Okay, how do you pretend to be a real Gunny...

if you aren't shooting?

Well, you come home and the mail has the NRA Store pamphlet, an advertisement from MidwayUSA (with a Whisper Air Rifle flashing at my buying bug), and Washington Arms Collectors' GUN NEWS. See, I must still be some kind of a Gunny, I am getting all the paper.

Speaking of paper, I took all the extra stuff out of my wallet before I went off to Hawai'i, and now I haven't my Concealed Pistol License from the State of Washington - I have lots to carry but no paperwork yet to make anyone pay attention. Piles of procrastination everywhere. I will dig into them after some breakfast and serious exercise and jogging. My goal is to be the coolest skinny old man in town, so all the long legged red heads will pay attention - they aren't doing more than shaking their head at the OLD MAN, which I am right now.

Still, I have certificates....

One thousand words... for a little of my Thanks

Culture and commitment...

I was encouraged by a couple of my favorite blogs to go vote for my favorite military blogs, so I did, having spent about two hours of the wee ones this morning looking at all the blogs I thought were important, and leaving my muddy tracks behind, I did vote. And I found a few of my military blog sites not mentioned in their list of thousands, but you could have figured that from the size of the electron pulse of the internet - it keeps growing...

I am working on the perfection of my rifle shot, and repeating the perfection perfectly, becoming one with the tool and the target. I think of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, and the perfect shot, and when it is you will know your place and the world around it.

Experts say...

As television became the stranger invited into our homes, often trusted and paid attention to beyond good sense the "experts" crept into being. Now if you can't quote an expert on whatever subject to prove one's point - the point isn't valid, or you might have to take a poll to make me convinced. I have known a couple of experts: a Junior High teacher who trained the Junior High Rifle Club and coached the high school rifle team, my machine gun instructor in Fort Lewis during the Vietnam War, and that was about it. I don't think I ever became an expert on any subject, I was selected to perform training, coaching and other duties at different times but I am sure that someone else was selected when I had departed for other ventures - the need doesn't make experts, filling the need can help establish one's expertice? I have become convinced that writing a book, coaching or teaching a certain subject seems to be the qualifier now, even when the book and its theories are wrong, experts remain. Ever wonder why we don't have expert ditch diggers? Professional only means that one receives compensation for performance, expert means one is the most ........ yep, fill in the blank.