Another mass shooting, and what I don't like about it...

  The police have the dead killer, his weapons and all the victims, there is no need for a court trial and the public (me and many others really want to know) what happened.

   I understand a delay in giving out the killer's name, you don't ever have to give me his name nor a photo of him - ever.   Record everything, sort through all the evidence for the victims.  But I do want to know what were the killer's weapons, it is there on the weapon, a manufacturer a caliber and a real model name of the firearm, not some scary made up word. I don't need a serial number. I would like to know how many loaded magazines the killer was carrying.  And how many empty magazines he left behind as he cut through the crowded club. This killer wasn't carrying an arsenal, he was carrying his killing load, his arsenal is probably empty back in his residence.

  I would like to know why a SWAT unit takes three hours to arrive, you could have had five fire department units pumping water into the club faster than that. Maybe we should have foamed the whole place? I don't need Congressmen telling me the cyclic rate of fire of a semi automatic rifle or pistol. I would have liked to know where the killer trained and practiced.

  For any government official, activists of any type for all the causes, to tell me or the world that one more law will do better than the basic one of making homicide an offense punishable by local legal system - is wishing that unicorns and dragons lived and humankind didn't. If the killer doesn't have a real respect for the right to life of the human they are trying to kill, maim or mutilate what can anyone do to stop them except kill them first? Change their view of the world? others? their own place and responsibility?

  For terrorism to work, you have to be in fear fed by the government, media and the terrorists. In the United States of America, we are not in terror of death squads - our government isn't usually disposing of its opponents that way, yet. Nor do we have terrorists rounding up school girls for sex slaves, but we do have some criminal enterprises and criminals sucking the innocent into the smut industry, the media seldom covers that but sleaze and stupid sex will be championed by evil people for power and profit. Back to terrorism, if we turned off the news there would be less fear - just like turning it off so there is less uncivil conversation and bad thoughts about our neighbors we don't know as well as we should.

  There are plenty of laws, enforce all of them or remove the stupid ones.

Well, as long as you aren't afraid and enjoying the season, the friends and family and are taking care of your little problems and giving the rest to the Lord, we might make it.

Two of three isn't bad, but three of four would be better...

  So the plan was to wake early, go to the YMCA for a modest workout, then pick up another member and his pistols and take him to range 15 and see him shoot and find out about his pistols. I brought my own to shoot also and we blazed away on the targets. Okay, I don't blaze away but I did engage my target and took the pictures for proof, and I have sent him copies of him and his time on the range, email is wonderful for sharing. Then I was to get to the Library for a Homeowners Association meeting at twelve. I was there at 1204 and the doors were locked. The only way to repair my performance is to go out and mow the yard a bit, since the rains weren't that hard.  Saw a  picture of my son back in Hawaii with his family, always a good thing to see and think about. Take care out there.  You did take someone to the Library or your local range this weekend didn't you? Okay, take someone to church tomorrow.

June in Idaho, almost sizzling Summer...

  Two day Appleseed calls for my participation, and I have to get away from the computer and cable, find real people and firearms and some story telling... so I drive away from home at eight in the evening all night to get there, five hours and twenty minutes plus stopping for food, fuel and sleep.

  Twenty-five shooters on the line, wow! I loved it, how do they get such large groups, well, they do bring the children, come as couples, and are the only Appleseed until 2017 in Northern Idaho. That is how that happens, the Shoot Boss is on top of the event long before the gate opened in the morning, using email to keep the shooters in contact and aware.

Junior Patriots

  Large number of Red Hat instructors, makes almost certain we will do fine, opening introductions and briefing, safety. Then they bring rifles to the line and uncase them. First Redcoat targets tell everyone that there is a lot of improvement ahead. Several of our shooters are on their second Appleseed, since we teach so much in such a short time a second Appleseed is a great way to solidify the shooting skills and ask those questions you didn't know you needed to ask at the first one.

  If there was only one detractor, it was the HEAT. I didn't notice it the first day but I didn't sweat which meant I had no excess water to cool off, should have drunk some more. The butterflies, bees and other flying insects thought our spilling excess water from the well was wonderful, they spent a long time cooling down in the puddles on the damp earth. Only one unscored AQT on the first day, and only the First Strike told, but lots of marksmanship instruction for groups and individuals given.  Reinforce and repeat, make them know what the four safety rules are, the six steps to make the rifle safe, the six steps for making the shot. Over and over, trying the young people, finding out what will make this work.  By the time of the final Redcoat we are ready to pack up, now how well did they do on that last thirteen rounds? Well, they did just fine, thank you very much. Just fine.

  Instructors dinner is good, lots of sharing of ideas for the morrow and what we saw and thought about the day, then off to a shower and some very solid sleeping.

   The second day was the day I earned the big bucks for being there. Being a volunteer means all my payment comes in the smiles and improved performance of the shooters and listeners to our stories about our heritage. I had been fighting a cough for about ten days before I showed up, so it was slowing me down and I am ancient so I walk funny, enough excuses.  Quick reviews, checks of grouping, sight settings and more reviews and the first AQT of the day before lunch. Ah, there are people that know very well what they are about. By this time some of the shooters were shooting everything from the prone with a rest, the rifles do tend to get heavier for those still growing.



   Riley, a fine young lady much noted the evening before, came over to me and asked me to look at her target and score it. She really wanted to know why on Stage one she had only one bullet hole on the target and all the other rounds hadn't touched it. So, it began, I analyzed her shooting from what I saw on the target and gave her one idea for each thing I noticed. Her first score was really not much, less than 129, which means unqualified.   That bullet hole was on the V in the center of that 100 yd target, and nine were surrounding it consistantly... she had been looking at her bullet holes.

  Lunch and a Second Strike, then the Third Strike as the afternoon AQT grind began, walked the line, talked a little to the shooters about steady hold factors, making the shot, and watching for follow through and Rifleman's cadence. When scoring the AQTs I would show the shooters where their NPOA had really been, why changing mental focus to the next target would get them a bullet hole between targets. Little things started getting clearer, and the improvement was constant and amazing.

  I was drinking more, sweating and hanging in there between bouts of coughing.  Riley kept bringing me her target to score and tell her what I saw, the biggest thing I noticed was the improvement in groups, the improving scores and steady progress.  So it was like 140, then 172 or so, and then the third, her best, of 184. The last AQT was less, but still good for being at the end of a long hot day. The group had a chance to fire the last Redcoat, and then circled up in the far shade as I watched the line.  The announcement of the new Riflemen, and their pictures taken, Huzzah, Huzzah, HUZZAH! That echoes so well in the forested hills of Idaho.

   Back to pack up rifles and start the clean up, many hands make light and quick the work. I was on the road heading West as soon as I said some congratulations and good-byes.  Such a fine Appleseed is its own reward, great shooters, and instructor crew...

What me worry?

  I have thought about the Federal Government debt, and what the folks think they have to pay out, and then watching my own money movements I realize that cheap interest rates for banks convert immediately to real bonds upon the masses of consumer borrowers  Go from the bank getting money made from air at two percent (doesn't matter what the rate is, no one is going to pay it back) to lending it out at three to thirteen percent to little guys without anything except a sense that they should pay it back.  As long as everyone plays along and keeps the money in motion it will never slow down to where it could be counted and accounted for....

   I redeem some investments, pay my taxes and await the paper check. When it arrives I go to the bank and deposit it, and am told I can't use the whole amount since they haven't confirmed it as being a real number. I would bet their books made it a real number and that it was immediately put to use for loaning overnight, just to make money.  By the close of business on Monday the whole amount should be mine, again. Lesson learned have the money electronically deposited because banks don't love paper anymore.

  Money was invented by people in charge to make commerce easier and taxable. Really, go to more primitive cultures and there will be some money, but much is paid for by barter or the success of the crops and herds at harvest.  Things moved slower in the old days.  How far back was that, still happens across the world, in either the underground economy or in the cashless hard working folks that have enough to survive but no time for cable.

  I found my annual escrow letter in the mail yesterday and think about just paying the account after the Mortgage is done,,, or be subject to hundreds of offers for refinancing, reverse mortgages and other stuff.

  The primary problem with money being invented by the folks in charge, is they get greedy want more and will devalue their money by changing the metal content, or inflation.  Both work for a bit of time, but sooner or later adjustments will have to be made, the only thing our government has going for it - no one seriously wants an accounting nor a solid value upon the dollar.

Memorial Day recovering from minor congestion and cough...

  So I was watching TCM in HD and enjoying them, and then I started questioning the technical aspects for weapons, tactics and truth in the world of entertainment illusions about History as we would have liked it. When you start to wonder what the Marines were armed with in the Boxer Rebellion, or should they have eliminated the anti-inversion skirt on the parachute in Bridge too Far, or why Charles Bronson rowed all the way to that port with the modern loading overheads, that weren't around in 1944, way too picky am I.

  But the story is also part of the problem, today we are honoring war dead, and looking at Hollywood heroes - internally pretending we would be that brave, cool, comical or deadly. I was never that cool, brave, comical and my deadly was all about weapons systems and effect on target. And sure enough, when I was most withdrawn from civilization I couldn't even get up enough nerve to say hello to some beauty pageant young ladies being escorted around to the deprived depraved for someone's happiness. Had lost my tongue when they made me wear a shirt to protect the ladies' innocence.

  The wars, their history, and even the men that went and served all betrayed by media exploitation. Remembering what one of my college professors told me about the television coverage of the Gulf War, they were using the sports reporting, instant replay, color analysis and little human interest stories. All we had seemed to be an Arab king and kingdom, the best the Soviet could sell to the Iraqis and the wonder about what their Republican Guard could come up with.  There are many first person views about the wars, worth more than the Historians that change why a new super weapon was used on the Japanese, like we were trying to eliminate a race... but we were just trying to find a solution to the problem of invading the Japanese homeland, we had survived invading Germany, but they had similar beliefs to the rest of Western Civilization, the Asians had population and an entirely different way at looking at their lives.

  Things that really aren't as true as Hollywood wants you to believe: everyone is a little bit evil, pain and coercion will make anyone do what you want them to do, money can always buy friends... the only truth I like is the one in one movie, which says "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

Remembering is worth a day or even the weekend...

  Memorial Day weekend... and I remember Rim Dungey, whom I don't know, except he was about two years older than I, and died in Vietnam. So I remember him but y'all may know many others to remember for your own reasons, do so, say a little prayer for them.

I don't know if the links still work, will check them after I post. Bow tie makes me think it was a prom picture, or he was really that different than I am, although I have had a bow tie or two.

My wife is worried about my congestion and cough, but I am almost human again after two days down, so I will go easy and just remember that there was a Rim Dungey that never made it to retirement although he paid into Social Security. Take care out there, God loves you and we will try and remember you after you are gone.

attention span deficit is the norm, hardly a disorder...

  Don't know if the speed of information transfer causes the decrease in attention span, just no ability to stick around and finish the sentence, thought or essay.  If you text, you shorten everything with little stuff, light stuff, not really serious stuff and it is gone not to be remembered by posterity.

   Does seem to be a bigger problem than I have words and space to analyze and convince you since you are already tired reading along to see if I am going anywhere with this.  Think I will sneak off to read a book.  Remember reading all night? Spent a lot of college time reading everything except my course books, which were dull.

   Testing is multiple choice, was that an indication that we don't develop minds to think in large concepts and block and blocks of logical reason? 

Well, back to normal - awake in my own bed and not having to get up...

  I have had a great Appleseed weekend, at Port Townsend, teaching marksmanship, history of April 19, 1775 and helping America gain two more Riflemen qualified citizens...

  My Facebook account shows me a memory posted from 2010, same time in May, but it is at Wade's DAR in 2010, look at the people, no shade nor popups, equipment line right behind the firing line, lots of shooters lots of fun. But HOT!

  And when I posted it, I did mention that I hadn't cooled off until arriving home to the shades of those tall trees behind our home. This weekend was cooler, I had forgotten to bring my sweatshirt or shooting jacket or sweater (travel light, freeze at night) , also seems I hadn't had enough water to stay healthy.

  During in processing, there wasn't enough effort to putting name tapes on the shooters, day two we fixed that.  All instruction presented, one AQT on Saturday, about five on Sunday. Two Riflemen patches earned and presented. All shooters progressed very well. I was really proud of how far Dylan had come from his first to last AQT, steady upward progress, as he grows into his rifle he will make a mark. Gabe did well, but he was distracted his concern for his son and still learning that all his body parts affect his shot, when he got off that support foot toe gravity steadied the position very well. I expect his next Appleseed will be the one he earns a Rifleman patch. I did forget to mention video taping your shooting positions and techniques for later review.

  Lucas had a coach and competition, Lisa providing an excellent opportunity for the crew to find out if we were reaching the shooters, she was listening and practicing exactly what we presented and enjoying the events and the people. Our second Rifleman patch was earned on the second day, but she hadn't been with us on Saturday much, so I think everything she knew and practiced was all from Appleseeds and instructors in her past and just the desire to show Dad what she could do, and she could do, definitely.

  It is always a bit unsettling to hear your name mentioned as being some how responsible for someone's start in the Revolutionary War Veterans Association or Appleseed Project, but I did hear it. Seems I am remembered, and I always think reputation becomes bigger than the reality if embellished enough. When they mentioned the You Tube video I almost blushed. Still I am happy that I have been a member, off and now steady on, since 2005.  And that I can continue to make a small contribution to making America the very best it can be, in Liberty under the LORD.

  No pictures at the range, although long before lawyers there are some old Appleseed pictures and links on the left side of my Blogger site: Earl's View, focus on the front sight. So I give you a picture of the Marina where three of the crew and a shooter slept on a boat.  Everyone helps out in many ways, to promote the program, make coffee and danish happen by breakfast and to just speak well of the efforts, I am so thankful there are so many that Seventh Step so well with such great results. Hope to see y'all on the trail or another Appleseed, one day.

So 'they' aren't covering the conservative view much...

  Silly, herd mentality isn't a free thinking independent liberty lover of the LORD weakness.  Group think, fads and fashions and foolishness abound in the lost - cause everyone does it, everyone sees it, and everyone knows it - so it trends.  Pet Rocks, trolls, and beanie babies? Not in many homes, because they weren't really a common value just a trend. I would think, that media and politicians want you to be part of the everyone - and only for exploitation and their power.

   Conservatives are those quiet folks on your street, that don't bother you, mow their yard and teach their children to be polite.   If there are as many conservative, quiet folks as I think, Donald Trump will have difficulty being elected by them. One on one maybe Ben Carson sees something the media hasn't found, but Mr. Trump isn't coming to the YMCA nor the rifle range nor my church to meet me - I will never know, and I have seen enough poor manners and bad behavior to know that is not the person I want for America's President, but then I think America hasn't figured out how wrong they have made their own world, yet. So who is elected might not matter...

  Conservatives will work to keep their neighborhood safe, clean and happy - but not with loud noises from overwhelming technology. Just by kind quiet Hello, please and thank you. I am sure there are more good conservative folks that don't want labeled that enjoy Facebook for its real value and there is never a trend among them, they keep moving and talking and posting and their friends enjoy and like here and there, but no surges nor purges needed. These are good folks.

You don't fit much, do you?

  Nope, I am all that you see, and so much more.  But recently they (you know 'they') have been saying all kinds of things about me and my kind. And I have to look around to see whom they are looking at... and I am the only other person and what they are describing can't be me.  At Murphy's 5 and dime I was once looking over some magazines and paperbacks and two elder ladies (old women) were talking about a skinny boy with tight trousers and too long hair, so I looked around and it had to be me.

  But they say that if I don't want Hillary to win, I have to vote for Trump, and I don't think that is the way the world works. I don't do what everyone else does, ever, mostly. If I do it, it must be something that I want to do and it needs my attention.  Now in America, there are many, many more of us than there are of 'they', and the whole effort for centralization of government, money, banking, medicine, and morals is to make us better sheep to be shorn. 

  I don't have any trouble being prolife, even if it is a minority view (which it isn't). I have no problem not reading what everyone else is reading, seeing on television, using the same poor language choices, finding brunettes better than blondes. Finding smiles better than words to tell me about the person.  If there is a Presidential candidate that wants my vote, they have to be better at being a leader, cause I don't follow just because they have the authority. Convince me, it doesn't take a lot, just some of your time and trouble - I was once pretty smart and that may be the problem with current culture - it just isn't as smart as I am. Rather watch a good magic show. Wouldn't you?

She made me human, and that was a real achievement...

   Mother's Day 2016, and everyone knows all about mothers. On a Sunday morning news program a woman talks about government maternity leave acts and how America must progress to be right. Isn't this the same government that says abortion is legal? My mother even took a young woman into her home to prevent one abortion. So she would reserve the right to protest effectively government stupidity, but paid maternity leave is much better than most government ideas, it supports love and life.

   I was blest to have my mother, and until she really got to know me she always hoped I would be so much better than I became.  I had her songs, her hugs, her stories, her care for my hurts (and I am no more affected by gravity now than I ever was) and poetry.  What young boy could ask for more? We imagined, built castles, played heroes and became family - I got brother and sisters and we could all scramble for her love and attention, not realizing how wearing we could become, probably because there was an enforced mid-afternoon nap.

  She was firm, kind of, and she set standards that weren't the same as everyone else's. I had a serious talk about my male sexual functions and waiting until I was married for it. Because that was what my father and mother had done, but those are old values and so unrealistic.  I was thirteen and going on a first date with a young lady and had to know the rules. It must have been very effective, I really was far away from hearth and home before I slipped into sexual sins...  Like my smoking and drinking, it would take some recovery time to clean up and fly right... but then resistance to evil was part of the training of parents to children, for everyone's safety and good health. She did better than she imagined, in my alternate home/family I was trusted and welcomed, and two adult women had a loud and lively discussion about me and my trustworthiness with other children and no adults in house. I never felt so honored by adult women that I thought highly of ever again. And I didn't betray the trust of either woman. Mothers, they are the first touch of civilization upon young male humans, because I do think that without them the boys will never be softer, the clash of bodies will always be for conquest and victory, where would the gentle touch be?

   I could depend on my father for sane reaction to my accidents and hurts, he never ran to save me, calmly walking and making help happen. But when I had my motorcycle crash and was being taken to the hospital, I kept insisting that they talk to my father, not my mother because she would be overtaken by her imagination of my hurt and trauma, she really could get into sharing my pain. She was a romantic and Dad was pragmatic.   But I could always entrust her with my treasures, like the lady love of my life, while I was sure Dad had reservations left over from his war or just a hard judgement of his son's foolishness... it all worked out, my mother could talk to my father and we would get ready to make the family greater, if I was really as adult as I thought.

   I would say that I miss her, but that wouldn't be the truth, for I will always have her in my life both DNA, and our years together and apart, she would make me write at least once a week as we were apart, and I still dream and talk to her in my mind, and I look forward to the day I will again be back inside that special love she gave so much of...

Day four of Earl's hard work pays off programming....

  My wife is getting all dolled up... since we are going out. I have crashed after sweating away three pounds on the rowing machine and bicycle at the YMCA, really you don't need to know but I was caught with the 'I want to win King of the Hill' before I start working on my other race challenges, and I only needed eleven points today, so I went for fourteen. And after wasting four months of non recording for the annual challenges, which I signed up for all three today, hoping to finish them all successfully before I expire all parts and warranty.  2016km or 1253 miles, 50K (50,000) calories, and the All In (which seems to be all challenges for the year).  We will be working on all those loose parts, glad they changed the bicycles out for the bigger screen newer models. Anyway, a great day at the gym.

  I stopped and purchased to decks of cards, Bicycle Dragon Back cards, regular size, for Canasta or whatever. Blue and Red backs, nice cards.  I opened the pack and found America has gone politically incorrect while I was not watching. The Blue deck has Blue Hearts and Blue Diamonds, so the next time I am playing cards and feeling the Blues - this is my deck.

This program at the YMCA is working, I am level three now...

  I haven't figured out if I am Lawful Good or Random Neutral, and the DM won't tell me. I often wished I could have lived as the Initiate Brother, the book is much better and the Bearer is awesome as he gains his powers.  Still the ActivTrax program is bringing me along well. I don't like Jack Knifes but I must get them done, I don't like Body Front Lunges but they do make me use my body as it could be used - so get used to it. Level three? Only if there are a hundred levels.

  On my Expresso.com account I am entered in three challenges starting May 6, and seems like I have already entered the Mountain Madness or whatever it is called. I have to score fifty points and with only two rides in two days I have already 22 points, two more hard rides and I will make my fifty then I can settle in and just run up the totals.

   Have signed up for two Appleseed events, I have missed them. And I have to get the Trusty Triumph back on the road, and recycle all the glass containers.... empty liquor bottles... 

Domestic death is mostly caused by?????

   Gravity, silly. More people die from falling around the home than all other causes of death. As long as everyone doesn't go Hollywood and full auto and artillery in frustration. The Congress, as with the Affordable Care Act, refuses to pass a law or repeal the current law of gravity, we are doomed.

   Being an older old man I have a great fear of falling, on the motorcycle, from a ladder... heck, even the thought of falling at the YMCA has had me about three years of clutching with one hand the lockers as I draw on my pants when I put a foot through the leg holes. Until yesterday, yesterday I stood on both feet, held the underwear or trousers with both hands and stuck my feet through one at a time... without leaning on a wall or anything.  I think the skills and flexibility have been waiting on my mind to smother my fears of falling, or maybe that bloated belly had to get out of the way... such an ugly picture in my mind (luckily I don't watch it just do it). Sure enough, I did it twice again this morning feel younger already.

At the church two weeks ago I caught a very well used Bible, and took a picture of it.  The brother is wearing it out well. End of the month tomorrow, and May Day is Sunday, the Communists will march, no telling what North Korea will do.

Just defeated the last two independent tribes on my wargame,  Time for more coffee and breakfast and the news then off to the YMCA for socializing, sweating, and pushing all my limits except in thought and spirit. Have to get the weed wacker out for edging this afternoon, maybe even cut the grass and clean the gutters... well, that is enough good intentions for today. Be good because anything else is a waste of effort and will mark us as sinners instead of saints.

Alarm! or breaking news! or get up and save the lady, old man!

  Usually I wake and get up first, but not today, my wife is up and off to make coffee when she cries out and calls my name like I am her last hope. I stumble sleepily towards the kitchen and see her using her new selfie stick to take photos of herself and she wanted me to join in the fun. Ah, I will get a coffee instead, I think I already know I don't look prepared to face the world, just another thirty minutes would have been perfect.  I guess I could put the pistol away now, but I didn't go for a gun since that is a last item on my wake up list. Once I slept with a fully automatic AR, but I was younger then and I am so much older now.

   Sleeping good, the old Vietnamese Captain asks if I sleep okay, he encourages, or exhorts the fat folks that go regular to the YMCA. Some of the veterans have more issues with their past than others. I am not really fat, I am just full of it (fat). So my wife makes banana bread but doesn't take it to other places to share, just keeps it within my arms reach.... ugh. I am so weak.  But thankful it is just age not illness, cancer nor criminally slothful. I noted as I left my car in the parking lot, the number of old folks, families (with little children) also on their way to the YMCA.

   In some self analysis- I am known for guns, gun stuff, some military and some Christian persuasion... so I can go to church and get seriously asked about storing pistol ammunition, how long and anything special? In Sunday school I can tell the children that they shouldn't touch pistols, revolvers and other firearms without an adult. And never ever point one at anything, but if they never touched one they are safer, now go get that adult to take care of the firearm. I don't spend much time on it, since the grounding in the Gospel and the Bible are needed most. I do mention that when they and their parents decide it is a good time for firearms safety and show and tell, I recommend the NRA and even me (I have NRA training for it). A very big problem is Hollywood entertainment lies about firearms, what happens when folks are shot.  I ought to ask the Pastor if he would like me to put together a class for families about firearms, especially the families that don't have firearms, don't see the need for them --- and don't see the need for the knowledge. He will look at me funny.  Some of my best ideas get that result from folks that are in charge and control.

    I did get to see Donald Trump's views on the 2nd Amendment, I know Hillary Clinton's views, neither is going to get the stupid gun laws repealed, nor eliminate the BAFTE or merge them with the FBI. I don't favor merging them, Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas were joint agency operations and didn't go well for the innocent.

    Neither major political party has the answers to the question about what they should do, NOTHING or MUCH LESS, in order to restore the Constitution and set the people at liberty to correct the errors of the recent past (last hundred and ten years or so).  So I will participate but expect failure on the long established suffering the evil born of the good intentions gone wrong. In the end, of this government no longer of the people, by the people and never for the people will perish, cause of lack of history, moral values, and just plain stupidity in office - elected, appointed or hired.

  

Sleepless in almost Seattle (Spanaway if you must know)

  I get up and empty the dishwasher, and then pay some bills and decide to go back to bed, so much accomplished in the quiet darkness of the full home.

   Picked up my nephew and his wife at SeaTac, they travel light, only three carry-ons. Our plans are for Mount Rainier on Thursday, Seattle on Friday, and Vancouver BC on Saturday.

  It has been fun to watch my wife talk almost nonstop.

The week is almost over...

   I was feeling good about my control until Wednesday afternoon, when I decided that I didn't know for sure that I had sent in the mortgage payment.  When returning home, I remembered to check, found that I hadn't and made it good. Went to Awana Club and provided some adult representation and enjoyed the vigorous happy children. Every day except Sunday I have gone to the YMCA for my exercise, often recalling how I wondered at Greeks and Romans that would go to exercise, sweat, clean and oil up every day in the good old days.

   I think that I will vote, casting all ballots tomorrow and getting them all into the mail and off of my desk.  Clean up needs to continue.  We are hosting visitors from Korea, my nephew and his wife, they are coming to visit her family in Vancouver - But I still have no idea if that is Washington or British Columbia, but we meet them at the airport on Wednesday. I will be busy and my wife anxious - the first time her family of any generation has bothered to stop by. It will all be well, I already removed the moss from the tool shed. Will have to stop and shoot some tomorrow, after the YMCA, have to keep trying to get better.

Just a short week ago on an island far, far away...

    The Air Force delivered forty-six passengers safely on Thursday night, and I was met by my son and grandchildren and the good stuff just got better from there. Friday was my son's golf game then swimming practice with the grandchildren (theirs, I never got wet that afternoon). Saturday was the swimming lessons, one on one, for the grandchildren then lunch and going to Sea Life Park. Sunday was Easter Service at Roosevelt High School with hamburgers and stuff after. Then I finally went swimming with everyone in the heated saltwater pool of the condos. What a great time, Monday morning was going out to fly a kites and ride bikes at the local park. I got my kite all the way to the end of its string, very nice wind. Then back home for a fair well lunch to say good bye as my son was dropping me off at the airport on his way back to work, his leave being over.

   I was still happy and smiling days and days after returning, so much so my wife mentioned I should go to Hawaii more often. The place is full of nice people, interesting folks and good memories built until the next time.

Break free, go to Hawaii...

  Notice the decided lack of blogging or intelligent word flow in my internet life... do I have an internet life any longer? I am watching way too many movies, foreign and old school stuff, and the best improvement in my life is something called Activ Trax at the YMCA which is building me into a fine figure of a fat old man, but I do enjoy finding muscles that one has never used to aid in the 'death by recliner' and think in a couple of months I may be prepared for bikini season, which never ever has been about me, but what I can see. There are a few really high school looking types reporting on important news items, but I can't take them seriously because they have no wisdom wrinkles - and they don't talk like they have a message.  Hmm, I might be confusing them with the children at church, but the children at church are having much more fun. Being a Holy week I have no responsibilities for Sunday school or the AWANA, so sneaking off to Hawaii sounds like a fine thing to dream about and mentally prepare for.  Now where is that badge of courage, to impel the little old man out the door and into the sky?

If you are paying attention, you don't have enough to do..

  The point has come that the media is using its 1st Amendment protections to try and destroy the 2nd Amendment.  I kind of laugh about that, since the godless government wants to stomp upon the religious right and rights. But it does all seem to be coming to a convergence and the storm isn't going to be pretty and the destruction savage - because too many people will be looking for heroes and saviors and soothing elevator music. We know we are living in a fantasy world, like the folks from the Great Depression, go to the movies and have a laugh, see how wonderful life could be and should be... all smoke and mirrors.

  I listened to President Obama present his nominee for the Supreme Court, and cynical me thought that this is likely the best Republican choice that he could have made, Judge Bork being way too old. I also tried to imagine Bernie Sanders, Hillary Rodham Clinton, or Donald Trump giving the same presentation -- I couldn't see any of those rising to the level of past Presidents. 

Well, time to finish my coffee and head to the YMCA, using ActivTrax to program me into a fine figure of a fat old man. There could be potential, and I do like to record my progress - OCD is my fool characteristic, which I will address right after I conquer my procrastination.

How did my Sunday worship go? armed and dangerous... sometmes I can be cool

   I woke from a dream about the military as a younger man, which I hope to write about later since it has much to do with how my day went.  First Sunday of the month, make bed, shave and have a breakfast as I watch Sunday on CBS, Jane Pauly's legs are thinner than I remember from her younger years. She was talking to a famous actress I can't remember the name of, but I do remember the movies she got big credit for and a lot that I haven't seen.

   Time to dress, want to remember to carry my tools and still look good, so I get the fresh ironed shirt, and then the last suit I bought, with suspenders. Put it on, with a black tie, tied in a Windsor knot. I am so fat, sighs the man in the mirror, but there is room for not imprinting. So find the dress shoes, start the car and listen to that new noise and my wife and I are off to the church.  After church go to the Fellowship Hall for checking my English Ministry personal data, giving them my email address. I have a doughnut and talk then off to finish the new comers class, great discussions. We will get certificates of completion next week or so.

   Back to the Fellowship Hall, along the way meeting a confident young man munching on an egg roll, and I stop and ask how he is, he says fine and says people tell him he is cute. I assure him that he will outgrow that, and he mentions he still has baby teeth, and I nod sagely and say they will disappear, too. So we go into the almost empty Fellowship Hall except for children's Sunday school classes out a bit early to buy some food to nibble upon. And the teacher that has been taking my class because he is a good man is there and happily gives me back the teachers books and fills me in on where they are. I walk over and talk to Caleb and his buddies, mostly young boys looking for leadership in boy stuff, and I figure Caleb is providing that pretty well. I ask about what they are eating, how much they like it (very Korean food) and they tell me. Even showing me how to dip the the fish dough into the cups of soup... learning always learning.

   The last service, which is Korean language, is over and the main congregation shows up to buy food to support the cause and talk over before they go home or back to the store or restaurant. The first two ladies in are in their twenties and drop dead gorgeous, luckily I remember that I am glad we are on the planet at the same time, but I am the fat old guy with really thinning hair. Now there had been dangerous looking man in English language service but nothing happened. During this fellowship, lots of people moving, buying, eating and socializing.  Suddenly tension breaks out, and Mike is getting ready to deck someone - he comes back to his seat fuming and raging. Seems someone isn't doing what he should, isn't listening and the police might have to be called.  I say a quick prayer after looking to see who the problem is... okay, got it. So I get up, pass him by and talk to the young people around Caleb cause he is about to move out to the playground with his groupies or gang - friends, really. Then I stop in the Men's room, washed my hands and came back and pulled the seat out beside the problem turned mine around so there isn't anything between him and I.  And I say hello, how is it going?, nice group of folks isn't it? looking around at the busy moving socializing going on.  I ask if he liked being here today, was he going to come back next week? I told him they were waiting to take him back to the shelter, where upon he said he didn't want to go with that man, and I grabbed Harold's arm and said he must be a fearsome fellow to offend such a nice man. Harold laughed, former Special Forces type, and then I asked his wife if she were driving.  She said yes, and so I asked the problem person if he would go with her driving, and he said yes. So I thanked him and patted him on the shoulder and told him to come back next week.  Then I went back to my chair since my wife had purchased some food for me and when I got back Mike wanted to know what I had done that made the problem person cooperate and leave with the van. Mike will be reflecting on it for the week, since he is younger and much more aggressive than I, it will be good for him.

     We did a little guy talk about one thing or another and then I decided to share the dream, now everyone has military dreams (not talking about nightmares, just dreams) so when I told them that I was dreaming that there was a woman in my unit, in my dream, and she had decided to challenge and compete with me - they understood immediately when I said 'and no way is she going to win'. Mainly because that is what young soldiers do - with all their competitors, even best friends. She was going to go down hard as I could take her.  And if you are going to be my friend you have to struggle to put me in the dirt and rub my nose in it, no quarter until you say uncle or tap out.  I heard they don't teach life that way any longer, one has to remove his combat patch to not threaten the un-bloodied new guys and gals.

  Ah well, I feel heroic, and I so not. Still I have returned to the safety of my home, Netflix and movie madness, and good looking comfortable 3XL stuff that I could wear three or four weapons under. They will be outlawing hoodies one day.