Ah, they didn' t catch me doing it, they will never prove it...

   So, since my health or breathing isn't better than sit down and don't move much... I  had to go out to start raking the mess on the front yard. While there the garbage pick up came by and I dragged the container back to the back - which exhausted me, so I went back to slow raking.

To move the stuff from the concrete of the driveway and the sidewalk, I turned the rake upside down so the tines were up... and immediately women in my life started hollering at me in my head. One didn't want the neighbors to see her husband acting like a crazy man. One wanted to tell me the proper way to do it, one wanted me to stop -IMMEDIATELY!- and get the broom. Ah, I smiled inside, and kept right on a raking the wrong way. I could imagine men in my life asking quietly what I was doing it that way for... but none of them would do more than discuss it and watch for the results. Yes, I do know there are wonderful women out there that would just thank me for cleaning up, and give me a cookie and a smile - or even a cup of hot coffee. But I have been programmed to think that doing something different would get loud noise from women... probably from sitcoms.


I  really should one day soon, decide to fix all the coming and current problems with my culture - as it is under attack by all those that know better than I.  Kind of like, we need a new Constitution to really eliminate the professional politician, make the elected representatives only represent their voters, and not have the idea of government as a way to get rich. The Clintons were right, they should all leave broke so they can start fresh in a real career.

You are going to miss me when I am gone... cause I am going...

For some strange reason my pacemaker lung coordination isn't, so I am not breathing well enough - AGAIN!  And I am going to slow down and stop... soon. There was a little fever yesterday, but my wife thinks I am malingering, and I smile and go outside to cut the wet grass, today, so I can do it again tomorrow, and maybe Saturday morning, too. Just take it easy and get it down. I was running out of breath even taking it slow. Will have the doctor check me out - if it doesn't improve. Noting more to add, bye!

Missed the Blood Red Moon, for the mist was heavy all during the Dark....

     Yes, I did wake to look, saw nothing but fog and went back to bed. Don't ask how many things I walked into in the dark bedroom - it wasn't my normal path and stuff was in the way. It couldn't have been enough sleep. By the time I went off to the YMCA for a workout I felt like a normal seasons changing, draft induced fever making illness had arrived. So I did a very light workout, cause I am still a fool and want to be a better one. Went off and did my banking and betting and then home to bundle up and nod off constantly in some DVD about killing that I had stuck in the player... no, I really don't remember much, but the Persian King was fleeing a blood soaked Alexander before I went back to sleep again... I read the history Alexander dies of a seasonal draft induced fever making illness. Or was it the Alamo? When Jim Bowie never got to his blade, did like that character. Excellent movie, and the next time I get upset with someone pushing a totally out of line Mexicans are picked on, I will calmly reply 'Remember the Alamo" - or Bataille de Camerone .

   I did decide to buy a DVD of Sergeant York, and as soon as I did, I wondered why I didn't already have a copy. Maybe because I only saw in once, in all the years of watching Gary Cooper in other pictures, hmm. And York Theater is named after him, oops! Is that building still there? Everything else seems to have been rebuilt, maybe that was, too. Anyway, it was never a picture that made Hollywood happy. Seems that God was important, Sergeant York was pretty humble, and I would sure like to meet him in Heaven. I do have Gary Cooper in Beau Geste, 1926, great story, redone in 1966. One of my first classic movies for Earl was High Noon, mostly for the music and the lovely lady. Ah, well. Have just enough time to watch Ben Hur crush his friend in a chariot race.

Earl does an orgy of Polish Winged Hussar banners (size of the unit like a lance once was)...

The March of Cambreadth, done to clips from the movie 1612, the best costuming, and military tech representing the struggles between Poland and Russia during the time of Troubles - something like ten to thirteen pretend Tsars or Czars, until finally the Romanovs took over for three hundred years.. and we all know how that ended. Okay, the Commies got them. The reviewer from Time is of the troubles, but it is a very mythological fairy tale told from the decidedly Russian point of view. I didn't love the story, but the one character that pretends to be a Spaniard was interesting, and makes a working leather cannon to launch hot shot from... and his firing tables are also magical. Still, interesting story - just not as wonderous as an American made movie- but we are stuck on Zombies, and may never get out of there.

I was looking for more but better, so I did the Russian version of Taras Bulba, based on Nikolai Gogol's story, the narrator reads a bit (in English). I love this movie, because I read the story long ago and this movie hits it just right. Yes, I have the Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis movie, but Yul just is never old enough to play the main character, and the story is harsher than Hollywood was prepared for the American audience. Russians just cut straight to the ugly between the Cossacks and Poles.

The Polish mini series based on the novel by Heryk Sienkiewicz, With Fire and Sword, is a good tale, I had read it as a book, and the lady love is lovely, the evil guy is bad but just ornery, there is some interesting witch stuff but I was very reminded of the Three Musketeers with the young Polish knight doing very much better than the almost musketeer, but he was only contending with the Cossacks and a lesser noble servant. Good enough movie, but then I am still remembering it fondly.

The final movie was Day of the Siege: a battle of Blood and Steel. The high water mark of the Ottoman Empire against Europe was on September 11th, a day we long ago forgot to note. In 1683, the three hundred thousand man army made the final attacks on the forces of the Holy Roman Empire, a title that only Europeans can understand and love. On the second day of the battle the Polish King struck death and destruction with his artillery and Winged Hussars. This movie is a joint venture, the Poles and Italians, so it had great moments - like all the acting by F. Murray Abraham as a very holy humble monk, and colorful costuming (Italian versions of the Polish feathers are redder) and really terrible ones, like all the fake explosions, cannon firing and lack of cast of thousands, it does lack proper number of horses and riders, but still it is a movie. I found the date interesting, linking it to why the attack by OBL was on 11 September, and the holy humble monk. That person isn't really in the Wiki History of the event, so it must be a myth, too. But I really liked his part in the movie.

So, I am done for a bit, will go back to see them again, am sharing the Day of Siege on Saturday. I have had an interest in the Thirty Years War period for a while, now I can add some interest in the Polish/Cossack and Russian periods of the similar time. Go ahead, play the music video again. It is more fun than the real wars it alludes to...

Life is already a challenge, I know everyone else is handling it better than I...

I am on day two of the new challenge on the Expresso Bicycle machine, very easy, just beat ten of your ghosts (pass performance best times).  I can get a 100 points for each that I improve upon, and after beating up ten of them, a 1000 points, I could order a Ghost Buster 3 t-shirt. Now, I do look in the mirror and see the old man looking back at me, so I know I am not as fast as all those younger whippersnappers. But I am still heroic, so I have to try, and so in two days I have beaten two ghosts and come so close it makes me snarl in frustration. Only two out of six races run... this month is going to get real long.

Not only snarl, but when I then go to my leisurely rowing machine to knock out some distance over time... I am wiped out. Get up and go is long gone... sigh. Talk about a slow prehistoric monster - a kangaroo would easily run me down... they are herbivores, aren't they?

Self imposed challenges, I am now good to hunt deer on Joint Base Lewis McChord, but nothing likely this weekend.  Training areas always have priority, which is fine. Yesterday's desk operative was not nice, but today's is on top of the job, nice attitude and very helpful. What a difference a day and new person makes.

I also have my copy Boone renewed - it is a fine book, lots of great information and well told. Support your local library.

All Rights reserved...

It is October, and my wife drove me out to mow the grass as she destroyed or harvested everything in the gardens, the organic conversion has begun in the backwoods. Flip those calendar pages - look! General George Washington accepting the surrender of the British forces in Yorktown, Virginia.

I have a very traditional Revolutionary War weapon on its way to my home, and four Polish films (which immediately made me giggle for thoughts of sexual smut) about the Polish Kingdom against the Cossack, the Russians, the Orthodox Church, the Turkish war machine at Vien.  I do war much better than sex, but the film makers always want to have some love interest around for the ladies to buy tickets for... the major complaint about Blackhawk Down, the movie, was all the men looked the same, and there wasn't any love interest in it. Yep. Truth.

I feel free, very liberated. The election is very soon, and the shape of much will be revealed - I expect to find no great leadership emerging in either party. I expect that the LOOMING Debt will not be seriously addressed by any elected officials and in the following two years a collapse - either total or partial, of the dollar and the economy and the government. They are all together in the problem. I expect those thinking they are in charge will clamp down to make it all better while they fix everything their way. Which as I said 'clamp down', means that it isn't the American way but the Marxist way they want to take the country. And it might just be time to turn out the lights.

Change does happen, the Sun continues its journey over the skies of New York City and Montana... you can actually see it in Montana, New York only sometimes.

So I am preparing for the collapse, and working on my sainthood. Seems to me that being a Bad Boy never got me more than an reputation I probably never really deserved. And by the time I had figured out moral reasons for soldiering, and my life's course... I was already in debt to the Devil. Easy enough to get out of that, but I couldn't find the government nor the media on my side, nor understanding my point of view... seems they were being sponsored by little demons and petty fools.

I have the March of Cambreadth, on my computer with sound, which is why the four Polish films, lovely winged Hussars.  Well, let us get this month off to a fine start. The stores have been preparing for months.

Specialization is for insects...

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
— Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

   Wandering my mind about the carrying of a pocket knife, folding lock blade, multi-tool, or a sheath knife - is the thought of Community, everyone has to contribute and draw from the common wealth... ooo... common wealth, normally means the rich get richer doesn't it?

    One problem with movies, television and novels is the main character is the one that carries the day, slays the monster and make happily ever after. And he always gets the girl. Who is always hot, drop dead gorgeous, with long legs up to her... you get the idea. None of our stories, myths, and legends are real folks - real folks have warts, blemishes, scars and ideas that should never see the light of day.

   But, in my opinion, the current culture is constantly wanting experts to take out the garbage - and in some states they had best be union members, and in other states they belong to the mob. But everyone can take out the garbage - really, it was once thought of as a chore for a child.  Look deeper, and you will see the creep of control everywhere, you have to get permission, a license and certification to do ...... (fill in the blank). I know that women give birth everywhere when it is time, but I was born in a hospital - a situational improvement over my father's birth at home. We were both near our mothers.

   When a community has a problem, they have to find their solution and fix it. And disarming the community does decrease the possibility of death by firearms, it does not make everyone nice, peaceful and a saint. If the problem is that anger leads to rage and murder - the community has to quell the anger.

    In the American Revolution we have important leaders, whole Histories are written about their greatness, goodness and shared with the community. But you do realize that if you take all the great men - and their ideas and do not have the community provide the food, shelter, intelligence, manpower, healing and support. The whole war would have been less bloody and unresolved... just the elite couldn't have done it without Yankee Doodle, the thousands of Yankee Doodles that showed up to become the Continental Line, or the courier service, or the guard at the post.

   In one of my recent readings they talked about the ten percent that fight in combat, boldly and bravely, and die... then the next boldest, brave and effective fighter steps up and continues, and the next and the next.... until the battle is won or there just aren't anymore. It struck me as a kind of truth.

   America is the nation of individuals, working for themselves and family and friends, in any way they can, to accomplish their best. The phrase 'We the People' means something. It can be the strength of a nation, a town, a business, a farm, a school, a church... specialization is for insects. Humans don't do well in lock step, frozen in the status quo...

  Change is important for adaptation to the current challenge, are we flexible enough? You should have the tools, or you should invent them.