My Christmas Present this Year

This year has been a hard one for so many people (me included), but I thought that I would share with you one of the blessings that have come my way here at the close of this year. My daughter has gifted me this year with my second grandchild for Christmas. Each new life brings with it portents of hope, so I thought I'd share a few of the pictures she's shared with me with the wish that these images of this new life might share my portion of that new hope with you, my friends. So here's hoping for a better new year to come.

A Meme

Meme-
NOUN:
A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.

ETYMOLOGY:
Shortening (modeled on gene), of mimeme from Greek mimma, something imitated, from mimeisthai, to imitate.

The other day I received an e-mail from my pal DI over at at the Defiant Infidel blog. I eagerly opened it, thinking that it perhaps contained one of his famous well written missives or perhaps a few of his entertaining pictures. What I found when I opened it instead was DI tagging me with a meme.

This is the first time I've been tagged with a meme in all the years that I've been blogging. This particular meme asks me to share 8 random "factoids" about myself then tag five others with the meme.

In DI's response to the meme he and his co-blogger Dena addressed the following 8 factoids:

1.) Home
2.) Dogs
3.) Fears
4.) Pet Peeves
5.) Movies
6.) Hobbies
7.) Odd Food Preferences
8.) Political Concerns

I thought this a good list of topics and decided to plagiarize it and issue my own set of responses. So here goes:

HOME

I grew up mainly on a dairy farm in south central Pennsylvania, but when my father became disgruntled with the new owners of the farm we began a process of moving around from place to place. At an early age (17) I joined the Army and the vagabond lifestyle continued. Then I adopted software development as my career and it by its very nature requires one to move frequently. Therefore I have no single place that has so seized my imagination enough to make me call it home. Home to me is my family. Where they are, I am at home. I suppose at some point I will eventually find some spot on this planet that makes me want to stay there, but so far none has leaped out. I suppose there is Northern Idaho. When I first descended into the valley that contains Lake Coeur d' Alene I was taken with it's beauty and ever since then I've thought about eventually retiring there. Then there's Alaska. It's always captured my imagination. I remember being a kid in elementary school and our teacher told us about Alaska and how people could still homestead land there. The idea of a place still being so wild really got it wedged in my mind. I'm drawn by something inside me to the wild places of the earth and as the last great frontier in this nation; Alaska has a certain allure.



DOGS

There are few things that have enriched my life like having a dog in it. As a child I grew up with mainly large dogs (German Shephards, Collies, St. Bernards, Dobermans). I loved every one of them. But, as I've grown older and have taken up the previously mentioned vagabond lifestyle I have by necessity moved over to small dogs. It's just easier to find rental places that will allow you to keep a small dog than it is to find a place that allows you to keep large dogs and with all of the moving around, who wants to buy? My first wife was pretty much anti-animal. So that precluded the ownership of any kind of animal. Mainly because she would find a way to use anything that brought you joy as a weapon to cause pain. My current wife however is fixated on dogs. She brought with her a love of poodles, but as far as she's concerned any dog'll do. So while we were wandering through a pet shop in Montana we happened upon an odd little white fluff ball. Well it turns out that it was a Miniature American Eskimo. Bianca came home with us immediately after licking my wife's nose because after all, "how could she put it back down after that?" Since then, we've added Priscilla a poodle/bischon mix and after the much rued death of our teacup poodle Coal we rescued another American Eskimo named Vivian from a puppy mill that had gotten closed down.



FEARS

I try to eject all fear from my life. Nothing irks me more than surrendering control of my life and that is precisely what fear is. I suppose there will always be fear of something in your life, but I do try to rid myself of all phobias. I fear being unable to protect my loved ones from harm. I fear the things that are outside of my control, like the direction the country is being taken in.

PET PEEVES

I have many pet peeves. It drives me nuts when someone is driving slow enough to make you slip into the passing lane and then once there, the idiot speeds up so you can't pass them. That drives me nuts. Inefficiency drives my crazy. I hate looking at an inefficient practice or something that wastes time. I also hate people that just sit on their asses and scream at their kids. Look fat ass, your kid knows that you're too lazy to get up and make them listen so screaming only serves to annoy me!

MOVIES

I have a saying about movies. If a movie has guns and explosions, who needs a plot? That should pretty much cue you in to my movie preferences. I enjoy action movies and war movies. I also like science fiction and some select comedies. For example I hated Rocky Horror but absolutely loved Clerks II (my favorite comedy of all time).



HOBBIES

Honestly said, I have too many hobbies, but I'm the type whose mind doesn't shut down. I get bored very easily. So I get into a lot of odd things. I like astronomy, electronics, robotics, writing music, playing guitar, computer programming, blogging, writing in general, hunting, shooting, medieval reenactment, armoursmithing and general tinkering. The list goes on from there, but you get the general gist of it.



ODD FOOD PREFERENCES

I have no odd food preferences. In fact, I prefer very much to stay with the tried and true. Everyone is always trying to shove some odd thing or another onto my plate but the days of being forced to eat whatever was placed in front of me ended when I left my father's home. Beyond that a number of allergies tend to limit my adventurousness. I'm allergic to garlic and mushrooms. The mushrooms are no big loss, but I do love the taste of garlic and it is an allergy that has suddenly appeared with a vengeance. I can't even endure the scent of garlic. I also am very anti-sea food. The number of aquatic critters I'll eat is very limited. I just don't like the taste.

POLITICAL CONCERNS

Well I have many. Mainly I rue the great distance we have traveled from the intents of the founding fathers. I see a nation that is growing more and more divided. The chasm between us is growing wider and deeper and nothing seems to bridge the gap. Not even the devastation that was wrought on 9/11 was enough to heal the gash for very long at all. We seemed to close in, shake hands and then immediately return to our battle lines. There was a time when being Americans united us as a folk enough that the disagreements remained at the very least congenial. These days the traded barbs are growing less and less civil as time passes and I fear it is only a matter of time until it truly comes to blows. It also seems as though there is no real party to represent the people any more. Both of the political parties represent only their own vested interests. For example, neither party would dare consider tackling term limits, true election fraud prevention or limits on lobbying no matter how much popular support there is for such things. It seems like the parties are fomenting this loss of congeniality to divert attention away from the fact that both of them are pulling more and more of the power out of the hands of "we the people™" and consolidating it in theirs.

So that folks is my response to my very first ever meme. as a part of this meme I must pass the torch along to five unwitting recipients. I therefore pass the torch to:

Sniper of the Sniper Blog
Zelda of The Urban Grind
Extreme of Rightwing Extreme
The brand new baby blogger over at Kharis Syringia

and

My lovely wife

Fresh Off the Griddle

I just got a fresh batch of pictures of my grandson and I've realized it's been a while since I posted any pics of him. So here's an update for y'all:

A Few Misc. Topics

I've been very busy lately, but there were a few items I wanted to post on tonight.

First off, I got a rather disturbing call this evening. My father called. My wife answered the phone and immediately knew something was amiss from the tone of his voice.

My father and step-mother were traveling between their home in the Rocky Mountains back to the East Coast to visit family. They had stopped along the way to overnight in Illinois. When my father came out of the motel to load the vehicle to leave he encountered a man who told him a sob story.

My father being the kind man he is, decided to help the man by giving him a ride. Well long story short, the man managed to navigate my father to an unfrequented location where he could be relieved of his wallet and car. My father is physically unharmed from his encounter but has suffered monetary and also without a doubt psychological trauma from the encounter.

Way to go land of Lincoln, preying on an elderly gentleman that is only trying to follow his convictions and be a good Samaritan.

I am resolved that my father will never travel again without a means to defend himself from such predation.

Next topic. This article was forwarded to me by a co-worker. Can someone tell me why Obama is so damned reticent to produce his birth certificate in order to remove all doubts about his eligibility to be president? I mean honestly. I'm tired of people forwarding me all of these articles about all of these challenges to his eligibility to fill the office. I mean if there is no problem with his documentation why not just cough it up to quell the noise?

I guess this is just another instance of the broken promise of openness in his administration.

Now on another note, this one addressed to the folks forwarding these articles to me... Honestly, do we really want to challenge Obama's eligibility? Think about the ramifications for a moment. Even if he is indeed ineligible to be president, ejecting him would only mean that we would be relegated to the loathsome prospect of a Biden/Pelosi administration. Talk about a case of "out of the frying pan and into the fire".

Beyond that the liberals could give a rat's ass about upholding the constitution.

Next topic... Rex 84. Also known as Readiness Exercise 84.

For those not familiar with it here is the politically correct Wikipedia page on it. Here is a somewhat less politically correct presentation of the information.

Now, I'm not usually the type that engages in conspiracy theories. I usually leave that to the mindless Ron Paul drones. But, the second page does indeed present a number of executive orders that can be researched and doing so does seem to support their contentions.

Now to my question. I've read the constitution from front to back more times than I can count. Nowhere in that document did I find any authorization that allows a president to rule by fiat. That is, in effect what executive orders are, the executive branch dictating law.

Answers.com presents a collection the standard arguments that are used to justify the issuance of executive orders, but all of these explanations seem vaporous at best to me. I thought the whole idea behind the blood spilled in our revolution and creation of the constitution was to eliminate the abuses that ensue from being ruled at the whim of a regent.

Beyond that as I mentioned before, the liberals scoff at the constitution... Doubt that, why then are they deploying troops inside our nation's borders to employ the lessons they've learned in Iraq against American citizens to put down the civil unrest that is sure to arise with the implementation of all of these socialist policies?

Last topic. The French recently honored the last surviving British veteran of the bloody trenches of World War I. Ambassador Maurice Gourdault-Montagne awarded 110-year-old Briton, Harry Patch the Legion of Honor medal.

It is always sad to see these first hand recollections of history passing from our collective grasp.

Frank Buckles at 109 years old, is the last living American veteran of WWI. It is sad to see these ranks thinning. The ranks of our WWII veterans are also sadly becoming thinner. So many of these folks have stories of endurance, honor and courage that could inspire and stand as stark lessons for our pampered youth to learn.

They can tell us stories of national resolve in the face of adversity. Unfortunately, I doubt our nation could successfully endure the challenge of fighting either of the world wars in this day and age. Our national resolve would shrivel to raisins on the vine in no time flat in the face of casualties in the field and rationing back at home. We're too busy bailing out businesses that don't deserve being bailed out, sucking at the government tit, discarding the free market, nationalizing businesses and carjacking elderly good Samaritans.

I can only shake my head in shame at the vapid shadow of our former greatness that we as a nation have become.

Graduated

My seven year old son has been dogging me lately to graduate from that .22 Short pistol I've been using to train him. In fact, he's had his eye on my P-38. Well the time was right Saturday morning. We went outside and with me standing behind him and guiding him, he fired the P-38. His eyes lit up and then he wanted to try them all.
Well, here's the results... A large pile of fired shells and one happy boy. What you can't see is a proud father on the other side of the camera.

Christmas Aftermath

I thought I'd take a moment from the holiday festivities to jot a quick post to tell you all about our Christmas this year. We're spending it in a new place. Perhaps you've not noticed, but we recently moved from the Republic of Texas all the way up to Oregon.

The Mrs., being Canadian and all was hoping for a white Christmas this year. She always wants a white Christmas, but in Texas the chances of that happening were slim to none. Christmas weather in Texas normally meant barbecuing in T-shirts more often than snow.


It kind of looked like everything was going to cooperate this year to give her a white Christmas. This picture was taken only a few days ago, but all of that white has since retreated to the high elevations, much to her dismay.


The boys are pretty much oblivious to the move. For them Christmas is Christmas no matter where you are. As usual, they made out like bandits again. Above you see the favored toys of the moment, LEGOs and transformers.

As for me, how did I make out? well I think I did pretty well. I got a number cool items, but what's my favorite one you ask. Well let's put it this way... Nothing says "Let there be peace on Earth and good will toward men... Or else!" better than a nice, fully loaded tactical vest! (frequent readers can expect a full detailed review in a while.)

I hope Christmas was good to you and your family this year. Here's to wishing all of you a very happy New Years!

A Contrast in Parenting

Well, it would appear that the Thomas Nelson Inc., a Christian publisher has decided to shelve Lynne Spears' book on parenting. Lindsey Noble, spokesperson for the publisher refused to acknowledge whether the decision was based upon the recent revelation that 16 year old Jamie Lynne Spears, sister of Britney Spears and Nickelodeon TV star was pregnant.

Look, Mrs. Spears, what exactly makes you think that you can speak with any authority on the subject of parenting? You've raised two absolute train wrecks that have done nothing but provide a pivotal role model for the bimbofication of teen aged girls everywhere. On another note, who at that publishing company ever thought this was a good project? I wonder if that person is sitting at the unemployment office right about now.

When asked how she got pregnant, actress Jamie Lynne Spears replied "I kept a tellin' uncle Bubba to git off'n me 'cause he was a squishin' mah cigarettes but he wouldn't." Ok, so perhaps that isn't an exact quote, but I'm sure she said something just as classy.

Now lets contrast Lynne Spears with Frederick Dominguez.

Last Sunday after church Mr. Dominguez and his three children drove into the northern California wilderness to pick a Christmas tree. The family became disoriented while trying to pick just the right one and could not find their way back to their vehicle. Dominguez and his family managed to find a culvert to shelter in as a winter storm descended on the area. The family was found and rescued just as another storm threatened to bury them under an even deeper blanket of snow.

Mr. Dominguez is quoted as telling his 18 year old son, "Son, I would tell you what I bought you for Christmas if I thought we weren't going to make it".

The contrast between Mr. Dominguez and Mrs. Spears is stark.

One parent has tried to profit off of her children any way she could and in the end has done nothing but contribute a pair of dilapidated emotional derelicts to the moral dross that is pop culture.

The other parent was spending quality time with his children and when calamity arose, Mr. Dominguez used his head and provided a strong example of leadership for his children. His children I'm sure will be stronger people for their experience and due to the involvement of this parent in their lives.

Kudos Mr. Dominguez.

A Milestone

Well, my next to youngest just passed an important milestone this afternoon. He had his seventh birthday over the weekend and I promised him that I'd start teaching him to shoot. This afternoon, he fired his first actual firearm. There was some training with BB guns and today he graduated to the smallest least dangerous thing that I own that can still technically be called a firearm.

Some time ago before any of my children were old enough to learn to shoot, I happened upon an old .22 short revolver that was intended to be a lady's purse pistol. To my eyes it said, small hands, small power... perfect kid's training gun.


I have a very methodical way of teaching these things. The very first thing a child has to learn is how to handle a firearm safely, respectfully and yet without fear. Once you can hand the child a firearm and they instinctively know to keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, how to proficiently operate the mechanism and not to drop it when it makes the loud noise... then you can move on to teaching them the fundamentals of marksmanship... safety first then proficiency.

Oh, one more thing. Since I posted a picture of his brother, I suppose I'll drop a picture of the youngest one out here too.

I Finally Feel Human Again

I'm finally back on line. We managed to survive our six state whirlwind move. All of our boxes have been unloaded (but not unpacked yet) and we have finally reacquired an internet signal.
Our travels took us through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and finally into Oregon. Where we've moved into our new country home. I snapped some pictures along the way and thought that I would share a few of the better ones with you, my loyal readers.

Here's the western Texas sunset on our first day's travels.

Here's an interesting rock formation in New Mexico that we encountered on our second day.

Here's some lovely autumn foliage from up in Ogre country (Utah).

Here's a storm bearing down on us in Idaho at the conclusion of our third day.

Here's two of my passengers enjoying the ride.

I'm glad to finally be back in a house. I really enjoy exploring new places, but I seriously hate the uncertainty and upheaval that goes with moving around.

Spotty Posting Alert

I just thought I'd let all of my dedicated readers know that my posting may be spotty for the next little while. My family and I are moving all the way from Texas up to Oregon over the next few weeks so my time is pretty booked up. So be patient. I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth nor have I stopped blogging.

Have I mentioned that I hate moving? Well I don't mind being in a new place. That's fun... It's the act of boxing everything up, changing utilities, looking for this or that gizmo that you know damned well that you packed in this specific box and now it isn't there. That's what I hate.

Fresh off the Presses

I just thought I'd share a few new pictures I just received from my son. He's out training, preparing for his deployment to Iraq next month.


...and while I'm at it, here's the latest picture of my grandson from my daughter.

Junior's Latest Pictures

I just thought that I'd share the latest pictures I've been receiving from my son who's training for deployment to Iraq.

Out of Town

Just thought I'd let you all know that posting in liable to be a little light over the next few days. My family and I are moving from Texas to Oregon here in the near future and I'm in Oregon this week doing a little reconnaissance.

Deploying

I'm not much of a person for calling people a friend lightly and calling someone my "best friend" is a singular distinction. There's one guy though that I gladly grant the title "best friend" to and it's been that way since he and I served together. The two of us have remained friends over the years whether we've seen each other every day or not. Whether we've lived next door to each other or were separated by hundreds of miles. We've grown older together and raised our kids. He stayed in. I did not. He's deploying. Sadly, I am not. Please don't take those to be hollow words spoken lightly or the bravado of a dime-store Rambo. I would gladly deploy with my friend. If for no other reason than to be there to cover his 6. This friend is currently serving in an artillery unit of the California National Guard that is deploying to Iraq. In my e-mailbox this morning was a brief note from him (his notes are always brief - he's not a man of many words unless you feed him a few beers). In it was a link to a tribute done by the Contra Costa Times for the deploying guardsmen. I thought it fitting to share with all of you. Please click the title link or the picture and enjoy.

Be careful and bring your butt home in one piece! I miss you bud!

My Day

I spent a rather nice day today. To start off with, my 6 year old and I saddled up to run around and get some errands taken care of. I snapped this picture of him as we were sitting at a traffic light. He wasn't really in the mood for dad to be poking cameras in his face.It was nice to spend a little time just him and I. We headed out to get some car care items. Then we took a little side trip to the local Class III dealer to pick up some ammo. While we were there. My boy spotted this and demanded that I take a picture of it:What can I say? He is my spawn after all. So for any of you out there that feel like buying me a father's day present... That'll do nicely thank you! I thought it was kind of funny however to see a ordinary red-dot sight mounted on a minigun...

Once the boy and I got back home, we found that his momma was coming down with a migraine. So I spent a little time keeping an eye on the boys while she was recuperating and letting her medicine take effect. Once she was feeling better, I went out to the local range where I got to shoot a real classic, a Walther P-38. These things are classics for a reason. The recoil is light and easily controllable. Agreed, it only fires 9mm Luger so recoil isn't really an issue any ways, but considering to how light the weapon is... I've certainly felt worse. The grip is natural and it practically points itself.

Here's the target. Considering that this was my first go with this gun, I don't think it's too bad for a fifty yard target. This particular P-38 was manufactured in July of 1962 at the Walther factory in Ulm Germany. It is not a WWII era firearm (more's the pity). It is most likely a retired polizei (police) or Bundeswehr (German army) sidearm. The principle difference between the WWII era P-38's and post-War P-38's is the frame. A post-war P-38's frame is an aluminum composite material which makes the gun lighter than it's steel-framed counterpart. Personally, I've always been a little dubious of aluminum and polymer frames. It just seems wrong to have such soft materials in a firearm, but the aluminum frame seems to perform its task well enough. The differing materials do lead to a mismatched finish between the frame (anodized) and the upper parts (parkerized). So there is an aesthetic difference between the WWII and post-war pistols as well.

This particular pistol fired nicely though, although there was one small glitch. Some of the ammo that I had was some el-cheapo Walmart/Winchester stuff. The bullet was shaped just slightly different. It was slightly blunter & less tapered than the more expensive Federal ammo that I also had (you can see one of them in the picture above with the lighter colored bullet). The Winchester rounds chambered and fired nicely, but when the slide recoiled, the slide catch would latch the slide open. This happened because the lever that is supposed to ride on the magazine follower, latching the action open after the last round has been fired, was instead riding on the blunt bullets in the magazine.

Field stripping a P-38 is really a simple matter when compared to a 1911. Here's field stripping directions:

1. Engage the safety.
2. Latch the slide to the rear.
3. Twist the take-down latch.
4. Disengage the slide latch & slide the top end off the frame.
5. Press the action lock release button (small silver button inside the slide) and separate the barrel from the slide.

To reassemble simply reverse the disassembly instructions. There are some notes there though. When mating the slide with the frame, you'll need to push the ejector down to allow the slide to pass. Also, ensure that the hammer is in the up position and not the cocked position.

All in all it was a nice day. I got to spend a little one-on-one time with one of my boys. I got to drool on some sweet if-I-were-only-rich toys and to cap it off I got to send a few rounds downrange out of an absolute classic pistol. The only down-side was my wife's aching noodle.

Latest News

I just got a quick call today from my son. He's recieved his orders for his first posting after completing his training. He'll be assigned to the 1st Marine Division which is normally stationed at Camp Pendleton California. The information he's been given is that the 1st Marine Division is however slotted for deployment to Iraq in April. I'll post more information as soon as I have it. He didn't have much time to chat so that's all the information he was able to pass on.

The New Generation

A while back, I had the pleasure of travelling to see my eldest son graduate from Marine Corps bootcamp. I know, he didn't exactly follow in his old man's boot prints, what with chosing to enlist in the corps and all but he chose his own path and that's alright too. It's interesting to see how he's grown and matured. In some ways he's still that little kid that was getting in trouble for painting grafitti with his buddies and in others he's grown into a considerate principled young man. I'm very proud of him at any rate.









In other news... It would seem that I have become a grandfather since my last post... God forbid! How did I ever get old enough to be a grandfather? Good lord how time flies. It seems my eldest child has given birth to her first child. Wasn't it just yesterday that she was born herself?



Well I know it's been a while since my last post... Reading back over this one it would seem that it's been too long. I'll try to remember to drop in here and update things a little more frequently.

Moving is a Drag!

Ok, I'm sure all of you are aware of that fact already, but I wanted to reiterate it as we are learning it anew right now. In a little over a week, we'll be moving 1,800 miles to our new home in Texas. If things around the old blog have be quieter than usual, that's the reason why. You know, it's amazing how much crap a person accumulates when they've been living in one place for 6 years. As we've been clearing, cleaning and packing, we've encountered numerous things that quite frankly, we'd forgotten that we had! All of those nagging "where the hell did that damned widget go?" questions also tend to get answered as well. Well I guess what I'm saying with all of this is just be a little patient as soon as we get back on the air in our new home, I'm sure you'll see more posts to the ol' Pickle...

New Years Resolutions

We've (The Mrs. and I) been working on quitting smoking. My New Years resolution is to continue that process. So what are your New Years resolutions?