Although EARL isn't as bad as Earl is... it could be...

Cold fronts do slow a good hurricane down, don't they? I once wondered at the Spanish Treasure fleets, first have to avoid pirates, then the bad weather, and the worms eating through the hull, so many people and no air conditioning nor refrigeration.

This is September weather today, gray skies, dripping gray rain upon our day. It has been so bright and Sunny that I have forgotten how to hide paperwork from the rain as I dash from the Caravan to the pharmacy. I will get more skillful, it won't depart soon. It isn't all bad, just gloomy, the best part was taking the sprinkler back to storage. We cut our grass too short for pretending we are caring for our yards, the Sun burns it brown. If we had left it at two and a half to three inches it would have remained green. Yet all the grass that isn't watered all goes to dry brown, dusty brown in August just not the normal rain fall needed. Now it will go back to a rich green before the tree leaves change colors for Fall.

Only two and a half months since we departed Hawaii for the Mainland, and we watched in awe the fast moving young boy, our grandson. He is in a terrible hurry, to do, to learn, to play with the whole world. Have at it, kid.

I have been wondering about how to expand the

shooting experience of America. How to get more people out to the ranges to learn how to shoot accurately with safety. The Revolutionary War Veterans Association does a pretty good job at the two day Appleseeds teaching marksmanship skills to being able to shoot 4 Minutes of Angle - which is twenty inches at five hundred yards, which means if a traffic sign were a proper target you could shoot it out to about seven hundred yards with certainty of hitting it. A traffic sign is not a proper target, I just wanted you to get the size relationship of the shooting skill. Those real manly hunters and shooters and such that do seem to shoot up traffic signs all seem to have to get close (under fifty yards to do it) since they are in rage over not getting that deer they always feel empowered by the destruction. Fools, are almost always with us, weren't they even written about in the Bible?

Now the Appleseed and the RWVA were on Fox and Friends this morning, the bubbly blond was asking the questions. The way she said 'guns' told me all I expected from her side of the conversation, on the RWVA side we now have prepared speeches of good things to say in public and to stress the Historic Heritage points we always make telling the story about April 19th, 1775. The bubbly blond did know the American Revolution was in 1776. So it wasn't a bad exposure to public view, here in the Pacific Time zone one had to be watching the show at 5:35 before coffee and the commute to the Emerald City. But the message is getting out that we do have shooting clinics for rifle around the country, we honor the heritage and would like you to look us up and come out and participate. Visit the RWVA Appleseed site. Recently, we have started to emphasize the third choice of civic action we can participate in because we fought the Revolution over two hundred and thirty-five years ago. I have not been very vocal about the opportunity to build a stronger America, I just want the shooters to become better shots, bring friends and family to another Appleseed and listen to the stories about April 19th, 1775. I am of the belief that presenting them with the opportunity to shoot well, hear the heritage and events will stir them to take the Seventh Step in taking the shot. Six steps in taking the shot are:
sight alignment, sight picture, respiratory pause, focus on the front sight, focus mind on keeping the front sight on target, squeeze, and follow through, call your shot. Yes, I know there are more than six, but the extra are refinements of the major ones. The Seventh Step is getting off the couch, or out of the recliner, and get smart, get involved and build your community. The RWVA likes to have the shooters that qualify Rifleman and earn the patch to step up and take up the IIT (Instructor in Training) orange hat and help work the Appleseed shoots; teaching, demonstrating and being safety officers on the firing line. That isn't for everyone, some people just want to shoot well, and they bring friends - which is still taking that seventh step in expanding the skills. I like the bloggers that have come and then written about the experience, gets a larger audience and maybe another shooter to sign up for a local shoot.

It is almost two years now I have been with the RWVA, a perfect example of someone that could be old enough to be a real veteran of the Revolutionary War (I am not, but I have read about it). And I have been really happy to be part of every Appleseed, large and small, hot days and freezing, dry and windy or wet and miserable - we do it in all kinds of weather, (well we did close for lightning storm in Florida). But as the organization gets larger, some of the expectations of the leadership seem to change. I seem to be stuck on 4 MOA and Honoring the Heritage of 19 April, 1775. I do like keeping it simple. But during those two years I have taught a lot of people how to shoot better, with safety, and told the story of the real heroes from dairy towns like Lexington, and bigger burgs like Concord, just folks one wishes one could have met, or have as neighbors now.

Changes being recommended, shooting the Known Distance portion - to make sure our shooters know that they can hit that traffic sign at seven hundred yards (this is not from RWVA, just from Earl so you know what the effect is). And having the instructors shoot one AQT on Sunday as their reward for working so hard on teaching and safety, and to put that smile back into their heart as they confirm they still have it. These are only my recommendations and thoughts, but it takes the shooters from 25 meters with .22 LR to the broader world of rifle, maybe even High Power. It is so interesting in the life full of flubs and failures to find one can do something to the degree of accuracy of targets out to a thousand yards. Shooting that steel Bison in Vale was a hoot.

Travelin' thoughts...

Boy, Vale is a long way from home, almost in Idaho. As I was driving I kept thinking about how to get more people shooting firearms, safely and accurately. I think that the culture is against me and them that like to shoot. I want the schools open for firearms again, I want Rifle Clubs back in them. Why isn't the NRA and CMP working on getting the laws changed again?

Something to write more about another day. I did get to Vale, find the range and meet up with my Shoot Boss Pa Rah, met the Director of the Range, and two of the shooters for tomorrow. I was just listening and talking - listening mostly, I don't know enough about some things except to say, hmmm. Pa Rah was going to try out his 1000 yard rifle, he built it on an AR-10, and so on the 25 meter range he checked his scope for alignment. Then he thought I should shoot it, duh, me? I am one of those that say if it doesn't have wood it can't have a soul, but I was willing enough to try. A couple of sighting squares, lessons in adjusting scopes to Earl's better than Pa Rah's eyes, amazing what I don't know about anything. What I did know is that big steel Bison on the hillside way out there - I wanted to shoot that. So we dialed up the scope, adjusted the bipods and I settled into long range fun.

With some good spotting and some tuning of the settings I was starting to hit the steel. Now I have selective hearing with my wife's admonishments, but I also don't have great hearing and with muffs on I never heard the ring of the hit on the steel. Sigh, but I was assured that it was a dead buffalo after about six or seven hits, I had trouble trying to hit the fox about a hundred meters closer, but it wasn't a great beast and I wouldn't have hit it anyway. Ethan took over and fired the bison up, too. Said I had dialed it in well, thanks. I did get a shot of his shooting since I hadn't time to take pictures of me as I blazed away - one round at a time. Fun stuff.

Slept the night away until the coyotes started up in the morning, but I was worried about Grizzly bears (not). Stuff bags for sleeping bags, with a GoreTex camocover I wonder why I put up the tent (which I have forgotten how to do properly), best practice at home soon.

Packing out...

Ripped the faucet out of the kitchen sink yesterday, can I break things when needed? Yes, I can. The plumbers hard fixed it, and it was solid, but me and finally a hacksaw took out the old and put in the new.

So, today, I get to clean and straighten the computer cave, and pack up stuff for departure tomorrow to Vale, Oregon. There is an Appleseed scheduled this weekend at the Snake River Sportsmen Range.

Laptop computer, camera with charged batteries, cell phone for nightly check in with wife left at the homefires. Tent to pretend I am camping, sleeping bag to roll out and sleep in, M1 for Friday evening shooting if I get there in time, van full of shooting stuff. I am on my way...

Men, or just boys for longer than they should be...

I grew up fighting, not really remembering when it started. I like to think I fought because I was tough and male, I would tell you I fought for only two reasons - it was fun or I was afraid, those reasons were enough. The fun part of fighting lasted my whole life, it converted to sportsman like competition mostly, but the joy of going up against the North Koreans or Vietnamese was from the same source, I was tough and I was male.

I hit my sister once, in anger in the car on a trip, and that was so wrong. The lesson didn't come easy, my sister wore sleeveless blouses until the big bruise faded away, and my mother would constantly harp on how stupid I had been and such. I like to think I never hit a woman again, except in martial arts training and I probably didn't. As a boy I didn't understand how anger could get in your way of fighting well, you do get extra chemicals dumped in the blood but the rage clouds your cold blooded logic, and I found that very important in all tactical operations.

Boys should fight, enough to make them appreciate the benefits of negotiation, comradeship and mercy. Some think that fighting is just so wrong, until one needs a fighter to protect them and what they find worth saving from the barbarians and criminals and such. I go with wanting all boys to be fighters, when they need to. If I were to worry about it, some kind of sports activities when young, about twelve or so martial arts that would stress flexibility, defense and grappling - Judo is better than Karate at that age. Firearms training, or archery for the discipline.

Heroes and morality are very important if one is going to have a young male fighting. He has to know there are things worth fighting for, that one doesn't always win, that standing between the enemy and all that you love is the right place to be. He has to understand that taking fighting to the level of killing is a last resort, not as simple as 'popping a cap on him' real death reeks.

I think that the zero tolerance policy about violence in public schools has exactly the same effect as the ''gun Free" zones. That becomes the place the bullies and criminals can play. The boys that want to do well in school, understanding that fighting isn't a scholarship activity, will avoid confrontation with the petty criminals and pests. I once sought them out, at least enough to make them aware I wasn't afraid of them and I didn't like their activities. Reputation is both a wonderful thing and a curse. You don't have to fight any cowards, just make sure they know why they are afraid of you. You also don't meet many wonderful young ladies, because you are one of those bad boys. I was afraid of girls, they really don't think like I do, and their loveliness torments me. Easier to go find a fight and enjoy the guy stuff.

It was the only place I would fit, the military, I toyed with the idea of early enlistment, joining the French Foreign Legion, and such. I enlisted to be a paratrooper, maybe a Special Forces, but always light Infantry, I knew they were fighters. So off I went and because the Army never loved me and I was too intelligent to be a good grunt (which is another urban myth) they made me Artillery for too long. Along the way I found other things I couldn't live without, so after finally finishing my tour in Nam I got married and started growing up and certainly much older. No, it wasn't her fault - Time marches on!

She was a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and I thought joining a local club and practicing three nights a week and maybe competition on the weekend was a good thing. It was, I got so much better at personal fighting that the fear reason for fighting flew away. I wasn't afraid of bigger nor badder than I. Those were very good years and lots of great moments and memories - all this fighting wasn't for more that honor and respect, okay there are a bunch of dusty trophies in the garage.

I settled down, and really haven't fought nor thought about it for years. The combat distances and reaction times are gone - although the nerves do remember better than the brain about some techniques. Am I dangerous, yes, would I jump into a fight - probably watch first and then decide - it isn't very likely. My current fights are mostly with my fears, trying to get myself back to where I should be, but ain't. One of those early lessons as a boy, just because you think he can beat you doesn't mean you shouldn't stand up to him and make him prove it. You don't buy courage to risk it all, you build it one beaten fear at a time - but you have to fight to beat them.

Still strugglin' with bad behavior and excuses...

And I am not even talking about politics and those of different mind set, nope, it is personal.

I do know what I have to do, and lack courage - much easier to attack enemy fortifications than go through the boring drills and practice to get to where one might survive. Discipline is doing the correct thing when not being watched and hounded by those in charge, sad lack thereof is called foolish.

So, having found I wasted most of my day yesterday. I did one thing that would be positive, I worked on getting the guestroom right, or righter than it was. The closet needs lots of attention, but the majority of the room is now able to have a couple of adults wander in, sleep, change clothes, and sit in the chair and chat on the telephone. Of things that must be done, two frames on the wall need to come down and be replaced by something else, the CLOSET has to be cleaned out, organized a bit for some storage. Earl's Maxim - if you haven't needed it in the last three years, you really don't need it do you? Lucky me, the wife hasn't noticed yet that the garbage container is full. I could do this every Tuesday until there isn't any clutter, couldn't I?

Lots of old financial papers to shred, I did like burn barrels in the military, get two birds with one stone, but there are fire restrictions now as the rains aren't here yet but the drying Sun has been. Why do we keep old checks, copies of bills long ago paid? So we know how much less our dollar buys now than it did then? Yeah, I did like burning stuff, and find flames in fires dancing so fascinating. The smell of autumn leaves burning, and baking the potatoes we had in the pile - nice memories that Norman Rockwell took with him, although he might have left a picture of it.

Just watching the world pass me by...

Talking with some husbands of long marriages the other day, one spoke up about what you just can't tell your wife.

Well, all husbands know that they just can't tell their wife that they are dying. That can never be brought up, domestic bliss is critical for that long lasting marriage. So, the husband never tells her, for certain after the momentary shock, she will start to beat him up about how if he had only listened to her this wouldn't be happening -- all the way to his last breath. Not the way one wants to go out.

On Facebook a woman was wondering what was wrong with men? And I have all the answers, and having met a few women in my life I am now wise enough not to share those answers to that question. At church I was asked how I was, and feeling foolish I told the ladies asking that I haven't had a woman tell me yet today - so I have no opinion, at least one that would be factual.

In the search for education excellence, I heard that school is starting in earnest today. Someone said they aren't going to earnest, since Summer vacation is so much better. But really someone said that knowing which teachers actually teach well is rather easy - when comparing their students' performance on the same tests you can figure out which teachers should be kept and rewarded. The Asians understand this, but for some reason it is beyond the abilities of American Public Education to have some scientific evidence, like measurable performance. Is that how social promotions and grade inflation are justified - it is the way the teachers all share the good feeling of really trying their best? Like not wanting the motorcycle to lay down, but having no more power, rolling wheels nor momentum towards anything except down - good intentions to stay up won't save the bike, rider nor pavement.

I am behind today, although I wiped out the Huns and captured the last relic, but won on the World Wonder - I don't try winning through destruction, I like exploration, civilization advancement, trade and strong defense - where my enemies will break their swords against my walls... time for lunch, exercise and household projects. Take care out there.

Just a quick note on the lost civilization....

I have been reading some things about it from people that really have studied the destruction of what was America, to what is today. They like to start with Wilson and go from there, but I wasn't born yet and so don't really think it is a one man, one thing happening.

But I can tell you that I used to fight other boys, and my parents would say something as they apologized for my childish bad behavior "boys will be boys". The personal note that as I look back was an indication that my chance of civilization was over was somewhere in Junior High School, when my mother decided that I needed to learn how to dance socially. Now there were Methodists of an earlier period that thought dancing was not a good thing, but not when I was growing up. So I went off to wear a tie and sports coat and learn how to dance. Jitter Bug and Foxtrot were the first two, and I was singled out to show everyone how good my partner and I went around the room - well, until we were the only ones on the floor we had looked okay. Gosh, I wasn't ready for dancing, and that would color the remainder of my social life.

But the almost stayed in civilization moment came when the dance teacher asked if we wanted to learn the waltz or the twist. One should never ask the students what they want to learn, you should tell them. Our group chose the twist and that was why I can't really be a civilized man on the dance floor - fighting outside was always so much more fun, socially (in my circles) acceptable, and why would I ever want to impress ladies with my dancing when I could beat up most of the male dancers of my age?

I still liked to laugh, to talk and to be nice to pretty cute young women, but my chance to be civilized was left in the ballroom as wild gyrations and sweat were found better than smooth gliding around the room with a lovely lady in one's arms.

I could write about guns today...

I am not knowledgeable enough and shooting hard enough nor in contact with the Gun Blog Net out there enough, but Enough is Enough. Seems that the Republic of Korea wants to return for sale M1 Rifles and M1 Carbines to the United States, and some folks in the current administration don't want that to happen.

So the Korean Times reports.

And it gets picked up by The Volokh Conspiracy for political pot stirring. I liked the first paragraph's ending:

According to The Korea Times, the Obama administration has blocked efforts by the South Korean government to sell over a hundred thousand surplus M1 Garand and Carbine rifles into the United States market. These self-loading were rifles introduced in 1926 and 1941. As rifles, they are especially well-suited to community defense in an emergency, as in the cases of community defense following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Along with AR-15 type rifles, the M1 rifles are the quintessential firearms of responsible citizenship, precisely the type of firearms which civic responsibility organizations such as the Appleseed Project teach people how to use.

I have emailed my Congressman and running for re-election Senator Patty Murray, to see what they think of this. There are lots of Americans out there that could learn to use these fine historic firearms and have fun, the ROK Army has been carrying and using the ARs they make in Korea and except for some old historic Korean War drama and movies they don't need the surplus rifles and ammunition. We do.

I do need to get off the recliner and out the door, and shoot sharply and safely my M1 today. I still have my father's pistol belt and bayonet from WWII, Pacific Theater. I won't join the those items to the expedition, might make someone thing I was carrying an assault rifle of some kind.

What are the odds?

How many Presidents have there been? How many have been assasinated? What are the odds? Okay, how many Lotto tickets are sold, and since I bought one, what are my odds of winning? better than if I hadn't purchased a ticket but still very slim (one would hope my personal health were much better than my odds of winning the big prize - and it has been). It all comes to mind, because there is a chance that I will be attacked and need to have an effective firearm to defeat my attacker. What are the odds? Over three hundred million Americans out there, most of them are not coming to get me (really!). The Secret Service doesn't think that way, they almost surely think that everyone is out to attack the President, but the truth is most of the world doesn't care, or wishes the President well, a few wish he would take his power somewhere else and not bother them, but most of the world isn't out to attack the President.

Which is why, my Security system is working so well (just like the TSA and the Secret Service). The people that could take me out without blinking an eye are busy doing heart surgery, brain operations or flipping burgers until they get a better job, they are raising families, painting pictures, building a future, destroying a past, writing home about it all. Most people are making the world a better place.

Do I think there are some that might do me harm one day? Yes, I do. Do I build my life around getting ready to defeat them? What are the odds? I know that disarming me will not make me safer - like disarming everyone except the terrorists on the four aircraft on 9/11, that was a government policy. If the passengers had been permitted to be armed, most wouldn't have had a firearm, but some would have. What would have happened? Doesn't matter the number of aircraft that didn't have suicide terrorists on them is always going to be greater than the number of aircraft with.... so what are your odds? of anything important.

I will love today, I will laugh today, I will learn today. Excellent odds on those things happening. Take care out there, drive safe and do remember that it is good we don't know the odds, just the feeling that we might win the Lotto are so much more positive than the odds of getting attacked.

I was OBOOMA'd in 2010...

The President came to the Great Northwest, to make money for Senator Patty Murray (since she isn't a software millionaire like the other Senator) and he talked with four or five small business owners about their future. Unfortunately, he is so afraid of the restive America he doesn't understand and know well, that when a pilot, flying himself, a woman and her daughter crossed into the Imperial Air Space, the RESTRICTED airspace which has the same beautiful blue color the rest of the sky has. When that happened, he launched two fully armed and flying FAST F-16s from the Portland AFB, and they hit afterburner at minimum altitude and took little time in blowing up all dangers in the Seattle area with the major sonic BOOMS, so I qualify for the $26.25 t-shirt, but am so too cheap to buy one.

I read another blog from LA, seems he was making demands on everyone's lives for his personal security there, too. Not only is he not welcome in certain areas for his political policies and beliefs by some in his own party, but now he wants to make everyone uncomfortable with his Imperial demands. And I thought Nixon had an over inflated idea of his importance, sigh. I remember hoping that President Bill Clinton would take up jogging in Washington, DC and the streets would get cleaned up - never happened, too many women in the way, but it could have happened.

Civilization is dying but we are in denial...

So how do I know, why I just look at my fat unhealthy self, remembering that I am woefully underemployed and doing the same thing to myself that the culture around me does about its struggles to survive. I won't and it won't.

When we first landed on the Moon, I was a lean mean fighting machine, engaged against the godless Communist North Koreans. Highwater marks of Space Exploration - Star Wars and Star Trek would feed our need for success, don't really need to go into breathless radiated space and danger, do you, dude? Along would come other unmanned explorer launches, good stuff for years and years. But we don't do anything with them. We get computers to help with science and business and play games upon. Some decided that blue collar sweaty work was not good enough - and although the blue collar folks built the country, the white collar ones own it, and write the History of how it came about. So, dirty work is frowned upon, clean everything becomes the goal, and dirty big industrial triumphs are driven off shore. We can make money in service industry, robots and other places can manufacture.

That was the direction of the culture and the dying United State of America, while I was fighting or preparing to (always more practice than practiced 15:1). And I was good, could run road races, invested my extra, owned homes with banks, owned cars, had pets, kept wife gained son, and was still always doing the basics. You know the basics, learning, loving, leading, looking and laughing. I ran, exercised, read, wrote, talked, worked, attended more training, devoloped training and others. I was busy.

But like the country I got older, ran less, exercised a lot less, read more, wrote more, spent too much time on my past and not enough on my future. And today, like the country, I am in denial. I am alive (not very healthy and a doctor and a pill won't fix the years gone wrong - like asking an addict to take his disability money, instead of asking him to cure himself). Well, I can work on the me, I can't work on the country, sorry.

I got a book by Frank W. James, about Effective Handgun Defense, a very good book, but like I was telling someone the other day, we don't practice to fight with handguns. Or we would drop behind cover, get firearm in shooting condition and then shoot those trying to shoot us. What we practice is standing still, crouched and still a major target and shooting at targets that don't move and have exposed the largest amount of flesh possible. I do know there are people that do practice real combat shooting, but they aren't on television nor cinema, and there just aren't enough of them.

What happens when the teenage love rejected fool walks into the Mall with all his glory bent on making a name for himself. Hide, get fiream into shooting mode, shoot target until it is no longer a threat. We don't practice that enough, we are always asking why the police aren't there yet.

I tried talking to Qwest about my lack of internet access, they sent a computer voice to pacify me, it didn't but then they don't care, they aren't giving me any of my money back for the hours I had no service. I also wanted to use my scanner to scan a new photo of my grandson, but can't, since I was routing through the wireless which is now so much less. I could go to Comcast couldn't I? Listening to CarTeach his experiences haven't been any better. Maybe I should just get back on the Trusty Triumph and ride. Yeah, I did talk to NFO today, might get to meet him, if the traffic is better than normal, or not, we will try.

Later, I have met Old NFO, had coffee and hamburgers, lots of talk and stories and promises to get together again one day to shoot if we have more time. Sound barriers broken in the Sound while protecting the President today... not to worry, the young ladies are still beautiful and the Trusty Triumph got me home, God is Great and this day was good.

The end of the world is near...

There are signs out there, and sure enough the end is near. Not to worry, because it could be so much better after the end, check your news programs for how bad it is now.

On a personal note it seems to be time to change the church of my attendance. The Pastor called me into his office and asked if I would join the church, and I said I would pray about it. He then told people that I was joining, and since I am not doing well enough where I was it might be time to attend church where my wife does. So in September I will be there. She says they have a new American minister, so I will see how welcome I am there. There isn't anything wrong with the church I currently go to, have attended there since 1994 when I retired. I guess I don't give enough of myself up.

On Sunday, one of my former library workers and patron from McNeil Island showed up, coming in with one of the men that works Kairos. It is good that he is out, hope his life works out better now.

WanderReading today...

My father asked why my Winchester Model 70 was in 30-06, I answered because it worked, I had no real idea beyond the simple. Frank James talks about his semi-auto choice and what many will miss, is that for what he does and what he wants it works. I, having different experiences and needs, use my favorite calibers - and he shoots more than I. There seems to be some awe in the ignorance of folks that are intelligent and educated, Kevin Baker, covers it very well, but you have to read the whole thing and then off to visit another post, I have confidence that Darwin is true the species that adapts to the change is the survivor. Taxes, horror stories are real, are part of NFO's blog and doing the math will make your teachers proud.

Lots of stuff out there in cyberspace to make me smarter, but I am about to endanger the road with my gentle jogging. I will drop some more rifles into the Caravan and depart for Stevenson, Washington to look at a range for a September Appleseed. A few folks at a time, introduce them to safe and more accurate shooting and teach them the History of April 19th, 1775. Real revolutionary stuff they don't know as well as they should.

Already looking at 2011, for the increase in taxes and government control, family reunion and maybe the forty-fifth Ligonier Valley High School class reunion. See, I don't think that the election this year is going to change anything - the spots on the leopard? My son is coming to Washington for a triathelon, which will be cool, hope the daughter-in-law and grandson come, too. Yep, looking forward is a good thing.

For those that worry about the government, if it hasn't your consent then work against it or get inside of it and change it. Restoring the Constitution, and the ability of our elected officials to read it and understand it is one of those almost impossible tasks. If you were to compare the Holy Bible with the Constitution you would understand - having all the words in print, does not make men Holy. Even reading and understanding it won't make you Holy, if you obeyed all the laws and Holy days and had not Love you have missed the mark and fallen so short. The founding fathers of this nation were moral men, the government would work as long as they remained such. If you don't become a moral people and love better than you did yesterday you will have missed your first opportunity to make everything right (one person at a time).

The beginning of wisdom... yeah, that should be...

I am off on a five year planning spree. I have to make the plan, then execute it, then love the results, sounds so easy. I figure if I take up smoking and drinking and chasing women of unquestioned immoral behavior I can make it to sixty-eight or so, maybe to seventy-three. Since my five year plan includes nothing about smoking nor drinking (not wanting to pay the government anymore in taxes than I already do) I only have to worry about the constant temptations of those bad girls I keep seeing on poor television shows - I have hardly ever run into a real one, but then I am such a recluse maybe I wouldn't recognize them anyway - I don't get out enough.

So what is in the five year plan? Shooting, lots more shooting and sharing it. Learning how to reload and then reloading. Getting rid of stuff in the house, making it more of a home. Finding work: for building up the economy, paying taxes and participating in the American dream. I was so proud of myself, not turning on television nor computers this morning. Just have the gentle jog and walk to do yet and I will be closer to perfection than otherwise. My wife turned on the Korean News, and so I know about the weather in Korea (heavy rains, bad for rice harvest) and the North Koreans firing into the Yellow Sea where the US and ROK Navy are having joint maneuvers. The Japanese PM may apologize for the colonial period in Korea, since they were trying to civilize the Koreans, into almost Japanese. So I have the important stuff. I ate breakfast gruel on the back porch with the birds. I have figured out what kind of furniture I want back there.

Oh, yes, still going to work Appleseed, Vale, Oregon on the 28th and 29th of this month, have been invited to come on Friday and shoot long range with my M1, so I plan to. My wife wonders if she could come and I ask if she wants to shoot. We will see how that works out, August is full of her activities with church, work and Bible study cell. I leave you with a nice video from Western Rose, and I am in one of the pictures at least, but it is about children and Appleseed - so I will rate it G.

You know I don't talk to machines, they don't reason,,,

Yah, in the day of unemployment I stopped talking to machines on the telephone line. So when my auto dealer service center sends a computer call to find out how the service was, I hang up and don't bother to answer. And political hacks want to use the same service to find out how I am voting. Read my blog and you won't be surprised on voting day - I am not for most of your foolishness, but I am poor and forgiving. You can't get enough money from my few remaining years to make up for the stupidity of the last ten or so.

We voted today, for next Tuesday's Primary, not being locked into a political party is nice, like being a worker but not locked into a Union where the union leadership is as bad as the company management - put them in a room and you can't even tell them apart except they are on opposite sides of the table, no work roughened hands in the room, hair styling that costs more than my shirt.

Of course my wife voted a bit differently than I, she still believes in the goodness of the Democrats and the Republicans, and doesn't know what Green Party means. Still, the State voters pamphlete was helpful, candidate pictures and positions and their history. We tossed without reading the colorful flyers that have filled our postbox for the last few weeks - I kept them, but realized they were an economic stimulous for the printer, like the signs we should be using as target backers after the election is over. Recycle it all, white side of Christmas wrapping paper covers the backer, place target on it and shoot one's best. Every shot counts.

Saw Kelly go down last night, two extra rounds in case the first missed, thinking that through - it wasn't a bad call, but he was first and he should have been more confident. The target size and the lack of distance (the last two targets should have been at two hundred yards and three hundred yards) meant most were going to hit the targets. So speed of engagement and covering ground were the discriminators -- not the shooting ability. I haven't been watching all the episodes, and I haven't liked the format for the program, but realize that watching others shoot isn't exciting unless the target are hordes of savages bent on terrorizing our tranquil suburban neighborhoods. Shooting well is too cool and calm.

So that is why I don't talk to computers on the telephone anymore, press 1 now.

Well, what I haven't found yet...

As we worked together to get the stuff out for the "Get it off the Porch Sale" I found the announcement of donations needed, next Friday, the 13th. Works for me, everything is good to go into donations if not sold today. Since I am not putting up stuff to let everyone know I am selling, I am getting that many customers.

I did find lots of 30-06 in clips, I did find the WEP code so my laptop has wireless connection to the printer, and I just modified a scan of an old photograph and prin.ted it out on photo quality paper - it is all good. So I am getting so much closer to normal and happy at this home. So is my wife.

What I still haven't found is: One car key ring with fingernail clippers. Two credit cards, unless I cut them up, and I don't think so. But I am still finding stuff so it is all good.

Times up! Stand and deliver!...

My wife worries a bit about my dying before her, what to do about the firearms. She doesn't want my son to have them since he drinks. I don't think he wants them because he is a Glock/Sig or AR kind of a guy, and he isn't a serious shooter - although he is in the military (that would be the subject of another post - lack of serious shooting in the military). I think there should be a consignment Federal Firearms person out there somewhere, then the estate can get the money and distribute it as outlined in the will. I got two of my favorite rifles at a auction, back in the day when one could.

The reason the restless thoughts is that we are having a three day, whole street yard sale. I don't do yard sales but since everyone else is I will put the tables up and sell everything, I need an empty echoing house. My wife put large bundles of her clothes to sell - and I told her to give them to charity I don't sell old clothes. I don't sell anything, much more likely to give things away, no merchant in me, I am just a rabid consumer. She told me all the puzzles have to go, and I think she meant the games we have. Not being terribly social I don't have friends over to play games, come to think of it I don't have many friends, none that come over.

So I thought about why I have been saving the games, for years. They are fun to play with family, much more fun than sitting on a couch mindlessly watching commercials looking for stimulation. But you can't bring that back, sure enough in my niece's home with her three boys, two of them would play games with moldy old men, and there was instant response for jokes and teasing... must have been thinking that was going to happen in my life again. Never mind, they are on the block now. Extra coffee cups, service sets, glasses that don't match. I expect to sell so little but I know I will be tossing a lot away, it doesn't need to go back into the house.

To me, the yard sale isn't about money, it is about recycling - getting the stuff out of the cupboards and corners and into the light of day so someone else may have the pleasure of playing the game, doing the puzzle, or adding to their collections of things that don't match. What do I do with the 33 1/3 vinyl- does anyone need that in a digital world, should I have instructions for bending it into chip dishes? Everything out by nine or ten or as long as it takes me to haul it from the shadows. Old videos? do they still have players out there? The trash will be full for the next few weeks, I know. Time for coffee, breakfast and moving stuff, always too much stuff.

Appleseed has a new face and new attendees?

Just looking at what we are welcoming. Readers of the New York Times, so cool. That bottom picture of the Shoot Boss and all the children getting Young Patriot patches, I took that one in Saint Augustine, Florida - my work is being used at the NATIONAL LEVEL (that will take my head awhile to recover from swelling up so large!) They are all great kids at every Appleseed, no matter what the New York Times fears - do you think they know anything about children? Nah, me neither.

National Public Radio sends this: The Role of Marksmanship in Preserving American Liberty You might find in their word choice and questions their lack of trust and understanding of an armed American citizenry... you might. I am not afraid, but then I have seen the face of Appleseed, and I know that if we had thirty-four shooters last Saturday - only four of them will continue to spread the Appleseed instruction and opportunity. The other thirty will take what we gave them and be safer with their rifles, perhaps shoot a little more and with more effect, and mostly go back to their lives and every once in a while find what we taught them useful or ringing with a truth until they come back for more instruction and practice.

Interesting that I got a nibble for a future Appleseed thanks to the New York Times article - it could be a great bumper sticker: The NY Times turned me on to Appleseed.

It has been twenty years, am I ever getting old...

Twenty years ago this month, my wife dropped me off on the street outside our battalion headquarters and I didn't give her a kiss good-bye. It would bother me for about nine months and a couple of days. We were on alert for Gulf War I, although at the time we could have been just exercising the alert system, we handled it the same way. Until the lovely young medics with the big needles told us to drop our trousers for the shots we needed, and the paperwork got filled out and the ammunition was issued and we inspected, and repacked and inspected again, and got on manifests, and then reshuffled and re-manifested and finally started loading on C141 for far off airfields. Twenty some years ago, somethings don't fade with time.

Twenty years ago, the modern Triumph Motorcycle company started a new plant with the old name. Pretty good stuff, Triumph. My nephew ought to look over the new Sprint, but he doesn't need to yet, it does look like a great bike with some improvements.

Well, what was your life like twenty years ago? What do you remember?
Okay, not fair for you youngn's but then forty years ago I was on orders for Vietnam.

If I had wanted to shoot I would have stayed home...

I get tempted, once in awhile, you know lovely ladies with smiles to die for and motorcycles and firearms and ice cream. See I do have priorities, but then I hardly ever do more than enjoy the tickling of my 'attention', I am getting real good at ducking ice cream and my survival instinct makes the ladies sound alarms in my head, so I never hear any sweet nothings... but the Shoot Boss was tempted to the dark side yesterday, one of his newest Red Hats (full instructor) wanted to shoot his M1A and was trying to get us all to pull our thirty calibers out of the vehicles to shoot. (Since Wade built the range, he can shoot anytime, but lonely shooting is like lonely motorcycle riding - did it happen if no one was there to see?)

My only response was "if I had wanted to shoot I would have stayed home, I am here for the Appleseed, the shooters and the Heritage. After we shut down, I might shoot but would likely be driving down the highway towards home" I guess I am focused, but really I do the Appleseeds because I want more shooters and instructors and people having a safe good time to talk about next week at their work or home, that families can come and camp out, learn more about each other without electronic distractions. Or it could be because I am really paid so much for the pleasure, remembering that I am a volunteer - in a real non-profit activity, just 4 MOA and our Historic Heritage.

There were thirty-four shooters on Saturday, two became Riflemen. There were twenty-five returning on Sunday and five more became Riflemen. I had little to do with that, except I gave them what I knew, saw them needing to improve, and why it would be better when they found it.... in the end they have to make each shot the way we told them, and they get better as they build on the basics. I guess I really did add my bellow to the calling the line, and I added advice to the new Instructors in Training (IIT) as they worked the line and the shooters. I was never bored and I did encourage the Shoot Boss, but we were doing fine as an Appleseed, except when we waxed eloquent - verbose (wordy?) -- we know too much and want to add it all to our teaching, instead of paring it down to the key words and basics. One would think we lived on the number of words we wing away... Still, the shooters have many things to mull over - it was a fine weekend for shooting and sharing the Heritage of 19 April, 1775. And the New York Times covered us in print on Sunday - they should come out and shoot, too. Really!