Rantings Diversified

American Sign Language
I use to be kinda’ but not really but almost sort of kinda’ alright at it.
Oh, the heck with re-learning french or German or Farsi or Malay. I’m re-teaching myself ASL. I’m starting with the basics. I have been teaching myself the alphabet done by finger signing. I’m getting pretty good at yelling at the TV news without saying a word. Ha! My right arm seems to be constantly pointed at Katie Coric….saying not very nice things. Maybe swear words and insults aren’t the best way to practice. I’m just sayin’, ya’ know.
I use to know a girl when I was in Uni back in…the plesticine era…whose native language was ASL. She taught me some. She was too too cool in that she use to forget to talk. She would sign as she spoke but some times we might have indulged in some illegal cigarettes (completely by mistake, of course) and she would forget to actually speak out loud but continue with her signing. Yea, I was a fast learner. Had to be. She was alright. Shoot, I still remember her all these millennium later.
Hey, so I’m re-teaching myself the ASL finger alphabet and when I get good at it I’m gonna’ move on to teach myself the signs of ASL. Soon I need to find some deaf folk so I can actually use this new found language.
Where is Tara, Erika, Frank or Helene when I need them?

Many moons ago I came across a deaf person at a supermarket who was quite frustrated with the hearing folk she was encountering and I was WAY happy to help. A month ago I wouldn’t have been able to help as I did all those years ago. Well that has changed!
Being a lifelong student of language I get very frustrated not being able to communicate with folks. Last July I met a couple of baseball players from the Netherlands. While I was having a beer or two (twelve) with them I fell into using German (Deutsch). Though they appreciated it they pointed out to me that Dutch and German really are two different languages. It’s OK. Beer is Beer in all three languages. That evening the whole beer thing was as important as the Phillies.
So as I get better and better at finger spelling I shall need to learn the signs of ASL.
This I shall do!
You’ll see.

I was talking with an old friend the other day and she called me ‘older than dirt’.  Of course I said ‘Heck I call dirt, junior’.  Does this mean I’m old?
What happened to, “you’re only as old as you feel”?
I’m not that old, though I do remember the invention of agriculture.
I use to call my first wife, “Hun”, mainly because…well, she was one.
My first car was made in Italy…A Roman Chariot.
So to all of you who are, shall we say, not in your 30’s anymore, would you really give up your experience and knowledge for smooth skin and a flat stomach?  I wouldn’t.  Ageing is all part of the plan.  I’ve said here before that all the little aches and pains, the reading glasses, the receding hair line even the graying hair I wear as a badge of honor.  Damn!  I’ve made it this long and am still kicking, learning, complaining and most importantly still laughing.  I like to say that whatever age I am I’m still 19 at heart.  This is true but I really wouldn’t want to be 19 years old today.  Things are tough for our kids.  Some of the dumb things we did as kids today would land a 19yo in jail.
Anyways, have you tried to talk to a 19yo recently?  They are all crazy.  They think they know everything!  
I know at 19 I knew it all.  Luckily for me I got better.
I like where I’m at right now.  I know that the majority of my life is behind me, provided I don’t live to be 110 but I also know that there are a lot of good things to come.  So, don’t call me old.  I’m not old yet.  I may be more experienced and more knowledgeable than a 19yo.  Oh, yea and I may have knees that forecast the weather but that’s all to be expected.  It’s OK.  I like my age.  So that’s it.  It’s decided.  I’m not old but I’m getting there.
There are three signs of old age. The first is your loss of memory. I forget the other two.

In the state of Pennsylvania we have a legal concept referred to as, “Your house is your castle”. This means that if someone were to invade your castle you have every right in the world to dispatch that invader, forthwith and with extreme prejudice.
The above photo shows you my Mossberg 500 Defender in 12 gauge(bore) loaded with 7 rounds of 9 pellet 00-buck shot. There is also a Colt model 1911 loaded with 230 grain .45 ACP ‘Hardballs’. The last and smallest one is a Seacamp LWS32. This is a hand made .32ACP caliber pistol with no sights whatsoever. For a reason. This little pocket pistol is referred to as a belly gun. It will go through you like a brick through a plate glass window (name that movie).
Now something tells me that the majority of my readers (all four of you) are not the type of person that may attempt to enter another’s house uninvited but unfortunately we live in a world where some folks do that kinda’ stuff.
Were one to break into someone’s house to rob them would you pick someone who is nationally ranked as rifle shooter?
Would you choose someone who owns but one rifle?
There is an old saying, “Beware the man that owns but one rifle. He most likely knows how to use it.” Five points to anyone who can tell me who first said that.
I know a lot of my international readers are, right now, saying, Eeek or Ewww or something similarly expected from a subject as opposed to a citizen!
I went out today and shot a few rounds of Trap. Boy, that’s fun. Boy I suck at it. I really enjoy shooting Trap even though I suck at it. I can not seem to break the 21/25. I was taught to shoot trap by one of the best Trap shooters ever in this country. Bernie Caron took me out to the Trap house a few times when I worked with him at AMP inc. and taught me that I didn’t need a $4000.00 Kreighoff gun but instead I needed good eye and hand coordination. Bernie was one of the most hyper-intelligent and one of the nicest people I have ever met. That mug had an arm load of patents to his name. Oh, yea’ he was also one of the top Trap shooters in the country. Just before he died Bernie was ranked second in the country in 250cc trials motorcycle riding too!!! Bernie was in his 70’s!!!
Bernie was cool. I wish I had ten more years to hang out with him.
But I digress…again. 

Just because we have the RIGHT to defend ourselves doesn’t mean we are all walking around pointing guns at each other. I know you think we are.
I know full well that in some countries when some one attempts to defend their property they go to jail and the robber guy goes off to rob some more folks.
I’m sorry but that shit ain’t right!
During the 90’s when our Gov’t was hijacked by the Clintonistas they tried to prosecute folks for defending themselves. Thank God for our Constitution and fair minded judges.
Oh and by the way the next time someone tells you they’re going to go rob someone; please make sure the person they are robbing doesn’t have a list of awards like this.
Master, Service Rifle
Expert, Long Range
NRA Certified Range Safety Officer
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor
4th Place, VA State Championship
1st Place, Quantico Regional
1st Place Navy Cup- Service Rifle, Camp Perry
4th Place Nevada Trophy- Service Rifle, Camp Perry
Rumbold Team- 2nd Place, Local Club, Sharpshooter Class, Camp Perry
Vandenburg Cup- Bronze Medal, Service Rifle, Camp Perry
Appreciation Cup- Bronze Medal, Service Rifle, Camp Perry
Coast Artillery Trophy- Bronze Medal, Service Rifle, Camp Perry
Air Force Cup- Bronze Medal, Service Rifle, Camp Perry
Members Trophy- Bronze Medal, Service Rifle, Camp Perry
Scott Trophy- Bronze Medal, Service Rifle, Camp Perry
Rumbold Team- 2nd Place, Local Club, Expert Class, Camp Perry
Expert Class 1st Place – Mid Atlantic Regional

Colonel Jeff Cooper once said…
A shotgun over the door to deter them.
A pistol to defend yourself.
and a rifle to reach out and touch someone.

Is é Dia amháin a thabharfaidh breithiúnas orm

Been there

done that

Do your worst, chicken shit

We’ll settle up after.

HINT:

At the end of the flick the star of the flick holds her in his lap as she looks longingly into his eyes and dissolves…

It’s that time of year again.
Here we go.
Consumers consuming with blatant consumerism.
This year the sales will start on Thanksgiving Day. That’s right not on Black Friday but instead on T-day itself. Kmart is open 3pm until 9pm on Thursday. The ONLY day of the year that Bass Pro Shop is closed is Christmas Day. What greedy little voles own and run these stores?

Well, this is what we all expect to hear about this time of year.

I remember Thanksgivings filled with Aunts and Uncles and cousins and cousins and more cousins. I remember more people wandering the corridors of my parent’s house than I can remember names of. We hosted the Spengler’s from Boston, the Jordan’s from Washington DC, The Silliman’s from Allentown, The Husic’s from NY as well as the Reuwer’s from Chicago and the Macmillan’s from Danbury. Sometimes we were lucky enough to have the Fitzgerald’s from Lexington. The Ryan’s almost always came for Thanksgiving dinner.
There were always a couple of games on TV on Thanksgiving Day and GOD help us if it was a Notre Dame game.
Being one of the youngest of a quarter million (sic) cousins I was always relegated to one of the many folding card tables for dinner, usually in the living room or the den. I’m not complaining, mind you, I would see everyone stuffed into the dining room and was glad not to be there. Hey, I was a kid. Anyways if we got put in the den then we could turn on the TV and watch cartoons.
We kids were always sent outside after dinner to play whatever games kids then played, tag, football, baseball, basketball, four-square, etc.
I remember, once, coming inside, to the kitchen and finding my Mom sound asleep on the red bench in our kitchen and my Aunts Jeanne, Theresa and Bitty cleaning up as well as a few of my older sisters. This was one of those years that everyone and their brothers were at the house. Well at least everyone we were related to…and their brothers.
It was a house full of people and noise and kids running around everywhere. It was my youth. It is a brain full of memories.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Let’s give thanks for what we have rather than moan about what we don’t have.

In 1992 I had an open house kinda’ party for the holidays and I even went as far as to send invitations.
On this invitation I wrote my theory of holiday traffic. In it I stated that there are huge farms in Iowa or Nebraska, or any one of those states that we harbor just a bit of doubt as to their existence, that breed bad drivers and rude people. These people are released in to the world on the day after Thanksgiving and returned to these breeding co-operatives at an unspecified time after the New Year.
I still believe this.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is 18 November 2007 at 2120.  I was last outside at about 1845 and it was about 276.48 degrees Kelvin and there was no snow.  The pics below show you the icy kinda’ snow that is falling as I type.  I don’t expect it to last much through tomorrow  morning but it is snow nonetheless and the first of the season.
I HATE winter!   There are scant very few things I truly hate but the cold and shitty weather of winter is something I shall complain about until time in-memorium.
Remember you can click on the photo to embiggiealize it.

There is one saving grace though…

Today I learned that when one builds a fire in the fireplace, one needs to open the flue. The other thing I learned is that home smoke detectors are REALLY loud.

So long as I’m in this recycling mood.  This is one of my favorites.

There is a boy who just wants a glass of red wine
some good conversation
a nice smile to gaze upon
a friendly face
maybe some Zydeco music

would be nice

he’s been there
He’s standing on a corner
talking to her
Bachet, Trane, hell, even Bird is gone
Paint the statue in KISS face
Uriah Heep, Black Oak Arkansas no body drives a Studabaker anymore

Open the trunk Have a beer let the party carry on
we sang about what’s so funny….
we didn’t really mean it
Johnny R was right
despite the hype

She was tall
actually shorter than she looked
she loved his
scared of moving too fast
scared of……SHIT!!!
they loved good together
They did the best they could while they were stuck in this place

would be nice

devolution
we don’t get older we grow

I have been making Powerpoint presentations all day today. You see I am currently developing a curriculum for a class I shall be teaching for the next couple of years. I asked my boss why I need to do all this, Why can’t I just lecture? I’m a good-looking, engaging, funny, intelligent, hell of a guy with a killer smile and and I have a way with folk that makes me the best and most favorite instructor my students have ever met.
When he stopped laughing and got up off the floor he told me to get to work or go look for work. Sigh!
The nice part of this is that I am working from home so I didn’t bother getting dressed today. Yes, I am typing this while wearing a nightshirt and housepants. Oh, I am such a fashionista!
Anyways, I am Powerpointed out and don’t really feel like writing a long and engaging post on the human condition as seen in the early years of the 21st century.
With all that said I am going to recycle a post from last February. Have you ever noticed that at the top of page, above the picture of me shooting on the Rodriguez range at Camp Perry there is a little bit that says, “Random Post”? Well earlier today I clicked on it and it brought up a post I posted last February and while reading it I thought maybe it needed to be reposted. So submitted for your perusal is the encore presentation of the post entitled, “Tokyo Rose?”.

Anyone who remembers anything about World War II, or has studied anything
about World War II, will understand and remember
that during World War II, the Japanese developed a way to demoralize the
American forces. The Japanese psychological warfare experts developed a
message they felt would work.
They gave their psychological warfare script to their famous broadcaster
“Tokyo Rose” and every day she would broadcast this same message packaged
in different ways, hoping it would have a negative impact on American GI’s morale.

What was that demoralizing message?

It had three main points:
1. Your President is lying to you.
2. This war is illegal.
3. You cannot win the war

Does this sound familiar? Is it because Tokyo Hillary, Tokyo Harry, Tokyo Teddy,
Tokyo Nancy, Tokyo Durbin, Tokyo Kerry, etc. have all learned from the former
enemies of our country and have picked up the same message and are broadcasting
it on Tokyo CNN, Tokyo ABC, Tokyo CBS, Tokyo NBC, etc., to our troops?

The only difference is that they claim to support our troops before they
demoralize them. Come to think of it… Tokyo Rose told the American
Troops she was on their side, also.

World War I officially ended on June 28, 1919, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The actual fighting between the Allies and Germany, however, had ended seven months earlier with the armistice, which went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Armistice Day officially became a holiday in 1926, and a national holiday 12 years later. On June 1, 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day.

In 1968, new legislation changed the national commemoration of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October. It soon became apparent, however, that November 11 was a date of historic significance to many Americans. Therefore, in 1978 Congress returned the observance to its traditional date.