Kinda like Sheriff Bart....

In the current election in San Diego, the incumbent Sheriff is running unopposed. So I am doing a write in campaign to run against him. If you want a different choice, write in my name for Sheriff of San Diego County when you vote.

Rowdy Bricco.

Confusion reigns Updated 5/30/2014

So it was thought I had a high blood level of lead from being in the shooting sports. I do not. Thankfully. But in the routine visit to discuss this my general practitioner has a mild concern.

Concerning? My brain. Some loss of balance, some confusion, some loss of cognitive ability. Initially we thought lead poisoning. Negative. Then low testosterone, which I've had in the past and been treated for. Negative.

Saturday morning at 7am I'm getting an MRI of my brain. And yes you will see pictures!!

Update: First off, I have had like 4 documented concussion in my life. With at least two probable. I'm not sure if that's excessive. Who knows? Certainly not the NFL. And for a while I had really bad positional vertigo. Oh and my grandma died of a brain tumor and my mom has a benign brain tumor, though that sort of thing isn't genetic is still seems weird.

Examples of loss of cognitive ability are things like being asked "can you bring me two boxes off the counter" and me getting irritated and replying "there are four boxes on the counter, how can i bring you two?" and repeating that over and over. Having to get out a pencil or calculator to add things like 27+14. That would take me almost 30 seconds now sometimes if doing it in my head. Not being able to read and tell the difference between micrograms and milligrams.

Examples of confusion are things like getting in trouble at work for doing demonstrations totally wrong. Showing up at the wrong time. Multiple instances of getting "lost" or going the wrong way driving, just seconds after declaring my stated destination.

And my genetic testing from earlier shows me with a 7 times greater than average chance of getting dementia/alzheiemer's. But who get's that at my age??

They did a neuro exam in the office with things like touching my nose and other coordination things. I passed all those. Then ones where you move your face all around, and I passed those too. The balances ones, I failed all of them.

Being a space case, having other people in my life notice I'm a space case and having it be a new onset; that is what has gotten my doctors attention. Now I'm pretty sure this will blow into nothing. No storm of crazy medical drama. But I am just the tiniest bit anxious about the results, given all what I just said. Probably will just be a normal study though and it will be all chalked up to just being dumb.

Monster

I heard about myself the other day, said somewhat mixed with humor and exasperation, "You really only can be yourself, can't you?" Want some context? I was turning left out of a parking lot, in front of three No Left Turn signs, in the exact same spot I'd previously gotten a ticket for that exact offense. Aaaaannnddd I just got a letter from California DMV telling me my license is in jeopardy. Plus you know how that effects my motorcycle teaching job......

What's the point? Well I'm pretty simplistic. I just want to get a chicken suit, light it on fire and jump off the pier. I've got to be Rowdy, because no one else will do it for me.

My birthday was yesterday and I got a gift I wanted. A nostalgic gift. A record player!! And a few great records as well. It took a few minutes to get it all set up but when that needle first dropped.......... oh I knew this was a great gift. Now the day after my birthday I'm beginning to show some of my Rowdy-ness.

It's manifesting itself in my discovery of just how much is out there on vinyl records. I had no idea. I thought records stopped being made in like 1988 or something. But no, you can buy records of music that is current right now!! So not only can I get old Peer Gynt classical records from the 50s, country music from the 60s, real rock and roll from the 70s, rap and new wave from the 80s, grunge from the 90s but like EVERYTHING.

This has created a monster in me that envisions having almost as many records as I do books. (There are about 400 books in my house) Crazy crazy crazy. Heck, San Diego has over a dozen record stores I can go to in person.

Knowing myself and my rowdy ways, as well as you and I both know them, don't be surprised if my record collection grows exponentially for a while.

(the first record I played, the soundtrack to the movie Only Lovers Left Alive. an excellent vampire movie!)

Wow oh Wow

6 days until I'm another year older.
9 days until I getta see Killer.
25 days until I get to see Benson's baby bump.
29 days until I go to Juice Box's wedding.

Fartsy and Artsy and Fiery

Not sure if it's in the national news right now, but San Diego has some pretty good fires going right now in north county near a lot of residential and commercial areas. You can actually see the smoke from my house, so I went out on the balcony and took some pictures. Of which a selection are below and the rest on my photography blog.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Focusing on the Negative....
St Louis has more burned out, broken down, blighted areas of urban decay than I've seen in any other American city. Half a mile west of where the Cards play is horrible.

Missouri is full of bad choices. From smoking, to food, to drinking to no exercise.

Reading doesn't seem to be that highly valued of a skill.

The weather.

The slow driving and lack of real signage. Someone hit my rental car and didn't leave a note either.

Everything closed at 8pm.

The constant teasing about being from California. I grew up in Oregon and Washington, please. I'm much more "mountain man" than I am "beach boy."

I got second place from something beyond my control. I was winning and then a stage was thrown out. The new aggregate scoring placed me in second. Not happy that someone else could effect my score.

Two words. American Airlines. Morons.

Focusing on the Positive....
People in service industries were very nice. Once I let my guard down it was pleasant.

I was 8th overall out of 162 competitors. My trophy was nice.

Plenty of choices for bbq.

Little traffic. Rush hour was laughable in comparison to California.

I got to meet a lot of people, many of them new. New friends are always nice.

All of my stuff worked flawlessly in competition.

30 for 30

30 for 30 is the general title of some pretty cool sports documentary films in association with ESPN. I like to watch them on ESPN Classic or Netflix. Especially the football related ones. And with today being the first round of the draft, well let's just say they all inspire this post.

This month I have been doing 30 crunches or whatever per day. Some sort of abdomen exercise and that is a surgically induced weak point in my body. 30 for 30.

I've decided that next month's personal 30 for 30 will be a little more ambitious. Ambitious, not crazy as I have three out of state trips in June. I want to run 2 miles for 30 days straight in June. No make ups allowed, if it's not 30 days straight and not two miles, it's failure.

My wild weekend plans....

Get up at 430am on Friday to be at the airport at 530am for a 720am flight to St Louis MO. Arrive in StL at 330pm if no mishaps along the way, like in the DFW airport. Fingers crossed....

Then drive the 35 minutes to my hotel in south St Louis. Check and unpack. Trying not to accumulate 5 room keys in one weekend. I'll get a quick snack and drive to an indoor shooting range not far from there to get some trigger time in. I'll keep going south to the Pear Tree Inn on Drury Lane (sounds like a nursery rhyme in that) for early registration and check in for Saturday's match.

After checking in I'll go out to steak dinner with some of my southern IDPA friends. The trip back to the hotel and some dry fire practice and capped off with a long hot shower. Maybe some benadryl to sleep if I'm nervous.

Saturday is up at 7am for a light breakfast and drive to the match. The match is from 830am till 6pm. I'm going to be squadded with folks I've only met on the internet or at other matches, so cool times meeting new friends again. Hopefully me and my new trophy will then be having a huge bbq dinner at Bandana's BBQ House in Arnold MO.(already went to their web page) This evening too will end with a long hot shower and falling asleep to the hotel tv.

Sunday up at 6am and off to the airport. Fingers crossed again I get an employee who knows what to do when I'm flying with a gun. I'll miss the Arch, the Mastodon sight and whatever else St Louis would of had to offer. But if I get a trophy it will all be worth it.

If you didn't really like the first list...

If you didn't really like the first list, here are some other birthday gift items for you to consider:

-A Dremel tool and attachments. $60-$120
-Classic gold rim RayBan aviator sunglasses $160-200
-class from Wheelie University. $500
-movie passes. oh man there is soo much out I want to see. $10-$80
-Titegroup gun powder. 1, 4 or 8 pounds please. $20-$300
-a bigger cameara bag, probably like a backpack style one. $80-$200

Skill und Razor

In my main shooting sport these are the skill classifications from lowest to highest: Unclassified, Novice, Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert and Master. There is a separate class called Distinguished Master for people who've won the overall at the national championships, but as only like less than a dozen people have that classification, no reason really to include it.

I am Expert in three different gun divisions. So when you see me posting about winning, it is as the best expert shooter in whatever gun division I happen to be shooting in. First place expert. You already know I'm semi-pro. Kinda like a good college football player or a minor league baseball player. Just one good year of performances from being a pro in the majors. Or in this case as a Master class shooter with a good level or support for my competition. (I thoroughly appreciate those who help me out currently!! Academi. Automatic Accuracy. The Blue Bullets.)

In the way my friends in law school didn't shave until they passed the bar exam, I've decided to not shave until I am in the Master class of shooters. This can happen in one of two ways. I either shoot the standard skills test formalized my the sports governing body in a time that qualifies me for Master. Or I go to a major match, like I do every month and is the reason why you seem me traveling all over the US, and beat 10 other Experts. I always seem to get 2nd place or when I'm first I only beat like 8 other experts. (the 100 or so other people i also beat don't count)

So I gotta shoot a sub 90 second classifier or beat 10 experts in a major match before I can shave again. I last shot the classifier in 96 seconds, so I'm close. And I last beat 8 experts, so close again. The national championships is in September......

Motivation.

It's a celebration!

May 1. If you're a communist or socialist, it's May Day and your out protesting for the workers of the world to unite.

If you're at the other end of the spectrum and a full blooded American then you're celebrating the death of Usama bin Laden.

Me? Not so much the first, definitely some of the second but mostly the fact that it's Mr Oliver Hammond's 1st birthday today! Rescued him from the shelter as a curious little 6 month old kitten and today he is now an actual cat.

Happy Birthday Oliver.