Here kitty kitty

Got a funny one from Mom today:

Busy

Things have been busy here, getting cleaned up, picked up, washed, dusted and ready for the weekend. Just got back a bit ago from watching my friend Nicole's son play soccer. It is his first year at it, playing with a team that has been together for 4 or 5 years. He is not too good at it, so it is tough for him but he is hanging in there, not giving up, giving it his best. Sounds familiar, doesn't it Dad? He is a good kid and just needs a little kick in the pants and some encouragement every now and then.

Afterwards, I ran to Costco to pick up a couple of things and ran into my old neighbors from Tumwater. They too had just come from soccer with their oldest son and had their other two sons in tow, They are really good folks and we haven't talked since last fall so I had to give them the brief 2 minute version of my recent life adventures and covered work, relationships and cancer all in about 120 seconds. As most folks are, they were amazed at the cancer story and sometimes I hardly believe it myself. Things have been so good that I sometimes forget how damn lucky and fortunate I am. It is good to have those reminders every now and then.

Meanwhile, back at the blog - I just want to point something out that is important. Brigid over at Home on the Range has been on an absolute tear lately and has written some of the most amazing posts and hell, if you come here to read my little ramblings, you sure as hell better be clicking over there to read her stuff because it is important. Someday you will be able to tell your friends that you were reading her site when it was only a month old

Ok, I better get off of here and finish up my laundry. I hope everyone is doing great out there.

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Good Dog

Brigid has a great post up tonight celebrating Barkley's 5th birthday.

I am not sure when Sage's birthday is but I reckon she was about 5 months old when I found her so we celebrate it on the 4th of July. She is zonked out on the floor at my feet as I type and I cannot imagine life without her.


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Discouraging news

I have been a big fan of Kit's for a long time and I was curious as to why she hadn't posted anything for quite some time so I dropped her a note to find out what was going on. She wrote back promptly, letting me know that a co-worker came across her site and she can't write anonymously any more and is dropping the site. I always liked having a small window into her and Commander Zero's life and she will be missed. However, I am glad I got to throw a few bucks into their .50 cal Wedding Gift Fund before she took the site down.

Good luck Kit and good shooting.


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Follow Up

Well, I got a reply from Mr. Reynolds in my post below - that is pretty awesome. In response to my wondering if Obama folks or McCain folks regularly check his bog (and hopefully follow his advice or at least pay attention) he says:

Yeah, some Obama people read my blog. They haven't reached out to me the way the GOP has, which is too bad as I'd be very happy to talk with them.

Which is pretty darn cool for a couple of reasons.

1. He stopped by my blog to leave a comment - I have averaged 4500 visits a year over 6 years - he averages 200,000 + a day. Very cool that he took the time to swing by my little place on the web.

2. It is a relief to hear that the GOP folks are reading his blog but it would warm the cockles of my heart to hear Senator McCain say someday "This morning I was reading InstaPundit and and ..." Obama folks, ehh, not so much...

In this day and age, if politicians are not paying attention to folks like Glenn Reynolds and the other voices of informed, educated and knowledgeable bloggers of all colors, creeds and backgrounds, (yes, even the lefties), we are in deep trouble.

I still don't know how he does it though and it has always amazed me - holding down a full time position as a law professor and leading the way in providing timely, insightful links and blow-by-blow commentary, day-in and day-out. It is pretty amazing and it is all I can do to keep up with his posts every day!

Thanks again Professor!

(side note - when do you think Google is going to add "Obama" and "bloggers" to their spell checking dictionary? sheesh.)

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The Big Dog

Just sent an email to Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit asking:

Just wondering - you always mention that you hope (and recommend) that someone from the RNC or McCain's campaign reads your site and follows your links - do they? How about Obama's folks? Would be interesting (and uplifting) to know that someone was paying attention!!

I doubt if I will hear anything back but it would be interesting to know. His SiteMeter is accessible but it only shows the most recent 100 visitors out of the 200k - 300k he gets a day. Mine is easy, I get 12 a day. (Hi Mom!)

BTW, didn't get out to the range today as I had hoped (had the day off). Had lunch with the Bro in Centralia and was under the weather all afternoon, wondering if it was something I ate. Feeling much better now though - doing laundry and watching House, getting ready for tomorrow.




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Chiefs

With everything you hear almost every other day about pro athletes and all the trouble they get in to, it was refreshing to read something positive about Tony Gonzalez of the KC Chiefs today. Tony hopped up, performed the Heimlich and saved a man from choking. The part of the story that makes me appreciate Tony more is the humility he showed afterwards. Good for you Tony.

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The neighborhood sounds like a war zone so I am going to stay home tonight with the pup. I have some good chicken and garlic sausages thawed out and ready to throw on the grill and some potato salad and baked beans ready to go too. Mom will be surprised that I made a batch of her cucumber and onion salad. I have been craving that since the weather turned hot out here a week or two ago!

Have a wonderful (and safe) Independence Day.


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Gun Leather/.22 Uppers

Came across these sites and didn't want to lose track of them, so posting here:

Tucker Gunleather

Spike's Tactical and their dedicated .22 LR upper

Not sure why the link to C. Rusty Sherrick's Custom Leather Works on my July 1 post keeps showing up in .05 font on my computer. I noticed it the night I posted it, thought I had fixed it and just noticed it again tonight. Let's see if the link comes across this time.

Busy day at work, trying to get caught up with things before our long 4 day weekend. We take every other Friday off as our "flex day" by working our 80 (or 100) hours in 9 days rather than 10. When a holiday falls on our flex day we can take adjacent Thursday off or the following Monday and the team decided to take Monday off. It will be nice to have the time off to finish the brakes on the car and to perform some maintenance on the trucks.

I am going to track my buddy Chuck down this weekend too and take the shotguns out for a few rounds of trap and a couple rounds of skeet. I have been itching to get the 22's out too so I will bring those along and hit the rifle/pistol range while we are at the club.

Speaking of 22's - Commander Zero has a good post on 22's and setting up a Ruger 10/22 in a configuration similar to an AR for training purposes. I had not seen those stocks from Tapco before and I like the TSR sights. It is much more affordable to pick up a brick of 22's from Andy's place than a half-case of .223.

I reckon I need to close this up and hit the hay. Beautiful night out here - temps are already in the 50's and the hay was cut in the field behind my house today so I get to fall asleep with that sweet smell coming in the windows.

Tomorrow I am hitting the local Independence Day parade in the late-morning and heading south to Centralia to catch their parade in the late afternoon. Evening will be spent with some friends around a BBQ - it's all good.

Have a wonderful Independence Day my friends - make sure to take a moment tomorrow to pause and really, truly look around you and just try to absorb all of the wonderful things that we have that we take for granted - it is overwhelming. Please make an effort every day, not just Independence Day, to appreciate and acknowledge these freedoms and to ensure that they did not struggle and fight and die in vain for us.



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New one(s)

Added a new site after following a link from SayUncle: Double Tapper. Good stuff and for the bitter, clingy gun-nuts out there, check out his banner image - very cool.

(more)

Just found another new site folowing a link off of Brigid's: Carteach0 More good stuff.



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First of July

Good evening folks.

First things first. My life is getting ready to change for the good in a big way. I have been seeing a gal for quite some time now and I am happy to report that she is moving to Olympia in a few weeks. She did live in Olympia up until about a year ago and then she moved to Spokane to be close to her folks and family and well, things got a little more intense between the two of us over the past year and I got to practice my long-distance relationship skills. I reckon I am pretty good at it based on the evidence!

So, my Brigid (as opposed to the next Brigid you are going to read about) will be coming over in a couple of weeks to start her new job back at her old agency. I am going to help her pack and drive over in a few weeks and then she is going to stay here at my pad until we can track down her own little place. I am still too much of an old bachelor to just start shacking up fulltime but I imagine that will come with time as I have to ease into things! I am really one of the luckiest guys in the world and have led a blessed life - the fact that she likes me and wants to spend time with me is almost overwhelming. Want to know the best part? She is begging me to teach her how to shoot. When I said lucky, I meant Lucky with a capital L.


A week ago I came across a new-to-me site - Brigid's Home on the Range - it must have been linked on Rachel's site or Tammy's View From the Porch. I think the first article I read was Expendability which inlcluded a great review and reference to C. Rusty Sherrick's great holsters and after looking at the article again, I must have followed a link from Breda's site. (BTW, what a fantastic group of gals - Rachel, Tammy, Brigid and Breda - no wilting lillies in that bunch!).

I have been keeping up with Brigid's entries and I tell you what - if you have the time, go read each and every post, but start with today's: July 1, 1863 - Gettysburg She has only been posting for about 10 days now (with more wisdom, insight, intelligence, humor and wit than all of the posts of my 6 year old blog combined) and has some great stuff that needs to be read and spread around. If you like Rachel, Tammy, Breda, Kim du Toit, Bill Whittle, James Lileks, Kit, Sisu, SayUncle or any of the other great sites that I link to, you will really like Home on the Range. Guaranteed.


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A Dog and his Robot

Oh man, this great! Via Bolus.

Heller

What a great week it has been! The Supremes finally came out with their Heller decision and our 2nd Amendment rights have been reaffirmed and that is a wonderful thing. It is definitely a step in the right direction.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Heller is linked or discussed over at SayUncle.

Click over to Gura and Possesskey and drop Mr. Gura a Thank You note!


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A.I.M

Eric S. Raymond is back, writing again at his "Armed and Dangerous" site - it is great that he is writing again and I hope the legal hoohaa is resolved soon.

Eric wrote the original Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto back in October 2002 and it caught my eye and expressed how I felt. Back then, I wrote:

He doesn't write very often but when he does, damn.

Since then, he reworked it through various versions and it was most recently released at 2.0 in December of 2003 and it is worth re-reading.


Good to have you back Mr. Raymond.


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All Clear!

Had my first post-cancer surgery bone scan yesterday and it came back all clear. That is a HUGE relief and I tell you what, I am glad that is over and done with! I didn't want to let on, but it has been pretty stressful over the past few weeks leading up to this. My back had been sore for a week or so and I was worried that something was going on, but it turns out that it was, well, just a sore back.

Nice weekend ahead here. Beautiful warm weather finally - it has been in the mid to high 50's for the past couple of weeks.

I picked up a couple of AR lowers a month or so ago and picked up a lower parts kit this week so I will be taking a look at that little bag of springs and gizmos and pins this weekend and see if I can figure it out, but the weather is so nice just may hold off for a rainy day.

Ok, I should get hopping here - have a great weekend!

Spokane

Back from Spokane. Had a fantastic trip and visit over there - what a great city. A wonderful downtown with many, many restored old buildings, huge river front park, 100 city blocks of free WiFi, neat little coffee shops, restaurants, and galleries, fantastic vistas of the city from the bluffs, Victorian homes, wide, tree lined boulevards and on and on and on. Also, lots of "Dino Rossi for Governor" yard signs... I kind of wish I lived on the other side of the state!!

Lots of good info about Spokane here if you are interested.

Didn't get back in time to pick up Sage from the kennel so I will fetch her tomorrow after work.

Need to get some laundry done and attack the pile of dishes I left in the sink on Friday. I hope everyone is doing well!

Fighter Factory

I was over seeing what Tam was up to at a View From the Porch and followed a link to Mauser Girl's site and saw her Memorial Day post on her visit to the Virginia Air Museum. There are some great pics of some old war birds over there plus she has an online album with around 240 pics from the day! I bet Theo would like this stuff.

Summer? Hello?

Dang, can you believe it is June already? It feels like April or even March. I am sitting here thinking about grabbing a sweater or sweat shirt because it is so chilly and rainy here! Where the heck is summer?

I am heading over to the other side of the state for the weekend and really thought I would get a little taste of summer and some sunlight on my white legs but the forecast says highs in the low 60's and lows in the 40's! Al Gore, where are you???? Halp us!!!

Goldwater

Was cruising various blogs while taking a break from mowing and came across this site mentioned at Maggie's Farm: The Living Room Candidate with Presidential campaign commercials from 1952 through 2004. MF's post pointed out the Barry Goldwater ads from the 1964 election. In your heart, you know he's right (and well, he was).

It is worth a few minutes to mosey over there and watch a few of Senator Goldwater's ads and think about how they apply to us today and the perils we face.

In my reading pile, I have a copy of Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative and I am going to move it up in the queue and work on it some tomorrow after I get the yard finished.

While you are at Maggie's Farm, check the link to the hilarious Ikea ads too!

Heh

From Theo Spark's site, The Last of the Few:

I thought you would want to know about this e-mail virus. It appears to
affect those who were born prior to 1960.

Symptoms:
1. Causes you to send the same e-mail twice.
2. Causes you to send a blank e-mail!

Read the rest over at Theo's

Karma

Forgot to mention that I got a call today from a friend who said she just had to call me because she stopped to pick a lost dog up and was able to find her owner. The pooch was running loose on one of the downtown exits to Olympia and my friend pulled over and got the lost dog to come to her. She loaded her up and took her back to the office and started making phone calls. The number listed on her collar had been disconnected so she got creative and searched the state's email contact list and found someone with the same, unique last name who was related to the dog owner. Pooch and a very worried and grateful owner were soon reunited and everything was good.

She told me that she had heard the story about me rescuing Sage years ago from me or another friend at work and she just wanted to let me know that she was thinking of me when she saved that dog.

That totally made my day, heck, it totally makes my year.

RIP Harvey Korman

The world is a sadder place today with Mr. Korman gone. Mom sent the YouTube link below and I totally remember watching it as a kid and laughing so hard I couldn't breath. The look on Mr. Korman's face during the sketch is absolutely priceless. Rest well.

USMC

Saw this over at Theo's - awesome.

WW I Memorial

Just saw in the Daily Zero that they are going to recondition the World War I Memorial on the capitol grounds. It is truly a magnificent display ( see the pics below) and I am glad they are going to clean it up - original color was a deep, rich, brown. It was dedicated on Memorial Day 1938 and cost $100,000. Read more here about the monument.

Memorial Day 2008

Made a trip to the various veteran's memorials today at the state capital and paid my respects. Lots of people there leaving flowers and notes for their loved ones. I took a few pictures:

World War II Monument

World War I Monument

World War II Monument


World War II Monument

Personal monument by base of stone next to World War II Monument

When I got home, I was curious about the USS New Orleans after seeing that small monument and wondered what happened on November 30, 1942.

The history of the USS New Orleans can be found on this WikiPedia page.

The USS New Orleans was at dock, without power, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, she also participated in the Battle of Coral Sea, The Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Extreme acts of heroism were performed by her crew in all battles. Here is some detail from the wiki page on Pearl Harbor:

Moored in Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941, New Orleans was taking power and light from the dock, her engines under repair. With yard power out during the attack, New Orleans' engineers fought to raise steam, working by flashlight, while on deck men fired on the Japanese attackers with rifles and pistols. The crew was force to break the locks on the ammunition ready boxes as the keys couldn't be located and because the ship was taking power from the dock the 5" 25 AA gun had to be aimed and fired manually. The gunners topside were ducking machine gun bullets and shrapnel, training their guns by sheer guts and sweat, they had no ammunition other than the few shells in their ready boxes. The ammunition hoists did not have power making it nearly impossible to get more ammunition topside to the gun crews. The 100lbs shells had to be pulled up the powerless hoists by ropes attached to their metal cases. Every man with no specific job at the moment formed ammunition lines to get the shells to the guns. A number of her crew were injured when a fragmentation bomb exploded close aboard. The New Orleans suffered no severe damage during the attack.

The picture below is from the WikiPedia page with information on the Battle of Tassafaronga that took place on November 30, 1942. The WHOLE front 1/4 of the ship (150 feet long) was blown off by a torpedo.

With the repaired carrier, New Orleans sailed to Fiji early in November, then proceeded to Espiritu Santo, arriving 27 November to return to action in the Solomons. With four other cruisers and six destroyers, she fought in the Battle of Tassafaronga on the night of 30 November, engaging a Japanese destroyer-transport force. When flagship Minneapolis was struck by two torpedoes, New Orleans, next astern, was forced to sheer away to avoid collision, and ran into the track of a torpedo, detonating the ship's forward munition magazines and gasoline tanks which severed 150ft of her bow just forward of turret #2. The severed bow, including turret #1, swung around the port side and punched several holes in the length of New Orleans' hull before sinking at the stern and damaging the port inboard propeller. A fourth of her length gone, slowed to 2 knots (4 km/h), and blazing forward, the ship fought for survival. Individual acts of heroism and self-sacrifice along with skillful seamanship kept her afloat, and under her own power she entered Tulagi Harbor near daybreak 1 December. Camouflaging their ship from air attack, the crew jury-rigged a bow of coconut logs, and worked fervorously clearing away wreckage. 11 days later, New Orleans sailed to replace a damaged propeller and make other repairs including the installment of a temporary stub bow in Sydney, Australia, arriving 24 December. On 7 March 1943, she was underway for Puget Sound Navy Yard, where a new bow was fitted, interestingly enough with the use of Minneapolis's #1 Turret and all battle damage repaired as well as a major refit and overhaul. The Battle of Tassafaronga, although being a tactical victory for the Japanese, it was a strategic victory for the United States as it was the last effort the Tokyo Express made to resupply their troops on Guadalcanal.

I wept when I saw the little monument today and was almost overcome when I saw the families putting flowers down next to the personalized bricks that surround the various displays. The lone gentleman in the long coat, white hat and cane could be my grandfather's twin brother - when I first saw him I had to do a double-take. I watched him slowly walk around the monument and I tried to comprehend what he was remembering and thinking of - life, war, family, friends, love - and the enormity of it all had me gibbering like a little baby with tears running down my face.

I don't even think I could ever say enough to express the gratitude and respect I feel for these men and women who have served and those who gave it all. To the men like the old gentleman in the overcoat and to my grandfather who flew a B-29 in the Pacific who spend this day remembering their lost friends, brothers, sisters and loved ones - Thank You and God Bless you.