If the problem persists please hold for the next human interface...

When I was so much younger and beautiful, unless you knew me.

   Terrible about all the water, flooding and destruction in Texas, and in Asia. Let me get another cup of coffee and take my medications and supplements.  Ah, I am back and prepared to continue the death by digital distraction, I am doomed! Found a game and am playing at learning how it works and creating my own improvements in my city and hero... you know the software is trying to program me into spending money, real money, on buying a better me. Are you surprised? Everything we watch and feed upon is making us a lesser creature.

   I have my front porch under reconstruction and I am already happy. Cause my wife is happy. I have an Appleseed to support tomorrow and Sunday.  We will see how that goes on the first day. Wish me and all the participants well. Paid the end of month bills today, will continue to move money at the whim of others. God knows they all need help.

Always looking for a way to extinguish a real American... so many things don't count...

   Skin color, hair style, clothing, language none of that seems to be the defining issue.  So I go back to the Declaration of Independence and those fine words, or the basic Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But that isn't a key characteristic of an American... I found the thing today.

  Sunday, I had church and then tested my fifth grade on King David and his reign. You would have passed it, right?  No worries, they couldn't either, except one young lady that goes to a Christian School where they probably open the Bible. I do like to  make them think a lot. After that I said hello to the Men's English Sunday School (the old guys) and talked a bit. Then the third service was over and my wife said we could go, she knew I was going to eat lunch at home and then go shooting.

   And that was what I did. From two till three something after, I fired my pistols as poorly as one would after a few operations and lack of range time. I need a bit more follow through and reset on the trigger, saw it in the video. No, you don't get the video, I don't claim to be the photographer nor the shooter.

 I might need to wear gloves in the future or just continue to bleed out and hope the zombies just aren't more than four or five magazines worth.  I did notice that when firing with my left hand
I wasn't losing to the pistol. And you would have had to been there watching to see which ones came from which firing position, you can't tell from the targets.

   So Monday there was an eclipse of my Mother's Son, I found a game to play all day and into the night. So I am no longer dying by recliner, I am dying by digital distractions.  And that is a shame. Much more fun with other humans on the range Sunday, than the avatars on the game on Tuesday.

   So this morning, I logged on the internet, looked and turned the computer off until I need it as a tool, like right now. I did build two buildings, but I ain't living virtually, I am working on virtuously. So I called my contractor, Rick, everyone knows Rick, although my wife isn't happy with him, cause he is working with me. And she isn't happy with me (who could blame her, everyone knows her husband isn't as much as he should have been, he just does it his way or not at all).  Anyway, Rick tells me he has about two days left on Kitsap, and then he will be back down to check and see that I have purchased the materials that he listed at Gray Lumber. He says the list is both in his name and mine. I know mine and I figure I will go find the lumber and pay for it and my wife will decide on the porch deck color. So we go, and I don't find it. I go home have lunch and a shower and we go off again.

    Now I called the Lumber company before I go and I found out - why America doesn't work anymore. Really, I talked to two people on the telephone and they wasted my time telling me what they couldn't do.  Sure enough when we got there, very nice operation the three people I talked to couldn't find the list of materials with my contractor and my name on it. Couldn't, wouldn't and just will make excuses until I went away. They had real money and materials to move and make happen. I was just the old guy that they didn't have time nor list nor materials I could pay for. So I left my name, address and telephone number and went home with a stop for stuff to make me wonderful.

   Sure enough, at home is the contractor's number, since I found it when they allow the computers to answer their telephone operation, I will call in the morning before I go to the YMCA. Everyone hates me, hollering at me because I frighten them because they think I can't drive safely, complaining to the lumber company about how messed up this whole operation with Rick is, cause he is a buddy of her husband not on the approved list of ladies that know everything right about the world.

   The key to the old traditional American, the real American, was that they made things happen, fixed the broken, mended the hurt, got rid of the problems found the happiness and truth. The current crop seem to think running around making excuses or discussing what they can't do is the way to make others love them a little more. Do we have more complaints than solutions? Are we borrowing money for something we could live well without, do we ever have enough, are we complaining about what we don't have, instead of being thankful for all that we do? That is where the country went wrong and now there are no survivors, builders, explorers, nor fun loving folks at the corn shucking bee.

So ten minutes too much on FaceBook.com, I keep forgetting how much money is made from my participation...

   So I submit my Arbor Day survey, without the donation to all their good works. I unboxed all my OGRE sets to look upon and think about. The dining room table has no table cloth again, I could put my toys to paint and play with upon it. There are still old marks from long ago and far away there.

   My wife and I had some bedroom talk, I need to eat less, walk more and get a life away from the screens. At least until I am worn out from something productive.  OLDE follks bedroom talk isn't very interesting, but always important and well meant. There is a very large pine needle ant hill close to my opening into the backwoods behind my fence. It stands about four feet six inches tall.

  I have just burned out the last light bulb in the two bulb ceiling light, so I put a head light on to type by, not for my fingers, but so I can see what letters appear upon my screen and if I look around I can also figure out what goes bump in the twilight of morning breaking.

  I like the idea of nail polish, red and blue for the cardboard tiles to play OGRE with. On edges, before I go wearing them out and moisture seeks new homes. Any opinions? Silence is calming.


    I have to have my pistols prepared for shooting on Saturday, just in case my young cousin wants to shoot, safely and on target. And it is about time I got back on a range to see what I can do, too. Okay, enough, I will have to return to real world now and prepare to greet the day, there are adventures out there to quietly slide by and miss.

It isn't that difficult to hit a mansize target at 100 yards with a flintlock musket, but to do so under command with the enemy shooting at you and your friends takes a special kind of love.

I know where I stand and you are wrong...

   So two groups of people urged on by media madness, to confront each other over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. Three people die and that is wrong. I am with Robert E. Lee, who never thought he should be so honored. His idea of honor was much more basic and real, and he lived his entire life as if he knew what mattered.  I think that he really did.

   But the rewriting of history will never change, and so who he was and what he did and stood for will be a point of contention of groups of people I wouldn't want to be associated with.  God loved him, and he was blest, but he suffered more than most because he couldn't save all he thought was worth fighting for... Just like I have said, I know where I stand and you are wrong. But we have all been wrong before, I expect we will all be wrong again. God still loves us more than we deserve.

Good start to August, named for a famous Roman emperor...

   Got up before four, weighed and took my blood pressure, consumed my medicines and supplements. Still not youthful nor handsome, sigh.

   Not prepared for breakfast I read the Bible and worked on ideas for Sunday school... none of which survive first contact with the children. (I did learn a lot in the military) We are going to replace Saul with an understudy, some shepherd boy.  Last week I fluttered around gathering Men's Codes, looking for where it is written about traits and principles of conduct and such, being a product of equality they would have to work for young females, too.  OR really lose half the class's interest. I found a ton, and it was interesting, but these are only fifth graders, short attention spans that would rather seen a video than read an essay, let alone a chapter in a book - or a book. When I was that age, I was reading books by the light of the street light outside my window - needed glasses a bit the following years, off and on. But they were real books.

   Anyway, I ended up saying that God wanted to give the people a King, what would be some great characteristics for a King? Most important first. You, gentle reader, may play along but use a President instead of a king. Don't ask the media, they seem to need something to feed upon, sacrificing nobles to make peace with God has not been favored for centuries. The children came up with about fifteen, and we were using the kings Saul and David, although we haven't started David yet, everyone knows.

   Adults may ask also what are the best characteristics of the people... not the followers, just the people.  I thought about asking how many of those desirable traits you have... but making someone really look at themselves, it is tough enough to do for me - you have no idea when I found I had wrinkles, December 1985, so I won't do more than mentioning it to children and then fly on to something else.

    Anyway, I was wandering looking at David this morning, three statues are outstanding, sculptors Michelangelo - Donatello - and Bermini  (which make me wonder why Bermini didn't get to be a TNMT, since his was the best David about to  cast his stone shot).  I like the video, since pot bellied old guys can play, too. The haunting music isn't bad either. New words for consideration: sling, shot, auxiliaries, scouts, slingers (pole slingers), and the physics of why the wind up... and how even Palestinian youth are still slinging rocks against IDF and police and in the Spanish Civil War ( no none of the Sunday school students would even know about the Spanish Civil War). Hondo

Well, doesn't that make me special... A +

  For years I have known I could get an A plus if I worked hard, studied and didn't go to sleep during class. And I haven't found my oldest medical evaluation with the draftboard and US Army, but my ID tags have said B POS for years, and years and years... But two recent blood tests for type have come back A POS. So I have be wrong for so long - just lucky I never needed a blood transfusion (I understand they check the patient before giving blood always now).

  So I have to go to a new diet since everything is based on internet knowledge now.

Plant based low fat diet:
  Fresh fruit
  Legumes - beans, lintels, peas and peanuts
  fresh greens
  whole grains but wheat is a bad thing, so I am stuck on oats, barley and rye.
  vegetable oils are fine
  soy products are, too
  pineapple
  tuna
  less domesticated meat
  (but dinosaur would be fine)
  NO HIGH CARB DAIRY, no chocolate,

Not only is life better in moderation, but information for my best behavior and health gleaned from the internet is only as valuable as the effort I made to find it. Expect me to be a new improved fat old man when you next find me.

oh, you aren't looking for me? it is well...

   On the home front, three days of contractors making my home better, my piles of money lighter, and my wife already planning the next improvements in everything wore me out, I could only walk two miles on Thursday, and my visit to the YMCA produced no sweat on this fellow.  I went and got a hair cut.  Remind me to relax and enjoy the little lady running her hands all over me (I never do, never have, she just isn't allowed that close to my comfort me zones). I stopped and bought a new ID tag, chrome and polished (four lines: name, old service number, A POS, and religious affiliation).

   I remain upset with National Geographic and their GENO2.0 done by Helix.  I paid my money and no matter how many times I call to get assistance to accessing my results they have a denial loop they put me on. I enjoy conspiracies but don't really believe humans are that smart, I guess going to snail mail and written correspondence before I have to get bad mannered and stupid about it - one more try on phone call and internet then, pray and be better than they deserve. I am so irrelevant, they must all be Hillary supporters.  Do they still exist? Kind of like looking for people that believe in the Republican Party - just figures of MSM and common DC delusion.

  So a very important man, recently promoted based on the Peter Principal is upset with how badly no one is listening to him, so he decides to 'leak' to the NEW YORKER, which no one in real America reads except to see if anyone took classes on print communication. He would not impress anyone outside of his family and friends - he looks and dresses based on the Good Fellows, swears badly for effect, is forgiven by an attention seeking press, because if I don't watch it they get not so many dollars. I don't watch soap operas because all the people I know are better than that, and now that the MSM, the White House, and elite first class folks aren't better than that - I just don't watch anymore.

  I go off to read, or play a game or research my Sunday school lesson, the children are better than that. Think I will mention about language again, most of them can speak in two languages, and likely know all the vulgar terms for body functions and dysfunctions, but they do need to know they shouldn't use it - they really are better than that.

So my son comes up for air and I get a call... and it sets me to thinking...

 Which my sister quips back 'so thinking is not normal?' Don't I really love my family that knows me so very well? Yes, I do and I thank God and my parents for those blessings.

Dad scraping paint on home. 1958?

  I had forgotten that he has been busy and absorbed by the mission and the men and this break was the first opportunity to address his personal life worries. And I went all Alfred E. Neuman on him, and told him I was fine, then realized that was what he had heard before my operation, so he had no idea what had happened, what the biopsy revealed, the after action reports from the surgeon, the new cancer doctor, nor how I was back to regular meals and regular diet. In some respects I think about how every time I went home on leave from some foreign adventure or operation, the local television sets hadn't missed me, the same soap operas and game shows droned on... just background noises, and I had been where people weren't like me, doing my best to understand and learn and take care of the men and the mission.

   I learned some things about his future, and saw a current picture of him posted by his wife, between all the garbage scrolling on Facebook... and then I settled back into my life fasting for my visit to my doctor today and thinking about where I am on my recovery at the YMCA, my only personal measuring device on how my recovery is coming. I am unhappy, but then realistic about my age... almost seventy and growth hormones don't swim in my blood stream anymore - with all my preventive medications I am happy that oxygen, carbon dioxide and energy do... and I will look back and think that it didn't take long to get back to my old self... but we all lie to ourselves about some part of our lives,,,, so we don't get frustrated. Or that is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

  Have a picnic for the English speaking church members this weekend, and Sunday school and Church services. While reading Charles Murray's Coming Apart , I realize that I don't like being called 'white' as much as I don't like being called 'English' -- and that Charles Murray has a lot of things he doesn't understand about religion and faith... but then I am reading it to find out what happened to my America in the period he is writing about... and it is interesting. Oh, for those that don't know the Koreans (which is what we think they want to be called - which isn't) call the Americans (which most of us are on the government service level) call us in Korean because of the language we normally use - being a Revolutionary War Veteran wanna-be I object to the label. Being an almost reasonable man I understood what they were saying in Korean and they are using their national term for English not the one for American which they are also.

Well, shower time and get on out the door, to the doctors and then the YMCA. Y'all be good, or even awesome beyond expectations... make our ancestors happy!