So we need to teach people to be polite... and aren't...

So a young black man comes out of the darkness and says "Excuse me, sir (or Ma'am) I am on my way home." Helpful Earl says "Do you need some light?" and turns on his flashlight. No punches exchanged (Earl is an old man) no one feels threatened and the two go their own ways.

I normally try to display a kind of a smile, but offering a light in the darkness is positive. Maybe I should get some dental LEDs so like the cat from Alice's adventures you can tell I am smiling.

I am hoping that all the jurors are anxious to get back home to their normal lives. The Media doesn't really want to talk about why it is so important that Zimmerman hang for having the right to carry a firearm and shoot it in self defense.  I think that is where the judge is - on the side of disarming victims and prey. I don't know that, if Trayvon Martin had killed Zimmerman and gotten his gun, he would have been a more non-entertaining case., little news there. How many black sitcoms are there on television now? Mainstream ones?

Is all black and white in the criminal and romantic potential realms? Media still polarizing us?

So is Earl changing when and where he carries his firearms? No.

So is Earl afraid that the laws will change? Earl knows the laws always change, and people will never study History enough to learn from mistakes and know the difference between fantasy and reality.

I think I will work on my manners right after I get my hard bodied sexy fixed. The visits to the YMCA and the short slow daily jog are producing results - and I am happy to have an eight station weight circuit added to my weekly base exercise routine. Yep, I will work on manners next.

Pictures, the fledglings are flying now, the nest will soon be very quiet and empty.



My wife's war with the mole is interesting, she moved the photocell mole annoyer, and of course the mole covered it with dirt, she cleaned it off and the mole returned and did it again.

Responsibility...

When you are armed you are responsible for your weapons, their effects and control. So the trial of George Zimmerman is about to finish. And he will soon know what Shane knew, there is no living with a killing. I can't tell you that he acted in self defense, I know that he thought he did, that the original police investigation thought he did. Do I think that Treyvon could have killed Mr. Zimmerman? At seventeen I could have killed him, so yes, I think that Treyvon could have. I don't know that he wanted to but he seemed to have bad intentions, at seventeen I got into fights but never to kill, really harm or hurt whom I fought against.

There is a lack of responsibility in the media, slanting and reporting what will bring consumers to your vending stall. Five black men killing two white folks - never got national media coverage. All the black on black crime will never get national media coverage except as an excuse to disarm the white populations as much as possible.

If you carry a firearm or knives, you are responsible for their control and proper use. Don't think you are going to shoot and everything will be alright, don't think you are going to show a gun and get everyone to do what you want - crazy people aren't sane - and the best defense against an ambush is to attack it. What you have learned on entertainment and news media - is probably wrong. No matter how many women heroines win on television and in the movies, they normally pay big ugly men to protect them when threatened in real life. Make no mistake, ladies, if you are attacked I expect you to fight to the death of your attacker. Just remember that human males make violence a reasonable option, females will negotiate.

When you get older than dirt you can decide to die instead of taking another's life, if you are young you probably have others that count on your future performance and wealth creation - so fight like you want to make it to the next level. Christ loved us all enough to die for our sins, still uncommited, but then he really loved us. We are not so perfect. Raise our children with love, to respect and honor others, but never to fear anything nor anyone save the LORD. Be responsible.

Fears are only to be met...

All ones fears, need to be met and conquered - don't you think?

I had a medical problem, my body wasn't working as it had for years. Went to the doctors and nothing, got a second opinion and there was something but nothing that they could fix... death by recliner sets in and 24 hour mindless mush slowly rots the brain and spirit.

I started out by walking, a little, very slowly. No pain, small gain, but moving. Kept at it, and then added the visits to the YMCA, pick your poison - lots of stuff to do and learn. Then I started to combine a jog with a walk whatever is left. The biggest thing was to get past the little voice in my head that said I didn't have to jog, I didn't need to go so far, so often. I don't jog on Sunday but a rest day is good.

Anyway, the biggest  change is the weather, no rain, and lack of fear that I won't finish the little jog I have around the block, 3.1 miles or 5 kilometers whichever is most impressive. I don't go fast enough yet, but it does make me breath hard and sweat - who could ask for more.

Good health is important as a base, but I think you have to put fitness right after returning to health, your body is designed that way. Fitness is measured by endurance, speed, agility, strength, flexibility and coordination... that is the direction I work on improving them.

I am using my calendars for recording weight, Blood Pressure and activity, using MapMyRun for mapping and measuring routes, and recording workouts. Still, I am not monitoring my heart rate, since I am not training hard enough. I have dropped twenty pounds since joining the YMCA in December, but the next twenty will be tougher to shed - one pound of fat is about 3500 calories, and muscle burns fat better than fat does - duh.

How do you know you are going too fast?

Well, you could bump into over and then fall down on the curbs you didn't see as you drove unthinkingly.... oops! would you help lift this motorcycle off my foot? Highway bars are at the top of the improvement list for the Trusty Triumph. Then two motorcyclists recommended sheep skin for the seat of my Trusty Triumph, I recommend getting off of it more when it gets painful, but sheepskin is kind of Cossack or Afghan isn't it? Don't they do that on the Pampas?

In all of life I think you are going too fast if you didn't see all that you passed by, just missed it. Suddenly you wake up and you are sixty-five and where were you? between nineteen and then - did you write a book, could you write your autobiography? Kindle would publish it, but then was it interesting? Does it make you smile, shiver or sigh? Do you know any famous people?

Not to worry, most famous people don't know me either.

Good trip across the country and back, and I couldn't have been going too fast -- I remember most of it well.

And I got to practice my hugs, something a younger faster Earl never had time to master. Do hope my aunts appreciated my poor efforts, I was most happy.

Seem to be too many blogs named: Earl's View...

So I changed it.

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.