Another one

Another article published!

Caring

Dr visit went well. Pharmacy called and has an armful of drugs for me. And by this time next week I'll know if I have Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

And when I got home and had two huge breakfast burritos at 10am well I'm kinda beyond caring what I'll have for lunch.

But I do care about going to get some live fire practice in on a few skills before leaving Wednesday for Florida State IDPA championships and Cuba.

Bug prt 2

Off to the Dr due to bug bites. Yeah.

Soothe

If you have bug bite itchy skin I TOTALLY recommend taking a warm bath, soaking in it with coconut oil and baking soda.

You will have calmer skin and be itch free for 12 hours. Trust me, I live in bug kingdom and get bit all the time.

Rowdy's Review

I moved to Arkansas the first week of April. So I'm very near to having been here 11 months. I think I can do an initial review now of some things without having to wait a year exactly.

-I haven't made any friends here in the way I'm used to. No one to train with. No one to ride motorcycles with. Nunca. I'm pretty isolated here, physically and emotionally.

-All of the promised sponsorship things have failed to appear. No training sessions, no travel, no match stuff, no regular job. Pretty much left to my own except by my holster guy. Who is awesome. But the things I wanted, the intangibles to make my shooting better and raise my professional profile weren't delivered. What I have gained is membership at a place I can practice in a way I never could in CA. I'm not panicking, but I am disappointed about this.

-Bugs here are crazy. Not even in SE Asia or the Middle East have I been attacked by bugs like this. Bugs are the real rulers of AR.

-Mexican food as you're used to from S California absolutely does not exist here. But there are other things. The issue is good places are rare. Trying some place new on a whim here more often than not leads to regret.

-I love having seasons. I don't really mind the heat and humidity. The two days of snow were interesting as well.

-People are nice here. But there still is a strong racial divide in the South. Race does mean something here, in different ways to different people.

-The roads are good for motorcycling.

-Almost everything cool you've seen about AR or the outdoors is in NW Arkansas. Not around Little Rock. So a two hour drive away.

-Things in general cost less, except going out to eat. Prepared food here is way more expensive than in CA. Silly. But gasoline, houses and utilities are dang cheap here.

-If I'm still living here in 2019 I'll be very very surprised......

Acres of diamonds. No not the book!

Arkansas has a park where you can dig for diamonds! Couple people a week find one so it's worth the shot every once in awhile.

Solve it.

I like problem solving. I just have to remind myself which problems require a slow approach and which are worthy of focus and rapidity.

Getting my AR10 to shoot good groups has been a problem. Just because I am aware of it though doesn't mean I should move it to the top of the list.

BR

I wish I had a reason to dress nice as everything in Banana Republic looks awesome to me right now.

Secondly I bought another, my second, bow tie today. I had no idea they were $50 and there were so many patterns!!!

Fun

My service as a Cub Scout den leader is challenging for sure but those moments are all outweighed by the fun ones.

Gun Daily

So I handle guns on a daily basis, either for work or sport or personal reasons. I have a CHL/CCW and carry a pistol about half the time I go out in public.

I've never had to pull my pistol out or even feel assured it was there the entire time I've been in Arkansas. But man if I sure don't see a shooting, robbery or murder every dang day when I check the news for the state. Crazy, I don't understand it.

And I hope to not be a part of it. But I don't drink or do drugs. I am not out after 11pm. I don't live in an area with a lot of people or with a low socio-economic level. So pretty much the gas station or the atm are about the only places I need to worry....

Still, just always is surprising to me to read the news here and see the level of this kind of crime....

Rain Pain

The sound of rain makes it very hard for me to sleep.

TV

Check out my tv show, The Right Stuff, Saturdays on The Blaze network.

Snake

Looking at one of my Cubs shooting a Nerf gun with an eye patch all I see is Snake Pliskin from Escape from New York.

33 years

Wow, i just watched 16 Candles some thirty years after I first watched it. I understand so much more now about the mid 80s!

A

Well I made A class in Limited division this week, so that's good. And off shooting the classifiers, not just 'cause I'm M in Production. I had a couple in the 80s and a couple in the 60's. Gotta get more in the 80s!

Where to move to next?

That's really the biggest question in life right now. Well at least after how much will be owed in taxes this year. That's immediate question number one. Looming larger though, is where to move next?

Arkansas is OK and all, but about one year in I can tell it's not the place to be forever. Or even 5 years. Probably 3 on the outside.

In my scheming world it would go something like the following. Part of this I guess is with the caveat that I don't succeed at my goal of turning shooting into some sort of real paying gig. Or at least more paying for itself and I make money off it in a secondary way. Should that really happen then I don't know what to think or where to move........ Somewhere in Texas?

Putting that aside in my mind it goes something like this:

Jan-Jun 2016. Live in Little Rock and do as planned.
Jul-Dec 2016. Live in Little Rock and do as planned. Do more research on prospective US cities and areas for future move.
Jan-Jun 2017. Live in Little Rock. Look at making house a rental property. Begin arrangements for 3-6 month sabbatical outside the US for Super D.
Jul-Dec 2017. Do extended stay/sabbatical somewhere. Spain is first possibility. Enroll language class in Madrid or Salamanca.
Jan-Jun 2018. Somewhere in the US. Probably AR still, depends. Location and job search Super D.
Jul-Dec 2018. Implement change from AR to new location. Though moving to a place in winter is unpleasant.....

So, what makes a good, new place to live in the future?

-it's not someplace I've already been or know I won't like.
-Super D gets a big pay day.
-an international airport within less than 1 hour's drive.
-a population greater than 400,000 people in the area.
-multiple seasons, with winter not being the predominate one.
-a place I feel comfortable with my values and religion.
-drive time of less than 4 hours to a family member.
-the other stuff. food, culture, motorcycling, education etc.

It's hard to draw up a list of place that I think in 2019 will fit this bill. I guess if the 4 hours to family is a strong criteria then I need to look at that first. So I need to draw a circle with a 250 mile radius centered on one of these place:

-Georgetown, Round Rock, Austin Texas for Super D family.
-the corridor between Denver CO and Cheyenne WY for two of my siblings.
-northern Utah, southern Idaho for more of my immediate family.

I'm not sure places near southern Oregon, New York City or New Jersey fit the majority of what I'm looking for though I have family in those locations. This is all very interesting to think about, especially with the current opinion that I have of Arkansas not being "it" for anything but the short term, 3 years, future.

But could this really all go out the window if I get some sort of shooting job offer? What if I get sick? What if I really decide to go back to school and start a different career? Then can I meld those goals and events with a move? What does Super D want?

Fidel y Raul

Ticket for Cuba is purchased. It's a done deal!

Happy Valentines Day

My dad tried to teach me that love was putting someone's needs before your own. That action, even more than the idea, is what love is in the long term. Emotional love versus physical love. I can dig that. Want to show love? Then put the other person first by what you do and say.

Then a college girl friend had me read the 5 love languages book to gain some self awareness. (lots of girls in this time frame tried to get me to do a bunch of self improvement stuff.......... humph! where are they now?) Over time my idea on this has changed that I'm now pretty sure my love language is quality time. So for me, I don't need to feel like you've put me first. But I do need to feel like you want to spend time with me. Doing stuff.

Happy Valentines Day! Reflect on all the different types of love in one's life and think about what you can do to share, grow or improve it. Love for yourself, a family member, God, country, fellow man, your enemy or the person you want to be with forever.

First and cutest

Got to go to the cutest little girl's first birthday party this past weekend. I love this little nipper soo much!

10 years...

How can something from ten years ago still feel sooo fresh?

Trevails of Travel

I have quite a bit of logistics to deal with in the next few months. Well actually most of this year! But in the closer future it goes something like this:

today:fly to slc,arrive midnight, get rental car, spend night at parents
feb 10: go to family, get hotel, misc
feb 11-2: family
feb 13: return lr
feb 14: pick up mysterious at lr airport 5pm
feb 18: return mysterious to lr airport 10am

march 1: fly to miami. get car, drive to homestead
march 2:fly cuba and back same day
march 3-4:shoot fl state idpa match
march 5: return lr
march 8: jojo simon arrive lr airport 5pm
march 14: return jojo and simon to lr airport noon
march 23: fly to orlando, get car, drive to lakeland
march 25-26:shoot optics nationals
march 27: return to lr
march 28: fly to las vegas, get car, drive to st george
march 29-30: shoot Area 1 match
march 31: drive back las vegas, fly to lr

April, May and June look similar with two to three major matches I have to fly to in each and family travel mixed in as well. July could possibly be a vacation in Greece for my month off. That'd be nice! Just me and Super D driving around Greece for two weeks at our leisure during the summer.

But until then I gotta road warrior this stuff out, stay on top of training and win win win.

Television Me

So I watched the pre release version of the first episode of the TV show I'm on today. Funnily, I do not look 10 pounds heavier like I'd always heard.

It's weird seeing myself on tv, that's for sure!

Freedom isn't free.

Everything, let me repeat everything, you do on the internet for free you are paying for it with your personal data and loss of your privacy.

Drew League

There's a pretty elite basketball league in s central LA, the Drew League. While I'm not really into basketball their slogan is awesome. No excuses, just produce.

No excuses, just produce.

Trust Comedy

I remember hearing a comedian doing a routine where the set up before the punchline was "Never trust a.....". This week the joke of "Never trust a fart when you have the flue", has been played on me ffaaarrrrrrr to many times.

It's not funny any more.

Fowl most foul

I noticed a dead owl by the side of the road in my neighborhood and thought I'd like to preserve its skull. So I took its head and brought it to the house and thought about different ways to do it. Well I started on it today and had to stop, it was just too disgusting of a smell and process.

Maybe if I'd started the moment after it was killed but weeks later was far tooooooo late. Gross-a-most!

An hour later and I can still smell that yucky smell. Barf.

Chick Fil A

Employee A to Manager: There's a dog on the dining patio. I think it belongs to a homeless guy.
Manager: OK.
Employee B to Manager: There's a homeless guy in the bathroom. He's been in there a while I think.
Employee A: I don't think it's right to have a dog on the dining patio unattended.
Manager to Emp B: Go to the bathroom, get the homeless guy out bring him up here. (the front counter)
Emp B goes to bathroom and brings Homeless Man to front counter.
Manager to Homeless Man: Hey, what can I buy you for lunch? A chicken sandwich, fries and a Dr Pepper? What will your dog eat?
Homeless Mans reply is to quiet for me to hear.

The manager gets him lunch, he was treated with respect, they even looked after his dog. Everyone was nice and respectful. It really touched me as an example of Christ-like service.

Up up and away!

There are soooo many travel things I need to book and confirm this month. I feel they're getting away from me and I'm going to have made a terrible mistake in oversight.

-rental car and hotel for utah for this weekend
-flight, hotel, car, cuba flight for Miami first weekend in march
-flight, hotel, car for central Florida third week in march
-flight, hotel, car for Utah last week of march of Area 1

Strange R Things

In the 1970's I had swine flu at the end of that pandemic. I remember being very very sick. During the early 80's I remember the Alar apple scare, the killer gas radon in your basement and the Tylenol poisoning deaths. Heck, in middle school I bit into a Twix candybar and there was a paperclip inside it. Laying perfectly flat between the cookie and the caramel where some factory worker had laid it in jest while bored at work.

So I was sick once in a flu pandemic and got to experience some early food tampering. Strange yes, but what's that got to do with today? I don't know. I just know I have a horrible sinus cold/infection and I'm totally laid up, unable or unwilling to do many of the things I wanted to do today. And probably tomorrow.

It's going to be slowwwwwwww going this week.

Must. Not. Destroy.

I've broke 5 tools today at a cost of $40 to unsuccessfully remove and replace a $3 part on my $1,800 reloading press.

And I feel like I'm getting a cold.

Questions/Preguntas

I spend a fair bit of time on different forums related to competition and shooting. Some questions can only be answered by someone with more or different experience than yourself. But honestly, I'd say 60% of the questions asked could be answered by just reading the rule books.

So read the rule book.

You're shipping me....

For most of my online shopping life, it's been delayed shipping that's caused me more irritation than anything. Evidently this is not going to change.

$65

Did every store I visited today just want at bold $65 dollars from me today? All but Dollar General!

Petsmart, yep. Dillards nope but only because they didn't have what I wanted. Target, yep. Toys-rus, nope my desired not in stock there either. Kroger of course they did. Haircut was only $5, so that felt like a bargain! Which a $5 haircut you don't have to apologize for most definitely is!

I didn't get the face sunscreen/moisturizer I wanted at Dillards so I bought something else at Kroger. I didn't get the primer tubes I wanted at Bass Pro because they didn't have any so I also put back $75 in impulse stuff I'd picked up while looking.

Basically I spent 4 hours driving around doing errands and such to spend $200 today.

OK, I did get a free sandwich at ChikfilA and it was great! And most of a free dinner at Outback tonight, thanks to a sponsor's gift of a gift card!

Aren't I a little short...?

Like the famous line goes, "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" Well, I probably am at only 5' 7". But for a Star Wars themed Cub Scout thing we're having I am dressing up in another person's stormtrooper costume.

They're my height, which is nice. Sadly they are twice my weight. So not only am I too short to be a stromtrooper evidently I am too thin as well.

And of course I'll post some pictures for you!

Today's motivación

Un mil palabras

Thank you to my sponsors and family.

$68

Sixty eight dollars to replace every spring in my 1050. If you think about how much I reload per year, that's not too bad of a deal.

If I wish...

If I were to have a magic wish that would change one thing about Arkansas I would eliminate all bug the bite people. I'm really tired of always having some sort of bite from a creepy crawly.

Princesa y the pea

02:54 and I'm awakened by the cooling fan for the dvr box and my tummy rumbling from a fairly large dinner of Mexican food for Taco, or in my case Tamale, Tuesday.

I wish I wasn't such a sensitive sleeper. It has to be completely dark and completely silent and still for me to sleep solidly.