Almost the end of September and there is still rum and whiskey in the cabinet...

  You had no idea that two of the cabinet were code named Rum and Whiskey, did you?  Nah, speaking to my inability to finish what I started... haven't missed too much alcohol in my life, all those dry years I remember so very well.  The session at the YMCA took me to new levels of performance for 'that older gent' (my official new title replacing 'hey, old timer')

   Millions upon  millions, when we look back in History, slavery is completely not understood. Although there is real slavery still in backward countries, in the modern civilized nations there no longer is the same creature. There are legal entanglements and contracts and such, but there is much more freedom for those that don't count and they don't have to make bricks without straw because of the change.  I watched the movie Philomena last night, good movie and not my normal fare.  Still gives me thoughts to mull over.  Today, the Democratic Party, the party of slavery, is still taking an immoral stand, a legal but immoral stand on Planned Parenthood and abortion.  I am, still, a fellow very against others deciding my life, my culture, my contribution to the sins of humanity and the world.  Figuring my own stupidity, and Satan will likely do plenty without the cohorts of evil doers in positions of pretense of importance... The control freaks remain the weakness in most government systems, one very competent person can't do it all, and as soon as you add normal humans, you have lost the power of being really competent.

So Blood Moon, full moon and cleaar skies and I still like the North Star...

  Easier to find right in front of my front porch on a clear night.  Still have to admit, no matter how many cable feeds were covering the Pope's visit to America, gushing with their love of celebrities and dislike of religion and gods that frown upon their lusts and lavishness... I hope more people went out to view the moon. My wife talking to her sister in Korea on the mobile phone, took it and the conversation outside to view, then tried walking up the street to get closer to the Moon????? yeah, like that will work.  Tim Durkan took the picture for those not able to get away from the football game, most of Seattle had watched the Seahawks wake up for the second half. I wonder how many other photographers were working on Mount Rainier and other special locations to get the best shot of the event?  My wife was talking to her sister, because she can, and because it is Chuseok, the three day harvest festival thanksgiving in Korea.  Do wish they would decide which letters to use for which Korean symbols, and have some special sweet rice cakes, and get out the new traditional garb on television.

  I am wearing two daggers today and carrying concealed and realize only the medal detectors will get me, since it is a non-traditional carry position, but I have walked, sat, jumped in and moved Cadillac and my wife's car has so many less miles than my Caravan... so many less, anyway they are secure until they are needed.  So happy.  My wife is off to climb the hills with her hiking team and I am visiting the Service department and going to the YMCA.  Spend money like it isn't real, preparing for my selection as the write in candidate for 2016 Presidential Campaign.

Well, the Sun has finally crested the mountains and the big trees to the Southeast, time to get a move on.  Oh, stop, President Obama is addressing the United Nations and the new folks are already telling us what is important in his speech. He does wear that suit well, tie is tied so neatly, and he has grayed well as President. Should have sold tickets.

  

Beautiful Day in the neighborhood, but I was feeling worse as the morning moved along...

    So I crashed with a couple of wife recommended pills and slept the problem away... or so I tell myself. The house looks wonderful, but remember one of the nice things about getting older eyes is missing the dust layering the stuff that just doesn't move much anymore.

   I got my rifles cleaned and oiled by a one time professional, as a soldier and a Drill Sergeant I invented tools to clean carbon from M16, by flattening wire coat hanger lengths, now I see the Chinese are making them to sell to the Americans. Amazing how fast good ideas spread.  Took some Facebook pictures to make folks wonder what I am up to... nothing, just taking Facebook pictures to make folks wonder...

  I even during the clean up and storage and reorganization (like it was ever organized?) I put a bed spread on my day bed for my watching movies to sleep through..

  Did get my Caravan checked for emissions, failed three things, but the government would grant me a waiver for a hundred and fifty dollars, haven't they heard about global warming, carbon monoxide poisoning and other things?

  Big doings here, the Men's Bible study is at our home, days worth of cooking plus some of the ladies will bring more to share. This conflicts with the Church's Mission show tonight, but then we are having a consolidated service tomorrow, so I think we will get all caught up.

  The government has decided I don't know when I am well off and won't give me the winning numbers for tonight's drawing - a repeat of last nights results.  It never matters, they haven't figured out how to use all the money they have been winning for years now. But they get a bit nervous when not enough people play... like the professional politicians get nervous with the people thinking that amateurs could become President.  Just remember William Earl Dungey next November - write it in.

  

How to do the final Appleseed of my 21st Century... as Shoot Boss....

  So easy, sign up and go. 

  Just up 405 to Mukilteo and catch the ferry in the darkness and then drive to the range and await Tracey to open the gate.  Had twenty, three canceled and two were No Shows, so we had fifteen shooters, only one left hander, many ARs and center fired noise.  Looked like eight had been on an Appleseed with me before.

  And it went well, right on schedule, good pace, and the weather was better than it could have been. Lots better. My only rain problem was during the final Red Coat target and clean up time, since I couldn't find an underwater writing pen to record the results. And my clip board with notes was packed away with the range host family and they were going to Canada to hunt moose and wolves. The Canadians are promoting hunter safari adventures. If they just bring back the wooly Mammoth and Rhino...

  About 240 rounds on first day, and three hundred rounds on second day. So many opportunities to put a Rifleman score (210) together, one repeat 217, and one new Rifleman 211 on the first AQT of the second day.  The shooters often try to fix more than one problem at a time, which seems like it should work, but doesn't. Too many things to think about and most of the shooting becomes irregular from target to target, from AQT to AQT.  Need lots of dry practice to get repeatable results.

  Tried something new for the peppermint drill.  A sighting Square target was posted with one peppermint one the center square, then the target was engaged, upper left two rounds, upper right two rounds, then lower left two rounds and then lower right two rounds, then the final two rounds on the peppermint square. If you burst your peppermint with the first round you could wait until everyone was finished and then shoot a remaining peppermint on another target. That was a fun one, and everyone could see the importance of Natural Point of Aim, and repeatable shots.  The first day Red Coat target had seven of fifteen shooters getting the head shot, and the second day we started my doing the 'cold bore' one shot on the shingle to see how many were still on target after a night's sleep.

   I gave out most of the remaining tee-shirts, about three per shooter, I got William to come out from his chair and help pass out targets and take a Blue Cap as a volunteer admin for the RWVA... his father was one of the Instructors in Training (IIT) and passed his progress check for IIT2.  All the paperwork has been submitted, and the electronic reports posted and working as seamlessly as we were once told they would.

   Several of the shooters had built their ARs from parts? One was having extraction problems and a feed problem, and his firing pin was piercing the rounds. The feed problem was a lateral split case leaving about an inch in the chamber, which accepted a second round to the point of jamming it all up and open bolt - the Leatherman came out and was used. One extraction didn't work, with the rim broken off by the first attempt. Wolf ammunition from Taiwan, who knew? But then I still don't know.

   After driving off the ferry and going home to unpack on day two, I find an email telling me I had posted my After Action Report in the AAR area of the general forum, and that my Course of Instruction hadn't been limited to viewing only by instructors. Which I knew when I did both, and I had been advised by one of my instructors at the Appleseed.  I also had an email from the accounting department telling me for the second time that I hadn't submitted my form for the Custer, Washington shoot in June? So I made my third form out for that shoot, and my first form from the Reimbursement for this Appleseed. I never ask for money back for fuel, food or lodging (I sleep in my Caravan often - should I bill myself?) but I always report zero dollars expended to be recovered, for the IRS folks as they watch over 501 C3 groups.

   I have three of the shooters responding to the AAR and posting their comments, my and one instructor posting, and I did the Internal AAR without all the Red Coat numbers, but the one instructor took the split round picture and posted it on that IAAR, which is what the forum is designed to do, to share the experiences.  So this is my blog, this is Thursday morning early, and only a little repacking of Appleseed materials and equipment cleaning remains and that will be the last time. I am back to visiting the YMCA and talking with old men about the good old days. When I could do it all.  I forgot to give the 'load' command and was about to call the line 'All ready on the firing line...' that just wouldn't work.  Time for youngsters to step up.

oh, CNN had a Republican Candidate Debate? I thought CNN was democrat...

  I don't really want to discuss the debate, since it was intended to draw audience for commercial promotion of products that I probably won't buy, and since it is to present the prettiest possible fantasy Super President of the last Superpower...  come on, don't you see the Trump versus the field drama and excitement? What that has to do with being Presidential?

  If I think Americans would have difficulty deciding what America stands for... I also believe they would have trouble deciding what a President is supposed to be and do  Article II, sections 1-4, it is all there. You may wonder why President's get a 'by' on their poorer performance, it is because their oath of office is to 'to the best of my ability' while many of the other oaths are 'to defend and obey' without a cautionary clause to protect the life of the oath giver.

  Which gets me to my evaluation of the candidates: If I wouldn't follow that person into combat, then I am not selecting - nor electing - nor willfully supporting that person as President. I have to trust that person to defend the nation, to do good things in my name for the world, the nation and the LORD.

Lovely being me, just me, Earl the guy at the back of the room...

  The guy that walked on stage carrying a trunk and walked back off not saying a word. Ligonier Valley Players production... I was there.  I have to admit I cannot claim the main character status in any story not my own, and no one would pay to read nor view it.  Lucky am I that nothing dramatic surrounded my choices and chances in my life.  No public acclaim nor acknowledgement needed, thank you very much.  Have to thank God for placing me where I might help, or at least not get in the way of progress.

  Was a bit frustrated yesterday at the YMCA, not about how much exercise I did, for a fat old fool I did a fine twenty-five point seventy-nine miles in hours of sweaty good intentions.  And the ladies were lovely and there were many of the regulars and they said hi or acknowledged my existence with the head nod or wave. No, the two regulars I was looking forward to seeing and exchanging views with weren't there. At our age, there are too many reasons not to show up for the exercise, and two of the reasons, death and hospitalization, are just hovering in our future cause we have seen others on that road before. I am sure that everything is fine - just they have their own lives and don't always get a page in mine, but I should be able to write them into the adventures of the old guy whenever I want. Thinking I am in control of anything.  Maybe I anticipated too much.

  My mother's anticipation of her Fiftieth Anniversary celebration was ruined by my father's early departure, but then old folks do things like that. My wife came home with groceries yesterday, for the Men's Bible Study at our home in two weekends from now.  She has done major cleaning on the windows and the house twice for the same reason and the guest bathroom is off limits to me because she is hosting the hiking group this morning before they drive off. Anticipation makes preparations much better, but you can drive yourself and others crazy with obsessive behavior, can't you? With forty years of bumping into each others plans - my partnership (marriage in our minds) has well build fences to keep our minds from running loose and wild.  Yep, little drama here. We are settled down, we are stable, we could be in a rut and wheels spinning - but then maybe we don't want to go anywhere.  I looked into the passport renewal, and am sticker shocked by costs, didn't we pay our taxes?  Makes me think that we should just plan on walking around the border check points.

  You see, all my guns and all my ammunition and I am not in the nightly news with my arsenal, and for some strange reason the visit to the YMCA is going to work better for me than sticking up a convenience store or shooting it out on I5 in road rage.  Which is exactly why they won't write a book about me, they often aren't sure I was there once upon a time - so I am falling out of myths and fairy tales, too.  Still have that wonderful poem. "I met a man upon the stair, a little man that wasn't there, he wasn't there again today, gee, I wish he'd go away!"

I am obsesive and compulsive and silly...

   Oh how the time has fled... I once counted pushups and situps in the hundreds, once.  Now I have new goals for my fitness: leave the YMCA on my own two feet, don't let them wheel me out.  I keep working that one. A silly one was when tearing the paper towel from the machine after washing my hands, I was upset that the tear was always crooked... that last pull got weak or the technique was wrong, or I wasn't fast enough... But my last visit, I snatched it cleanly and now have a perfectly straight line cut.  Now on to doing that with weights! Or maybe not.