Pardon me, I am dying of an incurable degenerative condition...

Seems that I went jogging on the last day of July and the funny feeling in my left hip snapped into an extreme cramp - a horizontal cramp. I had no idea I had any horizontal muscles in that area, and I will only acknowledge the pain, not a muscle going the wrong way. But twelve minutes into trying to be a little more fit, my struggles were over. I limped home, thinking Fred Sanford has nothing on me. Since I had time I started thinking about falling apart a bit at a time...

 I was upset since I wasn't going to get my 5k jog done, and I am keeping records for motivation. Still, I did take me and my better half to the YMCA, and for unknown reasons - sitting on my behind doesn't bother the cramping area. So I knocked out 10 kilometers on the rowing machine in about fifty minutes. Then went to the bicycle machine and did 13.5 miles in another fifty minutes then I showered and found twenty-four ounces of hot black coffee to sip upon until my wife finished her time in the water. Maybe I should find my swimming goggles and start swimming instead of jogging? Then if I get a cramp I can just silently sink to the bottom of the pool?

When I was the skinny kid in this fine picture, sitting on the well cap with my keds, blue jeans and Dale Long t-shirt, I was always dreaming of when my arms would be muscled and strong like my father's and the other working men I saw around me. I wanted hands with veins and tendons and strength, a working man's hands

 I guess one should watch what they wish for, since there are ways that make things happen. Like being thin, I have never seen a picture of my father from his time in the Pacific in WWII, but I would bet he looked a lot like I did in Vietnam after filling sandbags and computing firing data and hauling rounds to the guns. I did have a really good tan, but I couldn't have double-timed two miles during that tour, swimming in the river was all my recreation. I was just a tad bit bigger than a VC.

I would get shin splints in both legs during Jump School after. I had to put some really strong liniment designed for horses to smear over my legs in the morning to make it through the PT.  Limping was a sure way out of the Division and parachute training.

As I sipped my coffee yesterday I looked at my hand and went through the martial arts positions with it that would help me destroy those that have no idea how truly bad I am. Laughing at my pretensions, so bad. I could tell you I really am awesome in death dealing, but I happen to know the price one pays for being dangerous to society - and I love knowing that I am still in the controllable category of  "maybe we shouldn't have designed him that way" - plus I am suffering from that disease I mentioned in the title.  LIFE, and living it with love seems to be the best cure for all that ails me. I do keep asking my wife how we got so old, but she knows we were blest.

No, I am not answering the telephone... ever...

I have a telephone because I want to be able to call you.  But then everyone that wants to use or abuse me thinks that I have to answer when they call.  I don't.

I have a wife that thinks it is a responsibility but then she has friends that do call.

As I start searching for an opportunity to work again, I will be asked to give them a telephone number, but you will get more response by emailing me - no selective hearing on the internet.

Keep it pithy?

So the whole thing is going to come apart, because?

Because we weren't watching the folks in government? Elected and appointed stupid people with really good intentions and terrible ideas? Because we can be manipulated by fears fed frequently by fools in media? All of the above?

Everything in your life begins with you --- and YOU have to make it better. Not your parents, friends, children, co-workers, boss, nor underlings.... YOU!

You will die... certain freedom in that knowledge. You won't die right now... so you have time to make your world and all you love better. Not much time in the cosmic scale of things, stars are going out as fast as dinosaurs. Still, if you are reading this you have today to make better.

Take a moment, reflect and pray, make a plan and execute one good thing to happen in your life. Repeat until it is all done. This is where mental multitasking helps the spiritual and physical. Have a really great day!

You have to pay attention to do better...

I was fooling around on the internet, and time was slipping by, so I went and jogged five kilometers. Felt good, fastest time in awhile, slow but faster than normal.

Got home, showered and got a rifle and went to the range. My goal to do it all today. They are open for shooting on Fridays from 10 to 4, and don't have to fight the crowds. Paid my money, unloaded my stuff and found when I opened the rifle case I had my Model 70, in 30-06, and almost certain I hadn't any of that ammunition in my Caravan. Started to pack out, then decided to check and see if they had any to buy.  They did and I got forty rounds, $23.50 a box. How did it ever get so dear? Looking at the internet offerings, it is correct pricing.

So I loaded up five and then another five and I did hit my targets,  had to love the way the bolt slides in and out, the trigger and the sling. All great. I just need bigger targets to shoot at. The last five rounds are the ones in the black and nearest it, low right. Don't ask if I called the others, the way up and the two way down were called then I settled into better shooting. I really should scope this rifle, it deserves my best efforts.

I talked with the shooters on both sides of me, both preparing for hunting season. One is off to South Africa for Cape Buffalo, the other deer and elk locally.

Go to the YMCA, and row and bike and sweat. Finished up with weight machines, eight stations, and then the Rope Trainer.

After I shave and dress we are going to Men's Bible study, such a subversive am I, just the kind of fella that won't be paying much attention to the foolish notions from Washington, DC nor New York and New Jersey. They just don't understand how to leave me alone, I will find some friends on Facebook or local area.

So how is the war on guns going?

I think they are winning, or they think they are winning.

If there are people of good sense, shooting safely, promoting safe shooting sports, hunting and self defense -- and there are many. What they don't seem to be doing is making it a LAW that to be a citizen of the United States of America - that you must be a safe qualified shooter, own your weapons of choice and be accountable for their proper use.

The ANTI-gun crowd has few brains functioning well, and for some reason believe that guns have a mind of their own, are evil and will make you do strange sexual things in the dark (or something). BUT they certainly are willing to make everyone else comply to their version of the Universe. They insist that all guns are bad, that only police and armed forces under the control of the government may use them gently in pursuit of the common good and national objectives.

It could be that real people of the gun, aren't seeking to make the world a better place, just their place in it. When asked about our country, I have an opinion, but for sure I can only handle getting my body to the YMCA for physical therapy - the government can't, and they already have too much on their plate.

The politicians and the ANTI-Gun ghouls will be constantly attempting to make the gun the problem, because they won't admit that people are the problem. So maybe we need those laws that require people to be armed, trained and potentially dangerous. Spitting into the wind, aren't I?

Doctor's visit, or I visited the Doctor...

Anyway, I have four months to live, until my next appointment. Nothing wrong with me that the LORD won't fix, my doctor's recommendations need a few more years of mulling over.

So, you need a couple of beautiful things that I saw that you should have shared.

Looking across Gray Army Airfield on Fort Lewis, at Mount Rainier shining in the blue distance. the gray airfield, lifting like the Chinooks, to the blue skies with the little haze swathing the base of the volcano. So many shades of blue on the Mount and in the layers.

Second one is from yesterday as I rowed my machine at the YMCA. Usual suspects on the basketball floor below. The coach/father and this three players were being filmed in their awesomeness by a professional team. Four players doing two on two, very aggressive and passionate and since two of the opposing players seem to be brothers that had some words on my way into the Y, they are committed. Gosh they do play hard. But what caught my eye was the female basketball player on the far side of the court. Most of you don't remember the Breck girls from the 50s and 60s - beautiful women and to die for hair. Well, such a brunette was on the floor, wearing an ornate heavy necklace (maybe earrings, too, too far away for my eyes). Nothing surprising there, except she is wearing a black summer dress, with a swaying skirt, and two straps holding the bodice up... can one have a black summer dress? She was great.

She got many extra points for playing with the two girl children, her daughters? (they would be so lucky!). I imagined, since I am making all this up, that she was waiting for one of them to attend the tumbling or gymnastics class.

Worth a thousand words...

So I liked the idea of my eyes, but want to write more about shooting and the RWVA and Appleseeds. And I need a job teaching, since those who can't -- 'teach' what they can't.

So I did a quick shot of me with the auto shoot, and all three pictures were interesting and I used them, in different places. To make it perfect I would have to ask Heather to focus on the front sight, and do better on a back ground (since I should have a range to be shot at, shouldn't I?).

Being picky, I did not get the sling under the support hand, the way I shoot. Also not wearing a glove. And a shooting cap with bill shading the rear sight, so artificial. But it does convey a lot of my point in few words.