This arrived in my email inbox. I'm passing it along.

You graduated high school in 2011.  Your teenage years were a struggle.  You grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.  Your mother was the leader of the family and worked tirelessly to keep a roof over your head and food on your plate.  Academics were a struggle for you and your grades were mediocre at best. The only thing that made you stand out is you weighed 225 lbs and could run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds while carrying a football.  

Your best friend was just like you, except he didn’t play football.  Instead of going to football practice after school, he went to work at McDonalds for minimum wage.  You were recruited by all the big colleges and spent every weekend of your senior year making visits to universities where coaches and boosters tried to convince you their school was best.  They laid out the red carpet for you. Your best friend worked double shifts at Mickey D’s.  College was not an option for him.  On the day you signed with Big State University, your best friend signed paperwork with his Army recruiter.  You went to summer workouts.  He went to basic training.

You spent the next four years living in the athletic dorm, eating at the training table. You spent your Saturdays on the football field, cheered on by adoring fans.  Tutors attended to your every academic need.  You attended class when you felt like it. Sure, you worked hard.  You lifted weights, ran sprints, studied plays, and soon became one of the top football players in the country.  Your best friend was assigned to the 101^st Airborne Division. While you were in college, he deployed to Iraq once and Afghanistan twice.  He became a Sergeant and led a squad of 19 year old soldiers who grew up just like he did.  He shed his blood in Afghanistan and watched young American's give their lives, limbs, and innocence for the USA. 

You went to the NFL combine and scored off the charts.  You hired an agent and waited for draft day.  You were drafted in the first round and your agent immediately went to work, ensuring that you received the most money possible. You signed for $16 million although you had never played a single down of professional football.  Your best friend re-enlisted in the Army for four more years. As a combat tested sergeant, he will be paid $32,000 per year.

You will drive a Ferrari on the streets of South Beach.  He will ride in the back of a Blackhawk helicopter with 10 other combat loaded soldiers.  You will sleep at the Ritz.  He will dig a hole in the ground and try to sleep.  You will “make it rain” in the club.  He will pray for rain as the temperature reaches 120 degrees.

On Sunday, you will run into a stadium as tens of thousands of fans cheer and yell your name.  For your best friend, there is little difference between Sunday and any other day of the week.  There are no adoring fans.  There are only people trying to kill him and his soldiers. Every now and then, he and his soldiers leave the front lines and “go to the rear” to rest.  He might be lucky enough to catch an NFL game on TV.  When the National Anthem plays and you take a knee, he will jump to his feet and salute the television.  While you protest the unfairness of life in the United States, he will give thanks to God that he has the honor of defending his great country.

To the players of the NFL:  We are the people who buy your tickets, watch you on TV, and wear your jerseys.  We anxiously wait for Sundays so we can cheer for you and marvel at your athleticism. Although we love to watch you play, we care little about your opinions until you offend us. You have the absolute right to express yourselves, but we have the absolute right to boycott you.  We have tolerated your drug use and DUIs, your domestic violence, and your vulgar displays of wealth.  We should be ashamed for putting our admiration of your physical skills before what is morally right.  But now you have gone too far. You have insulted our flag, our country, our soldiers, our police officers, and our veterans. You are living the American dream, yet you disparage our great country.  I am done with NFL football and encourage all like minded Americans to boycott the NFL as well.

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Why I did not go to Puerto Rico as a ham operator.

The Red Cross (a dubious organization to begin with) asked the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) for the services of fifty hams to set up message centers in Puerto Rico after Maria plastered it. The Salvation Army (a wonderful organization) asked for twenty.

At the same time there were reports of gangs robbing people that were trying to restore cell phone communications.

I asked about the firearms laws in PR and found out that I would not be able to arm myself if I went as a ham. Puerto Rican laws make if difficult if not impossible for this to happen.

I’m fairly certain that the requested hams were not likely to be stationed in a secure environment. Most likely they were going to be assigned outside of a San Juan secure government building.

In short, I didn’t see any reasonable assurance of basic safety nor would I be able to supply my own security.

The first rule for caregivers is to make sure that he/she is safe because if they are injured they no longer are an asset. They immediately become a liability.

When we clean cargo tanks at work and put people in the tanks there is always someone up on deck as a tank watch to keep an eye on the people in the tank in case they are overcome by fumes. The tank watchers are told that in the event someone below does get gassed they are NOT to go in after him. They are to get someone with an air pack of some sort to go below.

People want to be heroes and save lives. It is understandable.

However, if you go below in this instance and get gassed yourself you have done nothing for the person below and have only taken a bad situation and made it worse. Now there are two people to attempt to rescue.

Harvey hit Texas and Irma hit Florida. A number of ham operators charged down and offered assistance.  I’m sure that the various police departments were overloaded. However, both states make it fairly easy for an outside aid giver to carry his/her own protection. At least there is some mechanism for a caregiver to provide for his own safety.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

A friend was reading the news and told me that the FEMA people have simply blocked out anything the mayor of San Juan has to say.

The government relief workers are in San Juan working their asses off but they simply ignore the mayor.

As they should.

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I 'buy' a lot of cheap insurance.

A while ago at work I saw a dockman wrenching on the flange bolts that connect the cargo hose to the dock and asked him if it was leaking. He said he was simply checking to see if all the bolts were tight as an effort to make damned good and sure it didn't leak.

I call that cheap insurance and am quite a fan of it.

When we go from 'push gear' to the towing bridle on our way up the coast I turn on the hydraulics even though I know I won't need them. The job on the bow making tow is fairly simple. I get handed a line and affix it to the pennant and let the whole thing go as the tug hauls it onto their back deck. It's really quite simple.

Yet I turn on the hydraulics in case something goes wrong an I have to haul the pennant back aboard for whatever reason.

There are a lot of little things like this I do inside and outside of work that take little time and effort but make things easier in the event that things go to hell in a hand basket.

I call things like this cheap insurance.




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The deer are still in the wayback nibbling on whatever is left over

after the Big Weed Killing of a couple of weeks ago.

Time and the earth have made it so I really can't get a big chipper into the wayback which kind of sucks. I'd really like to get a monster chipper in there for a day and just make everything turn into a huge pile of chips.

I did that shortly after I moved in and for the life of me can not remember how I got the chipper down back.

If I recall I had a six inch chipper but I'd really like to get a nine incher down there so I could split the bolts left over from a couple of pines I knocked down. 

I suppose I could have a 24/7 fire out there but it would he a hassle because I am not really supposed to do that and the neighborhood isn't what it was 20 years ago.

Several years ago I got an oversized burn barrel and just sat there for a few days and burned and burned and burned a huge pile of stuff, all limbs, weeds and several huge pine logs. If I tried it today there would be hell to pay.

What I would really like to do is have a huge bonfire and get it all done in one fell swoop. That's not going to happen.

Oh, well. 




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One of the things I reserve the right to do

 to people once in a while is to run a stupidity check. This is usually done by playing the pile the Bravo Sierra on until one of two things happen.

The pile collapses under its own weight or the person swallows the whole thing, hook, line and sinker.

Most recently I played this game with someone that asked me about my grandson while I was walking a young grandnephew. She wanted to know if it was my grandson so I told her it was my son. I explained that I had knocked up a stripper at a bachelor party and went on and on about using massive amounts of alcohol and drugs.

A while back I had someone ask me about how hard mariners party when they hit the beach. I instantly told him a wild tale of a half-case of beer, a quart of Jack Daniels, followed by all sorts of drugs. It was kind of a six or eight of these, six or eight of those, an ounce of coke and on and on. The amount was really enough to outright kill and entire herd of elephants yet I said that if I did any more than that I would need a designated driver!

Now the person that took this hook, line and sinker has been told before more than once that seamen are constantly tested for drugs and alcohol. One would think that halfway through my spiel he would have stopped and said, “Wait a minute! How does he pass his drug tests if he does all of this stuff?”

The time I told someone I served with Colonel Roosevelt in Cuba was epic. It was on a web forum and instantly someone said I was a 'Gun show beef jerky salesman'.

Some wag dug up the picture of the Rough Riders and put an arrow pointing to a hat (just the man's hat showed) and put my name on it.

I instantly got an apology. I wonder if he thought that in order for it to be true I had to be at least 130 years old. 

I would. Most people I know with at least half of an operating brain would. Yet there are so many people that believe everything they are told without question that leave me constantly amazed.

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You better be careful what you ask for.

I just read some moonbat came out and said that burning an NFL shirt is the same as lynching a black man.

If you have any brains in your head you know it’s not. One is burning a piece of cloth, the other is taking the life of a human being.

When you try and punish something as rinky-dink as burning a shirt in the same league as murdering someone there are two likely reactions.

First most people will simply stop burning shirts, at least publicly.

The other unintended consequence is they will simply decide that if the penalty for burning a shirt is the same as stringing someone up they might just as well go whole hog.

I have spent practically my entire life trying to support true equality only to see if get thrown in my face. It angers me to no end. Now in order to fight for true quality I have to turn on some of the very people I tried to help earlier.

I suppose I am too old to do anything more than keep on keeping on.

I’m going to keep supporting the policy of judging a man by the content of his character and not the color of his skin but now if I continue this policy I am going to be labeled as a racist.

OK, fine by me. Call me a racist.

After you do call me a racist, please have the common courtesy to ask me if I care. You will get a two letter answer. The first letter is an ‘N’. The second one is an ‘O’.

Meanwhile the flames are licking away at a stupid Steelers shirt someone gave me. Call me a racist. Ask me if I care. What’s more important, ask a lot of other people if they care. Throw me in jail.

On the other hand, let’s wait a while. I am getting old and it’s likely that I will get sick in the foreseeable future. Let’s wait until I’m sick so that the state can pay my medical bills and I can leave something behind to my heirs.

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There are two people I really wish would shut up.

Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. I would give a pretty penny to see either one or preferably both take a pie in the face. While I certainly would not throw one nor aid and abet I would certainly laugh my ass off if someone did pie your ugly mugs. I don’t have to put on a mask, either because I sure as hell know I ain’t the Lone Ranger.

Where is Moe Howard now that we need him?

Barak, your time is over. Done. You are not president anymore. You are just another schmuck on the street.

Every single president in our history has quietly left the White House, slipped off quietly somewhere and let his successor do his job in peace.  That is every single one except YOU.

Hillary, you are no prize either. You lost. Now go cry me a river and take some of that stolen Clinton Foundation money to build a bridge with and get over it.

You two are truly fortunate that it was Donald Trump that won instead of me because I would sic the DOJ on the pair of you and throw both of you in jail.  You both deserve it for the grief you are causing the nation.

Hopefully someone somewhere along the line gets close enough to one or both of you with a nice, fresh banana cream pie and gets you right in the face with a well-aimed Moe Howard face covering shot.

I would have to say that the look of outrage on your face as the pie slowly slips off would be so classic that even CNN would have to stop covering for the pair of you and air it.

Actually I would really rather the pair of you went away and simply stayed out of the limelight but can’t seem to get it. Nobody really cares too much for either of you.

Hillary, let’s put it this way. You were so hated that Donald Trump beat you. Had anyone else but you run against him he probably would have lost. All you have done since the election is run your mouth and embarrass yourself and your party to the point where you would be lucky to win Minnesota in 2020. They haven’t supported a Republican since 1972 so you might have half a chance there. Then again you may not win Minnesota, either. It was pretty close and Trump is slowly gaining some serious even if grudging respect.

On the other hand, it isn’t too likely you are going to get a chance to run against Donald Trump in 2020 because your own party is fed up with you. You lost. You lost by 74 electoral votes for God’s sake! Not only that, you had more five faithless electors! Get over It.

As for EX-president Obama, nobody is going to come charging in and throw out Donald Trump and put you back into office and if you were to even try you’d most likely be jailed if you were DAMNED lucky. You’d likely wind up having to move to Qatar and hole up there for the rest of your life.

Why don’t the two of you simply fade into obscurity and take your money and live quietly somewhere. You’d both get a lot more respect.

Maybe you’ll get the general idea if someone hit you in the face with a pie.

Job opportunity: Is there anyone out there that Moe Howard taught how to throw a pie? 

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Some pictures of PR relief work

If you ever wore a uniform in either the Army or the Marines you would know what a CW-5 is. This guy is a CW-5 designee. In a few months he'll pin the rank on.

Some pictures of the PR relief work

I know you will have to scroll to the top because it opens near the bottom but I'm not too good at figuring computer stuff out. Still, I think it's worth the scroll.

The officer that wrote this said that he is going on record as a way of supporting his CinC. He wants to make sure the truth gets out there.





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I just got the inside scoop

 from someone that is on active duty and is DIRECTLY working under the general running the Puerto Rico relief effort.

He tells me that the job done in Puerto Rico exceeds the incredible job done in Texas and Florida. I am not surprised.

He explained that ships full of relief supplies were prepositioned outside of the hurricane area and were arriving almost instantly after the weather settled. The stuff is there.

He didn’t comment on why it wasn’t being handed out as he is an officer in the US military and can’t get involved in the political end of things. I dug around and found a few things out.

First of all the mayor of San Juan is alleged to be pretty corrupt as are an awful lot of Puerto Rican politicians. It sounds to me like it’s a third world hellhole like Somalia. Anyone that has seen ‘Blackhawk Down’ knows the drill.

Secondly there is a truck driver strike in PR and they are using the hurricane damage and human suffering there as leverage to get their way. (One more reason government unions ought to be outlawed.)

There has also been a lot of gang activity reported.

There IS a solution as I see it. Send in armed Marines to take charge of things. Screw the banana republic Puerto Rican government. Believe it or not, the Marines will give the average Puerto Rican a fair shake, unlike their corrupt government.

Incidentally I won’t let the average Puerto Rican off the hook that easily. They elected that corrupt government to begin with.

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Then we started doing lines off the stripper's butt...

I have half a mind to write and post the story I told to a classmate this past August when she spied me with my 2 year old godson.

The classmate actually recognized me after almost a half century and asked if the two year old was my grandson.

Of course, I saw nothing more or less than a nice, juicy opportunity to stir up something and create a little mischief.

“Uhhhh…no.” I said. “You want the truth? He’s my son. I didn’t marry a younger woman. I was at a bachelor party about three years ago and knocked up one of the strippers.”

She looked really uncomfortable. I thought I’d quit but realized that her desire to spread a rumor would overcome her discomfort.  I also decided that I was in the mood to play the pile it on until the pile collapses or doesn’t collapse game.

“I hadn’t been to a bachelor party or done any serious drinking in decades and had forgotten when to quit drinking. Of course I got fried and one of the guys broke out an 8-ball of coke which I have never done before that but when you are that toasted you do it.”

She was standing there agape and on the verge of outraged. I got her over that line pretty quickly.

“Then we started doing lines of coke off the stripper’s butt …” and I knew I had crossed the line. She was outraged. “The stripper was telling me how she had this thing for older men and one thing led to another and I woke up passed out with her the following day.”

She just stared at me.

“A few months later she found me and told me what had happened. When the boy was born I had the DNA run and sure enough, he’s mine. Of course, his mother started into doing meth so I had child services give me custody.”

I picked up my godson and gave him a hug. She looked on approvingly.

“He’s been good for me because I have to stick around to raise him. It’s made me stop drinking and smoking,” I said and then excused myself. I knew she’s swallowed it whole.

Sure enough, it got back to me a couple of days later through the gossip mill. Of course I denied everything and let the little gossip make a fool of herself.

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I just saw where some librarian in Cambridge, MA insulted Melania Trump

over some books that Mrs. Trump sent to her school library. The librarian refused them and made comments on Mrs. Trump’s choice which was Dr. Suess.

I would imagine that if the gift came from Michelle Obama the books would be placed in a diamond encrusted gold framed glass case of some sort. I’m assuming the librarian wanted to make a political statement of some sort.

Personally I am getting sick and tired of people making rude political statements. It’s gotten pretty old and I am going to have to pin the bulk of this behavior on the left because it seems that that’s where most of it is coming from.

The librarian ought to be fired and given a miserable recommendation so she can’t get another job in education. This is not because she doesn’t like Melania Trump. That’s her right. She ought to be fired simply for displaying poor manners. She’s embarrassed her entire school system as well as the country.

One of the things that people fail to receive with a liberal education is any training in manners and it shows. It makes me wonder about things.

I have noticed over the years that an awful lot of little guys that would have kept their mouths shut back in the day are pretty confident running their mouths now. It wasn’t all that many years ago I lit up a teenager for animal cruelty and I can’t help but wonder what would happen if I lit someone up for bad manners.

People forget that unless it is something very serious that the police really are not going to make a concerted effort to try and figure out who socked someone in the eye. Cops are smart enough to know that true innocent victims are pretty rare and if a guy gets punched out there is more often than not a reason. People generally don’t go punching people for nothing. Cops know this and for the most part are not going to move heaven and earth to catch someone that more likely than not gave someone a comeuppance.

I am not stupid. I certainly would not smack anyone in my neighborhood or even in the general area because I would be easily recognized and easily busted. Still, if I am out of town it becomes increasingly difficult to behave myself when I encounter rude behavior.

While I don’t think the rude librarian needs her face rearranged, I do think that a few years of poverty would do her good. Fire her.

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And just like that, 63 million Americans said ‘Screw the NFL’.

It’s time for the NFL to clean up their act.

The FIRST step is to get the hell out of the political arena and stay out of the political arena. Fans watch games to get away from things like politics. Avoid taking sides on political issues.

Next fire any players that don’t pay the flag the proper respect. This is an American sport and the players should at least pay lip service to the flag. You’re not taking sides by doing this, you’re simply acting like civilized Americans. It is in your own set of rules and regulations. Make the players obey the rules that have been in place for decades.

The next step is to remember that you people are strictly in the ENTERTAINMENT business and remember that football is nothing more or less than entertainment. Like it or not, you are little more than trained monkeys that are selling yourselves as nothing more or less than entertainers. Get over it and dance for us, Monkeys!

While you are at it, the sport has a responsibility to the public to try and set an example of clean behavior. Make it clear to every single one of the players that a part of his job is to make damned good and well that they know that illegal behavior will not be tolerated.

If you get busted downtown drunk driving then you just blew your career. Same thing happens if you go home and beat your wife or start a fight in a bar. You’re out. It doesn’t matter how good you are, how far you can throw or catch the ball or how many TDs you score. Get busted and you simply don’t play anymore. Adios. Gone. Sayonara. Put an egg in your shoe and beat it. People look up to athletes and it’s your duty to give them something to look up to.

A lot of NFL players might stop and think a moment or two and look at their options. While some of them have useful educations, a lot of them don’t. They managed to get them to stay eligible and keep their sports scholarship by shuffling them through basket weaving or whatever it took to keep them eligible. This football business is their one and only shot to have a decent. Blow this and it’s back on the block.

You might want to realize that you are playing a kid’s game. The game you play for millions of dollars is being played by kids for free. It’s played in one form or another in schoolyards by kids grades 1-12 and in colleges all over the country. College players MIGHT get a scholarship of some sort for playing. The kids in grades 1-12 play because they like the game.

It’s time for the NFL to shape up or fold up and truthfully I do not care which. If you decide to clean up you can start by making a few apologies. Start with one to President Trump. You can apologize for getting frumpy to him when he said that you should have fired those that took a knee. Truth is he was right.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The best idea on how the NFL can handle this national anthem business just came to me through and old shipmate.

He says any player that takes a knee gets suspended for four games and the money goes to the re-elect Donald Trump for president fund.

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I just spoke with and old friend in Alaska

And it makes me wonder if I would like to go and visit.

Very possibly not. 

I have been told that the town of Kodiak is now just like any other town in the States. 

I did well there by my own standard but from what I gather I would probably be run out of town or arrested today for just about anything that I used to do.

That town used the be inhabited by the 4 Ms, mercenaries, missionaries, malcontents and misfits. It seems to me that the mercenaries (and other do-gooders) seem to have won out and civilized the place.

Many of the bars have closed and a lot of things seem to have died out. 

It certainly isn't the same place I left thirty some years ago.

On the other hand I would be a fool to think it hadn't changed.

Still, it is depressing to see which direction the town went.





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My nose smells the wonderful aroma of

meat being cooked. Mmmmm!

Right now someone is browning stew beef and I really like the smell of it. It says to me something good to eat is being made. 

What a wonderful smell!

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&



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Ah, yes. A long day ahead of me.

The maples are starting to turn. I see very little yellow and a lot of red this year. I wonder what that's all about. Over the years I should have paid attention so that I can predict the winter or know whatever it is the colors signify.

The neighbors yard has a few of the type of weeds I mowed down and they are starting to turn. I'm glad I did mow them because if I didn't they would simply start growing where they left off.

Next fall is going to be different. It was a true chore mowing the hillside. Carrying a gasoline powered trimmer on the hillsides can be treacherous as I am not as agile as I used to be. Next fall I'll hire someone. I'll still mow the flats though. I am not that old. I'm just not quite as agile.

A fall on a hillside with a gasoline powered trimmer can result in a pretty nasty injury, especially because I'm running it with a steel blade instead of string.

I have written earlier that the wayback is 100%. It really isn't. The weeds are all gone and it looks peaceful but there is a dead locust tree I have to deal with. A limb has fallen and created a widowmaker and I will have to deal with that but it's a fairly simple procedure. It's not too big and I can handle that.

Anymore big trees are out of the area of consideration. I dropped the last one about a year ago, a huge pine. It was leaning and I got lucky because it was leaning in the right direction. I just dug up and cut the exposed root and it landed right where I wanted it to.

Getting it onto the ground was a but dicey but I planned every single cut and got away with it.

I have a beautiful backyard and want to keep it that way for the deer and other animals.

I have seen a couple of non venomous snakes in the wayback this summer and that's a good sign. They keep the small rodents down and maybe eat a few insects to boot. I attribute that to the brush piles. Rattlers in this area are extremely rare, as are copperheads. 

It's too bad that yellowjackets seem to want to build their nests in mowed areas. I had to snuff out a yellowjacket hole this past summer and I simply wish they had decided to live somewhere else. 

I do like to keep the yard healthy.

This past summer has seen an abundance of ground hogs. However, they have stayed in the wayback and not gotten into anybody's lawn so I have left them alone.

A few years ago I shot one. It was a task requiring an awful lot of patience as I had to wait until he was alongside a huge dirt pile. We baited the spot with apples and I spent three days waiting for him to make damned good and well it was a safe shot. The bullet went right through him and dug itself safely deep into the dirt.

I chuckle sometimes because I used a service rifle and the crack probably scared the hell out of a few neighbors. 

My neighbor heard the shot and responded instantly. He ran down and immediately stuffed the body into a pre dug hole, covered it up and came up the house carrying two beers.

The general rule regarding animals here is they have to become a real pest before they get taken out and if we can we trap and relocate them. These days I'd probably trap and relocate them.

I imagine a lot of other people do this because North Park seems to have a boatload of ground hogs!









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The yardwork is done and looks good.

Yesterday was a peaceful day because the yard work was done and over with. It always looks good when I get done with it. It's a peaceful thing to look at.

************************

Yesterday I called and old sort of friend of mine I have heard neither hide nor hair of in 31 years. Funny how a friendship simply resumes.


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I have been busy today

working on another writing project for an old Kodiak friend of mine.


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That's a pretty expensive sports car you got there. Too bad you didn't spend the money on feeding people...

Some liberal looked at someone else's expensive sports car and commented that the high price of it could feed an awful lot of people.

The owner replied that the simple manufacture of his expensive sports car already had fed quite a number of people.

There were the miners and oil workers and many others that had wrestled the raw materials out of the ground. There were also the workers that converted the raw materials into usable material to make the car out of. Next came the workers that converted the refined materials into the various parts and assemblies required to make the vehicle. After that the people in the factory that assembled the parts got paid for their efforts.

Next came the transportation workers that delivered the car to the dealership, the salesmen that sold him the car and to top it off, the people that were responsible to create the title, registration and other paperwork that put the car in the hands of the owner and enabled him to drive it off the dealership.

In addition to paying all of these people they got the satisfaction of doing a good job to make this happen.

On the other hand he could have just gone without and given the money to some hokey organization. They probably would have skimmed a lot of it off of the top for so-called administrative purposes and sent a small part of it to feed a handful of people, many of whom were or are too lazy to get off of their ass and earn a living.

I like rich people with expensive tastes because they keep an awful lot of working stiffs in beans and rice.

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A subject came up the other day and it brought back memories.

Letters only!!

Do NOT send packages of any sort, especially containing any kind of foodstuffs whatsoever to service people that are in basic training.

Just don't do it. Period.

The sergeants will make life miserable for the recipient.

Most likely they will make the youngster eat the entire package right then and there and afterwards make him or her exercise until they puke. 

Back in the day I had a great aunt that asked for my address while I was in basic and my father not only refused but called my other aunts and uncles and put the fix in to save me from grief.

Once they are out of basic training you can send them all the cookies and cakes you feel like baking but under no circumstances do you send anything but a simple letter to someone in basic. 

That is unless you don't like the person.



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Someone asked me why I have written about the Foreign Legion and

the truth is that a Legion officer probably saved my life when I was in my twenties.

When I was planning my next move while I was living in the tipi in the Rockies I thought I might want to do game preservation work in Africa next. I wrote the governments of several African nations and got varying answers. At the time there was turmoil there and I got a couple of counter offers to basically become a mercenary. I wasn't interested.

In addition to the African nations I wrote the Legion because someone said they were mildly involved in law enforcement and game preservation. This proved to be unfounded but a Legion officer took the time to send me a very thought provoking answer that tuned me into the reality of such a career choice.

He was quick to point out that the price of poached ivory was so high that the poachers, who were criminals to begin with, would not hesitate to simply murder a game warden.

He said that he considered his career as a Legionnaire to be far safer than that of an African game warden. THAT got my attention.

Anyway, I do feel I owe the Legion one because of the kindness of a Legion officer and the kind letter he sent me so long ago.

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I guess CNN decided not to play a rerun in Florida.

I didn't see any pictures of Melania Trump's feet while the Trumps were in Florida after Irma so I guess it means that there is not going to be a crybaby song about if Melania wore high heels or not.

I guess after America laughed at CNN for that feigned outrage after Harvey they decided to give it a rest.

In the for what it's worth department when I saw Melania in Texas wearing a pair of sneakers I figure it saved me about $8 because I have never seen Mrs. Trump in anything BUT high heels and I was going to buy her a pair of flip-flops so she could rest her poor tired feet when nobody is looking.





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I'm pretty much done with yard work for a while

and last night I was handed an unsolicited bottle of Tullamore Dew by my next door neighbor.

There is a hill between out houses and it had overgrown with weeds. It really did look like hell. Most of it is my property but the top few feet belongs to her. before I started this project I  told her what I was doing and got her blessing.

She has been very good to me over the years and in general I run things by her in matters involving the lot line. It is one of those deals where all I have to do is ask... but I do have to ask.

Of course, I cleared the whole hill as I was clearing it anyway and it would have looked like hell if I had stopped at the lot line so I cleared the whole damned thing. It looks OK.

Last night in gratitude she dropped off a bottle for me. She didn't have to but she did.

I guess it is all part of being a good neighbor.


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I often wondered about the Office of Rumor Control back when I was in the army.

Of course any organization of any size has a rumor mill. It's a part of life. In the army we referred to our rumor mill as 'Rumor Control'. It had a snappy military air about it.

While in fact the rumor mill was created by pretty much all of us, one day we were sitting around over coffee and fantasizing where the countless rumors actually got started. Of course, most of us sitting there had started a rumor or two ourselves but let's not let the facts get in the way of a good story.

We depicted an office of about a dozen guys sitting around drunk on their asses by 0800 thinking up various tales to get started. We also opined that at about noon they would break out the LSD, peyote and other psychedelics and REALLY get things going. 

Our First Sergeant overheard our conversation and in a rare moment of his dry humor came into the conversation and told us with a straight face that he had an old squad mate in the unit and that they used no drugs of any kind. They simply thought up the stuff as they went along.

Of course we knew Old Top was BSing us but it was fun listening to his take on things. Then he made an 'accidental' reference to 'next week's possible unannounced field exercise' and left.

We broke up almost instantly to check our field gear and make sure it was in shape. We also put the word out and many of the guys went to their field gear and checked it.

Of course, there was no unannounced field problem, but a couple of days later he announced an upcoming inspection of field gear.

Those of us that has taken the rumor Top had started to heart were ahead of things as we had at least inventoried our gear and given it a preliminary check. I had cleaned much of mine up.

Some time after the inspection most of the original group met and we chatted about the fact that Top had taken advantage of the rumor mill to get things done. In effect he had actually made life better for us.

I guess that's because an old soldier knew how to take smoothly advantage of everything both good and bad that the system offered.

I miss people like Top because in spite of only having a grammar school education he was a genius.

I have said this before and I will say it again. An awful lot of the best teachers I have ever met all had the same first name. Their first name was 'Sergeant'. 




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Another day of yard work

Yesterday I chipped up everythng that ought to have been chipped.


Today I will deal with some stuff that is grassy and will be mulched up with the lawn mower.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I have another project going and I may or may not publish it, as funny as it is.

When I first moved to Alaska I had little way of getting in touch with the family for the first two years and while I was gone my father inadvertently started a rumor that took flight as to my  whereabouts.  Forty some odd years I found out the rumor never died.

I will write it but as a letter to an organization that has done me quite a favor when I was a younger man. I very well may owe them my life and a long letter is in order.



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ANother day in the wayback....kinda

The way back is pretty much near the acceptable range and the side hill is about 90% done. All I have to do with the side yard is chip up the stuff I hauled down off of it.

Tomorrow a friend will loan me a chipper/shredder and the job will be complete and I'll touch up the actual way back and be done with it. 

So much for chainsaw madness and hack/slash.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Maybe later today I will find a book binder to tie up another project that will haunt people after I am dead and gone.

It takes a truly professional pain in the ass to stir up $hit from the grave.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I also owe a certain organization a long letter of thanks.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%





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Up early

to take a friend to the airport.



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A friend of mine is leaving town for a year on a contract job.

He left me his prize wooden whisky keg for me to hold. I put it in the corner of my living room.

"Hey," someone asked. "What's in the keg?"

"Whisky," I replied. "Leave it alone."

"That sure looks like a lot of whisky," they said.

"I plan on doing a little drinking. Next subject."

That one ought to be good for a few rumors.

*******************

Someone else asked. ''You still have that old pistol?"

"Yes," I replied. "I have not used it yet because I still have my sense of humor."




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Took another pretty good sized chip out of the wayback.

Which makes me happy because when it is freshly mowed like it  will be things look quite peaceful and it is a good view.

This year when things are taken care of back there I will shave the side hill which has grown up into weeds. When we took the Norwegian Spruces out it opened things up to sunlight and the weeds went wild.

I think today will be a weed trimmer day. I'll use the steel blade which they don't sell any more.

My guess is that they don't sell the metal blades any more because some moron went out in flip flops and cut his feet up with one and sued the company.




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Your history lesson for today ...

Someone else wrote this and emailed it to me

Robert E Lee was married to  George Washington's granddaughter. He worked with Grant during the Mexican-American war and became a decorated war hero defending this country He believed slavery was a great evil and his wife broke the law by teaching slaves to read and write. After the civil war he worked with Andrew Johnson's program of reconstruction. He became very popular with the northern states and the Barracks at West Point were named in his honor in 1962.

He was a great man who served this country his entire life in some form or other. His memorial is now being called a blight. No American military veteran should be treated as such. People keep 
yelling, "You can't change history." Sadly you can. This is no better than book burnings. ISIS tried rewriting history by destroying historical artifacts. Is that really who we want to emulate? As they tear down this "blight" keep these few historical facts in your mind. No military veteran and highly 
decorated war hero should ever be treated as such. This is not Iraq and that is not a statue of Saddam.

IN ADDITION:: Lee was also very torn about the prospect of the South leaving the Union. His wife's grandfather George Washington was a huge influence on him. He believed that ultimately, state's 
rights trumped the federal government and chose to lead the Southern army. His estate, Arlington, near Washington DC was his home and while away fighting the war, the federal government 
demanded that Lee himself pay his taxes in person. He sent his wife but the money was not accepted from a woman. When he could not pay the taxes, the government began burying dead Union soldiers on his land. The government is still burying people there today. It is now called Arlington National Cemetery.

DO THEY WANT TO TEAR THAT UP ALSO ??

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Off to the way-back for a day of clearing brush.

Although it is a little early I am going to whack down the brush in the way-back. As usual the mower will need a new blade afterwards as I will be cutting down small trees with it.

Lawn mower, weed whacker and chain saw will be the main tools. I'll put the steel blade on the weed whacker.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Funny what one wears and why.

I'm going into the back yard clad in a jacket that I should have thrown away twenty years ago. The only reason I keep it is because the top pocket holds my smart phone.




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On Hurricane watch today and tomorrow on 14.325

And will check in with the Young Ladies on 14.332.

One of the things that has occurred to me is an awful lot of Floridians I find on the air are retirees that have great home stations.

The problem with that is when power goes out or their tower gets knocked over they have nothing.

I hope enough of these kind of guys have some kind of backup.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Right now I am listening to net control on 14.325 asking for check ins from the affected area. Sounds like pretty slim pickings. This confirms a lot of my suspicions about many hams.

I am a little different in that I have a guerrilla type rig I can set up anywhere on a moment's notice. A lot of the big guns with 1.5K amps and huge towered Yagi antennas laugh at the little 30 watt rig but I have DXCC'd with it. You also have to realize that a 30watt rig on the air is a damned sight better than a 50,000 KW commercial station and no power. The latter is just an oversize paperweight, the former a legitimate low power station.

Today I am not fooling around with my small backpack rig. I am monitoring the airwaves with the base station.



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Back to having how much something really costs.

With a brick and mortar business I often ask for and 'out the door' price. This is the total cost to take something home with me. It includes the price, any taxes or other costs totaled up.

If the out the door price of a widget is $50 I simply hand the clerk a picture of Grant and take the widget home with me. Simple.

Now that I do shop on line I calculate a similar thing. It's called the on the porch price. It is what it costs me to have an item put on my porch by a delivery service of some sort. The price generally includes the item, taxes and shipping.

The problem I have is when I pick something up for someone else. I generally make sure they also have to pay me for taxes and shipping. Everyone so far has been pretty good about it.





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Home is the sailor.......

Looks like I cheated death again. I'm home.

I'm now looking out the window wondering about a few things.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I'm glad to be home and I suppose in a couple of weeks I'll be ready to go back to spinning the wheels of industry.

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I think I am spending Saturday morning dropping a tree at a neighbor's place. It will be a somewhat interesting project.

888888888888888888888888888

I have been invited to a wine and cheese tasting party but I think I am going to beg off. I went to one years ago and brought some home made wine with me and Velveeta that had been dipped in Tabasco sauce. 

I had everyone fooled with the cheese but later on after everyone had oohed and ahhed over the wine someone that really did know wine turned to the entire party and told them they didn't know squat about wine because they had just been fooled by my home made stuff.

There were penalty markers thrown for that one.





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I just got a real dazed and confused look from someone.

Some clown was bragging about coming from LA, meaning of course, Los Angeles. Big deal.

I've seen people base their entire character on something stupid like where they came from. Generally I wonder why they are not still there if it is such a cool place.

Anyway, after hearing LA this and LA that I asked him how long he lived in Lower Alabama and have to say I outdid myself with that one.

The look I got gave an entire new meaning to the term 'dazed and confused'.



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Once upon a time

is how you start a fairy tale.

A sea story starts with 'This here ain't no $hit'.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I sit here looking at the world around me and I think I am going to see if an offer made a while ago is still open.

I could use a day of sailing and a little wind in my face. 

One of the things that happens when you become a shooter or a ham or both is that you meet a lot of people with similar interests. It is funny how many people I run into that I find out have similar interests.

There seems to be a pretty good overlap and it's pretty cool. 

Anyway I'll see what gives over the next few weeks.

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So here we sit waiting.

I am not at home today because I am doing other things.

I have had a tentative offer to sail on Lake Erie for some time now and I think that September would be a pretty good time to take the man up on his offer.

We'll see.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I see in the Boston area where the McDonalds people are thinking of striking for $15/hour.

Let them. McDonalds is already experimenting with kiosks. They will probably next come up with robots and put the burger flippers out of business.

I have said that this is what will happen for some time and as usual more and more of the entry level jobs will disappear.

*********************

One of the entry level jobs I have seen disappear is the lawn mowing business. It used to be an ambitious kid would take the family lawnmower out and drum up a little business in the neighborhood.

These days it's a guy with a pickup, trailer and a big mower that lines up his customers and makes the rounds.

The same holds true for paper boys. I don't remember the last time I saw a kid on a bicycle delivering papers. These days it's a man in an old compact car.

Times have changed 






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Murphy's law is going to kick in within another three to five days.

I can't post details here but I can see this one coming a mile away.

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I see President Trump surrounded by people of all color while he visits Texas. Par golf. I an not surprised.

Melania had the downright gall to wear spike heels again. As usual she makes me laugh as I saw footage of her shuffle across a wet, somewhat soggy lawn in them and the heel didn't sink in.

I have said this before but a shipmate was married to a model and reported that his wife could wear heels anywhere. "She could play baseball in them," he said. 

Melania was a model so I am not surprised.

Incidentally I was getting ready to take up a collection to buy her a pair of flip-flops so she could rest her poor tired dogs but since I see she has a pair of tennie runners we can cancel the collection.



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I get laughed at a lot over these old surplus laptops

I haul around but about an hour ago this one took about 16 ounces of water on the keyboard. I simply tipped it upside down, shook it and continued to march.

Try that with one of the fancy office grade laptops and see what happens.



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3001 and I am jammed up

For the next 4-5 days



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Post 3000 of a series of

God only knows how many.

Be the first kid on your block to read them all.




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Written at sea some time ago.

As I sit here my ship mate is making something good to eat out of some kind of a roast that I personally would use to resole a pair of army boots with. Some guys really have the knack of cooking like that.

I am a pretty good peasant food cook myself and can cook up a pretty good Sunday dinner if I decide to but this guy cooking now is kind of special. He has the ability to take an old boot and turn it into something totally delicious.

The roast in question was pretty tough so he sliced it up and decided to make cheese steaks out of it. All in all it’s a pretty damned good idea for an inexpensive roast. Personally I would have slow cooked it but that is just me. Cheese steaks are great.

I should pay a little more attention to this guy and maybe if I did I would eat a little better at home.

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I just read where the Cajun Navy has been getting shot at in Texas.

The Cajun Navy is just a bunch of decent guys that take their own small boats out at their own expense and rescue people during times of flooding. This is actually America doing what it does best at grass roots level. Members report being shot at and an attempt made to steal their boat.

Quick fix. Issue each boat a National Guardsman with an M-249 and orders to return fire and establish superior firepower.

I figure that whatever thug is up to trying to injure a volunteer first responder is going to probably decide to find a new line of work after his little two shots from a pimpy little .32 is returned with, say a belt’s worth of .556 NATO as a warning.

Of course if the little thug stops a couple of rounds that’s a pretty good deal, too. It takes him out of the equation right then and there. If the hits are fatal he’s out of the equation permanently.

I have no problem with a first responder returning fire out of self-defense. 

Self-defense is a God-given right.

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