Queen Elinor:Merida, a princess does not set her weapons on the table.
Princess Merida:Mom, it’s just my bow!
Queen Elinor:A princess should not have weapons in my opinion.
King Fergus:Princess or not. Learning to fight is essential!

— Brave

For the years just preceding my parents’ divorce and for first few years afterward, my family spent a lot of time around women who were routinely beaten by their husbands and boyfriends.  Birds of a feather flock together, and all that.  That meant a lot of impromptu group therapy sessions around kitchen tables and living rooms.  I heard a lot of “Where was your family?” and “Why didn’t you get out sooner?” questions, but I never heard “Why didn’t you fight back?”.  Imagine the outrage if someone had asked “What caliber for abuser?”.

My daughter will never be one of those women, if I have anything to do about it.

I’m a big guy, and some find me a tad intimidating.  That seems to go double for the young men I meet through Girlie Bear.  But I am under no illusion that the threat of “My daddy is going to kill you!” will deter an abusive husband or boyfriend.  Heck, I know that eventually she’ll bring home a boy who doesn’t look at me as a possible cause of his death.  I have to prepare her to take care of herself.  That preparation includes teaching her how to shoot and to fight dirty.  But it starts and ends with teaching her that it’s not only all right to fight back, but expected.  It’s good that the young men respect the amount of pain I may cause them, but it’s better when they know that it’s not me they should worry about.

I want to raise my daughter in such a way that in the event someone hurts her, the last thing they hear as they’re wheeled into the ambulance or put in the police cruiser is her voice telling them they got off easy.

Don’t anybody move! Hold it right there! The fuse is out. — A Christmas Story

One of the many good points of living in an older home is the amount of things I have to figure out and fix.  For instance, our wiring has at least two generations of technology and is laid out in some of the strangest circuits I’ve ever seen.

For example, our kitchen is on the same circuit as one of the outlets in the dining room and the outlet on the side porch.  It’s also too small for the load, which means we have to balance things quite carefully.  Want to use the microwave to heat up your lunch?  Then you better make sure the crock pot isn’t in use or DaddyBear isn’t making a pot of coffee.

One of the strangest things I’m trying to figure out is why one of the circuits in the basement controls the lights in the family room and basement bedroom, the outlet in my work area, and the outlet and light outside the basement door.  It’s like someone threw a bunch of darts at a map of the house, and where the darts hit is where they connected them electrically.

I’m sure I’ll eventually figure it out.  I’m just as sure that I’m not going to try to use my rather limited DIY skills to straighten it all out and/or replace it wholesale.  I know that residential 110 volt electrical work is pretty straightforward, but anything that could lead to our home becoming the smoking backdrop for the evening news is something that I will save up and pay someone else to take care of.

Don’t even get me started about the ductwork and plumbing around here.  We’ll be talking all night.

 Don’t worry. As long as you hit that wire with the connecting hook at precisely 88 miles per hour, the instant the lightning strikes the tower… everything will be fine. — Back To The Future

There’s nothing like the critical path when you’re planning, especially if everything has to be done just right or everything will fall apart.  It’s best when catastrophic failure involves big colorful explosions.  Those tend to keep the heart rate up and the juices flowing.  These things are almost as much fun as the “And then a miracle happens” plans I’ve both created and been subject to over the years.

“Keep It Simple Stupid” ought to be branded to the forearm of every project planner on the planet.

Dung Beetle Dad: [Pushing ball of dung] Do we have to bring this crap? I’m there’s have crap where we’re going!

Dung Beetle Mom: [Offended] Uh! This was a gift from my mother.

— Ice Age:  The Meltdown

While packing for an overnight trip today, I included a change of clothes, my shaving kit, my laptop, my tablet, and chargers for a few things.  It all fit in a small knapsack.

The rest of the family filled the trunk of Irish Woman’s car.  I’m not sure what the purpose of it all could be, but apparently they couldn’t live without it.

Overpacking seems to be a common human habit, even with our everyday carry.  How many of us wake up one morning and realize that between carry gun, reloads, cell phone, multiples of knives, flashlight, and whatever else seemed like a good idea at  the time, we’re carrying more crap than Batman.  I choose my laptop bags specifically because they are too small for me to carry around more stuff than I absolutely need.  Otherwise I eventually end up with more stuff in my laptop bag than I used to carry in my rucksack.

Simplifying makes life easier.  Cutting down on the layers of cruft that build up over time gives us more resources to enjoy that life.

Sure does help knowing when and where you’re gonna be hit, sir. — Heartbreak Ridge

One of the traps I find myself falling into is practicing for cut and dry scenarios.  The bad guy is always going to look like a bad guy.  I will always have situational awareness to the point where I know who is and who isn’t a bad guy.  All ‘surprises’ are predictable.  The target zone on the bad guy is easily recognized.

But it’s probably not going to be like that.  If I ever have to defend myself or the family, I’ll probably know the aggressor by his or her actions, but will I know which of the people around us are uninterested parties, which are associates of the aggressor who aren’t going to get involved, and which are more than willing to become part of the problem?  Will I even know about all of the people around me?

We can’t train or practice for every scenario.  We can prepare for the most probable situations, but we must guard against practicing in “God Mode”.  We can’t all afford force-on-force training, but having a buddy throw a dud round in our magazine or set up a shooting stage that we don’t know about beforehand is better than stationary cardboard with big bright targets pasted to them.

What do you all do to improve your training and keep it from becoming predictable?