You can find everything on the internet...

The President is who?

Might not be true, he could be a French model.

Ah, is my face red!

One Appleseed in Washington was canceled so I got to go to Oregon to shoot at an Appleseed there this weekend, at the Douglas Ridge range - which is having some land use problems because of the discovery of wetlands! Everything in the west of the Great Northwest is wetlands, flood plain or tidal waters - water, watter everywhere and then it rains! Wetlands indeed!

Anyway, as I drove the three hours down to the range in Oregon, I thought about how the movement of shooting has crested - partly from the cost of shooting stuff, and partly from the cost of living and gasoline. But mostly because handling of firearms safely and proficiently and learning about the Heritage of 19 April, 1775 will get you bombed up by Cheicken Terrorist without a cause, or even have some government agency notice your activity and send the IRS or the FBI SWAG to your doorstep. What was Nathaniel Harrington doing on the green in Lexington on 19 April 1775? Well, maybe the terrorists will only attack the large crowds watching the runners and  not families on a rifle range in the middles of somewhere... Well, everyone get back on the streets and announce the opportunity to learn marksmanship to 4MOA and the Heritage and tell them to visit RWVA forum for more information.

Well, I arrived (early) I was noticed and greeted and became a good thing to talk about the good old days. Not only all the instructors but the returning shooters from Appleseeds years ago. It was good, and I even made some new buddies. Other old men from long ago wars, and younger men working for a Rifleman patch.

Including me, twenty shooters, just enough to make the words flow and the shooting slow down. So, no matter what Fred has said about fewer words and quicker training, it can get away from our best efforts and good intentions. They did one AQT by the end of the day, they had the two Redcoat targets, all positions, transitions and marksmanship and safety were taught, just not as much practice. Since we had an AQT and some good shooters returning from other Appleseeds, there were two that earned a Rifleman patch. No pictures since they may have declined - many did, and they NSA and Homeland Security will have to look for satellite coverage to find out who got the patch.

I never got to the AQT except to staple one up on my target backer. Seems that I am healthy, after having troubles last year - but that doesn't mean I am fit to fight. Or do the transitions from standing to seated or prone quickly with the muzzle in a safe direction. I need many more dry practice getting up and down with a rifle without making everyone in the general area afraid.  I also see a need for speed - even giving up two shots will still need a faster surrender to gravity and the ground.

Anyway, I supported a black powder shooter mounting a scope on his rifle - I talked he worked. I also got lots of sunshine and sunburn (yes. I had sunscreen, but one must apply it). So, looking at my targets (bad enough that I didn't take pictures for sharing, but did take the paper to shred in a controlled environment - home!) It was great to shoot the M1 Garand (always) and I did improve - someone should buy me a bunch of ammunition or reloading components and I can continue to improve. Still, without the live ammunition - the dry practice, including the transitions from standing to seated and prone, are what I must improve and can afford to do. The difference between healthy and fit is HUGE!

You do understand the danger, don't you?

I could be talking about the Federal Reserve Banking or the Pentagon or the stupidity of Governors of states that are fools in charge -- lots of dangers but they are now coming to a point.

I was left alone yesterday and started watching television between bouts of well written war stories. Sure enough I was traumatized. The telephone rang, but I couldn't answer it.

Seems that the National Security Agency has been conspiring with Verizon to publish my telephone to my enemies. So the twenty times my wife claims to have called the house that I never answered - it was because I was paralyzed by my fears of  being found in contact with her.

I have thought about disconnecting, just cancelling the telephone service entirely. Since the cable company, Comcast, has a telephone and computer connection I could use that - or I could get a dish.... but then upon more paranoid reflection, I now know that they are giving up information, too. They are everywhere, EVERYWHERE!

Only that service, but my free Google and Facebook, seem to have been designed to mine my mind - to know what I am thinking, want to buy, indulge in, or vote for. The Cable companies know what the television is tuned to, they use the information to sell ad space. Control freaks everywhere. So harmless, aren't they?

But if it were only one political party, or two, or one business I wanted to work with, for or against - that is something even very old folks could handle. But it isn't the President, any of the last sixteen or so, but the larger groups of employees of the various levels of government, the unions, the law enforcement forces without work, those depending on government goodness delivered monthly.

You ask how I know there is a problem? The Internal Revenue Service has become the cancer on the Constitution, but the spin offs new caneers in the FBI, FEMA, and the Agriculture Department. It just doesn't pay to play, it isn't the Congresspeople, the Executive Branch - it is the low level wild clerk in the catalog system of the Congressional Library that is conspiring to make you all better, for your own good.

Ron Paul tried to warn you, so did Benjamin Franklin, add Earl - I won't say I told you so, since this communication has been monitored. Pascali's Island is a fine story about what happens to empires that have so much information that 'no one reads it any longer'.

Go ahead, wear running shorts this morning...

Just because you put them on doesn't mean you have to go run, does it?

You do know it is D-Day, don't you? The D stands for day, the H stands for hour, and there were D-Days for every operation, H-Hours for the moment of attack. But D-Day is the Longest Day, the attack on Normandy - King Harold's Revenge? The Liberation of Europe. In 1984 I wanted to get to jump in the re-enactment - only gravity still works exactly as it did so long ago - I missed my chance. Still, I have walked the famous cliffs and beach, visited the graves and noticed how young most of the dead were, and what day they were killed, thousands of crosses and some stars - real Americans. Don't forget the Canadians, British and Free French - don't forget the Naval forces that had to get them there, the Air Corps that dragged the gliders, dropped the paratroopers, that bombed the heck of anything they suspected of being a strong point. When you drive around France, Normandy is beautiful, and the part still recovering from WWI is still recovering... all worth the visit with the spirits of the fallen. Although we have the movie industry, computer projections of real photographs - none of it would even come close to reading the books of those that survived and wrote it down. And each of those authors were self editing. D-Day.

Healing from illness, accident and trauma does take longer as one is now scheduled for slow destruction. Those growth hormones and careless youthful - time sense meant I don't really remember how long it took to get whole again.  I remember breaking a cast off my hand in the field at Fort Bragg - it was in my way. Now I have time to notice how long it is taking, and I can blog again and again how I am not as good even once as I once was... great song, Toby.

Just think, that the German response to the operations on Normandy was slow, imperfect and exactly wrong - and centralized in the leader. Don't allow that to happen in America, in America people step up and take charge and do stuff - waiting for leadership, good sense or perfection just won't get it done. Washington, DC will stonewall and lie, no matter what happens. Good luck with that as a survival technique.

78degrees and we are almost melted here in the Great NorthWest...

But a man has to do what a man has to do.... so I done it.

That was much better than it looks, and so  much fun!

Top Shot All Star edition....

Well, they finally stopped the drama of Reality television, and got back to head to head shooting and cool targets and cool firing devices. Still, I had quit watching after the second season, with just a couple of shows from the third it was so bad. Not the shooting, not that weapons, just the drama. Teams and voting off, so junior high school. It doesn't really matter, they will never invite me to play, and the really great shooters out there have sponsors, or have honor. Some may have both.

I spent the morning making sure the calendars were flipped, and found it didn't matter, my first two checks I wrote had May as the month - just until I looked up how to spell June. Went through two thousand dollars in just the time it took to write and stamp and address properly. Don't tell me there isn't inflation - I had just as much or more with less in 1973, and still have the books to prove it.

I did go and pick up my shooting jacket with the inside pocket for stuff, it will work. I also put wire fence up for the garden stuff to climb up, my wife is pleased and immediately tried to train the climbers onto the wire and up. Patience, dear they will find it. Will wear it this weekend at the Medicine Lake Appleseed. That will be a wrap for a bit. After I get back from that I start preparing for a motorcycle trip to Minnesota. Family reunion.

Okay I can put the guns away now... for a little bit

I rushed after a very light workout at the YMCA to the sewing shop to find out that they weren't ready and hadn't finished my jacket with the inside pocket improvement. Was a time I would have been upset, angry or irrational about it. I won't even tell you the name of the shop so you never darken their doors and fatten their pocketbook. I felt sorry for them. If I die soon enough they may never make any money from my request. Will pick it up on Monday.

I did like Idaho, visiting the Redneck Roost hobby farm, seeing the changes, and appreciating the wild life (that term would work on the Redneck clan if they weren't so grounded in good work).  No that is not the name of the place, but since edible farm animals are so picturesque, it fit my blog post. I should ask what they call the place, except home.
 
I was helping on the first day of the Appleseed at Lewiston. Only one shooter and three instructors - and if you think multiple instructors can be a problem, chiming in or adding comments and techniques, how would you like to be the only one of four that isn't sure of the language being used - since those three are speaking it so rapidly it can't be absorbed. Rain on Sun dried and baked clay - does no good.

Well, I did shoot at the end of the day and every day not shooting humans for their improvement is a great day to be a Rifleman when shooting. I busted all the times, single shot rifle is my excuse, the truth is closer to 'old and slow', but made a 210, barely. Didn't clean the Redcoat - but I still love that rifle and engaging with it. I still love my wife and engaging with her -- and will work on improving both relationships, knowing why and which is important.

Having had the joy of shooting beside the shooter, I am getting closer to the time I will think that instructors shooting beside shooters in an Appleseed might be good for the shooters. Not there yet, but could be convinced. I was sure that as level headed and polite as our shooter was - it wasn't comfortable having three sets of eyes on oneself as he is asked to perform things he hadn't perfected, yet.


At the table in Redneck's home, the conversation got around to my goals in work, the suggestion of teaching or tutoring Civics/Economics was put forward by Shawn. That was an interesting idea, and I will continue to mull upon it a bit. She was looking at in the Homeschooling realm. It does seem that my mind is a terrible thing to waste, having a life long experience with institutions I am leaning towards more work with real people that might be accepting of my help.

I need to call and make my reservations for Rochester, Minnesota 28-29 June, will leave here on Sunday afternoon heading hard and fast to the East, should still be light in Idaho when I get to the Redneck Roost. After that I will be sleeping on rest stop picnic tables and benches. Do you think I can get well measured at Men's Wearhouse in Tacoma and pick up a suit in Rochester from same company? I once wore a cousin's suit to be fit as his best man or groomsman at his wedding, but I am not a skinny fellow any longer.

I heard a comment about someone wishing you could carry guns in church, and that someone  would carry concealed. I told the speaker that people were carrying guns in church and that concealed is so those that fear guns won't be afraid. Criminals are carrying guns, I am sure in a state where one of seven has a Concealed Carry permit many would be carrying, always. If I weren't such a fat man I might be carrying, hardly seems to be room for me in my clothes some times. Spend more time at the YMCA, working on the yard, and start running the road again. I will only die once, may as well go doing what I love. Take care out there, another Appleseed weekend ahead and I might need to pick the one in Washington, and drop off the one in Oregon.