I already sent email out to everyone on the Boomershoot aliases, but figured there were some people reading this that wouldn’t be on the aliases.  I think they may put the video on their website if you don’t mind registering.  Ry plans to put it on DVD for us too.

—–Original Message—–
From: Kim Griffis
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 9:43 AM
To: Stephanie Sailor
Cc: Joe Huffman
Subject:

Hello Stephanie and Joe,

It looks like the Boomershoot story will air “this” Wednesday (the 11th).
Please let everyone know they can see the story Wednesday on Evening
Magazine — that’s 7-pm on KING-5 in Seattle. I know the show replays on
Northwest Cable News in Spokane, Portland and Boise, but I am not sure the
time of the re-air, I think it depends on the cable system.
We had a fun time with you. Thanks for all your help.
We hope you like the story!

Kim

Kim Griffis
Reporter/Producer
KING-TV Evening Magazine
333 Dexter Ave N.
Seattle, WA 98109
206-448-2977

We are at war.  Please don’t forget that.  And although we have been fighting it on the turf of the enemy for the past few years they DO want to bring home to us again.  Read this, make plans for your safety and your loved ones, then be alert.

New York City hospitals are on the lookout for impostors trying to scope out health-care facilities and locate radioactive materials following warnings late last month from the Department of Homeland Security and the city Police Department about an emerging pattern of “suspicious incidents” in some American cities.

In an April 22 bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security warned hospitals that a string of people falsely representing themselves as inspectors for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations had visited hospitals across America at odd hours, demanding information about the inner workings of the facilities.

The incidents occurred in Los Angeles and Boston, where the impostors entered hospitals at 3 a.m., as well as in Detroit and at several hospitals in New Jersey, the bulletin said. After hospitals received the Homeland Security alert, another incident was reported, in Indianapolis.

“These said individuals were attempting to gain public health service information from hospital personnel, and behaved in a manner inconsistent with legitimate inspection professionals,” the bulletin warned.

Although the department said it knows of no specific terrorist plot, the bulletin said: “These most recent nationwide impersonations are more noteworthy when seen in the broader context with similar incidents which have occurred from October 2004 to February 2005.” The letter went on to detail a series of incidents in that period in which people were caught taking unauthorized pictures of hospitals, asking for hospital blueprints, requesting information about the whereabouts of medicines that would be used in biological attacks, and inquiring about the institutions’ capacity for cardiac care, trauma care, helicopter access, and private rooms.

…

“We really don’t know why these incidents are happening,” he said. “There are a lot of things in a hospital that are desirable. Medications. Drugs. Equipment. In a post-9/11 world, one’s mind can wander and assume the worst.”

The past few days I’ve been posting a Quote of the Day which reminds us of how far the gun rights movement has come in the past few years.  Analog Kid suggests we should use it as a reminder to be vigilant.  I certainly agree with that suggestion but my intent is much larger in scope.  I believe we are in a position to drive the anti-gun bigots into political extinction and ultimately repeal nearly all the repressive anti-gun laws in this country and perhaps even liberate other countries.  To do that we have to focus our energies properly.  How I think we should do that is coming soon in an essay I intended to deliver as my Boomershoot Dinner speech but didn’t have time to write.

I used to be fan of all the Star Trek series except DS9.  We dropped our cable subscription years ago and so when Star Trek: Enterprise began I didn’t see it.  In fact I have only seen just part of one episode when I stumbled across it while channel surfing in a hotel once a year or two ago.

Yesterday I bought season one on DVD.  I would have started watching it last night but James wants to watch it too and I’m going to wait for him so we can watch it together.  He was busy gaming last night and, today is Mother’s Day so it may not be until next weekend when we can schedule a time to begin.

Jason has update his web site with links to pictures and some more videos from Boomershoot 2005.

In all the stress of Boomershoot 2005 I neglected to mention Kim got a letter turning her down.  She is depressed of course.  But there are other similar openings in Lewiston and Seattle I expect she will apply for.

It appears I forgot to post this request for help building a bomb.  I BCC’d the Bomb Help Fan Club email alias and intended to post a note here about it too but I forgot.

I went to bed at 12:40 this morning.  I only lost five pounds this year instead of the usual 10.  So you should know from just that data point it was the best event ever.  An amazing number of people were there.  Spectators drove from Missoula and brought someone from Mississippi.  Participants drove from Texas, North Dakota, New Mexico, Michigan, and Arizona.  Others came in from New York City, Maryland, Florida, California, and Alaska.  The KING 5 crew for Evening Magazine seemed to be good people even if they were a little nervous and perhaps a bit overwhelmed.  They both shot explosives from close range with Ry’s tricked out Kalashnikov.  I’ll post when I know the show date and time. Ry will record it and create DVDs for us.

Blogs with pictures so far are here:

FishOrMan
Periodic Journal of my wanderings (See also here, here, and here)
Musings of the Commando Kumquat

The weather was fantastic.  Best ever.  My son James will have to change his story on the Boomershoot weather predictions now.

The fireball demo worked this time.

The anvil firing and bowling ball launch were big hits.

The worst safety violations I saw or heard about were spectators not using ear protection and a couple participants that forgot to put on safety glasses while shooting.

Ry entertained us by getting his van stuck in the mud–twice.  Barb took particular pleasure in the fact it was her Jeep that pulled him out both times.

In all the insanity of the group “clean up” at the tree line we overlooked six 4”, 25 6”, and one 7” target behind the berm.  That was 32 targets the participants missed out on.  I’m sorry about that.  But what struck me the most about that oversight is that in the first Boomershoot in ’98 I only had 68 targets total and at this event we overlooked nearly half that many and never missed them.

Thanks to someone’s good eyes they noticed a fire up way up on the hill from a tracer round and I was able to put it out before it did any damage.

Gene Econ and assistants put on a great clinic by all accounts.

I didn’t see much of the clinic.  I and many others were busy making targets.  That is a story in itself that would take an hour or more to write up and I don’t have the time for right now.  The bottom line is that we had a crisis with targets not detonating due to a couple of subtle process variables that changed from our earlier tests.  We didn’t realize the process had changed but it had.  It could have been a disaster.  In some ways it was a disaster but rather than put a bullet in my head we figured out a work-around and made it work.  The long-range targets were failures but the 375 yard targets worked well and people loved getting up close and blasting away from 25 yards away.  Video should be available from Jason Mount and others soon.

I planned to write and post the speech I wanted to give at the Boomershoot dinner soon.  The time I had allocated to write it were consumed recovering from the target problems.  Lots of things I wanted to say and didn’t remember at the time.  Lots of things I could have said much better.  I really appreciate the tolerance.  I figured the targets for the next day were more important than my blathering the night before.

I’m tired, very tired.  Time for about 12 hours of sleep.

I was up until 01:30 this morning but I got everything done that HAD to be done before I leave.  We dropped Kim off at the airport at 06:00 and said hi to Sarah. Kim gets back into town about 18:30.  She is due at Boomershoot by 08:30 the next morning.

My stomach is in knots this morning.  No appetite.  It’ll probably remain that way until midday on Sunday–assuming everything goes well I’ll get an appetite Sunday night.  Lots and lots of things to do today.  Almost for certain this will be my last post until at least Sunday, maybe even Monday night.

Remember, spectators are welcome.  Bring ear protection, a lawn chair, rain gear, sunscreen, and everything in between.  If you forget the ear protection we have some extra.  Ask at the RV/check-in table.

The forecast for wind looks a lot better but with chances of showers on Friday and Saturday.  It should be okay. 

Friday, Apr 29
Times of clouds and sun with a shower possible in the afternoon. Winds from the S at 2 mph.  High: 59° F  RealFeel: 66° F
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy. Wind information is not available.  Low: 39° F  RealFeel: 43° F

Saturday, Apr 30 
Mostly cloudy with a shower possible. Winds from the NE at 2 mph.  High: 65° F  RealFeel: 69° F
Saturday Night: Cloudy. Winds from the ESE at 5 mph.  Low: 40° F  RealFeel: 39° F

Sunday, May 1 
Variable cloudiness. Winds from the E at 8 mph.  High: 62° F  RealFeel: 57° F
Sunday Night: Plenty of clouds. Winds from the SE at 6 mph.  Low: 42° F  RealFeel: 39° F

James called an we talked about the Serenity trailer that is out.  The series was so good.  We have high hopes for the movie.

Kim’s doctor’s appointment turned out far better than we feared.  The doc said it probably was just cartilage rather than her ACL.  She can work just take it easy.  Then we went out to lunch.

Xenia thinks the drawing of an explosion I have on the Boomershoot shirts, etc. looks like a vagina and/or uterus and has a poll up asking everyone else what they think.  Vagina is winning 3:1 over explosion at this time.

I burned 100 CD’s with Boomershoot History Through 2004 on them.  All shooters will get one and I’ll burn more for anyone that shows up and wants one.

The server for my email and a couple dozen web sites including boomershoot.org, joehuffman.org, etc. lost it’s power supply and I had to replace it.  Lots of last minute email from boomershoot people.  I also received lots of calls about Boomershoot including one from the outdoor writer at the Lewiston Morning Tribune.  There should be an article about Boomershoot in the Outdoor section tomorrow.

I printed 900 labels for the reactive targets to be compliant with the ATFE.

I wrote up the worker’s task list and emailed that out.

Kim has a second interview with Horizon Air in Seattle tomorrow.  They will fly her over and back.  She is floating in the clouds.  She got the house she and a friend wanted to rent.today too.

I picked up a shooting bench from Tim and Lisa since they can’t attend this year.

I picked up Kim mattress than her old roommate let her seven cats piss and crap all over and put it behind our house for later disposal.

I still have 100 badges and CD labels to print out tonight.  I hope I don’t run out of ink in the ink jet printer

Barb keeps asking if I’m having fun yet…

I had my first Boomershoot “butterflies” on Monday evening.  I was watching a movie with Barb in our living room and I suddenly remembered I hadn’t found one of our walkie-talkies yet and hadn’t purchased a new one either.  What else had I forgotten?  My stomach was tied up in knots for a while.  I’ve been doing fairly well since then.  I wake up far earlier than normal–5:10 this morning after going to bed at 23:07 but I don’t wake up during the night.  I still have an appetite; which is good.  Things are actually going well.  The weather still looks good to.  We are close enough that they should be close to right on now:

Friday, Apr 29
Clouds limiting sun. Winds from the E at 4 mph.  High: 61° F  RealFeel: 64° F
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy. Winds from the ESE at 6 mph.  Low: 34° F  RealFeel: 31° F

Saturday, Apr 30 
Cloudy with a shower possible. Winds from the E at 8 mph.  High: 61° F  RealFeel: 55° F
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy. Winds from the E at 7 mph.  Low: 39° F  RealFeel: 36° F

Sunday, May 1 
Overcast. Winds from the E at 9 mph.  High: 65° F  RealFeel: 59° F
Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy. Winds from the E at 6 mph.  Low: 40° F  RealFeel: 38° F

I just got conformation that another Boomershoot video will be made this year.  The same guy as last year will be on site video taping and interviewing people.  He will be selling them onsite for later delivery.

I also just finished my “home video” of Boomershoot History up until Boomershoot 2004.  I’ll be giving those away to everyone that entered the event and shows up.  Assuming I can duplicate all 100 CD’s.  I’m going to be very, very busy tomorrow.  I wish my laptop CD was working….

After the event I’ll upload it to Boomershoot.org for download, but it’s 237Mbytes so it will only be for people that have “big pipes” for downloading.

Friday, Apr 29
Mostly cloudy and cool. Winds from the NE at 9 mph.  High: 55° F  RealFeel: 48° F
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy. Winds from the ENE at 7 mph.  Low: 35° F  RealFeel: 31° F

Saturday, Apr 30
Cloudy. Winds from the ENE at 8 mph.  High: 59° F  RealFeel: 54° F
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy. Winds from the E at 7 mph. 

Sunday, May 1
Overcast. Winds from the E at 9 mph.  High: 63° F  RealFeel®: 57° F
Sunday Night: Plenty of clouds. Winds from the ESE at 6 mph.  Low: 40° F  RealFeel: 37° F

Friday, Apr 29 
Clouds limiting sun. Winds from the NE at 9 mph.  High: 63° F  RealFeel: 58° F
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy. Winds from the NE at 6 mph.

Saturday, Apr 30 
Cloudy. Winds from the NE at 9 mph.  High: 61° F  RealFeel®: 55° F
Saturday Night: Cloudy. Winds from the S at 7 mph.  Low: 41° F  RealFeel: 37° F

Sunday, May 1
Overcast. Winds from the N at 6 mph.  High: 63° F  RealFeel: 59° F
Sunday Night: Rainy. Winds from the WSW at 4 mph.

Less than five days until the first day of Boomershoot 2005 and the weather forecasts are probably pretty accurate by now.

Weather forecast for nearby Orofino:

Friday, Apr 29
Mostly cloudy with a little rain. Winds from the NE at 9 mph.  High: 63° F  RealFeel®: 58° F
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy. Winds from the NE at 6 mph.  Low: 37° F  RealFeel: 33° F

Saturday, Apr 30
Cloudy. Winds from the NE at 9 mph.  High: 61° F  RealFeel: 55° F
Saturday Night: Cloudy. Winds from the S at 7 mph.  Low: 41° F  RealFeel: 37° F

Sunday, May 1
Overcast. Winds from the N at 6 mph.  High: 63° F  RealFeel: 59° F
Sunday Night: Rainy. Winds from the WSW at 4 mph.

Barb and I visited the site today. The water went over the windshield of the van as we splashed through the creek on our way to and from dumping stuff off at the Taj Mahal.  My new dispensor for the liquid fuel leaked about a half gallon and destroyed a few hundred small paper bags (think brown paper “lunch bags”).  Most of it was caught in a plastic container lid that just happened to be directly under the dispensor so it could have been a lot worse.  I burned them and threw on a hundred or so of the old target bodies that I invested so much time and money into fire too.  The wind picked up a little later and blew some burning paper into some dry grass and brush and Barb and I had to put that fire out.  A vivid reminder of how easy things burn even when you think everything is wet.

Saturday Kim brought Xenia home from work and stayed around to visit with us for while.  She told us she had been to Seattle and back three times last week.  She changed a flat tire on one trip while wearing four inch high heels. Plus she went to Coeur d’Alene and back once.  Plus she worked nearly every day.

We bought a ‘new’ car yesterday.  A 2004 Chevrolet Aveo.  Xenia loves it.  We told her she could use it, most of the time, when she gets her drivers license.  She sat in the car and talked to her friends via her cell phone for close to an hour.

Barb and I went to visit my parents and a bunch of my mom’s relatives that had come over to visit.  A couple of them I had never met before.  One I probably hadn’t seen in at least 30 years. 

We dumped a bunch of stuff off at the Taj Mahal for the Boomershoot and we were just getting on the paved road again when Kim called and wanted to talk to Barb.  It sounds like she tore her anterior cruciate ligament.  She’ll need surgery and she won’t be able to put weight on it for quite some time.  Our guess is this means she will miss out on her Horizon Air job if that comes through this week.  Heavy sigh.

A few years ago Alan Gottlieb (chairman of  Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms) introduced me to their “new hire”, Dave Workman.  Among his other duties it was Dave’s job to write lots of press releases.  At the time I thought, “That’s nice.  But what will that do for us?”  Since then I have learned a thing or two.  It turns out that if you, in essence, do the work of the reporters and the editors in writing up a story often times they will publish it.  It works much better than calling or writing the reporter and/or editor and trying to get them to write a story on a particular subject or complaining about they way they wrote the last story on your pet topic.  And even if they don’t publish it they will read at least part of it.  You can influence a lot better when you are in communication with them.  If you “hide in the closet“ it is almost trivial for your opponents to define you and make you appear as a monster.  CCRKBA and The Second Amendment Foundation have been pumping out the press releases for some time now. And fairly frequently the releases will get picked up by the major news media.  They are making a difference.

When I worked for Microsoft in Redmond I would see Gottleb on a fairly frequent basis and although we would talk about the anti-gun bigots in those and other terms I would not see any public use of that term.  As Alan explained it to me the left had a monopoly on the term.  Only they could call someone a bigot.  It simply wasn’t possible for someone to call someone on the left a bigot.  That has changed in recent years and it’s good to see.  Here is the most recent example:

CCRKBA SAYS ARIZONA RESTAURANT ASSN. SPREADING ANTI-GUN BIGOTRY

Opponents to concealed carry reform in Arizona have stooped to anti-gun bigotry in their efforts to convince Gov. Janet Napolitano to veto legislation that would allow legally-licensed, law-abiding citizens to patronize restaurants and bars, said the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).

“It is appalling that Steve Chucri, president of the Arizona Restaurant and Hospitality Association, would rely on a poll that essentially has 78 percent of Arizona residents practicing social bigotry against law-abiding gun owners, who prevent crimes almost every day somewhere in America,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “That’s apparently the percentage of poll respondents who, according to what Chucri reportedly told the Arizona Daily Star, ‘oppose the idea of sitting next to someone at a restaurant or bar who is armed’.

“Fifty years ago,” Gottlieb observed, “this kind of cracker mentality was directed at black citizens in Mississippi and Alabama. But whether it is prejudice against racial minorities or law-abiding gun owners of all races, it is still bigoted and just as insidious.”

CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron also found it objectionable that Chucri’s group, in cooperation with the Arizona Tourism Alliance, Arizona Hotel Lodging Association and the Arizona Licensed Beverage Association, are sponsoring an advertising campaign against Senate Bill 1363 that promotes fear, if not outright hysteria, against legally-licensed citizens who simply want to enjoy a meal with their families, in a safe environment.

“We all remember the Luby’s massacre in Texas several years ago,” Waldron said. “That incident prompted citizens to demand concealed carry reform in the Lone Star State. Today, in Texas and more than 30 other states, legally armed citizens are welcome in restaurants, theaters and many other establishments. We’re not sure why Arizona restaurateurs have such a low opinion of firearms owners in their state.

“Perhaps these business groups should have signs printed up with the message, ‘ If you own a firearm, we don’t want your kind in here’,” Waldron added. “Yet legally-armed citizens have proven for years that they are better behaved as a group than the general public, and they actually prevent crimes. It would seem to me that businesses would want such people as customers. In this case, it would appear that nothing is as blind as bigotry.”

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is one of the nation’s premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.

[Rhetorical question alert.] What are the odds?  Analog kid reports:

 Sorry to leave you hanging today, but it is a week before Boomershoot and I am singing “The Broken Tooth Blues” and am off to the dentist.

I left work early yesterday afternoon because of a tooth I chipped the night before. I had the option of seeing my dentist at 3:30 or waiting until Tuesday.  All is fine now.  My dentist smoothed the chipped area (very small and on the back side of the tooth) and didn’t even charge me.  My tongue, which seemed to seek out the only sharp object in my mouth, is healing and things are back to normal.

I have gone from bewilderment to amusement at the firearms situation in the UK.  I used to wonder why the population allowed the politicians to continue breathing as they confiscated their firearms.  It turns out that banning the real thing didn’t make the crime rate go down. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that thinks about the problem.  If someone is willing to use illegal violence for some purpose then why would you think they will obey a law against owning a firearm?  And do you think a law banning firearms will be any more effective in reducing the availability to criminals than the laws against the use of recreational drugs?  Now the politicians are proposing to ban imitation guns and knives:

…new figures showed offences involving imitation firearms rocketed by 66% last year, Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he planned to launch a new consultation on a possible ban.

“We will introduce a flagship Violent Crime Reduction Bill within weeks of the General Election,” said Mr Clarke.

“It will tackle the ownership and use of replica firearms and knives, propose tougher sentences for knife and gun crime, and new measures on anti-social behaviour.

It’s reaching the point where the population shouldn’t need firearms to remove these idiots from office.  The entire population should be laughing so hard the politicians flee the country in shame.

As Jason at Fish Or Man points out Boomershoot 2005 is getting down to the wire.  Not only in time (eight days) but in number of shooting positions available (seven).  And that doesn’t include the number of entries that probably have been mailed but I haven’t picked up at the Post Office in the last four days.  There have been some local newspaper articles show up which will almost for certain generate a flurry of late entries.  I have received phone calls about the articles but I haven’t seen them yet.

Things are pretty much under control.  I’m late on ordering the staff t-shirts, but most people won’t care about that and probably will get them just in time.  The cardboard boxes I use as target bodies should be waiting for me when I get home tonight.  And the only other thing I need (more blenders) I’ll pick up at Costco tonight.

We are close enough in time to get some weather forecasts.  My son James will be pleased that his declarations about Boomershoot weather will likely be proven correct yet again:

Friday, Apr 29

 

Mostly cloudy, rain possible High: 72° F Low: 44° F

Saturday, Apr 30 Times of clouds and sun High: 62° F Low: 30° F

Sunday, May 1 Rain High: 54° F Low: 30° F

We’ll see.  Ten days in advance is stretching things some and will almost for certain change some by then.