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Flies and Honey

A jewelry store owner in Wisconsin has decided to not allow his customers to carry concealed firearms in his store.  He reasons that he already has security procedures in place for a robbery, and he says he doesn’t feel comfortable having armed people around while haggling over price.

While I don’t agree with him, I fully support his right as a property owner to decide under what conditions he wants to do business. If someone I do business with decided to not allow concealed carry in their establishment, I would politely tell them that I will no longer be in their business and why.  This storeowner has apparently been getting a lot of angry mail and telephone calls.

Remember people, be polite.  If he recognizes that gun owners tend to be civil, honest, and polite people, he may in the future decide to change his mind.  Threatening, haranguing, and scaring business owners like this do nothing but solidify their position and rob us of converts.

Follow-Up to Today’s Thought for the Day

Gentlemen, if you’re going to look out at the weather, decide your tent can stand up to it, and declare, “We’ll be OK”, you damn sure better get out and make sure the rain fly to your tent hasn’t come loose from kids tripping over the guy lines in the past day or so.

If you don’t, you will get to wake up to half an inch of water in the tent, a savagely pissed off spouse, and the opportunity to run outside in a thunderstorm to re-tighten said guy lines.  And enjoy packing up the sodden tent, sleeping bags, air mattresses, and clothes the next morning.

Thought for the Day

Ladies, when your loving husband, your soulmate, the love of your life and father to your children, a man who spent almost a decade each in Scouts and the Army sleeping outdoors in places around the world in unspeakable weather, who slept comfortably though a severe thunderstorm last year in the very tent you are sleeping in, looks outside at the weather at 4 AM and says “We’ll be OK”, it doesn’t mean:

He’s immature
He’s reckless
He doesn’t care
He’s a jerk

It means that he’s seen worse weather, believes that the equipment and conditions on hand are favorable, and doesn’t believe that it is necessary to abandone everything you brought to camp and head for the hills.

It also means that he loves you enough to not panic at the first drop of rain, flash of lightning, or rumble of thunder.

Just sets me off like a roman candle

While stopping at the local SuperMegaBigBoxMart for camping groceries, I ran into one of the personality types that just gets under my skin:  The Helpless Human Being.

Ladies and gentlemen, no-one has been responsible for you since your mama taught you to not make messes on the good carpet.  There are several things that an adult in our society must be emotionally and psychologically able to do, including:

  • Shop for groceries
  • Pay for groceries, either with cash, check, or plastic
  • Pump gas
  • Cross the street without being killed
  • Not make messes on the carpet when not supervised

Doing the soft voiced “Fiddle dee dee, I’ve always relied on the kindness of strangers” Katie Scarlett O’Hara imitation is not useful, it’s annoying.

Coming to the check out with a basket of stuff, arguing with both the cashier and the manager over the price of your shampoo, toilet paper, tuna fish, peanut butter, potato chips, and personal lubricant, and then not knowing how to properly fill out a check or use your debit card is assenine.  Doing all this while talking in that sweet, soft, Southern accent in an attempt to elicit sympathy from said cashier and manager is manipulative.

It’s not the 1950’s anymore.  Computers and such are a part of living.  Learn to work with them, or hire someone to do your errands for you.  Either stop acting stupid and start taking care of yourself, or start going to someone else’s store.

Overheard in camp

Irish Woman: What did we bring to drink?
Me: We’ve got sodas, Bud Lite, Sam Adams, Woodford, and Southern Comfort.
Girlie Bear: What’s Southern Comfort? I’ve never heard of that.
Me: Sweetheart, if it weren’t for Southern Comfort, you might not exist.
Girlie Bear: …… Ewwwwwww!

FOB Oso

Base camp established. A full 75% of what was packed was necessary.


Casa de Oso, the portable version


My new kitchen. Only cost 5 boxes of .22.


I have sent the older kids to get firewood. Irish Woman is trying to get BooBoo to take a nap. I am becoming acquainted with India Pale Ale.

Slow Posting

Not going to be a lot of posting here for the next few days.  Irish Woman and I are taking the family up to Indiana for the annual Hoosier Hoedown.  All of her Indiana family is getting together for the weekend at one of the lakes.

This year, my goal is to enjoy myself and not come home a raving lunatic.  Toward that end I’ve simplified what we’re taking, told the kids that dad doesn’t have a filter if they get on his nerves, and am stopping at the liquor store before we cross the state line.

Y’all have a good weekend!

Military Anniversaries

I don’t normally do a “Today in History” bit, but today is quite a date in military history:

1314 – Edward II of England is handed his ass by the Scottish at the battle of Bannockburn.  The battle was a complete rout of the English.  Of approximately 16,000 infantrymen who started the battle on the English side, 11,000 would be dead or captured two days later.  This action sealed the reputation of Robert the Bruce as king of an independent Scotland and probably contributed to the eventual murder of Edward after he abdicated a few years later.

1812 – Napoleon’s Grande Armee crossed into Russian territory on their ill-fated invasion.  By the time Napoleon got to Moscow and back, his army of almost 500,000 had been whittled down to about 27,000 soldiers.  380,000 French soldiers were dead, and about 100,000 were prisoners.  Napoleon had lost his charm of invincibility, and he never recovered from the military, political, or diplomatic losses from this fateful decision.

1916 – Artillery preparation for what would become the Battle of the Somme began.  The infantry advance started on July 1.  By the time the battle was declared over in mid-November, Allied and German casualties numbered over 1,000,000,  of which over 300,000 were killed.  This butcher’s bill paid for an advance of at most 7 miles along the trenches for the Allies.  British and Commonwealth soldiers, who bore the majority of the casualties on the Allied side, advanced only 2 miles.

1948 – The Berlin Blockade begins when Soviet occupation forces cut off all water and land access to Berlin from Western Germany.  The American, French, and British governments responded by supporting Berlin from the air, using transport aircraft to bring in food, fuel, medicine, and everything else the city needed until the blockade was lifted in May 1949.  This was the opening shot of the Cold War.

Yet another reason

This Ain’t Hell points out another reason why I will never live in a subdivision or anywhere else that has a Home Owner’s Association.

No offense, but I don’t like my neighbors enough to let them tell me how my house will be designed or painted, where I will park my vehicles, or how often I mow my grass.  Politely point out something you object to and have a rational discussion with me, and the worst that will happen is we will agree to disagree.  The first time someone stands on my porch and demands I change how I keep up my property is the last time they walk on without a limp.  The good Lord made axe handles for a reason.

My goal is to live far enough out in the country that I can pee off of the porch and the only person who will object is Irish Woman.

Oh, and if you’re worried that a smaller house that’s accessible to someone with this disabled vet’s condition will exert downward pressure on your property values, then you know precisely diddly over squat about the current housing market.

You want the cute?

You can’t handle the cute!

That is Qannik, a polar bear cub that was rescued after being separated from her mother and sibling in Alaska.  She will be joining our other polar bear at the new Glacier Run exhibit at the Louisville Zoo.

The zoo also announced that a new baby giraffe was born recently.  So we’ll have a baby polar bear, young grizzly bears, and a baby giraffe in our zoo.

The cute, it burns!