Have Gun Will Travel reads the card of a man...

and for those growing up in the 1950-60 television era, the man's name was Paladin, a knight without armor in a savage land. Modern young listeners would have heard a night without honor but they wouldn't be well read and know what a Paladin was... you do, right? Oh, role playing games, D&D, I get it. Well, I needed a business card for memory stirring - give to people that want to know what Appleseed and I do on weekends. So I decided to make me one, you can do it so easy on the software, with proper Avery sheets. So I wanted a Minuteman, a soldier in campaign hat with rifle and a modern shooter with rifle and ball cap.

But it wouldn't be official, so I checked and got with one of the designers of the RWVA, and he made me a business card like they used for the NRA convention. It got to me, exactly as I was finishing the run of my design, so I only added my Facebook Avatar to the back of the official card and ran off a bunch. Now I am almost prepared for this weekend's Appleseed in Coupeville, Washington. Gosh the grass is going to be high when I get back after the rains.

as soon as Facebook stops scrolling through my mind...

  Giving travel advice to a man going to Korea for a two week tour, don't take your cellphone, take the digital camera. Look, touch, taste and smell - listen and build memories in your mind. Enjoy the people. For sure don't spend time looking at your cellphone or the internet, you can get those back here in the USA.

  It was pointed out on Facebook that no one blogs anymore, at least not for number of hits. Well, I am happy about that, since I am my most frequent reader of this blog. I had the weekly letter to my mother, and when she was ready for it, we put it into email and she could enjoy it, then I sent copies to my brother and sisters, and since it was a rambling mess, they could glance at it and then delete or respond. Someone reading it from outside the family suggested I write a blog. And I did, more or less, I got the words out, and had a home base to link to other places on the internet to wander and mostly to read about the things and people that interested me. But my come back when the statement about no one blogs anymore, was as soon as Facebook stops scrolling I will go and write my next post... and everyone knows that Facebook never stops scrolling, and if you have your speakers on, you get a signal sound to return and see who liked or commented on a photo or comment you have been interested in... it never ceases - the call to arms, come back, look at this, isn't this amazing?

  Clever designers, they didn't put a hate button on, just a like button, a comment and a share button and various privacy settings so only your friends may see how brilliant your posts are. And the current everyone knows wisdom is 'don't read the comments' seems that trolls moved to the Facebook as soon as they could jump in from Bloggerdom. So Facebook still wins attention and that means we have to wait for ads, and write smaller and think less - going for that touch of humor, that will last just until the next kitten picture comes up.

  I like Facebook for the photos from friends and family, for the current comment about things I think are important -- and the fact (I have checked) that the opposition to my happiness is well separated by friends and family fences (there are some real different folks in the world I only skim over in the nightly news). But Facebook scrolls on... and on... and so on.

I have some real reading that I should get back to, a car appointment to make, bills to look over and maybe pay, a resume to write, that deer tag to fill and Appleseed event weekends... and Facebook scrolls on. The rabbit hole in my ground, where my mind goes round and round...

So little time so much to do... breath don't fail me now...

   So feeling a little better, I jumped into the work for tonight and finishing what I had started days ago... luckily I have a Leatherman Wave on my belt because I had to repair a leaf rake with it. I piled the clippings and leaves on the composting soils. Winterized now. Still I had to stop and contemplate the universe of one so my breathing didn't fall behind. Self diagnosis, congestive heart failure futures sold cheap here.

   As I felt better last night, I found the home to lust after just because... and I could imagine using the Great Hall for fencing, karate or balls (like I am going to ever take up dance?).  It would be totally impractical for folks as old as I and my wife, but my son could use the size with a very large yard, or small pasture/woods. His life and desires aren't mine but I liked the concept until reality sets in and I remember the taxes that size place would demand. There are some old parts of older towns that have lovely homes like that, some that need lots of rebuild and remodel for efficiency in power and heat and cooling.

  In the home department, I watched Secondhand Lions last night, wonderful easy movie, says the audience not the producer or director. Now that old farm is what would be a project and then some, lots of potential. I remember how much I loved attics and basement shops as a child, things were hidden and fixed there. Amazon.com sent me an offer of all the plastic theme war figures for prices I glup at... I had almost all of those sets, modern warfare wasn't one of my father's favorites - but I could go back to King Arthur, Robin Hood, the Revolution, the Alamo and the Civil War easily. My mother was mostly responsible for my thinking that the military was a fine life for a man. I had clipper ships and Old Ironsides, and pirate stories, and not close nor far enough away from water to join the Navy. If India hadn't gained independence before I was old enough, I might have run off to join the Bengal Lancers. Bad enough I knew all the stories and real history of the French Foreign Legion, the US Marine Corps, the paratroopers, and on and on.

It is okay, I received the Gary Cooper/Sergeant York DVD today. I am looking to viewing it after things settle a bit. We are hosting Men's Bible Study here at our home, so the Jehovah Witness missionaries came by and I greeted them and chatted a bit. My wife has changed how she wants the house - so I listen, run off for more BBQ sauce and return to find more chairs coming in the door. From one of the other men, both of us just responding to our wives' perfect universe. I am content, God is in charge. There will be a feast here tonight. Had two interesting emails about Appleseeds and I answered as best I could. Life is full.

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...