IT'S OVER, OVER THERE

Well, the colors are cased, and the last aluminum coffin has arrived at Andrews Air Force Base.
Some 4500 American men & women, over 100,000 Iraqis dead, and who really knows how much money spent. But now, it's over, over there. Or is it? It still is a very violent place. They still have electricity just a few hours a day.  Terrorist attacks are now against each other "over there". I don't know if it's happening more often, or if it just seems that way because there are not American son's and daughters being maimed & killed now.
I find it hard to believe the GW, and associates can look themselves in the mirror. I know I could not.

hohoho

Hohoho  merry Christmas. Right?  No one knows if it will be nice or not. Everyone is hoping that the shoppers come in hourdes, and that they all spend the dough$$. That would make us all happy, I think.
Meanwhile, the two political parties sit and collectively pound their puds!
Jobs Bill or not, tax the rich, or not, one thing is for sure; Without jobs, the old adage about "build it and they will come", doesn't hold water.  You can cut taxes on the wealthy all you want, but it will not stimulate job creation. NO smart business man will expand, hire, or otherwise grow his business without there being sufficient  DEMAND for his goods/services!  People spending money, is the engine of demand. People need good paying jobs in order to earn enough to live, and help "drive" this beast we call our economy.

No Wonder!

I had occasion to be in the shoe department of a local department store the other day. My wife was looking for a pair of winter boots. Many years ago, I worked in the retail footwear business, for over 10 years actually,  Anyway, I nosed around in the men's shoe area while she browsed for boots. I picked up and inspected every single shoe on display in the men's shoe department, and was mildly surprise to find that 100% of the shoes displayed -- some of which were name brands that were familiar to me, such as Johnston Murphy, Clarks of England -- were manufactured in China. I could not find one item of footwear produced anywhere other than China. I started inspecting displayed footwear in the women's department, and found the same thing. Now, the womens department was much much bigger, and I did not waste time going thru them all, but you get the idea. No American, Italian, Spanish, or South American footwear....... nothing but chinese made stuff. This is part of what is wrong with our economy, and other economies around the world....Chinese exports are flooding the world!!

TRAP-2

Well, so much for keeping a good trend going.  Shot again on Sunday August 21st. Another beautiful day. Shot four rounds. Did lousy.  On 100 clays, only broke 68! Not sure what I was doing wrong. Hopefully I'll figure it out next time out.

TRAP-1

Went out and shot another 3 rounds of trap today.  It was windy as hell. Aprox 20 mph blowing into our faces. But it was a beautiful day! Mid 70's and no humidity!!  I performed better today than I did on July 17th. This time I shot 80% on the three rounds. Broke 20 out of 25 clays, in each of three rounds. And, no bruise this time!!  Still a little sore though!
We'll try again next Sunday possibly. And I'll be experiencing a more official competition on The 28th, at a fundraiser shoot..... Fun city!

A Poltergiest or Physics?

About 11pm  Sunday evening, July 24th. I'm sound asleep, and Marla is down in the family room, and suddenly there is a very loud "BANG"!!  I did not hear it, but I certainly heard Marla call out my name.

She had discovered, that the glass in our very large Anderson sliding door to our deck had completely shattered. The outside sheet of glass only. The inside sheet still intact. We'd never seen anything like it before. No evidence of anything striking it. The screen on the sliding screen door which is on the outside, is as tight as the head of a banjo.  We stood there in the quiet of the house, after 11pm, and you could still hear the glass fracturing.  Hundreds of long fractures radiating out from a somewhat central point, and even hundreds more small fractures appearing at 90 degrees to the long ones, connecting them all together......WTF????

Trap

Had an opportunity last Sunday, to shoot trap with a good friend, who does it regularly. It had been years since I've fired my J.C.Higgins (Seart & Roebuck) model 20 12 guage shotgun, which I "borrowed" from my papa, when I moved away from home.  Anyway, I digress. We started out early in the morning, since the temp was to be 90+ and humidity near 100%, so we were shooting by 10 AM. This group was mostly over 60, with some in their 70's. They were all very good.  Me, not so much. I did better than I thought I would. And I payed the price.  I shoot three rounds, over about a 2.5 hour time span. For those of you who do not know, each round the shooter fires 25 cartridges. So, I fired that old gun 75 times.  OUCH!

I've got some splendid bruises to show for it.  I'm not certain why, but even though my shoulder is pretty sore, it did not bruise. The bruise is just past the shoulder, and extends down over the bicep. Looks very weird.  I broke 54 out of 75 clay "birds", (72%). 
I'll do better next time, and hopefully won't bruise as badly!