The Lack Of Situational Awareness In The Shooting...

...allegedly committed by Vester Flanagan may have contributed greatly to his ability to gun down three victims. Have you seen the video of him allegedly shooting the two media types and the person being interviewed. It seemingly shows Flanagan's approach and some of the shooting. He walked up, taking at least a few seconds, to within feet of them. Then pulled out a Glock and pointed it at them, holding it out and then maybe fiddling with something, and did all that during an additional 23 seconds or so after he first arrived next to them. In all that time, not one of them evidently noticed him at all. It is a shame they were so engrossed with their heads in the clouds as to not even glance toward someone who just walked up on them and who stood there pointing a gun at them. Had they had even a smidgen of situational awareness, it may have saved their lives or at least given them a fighting chance. Please note, the following video shows someone actually being killed, it is not a movie, not a stunt, not a joke, it is a depiction of a real life and death event.




If the video cannot be seen above, here is the link to where I found it: http://www.infowars.com/graphic-shocking-complete-video-shot-from-virginia-gunmans-point-of-view/

I saw it Friday evening and commented on it on Facebook then but just forgot to post about it here until now. This is what I posted on Facebook:

"I am not being critical of any of the three folks who were shot but will give a warning to others - you need to exercise situational awareness. In other words, you need to pay attention to what is going on around you. Sure, sometimes you get engrossed in this or that, or sometimes your head is in the clouds, but if you start practicing now you can avoid doing what the three victims did. What they did was nothing, absolutely nothing, when that dirtbag POS Flanagan walked up to them, then pulled out a gun and just stood there pointing it at the reporter, then fiddled with whatever and they did nothing as he did all that for about 23 seconds (even more time if you include the moments he walked up and stood there before he actually pointed the pistol at the reporter). Had even one of the three victims looked about them, for even a split second, they might have had a chance to try and run or fight back. Two of them died and the other was shot, in part due to the fact that they were totally oblivious to their situation (or to their surroundings). I am not saying it is their fault, I think (my opinion) that the fault all belongs to a perverted racist lunatic. I am telling you though, you need to be aware of what is going on around you to give yourself an edge. That edge may just save your life someday." 

Note, I want to be clear by what I meant above. When I say they did nothing, I mean nothing other than what they had been doing all along, nothing in response to his approach, nothing in response to him standing there, nothing in response to him pointing a gun at them, sadly nothing but remaining totally engrossed with the interview with their heads in the clouds. Again, I am not blaming them, the shooter is totally responsible for the shootings. I am warning you though, learn how to maintain a certain level of situational awareness and it may someday save your life.

My condolences to the families, loved ones and associates of the deceased, my best wishes for a speedy recovery to the surviving victim and my wishes for some kind of peace for the family of the apparent psycho who was the shooter. As for the shooter, if he is convicted, a quick death would be too good for him in my opinion.

All the best,
GB

I Have A Dream...

...and it's just about the best dream I have ever had.

Bear (pun intended) in mind that Ben Carson, or Rand Paul could take the place of Cruz and the dream would be just as nice as far as I am concerned. Lest I forget him, Scott Walker probably would be okay too. Anyone, who is not a leftist and who is opposed to: the  policies of current administration, to RINOism, to the current Congress, and to these candidates and their platforms - Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and the rest of those wackos  - has a chance of getting my vote.

And by the way, I really don't want to see Al Gore get eaten by a polar bear. I like polar bears and would love to see them flourish. A diet of Al G might not be too good for them; it could introduce toxins, disease, bad genes or whatever into the polar bear population and what would happen to them then would probably be worse than Global Warming.

My thanks to PVQ for that one, another hat tip to you sir.

All the best,
GB

The Eyes Have It

There is just something alluring about their eyes, don't ya think!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As they say, the eyes have it.

 

All the best,

Glenn B 

Pondering Race Baiting And Calls For Gun Control As of Late

I remember seeing it said by the leftists, in several places and in several ways, that when a white guy kills people, white people excuse him as a lunatic or mentally ill but when a black guy does the same then white people brand him as a vicious criminal. Of course, the implication being that whites are racist and always treat blacks in a racist manner. However, once again, the leftists' drivel has been proven wrong since almost everyone, including white folks, is calling Flanagan a mentally ill psycho regardless of his racist motives and there is not one white person rioting over the two recent killings of whites by blacks. Of course though, the left is blaming the killings on guns and not on the criminals or on the fact that violent crazy people are allowed to roam the country at will.

It always amazes me how the media and politicians can twist things. 'If it does not fit into your agenda, then twist it to make it fit.' should be the motto of the media, the left, the liberals (not always on the left mind you), the politicians - both Democrats and the Republicans (in recent years since almost every Republican politician is a RINO).

I am proud to say that I am an independent without party affiliation although I am considering registering as a Libertarian. That's because today both major parties are pretty much one in the same in their sole goal - which is more power for them at the expense of the We The People.

All the best,
Glenn B

When Will The Federal Civil Rights Violation Investigations...

...be ordered, by President Obama, to commence against Shannon J. Miles for the murder of Sherrif's officer Darren Goforth and against Vester Flanagan for his killing of two reporters and his wounding a third victim. Let's face it folks, unless the political heat is raised to broil, maybe by white folks rioting in the streets nationwide or if it looks as if opening an investigation will negatively effect democrats running for the presidency, the lame duck-in-chief is not about to order any such investigations. Why not? Let's face it, racism comes in all colors! In addition to that, he certainly is not pro law enforcement.

Of course, instead of blaming these incidents on the people who carried them out, at least one of whose motives evidently was racism, Obama has decided to blame it on guns so far. Funny how when a black man gets killed by a white man, he blames it on racism without even knowing if the shooting was justified or not but when it's the other way around racially he blames it on guns.

All the best,
Glenn B

I Never Made It To The Theater...

...because I was waylaid by my desire for a cold cider. I just headed straight to the pub.

Damned good too.

All the best,

GB

A Hat Tip To GunBroker.com

I have got to hand it to GunBroker.com, they make an effort to get things right when it comes to disputes between sellers and buyers. That is how it turned out relative to an auction of a shotgun I was offering when the transaction went bad. I was not going to leave any feedback for a buyer who did not meet my terms and conditions of the sale and who sent me a partially illegible FFL then did not send a better copy. Had he sent me a good copy, all would have went well but he kept having excuses for not keeping in touch in a timely fashion and then for not sending a completely legible copy of is dealer's FFL. I was not even going to leave feedback but then the bastard guy had the nerve to leave me bad feedback saying he could not satisfy my demands and tooting his own horn saying he had always had 100 positive feedback as if that was a reason for me to bend over backwards for him and allow the poor copy of the FFL he sent. I fired negative feedback right back at him annotated with the fact that I had copies of every email he sent and of the FFL among other documents. Somewhere in there I filed a claim for a refund of the seller's fees for my auction listing and for the final value fee.

It took awhile, close to a month I am guessing, but GunBroker refunded me the fees and removed the negative feedback that the 'buyer' had left for me. I am once again in the 100% positive feedback class. As for the so called buyer, I checked his feedback and the negative comments I made about him remain. So, it wasn't like GunBroker acted like our educational system where everyone passes or our kids' sports programs where everyone is a trophy winner, but they actually figured out who was at fault and who was not at fault and then corrected the situation in accordance with their finding to penalize the one who was wrong and to accommodate the one who was right. That is good business practice.

figured it would work out in my favor if only because I had everything documented, that even though they never asked for the documentation. I suppose they could pull up all of the emails between me and the 'buyer' since I sent mine through my GunBroker account and I am guessing that was more than enough to prove my side of the issue.

I give my thanks and tip my hat to GunBroker.com and to the folks there who handled the dispute. Now I hope the new dispute I filed today goes as ell, I had another so called buyer who has not sent either his FFL or payment and who apparently refused to answer my inquiries as to whether or not he still wanted it. That shotgun, yes it is the same gun in each case, has been proving itself a real pain to sell. Funny thing is that I just sold a Remington model 241, also through GunBroker, and it went without a hitch. Maybe the shotgun is cursed.

All the best,
Glenn B

It's GOB Night Tonight

There will be a Girls Only Bash (GOB) night at my house tonight and I have been told by she who must be obeyed, at least sometimes, that I must vacate the premises.  The last time she held one of these female bacchanalian-like fests, I remained at large in and around the house. That may or may not have been a mistake but regardless of which it was I will find somewhere else to be tonight.

I was thinking of going to the movies. I have not seen a movie, in a theater, in about 5 years or more (actually more as I just checked IMDB and the last one I saw came out in 2008). I got up and walked out on that movie because it sucked. It was a remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, this one with Keanu Reeves. While I like a lot of stuff I have seen him in, this one was possibly one of the worst movie remakes I have ever seen.

Anyway, I decided to search out any sci-fi movies playing in my local theaters. There were not many listed but one caught my eye: Jurassic World. I liked the other, what was it, three of them. The first was the best but the others were okay for sequels. So, I tuned in the trailer for Jurassic World on my laptop. Watching a minute or two of it convinced me to either select another movie to see or to do something else like go to my local gin mill to have dinner and maybe get sloshed. Of course, I could go to a movie and then to the bar. The thing is, I wanted to see a good sci-fi movie but I just can't imagine that Ant Man, Pixels, The Fantastic Four, or The Avengers - Age of Ultron would be my cup of tea.  Movies about superheroes and video game characters are not usually my type sci-fi; I much prefer something along the lines of The Thing From Another World, Them, Alien, Predator, Terminator, The Day The Earth Stood Still (the 50's original), Jurassic Park, Serenity, Prometheus or The Fifth Element. I think a sci-fi movie tonight is out.

That does not mean I won't see a movie in a theater tonight. I also was a Man From Uncle fan, way back in the day, and also have enjoyed my fair share of Sherlock Holmes movies and shows. Either one of those might temp me to pay a small fortune to get into a theater tonight. If I do choose to see one of them, I suppose I can drink it off later if it sucked. If I like it, who knows, I may visit a theater again within half a decade. Either way, I think I am almost assured a stop at my local pub sometime tonight.

All the best,
GB

I Just Don't Get It

For the life of me, I just don't get the use of the burlap! I suppose maybe a tie on the bottom broke or something like that but burlap!

All the best,
GB

Next Time I Go Hiking...

...I am going to pay a heck of a lot more attention to rock outcroppings.

All the best,
GB

The DNC Disgraces Itself In Its Blatant Disrespect For American Veterans

Leave it to the DNC to have, as its only photograph on its Veterans and Military Families site, a picture of foreign military veterans. I wonder what numbskull was responsible for that blunder. As reported by the website Military Times:

"Until Thursday, the Democratic National Committee’s “Veterans and Military Families” website had as its only picture a shot from White House photographers during President Obama’s visit to Warsaw in 2011.

The president had been cropped out, but faces of four elderly veterans wearing European-style military uniforms were visible above several paragraphs asserting the party’s “commitment to America’s veterans.” The Polish military’s White Eagle insignia was clear on the headgear of two of the veterans."

More here.

The lack of respect for the military and for veterans shown by the current administration is bad enough, we certainly don't need the Democrat Party mirroring him on that.

All the best,
Glenn  B

 

Ann Coulter - Smarter and More Patriotic Than O'Reilly By Far

She aborts the anchor baby fiasco espoused by O'Reilly and certain politicos with her research into Supreme Court decisions that rely on the true meaning of the 14th amendment. More here.

O'Reilly has once again proved himself little more than a leftist lover as far as I can see.

All the best,
GB

 

Kilted To Kick Cancer - It's Almost Time To Kilt Up

This year, I have joined the Kilted to Kick Cancer fund raising effort. Basically it's a fund raiser for prostate cancer research. While I have made several donations in the couple or few past years, I have never before participated as a kilt wearing fund raiser. I guess that was because for some reason I could never see myself in a kilt. Even though I had battled stage 4 throat cancer and kicked cancer's arse, and even though a good friend of mine has battled a few bouts with prostate cancer, I just could not bring myself to do it. Then, earlier this year, I got another big scare. The docs suspected I had prostate cancer and all I could think was oh shit not those treatments again, just lower down this time. I swear, I would never wish chemo and radiation treatments (seven weeks of the highest doses possible of the latter) on my worst enemy. Hell, I even would not have wished it on Osama bin Laden and the things I could have done to him would make you cringe. Luckily for me, the biopsy was negative. Not as lucky was my friend who had to undergo his third round of treatments for his prostate cancer. He came out of it okay but this time they did surgery to get it. That was it, those two things, knowing my good friend was suffering and the fear of getting it myself and going through hell again, were what it took to get me kilted.

Yes the darned kilt is so new it still has the tag on it.
I hope you can see, I mean business and am ready to
make the effort to once again help kick cancer's arse.

 

My legs have not seen the sun in years. That was because of a sunburn thing more so than the warning from my radiation 

oncologist not to expose myself to the sun much after he had broiled me with radiation but that has had something to do with it too. Yet, they will be getting some sun next month because everywhere I go, I will be Kilted To Kick Cancer. I am doing that with the hope that it will help me to raise funds, through my team - Team Glenn B,  for the 2015 Kilted To Kick Cancer fund raiser that takes place from September 1 through September 30, 2015.  So, I ordered a kilt, a belt, some shirts, and will be ordering at least one more kilt shortly. I will be wearing my kilts each and every day during the month of September come sunburned hell or high water (or even cold updrafts). Yeah, I know, it's not a traditional kilt but since when have I been traditional. The one I am pictured in above is one is a 5.11 Tactical Kilt, it's hard to do anything without influence from the LEO and LE Firearms Instructor spirit within me even though I have been retired for three years now. 

Regardless, isn't tactical the way to face cancer and win the battle - I think so!

As for all of you, potential donor's by way of my team, there are a few good reasons to donate. First of all is the little known fact (at least I had not known before I started donating) that prostate cancer kills as many (or almost as many - stats may have recently changed) men as breast cancer does women yet as far as I am aware does not get the same publicity nor nearly the same amount of funding.

More facts below:

Prostate Cancer Facts:

• About 233,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in 2015.
• Nearly 30,000 men will die of prostate cancer in 2015.
• About 1 man in 7 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
• More than 2.5 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are still alive today.
• Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer.
• About 1 man in 36 will die of prostate cancer. (Source and a good read about this all at the various links to other article in his blog about KTKC.)

It would be a good thing if we could beat prostate cancer's arse into the dirt and donating toward prostate cancer research is one way to help. A high percentage of the raised funds will go toward that research, the remainder goes toward fund raising efforts. See this link for info about how the funds were allocated in 2014.

Another good reason to donate is that you will be showing support for the effort made by those of us who will be out there in September wearing kilts and urging men to get tested for prostate cancer. Make it worth it for us to be out there getting our shins sunburned or our junk frost bitten by cold updrafts every day (September weather can be fickle).

A third reason to donate is that there will be incentives, at least if you donate through Team Glenn B.  I am planning on a prize giveaway for those who donate via my team link on the donation site (link is below). For every multiple of $5.00 that any donor gives through my team, I will throw a chance in that donor's name into the hat for some prizes shortly after the 2015 KTKC fundraiser has concluded (in other words, I will do that in the first week of October). Prizes to be announced throughout the month of September. If anyone would like to donate a prize for me to offer, please shoot me an email.

Another and maybe the most tempting reason (at least for some of you) to donate, at least through Team Glenn B, will be that if you make a single donation of $100 or more, I will dunk my junk (while kilted) for each such donation made and present video evidence of me having done so on my blog (and or YouTube and or Facebook). Yes, I do mean dunk my package in ice water. Note: dunking will be limited to one dunk per day, for any day on which a single $100 donation or more is made, regardless of the number of donations of $100 or more are made that day through my team. I figure once a day, to dunk, is more than enough. However, if a day winds up with two such donations, and the next day is absent a donation in that high an amount, I will dunk again on the second day and so forth. If figure I could take those chemo treatments along with seven weeks of radiation set at super-high broil - I can take a little cold for this cause in trying to get you to donate more.

Speaking of prizes, each person who participates as registered fund raiser will have a chance to win some truly excellent prizes that have been donated by generous sponsors. The trick there is to be among the top few fund raisers. Beings it's my first year, I kind of doubt I'll arrive at upon that plateau but I am hopeful that my efforts will at least raise a sizeable amount of donations from my family, friends, associates, and acquaintances to make a difference in the fight against this terrible disease.

I am hopeful you will help out the cause by generously donating to the Kilted To Kick Cancer 2015 fundraiser and that you will donate through my team, Team Glenn B. This is the link to the donation page  but please remember in order to donate via a team, hopefully my team - Team Glenn B, please only do so from September 1st through September 30th. Also note that, because I registered kind of late, my team name will only begin to appear on the team list commencing August 31st. What you will need to do, if you plan to donate through my team (or ay other team) is to go to that link during the month of September, select the contribution amount, click contribute, then select the team name in the checkout screen. Anyway, that's how they told me it works. if you have any difficulty in selecting my team, please hold of on the donation until you contact me and I can get it straightened out.

One last thing, I know some of you will be wondering: 'What if anything does he have on under that kilt?' Let me answer it this way: I was told that if I wear anything under it, it's no longer a kilt but becomes a skirt. You can safely bet, I don't wear skirts.

All the best,
Glenn B
 

My Apologies - It's An Email Thing

So there I was without my laptop for just over a week and a half and what was I to do but be dependent on my new smart phone for things like email and surfing the web and staying in touch via email. All seemed well, at least until today. One would think, me at least being the one, that a smart phone would be smart enough to synch all of one's emails. Sadly, that evidently was not the case with my phone and thus another black mark against ATT and now Samsung too (since it's a Samsung Galaxy S6 Active phone). I only realized today that I had not received all of my emails on my phone while my laptop was being repaired. The reason I realized that is because I received an email today, referencing another one supposedly sent to me while I was dependent on the phone, that I never received on my phone. While I was certain of not ever seeing it on the phone, I decided to check anyway. There it was among all of my emails in my inbox when I looked for it while signed on with my laptop but there it as not when I looked for it on my phone. I looked in the spam folder and in the trash folder too but it was not there at all when connecting to my email account with my phone.

I wondered if it was a glitch that involved only that one email or if it also encompassed others so, I checked further. At first glance, it would appear that in the period of about 11 days approximately 50-60 emails went unseen by me because they were never displayed when I checked my account with my schmart phone. That lot included all sorts of emails from personal ones from friends and acquaintances, to updates to various online accounts, to ones related to purchases I made, to out and out crapola spam. My apologies to anyone waiting for a reply to their email(s) to me to whom I did not reply in a timely manner due to the glitch.

All the best,
GB

Waitress / College Student Apparently Does Not Know The Meaning Of "Satisfied"

You would think that a waitress or anyone, who was attending college, would under the distinction between the words "satisfied" and dissatisfied" but apparently that is not the case with at least one NJ waitress. She reportedly served a group of 8 people who had to wait one hour for their meal to arrive. Instead of leaving a tip for their $112 dollar tab, one of them supposedly wrote "LOL" on the line on which you normally write the amount of the tip (source).

Somehow this was found to be news worthy, I imagine the waitress or someone with whom she shared her story must have contacted the media. Why a tip not being given would be news worthy boggles the mind, at least my mind but I guess she thought it was a big deal and had to spread the word and someone in at least one media outlet agreed.

What may be more newsworthy than her not getting a tip is the apparent fact that college students today, at least one college student anyway, apparently does not know the meaning of the word "satisfied". The article about the non-tip quotes the waitress as having said:

"I would have preferred a $0 tip than a "LOL" tip but, as a waitress, bad tips and harsh notes are all part of the job. Even though they did wait an hour to eat, they remained satisfied with filled drinks and proper notice that the kitchen was a bit busier than normal."

Sorry but the whole point of them writing LOL on the tip line, and then also writing "1 hour for food"next to that was to show their DISSASTISFACTION or in other words to express to the waitress that they had not been satisfied. The waitress can play her violin all she wants to garner sympathy from the masses but she gets absolutely none from me when she has the arrogance to think that the customers had been satisfied after a one hour wait for food no matter how many times she refilled their drinks. If she wanted to pitch a bitch about not getting a tip, then she should have done so with the kitchen staff and not by demonizing the diners.

Then again, she also gets zero sympathy for me relative to her moaning about her receiving a salary of only $2.50 an hour because she receives tips while she could have opted for a non-tipped wait position at over $8 an hour. If she opted to rely on tips, then she should have been back in the kitchen demanding that the food get out sooner to assure she got one. But the news report seems to indicate she may have done differently than pushing the kitchen staff to hurry it up, just read what else she was quoted as saying:

'We spend an hour or more of our time befriending you, making you laugh, getting to know you and making your dining experience the best it can be. We work hard, and we really do care.'

Sorry young lady but my waitress does not befriend me when I dine out and I do not expect one to do so. What you are saying, in my estimation seems to be, that you suck up to folks and expect them to tip you for that. Kissing arse is not good service, maybe it is about time you wake up to that fact and try instead to help assure that meals get served within a reasonable amount of time because had you done that then maybe I would agree that you really do care. As it stands though, I stand with the non-tippers but I would have done things a bit differently. Instead of merely leaving no tip, I probably would have gotten up and walked out, paying only for my drinks, by the time it hit 45 minutes.

All the best,
Glenn B


 

There I Was, In My Previous Post, Saying I Was Still Waiting...

...for my laptop to be delivered, and truth be told, it had been delivered already but my wife had not clued me in yet. So, when I went upstairs, there it was waiting for me. Seems it got here maybe 15 minutes before I posted my prior post. From what I can gather, they changed the fan, the battery and the base cover of the laptop.
Why they would change the base is beyond me unless they lost or broke mine when taking it off for the other repair.

They also installed a Core Temperature utility which apparently record the CPU's temperature. That is fine by me because my laptop is now out of warranty but the repair should have a 90 day warranty on it. So if it starts overheating again in that 90 days, I will have the temps recorded to prove it. That is a good thing. Of course, with my luck, it will start having the same overheating problem again on day 91. As it is now though, it's nice to have the laptop back and running well (for now) again.

All the best,
GB

Still Waiting...

...for my laptop to be repaired and then sent back tome from HP. Seems like it has been forever and is almost as painful, figuratively, as waiting for Godot.

All the best,
GB

Sadly - All Too Often - No Good Deed Goes Unpunished - Officer Down

LA State Senior Trooper Steven Vincent reportedly has succumbed to fatal wounds he received while trying to help a motorist out of a ditch. Instead of accepting the officer's help, the motorist identified as Kevin Daigle allegedly shot Trooper Vincent in his head with a blast from a shotgun. Passersby stopped their vehicles and one reportedly was able to wrest the shotgun away from him while others immediately subdued Daigle, restrained him with the fallen officer's cuffs, called for help on his radio, and also assisted Trooper Vincent until medical help arrived. Trooper Vincent, who was only 43 years young, later died from his wounds while in the hospital; it is believed that two or three buckshot pellets entered his brain. He leaves behind a wife and a young son and at least two brothers who are also law enforcement officers.

According to published reports, after shooting him, Daigle told Trooper Vincent he was lucky because he would be dead soon. That piece of dirt also wound up in the hospital with what reportedly were minor wounds. He apparently had the audacity to smugly smirk for a photo taken of him while there. 

More here.

My condolences to his family, loved ones and brother troopers. I am not a religious man but have said prayers, first for his recovery and now for his family, in my own way. I ask you do likewise.

All the best,
Glenn B

There I Was In My Previous Post...

... feeling good about catching three mice. That was until I saw this:

http://www.al.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2015/08/near_record-breaking_900-pound.html?hootPostID=30924decc028a5d23a1d7cd6ec6e160b

Now that would really make me feel good and taste good too.

All the best,
GB

So Far I Am Winning - Today's Body Count...

... is three for me and zero for them. That is as long as those worthless bastards have not secretly used biological weapons against me.  Even if they have, at least I have killed three of them before they got me. It gave me a great feeling of satisfaction to see their limp and lifeless bodies.

In as far as that goes, I have done my family, neighbors, community and even my state and country a favor. If I can kill a few more before the day is through though, I will go from just feeling good about myself to being ecstatic. My mother-in-law may be the most pleased of all because she can't stand the sight of them, let alone deal with the fact that they have been trespassing on our property and have been so bold as to saunter around our yard and patio in broad daylight. She hates mice even more than she hates me!

With any luck, they were house mice (Mus musculus as I suspect and don't carry the hantavirus. Plague I might be able to deal with but the hantavirus scares the crap out if me. Then again, they could have been white-footed mice, their feet were partially white or at least the toes had some white. They carry the hantavirus and that could change who won today.

Anyway, three down and only the rest of them know how many more to go but there must be a lot of them with them being out and about in the middle of the day. I am going to enjoy every last snap of the trap and hopefully will get all of them before they find their way into our house. By the way, I use peanut butter as bait in the traps, it is phenomenally excellent as mouse bait.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Marines Were Blowing Their Bugles...

...because someone claimed it had been them but it wound up being a member of the U.S. Air Force and another from the Oregon National Guard along with a few civilians who beat the terrorist bastard into unconciousness on that train in France. I love our Marines but they can't always get the glory.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/08/22/3-us-servicemen-describe-terrifying-attack-on-european-train/ 

All the best,
GB

Hillary Supporters

 
Nothing more need be said about them.

Hat tip to Mike McC.

 All the best,
 GB

If Even Half Of Us Think This...,

... the this being that we need to do away with the Bill Of Rights, then we need a revolution more than we did when the last one started back in 1775.

All the best,
GB<

No Doubt I Am On The List...

...and so are you since you read my blog.

See what I mean, your on it too.

All the best,

Glenn B

Another Outstanding Executive Order...

...from the NIC (nincompoop in charge).

My thanks and a hat tip to Mike McC, who emailed me the pic.

All the best,

GB

I Am So Bored..

...without my laptop that I actually did about 2 1/2 hours of yard work starting around 11AM. Usually, I don't crawl outside until about one or two in the afternoon. Probably would have been at it earlier today except that I tied a bit of one on last night and my head was aching a bit this morning. At this rate, I might even become productive and get aome real work done around here in the ten days to two weeks before I get my laptop back from HP. I may just have to build a tortoise pen and put in some decorative edging around different parts of the yard. Who would have thunk it!

Now, I have to put down the art phone and get some more work done. Well, maybe after just one cold one first.

All the best,
Glenn B

Do You Think My Laptop Is Overheating Because...

...I have pictures like this saved on it?

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Just wondering!

Source of photos.

All the best,
Glenn B

Blogging Will Be Scarce For Awhile

I am sending in my laptop for inspection and repair. It is running hot enough to cook eggs. Literally, it's sometimes been too hot to hold in as much as the temp at one of the vents was above 160 degrees recently. Programs slow or freeze, in fact the whole damned thing froze a couple or few times over the past week or so. Somehow, luck was on my side when I called this in  to HP, I still had a few days left on my extended warranty. Hopefully, they will fix it right this time.

I will try to blog either using my son's antiquated laptop or using my Samsung Galaxy S6 Active smart phone (if not too much of a pain using that very sensitive keypad). So, just letting you know: at least right now, I have not yet met my demise, I am alive and well, but just not going to be blogging a lot until I get the laptop back. That should be 10-14 business days.

All the best,
Glenn B

Road Trip - 2015 8th Annual NEBS (Part Two)

We were up bright and early on Saturday, at least I was up that early; then I went back to bed. Brendan got me up a little while later thinking of course that was the first time I was getting up. Without much ado, we prepared for the 8th Annual Northeast Bloggershoot. That included a plan for breakfast and we again stopped at a local diner. This one, Susie's Diner, was much closer to the motel. I wish we had eaten there the day before too because the breakfast was so much better than from the other diner the day before and so was the service that much better. Of course it also meant we had to have all of our guns and gear ready and that required a brief stop along the way to the shoot.


Most of our guns & gear for the 2015 NEBS. There were two rifles in
the black case that you can barely see in the lower right hand corner and
also a Beretta 92FS that Brendan was shooting and my Glock 26 on my hip.

So, after breakfast, we headed to a local Walmart to pick up a thing or two wee needed. Cardboard shipping boxes make great target backers for my portable stand and we picked up a couple that would amount to four backers when cut to size. Then we headed directly to the Super SeKrit location of the range for the NEBS. We were running late of when we had planned to arrive, which was supposed to have been by 930AM and we got there right around 10AM. That was the scheduled start time for the shoot but somehow we wound up being early since most folks had not yet arrived, or so we thought. As it turned out about half or more of the folks who actually were going to show were there already. This year's attendance was way down from prior years. That was okay though because it meant more shooting time and more of a chance to chat with whomever. I don't recall the time we started blasting but as usual it was prefaced by the big bang from Jack's and Deb's (our hosts) cannon. Yes, they own a cannon, a real, firing, big boomer. What a way to begin a shooting event.

There was a brief range safety speech given by John D (who stood in for Jay G who was missed this year). John did a great job of getting the word out to participants, organizing the event and getting us off to a bang-up start and as you can see in this brief video, he did a good impersonation of Jay G who usually takes care of business.

 
After that it was shoot as much as you wanted until quitting time. As usual, when Brendan is with me, I probably did more loading than shooting. I let him have his fun with the pistols since he eagerly had been looking forward to shooting them. He does not have a pistol license in NY and thus cannot legally shoot a pistol there. So, the trip to the bloggershoot is his chance to shoot them as much as he wants with inthe span of the event. He fired up a storm with the Remington R1 1911, Glock 26, Beretta 92FS and also a bit with the Ortgies 32 Auto.

As he was shooting one gun, I often was loading mags for the other. I had nine mags for the Remington, eight for the Glock, ten for the Berettas (had two Berettas with me but he only fired one of them) and two for the Ortgies. For some reason, he declined shooting any of the three pistols we had with us in 22LR. I shot two of those, the S&W Model 17 and the Beretta 70S but I never got around to shooting the Ruger Mark II. I also shot the Glock 26 and the Remington R1 and made a nice single hole in the paper with about 21 shots of 45 ACP during one round of my firing. For the most part though, I was loading mags or talking to this person or that one.

We got to shoot some guns that other people had along. For example, Brendan asked Matt P if he could shoot his full auto M16 with 7" barrel (Matt lives in a much freer state than do we here in NY.) We had the ammo for it and Brendan blasted away. Too bad he waited until somewhat later in the day to ask because soon after he shot that, Matt was getting ready to leave, leaving Brendan without a chance to also try some of Matt's other guns like the: G34 with suppressor, MP5, suppressed 45 ACP rifle, suppressed 458 Socom rifle, weird (Matt's own description) suppressed Ruger MKII rifle, and a SBS KSG. Oh well, maybe next time around. Brendan also got to take a shot or two with Chris L and Cher L's 50 caliber rifle.

This rifle was literally a blaster, the shock wave caused by firing it
was awesome and that was from behind it. I'd hate to be in front of it.

Shooting that thing was a blast, literally because you felt one hell of a blast wave if you were anywhere witnin about 15 feet of it when it went off. I got to shoot Chris and Cher's Kel-Tec PMR-30 pistol in 22WMR. That has got to be one of the lightest weight full sized pistols I have ever shot and man oh man did it shoot. It was right on at about 7 yards (maybe a little more or so) and was a pleasure to fire. I think they come with a 30 round mag (but as I am in NY, Chris who come from CT, was restricted to ten round mags for it). Lots of fun in that gun for sure. I bought 100 rounds of 22 Magnum ammo at the local gun store anticipating that Brendan would shoot up what we already had of 22WMR in our Marlin 25MN but he never got around to it. I only fired about 24 rounds out of the Kel-Tec but that was enough to convince me I want one of them.

Speaking of firing only so much ammo, I have to say that at the bloggershoot, I probably only fired about 200-250 rounds in total. As I said, I loaded mags for Brendan and I guess in that regard you could have called me Gunga Glenn. Imagine me as the faithful gun bearer and to hell with being a water bearer. Brendan fired at least 700-750 rounds of mostly 9mm and 45 ACP with some 5.56x45mm, 32 auto and 12 gauge in there too. He fired about 450 rounds of 9mm ammo and also shot up 200 rounds of the 45ACP that we had brought along. Some of the other calibers we brought along make up for the rest of what lead he threw downrange; well, with the exception of a round or two he fired of 50 caliber BMG. He had fun doing it too, who wouldn't! All in all it was a blast that was well worth the expenditure of ammo.

There was plenty of time to socialize too, since there was no need to wait on a line to get a spot to shoot as in previous years when about double the amount of folks showed up. Yes, there is usually a line of about anywhere up to a dozen shooters or so and at least a 5 to 10 minute wait for a turn at s a shooting spot. This year though, as you can see by the following photo, there pretty much was no waiting.

Lots of wide open shooting spaces on the firing line meant no lines.

As I said, we had time to socialize and jawbone and eat too. That included lots of talk about guns and some excellent eats. We usually order out from a local deli but this time around Matt P prepared and brought along an excellent feast for us consisting of pulled pork, and beef tips, both with all the fixings. He also brought along some excellent chocolate chip cookies. Someone else, I think Teri D, brought along a couple of excellent, and possibly homemade, cakes. I think there was a small line for the food even if no lines for the shooting.

This shot shows most of the shooters who attended the 2015 NEBS.

All in all it was a very good day. The weather was very cooperative with absolutely zero rainfall (which was also very different than previous years) and the temperature was probably in the high 70's to maybe 80 degrees. I can't wait until the next one in 2016. Hopefully there will also be another one down in WV like the one Brendan and I attended last fall. We may get a chance to see Jay G at that one being he lives in VA nowadays. Not that he wasn't at the 2015 NEBS - at least both in spirit and in effigy. Someone, who shall remain anonymous, made up several cut out Jay faces and the result was this:

The many faces of Jay (or should that be the many bodies of...).
Pic lifted off of Facebook, probably taken by Cher L.

Needless to say, if Jay is at a bloggershoot, even if only in effigy, he is going to do some shooting. And so it was that it almost got done, kind of, sort of, just about vicariously.

Savoir Faire is everywhere,
and so to they say is Mr. Jay

In fact, Jay did not know it at the time, but he helped bring the day to a close with the ending cannon salvo. It certainly was not the same without him there in person but would have been a whole lot less fun if he wasn't there at least in spirit if not in effigy too. I am willing to give odds that he shows up next year!

All the best,
Glenn B

 

A Video Of The View...

...from Pack Monadnock (which I pronounce incorrectly in the video, proper pronunciation here click on the speaker icon). I also described it kind of wrong as monadnock evidently means a lone mountain that rises above others in the vicinity. Indeed, Pack Monadnock is the highest peak in its range. Enjoy the video and my apologies for not being fast enough to get a shot of the chipmunk.



All the best,
Glenn B

Road Trip - 2015 8th Annual NEBS (Part One)

It was just what I needed although I could have used another week or two of it. The it to which I am referring is the short road trip Brendan and I took to New Hampshire for the 8th Annual Northeast Bloggershoot this past weekend. Driving there, a day earlier than expected on Thursday, was not bad, at least for me. I had good company. It was the kid (err, young man) Brendan who had to put up with all of his old man's (my) yammering. He did okay that way even if I was a pest with my incessant babble. We got there in fairly good time based on our average trip times there, I am guessing it took about 5 - 5.5 hours or so. We stopped at least twice on the way up, the longer stop at a Cracker Barrel. That first night we did little more than check into our hotel, Motel 6 Nashua South, and watch TV.

On Friday, we were up not too early but not late either. We headed out from a decent breakfast at a small diner in Nashua, darned if I can recall the name. After that we drove up to The Manchester Firing Line Range in Manchester. Brendan had a hankering to shoot a rental gun that for which he passed up the opportunity the last time we were up that way in March. At the rates they charged, I knew why he passed it up - they wanted $18 per hour range time, $75 per hour for the rental gun, and a lot of moola for ammo (they required their ammo in range rentals). So he declined but the desire to shoot it did not disappear. As a matter of fact, I think it ate at him between the trip in March and this one. On the way up he told me he was going to shoot it regardless of the price.

Well, when we got to the store, we rented one and got a whole $3.00 apiece discount for the range time because I am considered an armed professional there due to having an armed guard license. The discount though did not apply to anything else. So, the range fees were $30 total between the two of us instead of $36, the gun he wanted to rent was still $75 per hour, the ammo was $28.50 per box (plus or minus some cents) and we bought 5 boxes ($142.50 worth) knowing it was not really enough but had to be enough at that price. Heck, I can get the same exact ammo at about $18 per box on line. We also picked up three targets at about $5 total for all of them. I guess the fact that the desire to shoot the derned thing had been eating away at him since March was the deciding factor and it won out over price.  In all, he paid about $252 plus change; yes Brendan paid for it all and even let me shoot.

Are you wondering what was the gun? Here is a hint, as Brendan prepared to fire it he said something very much to the effect of: "I'm gonna give you to the count of ten to get your no good keester off my property. One - two - ten" . Then he opened up with a short burst followed by full auto. That was followed by him laughing and then saying: "Keep the change ya filthy animal". If you have not guessed the gun by now, I guess you never watched Home Alone.


 
The gun he rented that we shot was, as Brendan likes to call it, a Chicago Typewriter. In other words, it's known as a Tommy Gun, aka: Thompson Submachine Gun.  The one below is the actual one we shot; well, its a pic of the action anyhow. I wish I had the selfie videos he made by placing his phone on the bench under the gun when he shot it, or the ones I took of him while using his phone, but he won't let me download them now. He is busy going out with his buddies - so maybe later for those shots.



Was it worth the high price he paid for us to shoot it. Yeah, I think so and I am sure he thinks so. Regardless, at least now he has gotten it out of his system and also has accomplished something he badly wanted to do and let me enjoy it too - good kid. I know for a fact he had fun and so did I. Since I had 100 rounds of our on 45ACP ammo with me in the range box, Brendan also shot my Remington R1 but only 50 rounds worth. Somehow that other box of our 45ACP disappeared down range in a few well placed bursts through the 20 round mag for the Thompson. Yeah, all they had was one single 20 round stack type magazine for it. As I said though, shooting it was a pisser.

We drove around for a spell after that and wound up at the Nashua Garden for lunch. It was packed, probably not so much so because the food was all that great,  no one seemed to be really stuffing it in their pie holes with reckless abandon, but because the upstairs was closed during lunchtime. We headed out to look for another place to eat but got momentarily diverted by the place next-door; that was Castro's Back Room, a cigar store. I picked up a few old cigar boxes and Brendan got himself a coffee flavored stogie. Had a nice talk with the guy behind the counter about the planned shoot while there. Then we again were on the prowl for good eats. We spotted a place a few blocks away down the river (I am guessing it was the Nashua River) and got in the car to drive it there. It wasn't so much that it was a couple of blocks away but because I would have had to come back to move the car or feed the meter before our meal was done. So I just moved the car closer to the restaurant - Tio Juan's Margaritas Mexican Restaurant. While waiting for the food, it sure looked like Brendan enjoyed the Margarita that he was inhaling. I had a couple of excellent 16 ounce Tecate beers at the surprising price of only $3.00 each. The food was pretty good too and while it certainly wasn't as authentic as food along the Mexican - U.S. border but it was pretty darned delicious.

After that, we hemmed and hawed about what to do and decided to take the advice of Deb, one of our gracious hosts for the upcoming bloggershoot, and headed to Pack Monadnock (a small mountain) in Miller State Park. I did not have to debate whether or not I wanted to hike or drive up it since my lower back and hips were pretty much killing me right about then so, up we drove. It was a short but twisty and fairly steep (for the east) drive.

The Master of all he sees.

Once up on top we enjoyed a breath taking view of the surround area. Brendan surveyed all he saw as if ready to conquer it, or whatever, while enjoying his cigar. He sort of reminded me of Geroge C. Scott in the movie Patton or maybe of a king overlooking his realm. What he was looking at deserved that kind of a look; it really was that reminiscent of a kingdom that needed to be viewed from on high by its king to see its entirety.

Here are a few pics of what he was looking at and let me say it now, the pics don't do justice. if I can edit a video  shot, I will load it later. This is what he had been looking at:

 



Click it to enlarge it and get a more panoramic view.

Oddly enough, my hips and back were feeling somewhat after being on the mountaintop for a half hour or so. Thus, we decided to go for a brief downhill hike. I do mean short too because if my aches came back, I did not want to have to hike far back uphill but as you will soon see we cut it even shorter than I had expected to do. On the hike, we got to see a bit more of the scenery from a different angle and then were in deep woods with lots of rocks both big and small. We walked only about 10 minutes and then had a sit down for five or ten and headed back up top. On the way into the woods, we had passed a fairly young to middle aged woman sitting there. We said hello and kept walking. A few minutes into our hike, I realized she was following us. During the several times I looked back she was pacing us exactly and not acknowledging us, kind of staring off into space as if we were not there or as if she did not want to seem intrusive or whatever but it was weird. 

It seemed more than a little odd and could have meant a several things. Either she was afraid of hiking alone and for some reason figured following two unknown (to her) men would offer her some protection, she was just oblivious to the potential threat that could have been the two strangers she had decided to follow and was in her own version of La-La Land or she had hiked up with a boyfriend or spouse who argued with her and left her there and she was afraid he might be waiting for her in the woods to kick her ass and that we might somehow prevent that. The thought had also crossed my mind that she could have been looking to rob us if she had gotten the chance, with an accomplice who may have been 
further down the hill. Of course, she could have just be an out and out kook who was hoping for an opportunity to say we had tried to rape her or something like that - heaven knows there is way too much of that going around in recent years. The again, she could have been hoping to have really wild sex with the both of us in the wilds of NH but I highly doubt it. I also suppose she could have just decided to start going back down after we had passed her.

Yet, because of her following us, more than being pooped or worrying about my aches returning on the way back up, I decided to tell Brendan I needed a break and we sat down. We talked to this mystery woman (the mystery was why she was following us) as she passed us. She seemed kind of, sort of, almost okay but both of us got the feeling something was weird about her having followed us like that (Brendan mentioned that to me after she had left). So, I bored her to tears with some story of me once getting altitude sickness out west and she was soon off on her own traipsing down the mountain. We then headed back up to the top and to the Corolla. I imagine she was a nice lady and none of the above applied, except maybe she was afraid to hike alone, but as I said it all seemed too weird at the moment to chance continuing on with her tailing us. We were out of there after that.



How could I not post this pic!

That night, we ate at the Tilted Kilt in Nashua. If you are a man who appreciates fine looking young ladies, clad in mini kilts and tiny tops, this is the place. To tell the truth, the ale and spirits selection was good and the food pretty darned tasty too. Besides our waitress, Emily, being on the rather sexy side of good looks, she also was an excellent server. The combination of it all could not be beat. Sadly, all good things do come to an end and it was all too soon time to head back to the hotel. We grabbed some beers somewhere and Brendan imbibed most of them before I had one down. Oh well, such is youth.

The next day would bring us to the bloggershoot and we needed to get some rest and that's I exactly what we got once all the brews were gone. As for the bloggershoot itself, I'll tell you about I in Part Two.

All the best,
Glenn B