses to promote fear in the minds of the ignorant. Do you think they, the ignorant, will mind being called ignorant? I wouldn't want to be offensive, just precise like when I take my shots, precise and on target.
So entertainment should come without commercial interruption, education should be based on a search for truth and facts, and communication skills are important for social interaction. I like to remember that my little piece of war in Vietnam and Iraq was never what I see on television, sometimes it was like what I read from other participants or observers on site, never from bar room brags and drunken tales. I just mention that, since most of what Americans and the world knows about American Violence comes from dime novels, motion pictures, television broadcast and cable news 24 hours a day.
One murder shown in file footage -- how many times? -- is how many deaths? One, but your mind added another one for every time it saw the report. Most Americans do not know any murderers, do they? How many children weren't shot in school today, how many weren't shot on the date of the attack at Sandy Hook? Every death is saddening, but all the living are to be celebrated.
At the time of the Boston bombings, there were all the best and brightest and highest paid law enforcement protection available for the size of the threat, and they couldn't stop the bombings. It took a citizen reporting things out of order to lead the police to find a missing bomber. More layers of government to be respoonsible for one's safety don't seem to work -- you could be an ambassador and ignored by your bosses having a good time far away. Then you get killed because they never believed you were worth savings, not when there was an election to win and more partying to do...
So take my advice, go to the YMCA, have a real life, turn off the television and electronic mind numbing and get a life. Real people aren't bad at all, they may make mistakes, commit sins, and often have problems they can't handle. They need your calm support, your participation in worthy efforts, your ideas (which might only be different not foolish).Not only do they need you, but you need them, too. We aren't grumpy grizzly bears, solitary lives aren't human.
He did a fine job. But still had to borrow - a rake, a trash container, paper and a pen. The last two for a receipt of the cash for the job. While cleaning up the gutters and under the eaves he was surprised by a very fast bird, since the washer was cleaning out the nest the bird flew straight at the attacker and he lost concentration. Ever had something jump at you from a dark hole? it is always a snake, or large rat or ferret, isn't it? Well, the high pressure washer will take paint off as quickly as moss and mold (same stuff in many ways). So now I have new gang graffiti on my home, and will have to repaint the whole area later.
