Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Impromptu trip

Took a weekend trip to NC for a hike on Saturday. I like the fact that I made the decision to go and left within about 2 hours. Man, I had forgotten how refreshing spontaneity is...


HODAR & I went to Wilson's creek.


We made fire using fire steel and dryer lint:


Good times.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Through my window...

... I'm enjoying the cold front that blew in yesterday. We went from a high of 70 on Thursday or Friday to a high in the mid-40s yesterday. Rock!

The holidays are coming up. This is - hands down - my favorite time of year.

I love cold weather. To some people, the ideal life would be spent in an open-to-the-air cabana on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean or south Pacific, where it smells like the ocean and the temp never drops below 75.

Not me. My ideal life would be right out of the LL Bean Home catalog or Cabelas (without the camo furniture). I'd live in a rustic log home with a roaring fire in the stone fireplace. I'm all about leather club chairs, bourbon, coats and a couple feet of snow on the ground. My world would smell like campfire smoke, leather, coffee, freshly-cut lumber and gun oil. Out with the sandals ... in with the boots.

I like a sunny day just as much as the next person (and I truly enjoy 4 distinct seasons) but I really dig days like today, where it's a little windy, cold, and the sky is low and steel gray.

I have too much clinical paperwork to do to spend much time out today, but I'll have to make time to take a walk and enjoy this.

The semester is nearly over. I had my last clinical of the semester last week, and the paperwork is due Tuesday. There's one more exam left, and then the final in early December. Classes won't resume until early January.

I'll still be working over the break, but I'm soooooo looking forward to spending more time outside.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Remember when...

... Metallica rocked?

Yeah, I can hardly remember that far back either.

Their new song "The Day that Never Comes" would be better known as "The Song That Won't Go The Hell Away".

Man, I wish they'd get back on the bottle...

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Visit

Mom & Dad came down today and Dad did some work in one of the upstairs bedrooms (our house is old & there's lots to be done...) Mom & her sister visited the cemetery and I cleaned gutters, cut wood & ran errands.

I'm fortunate in that my parents & I get along. Dad & I sit around and drink beer & argue politics, but still hug when he leaves. I've never really had any family drama.

Thru the speakers tonight: "For My Father" by Andy McKee

Nuggets of wisdom

Got this via e-mail. It's been around before, but warrants repeating...

Rules for a Gunfight
Anonymous

1. Bring a gun. Preferably, bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns.

2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap - life is expensive.

3. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.

4. If your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.

5. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral and diagonal movement are preferred.)

6. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a long gun and a friend with a long gun.

7. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.

8. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running.

9. Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the gun. Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. "All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from the flintlock of your musket."

10. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.

11. Always cheat, always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.

12. Have a plan.

13. Have a back-up plan, because the first one won't work.

14. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.

15. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.

16. Don't drop your guard.

17. Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees.

18. Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them.)

19. Decide to be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH.

20. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.

21. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

22. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.

23. Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.

24. Do not attend a gun fight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with anything smaller than "4".

25. You can't miss fast enough to win.

Veterans Day

Some photos I took at our local Veterans Day event:








Thank you, veterans.

Friday, November 07, 2008

Here we go...

Yeah. He's not going to take your guns away...

Straight from the source (http://change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy/) No, I'm not going to make it an active link:

Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn't have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.

This will happen within the first 100 days of his administration.

I'm betting the new ban will be far more expansive than the Clinton-era ban. Because he believes government should do more...

I'll go ahead and say it, since the other bloggers haven't: this will be the first confiscatory step. I don't mean a step toward confiscation ... I bet the new ban will criminalize posession of the banned guns and standard-capacity magazines. Diane Feinstein's wet dream of having gun owners turn 'em all in will have begun. To those of you who have made pilgramages to the gun store since the election: enjoy 'em while you've got 'em. You didn't buy that gun ... you rented it.

The fact that no data supported the effectiveness of the original ban won't make any difference. Like a true socialist ... er, populist, the actual results don't matter. It's going to make people feel safer, and that's all that matters.

And for those few guns we'll be allowed to keep ... I'm looking forward to the definition of making them "childproof". That may be the only good that comes of this ... people (those who don't see themselves as "gun nuts") won't like having a federal law breathing down their necks that mandates the use of trigger locks, keeping ammo locked up separately, etc. (Yeah, you with the .22 in the closet? That'll apply to you.) Gun owners who self-righteously call other gun owners "gun nuts" and who think they're above all this will find themselves suffering, too. Obama hates a wheelgun just as much as an AK. You won't be kidding yourselves much longer.

Britain is probably a good model for what's about to go down. "Gun nut" is about to be a really broad term. When Obama has all the guns, he'll go for the slingshots, kitchen knives, Samuri swords and sharp sticks next. Because those things don't belong on our streets...

I do not think that's reactionary hyperbole, folks. Those of you who'd mock me are conveniently ignoring his voting record. I'm not predicting anything that hasn't already been done in Australia and in Britain. We've elected someone of the same mind. We're next.

Those of us who take the Constitution seriously and who are making dire predictions will be proven right in the end, but by then it'll be too late, and I'm afraid America doesn't care anymore. Liberty has taken a back seat to the whims of petulant, irresponsible child/adults with inexcusable mortgages and the whining of minivan-driving soccer-moms and SUV drivers who pay higher gas prices (which, interestingly enough have hit $1.99/gal in some places ... I'm sure that the MSM will attribute that to some of Bush's policies ... they'll report it tomorrow ... really...)

This is going to be a long, long term.

H/T to the Geek and Xavier

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Invictus

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.


-W.E. Henley

Timing

The Hole

I feel like I've fallen into a big, deep, dark hole.

I was watching Obama's acceptance speech on CNN. The unbridled adoration of the legions supporting that man are truly disturbing. This is the first real cult of personality I've ever witnessed firsthand. His supporters were utterly enthralled ... true slaves to their emotions. They'd have chugged cianide-laced Kool Aid by the gallon if it were given to them. It was like a Nuremburg rally without the Nazi symbols.

Here we go. We'll see a Presidency driven solely by emotionally-friendly rhetoric and legislation. The "New Deal" will pale in comparison, in scale and in futility. But unlike the 1930s-40s, we won't have a world war to help our economy truly recover. You heard it here first.

The Democrats have a majority in the Senate, and they'll most likely end up with a majority in the House. Obama's first 100 days in office will usher in sweeping social changes the likes of which our country hasn't seen since FDR ... or ever. We will witness an unprecedented sociopolitical swing to the left. Mark my words.

I lack the eloquence to articulate exactly how I feel. I'm afraid the America I know and love is now dead and gone.

This is going to be ugly.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

In the fall...

... we start having mouse problems. At least we have a pseudo-mouser:


I took Miss Fluffy to vote and to get a bite to eat. I watched a House rerun and some of Jeopardy, but that's all the TV I want to see. I'll probably go for a run and then maybe study or play guitar or something. Geez this is painful.

Thru the speakers: Megadeth "Angry Again"

Stick a fork in us...

... we're done.

I got off my shift in the ICU a little after 7 this morning and headed straight to the polls. I live in one of the most red counties in one of the most red states, and my co-workers (nearly all female) were urging each other to go vote. With that in mind, I expected to wait, but it wasn't so. Two men were talking on the sidewalk outside the building. I walked straight to the registration table, voted, and was back in the car in probably under three minutes.

I came home and slept about six hours. I haven't turned a TV on today, and I don't plan to, unless maybe to turn on a music station while I make the bed. I'll have to watch eventually, but I'm putting it off as long as possible.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Distraction

I need to go take a walk and clear my head.

I've been nursing for about 8 months or so now. I had my first code last night. The patient didn't make it.

That's not how I wanted things to go.

I'm on the eve of the election of an unrepentant Marxist to the Presidency of the United States, along with a probable Democrat majority in Congress.

That's not how I want things to go.

At least it's a sunny afternoon. I think I'll get out and enjoy it and try to ignore the rest of my life for a few minutes.