It's a family tradition.....

My family has some history of being "sharp". Like members back in the day making money hustling pool and card games. Or just general business acumen for the ones doing more legitimate work.

Being a slave to my genetics, I carry on that tradition on a small scale. Parking pass for vehicles at school, $35. Parking pass for motorcycles, which I do ride to school probably 60% of the time, $17. They look identical and it is easy to transfer from my truck to the motorcycle and back.

I do smile inside each time I park my truck at school and see that pass, making some long dead relative proud.

Knowing my limits

Well I dropped out of Russian this morning. I found my language limit by exceeding it. I can pick up Latin/Romance languages pretty well but the structure of both the Russian classes I've tried to take doesn't lend itself to my learning.

It was pretty humbling to become aware of something I can't do as normally I can eventually be pretty successful at most things I try with effort and intelligence. I know now that Russian is not one of them, at least formally taught.

I'll still continue personal study of it, hopefully getting to tourist level of proficiency. I already speak English and Spanish. I know words and phrases and basics of Japanese and Arabic. I guess if I knew which country I was moving to in 2 years I could focus better as well.....

Anyways, the point of this post was to let you know I did not go to bed happy last night, due to the slap in the face of my intellectual limits.

6 years

6 years of writing in this blog, 2 years before that in another blog. I'm tired of writing.

Sochi Style

In honor of the 2014 terrorist winter olympics I am doing my own rowdy-esque triathlon today.

At 730am I ran a 5k in 27 minutes. So just barely over an 8 minute per mile pace. Not to bad for someone who rarely runs.

At 1100am I went on an hour long motorcycle ride off road down near the border. I got a flat tire, but within 3 miles or so of the truck. Just a small delay and a friend changed my tube for the price of a yummy lunch at TJ's Oyster Bar. Don't go, it's horrible.

Finally, at 630pm I'll be up in Oceanside shooting a pistol event with the focus tonight for me not on winning but on accuracy.

So there you have it, the Sochi triathlon as done by Rowdy.

Riding Rowdy

Prevert, not like that. More like, "it's not an adventure unless something goes wrong," kind of riding rowdy. Lower case r rowdy.

So out and about with Mysterious Eric today, riding on some quasi legal trails near the border and guess who should get a flat tire about 3 miles from the truck?

Yep! Little old me. Mr Laissez Faire, just go with the flow, nothing wrong will ever happen. So what did I do? I rode that motorcycle till I got to the road and waited for Mysterious to come pick me up.

Packing my bags!

Ok, so you know I am outta San Diego every weekend in February. All for different "work" stuff in nuclear medicine, motorcycle rider coach training and shooting.

Well more of my shooting competition plans have been firmed up for spring time now and here is where it stands...

Feb: North Carolina State Champs. Smith and Wesson Indoor Nationals in Massachusetts.

March: Arkansas Mountain Valley IDPA Regional.

April: Arizona State IDPA Champs in Tucson.

May: The Masters in Alabama.

June: Carolina Cup in North Carolina.

July: nothing as I'll be in S Korea for two weeks.

August??

September: National Championships in Tulsa Oklahoma.

Good thing I have a nice suitcase, 'cause I'll be using it. =)

Prophetic

A few times in my life I've had dreams that I'm 100% positive meant something. Terms like prophecy and revelation are pretty powerful, so I hate to use them but this dream felt very similar to what I imagine that type of experience to be.

I had one such dream in college, one after college and one in Iraq. A lifetime of nightmares and three dreams that spurred daytime actions. In two cases immediately.

Without the weird narrative that often is an annoying accompaniment to someone telling you their dream I'll just give you the lessons I feel I was supposed to learn from my dream.

-Things will not always be easy, sunny, organized and nice.
-You need to have the courage to act. Quickly and decisively.
-Bad things still happen to good people.
-The anguish you experience in a bad situation is only made greater by lack of preparation for hard times.

I think that last point is the real take away. Prepare yourself in life for the difficult times. Not for the easy ones. And I mean this in practical terms as well, not in some Nietzschean philosophical way only.

Have a 72 hour kit, Bug-Out-Bag or whatever you want to call it. Be prepared to just grab and go and be self sufficient for 3 days.

Save 10% of your income for the future. Have cash at the ready for immediate emergency use.

Store gallons and gallons of clean, drinkable water.

Understand yourself and the limits you feel comfortable with in ensuring your personal security. Then pursue this level to the maximum.

What person being warned of a danger wouldn't then also warn his neighbors????