How do you tell a happy camper?

He falls asleep waiting for the ferry to load so he can get home, of course.

Woke and left at oh dark thirty, catching the six am ferry to Whidbey Island, drove to the range and met up with Prescott and Cubflyr. Tracey_B drives up with truck and trailer and keys for the gate - the Appleseed is on! It was one of my best ones and I have had many great ones, but the fear of failure, failing the shooters not a safety thing, was oppressing, since I worried about having enough instructors for all the folks...

Seems that when I spoke the sky would clear up and the Sun would shine, and I had to keep talking. Wonderful people in the world, not in the news, not in front of the television, computer monitor or looking for love in all the wrong places. One just has to go out and meet them - work together and amaze each other and ourselves.

I was greeted by Ron, telling me Todd sent his regards and to mention him, I looked at Ron and said from Eastern Washington? Tdow? Yep, seems he had purchased a sling from him, through the internet and mentioned the upcoming Appleseed. Cool, and Ron shoots well, he will make Rifleman another day.

Coupeville Appleseed Now to get back to my regular programming.

Chains that bind us...

Woke from dreams of impossibility. A Command Sergeant Major going to a dinner with Commander and his wife, where we find out the unit is being set up for failure, the History already written... of course it is under the current White House - that was where the dream was really strange, since I like fighting in Southwest or Southeast Asia much better than in the home country... do pray that there is no truth in dreams, you don't want this one to happen to anyone.

Time for second cup of coffee, in my Special Operators mug. Thanks, son. I can't read Latin (I am the product of a government education system) so I pretend it is a cool mug to warm my hands with.

Freedom, Liberty and personal responsibility... all wonderful concepts. And don't we just know we are part of the experiment of government that allows men to stand tall? Except where we can't. Here in America and the world at large. How does that happen, it wasn't designed that way. Or was it? By those others out there.

First they made the government too big to ignore, and then they started to make the people depend on the government. Really depend on the government. The way it was designed was the government was supposed to depend on the people. It is just an imaginary creation without a life of its own, not like a supernatural being. But we don't have to pay attention to the government, if we walk outside of the law, and many do - or we can blend in and everyone knows we must be law abiding, cause we are nice folks, cut our yard and clean up the trash after parties and picnics. But what I am doing in private never threatens the government or the public and so they don't know. And many do.

Then there are the herds, or flocks of people that just graze away, with total trust in the government and its goodness on our lives. I do think that is most of the folks. They just want to have fun... and aren't going to lose any sleep over worry about what might be really going on. But that isn't where the chains are, for those that we should really watch out for, to be careful around, they are bound by the same chains that hold many of us - DEBT - what we owe is a burden. You can carry your brother, and never feel the weight but your debt bends your back, darkens you days and makes you do things you aren't going to find fun. How did that happen? You weren't born with debt, yes there is a national debt, and you being born doesn't mean that you owe any of it. Really, there is a bank or two everywhere, there are governments everywhere, and you don't owe any of those debts and it isn't your responsibility to repay any of them - and you haven't been paying attention to collapse of nations, banks or fool ideas. Why is your national debt your problem? It isn't, but you don't understand the chains, the reins of government or of the bankers. Borrow a little and they help you repay regularly, borrow a  lot and they start to turn you in their direction - they have become your partner.

It is only money, it is only a tool, and it is being used by people and institutions that don't love you, why are you paying any attention? Ah, so you can be concealed and free to do your own will, don't borrow, don't leave tracks and they will never notice. They only count the people that owe them and they put them in asset or debit columns - which is no way to treat a people. Chained to the money, manipulated by the godless. Doesn't matter the political party, the nation, the person, if they are part of the borrowing they are only slaves, how much did Spartacus owe? The reason he was feared, because he didn't fear -
all they had for him was death, and we will all share that individual event.

The say that change happens... and I have noticed

I was searching for an old blog post on the Just the Library Keeper blog, which I now think I worked pretty hard on... and for sure I notice that this blog hasn't many of the better qualities of that older version of a younger old man confronting obsolescence. That is what growing older and out of current society and culture is about isn't it?

My wife says she has fried another microwave, since that is two it is only coincidence, if she does it with a third we will give her that skill level. Until we replace it, life will be a bit inconvenient.  How did we get from fire and heating elements to microwave radiations? Must have missed that science class. Although I still remember the burn from running up Radar hill at Graf, and that was behind where the radars were watching, that stuff is warm in the extreme.

I was trying to find links to my RWVA log and went back and went through several years of posts on the older blog, and smiled often - noticed that I re-used many favorite pictures - noticed that it seems all the posts are still there. I think I wrote better in the old days, but that is subjective self analysis - not to be trusted, but then Facebook is here and like texting there is little reason for grammar, spelling and punctuation. Or even rules of  polite society, do we even acknowledge a 'polite society' anymore?

I am preparing for a big weekend, the Appleseed at Coupeville on Whidbey Island, ferry crossing in the early morning, best look up the weather for Saturday and Sunday. I have a small very professional crew for twenty-five potential Riflemen. Only five of the shooters have done an Appleseed before.

While reading about the San Antonio Open Carry demonstration I ran across this, on the left symbol. From the III Percenters I would guess. I like it, very soft and still firm in what it seems to portray. Everyone does understand that means 97% are still lost, misled, and uncommitted? Yeah, that is a bunch. And it could be that when the time comes, everyone is still going to do the very best they can to survive, create, succeed and be worthy of  the Lord's love.

Well, VA paperwork needs filled in for health benefits, one of the Church Brothers is on a personal mission to get us all signed up and he has stirred my wife to worry, so I must. Take care out there. 

Foggy cat feet...

Yep, read that poem once...

So I have done well, turned on the Blues, went and composted - lovely.

I went in the garage, and find the smell of drying peppers permeates the air, pungently,. is that enough p's?

I clean my rifle, roll my mats, drift my front sight, center the rear sight (took it off to look to remount it - NO!). Packed my shooters box to zero my rifle next trip to the range. Ready to go to the YMCA,

 That is enough for this day, thank the LORD and ask for those things only He can provide, cause I haven't got them for you. But you already knew that.

Notice anything a little clumbsy on the internet?

I tried to post the Moxee, WA 19-20 October link to the Appleseed forum on Blogger, and couldn't Friday evening, strange, thought I would have to ask the Help desk. Went off to the Appleseed and demo'd instructed and watched and talked. Got a half pint of Irish whiskey, good food and a solid nights rest on Saturday - how did that happen? Ah, nice people - the only way to be.

There is an after action report on the shoot. My take away is that I have spent five years on the Appleseed Trail, my first Appleseed was on that same range, different management and name, in October of 2008. I had the same Stevens target rifle, and my sights are really off, but look at those groups. Anyway, by Monday after another solid nights sleep, I could update my Appleseed Trail links, post pictures and couldn't get a like or two on Facebook, sometimes. I have a cousin riding the Peace Train, in Peking, China now. I am reading about the domestic return movement of the children of the baby boomers... everyone wants to put folks in boxes, but folks want to fool around.

I did drive out to clamming on Friday, that is different. Kind of a wife support activity. Having said that, two of the Bible Study men and two wives and one other lady taught me how to have fun sucking clams out of their sandy swamp at low tide. Since we used clam guns, it was still a gunny activity. Right? I got the benefit by having about two pounds of fried clams Sunday evening. I am so blest and lucky to be alive.

I just do think that this is worth sharing, especially since the country I wandered in and met with on Friday, Saturday and Sunday didn't meet Main Stream Media attention or note, we aren't a blip on the screen anywhere  - but there are many more of we than they know, we are just humble.

There must be some dangerous bloggers out there...

I started blogging because I made my life into a weekly letter for my mother, and she could get it immediately through email, and then I could also send it to all my siblings (who don't really always want to know what that fool older brother was doing) so I did blind copy for them. That filled their inboxes up quickly, remember the old days of taking forever to download, upload and do you even want to open the mail, look at the size of it? Yeah, I know that was long ago and in a land far away. Some young lady seeing one of those monster emails, mentioned to me that I should blog. So I did. And there have been a couple of variations, and still there is a continuous electronic trail through time - they could attempt to determine if there was any original thought anywhere, or how long I have held to those heretical beliefs. Waste of time.

Not the writing, that has been just what I needed, for my mother and for me. I wrote on Facebook yesterday evening as I closed the computer for the night "You know you still love them when a picture from the past, your past, still warms you and reminds you of how much you miss them. A great love never dies, does it?" I had drifted off into pictures from my past, of people no longer here. 

Facebook is fine for little bites of us, a taste but for full measure, one has to write books worth of the library one seldom lends out to the public. I will only get impressed when they do it with poetry, like my mother did, or reasoned logic like my father, who didn't write as much as he read and listened -- a very wise course for a husband and father, grandfather.

The President fears the unregulated bloggers, they can and often do, say anything and no one will know the official story, which could be a spin doctor's best effort for distortion of reality (LIES).

Well, no one reads too much into my blog. I am all about me and my adventures, going clamming with wife and a couple of the church brothers this afternoon. I may tell you about it later. I have an Appleseed tomorrow in Yakima, still remember how many people on my cross country motorcycle trip asked me about Appleseed and the RWVA (since I hadn't answered all their questions in my blogging - fail).

Wanted to think about learning how to play piano enough for playing hymns for  the Men's Bible Study, my religious music major cousin offered to help, I had forgotten how many of my family have better talents than organized mayhem of the battlefield. I should done better myself. I have done some little artistic fooling around. A new lapel pin for church, seat belt spins the single pinned ones, a White Cockade to show during the Three Strikes presentation, for few outside of Scotland understand the Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Stewart White Rose, and no one wears a cockade - heavens, you would have to look the term up.

It could very well be, that the President wouldn't worry about the bloggers so much if they all wrote about how wonderful he is, but they instead all write about their own passions and problems and perfections -- and that means he is very small in their lives, which is exactly how a President should be - very small in American's lives, he is only middle management. Where has this idea come from that someone is to RULE his party, his government, his/her friends and peers? We really aren't subjects here, nor subject to authority. If God gives us choice, why shouldn't all the lesser creatures?

'to avoid a potential default on the debt'

Lovely phrase, and is now the real reason the TEA Party and other terrorist Conservative groups must be beaten.  Or so many have told me... through the media, they are afraid to meet me in the streets at high noon.

But, I agree that is the key phrase, the most important phrase of this century for our elected leaders.

But they are like always going about it all wrong. They are not stopping spending more than they have, they are not paying off any debt with real assets (like GOLD, NUKES, OR Government buildings). And stupidly, thinking they can avoid potential default by borrowing more - they are insuring they will truly default on the debt. They are cutting their artery in the leg, thinking it was the one in the neck they had to worry about.

You may all go to bed and don't worry, stupid is what others do with their lives and their loans. You pay yours off, and don't borrow any more. Just pay cash or trade the excess that you don't need that someone else does. Forget the insanity in the government, they are badly advised by lawyers and accountants normally representing a very high class of snake oil salesmen or bankers that no longer like depositors because the Federal Reserve Bank is giving away money to loan on anything.... and they all think YOU are going to bail them out and not hold them accountable, because this is too complicated to feed you in a sound bite.

To keep your great credit rating, and avoid potential default, pay your bills, STOP giving more than your tithe away, and wear out those things you bought long ago, especially those slimmer fashions before you got fat.