The View From North Central Idaho

A friend of mine and blogger is asking for donations.

Daughter Kim already has her Concealed Weapons License for Idaho. Yesterday she called me to verify how to get her State of Washington License to Carry Concealed Pistol.

She called back after applying and told me of their new electronic fingerprint scanner.

She should be legal to carry in Washington within 30 days.

Just a FYI.

My hidden, hardened, underground bunker lost it's Internet connection yesterday afternoon and I haven't bother to use alternate methods of checking my email. I did check the comments and add one here on the blog but generally don't expect anything from me until I restablish normal communcations. This is expected to be sometime this evening after I get off work.

If something urgent comes up give me a call on my cell phone: 208-301-4254.

Update: After wasting about two hours of my life I have an Internet connection at my bunker again. I wish I could bill Comcast for my time.

Kelsey says, "Comcast is a Dick!" James had a longer explaination which is not worth repeating here.

And a word of advice to $@#!%^& people at Comcast from security professional...

Do not insist I turn off my firewall and connect my computer directly to the cable modem!

My inclination after doing this is to wipe the hard disk and reinstall the O/S.

Xenia and her husband John bought a new car today. Since John is several thousand miles away at the moment I gave her a ride to the dealership and provided "moral support". It is the first car she has ever owned.

Since the salesman who sold them the car was at his grandmother's funeral it was the dealership owner that did the paperwork and gave us a mug (for Xenia) and two hats (one for John, one for me). He was very nice and gave Xenia his card which had his home phone number on it in case she had trouble with the car that wasn't resolved with the normal staff. He asked Xenia to thank John for his service (U.S. Army). So far, I highly recommend Jess Ford in Pullman.

On the way back she called me (using the integrated Bluetooth cellphone connection) and talked about how cool it was that she could call people with her car. It even has voice recognition, she pushed a number, said, "Dial", spoke the number and said, "Dial" again. Very cool and the car is definitely shiny.

Last night (this morning actually) I left work sometime after 3:00 AM. I woke up at 7:00 and couldn't get back to sleep so I was back at work by 9:30 AM. I got back back to my hardened underground bunker about 8:20 tonight and nursing a troublesome build from work on a remote desktop screen. But I am down to nine bugs now. Down from 23 this time last week. And I have two more that I think are fixed if I could just get the tests to run so I could verify that.

I'm running on empty and unable to do another chapter in Henigan Lethal Logic book like I had planned to the last several days. Maybe this weekend I'll be able to spend some time on it.

I have one more post I just have to make tonight then it will be lights out.

Wow! The things daughter Xenia does and posts about.

As I have reported before some people think other people's children are nice but we have interesting children.

If you read my blog directly you probably noticed a few cosmetic changes today. Mostly it was a side effect of me fixing the comment text entry box which was all messed up. I had to learn a bunch about Cascading Style Sheets to fix the problem and tweaked a few things along the way.

I moved the "Bloggers I Have Met" list to a different page because it took up so much real estate on the sidebar. I also updated the list. If I have overlooked someone please let me know. It wasn't intentional to ignore anyone--except for wife Barbara.

Yes, she has a blog--with three posts since it was created on September 13, 2009. I refuse to link to it until she posts a little more frequently. Currently she has had a total of 13 visits. I think all of those visits were by me.

Even though I haven't gotten out of bed yet (aren't laptops great!) and have already made a couple of blog posts I have a very busy day ahead of me. In addition to the usual things like attending to hygiene, food, and clothing I need to make up a couple hundred rounds of .40 S&W and head out to the range for a USPSA action pistol match. After that I have to return to Redmond to help The Borg conquer the galaxy.

I turned off Captcha on the comments to help some people that were having problems with it. If you see a bunch of spam comments start showing up don't worry about it. I'll take care of them by tomorrow morning.

Update: The pistol match went fairly well. I messed up a reload on one stage or else I might have actually won. I came in second instead:

We started sitting in the chair and had to stay within the box. There is a Pepper Popper on the left in the shadow of a no shoot which activates a swinging target coming out from behind the stack of barrels on the right (simulates a hijacker come out of the bathroom).

I got 50 points (out of 55 possible--an 11 round stage) in 8.31 seconds for a hit factor of 6.0168. Pretty good, I figure, for almost all head shots except for the mover. Especially with all the hostages to avoid.

That white stuff on the ground? That is snow. SOME wimps stop shooting outdoors in the winter--but not at our range in North Central Idaho.

Even though I'm an atheist wearing my new "Bah Humbug" shirt from daughter Kim I think it is a poor reason to celebrate (CNN headline):

Woman knocks down pope at Mass; Christmas celebrations begin

I'm not a big fan of holidays and Christmas is particularly annoying. Barb and the girls on the other hand put quite bit of effort into Christmas and enjoy it a great deal. I contain myself and help out as best I can and not spoil it for others. But sometimes people pick up on my attitude anyway (it couldn't be the "Bah Humbug!" sweatshirt I wear every Christmas).

Daughter Xenia has been posting one Christmas picture per day this month starting here. All of them are good. Some of them are great.

My favorite so far is this one:

I suspect that picture was just for me.

On Friday I was in the local Safeway store when from across the produce department someone caught my eye and called out, "You're Joe Huffman, right?"

I sort of recognized him. I had bumped into him numerous times at the Seattle airport back in the late 90s when I was flying back and forth to/from Redmond/Moscow (ID). Tim lived in San Francisco then but had gone to college at the University of Idaho and his girlfriend was still there. So he frequently spent a weekend in Moscow with her and would take the same flight on the same small plane from Seattle to Moscow that I did. We had another common connection in that his buddy Seth that he went to high school and college with was then his roommate in San Francisco had worked for me when he was in college at the U of I.

Tim told me he would love to do some Boomershoot stuff sometime and if I ever wanted some help to let him know. I told him that I was thinking about going out on Saturday to do some tests and he would be welcome to come along. He sounded very interested.

Later in the day I was hitting up all the places that sold ammo in town looking for some CCI Stinger ammo. I use that for testing of the sensitivity of Boomerite. By moving closer or farther away I can adjust the impact velocity at the target and determine if the mixture is more or less sensitive that other mixtures I have used. At one of the stores I was asked what I was looking for and I told him. He said he was sorry but they didn't have any. Would one of the other products they had work instead? I told him no, I needed some very high velocity stuff. "What are you trying to kill?", he asked.

[heavy sigh]

Do I tell him the truth or avoid the question? This has happened so many times. Buying 15 boxes of zip locked bags, or a 50 pound sack of stuff at Costco can make people curious and I always worry they won't want to sell to me or they will call the cops and I'll spend an hour or five explaining to them.

I told him the truth and his eyes got big and instead of backing away he said, "Are you the Boomershoot guy?" I confirmed it and he introduced himself, shook my hand, and told me how pleased he was to meet me.

I went home and told Barb that two people in one day recognized me. With a big smile on her face she said, "I'm married to a rock star."

Somehow I was under the impression rock stars had more groupies. I'd put some effort into increasing the number but I'm afraid the number would drop from one to zero at the first indication I was making the attempt.

I made a sarcastic comment at Snowflakes in Hell and Bitter came back with this comment:

Joe, you’ve hit upon the next biggest factor making me question kids. Seriously, I don’t know that I want to bring kids into the picture if they are going to live in a mostly government-controlled world. I realize that this country has survived many other changes in the past, and many other generations have survived well enough. But if we’re headed toward the government taking over even larger chunks of the economy, I’m not sure I’d be bringing kids into a better life than I enjoyed. And that just doesn’t seem right.

I understand her point but there is more than one way to view the problem.

Another way to view it is that sort of attitude is creating the problem. See the movie Idiocracy (wonderful premise, good start, but a poor movie overall) for an extreme view of this type of thing taken to the limit.

By tweaking the premise in Idiocracy just a bit one can hypothesis that high reproduction rates by those that believe government should provide "everything for free" will likely result in a cultural, if not genetic, disposition toward more dependency on and expectation of government control of the economy and personal lives. Low reproduction rates by those that believe in and desire freedom will exacerbate the problem. A slightly modified version of this argument is what Barb successfully used on me to convince me to have a third child. That is why we sometimes call Xenia our gift to the world.

But what of the individual? If freedom loving people are but a small minority of the population won't their lives be miserable? Not necessarily.

It depends on what the outcome is during their lifetime. If it is George Orwell's 1984 then I would agree with that point. But governments have a history of collapsing. Especially socialist and totalitarian governments. Food shortages, riots, and the break down of infrastructure favor intelligent and freedom loving people. My model of the world is that, ultimately, stupidity is self-correcting. And massive government intervention in the free market and free society is self correcting because it is so stupid. Those people demanding that government supply their every need and want will have higher death rates than those that are self-motivated and value freedom. It may be that within our or our children's lifetimes the freedom loving minority will become the majority essentially overnight because of the much higher death rates among the anti-freedom people as society collapses. Even if they do not become the majority in actual numbers they may have the majority of power. This is analogous to the U.S. being the world's sole super-power with just a small minority of the planets population. And that power came about for the same reason that I hypothesize it could happen again in a different context--because freedom creates prosperity and prosperity enables power.

If that comes about then those freedom loving people will be in a position to take over the world. It will be with an anti-freedom lesson extremely fresh in their minds that they form the next governments and economic systems.

I don't know what will happen. We have never had a situation like this before. In the past there was always someplace new to live. The east coast of North America then migration to California and "The Oregon Territories" provided freedom for millions in the last 300 years. But the "New World" is now occupied by parasites that crave security more than freedom and ensure everyone will receive neither. Where can we move next and escape our oppressors? Antarctica, the ocean floor, and space all appear to be such harsh environments that economic prosperity would be difficult or impossible. This may mean we can do no more than wait for the parasites to starve, riot, and burn themselves out.

I don't know if freedom has a chance of surviving and rising from the ashes and mankind will finally learn the lesson of why freedom is essential. But I do know that if we do not have children and raise them to value freedom then freedom will most likely be extinguished.

It boils down to "Are you an optimist or a pessimist?" The pessimist is more often right because they can easily fulfill their expectations. The optimist may be wrong more often but progress, prosperity, and happiness are always the products of optimists and never that of pessimists.

Which are you?

That is to say, they're inside the heated space in my home and it's heating season.  I can therefore use them all I want, or leave them on when I'm not using them, and it costs me nothing in energy use.  I wrote about this a while back, and Say Uncle has a post that touches on the subject.

There are some qualifiers though.  A dishwasher dumps warm water outside the heated space, as does a clothes washer.  A dryer dumps hot air outside the heated space too, but you can leave your television or oven on all day and it costs you no extra energy useage.  If the appliances or the incandescent lights aren't heating your home, the furnace takes over and uses that same amount of energy anyway.  I submit that using the appliances more may actually save energy.  Here's how I got there; at least in my case, the furnace ducts are under the house, outside the heated space.  Some of the losses from that extra-hot air running through the ducts under the house might be avoided by keeping the heat generation all inside the house.  There was also a chapter in my college physics book that explained how inductive loads may be getting you some free energy, because of the way the metering works.  I forget how that happens, but if it's true then over-use of motors and transformers (florescent lights or anything that uses a power supply transformer) as opposed to relying more on the resistive loads in your electric furnace may be saving on your energy bill.  Though that particular difference would be very small for a single home, IIRC the physics book says that this difference, this un-billed energy, is significant on a large scale.

If you want to save energy this heating season, using CF bulbs, turning off your lights, and using super efficient appliances (with the above caveats) isn't the way to do it.  Not during the heating season.  Tightening up the house, adding insulation, using a heat recovery system on your dryer vent, etc., using less hot water (assuming that water's being dumped outside the heated space) or turning down the thermostat, will save energy.  Otherwise, don't let ignorance and simplistic thinking influence your lifestyle.

Someone mentioned last time that some of the light from your evil incandescents (or any other lights) is being lost through your windows.  True, but the visible light is a small fraction of the total output unless you’re using LEDs.  In any case it's the energy you don't see that's being lost in far greater quantity through your windows, and that loss takes place whether or not your lights are on.  Use double or triple panes, and close your blinds at night.  We use opaque (to visible and IR) venetian blinds.  My friend, who I helped build a house on the Yukon/Kuskokwim delta, had a large, triple pane picture window with an insulated door that swung down from the ceiling and had magnetic seals like a refrigerator door.  The house also has 18" to 24" of insulation in the walls and floor (double framed) and more in the ceiling.  We had to insulate the house from the tundra underneath too, to keep the tundra from thawing in summer.  That was an interesting project, but now I have digressed.

If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worthy reading,
Or do things worth the writing.

Ben Franklin
[Or both.

Boomershoot, this blog, the software I have written (some used by 100s of millions), the hardware I have designed (10s of thousands of units shipped), and my children are my attempts.--Joe]

You would be a fool to compete with Xenia.

Professor D.
November 16, 2009
Professor of Art History at the University of Idaho
This was to a student that got 87% on a test and whined to the prof that Xenia won a bet on who would get a better test grade. Xenia got a 112%.

Another book (here was the first) made mention of me. This time it's a little off topic from what I usually get attention for.

I donate blood frequently. So frequently in fact that in the spring of 2008 they told me for the first time I couldn't donate because my iron was too low. After numerous tests the doctor concluded the only thing wrong was that I was losing too much blood from donating. She recommended iron supplements and after a few months I was back on the couch with a needle in my arm again.

Last spring the Puget Sound Blood Bank announced that if you donated twice during the summer they would give you a free cookbook. Not just any cookbook but a cookbook with all the recipes contributed from staff, volunteers, and donors.

Last night when I donated another pint I picked up my "free" (in many contexts two pints of blood would be a rather high cost to pay) cookbook.

On pages 160 and 161 was the recipe I donated:

As I leaving a couple staff members overheard Barb and me talking finding the recipe and asked which recipe was mine. I told them the Lentil and Chocolate Chip cookie recipe. True to form they used the exact same word that everyone uses when they hear of them. Interesting.

A guy at work, Chet, frequently stops by my office to take a break and talk about, among other things, the state of our economy. Are we going to have hyper inflation? Deflation? Should savings be put into stocks, bonds, precious metals?

I bought a few ounces of gold and silver in the late 1990s and that turns out to have been a fairly good investment. But as Chet points out, "You can't eat it."

If being able to eat it were the sole criteria for sound investing then a few tons of lentils, peas, and wheat from the farm be a good idea but my bunker can only store so many sacks before it starts getting in the way. And I'm pretty sure some of the sacks of food I sold to people worried about Y2K in 1999 (about 20,000 pounds total) are still in their closets unopened except perhaps by rodents and insects. The food stores fairly well but unless you were very careful how you stored after ten years it has noticeably degraded.

Dave Hardy points out there is an alternative to gold that is useful (I don't recommend eating it however) and which has retained it's value every bit as well as gold has for the last 136 years. When I bought my first gun the guy I bought it from pointed out that guns in good repair don't loose significant value over the years. Even that SKS you bought for $65 back in the early 1990s kept pace with inflation. Ammo too has been a good investment.

So perhaps that is Chet's answer. Instead of precious metals like gold and silver invest in steel, copper, brass and lead with a little bit of nitrocellulose thrown in.

Two weeks ago I delivered a bunch of concrete blocks, mortar, and grass seed to the Boomershoot site. I didn't stay long enough to do anything with it because I wanted to shoot in a steel match that same day. I made the quick trip out there because I was afraid it would snow up or rain so much that it wouldn't be accessible until spring and I wanted the materials out there so I could walk (or snowshoe) in if I needed to and do any last minute prep work.

Today I drove back out and planted the last of the grass. It wouldn't have been disaster if I hadn't gotten the grass planted but it will be better that I did get it done. I would have liked to have done some work finishing off the semi-permanent toilet but I ended up spending time talking to my parents and brothers and then driving the 345 miles back to the Seattle area.

I'll probably go back out there in a couple weeks. Due to a huge office move at work I will have the entire Thanksgiving week off (extra, free, vacation!) so assuming the ground isn't knee deep in mud or waist deep in snow I will spend some of that time working on the site. But I have 2010 essential stuff done for this fall.

Barb and I just finished watching the TV series The Unit. We really enjoyed it.

The gun handling and shooting was way above average. They shot around corners correctly, they cleared rooms correctly, they got hits at ranges in times that could be expected from expert shooters.

Barb loves to predict the outcome of any movie or show she watches. Who is going to be the bad guy? How are they going to get out of this predicament?

She is very good at it. So good that our kids tell her to shut up just as soon as her mouth starts to open. I don't mind and frequently play the game as well. Barb was frequently stumped. The writers were very good and we enjoyed the show being unpredictable without "angels flying out of their ass" to save the day. The solutions to the problems the characters faced were nearly always innovative and believable.

It was also very cool that the operatives/shooters wives were a big part of the stories they told. I was afraid that Barb wouldn't care for the show and I would end up watching it alone but the inclusion of the wives side of the drama made a big difference and did not detract from my enjoyment of the show.

There were occasionally things that bugged me about it however. Ironically the biggest was the item that got me to start watching it to begin with.

I had lunch with a friend a few months ago and he asked if it was true that putting mercury in a bullet would cause it to completely disintegrate upon impact because he had seen in on the show. I told him I would have to watch the show to be certain but it probably was just reusing an old plot device.

As near as I can tell the mercury bullet thing first came from the novel The Day of the Jackal (1971) by Frederick Forsyth. I read the book shortly after it came out and was fascinated, as many people are, by the mercury filled bullets. It's a great plot device but as near as I can determine pointless.

First off it's going to be really tough to make the bullet accurate with a liquid moving around inside the bullet. Second, we already have rifle bullets that can, essentially, explode upon impact. Why do you think Speer calls their varmint bullets TNT?

The TNT bullets are only rated at 3100 fps because, according to the manual, they are likely to "explode" before reaching the target if you push them faster than that. I bought some .30 caliber 125 grain TNT "seconds" (the factory is in nearby Lewiston Idaho and they sometimes sell cosmetically defective bullets in bulk to the local gun shops) for breaking in the barrel of my .300 Win Mag. Yeah, isn't that a real kick? Using a 125 grain varmint bullets in .300 Win Mag.

The 3100 fps limit specified didn't really make sense to me. I would have expected a rotational rate limit rather than a velocity rate and I sent a customer service guy I knew at Speer an email. He confirmed what I suspected. It really was a rotational issue. 3100 fps assumed the normal 1:10 twist barrels. But I have a 1:11 twist. Which means I could push them faster. Furthermore he told me that it also assumed a normal hunting type barrel where the rifling was fairly sharp and engraved, and weakened, the bullet jacket considerably. Many match grade barrels resulted in a less compromised jacket and hence you could push the bullets even faster without having them go "poof" on the way to the target. My calculations indicated I should be able to get at least 3400 fps out of them. Cool! Imagine what those bullets are going to do with they hit something.

I decided to use the bullets for something more than breaking in the barrel. I coated my bullets with moly to further reduce the engraving of the jacket by the rifling and began working up a load.

According to my references the min and max loads of Varget for 125 grain bullets in .300 Win Mag are 65 and 70 grains. I worked my way up to the max loads without any signs of excessive pressure. On the range the chronograph told me I was getting a mean muzzle velocity of 3497 fps using the max load. Occasionally one of the bullets won't make it to the target but that's a bit rare. Tests on milk jugs filled with water with a tarp underneath and around them to aid in collecting the pieces confirmed that the bullet essentially disappeared into a collection of lead sand upon impact and the jug behind it would only get a small "puncture wound" from the base of the jacket. The main part of the jacket was torn to shreds and no piece, other than the jacket base, was larger than about 0.1 inches in any dimension.

I use factory loaded 50 grain VMAX bullets in my AR-15 from Black Hills with similar results.

Mercury filled bullets? Why? Because it's a cool plot device.

We had a nice time on our cruise. Below is a picture from the wedding (it was on a beach on a Disney Island, not on the ship like I said earlier):

Barb and I were somewhat surprised at the nice time we had. Disney, as usual, paid a lot of attention to detail on the cruise and their island (99 year lease I was told). More pictures and stories later. Barb says we can check our bags in now at the Alaska Airlines ticket counter (we are still in Orlando).

I just found out while I will have Internet access while on our cruise there is a price involved: $0.75/minute.

Roaming charges on my cell phone are $2.26/minutes.

Unless I can find something cheaper I'll be offline until sometime on Sunday.

Barb and I made it through A Security Theater and are now waiting at the gate ready to board our flight to Orlando.

I'm wearing this shirt:

It seemed to get a smile from one of the TSA agents. I wonder if it was because he agreed with it or because he knew I wasn't carrying at the time--he and his co-workers had defeated me for the moment.

Barb and I are going to a wedding this week. We leave Wednesday and get back on Sunday. The wedding takes place on a cruise ship in the Bahamas. This wedding is part of the reason we didn't really have budget for attending any big gun events this year like the NRA Convention or the Gun Blogger Rendezvous.

I mention this because we might have time for lunch in the Orlando area on Sunday after we get back from the cruise if anyone wanted to say hi.

Daughter Kim made an excellent dinner for me with Baked Alaska as dessert!

Daughter Xenia made this awesome video for (and of) me:

Hmm...I haven't done the reading for the past month...I have over 200 pages to read and the test is tomorrow. Whoops.

Xenia
October 21, 2009
[Classic Xenia (our daughter). I also expect her to read the material, go to class dead tired, get an 'A', and have the professor use her answers as examples for others to aspire too.

Xenia's scholastic career has been a combination of Barb's excellent grades and an exaggeration of my tendency to procrastinate. It shouldn't work but somehow she manages to pull it off.--Joe]

I recently had a birthday and although I haven't collected all my loot yet (the family party will be this weekend) I do have some of it.

From son James I received this awesome card and coin:

Front. Click to see the inside.

From wife Barbara I received (in part) this card and a scrapbook:

Front. Click to see the inside.

Here are a couple pages from the scrapbook:

First page.

Next to the last page.

Daughters Kim and Xenia called me up on my birthday and sang Happy Birthday to me over the phone and asked what I wanted for my birthday dinner this weekend. They asked what James gave me then they complained that James needs to give me his presents after them from now on because they can't match him. I'm not so sure on that. I think my kids could give me lumps of coal and I'd still be just as proud and pleased.

Update: Due to popular request via email: The coin (and others) can be purchased here. The scrapbook and wife are not for sale.

Barb and I had dinner with son James and his girlfriend Kelsey tonight. We managed to get a picture of her and James (neither like pictures taken of themselves). We think they are a pretty cute couple:

On my latest trip to Idaho and back I listened to a bunch of the Vicious Circle podcasts. I'm in the middle of Vicious Circle 18 (Sucky Science Fiction Movies) right now but I thought I would mention that I was particular struck by what Breda had to say in Vicious Circle 16 (Estrogen Overload!) as she was explaining the controversy in the lesbian community between shag carpets and hardwood floors. At least I think that what she was talking about. Someone else asked about landing strips in the same context so maybe I got confused along the way somehow.

Speaking of SF... just tonight son James and I just finished watching the Stargate: Atlantis series. We liked it. I'm kind of sad that it is over. It was so much better than the three seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine we waded through before it.

This Christmas I'm going shopping for the girls at GlamGuns.com where I can pick up stuff like this:

It's never to early to learn demolition. Hard targets are no longer a challenge with the Glambo Signature Series EZ-Boom Oven. Locked out of the clubhouse? Fight back! Includes enough of her patented, quick-setting mix to make one pound of plastique and will provide your child with hours of fun. (Safety armor not included.)

My girls just loved "My little Pony" but now that they are all grown up it's time for grown up toys fully loaded with nostalgia:

The Glambo Signature Series "My Little Pony" M4A1 carbine with forward handgrip and AN-PVS4 night vision sight. This fully functional weapon fires standard 5.56mm ammunition -- great for those AR-15 fans with extra ammo lying around the house or even extra parts! (Note: the full-auto selection has been disabled in this model in favor of three-round-burst. This product cannot be shipped to California.) The perfect way to introduce your little princess to the wonders of nocturnal wet-work!

There are also Hilton Handcuffs and Martha's Mines--just the thing for stocking stuffers at the Huffman-Scott compound and bunker complex.

H/T to Kris who sent me the link in an email.

Four minutes, 365 pictures:

See also here for the best as stills.

Awesome job Xenia.

I get this type of email so you don't have to:

I'm writing looking to connect with those that took any classes with me this past Sunday.

ThreeSomes and Group Sex Play - discussion
Butt Sex - informal discussion
G-Spot and Female Ejaculation - interactive, couples only

In this context one has wonder what the meaning of "connect" is.

Regardless, the answer is "No". I did not take any of those classes last Sunday. Barb and I were doing other things near Mount Hood (don't let your dirty mind go there) that weekend.

Making the Brady Campaign people cry just a little bit longer tonight niece Lisa picked up her concealed carry permit yesterday.

Yesterday Barb and I went on a hike on Mount Hood. Some of the details are on my Twitter feed here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. A few of the pictures:

Impressive mountain but not as pretty as Mount Rainer where we spent our anniversary a few years ago.

Yes, I was open carrying the entire way. No one said anything but Barb said some people were looking.

We got as high as 7000 feet. I could have gone further but Barb had some tight muscles and was tired.

Some people were carrying skis and snow boards. We didn't actually see anyone come down the mountain on them though.

 Mount Jefferson in the background is almost 50 miles away.
Even without Barb in the picture it was a nice view.

 Lots of interesting plant life at the higher altitudes.
It appeared there had been larger trees here at one time.

I found out a few minute ago that daughter Kim has Swine flu. She was at PAX last weekend and they are reporting others got sick there too.

Son James was also there and got sick as well but hasn't been tested. He is feeling better but Kim is very sick with low blood pressure and the doctor wanting to give her an IV.

Barb spent quite a bit of time around Kim while she was sick before coming over to Seattle to see me yesterday. Tomorrow we leave to celebrate our anniversay (33 years last month) near Mount Hood and planned to do a lot of hiking. If we get sick those plans will change.

Gun bloggers are probably now very happy we are not going to be attending the Rendezvous.

Update: Kim is feeling much better this (Thursday September 10^th) morning.

Via email from daughter Xenia I found out the University of Idaho where our entire family (and Senator Larry [Wide Stance] Craig and Sarah Palin) went to school won the dubious honor of Speech code of the month:

In the University of Idaho's residence halls, "Actions and/or communication that are discriminatory, harassing or insensitive are not permitted." (Emphasis added.) This policy prohibits a staggering amount of constitutionally protected speech. In fact, this policy prohibits precisely the speech that the First Amendment exists to protect, since people typically do not seek to censor sensitive, respectful expression. Moving beyond the legal issues, speech codes like this one infantilize college students by assuming they cannot cope with any sort of offense. Do we really want to teach our students that they are entitled to seek punishment for others' insensitivity? Perhaps in a small city like Moscow, Idaho, students don't have to deal with much insensitivity on a daily basis, but should they choose to expand their horizons (say, to Philadelphia, for example), they would encounter plenty. And I think it's safe to say a Philly cop would have a good, long laugh if you asked him or her to arrest a fellow Philadelphian for hurting your feelings.

They also ban carry of firearms on campus which is a big concern of mine because my daughters (and niece) frequently walk to and from class from home. This means they can't have the best means of personal protection with them should they need it even though they may legally do so off campus.

Barb's brother says sister Susan's kids are 'nice'. Barb's kids are 'interesting'.

This video of Xenia's speech for her communications class is further evidence of 'interesting'. I think the topic was something like "An event that changed my life":

I'm a carbs based life form.

Kelsey
August 29, 2009
[Barb and I had lunch with son James and his girlfriend Kelsey today. Kelsey continues to please us with her sparkle and affection toward James. We all had fun and lots of laughs today. The following banter is just one example:

Barb: James was so sweet when he was little.
Kelsey: [to James] So when did you stop being sweet?
Joe: I think sweetness is a constant in your lifetime. If you use it up when you are little you don't have any left when you get older.
Barb: [to Joe] So when did you use up your sweetness?
Joe: [after the laughter subsided] I've just been saving it for someone else.

Also discussed were lentil cookies, how James made QOTD in his comment about them, daughters Kim and Xenia's burping contests, and Xenia's college speech and video about farts.

Barb's brother says sister Susan has nice children but Barb has interesting children.--Joe]

A couple weeks ago I wrote about evidence that niece Lisa shared genes with me.

Today she applied for a concealed weapons permit.

Which reminds me. I never mentioned that at the last Boomershoot daughter Kim was stopped by the police while driving to Orofino. I think it was a headlight that was out...

Anyway, the police officer said nice things to Kim about having a concealed weapons permit.

I'm so proud of both of them.

I want to go break the law.

Barbara Scott
August 14, 2009
When she heard of the law (essentially) banning children's books printed before 1985.
Link courtesy Say Uncle and Sebastian.
[I, of course, immediately thought of the quote by the character Jayne Cobb in Firefly, "Shiny. Let's be bad guys."--Joe]

Son James and daughter Kim invited Barb and me to go out to dinner tonight before Kim headed back to Idaho tomorrow morning. They said it was a late birthday dinner for Kim with James since he wasn't in Idaho when everyone else celebrated Kim's birthday last month.

It turns out there was another beautiful woman at the table with James when we arrived. And James and this young woman were making a lot of physical contact at the table. We were introduced to Kelsey--James' girlfriend. It turns out Kim, Xenia, and even Lisa had known about her for some time now. That explains why Kim and Xenia were putting up so much resistance to my plan to introduce James to the new team member at work I'm mentoring. Barb had plans to introduce him to the woman Kim calls "The Boomershoot Girl" who I would have found acceptable as well. But James found someone without his parents help. It is sometimes a surprise to parents that there comes a time when you don't have wipe their nose, hold their hand with crossing the street, and checking out who they socialize with.

Kelsey appears to be very bright and socially adept. James needs someone super smart in order to hold his interest and respect.

Barb and I are very pleased with his choice.

Daughter Xenia has posted some videos from her wedding.

They brought tears to my eyes.

I delivered over 1700 cardboard boxes and other supplies to the Boomershoot site today. I folded a couple hundred of the boxes and stored them away in crates. Then I visited my parents who live a couple miles away.

They asked how everyone was doing, did son Jamie (he used to be called Jamie rather than James and his grandparents still use that name) like his job okay? How long has he worked at Microsoft now? I told him everything was going fine, Xenia was a little depressed because her new husband is leaving for Iraq very soon. James, Kim, and Lisa (another grandchild) had housewarming party at James' new home near Seattle. Blah, blah, blah...

As it got late I told them I really had to leave so I could be home in time to eat dinner with Barb who would be getting off work soon. I had stood up, put my hat on and took a step or two toward the door when Dad told me to sit down because he had another story to tell. The following are his exact words as best I can remember them:

I got a call the other day. He said, "Hi Grandpa, this is Jamie. How are you doing?" I said I was doing okay and asked how he was doing.

He asked me if I could keep a secret. I told him I thought I probably could because I had keep a secret or two in my life. He said that he wasn't doing so well. He was in jail in Ottawa. I asked how that happened. He said that he and a friend had gone to a concert and when they came back over the border they were stopped, searched, and his friend had some marijuana in his backpack. They were both arrested and he needed $2800 to get out of jail.

He asked if I could help him out and I said I thought we probably could. He wanted the money sent via Western Union and he needed it right away. So your mom and I drove to Orofino went to the bank and got the money. But we started thinking that we should have asked a few more questions. "Why didn't he call you?", for example. But we went to the Western Union office at the IGA and told them what we wanted to do with the money and told them the story.

The woman there said to be really careful because there are a lot of people trying to commit fraud with Western Union. But we went ahead and sent the money but told them not to give it to anyone at the other end until we did some more checking. They gave us a toll-free number to call to okay the final delivery of the money.

We came back to the house and called the guy in Ottawa that was supposed to pick up the money for Jamie and I asked him, "How tall is Jamie?" He didn't answer. I asked him some other questions too but he didn't answer those questions either. He then got upset and asked, "Why are you asking me all these questions? Did you send the money or not?" I told him we didn't and he hung up the phone.

I called the Western Union number and they sent the money back. I called the Orofino office but they wouldn't do anything further until we came in and showed them picture ID. We didn't get back into town until yesterday and they wrote us three checks. The biggest check they can write is $1000 so they wrote us two checks for $1000 and another check for most of the remainder. It still cost us $139 but that wasn't too bad. It would have been a lot worse if it had been the whole $2800.

You, know if the police had been able to get together on that they could have caught them when they went to pick up the Western Union money. But he said he needed the money within two hours. I told him there wasn't any way I could get the money that fast. But he wanted it right away.

I asked if they had reported it to the police. He said no. And I said the FBI, if no one else, would be interested because it was Interstate wire fraud. Dad said he would let my brother Doug tell them. I asked if he had told Doug. He said no. Brother Gary was there and he piped up that this was the first time he had heard the story too. He had seen Mom and Dad leave for Orofino the other day but they told him they were going to the Builder's Supply. They did go there, but that wasn't the primary reason for the trip into town. They were trying to keep the secret for James.

I think Dad and Mom are a little embarrassed. They are 86 and 84 years old and not thinking quite as quick as they used to. We discussed lots of ways it could have been prevented from going as far as it did. I made sure they had the cell phone numbers for everyone in our family so they could call us directly to check things out. And I told them I didn't think James had ever been to a concert other than little things in the park and that he had never been to Canada let alone a part of Canada 2000+ miles away.

I'm writing this down so brother Doug can get the story as I heard it as well as getting the details from Dad again. Plus I'm sure my parents aren't the first people these criminals have tried to scam and if they aren't stopped and other people get some warning there will be others they are successfully with. This is to help warn others about the scam.

I expect there will be more to the story. There certainly still are a number of questions. Like how did they find out how my parents had a grandson by the name of Jamie? Facebook maybe? Probably something to do with the Internet. Perhaps even my blog (if you guys are reading this you should know I keep all my blog log files and will cooperate fully with law enforcement).

If anything further comes out that I can talk about I'll let you know.

Update: Mike sent me an email with this link to news that this scam is reasonably well known.

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time cleaning up the garage (not that anyone other than family could tell if they were to take a look at it even now). I sorted all the mixed caliber brass and put a batch of .40 S&W in the case cleaner. I figured I would take it out after supper. I forgot about it and instead of the usual two hours in the Dillion CV-750 it spent about 12 hours.

I now have some very shiny brass.

Update: Kris (in comments) wanted pictures.

See also the .300 Winchester Magnum brass I put in Sunday Morning:

In the United States, the agricultural system is heavily industrialized, and relies on inputs such as diesel, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and, perhaps most importantly, financing. In the current financial climate, the farmers’ access to financing is not at all assured. This agricultural system is efficient, but only if you regard fossil fuel energy as free. In fact, it is a way to transform fossil fuel energy into food with a bit of help from sunlight, to the tune of 10 calories of fossil fuel energy being embodied in each calorie that is consumed as food. The food distribution system makes heavy use of refrigerated diesel trucks, transporting food over hundreds of miles to resupply supermarkets. The food pipeline is long and thin, and it takes only a couple of days of interruptions for supermarket shelves to be stripped bare. Many people live in places that are not within walking distance of stores, not served by public transportation, and will be cut off from food sources once they are no longer able to drive.

Dmitry Orlov
February 13, 2009
Social Collapse Best Practices
[It's harvest time on the farm. I'm going to visit and drive combine for a while. It's been a couple years since I did that and it's time to satisfy that urge again.

The farm visit reminded me of the above quote. We do burn lots of fuel on the farm and of course the fuel consumption is far from over by the time the crop is delivered to the grain elevator in town.--Joe]

I was giving considerable thought to posting something about niece Lisa sharing some genes with me when she made this post. Then today she described attending her first professional baseball game.

That's pretty much how I feel about them too--only I didn't think of writing an equation for the amount of fun people are having at a baseball game. But now that she has done it I think it's a great idea.

I only went to one game which was back in 1972. It was the San Diego Padres against the Saint Louis Cardinal or Boston Red Sox or some such thing. We left after the 13^th inning when the score was still 0-0.

The rest of the family is packing up to go camping and they will soon discover I'm trying to make a blog post instead of helping them.

A QOTD should show up later today but I'm not sure if I will get others in the queue before I am dragged away, deep into the wilderness of North Central Idaho.

Via an email from Barron (don't think that I had missed this I saw it before Barron sent the email but he does deserve some credit) we find that Joe's Cure for Everything also improves the genetics of your offspring:

Daily sex can improve the genetic quality of a man’s sperm and could raise his chances of fathering a child, research has suggested.

Couples who are trying for a baby are often advised to have sex every other day, so that the man’s sperm count has time to recover, but scientists in Australia have discovered that this may lower some men’s fertility.

While abstaining from sex for a few days raises the sperm count, quality can be damaged if a man ejaculates too infrequently. A study at Sydney IVF, a centre for infertility treatment, has found that daily sex for a seven-day period substantially improves the genetic quality of sperm, without lowering sperm counts enough to impair fertility.

Barb and I sometimes wonder how we got such (nearly) perfect children. In addition to the superior genes from their parents and the awesome job we did rearing them it appears that our active sex life prior to their conception may have contributed as well.

You are welcome James, Kimberly, and Xenia. It was our pleasure to have you.

I'm finally settled into my new hidden, underground, hardened, bunker well enough to make a few blog posts. That doesn't mean I'm all caught up reading everyone else's blogs and commenting on all the things I would have liked to comment on.

It was more work than I expected. It's amazing how much stuff a pack-rat can accumulate in 3.5 years in one place. I did throw a bunch of stuff away--which helps some in the new place.

It turns out it's a 15 minute walk to work instead of a 10 minute walk but that isn't bad. It makes it easier for Barb to have lunch with me when she is over here too.

Barb did a lot of the work and has her nest in the corner mostly configured the way she wants it. We still have to buy a few things that we shared in the common kitchen in the old bunker.

One thing that is surprising is how much moisture is in the air of the new bunker. I never needed to use the dehumidifier in the old one. This one started smelling wet after just a couple days. I turned on the dehumidifier and it's pulling out about two gallons of water from the air each day. The humidity dropped from 60% to, as of this minute, 48%. This is probably acceptable.

After learning that the Bellevue police have been fully informed on open carry I decided to do that a bit on an experimental basis during the move and then extended it into my normal activies in the parking lot of not only the bunker but of banks and the mall. There have been no problems so far. I think a couple of teenage girls in the parking lot noticed as they and (I presume) their mother were moving in nearby. The mother gave me a smile and said, "Hi" as she got into her pickup the next time I made a trip with my arms full of boxes from the Jeep in the parking lot down the stairs to the bunker. But other than that there have not been any reactions that I have noticed.

Tonight another women was moving in and she might have seen the gun as well. She smiled and said hi before she had an opportunity to see it. I didn't look back after I walked by so I don't know she did see it or had a reaction. The license plate on her car is from California so she might not think it was so cool to see someone packing in public! If I see her running for cover and/or concealment when I come to the surface I'll know she has an adverse opinion of gun owners.

I'm in the process of moving to another hidden underground hardened bunker. My old one was compromised due to multiple contacts with the police through no fault of my own.

Well...that's not the only version of the story. It's also true that the rents have been dropping in the area and I can get an underground bunker for only slightly more money than I'm currently paying and is walking distance from my work instead of a 20 minute (assuming no traffic--yeah, right!) drive.

Until the move is complete and I'm all settled in blogging will be a little lighter than normal. I expect to be done by next Monday.

Xenia has more wedding photos up. These are from the professional photographer.

Population pre-event, fifteen million. Population post-event, ten million and dropping. Four Operatives. My share of the initial casualty count was one million, two hundred and fifty fucking thousand people. The number was meaningless except as a strategic calculation and a sick, horrible comment percolated thorough my thoughts.

I. Am. A. Weapon. Of. Mass. Destruction.

Kenneth Chinran
A character in the book The Weapon, Page 440.
By Michael Z. Williamson
[A few days after I made this post on April 1 2008 Freehold and The Weapon showed up on my desk at work courtesy of Tony. As Jim said, "Joe, if you haven't read Freehold and The Weapon by Michael Z. Williamson you really ought to, they describe your 'April Fools' scenario almost to a T."

I don't have much time for reading dead tree stuff but I put these books on the top of my stack. I finished Freehold in about three or four months and I currently have only a handful of pages left on The Weapon. They are very good books. Had I decided to take the time they would have been the type of book I would have read straight through stopping only to tell Barb to leave me alone--I really didn't need to eat or sleep yet.

Being an engineer I would have liked more detail on some things. But being a good engineer I can figure out the details for myself should I have the need.

Sleep well.--Joe]

I went to the doctor for a minor procedure yesterday. I just had my physical last Thursday and for some stupid reason I didn't think I would be asked for my weight and other vitals again. Wrong.

I was carrying my usual self-defense tools, utility tools, and a double handful of keys (how can this be? Yet, I can go through them one by one and claim a need for all of them) rather than putting them in a fanny pack I could dump quickly while on the scales. I told the nurse she didn't want my weight. It would be about 15 pounds more than last week. "17", she corrected.

Then she wanted my blood pressure. I was wearing a unbuttoned light-weight denim shirt over a t-shirt with my STI Eagle 5.1 (link is to the very similar 5.1) with a spare 18 round magazine on the off side in between. She had some trouble getting the cuff to go over my arm and shirt so I took the denim shirt off and tried to drop it part way down in such a way that it still covered my gun. It went all the way to the exam table and left my gun fully exposed in the Kramer IWB #2 holster. The nurse had to see it. She was working with the cuff just a few inches from the gun but she didn't comment or stare. She did her business with the vitals and other stuff then left saying the doctor would be in shortly.

After many minutes the doctor was still not there and I became concerned. I thought maybe they were waiting for the police to arrive or something. The doctor has a bit of an accent and I wasn't sure where it was from. I thought she might be from England and I worried she would refuse to see me. Bitter tried to reassure me but I wasn't all that reassured. After a few more minutes she came in and there was no indication of concern about the gun on my hip. Whew!

As she prepped for the procedure she made small talk and I had a good opportunity to ask about her accent. South African she said. Ahhh! Much, much more gun friendly than England. Maybe that partially explains it. I didn't ask.

I'm with Robb, I expected something once I lost concealment. But nothing? I guess that's good.

Dan Rather did Fake but Accurate so I now present Factual but Misleading.

The two pictures below were taken within a short time of each other on Saturday before Xenia's wedding. Xenia is looking in the direction of her husband to be, John, who is shown in the picture below hers.

Draw your own conclusions about what these pictures mean.

I'll let Xenia and/or John explain the straight story.

Getting married in about 32 minutes.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
On Twitter at 1328 PDT June 13, 2009
[It went well with only some very, very minor glitches.

Leaving the bridal party preparation room. The wedding started at 1400.

Barb and I escorting Xenia down the "aisle".
Photo by Amy Huffman.

Xenia and John
Photo by Amy Huffman

Bridesmaids Hannah and Becky. Best-man James. Matron of Honor Kim.
Photo by Amy Huffman.

John and Xenia leaving in their "getaway car". A '69 Corvette.

At 1954 PDT I received a text message from Xenia, "We made it! The room has a beautiful view!"

Another one leaves the nest. [heavy sigh]--Joe]

Xenia is getting married tomorrow and I have been pretty busy with things. There won't be much blogging tomorrow either.

They will be getting married near a tree planted by Teddy Rooevelt.

Xenia and John, with Caleb and Kim in the background at the rehersal this evening.

The wedding is on the Adminstration Building lawn on the University of Idaho campus. The list of people in our family who have attended the university is rather large and includes:

• My father
• My brother Doug
• Niece Amy
• Niece Lisa
• Barb's mother
• Barb's sister Nancy
• Me
• Barb
• Son James
• Daughter Kim
• Daughter Xenia

We have roots there. And don't forget Sarah Palin attended the Unversity of Idaho as well, but she isn't family.

I probably haven't mentioned my daughter Dorothy before. That's because she spends most of her time in Oz:

More pictures here.

Awesome job Xenia.

Barb, Kim, son-in-law Caleb, and I went boat camping over the weekend. We left Friday morning and got back yesterday.

After setting up camp on Friday we noticed some rocks up on the opposite side of the lake that we thought would be a nice place to hike and take some pictures. Here is an aerial view. In the picture below, on the upper right, you can see the rocks:

View from our campsite.

On Saturday morning we packed up our cameras, some water, and walkie-talkies. Barb said it looked like too tough of a climb and stayed with our old dogs who would have to been carried (little lap sitters, they are more like cats than dogs anyway). We took the boat across the lake and found a sandy beach to tie the boat up to:

Kim ready to hop off the boat for our hike up the hill.

On the way up the hill we found at least two sets of bones from deer that had been considered food by some other animals (photos by Kim):

It was steep, there was no trail except for occasional game trails, and I had to stop, rest, and drink some water a few times. But it was a nice view when we got to the top (photo by Kim): 

Caleb inspects the edge.

View from the top.

We called back to camp and told Barb we had made it and asked that she come out of the trees near the tents to where we could see her. It was about a half mile away but I used a telephoto lens (300 mm) and took her picture:

Barb (upper left quadrant in blue) near our campsite from 1/2 mile away.

That was all nice and good, but then there was this bird that started circling us:

It was a Turkey Vulture. None of us had ever heard of vultures in Idaho and certainly not this far north in Idaho. But there it was. Circling and getting pretty darned close.

We took some more pictures of the view:

Elk Creek on Dworshak reservoir.

Kim and Caleb from the top of the Rocky Cliff.

We then noticed there were five vultures circling us. I could only get four in the frame at once. It was all a bit surreal--almost like in the cartoons except we weren't in the desert and we didn't feel like we were near death:

Vultures circling us.

Reading about them on Wikipedia, I discovered they are one of the few birds that forage for food by smell. We were probably more than a little smelly from the climb up the hill but I don't think we smelled dead so I have to conclude Xenia has the better hypothesis. I must be getting old.

They probably said, "There's the old guy. He'll keel over first. Dibs!"

Xenia Huffman-Scott
May 25, 2009
[After hearing that when Kim, Caleb, and I climbed to the top of a cliff on Saturday there were five vultures circling us. Pictures tomorrow.--Joe]

Xenia and Kim got their grades. Xenia just finished her sophmore year in college and Kim her freshman year. They got all A's except for one B.

Barb and I are very proud.

I've been on vacation the last couple of days and have not had time for blogging. Tomorrow we are going camping and won't have an Internet connection or even cell phone service.

I've posted some QOTDs that may or may not show up on the appropriate days.

I'll get back into things Monday or Tuesday.

Part of what I spent part of my vacation doing was fixing my parents boat so we could take it out camping to some boat accessible only campsites. It had a heating problem. When the engine was running at slow speed it would quickly get hot. At high speed it was fine. Brother Doug and I hypothesized there must be a bad hose that was feeding water from the stern drive (it's in inboard/outboard Mercruiser) to the engine. The boat doesn't have that many hours on it but it is 36 years old.

Kim, Caleb and I took the stern drive off and found the hose we knew must exist. It as as hard as a rock and it must have took us about two hours to get it off. It came off in dozens of pieces. Here are some of the larger ones:

It didn't help that the ends of the hose were only accessible with our finger tips or tools. Getting a clear view, with light and tools on the object was impossible.

Doug happened to be in town and called just before he returned. We gave him a parts list and he picked up the hose, gaskets, O-rings, and a few other things we needed and we started putting the boat back together.

That took hours too. Just putting the hose on must have taken an hour by itself.

We didn't get home until about 21:45. We were tired and covered in grease.

Next time, 35 years from now with the hose goes bad again, I advise our kids and grandkids to take it in and have an expert fix it. We must have put 25 man-hours into it. It wasn't worth a day of my vacation for the dollars saved by doing it ourselves.

I'm not the only Joe with a hardened underground bunker (as Lyle calls it). Joe Biden has one too:

Vice President Joe Biden, well-known for his verbal gaffes, may have finally outdone himself, divulging potentially classified information meant to save the life of a sitting vice president.

According to a report, while recently attending the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, an annual event where powerful politicians and media elite get a chance to cozy up to one another, Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a secret bunker under the old U.S. Naval Observatory, which is now the home of the vice president.

...

According to the report, Biden "said a young naval officer giving him a tour of the residence showed him the hideaway, which is behind a massive steel door secured by an elaborate lock with a narrow connecting hallway lined with shelves filled with communications equipment." 

I couldn't be in Phoenix with all the cool kids so I went to all the stores in town that sold ammunition and/or components. Here is what I found:

• Walmart
  • Shotgun primers only
  • A little bit of brass and I bought all the .45 ACP brass they had
  • Virtually no handgun ammo
  • Virtually no powder
• Tri-State
  • Lots of rifle and shotgun ammo
  • Lots of .40 S&W ammo
  • Three boxes of .45 ACP ammo but I bought two of them adhering to Tamara's etiquette
  • Don't carry reloading components
• Big Five
  • Don't carry reloading components
  • Virtually no handgun ammo
  • Some rifle ammo
• Sure Shot
• Lots of powder
• Lots of used 9mm and .40 S&W brass
• Shotgun primers only
• Virtually no handgun ammo
• Some rifle ammo

About half of Tri-State's rifle ammo and in the foreground 2/3s of the .45 ACP ammo for sale in the city.

Apparently Barb called ahead for me. But I didn't see any gun I really wanted except for the AR-50A1 and there was no indication Barb would allow me to buy the ammo to feed it.

Sure Shot had lots of powder and 9mm and .40 S&W brass.

Over the years I've been reading that a little bit of alcohol is good for your health. I, basically, don't drink at all so it could be said that I was risking my health by not drinking. Not wanting to risk my health over something that was fairly easily remedied I decided maybe I would drink just a little bit every once in a while.

Red wine seems to get lots of nods from the medical researchers so I bought a bottle a couple months ago. I opened it up and had a small glass, maybe six ounces, tonight with my dinner.

I then started working on the mathematics for a nifty new way to do range estimation. I had an exceedingly difficult time doing the simplest of math problems. It wasn't even algebra. It was simple ratios. Things that are normally intuitively obvious to me required that I work out several example in order to find the general equation. I think I finally got it but it must have taken me at least four times as long as normal and I don't really trust my work.

No more wine for me except when it's strictly a social situation. Why drink if it's going to make me brain dead for the evening?

Via Joe D. on an email list:

A Mother's Love

Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read it. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.

This is so beautiful.....

A little boy says to his mother, "Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?"

His mother replied, "Don't even go there! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!"

This reminds me of the wise-ass response I used to give after our son James was born. It used to go something like this:

[Barb and I meet some friend or relative with our new-born son. They smile and look at him, then the smile fades to a look of confusion.]

Friend: Why does he have blond hair and blue eyes when both of you have dark hair and hazel eyes?

Joe: We don't know for sure. We are just glad he didn't turn out black or Asian.

Barb: Joseph! That's not funny! We both have a sibling with blond hair and blue eyes and both of his grandfathers have light colored hair and blue eyes.

After a few occurrences the exchange changed. It then went something like this:

Friend: Why does he have blond hair and blue eyes when both of you have dark hair and hazel eyes?

Joe: We don't [thump] You hit me!

Barb: You deserved it.

Last night as Barb and I were in bed preparing to watch a DVD on my laptop computer I scanned Google News. There was a headline which read Couple arrested for sex on lawn at Windsor Castle. I passed it over but Barb read it out loud. So I asked, "Did you want to read that?" Her immediate and matter of fact response was, "Do they have pictures?"

That's my wife.

The following should be self-explanatory.

Boomershoot (http://www.boomershoot.org) is an annual long range precision rifle event held in North Central Idaho. Each year soldiers from Fort Lewis attend and for two days prior to the main event help teach Boomershoot participants the science and art of accurate long range shooting. Some of those soldiers later went on to Iraq and Afghanistan and were injured and some were killed.

In October of 2007 my wife and I met Chuck Ziengenfuss at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno. He told us of his injuries and how Soldiers’ Angels helped him. It turns out that it was the second time my wife had met Chuck. She had also met at Walter Reed when she was visiting our nephew Jason Scott who was wounded in Iraq and also benefited from your help.

At Boomershoot this year we held a raffle with the intent that half of the proceeds would go to raffle participants and the other half going to Project Valour-IT. After the event someone quietly came up to me and gave me three $100 bills to give to you.

Below are the reference number and other information from my bank that is mailing you a check of the proceeds. If it does not arrive as expected please let me know.

-joe-

-----

http://blog.joehuffman.org/

http://www.boomershoot.org/

http://www.modernballistics.com/

I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.

Rebecca West
[I remember having a similar conversation with Barbara either before we were married or shortly thereafter. I told her that as near as I could tell the way people defined "a lady" was in terms of the things she wasn't allowed to do and "men" in the things he did.

But that isn't why I posted West's quote. I post it because it reminds me of what people call "reasonable regulation" of firearms. Their ideas of "reasonable regulation" appear to be based on the assumption that gun owners are, or should be, doormats.--Joe]

This is an open letter to all the talk show hosts, pundits, party hacks, cheaters, scumbags, sick twisted freaks (you know who you are) and pro-freedom bloggers.  We could spend the rest of our lives cataloging the outrageous behavior of nasty, America-hating, ignorant, self-loathing, cultist, freedom-hating, anti-human, leftist politicians including Progressive Republicans.  We know they're bad, OK?  If there are three or four people who still don't get it, that's all right.

I'd rather try to figure out how we're going to get some principled Americans nominated so we're not always forced to choose between bad and worse-- between more socialism slower, and more socialism faster.  This last national election was a real puker.  The Republican Party is, at the moment, just as lost, dumbfounded, selfish and clueless as ever.  They're a herd of does, staring blankly into the headlights of an on-coming truck, and the worst part of it is; they don't even suspect that they're clueless.  They in the Republican leadership think they have some really clever answers, which amount to more of what got us into this mess.  I recently heard it described as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  That fits very well.  The Republicans have some really super great, super ultra smart ideas for rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  No really, listen...  (all the while we have this simple, proven model for success, and it's being ignored.)

We need to change that.  You need to change it.  I need to change it.  There isn't anyone else.  I suppose, since it's up to us, it will have to be on the local level for most of us, being as we're not billionaires.  That's OK.  We can still do what we can do.  A lot of people are jazzed up right now.  They just need somewhere to start.  Well, pick a place, a local issue or a local politician that needs a hand (or a very public spanking) and get to it!

That there are clueless people is not the issue.  There will always be the clueless.  They'll sit on the sidelines, worrying about who likes them and who doesn't, trying to figure out where the "center" is so they can position themselves in it and claim superiority for having done so, while someone else does the lifting.  Are you a sitter or a lifter?

I have a bad feeling that things could come to blows before this government is brought under control, and I really don't want that to happen.  Do you?  This country is far too important in the grand scheme of things.

And with that; I don't have much more to say on here, other than to repeat myself or talk about the weather and what I did last weekend, unless it's to tell you what I'm doing on the local level to influence politics.  Now I think I have some calls to make.

(Note that I placed this in nearly every one of Joe's categories. It's relevant to everything we do and every opportunity we want for our kids in the future)

I won't be attending the Second Amendment Blog Bash and NRA convention next month. I just sent my regrets to the organizer.

Xenia's getting married in June and there are a lot of other things that are sucking up time and money this year so I just can't make it happen.

Last year I had a wonderful time (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for examples). Nearly every time my wife or kids talked to me on the phone they commented on "how happy you sound". I think Barb got a little jealous that I sounded happier to be with other bloggers than be with her. Yeah, I had a really, really great time.

Maybe next year. For this year the Boomershoot Gun Blogger Day next Thursday, with 11 gun bloggers attending, is going to have to be my main fix for the year. Even the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in September is out.

The world is kinda messed up right now. Economic conditions are scary. We have a socialist government in D.C. that is apparently working toward the destruction of the capitalism and our freedom. It's hard to understand what is really going on. Barb and I have spent a lot of time on the issues and this weekend she got me a card, "Just because it is so appropriate."

The front.

The inside.

I gave a friend of Barb and mine a ride to/from Idaho this weekend. She was visiting her boyfriend who was working on job site in Pullman, Washington for a few weeks. Pullman being about 10 miles from my home and on the way made it no big deal. There was a minor complication in that there was "some festival" in Pullman and all the hotels were full and his company had to put them up in a Clarkston for Friday and Saturday night. That added an hour to my trip Friday night but it wasn't that big of a deal to me. Friends do that for friends. On the way back he was going to be in a Pullman motel and it would take zero extra time.

Over the weekend we learned the "festival" was actually "Mothers Weekend" at both Washington State University in Pullman and the University of Idaho in Moscow. So it filled up all the motels in both towns.

Barb working in the hospital reported that emergency room staff say "Mothers Weekend" is always the busiest of the year. They come in drunk, disorderly, and disgusting (a new meaning for triple D as applied to women). It was also reported that condom sales go up 300%*.

After I picked up our friend yesterday and began our trip back to Seattle I reported my findings on the "festival". Our friend burst into laughter that seemed just a little more enthusiastic that was appropriate. She then told me that her boyfriend and co-workers had also found out it was "Mothers Weekend" but they called it "MILF Weekend".

Update: More confirmation of Mom's Gone Wild in Moscow.

Update2: Via an IM from Kris:

If they combined Mothers weekend and boomershoot (on the same weekend)... "ok sweetie, you have fun with the rest of the mothers... I'm going shootin' with the boys "

This was after Kris informed me he probably wouldn't be able to attend Boomershoot this year. It sounds like I need to "sweeten the pot" a little bit for him next year if I want him to come. I'm all for him having a good time, but I'm not going to go that far just to get him to come.

*I questioned the source of the condom sales numbers and Barb asked around at the hospital. "Everyone" had heard it and believed it to be true but no one knew where it came from. I suspect it is an urban myth but it makes a good story.

I know that all of you as conscientious citizens want to protect our people. We need to band together and demand that the government protect us. We must demand that all chairs, even couches and sofas, are required to have safety belts, and that everyone be required to use them. If someone is caught not using their safety belt they should be required to pay a $1000 fine and with a three strike rule attached that on your third strike not wearing a safety belts that the perpetrator goes to jail. Repeated offenders should be taken to jail, because by not wearing their seatbelts they are endangering themselves, and as a community it is our responsibility to protect and care for each other.

Kimberly Frederick
We Must Protect Our Citizens
March 13, 2009
[Daughter Kim got an A on this piece of satire. I read the notes the prof wrote on the paper so I know he knew it was satire. I'm a little bit afraid some dimwit in government (but I repeat myself) will take the idea and run with it as a campaign issue. But I figure that if I put it up on the web with it clearly labeled as satire then we have a chance of embarrassing whoever might try something like that.--Joe]

I just got back from the theater.

Son James loaned me the book in early January (I think). Then nearly every time he saw me he would tell me how many weeks and days I had left to finish the book before the movie came out. I finished the book last night so we went to see the movie tonight. It was the second viewing for James.

I was a little disappointed in the book. "What's the big deal about?", summed up my opinion. Okay, yeah, there are some good characters and the twist at the end is interesting. But it's not that good.

The movie was awesome. It wouldn't have been quite so awesome if James hadn't insisted I read the book first. The attention to book details in the movie was incredible. And it's the type of story that doesn't quite make sense until you go through it a second time knowing that many of the little details have a lot of significance.

When in Moscow I buy my gas there:

Pullman police arrested a 20-year-old man overnight for allegedly shooting another man in the face.

...

Pullman Police and the Moscow Police Department worked together to find Lawrence, who was arrested at a Tesoro gas station in Moscow a half hour after the shooting.

Just because they are across the state line from each other doesn't mean they don't have excellent cooperation. My understanding is the Washington State University Police (in Pullman), Whitman County (Washington), and Latah County (Idaho) police also work closely with the Pullman and Moscow city police. I've met a few of them, shoot with some of them and occasionally some of the sniper teams attend Boomershoot. All of seem to be good guys. Perhaps a little grumpy when one of their fellow officers gets shot (pictures here) however.

A fellow gun blogger who said it wasn't that good a match to his blog sent me this link.

Fortunetelling has always been an inseparable part of the history of mankind. People always wanted to look in their own future and unravel the mystery of the human character. Fortune-tellers use a variety of things for their activities: cards, dice, coins, wax, salt and many other tools.

Sternomancy is a divination practice which involves the reading of markings on the area of the human body from the breast to the belly. This way of fortunetelling can be used to unveil the character of a woman by reading the shape of her breasts. Sternomancy was used in fortunetelling in the 18th century in Spain. Nowadays, sexologists say that the bosom of a woman identifies her character even more than Zodiac signs do.

People usually compare the shape of women’s breasts with fruit, berries and even vegetables.

As I read the opening paragraphs I considered a career change. Fortune telling by examination of women's breast and nipples? If there's money to be made then sign me up! But as I read further I discovered there wasn't any advocacy of physical contact with the subject matter. If it's only looking then I don't see it as that big of a gain over the free porn available on the 'net. And besides I have a suspicion that Barb would frown on my new career choice. I once considered becoming a lawyer and she said she would divorce me if I sank that low. Although I'm pretty sure fortune telling via the examination of women's breast wouldn't be ranked as low as being a lawyer I'm pretty sure I'd have to suffer through some icy stares every once in a while.

I'd read some of her work in the past and been impressed. Brigid's home on the range - guns and gourmet cooking from a small homestead in the Midwest.  Oleg Volk posted a link to her site recently.  Most of what she writes comes out like poetry.  This was very good;

I am not a tree hugger. Not for me the granola fueled protests to save the spotted owl. Growing up in the mountains of the wilderness, I appreciate a tree in the form of a pile of two by fours as well as in it's original state. I do not think the trees are the home of sentient druid spirits, nor do the trees speak to me; but I am pleased to take shelter under or in their branches, reinforced in the smallness of my form next to their trunks, smiling as the branches separate me from the chatter of the world that echoes outside the woods. There, branches are what conceal me as I wait for my prey, like any animal, participating in the cycle of the food chain. I am an omnivore and those less equipped than I, forget that at their peril. It is the bringing home of sustenance. Bringing home, not a trophy so much as a sign of provision, that those that work and strive will be rewarded with a full belly and warmth.

It's a nice change from reading about the downfall of our Republic.  She's a prolific writer too, so you're in good shape if you need a lot of distraction.

You may have noticed that I didn't post much on Saturday.

Saturday was the first time in many years that Barb and I have been able to spend Valentines day together. We had lunch with son James but most of the time we were alone together in my hardened underground bunker. We exchanged cards, gifts, and other things. I won't share all the details--as it is I'm likely to get another TMI claim by someone as it is but here are the cards she gave me. Click on the card to see the inside of the card. The inside may not be safe for work. I have so much trouble figuring that type of stuff out.

I'd post the pictures of the card I got Barb here as well but it's definitely over the NSF threshold.

See also daughter Xenia's Valentine's Day post.

I woke up early this morning after having a dream.

Today is the day I may get a chance to ask Senator Leahy a question or two. In my dream I asked my question, didn't like his response, and my follow-up question was a bit hostile. As I was leaving the confernce center a couple of men in suits tried to stop me. They were unsuccessful. Things for me went downhill from there.

I must avoid being hostile. I think I can say nearly the same words with a smile and a friendly voice and everyone will have a much happier day.

Update: I have written down the exact words I want to use.

A few days ago at Georgetown University you suggested creating a "Truth Commission" to investigate constitutional excesses of the previous administration. Do you still think that is a good idea and do you think such a commission should also investigate the excesses of congress and the current administration in regards to violations of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments in the Bill of Rights who have exceeded the powers enumerated in the constitution?

Follow up questions may involve Just One Question and/or reference to 18 USC 242.

Kris probably won't think I'm young enough to be Scarlett O'Hara's father and Barb doesn't think I'm old enough.

But I assure you this is my daughter and it's obvious she is Scarlett.

Daughter Kim informed me the other day that the University of Idaho has nominated her for an "Outstanding Freshman" award.

Barb and I are very proud of her.

We already knew she was outstanding but it's nice to find out others think so too.

Yesterday Barb and I went on drive. This Thursday Barb has a class in Bellingham so we drove up there ahead of time to make sure she can find it without difficulty during morning traffic. It was a nice day and it was a pleasant drive and we got a chance to talk about a bunch of stuff rather than sitting at our respective desks with our hobbies.

Just prior to leaving we stopped at Joe's Sports, Outdoor, and More (no relation). I was looking for some .45 ACP brass so I can reload for my Gun Blog 45. Midway is out of stock. The shelf with the brass was nearly empty with only a couple bags with some 7mm brass hanging from a hook. The powder and primer shelves were nearly empty as well. Hmmm...

On the way back from Bellingham we stopped at Kesselring Gun Shop in Burlington. The parking lot was FULL. And this is on the same weekend that WAC had their big show in Puyallup! I found a narrow spot to park between a building and a pickup that was parked such that it was blocking a private road. We went inside to find the store was packed. Every aisle was crowded. There was just barely enough room to move between all the people. I found the brass I was looking for at a reasonable price (considering), paid for it and we left.

One has to wonder if we had put that much money and effort into defeating Obama in November would we have succeeded? Being reactive seldom is better than proactive but that just isn't the way human nature works. And the money gun owners are spending on firearms, ammo, and accessories could have gone into the election process and ended up in the hands of mainstream media who are one of our worst enemies and instead of into tools of freedom in our own hands.

When it comes to turning off lights around the house, my wife is a nag (not as a member of the National Association of Gals, but one who incessantly nitpicks on her own).  "You're wasting electricity" she will say, approximately thirty eight thousand times per day (give or take).  Similarly, the political nags (not NAGs) are ordering us to use CF lights instead of the tungsten filament jobs, saying we're destroying the very planet with our light bulbs.

If we cast aside all arguments about rights and liberty (and if we have a chance to toy with other people as a means of boosting our self esteem, why wouldn't we?) there is the issue of home heating during the cooler months.  I gathered my family together, and explained this to them in terms anyone can understand;

If you have a 100 Watt light going full time inside a heated living space, that's 100 fewer Watts, on average, that the home heating system has to put out. You have shifted 100 Watts of your energy use from the heater to the light bulb.  Your total usage is exactly the same.  Same goes if you leave the refrigerator open a little longer, or the television on all night.  If you're heating that space anyway, it makes no significant difference.

Say I have a 10 KW electric furnace.  I could hook up 100 light bulbs, each rated at 100 Watts, through a relay to my thermostat (assuming I had the proper wiring) thereby taking all the heating load off the furnace and placing it on the light bulbs.  Will my heating bill change?  Maybe, and maybe not.  It would depend on the distribution of the lights within the house, the quality of the insulation on my furnace duct work in the cold space under the house, and a few other minor variables.  Maybe I'd save a few pennies, and maybe I'd loose a few pennies.  If you have a gas furnace the situation is still the same-- you're just trading back and forth between gas and electricity, but your total energy usage is going to be about the same.

The situation is completely different in the summer of course.  The waste heat from your TV, fridge, etc., is of no use to you.  If you're running an air conditioner, anything else in your house that produces heat is causing the AC to work harder.

In both cases, insulation, windows, door seals, and the structure's orientation and exposure to the sun will overwhelm the other issues.

So we can stop nitpicking each other.

My primary route to and from Idaho from my hardened underground bunker in the Seattle area is via I-90 which goes over Snoqualmie Pass. The pass has been closed since, I think, Tuesday evening. My alternate route over the Cascades is via Stevens and then Blewett Passes. Currently Stevens is open but Blewett is closed.

And as Phil pointed out yesterday I can't go south to Portland and then up the Columbia because of flooding on I-5. Plus it adds about four hours to my trip which makes it impractical for a weekend visit to Idaho.

Crews are supposedly working around the clock to clear Snoqualmie pass and repair the flooding damage to I-90 in the vicinity of the pass. I may be able to get over by Friday night but I won't know until at least mid-morning.

For those of you that have a personal interest because you or a friend need to get over Snoqualmie on a regular basis I've created a tiny URL for the text based version (best for cell phone browsers) that is easy to remember http://www.tinyurl.com/snoqpass.

Update: Snoqualmie Pass is now (15:30 Friday) open in both directions. Other than some flooding and missing sections of a few roads near home in Idaho, which shouldn't really be a problem, things look like a "Go". Follow my Twitters this evening if you find yourself so bored with your own life that you think mine is more interesting than yours.

Barb and I just finished watching Valkyrie. It was a good movie. Barb buried her head in my shoulder for a few scenes but it was interesting and to the best of my knowledge historically accurate.

More historical details and information on numerous other plots to kill Hitler can be found in the book Plotting Hitler's Death which I highly recommend.

See also this post for more information on the content of this great book.

She is so creative.

She forgot to turn the laser off before she put it back in the case however. I lost a few hours of battery life but it wasn't that big of a deal.

Xenia is the artist of the family and does good work:

Barbara's Christmas Present from Xenia

Merry Christmas to you all.  Let’s all enjoy it.  The Grinch is coming to town on January 20th, and we don’t yet know which presents he’s going to try to take away.

Sebastian of Snowflakes in Hell
December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
[I was tempted to use something I got in email which was more in line with my true feelings, but little overdone, about Christmas:

Having returned from my customary drive around the neighborhood shouting "Bah, Humbug" at everyone, with a reindeer dummy strapped to the car, Merry Christmas to all!

But I didn't want to go through the bother of sending an email to get permission to use their name and Sebastain captures my mood a little bit better.--Joe]

Quote me. I said something clever earlier today.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
December 18, 2008

Borrowing a concept from daughter Xenia I present Timewarp Tuesday:

My parents, myself, and my two younger brothers.

My trip from Moscow Idaho back to my hardened underground bunker in Kirkland today took 75 minutes longer than usual. There were some very slick roads in eastern Washington. It got better and I was able to go normal speeds from Washtucna until Vantage when I-90 had a broken snow floor again. Here are pictures of just some of the incidents I witnessed:

At Dusty. Traffic was rerouted around the accident.

Close up of the Dusty incident.

Forecasts were that I would have to drive 200+ miles in heavy snow between Redmond and Home.

It wasn't too bad. About 20 miles of compact snow and ice with the rest of the trip bare and wet. West bound I-90 was closed for a while with vehicles backed up for about 20 miles but I was headed east and wasn't really affected.

I frequently get comments from envious guys who when finding out I'm married to a physical therapist say something about "the massages". I just smile and let them believe what they want to believe. More about those "massages" later.

I don't believe I've posted about this before but when I had lunch with her last Saturday at her office I saw a sign on the wall above her desk. It brought the whole issue into sharp focus.

The sign said:

The Ten "NEVERS"
in
Physical Therapy

1. Never say you can't, because you'll do it anyway.
2. Never say, "It's easy", because we'll just make it hard.
3. Never say, "I want to go home", because you'll just stay longer.
4. Never lose count because you'll start at one again.
5. Never complain because we never listen.
6. Never argue because you'll never win.
7. Never scream or cry because it only encourages us.
8. Never look like you're enjoying it because we'll put a stop to it.
9. Never hold your breath because if you pass out and die, we have to fill out the paperwork.
10. Never lie or cheat because we know the truth, and you'll live to regret it.

For most people that is just a hint. You don't really understand what it means until you have been married to one for a few years. Here is another hint; when asked what the P.T. stands for on their badges they frequently give one of two answers:

• Physical Terrorist
• Pain and Torture

Now we go into the specifics of being married to one.

If you think of "massage" when you think of a physical therapist then you obviously don't know what friction massage (also called Cross Friction Massage-CFM) is. The previous link says:

Where most massage methods use some form of skin lubrication, CFM uses none so that the finger (usually one, but sometimes two) doing the massage is not sliding across the skin, but rather is taking the skin with it, allowing for the force to be transmitted directly to the deep tissue being treated. The motion is small, maybe an inch or so, back and forth "across the grain" of the tissue, so you have to have some idea which direction the structure normally runs. The amount of pressure should be moderate, which will often cause some amount of discomfort, but this should never be too painful.

"Too painful" is a technical term which means the patient's adrenaline reaches a level such they can break out of the restraints. Furthermore what they do is push you right up to the edge of "too painful" and hold you at a plateau until the area starts to goes numb. They keep asking if it has gone numb yet and as it starts feeling a little bit better they press harder to keep the pain at the same level. They claim this is just to "treat the deeper tissue". The veracity of this claim depends upon what your definition of "treatment" is. All observable data indicates that "treatment" consists of destroying your pain receptors through over stimulation.

You might ask how I know all this. Good question. It turns out that in order to keep her Pain and Torture license up to date your local friendly Physical Terrorist has to take classes on a regular basis. Guess who she experiments on before she starts charging money for practicing her evil trade. It's me. In the early years of our marriage she would come home from a class and coyly ask something like, "Didn't you say your shoulder was a little sore last week?" I would answer truthful -- and regret it. Since then I learned the wisdom of Oscar Wilde when he said, "The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception a necessity."

A contest with a thinking being is never over and a little white lie about all my body parts being in perfect working order was only a minor speed bump to someone who has made their career P/T. One time when she came home from class she had a little box with wires coming out of it she wanted to experiment with me as the subject. I have a couple degrees in electrical engineering and I know what can be done with a box with wires coming out of it. I also hate electricity going through my body. I mean just a little bit of it which most people think of as "I can barely feel it" makes me very irritated. If someone else were to describe the sensation as "a little tingle" it will infuriate me. I asked if the box had batteries or plugged into the wall outlet. She informed me that it had "little batteries". Apparently she didn't realize the only word I needed to hear was "battery" and "little" was superfluous unless she was talking "little" on a microscopic scale. I mean, I could make a device that would kill a horse with a watch battery if I wanted to and her trying to downplay the part about electricity being involved was only increasing my suspicion.

When her telling me how much it didn't hurt when it was used on her, and how it felt "kind of strange" only caused my teeth to grind she broke out the sad eyes and looked like she was about to cry. I softened a little bit and she said she would put it at the lowest level and slowly increase the intensity and as soon as I wanted to stop she would immediately stop. I said I wanted to stop now, but she brought back the sad eyes and I let her attach the electrodes to my leg.

She slowly turned the knob clockwise repeatedly asking, "Can you feel it yet?" "I don't want to hurt you, let me know if it hurts." I told her I didn't feel a thing and she continued to turn the knob. Her face grew more and more puzzled and I started to smirk. Her little box was broken and I was going to get away with not being shocked! She finally stopped and announced that the intensity was at the maximum setting and that I "should feel something." I assured her that I didn't and repressed my satisfaction as best I could. She looked her little box all over and said, "Oh! I see!" and before I could twitch a muscle she turned the switch she found from "Off" to "On" and muscle twitches were generated without any conscious effort on my part. I levitated off the bed and roared in anger. Before I came back down I had torn the wires off my leg and when I landed was facing her like a lion in a crouch and ready to pounce. She instantly brought back the sad eyes, froze absolutely still, and mouthed the words, "I'm sorry." This saved our marriage but not from her from being very vocally reminded that I do NOT like electricity going through my body.

Another time she came back from a class and told me she had learned how to test for "bone spurs". She explained that you pushed with your thumb in various places and watch for a "chandelier sign". I politely asked about bone spurs and she explained they usually go unnoticed until the person gets up years a ways. At my age, then in my mid twenties, I might have some but wouldn't notice them at all. Even with testing she probably wouldn't be able to find them. But she wanted to practice the tests anyway.

I should have paid more attention during the part about what a positive test result indicator was rather than the part about "probably wouldn't be able to find them". I took off my shoes and socks and she started pressing her thumb into the flesh around my heel. She pressed harder and harder and I could hear her grunting with the effort required to probe deep into the tissue of my feet which were nearly armored with strong muscles from playing tennis almost every day. It felt kind of nice. Basically I was getting my feet massaged which I considered a real treat. It was what I had expected when before we got married she said she wanted to become a physical therapist. I was relaxing and enjoying it and I could tell she was getting a little frustrated (see rule 8 above). I was sympathetic and asked, "What is it you are trying to get to happen again?" Between grunts she growled out, "A chandelier sign". I started to ask what that was when she said, "Maybe it's over here" and she pressed deep into my flesh. We didn't have a chandelier in our bedroom and hence I returned to floor level after bouncing off the ceiling. I do remember looking down at Barb still in position as if my foot was still cradled in her hands with her thumb mashing as hard as she could on that hidden button in my foot which should have been labeled, "DANGER! DO NOT PRESS UPON THE PAIN OF DEATH". She had a big smile on her face and after I stopped bouncing I demanded to know why she was so happy. Her glee was totally oblivious to my state of mind and she told me, "Because I found it! I couldn't find it in class but I found it with you! That was the chandelier sign. It was just like they said it would be." Her moments of happiness are somewhat rare with me around and since I had not warned her I did not like chandelier sign I didn't do anything but glare at her and resolved to listen more carefully and think things through in the future.

Surely, you might ask, there are some "benefits" (nudge, nudge) to being married to a physical therapist. My response to that is, "Do you know why physical therapists make such poor lovers? It's because they use ice to take the swelling down."

Lest you think my life is miserable or even uncomfortable I need to point out that I'm not only married to the physical therapist named Barbara, I'm also married to Barbara the woman. I'm not going to go into all the details but the card below is a hint. I get cards of a similar nature for my birthday, Valentine's Day, and our anniversary (click to see the inside):

Barb explained, "It really should say, 'You win', rather than 'You lose'". But it's close enough. I've been with her for 34 years now and most of the time I know how to read between the lines with her.

Uhhhh.... WOW!

Awesome picture Xenia.

James and Kim just had lunch there this weekend. Barb and I go there fairly frequently but it's going to be a while before we go back. I took these pictures this morning about 0800 at the University Mall in Moscow Idaho:

And before someone asks, I haven't been within 30 miles of my chemistry set since Thursday evening.

Xenia has them.

Also from Xenia is a set from Thanksgiving 1991 with the Huffman family. I especially like this one:

That is her first gun. It was given to her by her Grandpa Huffman who made it himself.

I started buying guns during the Clinton years, simply because they were trying to ban them, but never thought much about hunting until my son was old enough to carry a youth-stocked shotgun in the field.  I took him through hunter safety and we'd gotten a few upland game birds together, but he was always interested in big game hunting.  Three years ago we bought him his own rifle, and the next day he'd gotten his first deer.  I'd gotten a deer tag here and there, and gone out a day or two some seasons, but it was never a big priority for me.  We went out with Joe once near his folks' place, which was really nice, but only managed to see one deer in full sprint, which makes for a lousy (and dangerous) shot.  No dice.  I did what I could to help Son get his deer or two each year, and the vicarious satisfaction was enough, I guess.

Not this year.  When I took Son to get his '08 deer tag, I decided to get one for myself-- for late muzzleloader season, and I meant it this time.  Fewer hunters in the field and the cooler weather of the late season appealed to me.  We'd selected the perfect site for a tree stand, just a short walk from our house on a steep hill covered by thick brush where humans rarely tread, and where the deer trails all seem to converge.  This is a choke point in their travel around the city of Palouse, along the Palouse river.  Son got a deer there last year, and had seen several deer almost every time he'd been up there.  Last year I sat in that tree and watched a doe with two fawns, sitting, chewing the cud, the young ones chasing a covey of quail, and just generally hanging out, for about an hour.  My tag was for buck only at that time, so I just sat there watching them, not 15 yards from me.  It's good to really blend into the environment now and then.  You see some amazing things.

This year I went out before dawn on the first day of the season, November 20th, with the caplock muzzleloader.  Some people use in-line muzzleloaders with substitute propellant pellets, modern sabots, shotgun primers, and scopes.  I don't quite understand the benefit.  A sidelock with the right load, standard percussion caps, using black powder which ignites more easily, can perform just as well at reasonable distances, and it's not as if these rifles are 300 yards hunting worthy.  I charged the rifle with powder and round ball with a lubricated patch before heading out of the house (a muzzleloader that is not primed is not considered "loaded").  A few yards from the house and I was out of the city limits.  Time to cap the nipple.  If I see a deer after about 15 minutes I can legally fire.

Nothing.  No other hunters and no deer.  I crawl through the brush and up the steep slope to the tree.  Tough going.  I'm winded.  I have a tendency to be afraid of heights.  Huffing and puffing, I start up the tree.  Too shaky.  Not safe.  Back to the ground.  I have to think; my hands aren't going to suddenly let go just because I'm a little winded.  Back up the tree (it's a hairy climb) to sit on the small stand.  I experience just a bit of vertigo for a minute, and then everything's fine.  The rifle was decapped and tied to some parachute cord at the ground, so I hoisted it up to the stand and capped it again.  I sat there for two hours as the sun came up and then, suddenly; nothing happened.  No prey was doing me the favor of walking in front of my extremely limited field of fire that day.  Tons of sign on the ground, but no luck.  Time to climb down and get ready for work.

Two days later, I went back up to the tree late in the day and sat there for an hour and a half.  Nothing.  Tons of fresh sign, but nothing.  I was thinking of climbing down and taking a hike along the river for about two miles.  Anywhere along that corridor there could be deer.  I wanted to act.  But no-- if I'm moving, the deer are infinitely more likely to detect my presence and high-tail it before I can get a shot.  If you're still, and your prey is moving, you have the advantage, especially if your prey is somewhat predictable.  These deer are predictable.  For sure, they'll be moving at dusk, which is right now.  The only questing is where.  But I should act-- he who hesitates is lost.  But haste makes waste.  But the early bird gets the worm.  Look before you leap.  There's no time like the present, tomorrow's another day, etc.. I was trying to think of more contradictory words of wisdom when I heard a rustling in the brush behind me.  Had to be a human or a large animal, no question.  A large doe appears from the brush, followed by more deer.  Who cares-- this one looks really good.  The muzzleloader tag is for a deer with either a 3-point minimum rack or antlerless.  I'm shooting for the table, not for trophies.

She's directly below me now, oblivious to my presence, walking fast.  I could have shot downward, through the spine and anchored her right there, but I'd rehearsed this in my mind many times and the picture was always of a side-on shot.  No matter, she's moving quickly, leading more deer up the hill to feed on the farmers' wheat.  It's a herd.  She's still oblivious.  Have to hurry.  I pull the trigger, thumb the hammer all the way back, release the trigger, and ease the hammer forward into full cock.  Silent cock-- rehearsed this hundreds of times.  It wouldn't have mattered because the deer were trundling through the brush making plenty of noise, but it's the way this was rehearsed.  Keep the trigger finger straight along the stock.  Can't touch this trigger.  Its pull is as light as some set triggers-- a pound or less.  I'd spent hours on it, messed it up, replaced the tumbler and sear, and started over.  Now the trigger pull is as light as you'd ever dare, even slightly dangerous, but this isn't a social rifle.  The charge has been in the barrel for over 48 hours, it came in from the cold last time and into the warm house where it could have pulled in some condensation, but it should be fine.  I've tested this and there should be plenty of headroom in that regard.  I'd been using CCI caps, but it was a little frustrating that once in a while I'd get a misfire.  The caps fit too tight on this nipple, and some of the hammer's energy had to be spent seating the cap.  The same thing can happen with metallic cartridges if the caps aren't properly seated, or if headspace is too great.  I'd read that Remington caps tend to fit looser, so this time I had a Remington cap on there, as I'd tried them and couldn't get a failure.  No worries about a misfire.

The doe turned her side to me in the perfect spot, not 20 yards from my tree, with perfect backstop.  Front sight behind the shoulder, rear sight, finger on trigger, Bam!  On later reflection, I recall having sensed no recoil and he noise, without hearing protection, was not uncomfortable.  You do this at the gun range and it hurts.  Here it's not even noticed.  It's a strange thing.

The doe bounded away from the cloud of smoke, up the slope, and into the field like a perfectly healthy deer, several others behind her.  No time to reload-- that's not an option.  I could not possibly have missed.  I know.  I was there.  I saw the whole thing.  But off she ran.  Crap...no, wait, she's slowing down.  At the top of the hill out in the wheat field, she stumbled and went down.  OK.  I have to remember to breathe at this point.  Sometimes that's important.  I tied the rifle to the cord, lowered it to the ground, called Son on the radio & told him to bring the pickup, and then started climbing down.  He called back about something or other.  Crap.  I felt I had to answer right then, holding onto one of the "steps" (angled metal screws we put in the tree for hand-holds) with one hand while operating the radio with the other.  Probably not a good idea.

The 50 caliber ball (mass; ~180 grains) pushed by 110 grains of Goex FF black powder (this is the charcoal, sulfur and KNO3 mixture of yore) had traveled squarely through the rib cage and out the other side, behind the shoulders and in front of the diaphragm.  That's the "boiler room"--the heart/lung cavity.  I'd been told this wouldn't happen-- that the round ball would stop just short of full penetration, but maybe those hunters use a lighter powder charge.  Still, more velocity should mean more deformation of the soft lead ball...  Impact velocity was about 1850 fps, and the exit hole was about the same size as the entry.  That's a "one-shot stop" but, both lungs partially liquefied, this doe ran up a steep slope, bounding over bushes as pretty as you please, and into a field before going down.  That was about 75 yards total, with some rough going.  Something to keep in mind.  If you want to "anchor" the animal, it has to be a critical skeletal shot, like right through two shoulders (they can run pretty well on three legs) or a central nervous system (CNS) shot.  Little else will stop an animal (two legged or four legged) in its tracks, Hollywood notwithstanding (see update below).  I tried to avoid the shoulders because there's some good meat there.  One of Son's deer had had a scapula shattered, and that was a mess.  No thankee.

The whole sequence, from first hearing noise in the bushes to the deer falling, lasted around 15 seconds.

What, I can't go on and on about it?  I'm 50 years old, this was my first deer, and now we have a lot more good meat for the freezer.  Yahoo!  For those who fear "gamy" venison; maybe we've just been lucky, but we've not noticed a trace of this phenomenon with the animals we've harvested so far.  We've gotten does because they're vastly more common.  People who tell me they hate venison because its gamy all seem to have eaten bucks.  I really don't know what makes for sweet meat verses gamy.  More research is obviously needed.  No doubt a federal grant is in order.

Next I'd like to try a flintlock.  Why?  Just 'cause.  For one thing, a modern rifle is for long shots, and the hunting we do near the house is limited to no more than about 70 yards (so far we've killed no deer beyond about 40 yards).  For another; I just want to.  I'd've used a muzzleloading pistol if the WA game department allowed it.  I won't go on about how using a primitive gun is some sort of superior life choice or anything.  It isn't.  I admit it's a distraction.  The people who used them back in the day were in fact using state-of-the-art technology.  We should learn the state-of-the-art for our own time, and endeavor to advance it.  If they'd wanted to be old-fashioned in the 18th or early 19th century, they'd have used matchlocks or bows and arrows.

Here's the obligatory, grizzly post kill photo along with the rifle;

Yes, some people find liver to be disgusting.  I like it.  I'd show you a big juicy steak, but for best flavor and tenderness, the muscle meat has to age for several days before cutting and cooking.  The liver is great if eaten right away.  These deer liver steaks were fried in olive oil with shallots, just a pinch of crushed of rosemary, and salt & pepper, served with a nice baked potato and a glass of red Zinfandel.  Simply lovely.

Update Dec. 1 / 08

Butchering the deer this weekend, we found the heart had been grazed by the ball, opening a hole in one chamber (yeah, we leave the heart in while it hangs.  Call us weird).  The ball entered straight through one rib and out through another, severing both.  The doe had run about 75 yards with two blown lungs, a blown heart and two severed ribs.  I also found an almost pristine 17 caliber air rifle pellet lodged against the pelvis.  It would have had to travel through the hide, through a layer of fat, through 2.5 inches of meat and stop at the bone.  I doubt this could have happened to the adult doe. 17 cal air rifles don't typically have near enough penetration, plus there was no apparent wound channel, so I'm thinking someone shot a fawn in the butt.  Some people's kids.

Last January I reported a fellow shooter, Joe Metz, was terminally ill. He passed away April 26 but there is another service being performed this Sunday, November 23, at the Bernie Petersen Memorial Range at 9:30. There will be a small memorial and they will spread the remainder of his ashes.

I will be in the Seattle area and unable to attend but I wanted to make the announcement a little wider.

Don't forget there is a gun blogger meet this evening. Details are here. Barb and I plan to attend.

Nice article. Laurel has the story. There is even a picture of Sarah Palin sitting on the bed of her University of Idaho dorm room. The article is here. It starts out like this:

They tell me that about one person in 50 on the streets of Moscow, Idaho, is legally carrying a concealed pistol. A lot more have them in their cars. I rather approve of this, though I don't think I'll join in.

I voted!

Xenia
8:17 AM, November 4, 2008
Via a text message to me.
[Barb called me, as usual, about 45 minutes ago and gave me the latest news from home. She had just dropped Xenia off to vote. It was Xenia's first time at the polls. Xenia just sent me the above text message. Barb said Xenia was wearing her elephant earrings.--Joe]

We blew up a bunch of pumpkins today. No time for the whole story or any pictures. Just a link to Barrons post (which has pictures and video) and the best of the video (from Kris who made it as a day trip from Seattle):

I have been having pain in one of my teeth off and on for about three weeks now. Over the weekend it got bad enough and persistent enough that I decided it was time to seek medical attention.

I called the dentist yesterday but they couldn't get me in until this morning. I made it through the night without much difficulty. I woke up a couple times and had trouble getting back to sleep but not that big of a deal.

Today was pretty much consumed with visiting the dentist, doing paperwork at the doc next door who would do the root canal, handling a few things at work, going back to the dentist office and getting the work done.

Hunter006 has some more details from an email exchange and there are some more details on Twitter.

All is better now but I need to catch up on some sleep.

According to new research done at Oxford University, people who eat meat are less likely to suffer from shrinking of the brain than those that stick strictly to a vegetarian diet.

...

This doesn’t mean that vegetarians need to immediately start eating meat; it just means that when they decide to attack meat-eaters they should think about their small mindedness before hand.

Jaclyn Cousins
October 13, 2008
Vegetarianism Shrinks Your Brain
[H/T to Phil.

I'm in agreement with Kevin Baker on the topic:

Kevin Baker at the 2008 Gun Blogger Rendezvous on Friday October 10.

Xenia, be sure to eat your eggs and drink your milk.--Joe]

I'm always a little embarrassed and uncomfortable when someone says something nice about me or something I did. This is no exception and for more than the usual reason. The number one reason was that Mark made his post on Friday and I didn't notice until this morning.

Mark gave me a "Superior Scribbler Award":

He had this to say about me:

Joe Huffman, who blogs The View From North Central Idaho, as well as trenchant observations of the political scene from the perspective of a well-trained and -experienced gunny. Joe always seems to have the bons mots for the moment, whereas I generally have the esprit d'escalier.

Additional reasons number two and three were that I had to look up two phrases to figure out exactly what he was saying.

As per the rules of the award I have to post the rules:

• Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

The five most-deserving Bloggy Friends deserve some thought.

In terms of "Superior Scribblers" I would have given the award to each of my three children had they actually put their best writing works on blogs. From the time they were old enough to write essay's and papers I have been super impressed with the quality of their work. But only Xenia has a blog and it's more social than representative of her writing. Here is something from James and Xenia. I also have stuff from Kim that would definitely qualify but none of it is on the web (hint, hint).

They must have inherited this from their mother. I always had an extremely tough time writing until I was in my early twenties. It was just extremely painful and difficult for me to think of anything worth putting into words.

Barb on the other hand wrote lots of stories and got excellent grades on her writings all through school. And then there was the book she wrote but never bothered to try and get published. She said, "It was just for practice." Here are some samples of her work:

• Can't Say Goodbye Again. Very short romance. Written for a contest in the Writer's Edge Ezine (defunct web site).
• The Medicine Cabinet. This is what I call one of her "Anti-Romance" stories. Others have compared it to Hitchcock because of the suspense, story twists, and surprises. Very good stuff.
• The Rose. Another "Anti-Romance" story. Definitely Hitchcock like.

She would definitely get an award--if she had a blog and put her best work on it.

Enough with the potential nepotism.

In line with having to look up words, as I did with Mark's work, to understand the post I have to give an award to Roberta X for The Adventures of Roberta X. She writes with a vocabulary a little bit above my comfort level at times but she puts interesting twists on things.

In terms of "interesting twists" (extreme snark is a better description) Tamara K with view from the porch also gets an award.

Alan Korwin and his blog Page Nine gets an award for inspiring a lot of my alternate ways of viewing things in the world of gun politics. And that doesn't even count all the books he has written.

I don't know who it is but the VPC Blog has to get an award. Wow! Just Wow! He or she really does a number with the satire.

Yeah, I know, that's only four. But with all the recognition to my family members can't each of those count as 1/4 of an award each?

As suggested by James (not our son) and enabled by Tony I finished Freehold last week. It was slow reading only because I would only read a few pages every few nights before I would go to bed. It was a great book. I cried when Kendra was awarded her medal. I love strong female characters.

I started The Weapon last night. It's looking good so far.

I saw this while looking over daughter Kim's shoulder when she was studying for her class Riddles and Paradoxes: How the Culture of Markets Shapes our World: Past, Present, and Future.

The Functions of Government

1. To promote competition and provide a system of laws, courts, and method of enforcing contracts (infrastructure for free markets).
2. To play an allocative function of producing goods and services.
3. To redistribute income and assist the poor.
4. To provide stabilization of the economy to keep inflation and unemployment low

Which of these four items are found in the U.S. Constitution? I agree with number 1 but the others are out of bounds. Some other governments do claim these to be within their legitimate areas of power. We call them socialists, communists, tyrannical, genocidal, and losers. Perhaps the Power Point slide deck I found this in or the instructor in class makes the point that this isn't within the legitimate domain of our government but a quick scan through the slides certainly doesn't make it obvious.

It appears one can assume we have a discrepancy in philosophical viewpoints. Kevin illustrates it with cartoons better than I can with words.

Daughter Xenia called me a few minutes ago. She was crying and could barely talk. She was crossing the street as she walked to class and a car turned a corner, didn't see her, and missed her by a couple feet.

Other than the psychological aspects she is fine but it sure makes you think. What a difference a few seconds can make...

Update: Xenia has more details.

Barb and I are sitting in the Reno airport waiting for our plane. I'm pretty sure I'm the last of the gun bloggers to leave town. Barb and I had dinner last night at the Black Bear Diner with The Conservative UAW Guy, his wife, Mr. Completely, and Keewee. Back at Circus Circus I chatted with them and Ride Fast, the last hanger ons, about airport security theater until about 21:00 when most of us said our good-byes. Mr. Completely, Keewee, Barb and I had breakfast together this morning and the Gun Blogger Rendezvous was over.

I have a few pictures and will post more later, particularly about our day at the range, but for now here is an odd gun I saw at the museum today with Barb. This gun was part of an exhibit on bootleggers:

Sawed off pistol. (Click for bigger.)

[Please excuse the poor photo quality. I used my cell-phone camera.]

I noticed one of their exhibits was mislabeled and they seemed very grateful when I corrected them. A device used to clean wheat had original markings saying it separated wheat from wild oats. But was labeled as tool for separating wild oats from chaff. <shrug> Just me being nit-picky as usual.

Barb and I are currently in the SeaTac airport eating a late lunch. Soon we will be on the plane to Reno, then from there we will rent a car and drive to Tonopah. We will spend a few days looking around at historical and genealogical things. Her father lived and worked there in the '30s.

Friday we will return to Reno for the Gun Blogger Rendevzous.

If you are interested follow the boring details on my Twitter account. Please ignore the typos. My Pocket PC has problems with rapidly typed letters hence "looking" comes out as "loking" and I often make an update while walking or doing something else and don't check for errors as well as I should.

In the right column I have a list of the bloggers I have met. I just found out a friend from way back (nearly 25 years) just started a blog. I'm not sure the general population of readers here will find all that much to agree with her on politics but she does take pretty pictures and says she will be posting her pictures there.

I have referred to her in my posts here a few times as one of my lesbian friends and she is the one that wrote the email referenced here. I tend to avoid discussing politics with her. Chess, places we have worked together, and other geeky stuff can keep us happily chatting for a long time however. And then there was the time I took her and her friend to the nudist club...

I got a call tonight from Barb's sister who lives in California. I had talked to her and her husband about guns in years past and while not really opposed to them they wouldn't want one in their house.

Barb had talked to her last weekend and I knew she were planning to join the NRA just to annoy her liberal friends and neighbors. I also knew their daughter who is in college in Missouri wants to get a gun so she can defend herself. I didn't know that Barb's sister and her husband are planning to take up shooting as a hobby. She asked me about ranges and do they rent? And she wanted a recommendation for a gun to start out with. I told her a .22 to lessen the chances of picking up bad habits and reduce the cost.

I also sent her a link to the NRA yard signs so they can tweak the neighbors without even flashing their membership cards.

I need to get them up here for Boomershoot next spring. That will give them some goals.

Last night the cops visited to try to help resolve an incident when Boyfriend From Hell of the landlady at my underground bunker kicked in her bedroom door. I was at work at the time but Barb was there and called me to let me know what was happening. I left work immediately and told Barb to tell the cops I would be entering through the rear tunnel and that we would stay away from the action going on above ground.

Shortly after I arrived and greeted Barb the landlady knocked on our door and wanted to talk. A couple of cops showed up a minute or two later and stepped into my bunker to offer some advice to the landlady. I was packing with the only thing concealing my STI Eagle and a spare 18 round magazine was my Boomershoot coat. It was much too warm in there and I wanted to remove the coat without alarming the cops. Even wearing the coat probably seemed a little odd and the cops might have guessed I was packing just from that but there was no need to openly display the gun on my hip. In full view of the cops, but hidden underneath my coat, I untucked my Boomershoot golf shirt and used the tail of it to cover up the equipment on my belt and then took off the coat. I draped the coat over the target on the back of a chair from my testing the Gun Blog 45 a few days ago:

About five feet away from the cops, leaning up against a dresser was a rifle case. About eight feet behind the landlady they were talking to were two IPSC targets on the wall I use for dry fire exercises.

I wonder if the cops suspected there were guns nearby? If so, they didn't give even the slightest hint of noticing. I did find it a little odd that one of them gave me his card and told me his cell phone number was on there--but they didn't give the landlady a card or even their names.

I find it hard to believe they were so incompetent to not notice and would rather believe they were cool with it. Especially since they said they couldn't leave her there if she was afraid for her safety (which she said she was) with the boyfriend who can't currently be evicted. My offers to give her advance rent money on the spot to stay in a hotel or to stay on our couch went over well with the cops and they finally left.

Barb and I took the landlady to a restaurant for some food and she slept on the couch in our room last night. She left my underground bunker this morning without Barb or I talking to her and I can only presume she is working on getting him legally evicted today since she called work last night to take a day of vacation today.

I'd offer to loan her a gun but Boyfriend From Hell manages to keep stealing cell phones and keys from her purse so I don't know how she would manage to keep a handgun away from him.

More details will be posted as they become available.

If you have been following my Twitter account you will know there were five cops here at my Seattle area bunker tonight and that Barb, my landlady, and I escaped to the local Chinese restaurant without any shots being fired. And that the landlady's boyfriend from hell can't be evicted yet.

This has been building for a couple years now. I and a lot of other people are hoping she finally manages to stick to her position and actually gets the guy out this time.

Walking to bible study while listening to Disney music. I'm so badass.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
Via Twitter
[That's my girl.--Joe]

As I reported a few weeks ago I did a bunch of earth moving at the Boomershoot range. Last Sunday Kim, Xenia, and I went back to plant grass on the fresh dirt, winterize the Taj Mahal and deliver 800 pounds of decorative concrete blocks to the Taj. Barb's Jeep was sort of dragging it's tail as we drove out to the range. We will use the concrete blocks as stepping stones around the Taj to keep the explosive workers out of the mud when it is wet. As a side note on Thursday Barb took her Jeep to be "detailed" which consisted mostly of removing mud and small pieces of concrete from the interior.

I didn't take my camera but Xenia brought hers and I planned to post some of the pictures she (and I) took of the work we did. Unfortunately the mechanism involved in transferring the pictures from her camera to me failed with the crash of Barb's desktop computer (it's complicated, don't ask because it's not worth it). I could have worked around it in any number of ways but I had, and have, more important things to do.

I did want to get a post up about the grass planting just so people would know the chances of the area being nothing but mud next spring are less than 100%. Also this gives me an excuse to post a link to Xenia (our artist) pictures from the day. As you can see from the sample below it's an artist taking the pictures and not her engineer father.

Xenia reflected in the solar panels on the Taj Mahal.

Maybe it's his military training. I'm not sure. But Xenia's fiancée John deals with one annoying situation appropriately.

Did you pick this guy or did your daughter?

Mike Brown
September 7, 2008
While at a USPSA pistol match after having a particularly well informed conversation with John, Xenia's fiancé, on carry options for people under 21 (John is 19) and on college campuses.
[My response was that it was Xenia's pick. I had nothing to do with either daughter's choice in spouses. I occasionally wonder if it is my "boy blood for daughter's tears" policy that causes them to suck up to me a little but I don't see enough evidence to justify validating that hypothesis.--Joe]

The good looks came from my mother's side. And of course witchcraft.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
August 27, 2008
Referring to the looks of herself and her sister Kim in their back to school pictures.

Both Kim and Xenia went back to school today. Xenia has the pictures and the story.

I wish I could have been there to give them hugs and say the usual stuff about being good and doing what the teacher tells them to do. But they are grown women now and it's a little late for that.

Xenia has a couple pictures and more to the story.

Last night we took Xenia to the Seattle airport to greet her fiancée John when he got off the plane. He just recently got back in the states from Iraq and was going home to central Washington state for a couple weeks.

Our first indication of something unusual was another passenger exiting the secure area asking, "Are you waiting for the soldier?" He informed us John was in first class and would be there very soon. John barely cleared security and was giving Xenia a hug and a kiss when strangers came up to him and wanted to shake his hand and say thanks. We got constant interruptions from others as we tried to exit the airport and find his parents who were in orbit in the pickup area.

This is in sharp contrast to those that were spat upon and unjustly called killers as they returned from Vietnam.

Nice. Very nice.

Welcome home John. We are glad you made it back safely and thank you for your service.

The pictures I took are on Xenia's camera and probably will be available in a few days.

Daughter Xenia has posted some of her pictures--Mostly Awesome Clouds.

Awesome indeed. I am using two of these on my computers at work for "desktops".

It reminds me what I am missing in Idaho while I am in an office with hundreds of other people and worrying about cross site scripting, power consumption on mobile devices, and how many round trips to a remote server are required for a particular web page download.

Daughter Kim and I took off shortly after 8:00 this morning to do some work at the Boomershoot site. It's about 45 miles from home but because of the narrow twisting roads down a steep valley and back up the other side it takes a full hour to get there unless you are willing to make the tires squeal on the turns. It's not hard to do but there is not much point in pushing in to save 10 or 15 minutes while risking rear ending a slow moving piece of farm equipment as you come out of the turn. The drive gave Kim and I a chance to talk a bunch.

The weather was clouding and cool. Amazingly cool--I don't think it got about 65 all day long. And with the breeze it was actually a little uncomfortable at times.

Driving the little Aveo all the way to the Taj Mahal required going through some rather tall Reeds Canary grass:

Photo by Kim

We arrived on site and did some electrical measurements on the batteries and solar cell charging system. Everything appears to be working correctly but the batteries still aren't fully charged. We fired up the generator to charge the batteries faster. It started charging at 6 amps at about 9:30 and when turned off about 13:00 it was down to just over 4 amps. So I think we are getting closer to a full charge. Maybe the next time we go out the solar cells will have the batteries topped off.

The water system appears to not be leaking or if it is it must be a very slow leak. I put about seven gallons of water in it a couple of weeks ago and verified everything was working correctly. I was able to get a couple of gallons out on this visit without it going dry so I'm not sure why it went dry in June unless the drain tile didn't fill it up this spring like I thought it would have.

I fixed up the steps from the pump to the target building area some. They should be fine for this summer but I suspect they will get loose again when the ground gets wet again this fall.

The big tarp in back of the shed we use to cover up the extra surveyors stacks and empty containers has a large rip in it. It was getting old and I'm not too surprised. I'll have to replace it before winter. Another thing we really need to do is put in some more decorative blocks to the south side of the target building area. This is where we stacked the empty crates while building targets this year. It got a lot of foot traffic and there needs to be something there to keep us out of the mud when it rains and snows.

We went to my parents house and gave Dad his birthday present. He will be 85 in a few days. He had a knee surgery last week and is doing well.

After visiting for a while with Mom, Dad, their friends Walt and Jan, and my sister-in-law Julie. Kim and I then went for a walk. We inspected the Austrian Winter peas in the back of the truck. This was the first time they have raised them in many years.

Kim had never seen them before. I told her we could eat them raw but to be careful. It would be like putting rocks in your mouth until they soaked up enough water to soften up a bit. She agreed with me. It is a lot like pebbles in your mouth. She didn't like the taste of the skins but the insides are good.

Below are a couple pictures of the peas in the field. A month ago, before they fell down (a natural and expected occurrence), the pea vines stood almost as tall as Kim and when stretched to their full height were over six feet long in places.

In the foreground of the picture above is the field after it has been harvested. In the background are unharvested peas and my parents house almost hidden in the trees.

I told Kim the story of how when I was about 10 years old I accidentally started a fire that sweep through that exact spot where she is standing and I was certain it was going to catch the woods on fire. But Dad was within shouting distance, working on the house, and was able to get the bulldozer started and dig a fire break in the wheat stubble before it made it to the trees. My Great Uncle Walt and I put out the little fires that made it across the torn up dirt and the woods were saved.

This is "The Old Well House". It's not used any more. But there were lots of stories to tell here. "The Little Pond" was just 50 yards from here and Dad was concerned us kids would drown in it and dug a hole in one of the banks to lowered the water level so the pond was shallow enough we could have touched bottom with our heads above the water had we been foolish enough to get in with the frogs, dragon flies, and thick pond scum. I did fall into the little creek that runs right past here when I was probably only seven or eight years old. It was the middle of the winter with probably a foot of snow on the ground the creek literally ice cold with a partial covering of ice. It wasn't deep and I was able to wade out. But I was completely soaked in the ice water and more than a little scared. Just a few feet away from where I took this picture is a apple tree that used to have the largest apples I have ever seen. The apples would get so large they would break the stems and fall off before they would get ripe. The were still sour and weren't really edible when raw. But just one apple sliced up, fried, with lots of sugar on it, would be enough for our "vegetable" at dinner for our entire family of five.

We had lunch with my parents, brother Gary, Walt, and Jan. Then we said good-bye and went back to the Taj Mahal to turn off the generator and lock things up. As we left I took some pictures of Kim on a hay bale in the field where we hold the Boomershoot

As I was taking these pictures I figured she should be called "The Boomershoot Babe". She has made most of the explosives for the targets for the last three years. She had help from her husband Caleb and others but she has done the majority of the actual weighing and mixing of the chemicals. She has probably made, in five pound batches, in a Kitchen Aid mixer about 3000 pounds of explosives in the last three years.

Kim, my Boomershoot Babe. Who would have guessed from seeing our little Bridezilla when she was four years old? Okay, so maybe you wouldn't have been surprised.

My hosting provider (ServerGrid.com) hasn't answered my email and I have given up on them. I'm still working on finding a new web hosting company. I've looked at bunch and even paid some money for one that I tried out. I'm not entirely satisfied with what I see and hence all available time is spent trying to find a solution. I didn't have all that much time available this weekend because Barb and all three kids were in the Seattle area and we were doing the vacation thing a lot of time time. See, for example, Xenia's pictures from the Seattle Aquarium and the zoo.

I have a bunch of domains that need to be hosted with lots of requirements so it is taking a lot longer than what I had hoped it would.

In the meantime my websites and email are flaky (more so than usual) and I'm not putting any effort into blogging although there are some things I really would like to comment on. Sorry about that. Maybe in a couple more days...

Update: I believe all my email and websites are now working correctly. Part of the problem was a messed up namesever that I now have corrected. I'm still moving to a different hosting provider (probably GoDaddy). I'm doing some testing and still have some minor problems to solve with my blog in that environment but I'm getting very, very close.

My wife asked me to make an appointment to get her car in for an oil change.  I replied;

You have an appointment for your car first thing Monday morning.  I can bring it in, or you can, as you wish.

Hmm—now there’s a "Change" for which we can "Hope".  Call the Obama campaign headquarters.  Better yet, call Jiffy Lube headquarters and tell them you have a great new ad slogan:

We "Hope" we can "Change"…your oil.

- or -

Do you "Hope" for a "Change"?  Well, get over to Jiffy Lube today!!  We can do "An Oil Change You Can Believe In".

I think they should do it and try to get sued by the Obama campaign.  It would make them extremely famous and get them another million customers overnight.

I should have added;

"Don't just "Hope" your car is OK--  "Change" your oil at (pick a company) today."

More random stuff from my "quote" collection. This time for our daughter Xenia:

I have not yet begun to procrastinate.

It was a week ago yesterday that we picked up Xenia's laptop from Cactus Computer after spending some time in the shop for just this problem (well, almost):

Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will Whiz on your computer.

Barb and I have a very social weekend ahead of us.

First off is lunch with son James.

Tonight Barb and I are having dinner with Phil (from SoftGreenGlow.com) and his wife. Despite the references to the canned salmon mouse I'm sure we will have a pleasant evening.

Tomorrow is the company picnic with probably 5 or 10 thousand other people.

This wasn't some cheesy Internet quiz of some sort. This was something that my company paid big dollars for and followed up with a nearly full day of "training" to explain the results to us. Everyone in our organization had to participate. Mandatory training they said. Okay, whatever.

I was surprised. They really nailed a bunch of things for me. View the results for yourself here.

During the training they gave us these four little soft plastic blocks that looked very much like Lego's. They were a training tool and as the training started people were sort of playing with them as the instructor talked. Then someone had the blocks fly apart and scatter across one of the tables. "A block explosion!", the instructor announced. Her assistant went to the white board and recorded the explosion. Someone asked, "What does it mean?" The instructor said they didn't know for certain but they keep track of them to see if we can figure something out. There were no more block explosions all day.

The one person to have a block explosion was also the only person in the room with a ATF license to manufacture high explosives. You should have heard the people in my group laugh when instructor called it a block explosion. No one else in the room understood the significance like they did.

One of the more serious problems with our modern society is that the evolution of man has changed directions. The lesser intelligent people multiply much faster than the more intelligent people.

Doug Huffman
[This is something my brother told me over 20 years ago and I put in my collection of quotes. Today he sent his kids and me this link on a related topic.--Joe]

Daughter Kim called me a few minutes ago to tell me she has been officially accepted at the University of Idaho.

Yaaaaahhhh Kim!

She plans to study accounting. She is smart and is good with math so this should be a good match for her.

Now I just need to get her connected up with Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. There is a conference in D.C. on August 1^st that would be interesting for her to attend--if I could get her to leave her husband for a few days. Fat chance of that happening... Maybe she will participate in the empty holster days. That would be nice. But, more important than my political goals is for her to get the education she needs so she can get a good job.

Here is a picture of her just so you know who I'm talking about:

Barb and I went to our 35th High School reunion tonight. We are Orofino Maniacs. There is more going on tomorrow, this was just a warm up. As usual we had a good time. Here are some of the pictures I took:

Dale Nickels and Terry Thornton.
Terry supplies the portable toilets for the Boomershoot. His wife was a high school teacher for our children.

Phyllis (McIver) Parks. Phyllis is from the class of '74 but married Ray Parks who is in our class.
Phyllis is also a distant cousin of mine. I went to school with her since grade school.

b
Barb is showing off her tattoo to Lori Bruce and Sally Duty.

Lance Jones and his wife, Sandy, of 21 years. We hadn't seen Lance for over 35 years. I used to play chess with him and hung out quite a bit with him.
He retired from the navy after 24 years. He joined straight out of high school and married one of Barb's best friends just before he left for boot camp.

Terri Duff and Barb.

Debbie Estenson hit me after I showed her this picture. Barb says that now she is going to kill me.
Update: I told her about the picture and I'm still alive. She did try to bite me though. But I don't think she
is all that mad at me because she told me her husband lets her do whatever she wants and then later she
gave me her email address and phone number. She lives in the Seattle area now.

Here is a better picture of Debbie.

I've mentioned this before but a reminder that this is your last chance to vote for me can't hurt.

The back story:

There were 40 gun bloggers, including myself, that participated in the 2nd Amendment Blogger Bash at the NRA Convention last month. There is now a contest to select 10 of those bloggers to participate in “Gun Blogger Summer Camp”.

Action item:

Would you please vote for me? Go here and find “The View From North Central Idaho” near the bottom of the list: http://www.para-usa.com/new/special/blogger_contest06-08.php#vote click on the radio button and submit it. You don’t have to put in your address and phone number unless you would like a chance at attending the camp as well (one lucky voter will get to attend with the blogger winners).

Please do it today. This is the last day of the contest.

Thanks!

U.S. versus Miller is essentially gone as guidance for interpreting the 2^nd Amendment. To replace it we have the much superior D.C. v. Heller.

To celebrate Kimberly Joe and Joseph Kim went out to the Boomershoot site. This is their story told with pictures.

This is Kimberly Joe making explosives and putting it in zip lock bags and cardboard boxes.

This is the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives required for appropriate celebration.

Here is the Firearm portion of the celebration.

This is end of the AT&E.

Remnants of Miller.

Remnants of the explosives.

Remnants of the tobacco.

Shooters and firearms post Miller and Heller.

Today daughter Kim received her concealed weapons permit (as they are called in Idaho). She called me up a couple minutes after getting the mail and was so excited I could barely understand her.

Don't mess with my daughter:

I have a huge backlog of things I want to blog about but I have been rather distracted by other things.

Barb and I had barely seen each other for several weeks. The week after I went to Louisville for the 2^nd Amendment Blog Bash (and NRA Convention) Barb went to Sacramento to visit her sister. Then I had a very busy time at work and was unable to go on vacation with Xenia, Barb, and her family to Montana.

Finally, on Wednesday, Barb arrived at my bunker in the Seattle area and we tried to make up for lost time. I did make it out of bed long enough to go to work for a few hours and we go to dinner and see a movie (Get Smart -- It had it moments, but there were some parts that were too silly for me) with son James and daughter Xenia. But for the most part we were pretty much inseparable.

Then Saturday I started opening up Boomershoot 2009 registration for staff, on Sunday for 2008 participants, then yesterday for the general public. Even though that is mostly automated it has resulted over 170 emails being received or sent plus countless hand edits of data files and fixing of obscure bugs in my code.

One bug was particularly "interesting". If two shooting positions used the same phone number for registration and I then tried to swap the shooting positions of those two entries then both entires would be deleted (I had a back up and it wasn't that tough to recover from the bug). That bug had existed since day one over a year ago and I just now tripped it.

In any case that spike of Boomershoot activity will soon settled down because the event is almost full (91%) with only seven positions still open as of 11:00 PM. I was surprised at the number of bloggers that took me up on the offer. Those free spots are costing me a LOT of money in the short term. David and Phil have a big tent and are filling it with bloggers. Other bloggers signed up include BillH of Free in Idaho!, Matthew from Trigger Finger, Kevin of Smallest Minority, Barron Barnett, and of course Ry, Xenia (not really "signed up", it's more like "drafted"), and I. I expect Lyle at UltiMAK (who blogs here with me) will sign up too.

Speaking of Matthew in the context of Boomershoot, he just put some new posts with pictures and text up from Boomershoot 2008:

• Driving to Boomershoot
• Friday fireball! (That wasn't a fireball, this is a fireball and it was actually Sunday not Friday)
• View from the Berm

A few months ago I made something I received via a Google alert on sex my QOTD because it applied to not only to sex but to many other things as well. Ms. Block had her own Google alert, noticed my post, and commented on my post. Cool!

I sent her an email thanking her for stopping by for a visit and I ended up on her email list for notifications of things such as her book (Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage) signing yesterday afternoon in Seattle. I decided to go because the kids were attending a play (a musical--I seldom like musicals) and the Father's Day activities weren't happening until the evening. Barb was unavailable being at work in Moscow Idaho so I went alone.

I found Ms. Block to be very energetic, funny, and quick witted. It was a real pleasure to hear her talk. I added a few comments which seemed to be well accepted. One was in regard to a book that discussed sex and the evolution of women. Here is more information on that book, Sex Time and Power. This was a great book. A lot of it was speculation which has the high probability of being wrong but it was very intriguing speculation.

Some links to Ms. Block's web presence:

http://www.open-marriage.blogspot.com/
http://www.jennyonthepage.com/

She also writes on the blog The Huffington Post such as this post.

I've added her blog to my blogroll but it appears she is only blogging to promote her books and other writings and not so much about the psychology and sociology of sex in our society which is more of my interest. But at least I will get links to that sort of material.

Just outside of Seattle last night I picked up Robin (age 12), the daughter of a friend of ours (Karen pictured below), and gave her a ride to Moscow so she could visit a friend of hers for a couple weeks. She wasn't very talkative but she was bright and friendly. It was a five hour trip and except for the first 90 minutes we each listened to our own iPods.

Daughter Kim, friend Karen, and Ry's daughter Arden at Boomershoot 2008.
Photo from David who has proclaimed June to be Boomershoot 2008 Photo Month.

Tomorrow morning I have to get up much, much too early, take daughter Kim to work by 6:30, go back to the house to pick up daughter Xenia, then pick up both Ry's daughters Arden (above) and Anna at 7:15, then pick up Kim at 7:30. The four girls and I then attempt to drive back to Seattle in time for Kim and Xenia to attend a play that starts at 1:00 PM that is a gift from their brother James. The other girls then go back to the east side of the lake to Ry's fortified compound. Protected with, among other things, a .50 BMG, and I don't know how many AR-15s, some of which are supressed.

I realize four beautiful girls protected only by one middle-aged, slightly overweight guy with a bum leg is a tempting target but these girls aren't the helpless types. Ry and I reared these children in Idaho, not one of those sissy places where other people rear their children.

Kim has applied for her concealed carry permit but hasn't received it yet. That doesn't mean she won't have access to or be able to use a firearm should she need one on the trip. The others aren't quite old enough to get their concealed pistol permits but that doesn't mean they don't know what to do with a gun.

The following pictures illustrate my point.

Kim preparing for a steel match.

Xenia celebrates diversity.

Arden practicing with an AR-15.
Photo from Ry.

Ry helps stabilize the rifle while Anna fires off the shot that detonates the explosive target.
Photo from Ry.

Snoqualmie Pass is getting snow today. Probably not so much that I can't make it home on Friday but of interest because its so unusual for this time of year. It is snowing in Moscow Idaho (my home) and the Boomershoot site too. Maybe I should schedule Boomershoot 2009 for July 4^th so the snow will be light enough the roads will be plowed and people can make it without snowmobiles.

Crank up those coal fired power plants and rev the engines in your trucks while waiting at traffic lights--we need to head off the next ice age.

Either Al Gore has crap for brains and/or his motivation is solely for political gain.

Update: Daughter Kim says not to blame Al Gore:

From: Kimberly
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:10 AM
To: Barbara Scott; James Huffman-Scott; Joe Huffman; Xenia Joy

I apologize for the snow it was my fault I cut the dogs hair yesterday

Update2: From my weather advisory email alert:

OROFINO/GRANGEVILLE REGION-
135 PM PDT TUE JUN 10 2008

...SNOW ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 8 AM PDT WEDNESDAY ABOVE 3500 FEET...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MISSOULA HAS ISSUED A SNOW ADVISORY ABOVE 3500 FEET...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 8 AM PDT WEDNESDAY.

TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT THROUGH EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING ABOVE 4000 FEET AND OVER THE WHITE BIRD GRADE ON HIGHWAY 95. ELEVATIONS DOWN TO 3500 FEET...INCLUDING THE CITY OF GRANGEVILLE...CAN EXPECT TO SEE ACCUMULATIONS UP TO AN INCH.

A SNOW ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW WILL CAUSE PRIMARILY TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SNOW COVERED ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES...AND USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING.

This could mean certain types of crops in the area will be killed by the cold.

Something the global warming doomsday people ignore is that, typically, farm yields are better with abnormally warm weather than abnormally cold weather. Hence to be on the safe side of things we should try to push things in the direction of excess heating rather than risk excess cooling.

I don't have a T.V. in my Seattle area bunker so the only shows I watch are DVD sci-fi stuff with James (we just started the third season of Farscape).

With Barb I watch DVDs/on-line stuff like:

• Bones She is extremely smart, likes guns, and is hyper-rational--where was Temperance when I was a freshman in college and looking for a mate?
• Columbo He's like a puppy dog wagging his tail and digging holes in the yard--but what the murders don't know is that he's placing land mines (from the episode "How to Dial a Murder").
• Medium Just accept the premise and enjoy the show.

Barb and I might have to add Swingtown to our list of things to watch while in bed (together).

The following review came to me from someone who picked it up from a email list they subscribe to. This was in response to a comment where someone said they had never been to a party that they didn't know what was going on before they arrived.

I thought it did a pretty fair job of portraying reality without being hostile to swingers. The biggest thing I noticed was that, as with nearly all Hollywood, the time scale was sped up dramatically. From the time a newbie couple was told by people they had just met they were swingers until they decided to participate there would be a lot more time and talking involved rather than just a few glances and walking off to the back bedroom with the experienced couple.

I do know of a case where a couple had monthly parties and the next door neighbors asked why they were never invited. The hosting couple told them to just show up next time--without telling them the nature of the party. The neighbors did show up, figured things out after a half hour or so and left--never to ask about attending again. So, I know it does happen.

The bottom line is I think the writers know a lot about swinging. I think they either have been involved or did a lot of research with people who are or have been involved. I think in order to make the show interesting they will, of necessity, have to introduce stress of some sort into the characters and situations. In the pilot they introduced characters who will enable them to do that. The reality of swinging is not the utopia we would like it to be (neither is monogamy or anything else). The writers of the show will have to exaggerate reality some and create conflicts to make things interesting. I believe it's possible they can do this without making swingers out to be immoral perverts and I think they have made a good first step toward that goal. I'm looking forward to the next episode.

I was invited to speak at the Boeing Rifle and Pistol Club tonight. This will be something like the fifth time. Tonight I will be talking about the NRA Convention and the Second Amendment Blogger Bash.

My notes for the presentation:

• Huge, fancy, gun show
• Nearly 70K people
• Media credentials for bloggers
• Second Amendment blogger bash
  • Bitch girls
  • Snowflakes in Hell
  • Say Uncle
  • Michael Bane
  • Smallest Minority
  • Books, Bikes, Boomsticks (broomsticks)
  • Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease
  • Call me Ahab
  • Sharp as a Marble
  • Third Power (Days of our Trailer)
  • Traction Control 
  • The Ten Ring (Denise and Bill)
  • 40 in all

• Sessions
  • Legal
  • Activists
    • Its not the critic that counts
    • In their own words
    • They don't fear me they fear you--Chris Cox
    • You have the final say--Wayne LaPierre

• Blogger activities
  • Happy hour with Bane
  • Todd Jarrett
  • Publisher of Soldier of Fortune
  • Eyeblast.TV
  • Talk until dawn

• Celebrities
  • McCain
  • Mitt Romney
  • David Hardy
  • Ollie North
  • Ted Nugent
  • Cam Edwards
  • Glenn Beck
    • It comes down to Larry, Moe, Curly?
    • The Democrats sold their soul to Karl Marx.
    • We like lawyers, crooks and crack dealers better than Washington.
    • Before I pay over 10 for a gallon of gas I will drill through a polar bears head.  ----- I would feel bad but I would do it.

I injured my leg at Boomershoot which was over three weeks ago. It didn't hurt that much at the time but it started swelling a few days later. While in Louisville I did a lot of standing and walking. And Thursday through Sunday nights I got four, three, four, and five hours of sleep. By Sunday afternoon my leg was swollen up tight as a balloon. I went back to the motel and laid on the floor with my feet on the bed to reduce the pressure.

Today I called the doctor shortly after my plane landed and made an appointment. She looked at it and sent me to get a Doppler study done. There are no clots and the blood flow from my groin to my ankle is just fine. They found a hematoma just below the knee which is the problem. I'm to elevate the leg more, apply heat and compression for a few days and see if that helps.

I'm pretty comfortable right now except I'm still short on sleep. Thanks to everybody for asking how I'm doing.

Trying to get the woman in your life interested in guns? Maybe this will get her attention. It's very pretty and shiny:

1193 Mounted stones, 90 Carats, Estimated Value: $360,950.

Wife Barbara doesn't wear jewelry so I can't imagine she would like all those stones but I think daughters Kim and Xenia would each like one (hint to their husband and boyfriend--you would get on my "good side" with a gift like this).

I think she must have been swapped at birth with someone else's child.

Barb and I wouldn't have a child that received her lowest grade in math! We meet each other in algebra class and each took four years of math in high school followed by I can't remember how many math classes in college.

<heavy sigh>

I suppose we have to keep her now.

Update: This just in--a picture of Xenia and I are in this article about an Ohio dad jailed after daughter fails to get GED. We are the picture on the far right of the row of pictures.

After our second child, Kim, was born I figured that was enough. One boy, one girl. Isn't that enough? Barb wasn't convinced and ultimately convinced me another child was a good idea. "We're both smart", she said. "And we make enough money to raise and educate our children well. Think of it as our gift to the world." What can you say to something like that?

So Xenia is our gift to the world. A few days after Xenia was born I got a vasectomy and a number of years after that Barb had a hysterectomy. Xenia was our last gift of that type to the world.

The other day Xenia told Krystal (some random person Xenia knows) that our youngest child was our gift to the world.

Krystal: "What's the return policy?"

Kim: "You can't return clearance items."

Xenia: "It was a closeout sale on Mom's uterus. Everything must go."

Son James and I tried to go to Moscow, Idaho last night. It was snowing in the Seattle area and eastbound Snoqualmie pass was closed due to car accidents cause by slick roads. We looked at the pass reports and Stevens pass looked good. Assuming light traffic and good roads it's an hour longer but at least it wasn't closed and the road was bare. Maybe we could drive faster than the storm and make it to the pass before the storm did.

We took off and the traffic in the Seattle area was heavy and it became stop and go as we neared Monroe. By the time we got to within about 10 miles of Stevens pass the road had a couple inches of snow and was very, very slick. Stop and go traffic on a incline halted our progress and we had to turn around and come back into the Seattle area. We are going to try again today. The backyard of my bunker has snow on the ground this morning. Mid-April snow at less that 500 feet above sea level in the Seattle area? There can only be one explanation: Al Gore was right, it has to be Global Warming Climate Change.

Just north of Kirkland.

Just north of Woodinville.

Update: We made it home via Snoqualmie Pass without incident, arriving about 12:20 PM. The above post was written, but I was unable to post it, about 6:45 AM.

Drugs are bad. M'k?

James Huffman-Scott
April 18, 2008
[This was after I had a minor medical procedure, was not allowed to drive for 12 hours because of the drugs they gave me, and could not remember certain things later in the day. I thought I was feeling fairly well at the time. I can remember things that happened before the incident. I can remember things that happened just after the incident. But I cannot remember the event in question.--Joe]

It's not prostitution. It's nuptial gifts.

We are just animals with a more developed brain. The low level wiring isn't all that much different.

Just like penguins and other primates, people trade sex for resources:

Female penguins mate with males who bring them pebbles to build egg nests. Hummingbirds mate to gain access to the most productive flowers guarded by larger males.

New research shows that even affluent college students who don't need resources will still attempt to trade sexual currency for provisions, said Daniel Kruger, research scientist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

The exchange of resources for sex---referred to by scientists as nuptial gifts---has occurred throughout history in many species, including humans, Kruger said. The male of the species offers protection and resources to the female and offspring in exchange for reproductive rights. For example, an arranged marriage can be considered a contract to trade resources.

However, the recent findings suggest that such behaviors are hard wired, and persist no matter how much wealth, resources or security that people obtain.

"It's remarkable to find these patterns in the students in the study," Kruger said. "We have seen many examples where people do this out of necessity, but we still see these tendencies in people who are already well provided for."

I think Barb said she wanted some chores done around the house. Would that be considered an exchange of services?

Via John, Xenia's boyfriend in Iraq I received a link to this site. [Side note, it is John's birthday tomorrow and he is in Iraq away from his family and girlfriend working to keep us safe.]

It was like stepping through the looking glass into a fact free zone. Here are some examples:

The National Rifle Association in the United States of America has very few female members, but those that are members claim that guns empower them, protect them and give them more freedom in a country marked by the highest crime rate in the world.

"Very few"? I'll agree it's a minority but won't spend the effort on slapping them down other than to point out the NRA has had two women presidents, Sandra Froman and Marion Hammer and Tany Metaksa was the NRA's top lobbyist for a while.

Highest crime rate in the world? Not even close. Even England and Wales have higher crime rates than the US.

Actually much of the effort has been to keep guns and weapons that are considered "too dangerous" off the streets. Things like rocket launchers, grenades and other items usable by terrorists. Besides, who carries a grenade or an automatic sub-machinegun like a Mac 10 around for self-defense?

Shall we talk about handgun bans in Chicago, Washington D.C. (about to be thrown out), and San Francisco (thrown out)?

I have NEVER heard of any laws trying to prohibit shotguns, which is primarily a weapon for hunting deer, elk, bears.

Apparently they have never heard of NFA '34. And I've never heard of a shotgun being considered appropriate for elk.

Magazine clips that contain 10 bullets are more useful to people who carry automatic weapons (which are illegal in most states). You just hold down the trigger and the handgun keeps firing, a bit like a machine gun, which means the criminal in question has the ability to fire many rounds at a police officer quickly and easily, and is more likely to hit the target as a result. Thanks to the 10 bullet limit the person runs out of bullets a lot faster. Since that law has been in place officers in many American states have seen a dramatic drop in the death of police officers due to automatic weapons.

Ignoring the ignorance of saying "magazine clips"... The full auto versus semi-auto game has been played many times with the semi-auto shooter getting more bullets on target than the full-auto in nearly all circumstances. The last sentence is total fabrication. The DOJ study found no such benefits to the "Assault Weapon Ban".

The following is in regard the 10 round restriction for guns designed for full capacity magazines:

Those changes were only less reliable for people using automatic weapons. The new magazines were designed specifically to jam up frequently when used in an automatic gun.

Wow! This person is in total la-la land. There is no need to continue further until they start taking their Thorazine again.

Thanks John. Thanks for everything.

This is more like what I expect from Xenia.

"This makes ten" refers to the tenth bone she has broken in her life. It's not entirely obvious from the post.

Lame.

Xenia, I know you can do better than that. 2007 was better and so was 2006.

I've been thinking about this for a long time and Sunday while waiting for the ferry to cross over to the island to visit Mr. Completely and Keewee I made my decision. The event that confirmed everything was the dog sniffing for explosives around the vehicles waiting for the ferry:

There were two things that really struck me about this. 1) The dog didn't take any particular interest in my car even though I had been making explosives and driving that car just a week earlier. No special precautions on cleanliness and the dog didn't hit on us. I also had several hundred rounds of ammunition in the trunk. Therefore the dog and all the WSP officers standing around are just more Security Theater. 2) Why isn't this considered an illegal search? We were on public roads doing nothing suspicious and we get searched.

After a few minutes of thought I realized the game I had been playing was over. For years I have pushing for restoring our freedom and yet we have suffered more and more infringements. There is always some "justification" for the infringement. Before 9-11 it was because of crime and recreational drug use. Now it's the threat of terrorism. Nearly all of the infringements are mere theater in regards to addressing the problems they claim to be concerned about yet they adversely affect the ordinary citizen.

With this realization I concluded I have been playing the game wrong. Therefore I have decided to change sides. From this moment forward I am on the side of Islam. Yes, I know, for the most part they are a bunch of losers. But I have my reasons:

• I think I can make a major contribution to turning their loser ways around.
  • I have thousands of pounds of explosives materials available for immediate use.
  • I have long range rifle experience and equipment.
  • I have computer security expertise.
  • I have extensive engineering experience.
• The U.S. Constitution is dead. It was killed by neglect years ago and there is no hope for its resurrection. This great hope for freedom has died and pretending otherwise is a fraud.
• If we can't have freedom then the next best thing is peace through uniformity of belief. Islam is the best hope for that.
• I'm getting older and so is Barb. Those 72 virgins for eternity are looking better and better.

I know I am handicapping myself by making this public announcement but I feel morally obligated to tell my friends and family the truth. I don't play the part of secret traitor well--I have to look at my face in the mirror each morning. As Winston Churchill once said in regards to formal declarations of war, "When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite."

My apologies to Uncle and others who (correctly at the time) said, "I’m glad he’s one of the good guys." Things change and perhaps you should too.

When Barb left this morning she didn't know. It was just returning to work in Idaho as she does every other week after spending the last several days with me. But that was the end of a 34 year run we had. Our first date was in March of 1974. This was a picture I took of her on that date, a walk along Dworshak Lake:

It was nice but she was only a virgin once. She just can't compete with 72 virgins for eternity.

You might ask, "What are you going to do?" and that's a fair question. I figure I have at best a few months before I am caught and probably killed but I am certain I can make a significant impact in that time frame. Think for a moment about how long a city could last if all the bridges, roads, water, and electricity were cut off with the repair crews taking sniper fire from 1000 yards away. Draw a circle with a radius of 1000 yards around each of the severed connections and imagine trying to protect the crews from someone, someplace in that area. And as law enforcement is searching for me there they won't really know if I am there are not. I could be several hundred miles away getting ready to sever another city from food, water, and power. You don't need nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons to create mass destruction. By creating the appropriate circumstances you can cause the delicate fabric of society to collapse and let nature do the rest.

Ry and I have observed it's rare that a single person can kill more than 200 people before being stopped. It is my ambition to set a record in the 10s of thousands and perhaps higher. I want my name to be in the history books as a demonstration of just what one determined person can do.

Allahu Akbar!

Yes, it's true. Barb and I are headed to the island tomorrow.

I am not amused.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
March 27, 2008
Not amused
[Check out the picture she posted. There are two inches of new snow in Moscow, Idaho this morning. The Boomershoot site, already deeper in snow than I care for this close to the event, is at a higher altitude and probably got even more snow. This could be the year where Boomershooters get to practice long range shooting in "real world conditions" of mud and/or snow. For years Ry has been urging me to make the event more challenging by making people shoot prone from a mud pit mixed with ice and gravel while we hose them down with water. This year might be Ry's fantasy, without the gravel, come true with the help of Mother Nature. I'll bring Ry gravel for his shooting position.--Joe]

Blogging will be light for a few days while I work on Boomershoot 2008 tasks. I give you Xenia as a substitute...

It's becoming a tradition. During Xenia's spring break we go to Portland, visit Powell's, I buy books on explosives, and we get Voodoo Donuts.

And, again, Xenia captures it in pictures.

I sort of remember that picture being taken now--and thinking, "No one will really notice, will they?" (notice the smirk on my face). Of course I have had my hand down her shirt so often for the last 30+ years that by now Barb is almost oblivious to it.

Mr. Completely politely ignores it and tells us about the other joys of attending the Gun Blogger Rendezvous and urges you to sign up for the next one.

Here is the picture the New York Times has of Spitzer's playmate:

Here is the picture found elsewhere:

I wonder why the cropping of the picture. Was it just for space or was there some other reason?

As a side note the above pictures reminds me some of Barb and I can't help but think she would have made a lot more money had she not married me when she was 21. Here is a picture of her at about age 18:

Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism is at the top of my must read list. Unfortunately the audio version isn't out yet and I have a very large stack of paper books that I haven't read beside my bed already.

My latest urge to get this book was fueled by Initial Thoughts... from Musings of The GeekWithA.45. Uncle and Kevin are also impressed with his post.

Last night while watching Farscape with son James I told him he must read the Geek's post. It's just wow!

Both in January of 2007 and 2008 our group at work took the day off (with pay) to go to Stevens Pass to ski (all expenses paid--including transportation and two meals). Those not interested in downhill skiing could snowshoe or cross country ski. Both times I took my own snowshoes (rentals would have been covered but I would rather take my own) and opted for the hike through the trees instead of the downhill adventure my knee surgeon (after the second surgery) advised me to never take up. Even though snowshoes were recommended I found my size 14 boots were more than adequate for the packed trails. It was a very nice hike and I kept wanting to take Barb up there. Yesterday I finally got around to it. She agreed, it was a very nice place to go hiking. Below are some pictures:

Here is what it looked like in January when I went with the people from work:

Although there was less snow on the trees it was sunny and nicer weather when Barb and I went.

640K ought to be enough for anybody.

Bill Gates
1981
[I'm listening, live, to Bill Gates tell us his vision for the future of our group. I'm reminded to not take everything he says as the word of god.--Joe]

This restriction has directly impacted me for years. Barb and I love visiting National Parks. If we get this through then our visits will be far less stressful:

Bush Administration to Propose New Rule Regarding Right-to-Carry in National Parks

Reading the fine print what this really means is that a major offensive has been opened in our battle against the anti-gun bigots on one front. We probably will win but we still have work to do. This is just a commitment to go through the process, including public input, to change the policy. Barb and I have a rule regarding good news. We'll believe it when "the check clears the bank".

Thanks go to former Idaho governor Dirk Kempthorne (currently Secretary of Interior), Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), and NRA-ILA.

At 5:59:55 I received a phone call. As I said, "Hello" I pushed the "Delete" button to make position 31 available. The man on the phone wanted to sign up for Boomershoot. I told him he had to do it on-line. He thanked me and I wished him good luck.

At 6:02 Carl pushed the button that claimed the position.

Carl was the instructor for the first firearms class I ever took. Taking that class enabled me to obtain my Idaho concealed carry license.

I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy right now. It's time to go back to bed with Barb.

May 16-18 is the NRA convention and the Second Amendment Blog Bash in Louisville. Initially I said I would wait and think about it until April or so. Uncle told me to make my reservations then cancel later if I decided to because the hotels fill up quickly.

I procrastinated* for a month or so and Kevin started asking if I was going. I talked to Barb and we decided if she didn't have to work that weekend we would go. I looked it up on the calendar and found out she had to work and couldn't go. So told Kevin no and dropped it.

Last week Barb said she wanted some time with her sister in California. I prefer to avoid repressive regimes** so Barb suggested she would go to California sometime and and I could go to Louisville.

I just finished making my reservations. I got a non-smoking King bed at Red Roof for $55.50/night (Fri and Sat, Thu and Sun it’s $45/night). Most of our group is staying at the Executive Inn but it is full. Red Roof is about two miles from the Executive Inn and Convention Center so I rented a car. I’ll willing to give people rides if you want to stay at Red Roof or the Super 8 next door.

See you in Louisville!

I have had a copy of Joy of Sex and More Joy of Sex since shortly after they came out. Now there is a much updated new version, The New Joy of Sex, due to come out in September. If you can't get expert personal training then reading a book is the next best thing. This will probably be one of the better books on the market.

The pass was still closed (they are saying maybe by midnight one of them will be open) when I woke up this morning. I chatted with Barb for a few minutes and was reading a few blogs and posting my QOTD when I  got a text message from Ry:

We went to Beth's and I finally got on the outside of one of their six egg omelets (they have two sizes, six and 12 egg, both come with all the hash browns you can eat).

I took a couple pictures of drawings on the wall:

From there we went to Kerry Park and took some pictures:

We left the park to visit Glazer's.

At Glazer's I bought a new camera bag and some minor camera accessories.

We then continued south to Cabela's in Lacy. I have never been in a Cabela's before and Ry had only been to the original store in the Midwest. The store was pretty amazing.

The most amazing thing happened there. Someone recognized our Boomershoot coats and my hat and said hi. He said he reads my blog!

I bought a bunch of strange flavored licorice (Piña Colada and blue raspberry among others) some bullets (not loaded ammo, just the Berger, .30 caliber, 210 grain VLD bullets). Wow! Those have gone up by a factor of two since I last bought some. But I figured they weren't going to get any cheaper.

From way down south in Lacy we went way north to Monroe for the "Fun Show" as Ry likes to call them. Actually it was one of the WAC events. I walked by all the tables and didn't really see anything of much interest.

We then headed out of town a little way to visit a friend of Ry's that has a rifle range Ry has permission to use. "A couple hundred yards", Ry said. Things were in the process of changing. Soon it will be over 850 yards! We stood around and talked with the owner and a friend of his for probably an hour. Maybe next spring when there is more daylight in a day and the longer range is available I might visit again with a long range rifle.

Next we ate dinner at the Old Country Buffet and I dropped him off back at his place and came back to my bunker.

That was a nice day. It was much better than moping around writing buggy code for The Borg like I had planned.  Thanks Ry.

But the bummer part of it was Barb had an extremely light day at work and would have been able to spend a lot of time with me at lunch and then gotten off work early to spend more time with me had I been able to make it over the pass and back to Moscow last night.

I don't make cosmetic modifications to any of my guns. I'd make an exception for this one.

I may not be going home this weekend. Both Snoqualmie and Stevens passes are closed. I could fly (very expensive on such short notice) or go through Portland (about 8.5 hours of driving instead of 5.0). I may end up spending the weekend in my Seattle area bunker, writing software for The Borg, and feeling sorry for myself.

The current report from Snoqualmie:

Restrictions Eastbound: Pass Closed

Restrictions Westbound: Pass Closed

Conditions & Weather: Pass is closed due to severe weather conditions and avalanche danger. We are starting 8 to 10 hours of avalanche control, followed by clean up efforts. Motorists should expect extended delays. // Snowing, blowing snow and poor visibility

The current report from Stevens:

Restrictions Eastbound: Pass Closed

Restrictions Westbound: Pass Closed

Conditions & Weather: Compact snow and ice. US 2 is closed from Scenic to Rayrock due to avalanche danger. An estimated reopen time is not determined. // Snowing, strong winds, blowing snow with poor visibility

Update 15:38 PST: From the Snoqualmie website:

Avalanche control work continues and it is now estimated that I-90 Snoqualmie pass will not open earlier than Saturday morning. Opening the roadway will be based on avalanche risk analysis. The roadway will be opened when it is safe to do so. WSDOT will give updates as work progresses and information becomes available. // Snowing, blowing snow and poor visibility

I'll be blaming Global Warming as I'm moping around creating bugs for the Borg. I'm certain it's all Algore's fault.

Update 23:19 PST: From the WSDOT Snoqualmie Pass website:

Interstate 90 Snoqualmie Pass Update: Avalanche control work continues and it is now estimated that I-90 Snoqualmie pass will be reassessed Saturday, opening no earlier than Saturday evening. Opening the roadway will be based on avalanche risk analysis. The roadway will be opened when it is safe to do so. WSDOT will give updates as work progresses and information becomes available. // Snowing, blowing snow and poor visibility

If only I could have convinced Barb when we were in the baby making business we needed some help:

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have created human embryos with three parents in a development they hope could lead to effective treatments for a range of serious hereditary diseases within five years.

Researchers from Newcastle University, in northern England, presented their findings at a medical conference at the weekend, a university spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

The IVF, or test-tube, embryos were created using DNA from one man and two women.

Both women have could carried babies that were from all three of us. However great an idea I think this is I am sure Barb will manage to find some fault with it. She is kinda funny that way.

Most Yahoo employees will feel that, A., we lost, and B., there is no way in hell that I am going to work for Microsoft.

Former Yahoo employee who wishes to remain anonymous
Microsoft and Yahoo!: Happily Ever After?
[After they get their Borg implants and take a couple swigs of Microsoft Brainwash they'll be fine.--Joe]

I am not an Economist.  I am an honest man!

Paul McCracken
[More stuff on economists as I continue listening to The Big Three in Economics by Mark Skousen. Did you know that Marx bragged about "making a killing" in the stock market? Or that Adam Smith, a big proponents of zero tariffs, worked most of his life as a customs official collecting tariffs?--Joe]

Xenia reports on the snow in Moscow with a bunch of pictures. There is a snow drift four foot deep in our back yard:

Nearly everything in town is shut down. The weather forecasts are for more snow for several days.

On the western front the Snoqualmie pass report is interesting too:

Snoqualmie Pass remains closed from milepost 34 near North Bend to milepost 106 near Ellensburg. The earlier estimate of opening Thursday morning was based on a forecast of cooler temperatures and dry snow accumulations. The overnight snow accumulations have more than double the moisture predicted and temperatures have risen. Therefore the avalanche danger has increased instead of decreased and an estimated time of opening is not known. Additional information will be available at 10:00 a.m. // Snowing with areas of poor visibility

Nope. No more information at 10:00. It's possible Barb is stuck with me for longer than she planned.

Barb left Moscow this morning to visit me at my super secret hardened bunker in the Seattle area. Traffic stopped moving when she reached the very top of Snoqualmie summit at about 3:15 PM. I've been watching the web cam and getting updates via the web. The latest story is that she has been stopped for two hours now and the pass is now closed in both directions. The latest word from WSDOT:

She may be spending the night in the Jeep. She has blankets, sleeping bag, and food. She’ll survive just fine but it won’t be fun.

If she had left 10 minutes earlier she would be here by now.

Heavy sigh….

Update: 6:32 PM. She is off the freeway now on a side road near the ski lodge. They are not allowed to travel in either direction.

She went inside the lodge and found "about a 100 people in the lobby". They had 19 rooms available. She is settling in for the night in her Jeep.

There is a small store open and people are stocking up on supplies. Barb is in a better situation than some. There is one woman there with several small kids. There are also some cars trapped in the slide area. The low tonight is supposed be 26^oF so she shouldn't have any problem staying warm and she has about 3/4 of a tank of gas.

Assuming she can travel tomorrow morning it will just be one of those "interesting stories" you have to tell your grandkids.

Update2: 7:55 PM. Barb says, "This is a very boring adventure. You can put that on your damn blog."

A police car drove by announcing the westbound on ramp will be opening soon. She may make it over here yet!

Update3: 8:15 PM. A police car drove by again. This time the officer said there was a short delay, "But you guys are going to make it."

Update4: 8:23 PM. They are taking westbound traffic out in convoys. She should make it to my bunker within a couple hours.

Update5: 8:48 PM. One convoy per hour until 10:00 PM and she apparently missed the first one. But she is moving again now.

Update6: 8:59 PM. No further word from Barb but KIRO has a story and pictures of the avalanche. There were two cars caught in the avalanche but no one was hurt. The video is more impressive.

Update7: 9:23 PM. She made it to North Bend which is out of the snow. She should be here in 45 minutes or so.

Update8: 10:02 PM. She made it to my bunker. All is well.

LawDog
Meditations on Self Defence
January 27, 2008
[Via Tam. I'm in full agreement with this philosophy but not all people are.

I had an interesting discussion with my officemate last week. She is from India and a Jain. Just a quick refresher on that philosophy of life:

Nonviolence includes the concepts of vegetarianism. Jains are expected to be non-violent in thought, word, and deed, both toward humans and toward all other living beings, including their own selves. Jain monks and nuns walk barefoot and sweep the ground in front of them to avoid killing any insects or other tiny beings. Even though all life is considered sacred by the Jains, human life is deemed the highest form of life. For this reason, it is considered vital never to harm or upset any person.

They also don't eat the roots of plants because of the increased chance of harming some organism that lives in the soil or the root. She does eat dairy products but not eggs.

Quite a contrast from me. I asked her, "If a lion was about to have you, or your children, for lunch does your religion require you to submit? The answer was that in the most pure form, yes, you are required to tolerate being lunch. But of course most people would not do that. They would fight back. Similar responses were obtained after gentle probes about taking antibiotics and defending against a human attacker. I dropped the subject. Maybe some other time when we have lots of time (this was to/from a lunch for our group) I'll explore more. It seems so odd to me that their ideal and the admitted practical are so divergent. And that she is so positive about my explosive videos. Maybe it's just the contrast from her live experience in a non-threatening form. Or maybe she is just being a Jain and doesn't want to upset me by showing her disapproval.

[shrug]

Those are questions for another time--we have a product to ship...--Joe]

I don't like to miss an opportunity to mock the shooters in the Seattle area who shutdown their matches in the winter. The shooters in Idaho are made of better stuff.

The following pictures are from the steel match at the Lewiston Pistol Club on Sunday.

This was the scene as I walked out my door Sunday morning.

Scene at the range.

Adam gives us the stage walk-through.

Joe M. is terminally ill and I was pleased to be able to see him again. Don W. is the range officer.

Another picture of Joe M. with brass in the air above his rear sight.

When Joe M. can make it to the range and shoot in the snow the shooters in the Seattle area have truly earned their wimp badges.

Sunday night I drove from my home in Moscow, Idaho to my secret bunker in the Seattle area in preparation for another week of work for The Borg. The road was compact snow and ice from home to Vantage when I got on I-90. Most of that drive was across the desert of Eastern and Central Washington.

Yes, desert. Othello, Washington only gets about 8.4 inches of precipitation per year. A desert is defined as getting less than 10 inches per year. The picture below was taken a few miles east of Othello:

Quick! Tell Algore global warming is destroying our deserts!

The school VP suspended a kid because he had a pen with a Glock Logo on it.

I'd show up to pick up my kid with my lawyer while wearing this shirt:

Then I'd give the VP a copy of 18 USC 242 and tell the VP I was going to visit the Federal Prosecutor next. The tone of my voice would scare him far more than the words I used.

In Moscow Idaho my daughter (above) actually wore the shirt you see above to school. She only showed it to one teacher, but still, he thought it was cool.

H/T to Uncle and Bruce.

Xenia is our daughter who made the vagina cake, wore "Vagina Day" shirts to school, and did the Celebration of Ovulation anthology. Here is her cake:

Thanks to Tam we now have a couch I can only imagine Xenia wanting. A sample picture:

In high school and college I played a LOT of chess. I still have the records of hundreds of games I played and dozens of books and magazines. I had thought maybe my children would be interested in chess but kids seem to develop interests in things other than what their parents are interested in.

In any case I was a big into chess before Bobby Fischer became the first American world chess champion. Fischer winning the championship made chess in the U.S. popular for a while. And I remember walking into the high school cafeteria on the first day of school in the fall of '72 shortly after he had won and my friend Lance Jones yelling across the room, "Yea Fischer!".

In later years after I was most of the way through college my electrical engineering classes started sucking up the desire for challenging intellectual stimulation and I mostly dropped out of the chess scene.

Fischer made the news again a few years ago and I wrote about him then. The news about him made me sad and now that he is dead at the age of 64 it's like another milestone in my life. A childhood hero is gone.

Last week James and I finished watching Wonderfalls and then started Farscape this week (we found Season One in a far off, obscure video rental store and are shipping it in/out at great expense).

Wonderfalls was a pretty good show. I think James liked it better than I did. There were some good quotes:

Jaye: [spying on a little boy customer] He's eyeing the Slinky. You know, he has to steal, like, four of those for me to even get a dollar.
Wonderfalls Security Guard: Is this one of those stores that gives its employees a cash bonus when they apprehend a shoplifter?
Jaye: Ten percent of whatever they were gonna steal. One time, I "accidentally" left the watch case open and I got like 500 bucks!

Hale: The Blonde one's gay. Look at her. The fingernails are a dead giveaway.
Hale: Cut all nice and short. Clean cuticle beds. Lesbians always trim their nails like that. You know why?

Jaye: [talking about Bianca] She's nice. We should take her clubbing.
Mahandra: ...baby seals?

Or noticing the bartender's cell phone is ringing in his back pocket--- Jaye says, "Your ass is ringing." Bartender: "My ass rings a lot." Jaye: "Have you ever thought of setting it on vibrate? Bartender: "I'm not sure I'm secure enough with my manhood to do that." Jaye: "So, why do you have an ass if you don't answer it?"

James lamented that too many good shows are canceled after one season. In this case I thing I understand why it wouldn't have that big of audience. Even though had a rather flimsy premise it was well executed and witty but I think the delivery speed and the intelligence required to catch all the jokes as they came whizzing by would eliminate 80% of the population.

[heavy sigh]

Our demographic probably isn't the best investment of T.V. talent and airtime.

Yes, some people find it calming to go shooting but that isn't what this post is about. As Sebastian and Conservative Scalawag point out a replica of Malcolm Reynolds pistol from the movie Serenity is available for $150.

Son James and I are big fans of Serenity and the TV series FireFly which it was based on.

From my Sitemeter it appears someone is looking for a good time on New Years Eve:

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Sorry, we won't be having that type of party at our place tonight. It will be spent with our kids, Barb's sister, and her family. And when I say that, keep in mind this is Idaho, not West Virginia or some such place.

Yesterday my daughters, my son-in-law, and I went out to the Boomershoot site and built a snowman.

It's a 34 43 Mbyte .WMV file. Don't even think about it unless you have a high speed connection.

Crank the volume up. There are some subtle sounds.

Update: I just updated the video. There were some very significant changes. The slow parts were sped up, the interesting parts were slowed down and a lot more detail added.

Some technical details: Five gallons of gasoline, ten pounds of Boomerite, and one shot from an AR-15 chambered in .223.

Update2: One of the reasons to make this video was for America's Funniest Home Videos who requested people make videos of building then destroying a snowmen in "creative" ways. Reading the fine print for the submission I discovered I must take the video off the web when I submit it. I'm giving everyone until Midnight January 2^nd to view it. Then it's coming down. Sorry about that.

Update3: I've removed the link to the video. Send me an email if you want to view a private copy.

I have this friend whose little brother is a vegetarian except for hamburgers and tacos. I'm that way except with Pandas.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
December 22, 2007
[If I explained it then it wouldn't be nearly as funny.--Joe]

Update: More pictures from Xenia.

Christmas Eve Barb told me the toilet needed to be fixed. I told her the part she thought was broken still had some life in it:

But men who wish to remain married know better than to argue so I replaced it anyway.

We first went to my parents place to have dinner with them and my brothers. We then opened presents with them. Here is a picture of our gathering:

We then returned to our place and opened more presents. Among other things I received three great t-shirts and a high quality pistol case.

The third t-shirt I received says, "There are very few personal problems that can't be solved with a suitable application of high explosives."

Another awesome item was the scrapbook of Boomershoot (and other things) that Barb and Xenia made for me.

I got Barb an iPod Nano, a Bluetooth headset for her cell phone, and the items in this package which she refused to show to anyone else:

James and Xenia got some shirts too:

(I have no idea what this means.)

Xenia also learned a lesson in rattling the cage of wild animals:

Our princess Kimberly got a load of stuff but seemed to like the tools for the kitchen the best. The Christmas decoration below will come in handy next year.

Caleb got a black Boomershoot M-65 field jacket like mine but also seemed to like the Hickory Farms smoked cheese that he ate like it was a sandwich:

Merry Christmas from the entire Huffman-Scott clan.

James wanted his sister Kim to make him a costume for a gaming convention he goes to every year in August. This was the character (Siegfried):

Kim wanted to give him the sword for Christmas and wanted some help with it. What follow are some pictures of it's construction--which isn't complete yet.

Caleb, myself, and Dad are doing some tweaking of the design I had come up with.
Photo by Kim.

I'm implementing the grip Dad had suggested (it worked well).
Photo by Kim.

Caleb inspects part of the blade.
Photo by Kim.

The handle and the piece that attach to the blade.
Photo by Kim.

Cutting the handle to the proper length.
Photo by Kim.

Kim had never seen an arc welder in use before. Dad is welding the blade to the grip attachment.
Photo by Caleb.

Caleb, myself, and Dad work on the attachment. The new tractor tires I told you about are in the background.
Photo by Kim.

The main part of the blade is made of two pieces of 16 gauge steel. These had to be clamped down on the edges and then welded.
Photo by Kim.

Near the tip we used a wood spacer to make the blade thicker along the centerline.
Photo by Kim.

Here I'm using my cousin Allen's MIG welder on the blade edges.
Photo by Kim.

Smoothing off the edges where the tip will attach.
Photo by Kim.

Caleb and Kim clamping the tip in place prior to welding.
Photo by Joe.

The tip is welded on one side. Kim is turning it over so I can weld the other side.
Photo by Joe.

Me welding.
Photo by Caleb.

All the metal assembly is done and it's "usable".
Photo by Kim.

Kim is pleased.
Photo by Joe.

Caleb thinks is it pretty cool too.
Photo by Joe.

James thinks it is awesome. Now if he can just figure out how he can get it back to the Seattle area.
Photo by Xenia.

Kim and Caleb still have some work to do on it. It needs to be buffed (it will take on a mirror like finish), coated, the grip wrapped in leather, and minor other tweaks.

It is surprisingly stiff. When smoothing out the welds with his grinder Caleb said he supported it on opposite ends and used it as a bench. And that it was strong enough to sit on.

If you have the muscle for it this would be quite the "assault weapon". It never needs to be reloaded and if it had an sharp edge it would be as deadly as any ordinary firearm.

I shot in a steel match yesterday. Results are here. I'm improving. I'm only 10 seconds down from the winner. On "Smoke & Hope" I cut almost two seconds off of my September time. And the weather conditions were a little more challenging than in September. The pictures are below. Again I need to point out that a lot of the Seattle area ranges stop their outdoor matches in the winter. But this isn't Seattle. This is Idaho. The Seattle area shooters are wimps.

Mike claimed he had a little trouble with the contrast between the white targets and the backstop.

Notice the snow build up on the bill of Rogers hat?

Mike brought tamales!

The scorekeeper stayed under cover when it was snowing.

James and I went to see the movie on Saturday night. This was apparently at about the same time as Kevin and his wife. James thought it was really good. I thought it was very well done but came away feeling not quite right about it. I couldn't put it in words for James or Barb but if you take what Kevin said and multiply it by about 0.8 you get pretty close.

We have beautiful daughters. Amazingly beautiful.

But then I won't argue if someone were to suggest the potential for bias exists. But that doesn't mean I'm even the least bit in error about my claim.

My claims about their talents, intelligence, goodness, etc. also have potential for bias as well and would also be lacking in any error.

And yes, I'm well aware of the Heinlein quote from Time Enough For Love (page 241).  I'll save you the trouble of reminding me:

Delusions are often functional.  A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.

Lazarus Long
1916-4272

Also of note from this same book and character is this quote:

Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.

This quote is of particular interest because it was the first quote in my collection of quotes (and things) which now totals 8491 items. It was when James was a few months old I decided I liked that quote and did not want to forget it as we reared James and his future siblings. I added it to my autoexec.bat file so that I would see it every time I booted my IBM XT. A week or two later I had some other quotes I wanted to be reminded of. I then wrote a simple program that would select and display a quote at random and put a call to the program in autoexec.bat. I ended up rewriting the program in the early 90's and recompiling it for Win32 after Windows 95 came out but the collection of quotes has just been growing and is one of the sources I used for the QOTD on this blog. I now have the program set up so that every time I open up a command prompt (frequently, and don't give me any crap about this--yes, I work for Microsoft and use a command prompt for a LOT of things including building MS software) the programs runs and selects a quote at random for me.

Back to the girls. Wow. They sure are beautiful.

The regulation that prohibits firearms in National Parks has long been a point of irritation for me. Barb and I really enjoy visiting the National Parks and have contemplated trying to visit all of them. But we aren't supposed to bring a self-defense firearm to places where grizzly bears snack on the tourists? What's up with that?

I received my marching orders from the apex of the triangle of death along with another wheelbarrow full of cash yesterday informing me they have been working on this for the last five years and finally have made some significant progress. Idaho Senator Mike Crapo sent a letter, signed by 46 other senators, to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne requesting the regulation change.

What they didn't mention on the website or in the note on the wheelbarrow was that not only was it an Idaho Senator that played a big role in writing this letter but that Interior Secretary Kempthorne is a former U.S. Senator and more recently governor of Idaho and has a strong pro-gun rights record. He did veto a bill that would have allowed concealed carry on school grounds by teachers and parents but he had a lot of pressure by the media and even national attention that caused him to cave on that one. When I called his office to encourage him to sign it I was told the phone calls, letters, faxes, etc. were running something like 50:1 against the bill.

Furthermore, Kempthorne graduated from the University of Idaho in 1975 and his wife Patricia also graduated from the University of Idaho. Barb and I graduated from there in 1977. Our son James graduated from there, our daughter Xenia is currently attending, and our daughter Kim has applied there. The University of Idaho is walking distance from our home in Moscow. In fact Xenia, since she (procrastinator extraordinaire) still doesn't have a drivers license uses her feet as her primary transportation to and from class from our home.

If it's up to Kempthorne I expect we will, at long last, get rid of this oppressive and dangerous restriction on our ability to defend ourselves in national parks.

If that happens I'll be a lot more enthusiastic about visiting the parks and less grumpy when I'm hiking through the woods without the constant reminder of that empty feeling of no gun on my hip in country with large predators.

What follows are some more pictures of our recent trip to Glacier National Park (and here):

Thank yous go to NRA-ILA, Idaho Senators Crapo and Craig, who both signed the letters and Ashley for the email (and also said she liked my earlier pictures of Glacier).

Shame on you to the senators that didn't sign the letter such as the Senators of Washington State where I currently reside. Please note that Presidential hopefuls Senators Clinton and Obama did not sign the letter. McCain did.

James and I just finished up Stargate Atlantis season three and were going to start watching Farscape but the first season is very tough to find on DVD. Is there anyone near where I roam (Seattle to north central Idaho) willing to loan it to us for a few weeks?

Thanks.

I reported the other day that I was very, very busy at work and was putting in some very long hours on weekends and evenings/nights/early-mornings. They've been telling us it's really important to get these changes done soon, we can't miss this deadline, etc., etc. It's not that I doubted that, but it's interesting when aspects of the project my officemate and I have been spending unreal hours working on (she worked all day on her birthday this last Sunday) make the news.

To my Program Manager and Dev Lead who have been expressing concern; Yes, we will be code complete by Friday. There will probably still be bugs which won't be fixed for week or two but the feature set will be there and working. Perhaps as early as tomorrow.

Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.

E. B. White
[While this may seem to be true I would have to see the actual numbers to believe it myself. I have known and worked with many people that qualify as genius in the I.Q. department. I suspect that the genius can see what others either cannot or do not want to see and ignores many societal conventions simply because they are superfluous. This gives the appearance of "cracked". The non-genius wishes to either deny they are blind, and/or have their eyes closed, calls the genius "cracked" in an effort to bring the genius down to their level. Still, using the model as described above could be useful if for no other reason than you don't reject the company or contribution of someone "a little strange". Being in the company of genius can have it's advantages and is perhaps worth putting up with a little strangeness.--Joe]

I've been working very long hours the last week or so--including this weekend. Barb came over to my Seattle area "bunker" to visit and it's a good thing she had lots of scrap-booking supplies to work with while I was doing the "work from home" thing. I'm waiting for a build to complete now after making tons of changes.

Anyway, sorry for not making anything but the QOTD posts, not answering email, and almost not reading anyone else's blog postings for days. I haven't been doing much except work, a little food, watching a couple crappy movies on-line with Barb (Breasts, A Boy and His Dog, and Darwin Awards), and partaking in liberal amounts of Dr. Joe's Cure for Everything as needed.

Things will probably still be pretty busy for the rest of the week before I get through this crunch period.

Thanks for your patience.

I just got the new (blue) rule book. It says anyone shooting a classifier at below freezing temperatures in falling snow deserves the crummy score they get.

KW Hipps
Lewiston Pistol Club Discussion Group email list
December 1, 2007
[We have an IPSC match today. The current weather forecast is:

HOUR Sun 6AM Sun 7AM Sun 8AM Sun 9AM Sun 10AM Sun 11AM Sun 12PM Sun 1PM Sun 2PM SKY CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION Slight Slight Slight Slight Slight Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate TEMP (F) 31° 31° 31° 32° 32° 33° 34° 35° 35° WIND CHILL(F) 18° 18° 18° 19° 19° 21° 23° 25° 25° DEWPOINT (F) 25° 25° 25° 26° 26° 26° 27° 27° 27° HUMIDITY 78% 78% 78% 79% 79% 75% 76% 73% 73% WIND (MPH) SE 21 SE 21 SE 22 SE 23 SE 24 SE 22 E 20 E 18 E 18

We start shooting at 10:00 and probably won't be done until 12:00 (the wimps won't be there so it shouldn't take too long). 20 to 25 MPH winds and snowing. This is practical shooting. Caleb and I plan be there. Pictures later if I manage to make it over Snoqualime Pass this afternoon on my way back to the Seattle area. The current pass report:

Technically I am the domain owner but I have nothing to do with the content here:

Dr. Hall of Fame
Dr. Hall of Shame

I think a good candidate would the neurosurgeon a physical therapist I know worked with several years ago. The nurses and therapists had a nickname they used for this brain surgeon behind his back. They called him The Veg-O-Matic.

Just a little hint on finding a good doctor if you are new in town and don't know anyone. Go to the hospital and ask the nurses. But you have to be a little sneaky about the way you ask the question. If you ask, "Who is a good doctor?" you will get an answer similar to, "They are all good." But if you ask, "Who would you choose as a doctor for yourself/spouse/child/mother-in-law/whoever?" you will get a much more useable answer.

Count the cats in this picture and win a free cat (check out the comments). Hurry while supplies last!

[But if you get there too late you can have mine.]

For Thanksgiving I usually make something with lentils since we grow them on the farm and few people do much cooking with lentils. Yesterday, about an hour before we planned to leave for the farm I still hadn't started making anything (yes, I'm who Xenia inherited he procrastination from). I pulled the The Pea & Lentil Cookbook from the cupboard and started looking through it. "Oh, that looks interesting", I thought when I saw the lentil cookies. "Interesting" was to be a word used in conjunction with my cookies many times during the day. I thought we had all the ingredients and started work. It turns out we didn't have enough of everything and I improvised along the way.

Word traveled fast through the house and James came in to look and express his scorn, "Lentil cookies? Have you tried this before?" "No", I replied. As he walked off he said, "I'll be impressed if you pull it off." At the end of the day he came up with my QOTD for today.

Lentil and Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 7 dozen, approximately 3 cookies per serving
Lentils lend a rich, nutty flavor and cakelike softness to this classic cookie

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons vanilla
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups lentil purée (purée instructions below)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
5 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

• Preheat oven to 375^o F.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Add vanilla and eggs; beat until smooth. Cream lentil purée into butter mixture
• In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture and blend lightly. Gently blend in oatmeal, chocolate chips, and nuts, just until evenly mixed.
• Chill dough until ready for handling. Drop dough in rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 5 minutes; turn pan and bake another 5 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

Lentil Purée

Add 2 cups water per cup of lentils. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer. Simmer 10 to 20 minutes for decorticated (skinned) lentils, 35 to 40 minutes for whole lentils. Add more water if cooking time is extended due to high altitude, hard water, or prolonged storage prior to cooking. Stir a few times. Cook lentils until they are very soft but just short of falling apart. Which cooking is complete remove from heat and let cool slightly but do not drain. In small batches purée the lentils with a sieve, food mill, blender, food processor, or potato masher. Purée should be the consistency of canned pumpkin. Add water to thin if necessary.

It turns out I only had 1 cups of brown sugar. I topped it off with white sugar and pour some molasses over it until I figured it was "brown enough". I didn't see the walnuts in the cupboard and crushed some pecans with the potato masher. We only had four cups of oatmeal and I topped it off with Raisin Bran. We only had about 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and I figured the raisins in the Raisin Bran would be a good enough substitute.

I put the mixture in the freezer while I took a shower and we headed off to the farm.

As I was putting them on the cookies for baking people came in and asked what I was making. The response was universal, "Interesting":

Putting the cookies on baking sheets as Aunt Alice expresses her "interest". Photo by Xenia Joy.

I baked the cookies for the suggested ten minutes and wasn't happy with them. Even 12 minutes didn't seem like quite enough time but they tasted very good. Everyone, even our food snob son James, liked them.

Yesterday we went to my parents place to gorge ourselves. Xenia and I took some pictures. She posted some of hers here. Mine are below (except as noted). And yes, I'll tell you about the lentil cookies eventually.

Everyone says Barb and I are "cute" in this picture. Cute? Photo by Xenia Joy.

Son James who is featured in my QOTD today.

Daughter Xenia.

Xenia framed in frosted tree branches.

My brother's shooting bench.

A neighbors Black Angus cow and Xenia.

Barb and Xenia reflected in the eye of a cow. Photo by Xenia Joy.

Xenia and I. Photo by Xenia Joy.

So, it's not just impressive you pulled it off. It was a f****ing miracle.

James Huffman-Scott
November 22, 2007
[Our son James after learning that not only did I try out a new recipe for cookies on Thanksgiving for our extended family I improvised with numerous ingredients and they still turned out quite good. Everyone, when I told them what I was making said, "Interesting" which of course actually means "I can't imagine anyone eating something like that unless stomach cancer has already eliminated any concern about their stomach rotting." I'll share both the original and modified recipe soon.--Joe]

Remember when Xenia dressed up as Dorothy for Halloween? Here is the making of my Dorothy:

I sometimes wish I could output snark like this:

The report follows recent news that screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed 75% of the fake bombs that investigators tried to smuggle onto planes during tests two years ago. The excuse from TSA officials: The tests were difficult and designed to trip up screeners. Whereas Al Qaeda will doubtless hide its bombs in brightly marked packages.

But then I would probably want to use it for occasions that would jeopardize my job and marriage.

We were probably a little more honest with our kids about Santa than most parents. We had to explicitly tell them to "keep the secret" from some of their cousins. Thus we avoided little unplanned revelations like this (thanks to Rob for forwarding it to me).

But our girls did somehow manage to find the contents of the top shelf in the work room with both volumes of The Kinsey Report and other books that had more photos that words. Which reminds me. I think there is still room on that shelf for this book.

We had the first snow of fall in Moscow, Idaho yesterday. I left about 13:20 to try getting over the pass to my hardened, underground bunker near Seattle before dark. It snowed or rained on me the whole way. The road had a little slush on the pass but I never had any problems although I saw a couple accidents where people made unplanned excursions from I-90.

Xenia took some pictures near our Moscow home but only posted one so I stole this one from her computer because I like it better:

You know, you blow up one sun and suddenly everyone expects you to walk on water.

Samantha Carter
A character in Stargate SG-1
Played by Amanda Tapping
[James and I just finished watching this series on DVD. It was good. Very good. We're sorry it's over. The ending could have been a little bit better. James was probably a little more disappointed than I. I thought it left things such that you could imagine how all the unresolved things would probably be figured out and that was okay. But James was a bit annoyed saying that it wasn't that much different than the ending of any other episode. I figure it gives them possibilities for the movies.--Joe]

In August of 2006 Barb and I spent a week in Missouri and Kansas. I'd spent a little time in that area of the country on business 20 years ago but Barb hadn't been there before. In addition to taking in the local claims to fame we expected to do some of the usual things we do in the northwest--hike in the wood. We were disappointed in that regard.

The part of Kansas we were in, essentially, didn't have any woods and we didn't even look for a place to hike. Missouri was a little better but from our perspective it was very odd. There just weren't any trails to speak of. And the ones we found were just "blah". We did do a little bit of hiking and thought we understood part of the reason people didn't do much hiking.

1. The humidity made it uncomfortable.
2. It just wasn't that interesting compared to what we were used to.
3. It's flat. The highest altitude in Missiouri is 1772 ft and the lowest is 230 ft for a difference of only 1542 ft over the entire state.

On October 28^th of this year we, after spending most of the day in bed, went for a hike toward Wallace Falls near Gold Bar Washington. We got off much too late and had to turn around before we reached the falls so we could get back to the car before dark. We were pleased with what we saw and decided to try it again and get an earlier start. On November 11^th we started our hike a little after 10:00 AM and made it all the way to the upper falls.

We were leaning against the rail taking in the beauty of the upper falls and I said, "You know we aren't in Missouri don't you?" Barb laughed and knew exactly what I was talking about even though it had been over a year since we had been in Missouri.

A few days later I told our son James about it, including the background about our time in Kansas and Missouri. He responded with something his friend Tucker had said numerous times, "Kansas is flatter than a pancake--they've done tests."

Here are a few pictures to show you what I'm talking about. It's definitely not Missouri.

Son-in-law Caleb and I went to an IPSC match on Sunday. It was his first. He came in 13^th out of 19 participants. This is very good for a first time IPSC shooter. I came in third. I had way too many misses to be very happy about my performance though.

I even won one of the stages but I suspect that was mostly because I successfully pulled off a creative way of shooting the stage rather than because my shooting was that much better than everyone else. I know at least one other person messed it up when he tried to do it the same way. I learned from his mistake and was successful.

Update: I'm adding pictures from the match and a little bit about the stage "Which Way".

Caleb and I both did really well on this stage. I won the stage and Caleb came in 4^th. Caleb actually shot it in less time that I did, 12.41 seconds versus 12.71. I had much better hits on it than he did which gave me the win. Master Class shooter Adam shot it in 10.77 seconds but with one miss and poor hits. It was a 15 round (minimum) stage so including the draw, moving into position and from shooting position to shooting position we still averaged more than one aimed shot per second.

Caleb contemplating how to shoot a stage.

Caleb shooting the stage "Which Way".

And no, Caleb wasn't standing on one foot to shoot, he was slowing down as he approached the barrels and shooting at the same time.

Master class shooter Adam shooting a worse score than beginner Caleb while K.W. RO's.

From looking that this picture you might think it was my daughter Xenia that Tam was talking about. But that would be wrong.

I managed to drag Barbara to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous this year. It was on the condition that I didn't totally ignore her and I found time to do things with her.

We arrived at Circus Circus very late on Thursday evening and went to bed (to sleep). We had breakfast with the others the next morning then went on a walk while most of the other people went to play poker or various other games. We picked up Sebastian and Rob on our way out the door and went looking for the "River Walk" which Barb assured us would be more interesting than downtown Reno.

Barb, Sebastian, Rob

She was absolutely correct. It was much more "interesting" along the river than it was downtown or in the casino.

After walking for an hour or so we wandered back to Circus Circus in time to clean up and attend the Friday afternoon conference with the Apex of The Triangle of Death (the NRA).

Most everyone was there but I didn't take pictures of everyone and not all of the pictures turned out well.

Uncle made my ears smile with his Tennessee accent.

DirtCrashr and JimmyB

Sebastian

US Citizen (foreground), Uncle (background), and Glen Caroline from the Apex of the Triangle of Death

Rob (his back anyway), Mel and Chris, and Ashley Varner from the Apex of the Triangle of Death

I loved the part where Ashley told of going to television studios to debate some bigot from the Brady Bunch or the VPC and seeing their response when they first lay eyes on her and thinking, "I have to debate you?" For some reason Ashley doesn't fit the stereotypical image the bigots want to paint of the NRA.

Uncle saw me taking pictures and motioned me over. He wanted an ATF picture:

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms

After getting our wheelbarrows full of cash and marching orders from the Apex of The Triangle of Death we had a little show and tell.

Uncle talking about the Ko-Tonics 6.8SPC upper

DirtCrashr and his toys

Mr. Completely with Sebastian in the background

After dinner Sebastian borrowed one of my knives and attacked the package of 6.8 SPC ammo. For a while we thought the package was going to win:

But Sebastian finally figured out the secret weapon being used against him--the package had staples which were nearly immune to my knife. He then engaged his superior intellect and defeated the wily package.

There were multiple simultaneous conversations all evening long and I constantly felt like I was missing out on something because I couldn't listen to all of them at once. The conversation continued until after midnight when, as we were headed for our rooms, Sebastian, Mr. Completely, and I witnessed hotel security go irrational on Chris. Another security guard came along and "suggested" the wacko go find something else to do. Thus Chris escaped without having to fill out a bunch of paperwork for leaving someone else's body parts littering the elevator lobby on the third floor.

Except for the last few minutes of the day it was very, very enjoyable.

Someday soon I'll post on the exterior ballistics of Saturday at GBR 2007.

Last week James just had to show me a new XBox 360 game he had been playing. He insisted I play it. It was probably painful for him to watch me. Things that he took for granted, like being able to move in a coordinated manner, were difficult for me. But he did have a point. This is a very cool game. It was more like solving puzzles than what you usually think of as video games. It was rather mind bending in a lot of ways. Imagine you have a tool, sort of like a gun, that can create a portal between any two surfaces you can see no matter how far apart or their orientation to each other. Now what can you do with it? It's a great game.

Spoofing that game concept we have this video:

This (see the comments here) isn't the first time someone has said something like this about me (see also this and this post in which I believe I contributed some to his conclusion). I could name off a half dozen people that said something similar. I'm not saying I disagree with them. I just don't get what it is I say or do that causes people to arrive at these conclusions after a brief encounter.

About the only thing I can think of that might have given them this idea was that I explained how easy it was to get a knife through airport security (Sebastian said, "I'm glad you are on our side" after I did this). But then Uncle explained how to get a gun through which is a little more difficult but uses the same principles as I used in my knife example--so I'm not sure why I was singled out as an example.

Gun Blogger Rendezvous 2007 is now over and Barb and I are sitting in the airport waiting to board. I probably averaged about five hours of sleep each night and I haven't had any caffeine for several days now. I'm starting to crash from the prolonged excitement and fun as well as the less than normal amounts of sleep.

I have 299 pictures from the event. I shared most of them with The AnarchAngel, Sebastian, Uncle, The Conservative UAW Guy, and Kevin. Keewee, Mr. Completely and US Citizen took a bunch of pictures too so look around if I don't post enough for you.

Update: Our flight has been delayed a few minutes. You can track our flight back to Seattle in near real time here.

I'm ready to go. Barb and I are leaving on a jet plane for Reno and the Gun Blogger Rendezvous this evening. That's assuming the TSA will allow me, my guns, and ammo on the plane. Alaska Airlines will only allow me to take 50 pounds of ammo [heavy sigh]. That would have been enough for what I want to do except that with all the other stuff I'm taking (Boomershoot give aways, knives, spotting scope, tripod, range bag, magazines, holsters, guns, shot timer, eye and ear protection, laser range finder, binoculars, spare batteries, gun cleaning gear, walkie-talkie, altimeter, wind gauge, thermometer, exterior ballistics calculator, targets, and a clean pair of socks) I started running up against a different weight limit without bringing all the ammo I wanted.

I have enough match rifle ammo and if I decide I want some more pistol ammo I'll buy it in Reno sometime tomorrow.

Update: We made it through security without incident. We are now sitting at our gate waiting to board. Pretty amazing considering all the electronics and cables I had in my computer bag. The holster in the computer bag apparently didn't raise an eyebrow either. And the empty water bottle... I thought for sure they would want to open my backpack to make sure it was actually empty. They were cool with me wearing a shirt with the picture of a gun on it and the Boomershoot coat too. All nice to know. Maybe they are happy with just infringing on one constitutionally guaranteed right at a time.

So far the flight is on time. You can track it in near real time here.

James and I loved the first two seasons of Andromeda. Great characters, stimulating story line, it was wonderful writing and execution.

We got the first DVD of season three and episode after episode we looked at each other in confusion. What the heck was that? The actors were doing their job but the story sucked. We watched five or six episodes and gave up on Monday. It's on to something else.

James read a synopsis of the remaining episodes declared they were all crap and made up his own ending, "Tyr takes over the ship, then conquers and rules the entire universe." Works for me. It's also entirely within character for Tyr. Some quotes to illustrate:

Tyr Anasazi: What would you like, Jaguar?
Charlemagne Bolivar: The usual. Hundreds of grandchildren, utter domination of known space and the pleasure of hearing that all of my enemies have died in terrible, highly improbable accidents that cannot be connected to me. And you?
Tyr Anasazi: [Laughs] The usual.

Tyr Anasazi: I have faith in nothing but this - when the universe collapses and dies. There will be three survivors - Tyr Anasazi, the cockroaches, and Dylan Hunt trying to save the cockroaches.

Apparently having been refuted on the concept that my children grew up in "an awful environment" they have now changed the subject to anonymously attack me on another front (By NephriteAU, 10-10-07).

Whatever.

Someone apparently believes they can read my mind from reading part of my blog. And she thinks I have problems:

By Sheryl, 10-07-07
I checked that guys site out, very disturbing. I found the home life thread especially very disturbing. Any grown man that likes to brag about intimate relations with his wife on a public blog has some real personal problems. Using sexual terms to generate more search engine hits in conjunction with posts about his children saddens me. What an awful environment they must have grown up in. It frankly disturbs me even more that such a person has access to assault weapons and explosives.

Such a dark world we live in.

I left the following comment but was told "Akismet thinks your comment is spam, so it will be moderated first."

Sheryl, I regret to inform you that you are unable to read my mind or my motives. The only thing truthful about your comment is that which you shared about yourself--you are disturbed.

Update: Interesting... someone else's comment, again very negative, showed up but my comment and that of Miss C don't. Does the moderator have an agenda?

I noticed it was a little cold when I came home Friday night and the furnace wasn't putting out warm air even after I turned up the thermostat. In fact there wasn't much air at all coming out even though we have the fan on continuously. Great. Another chore to do this weekend. Scratch the IPSC match on Sunday because Saturday was committed to visiting my parents and doing some construction and the final fall prep for the Taj Mahal.

Last night, hoping I could get the furnace going and have time for other things today I pulled the dirty air filter out, washed it, and put it back in and got decent air flow but there was still no heat.

So today I verified the pilot light (gas furnace) was on and the thermostat was set to "heat" rather than "cool" and the thermostat setting was for several degrees warmer than the room temperature. Still no flames in the burner. I then used a couple of small screw drivers to short across the terminal block for the thermostat, to simulate a thermostat closure, directly on the furnace controller. After a few seconds it was "flame on" with a puff of flame that came back out of the furnace--toward my hands:

Photo by Xenia

My back of my right hand now has stubble on it (the hair on my palm is just fine).

[Side note: Xenia thought it was gross and it took me a while to convince her to take a picture. I don't understand her concept of "gross". She intentionally got a hole punched in her face and a little singed hair is too gross to take a picture of?]

I removed the thermostat from the wall and did a similar trick from there and also got the furnace burner to start working. It must be the thermostat or the connection. I finally examined the batteries to the thermostat and discovered on of them had leaked and corroded the battery contacts. I removed the old batteries, cleaned the contacts, put in fresh batteries, and now the furnace works again. Now I can head back to the Seattle area tonight, then to Reno on Thursday and not worry too much about the Huffman-Scott compound (guarded by Caleb, Kim, and Xenia) freezing while I'm out of town.