Who Knew We Were So Cultured?

Sigh. Well, Linda Lou's surgery went okay, I guess. She lost a lot of blood, seems she had this humongous blood blister thing on the back of her calf and so it either burst or they drained it, I'm not quite clear on that. Anyhow it took so much blood out of her that it somehow lowered some important blood component and so they did not let her go home the next day. So, the day they were supposed to go home they were giving her an IV and feeding er things to build up the blood.

Then the next day they found something growing in her culture, some germ or other. So, she didn't go home Sunday, either. Monday there was more growing. It seems Linda Lou is a very cultured woman.

So, now they're trying to figure out what kind of a germ critter this is, what kills it and does Linda Lou need another six weeks in that cross between a Nursing Home and a Hospital where she was before. Or will some oral antibiotic kill it?

In other news the Physical Terrorists have me pretty well worn out, I'm up to three hours per session with them, three days a week and the list of exercises they give me for the days I don't go there only takes about eighteen hours per day. Of course, that's with the dogs helping.

I'm pretty sure the PT ladies are in cahoots with Linda Lou, they all want me too tired and sore to go steppin' out.

Muddling Through.

So, now is the time I apologize to Doc Buch. The piece of hardware that was coming out was not something left in by mistake, instead it was the rod keeping the loose, broken bones from flailing around, cutting up everything inside, and eventually outside, of her lower leg. Seems that he told me he took everything out and then put that rod in. Well, they sometimes just lose purchase in the bone and start working their way out.

The good news is that there will be no long stay in the hospital on IV antibiotics this time. She will be coming home tomorrow, with a new rod in place, then we will see about a Final Solution. Sometime in December the Doc will either be able to actually fix those bones or fuse the ankle and fix those bones. The whole problem is that the bones were shattered, just barely above the joint. I do not know exactly why it's so much harder for them to heal so close to the joint instead of a couple more inches away and if someone were to tell me I do believe my eyes would glaze over and I'd either fall asleep or start thinking about something else.

So, that's the deal. We'll either get a complete recovery although she'll still need a cane (the better to shout Get off da lawn!), a fused ankle and a more pronounced limp or a weight loss that nobody really wants. No one is willing to bet or even quote odds. Well, there are a lot of things I did not learn as a boy, the one indelible thing was "eat what's put in front of you." A glance at where my belt buckle would show twenty+ years ago proves that. So, we'll muddle through this, just as we've muddled through everything else. If I were to write a saga of our marriage or an autobiography, that would be the title. As short as my attention span is, though, we'll have to just make it the title of this post. Sooner or later, though, a post on shooting.

Keep Their Heads Down! We're Going In!

Just a quick note, the surgeon is going into Linda Lou's leg at four PM today. I don't have time to write about it now, I have to clean up and head for the hospital. Medical City in Dallas if anyone cares. I hope that this time when the guy takes all the metal out it means that all the metal will be out.

Enjoy any Veteran's Day items you had planned and, if you have a little time for a good wish...

Happy Anniversary

Well, if it is November the Tenth it must be our anniversary again. Seems like only yesterday that Linda Lou told me I was pregnant and that we had to get married to avoid me looking like a slut or something.

In other News, the then Continental Congress authorized a Corps of Marines to add some muscle to the landing parties of the sailing ships of the day. This has since evolved into a section of the Navy Department. We like to call it the men's section. So Linda Lou wanted a wedding date that I could not forget, she chose this one.

In other news Linda Lou has another piece of metal sticking out of her. This after that third surgery on that leg that the Doc alleged to have removed all of the hardware from in there, then six weeks of twice daily IV antibiotics in a hospital. The six weeks of IV antibiotics were because of the screw that stuck out, somehow the Docs knew there was an infection. Oddly, when the bones stuck out of my leg during that unfortunate incident when I was in the Service, they did not find that six weeks of IV antibiotics were needed. Perhaps an almost twenty-year old does not need as much germ protection. Perhaps our legs were less valuable then. All I know is that I am not real happy, the Doc promised that all the metal was coming out. This ain't right.

So we get an Anniversary Trip this year. We will start by going to Dallas to see the wound care doctor that treated Linda Lou for this last trip into the hospital. From there?

Some women will do anything to avoid having a sex party for their anniversary.

A Partial Victory

If I gambled I would never go to a Harrahs Casino after their virtually naming their employees who hadn't voted early and ordering their lower level managers to get them out to vote for that scum Reid. Reid's victory is among the most heartbreaking loss in this election.

I would have liked to see O'Donnel win but it seems Delaware still likes to burn witches.

Grayson out in Florida, great news. Col. West in, Rubio in, more great news. Not much excitement here in Texas, my Congressman, Ralph Hall won handily. It was only today that I learned who his Democrat opponent was and I've already forgot her name.

The biggest news is out of the Waco area where Democrat Chet Edwards finally lost. I know little or nothing about Flores, the Republican that won. The only thing I know about Waco is that sometimes I used to stop at the Elite Cafe and Truck Stop when I was traveling north and south on I-35. It used to be pretty good. Oh, and I once stopped at the Texas Ranger Museum (the law enforcement bunch, not the baseball team). Since the Flores-Edwards fight was not in my district I paid little attention to it, but I expect that since Edwards was, if not a Blue Dog, not a Pelosi lap dog, little or no money came in from the big Dem slush funds. After all, Edwards was a friend to Veterans and the military, can't have that in today's Democrats.I doubt it will happen this election cycle but with Pelosi out as Speaker, it would be nice to see the Donks return to a center-left position. Of course, with Obama as the titular head of the Party, that won't happen soon.

Funny, though. West Virginal has been a reliably blue state for some years now. Yet, to win Bob Byrd's old seat, the Donk had to run harder against Obama than he did against the Republican. Now was that because it was the seat of Byrd, (D-KKK) or just because W. VA is a center left State? I don't know enough about W.VA to know.


Anyway, we know that we won a partial victory, now we see if we have enough real patriots in the House to defund the idiocy that Pelosi brought. If not, the next election will be a bloodbath.

There will be more on this later, right today I have to try to prepare the house for Linda Lou. She will not come home today like we thought, but tomorrow. Seems she had a hema-something, some fancy medical name for a big ol' blood blister that she broke somehow in her bout with the physical terrorists and she ended up bleeding all over the floor They were then scared that they'd have to send her up to Medical City Hospital for more surgery right then but the wound care doctors took care of it and so now she'll come home on Thursday for a while, 'til around Pearl Harbor Day, then more surgery.

This more modern medicine is nice, I suppose, but they used to put us in a walking cast, a couple of weeks to a month or two we were on crutches, and then when the bones were healed they'd cut off the cast. In early February of '67 my leg got badly dinged in nearly the same place. I was back on full duty by late December. Linda Lou will be recovering from her fourth surgery by late December. Sigh. Progress. Of course I was a lot younger then.

Update 11/05/10: Linda Lou is home. She can (barely) move from her wheelchair to the couch or recliner, depending on which she chooses to sleep on and to the bedside commode. I shall be busy for a while.

Frustration Day

I don't know what kind of news it was, we got a letter from the surgeon who claims he can fix Linda Lou's broken leg delaying the surgery. It was scheduled for November 18th, two weeks and two days after they let her out of this one hospital, it's now going to be on the sixth of December.

Y'all pardon me for being really tired of this. I'm tired of having to drive to Dallas. I'm tired of not having my wife able to move. I won't say that I'm tired of taking care of her but I will say that it's making it hard to take care of myself. I went to the specialists at the Texas Back Institute Wednesday and got a whole slew of routines to work with the Physical Terrorists, trying to get my back to work where I'm not getting crippled with muscle spasms. No one quite understands why it will be my lower back one time, my neck another. It may be related to the arthritis, it may be related to the Parkinson's, it may be something else. All I know is that Thursday I was supposed to be in PT at two PM, so I went to bed early, two AM. I woke up at two fifteen in the afternoon. I'm plumb wore out.

So, Linda Lou will be home, with nothing stabilizing those bones in her leg, which have been broken since the end of February, from the third of November until the day before Pearl Harbor Day. I am supposed to juggle three two hour PT appointments, driving to and fro, shopping, cooking and taking care of her. I do not know where I will get the strength. Get it I will, though, because I must.

Excuse me while I go kick the dog. Hmm, which dog? How about the red dog from the neighbor's who came in with Bingo the other day and stole the Tootsie Roll Toy off the living room floor when he snuck in while I was taking my morning constitutional?

Everything isn't a total loss, I'm just a little frustrated over how long everything is taking.

In more important news, Bingo T. Pug has a new harness. It's cool enough, most of these days where I can again take him on my rounds and leave him in the car while I go into those benighted places where dogs are not allowed. So, on my latest trip to the Texas Back Institute, where I got my new PT orders (oh, boy!) Bingo T. Pug waited, we then went to PetSmart, got him a brand new red harness. He's never had a harness, just a collar and Pugs, being the kind of critter with a thick neck and small head, could slip right out of any collar that didn't threatened to choke him.

So, Bingo got to show his Momma his brand new harness. This should mean that I shall now be safe from the citified armchair "environmentalists" because, unlike them, I have harnessed the PUG POWER!

So, we are trying to muddle through. I shall have a longish blog post on the .308 Winchester coming soon, and then, perhaps a post on the two cartridges based on the .308 necked up to .338 and .35 calibers. Those two are, I believe, close enough to be in one post.

Dear Eric:

Dear Eric, I know that this is a busy time of the year but I thought I'd drop you a line. You seem to have forgotten the oath you swore to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States. If you can, take a look at that oath, Eric. The oath was not to the Democrats, nor to Barry Obama. Your job, Eric, is to enforce the laws. Politics are another department, you might recall the big stink over Bush politicizing the Justice Department.

Eric, I do not believe you understand how thin the ice is underneath your feet, nor how deep, swift and cold the water. You are blithely ignoring rampant vote fraud running up to the election, in Houston, Arizona, Washington State, and other places, too, I'm sure. Eric, our government depends on the consent of the governed. There are not enough IRS agents to go after everyone if they, like in Greece, start massively cheating on taxes. There are not enough cops, period, if Americans become scofflaws. Yet, Eric, that is what we're facing if you keep letting people steal elections. Tell me, Eric, after Al Franken blatantly stole the election up there in Minnesota, excuse me, kept "counting newly found votes", don't want that mean ol' Al threatening me, why should any American obey any law for which his vote made fifty-one?

Eric, you are depending on the fact that we Americans are a peaceable lot, and you're right. We do have our limits, though. And we;re just about there. Eric, we do not mind getting beaten in a fair and honest election. So, Eric, how about you try this novel approach? Equal enforcement of the law. No Republican will complain if you lock up all the Republicans who actually break the election laws as long as you do the same with Democrats. Or, Eric, are you an Attorney General of Cowards for not wanting to talk about those crooks trying to steal our Republic? Eric, I'm betting you are a coward.

Come on, Eric, how about it? A fair election. Is that too much to ask?

See you in November,
Peter

Dear Campbell's Chunky Soup:

Dear Campbell's Chunky Soup:

I'm writing to thank you for helping me get through this temporary bachelorhood and bout of appointments with the Physical Terrorists. Without your help I would probably starve. Your Bean With Bacon, Your Split Pea With Bacon and, most especially, your Beef With Barley have been mainstays. This is not to denigrate some of your others that I have also tried during this ordeal. The Chunky Clam Chowder with a can of drained tuna thrown in is also a mainstay, especially when I'm going to be out and about for hours, that is a meal that really sticks to a man's ribs.

I do wonder, though, why you include your Chicken and Sausage Gumbo into the Chunky Soup line. I always kind of figured that a Chunky Soup should include something called "chunks". Slices of sausage thin enough to read an insurance policy through do not fit the definition of "chunks" Plus Gumbo implies "spice". Gumbo has some heat to the taste, this is some Yankee soup. It reminds me of the grits I got for a side at breakfast once up in Oregon, the poor dears were trying but they simply had no idea of what Grits are for. Campbell's. Please send your execs on a trip to Louisiana. Not New Orleans, one of the small towns out about fifty miles out, off the main highways. Order Gumbo. Ask questions and take notes.

Above all, Campbell's execs, for a soup to be called "Chunky Soup" it must have chunks instead of blow chunks.

Best regards,
Peter

Idle Thoughts Of An Almost Retired Gunny.

I am retired from hunting, these days. After my stroke it just wouldn't be fair to the game. The only sort of competitive shooting I do anymore is Cowboy Action and I haven't done that since Linda Lou broke her leg. It's not that i don't want to go to a shoot, it's that if I had the money for gas and range fees, I'd go visit Linda Lou in the hospital. And when she was trying to recover at home, the money went to medical stuff that the insurance didn't cover like bandages.

Still, I keep up with the literature and I read the shooting websites. Then I sit around and wonder what world most gunwriters inhabit. I understand that the gun companies come out with new cartridges, not to fill any particular need, but so they can sell more guns. Take, for instance, the new super short magnums. The ponly thing any of them do is give the ballistics of an older round, in a differently shaped case. a shape of case that makes for a rifle with feeding problems, which is why many, if not most, custom riflemakers won't try to build them.

Meanwhile, in spite of all this "progress" in cartridges and rifles, a couple of years back they did a study. The rifle cartridge that had the most one shot kills on deer was the old .300 Savage. Rifles with less oomph would fail with hits from bad angles, rifles and loads more powerful kicked more, making precise shots more difficult.

The .300 Savage approached the original military load of the 150 grain .30-06 in a cartridge short enough to fit that famous old Savage 99 lever action. Like the .308, .260 Remington and the 7mm-08 it was powerful enough for anything but the big bears. Yet nobody much cares about these rounds, wanting POWER! And then they wonder why they have a splitting headache after a practice session.

Another idle thought. Why is it that people who want to go hunting spend all their practice sessions shooting off those big benches, with their rifles snugged into sandbags? How, persactly, does one carry that bench and sandbags out into the woods? Hunting season is almost here. If I were to walk behind the firing line at a busy range I might, might see one guy between the benches, in the sitting or kneeling positions, shooting. And the guys wonder why their freezers are full of storebought beef instead of venison.

I have a couple of acquaintances who are professional hunting guides and outfitters. They always cringe when a client shows up with a new looking magnum rifles. They know that the most recoil the average hunter can handle, and still shoot accurately, is the .30-06. And. really, with rifles getting lighter and lighter, that trend is not toward more powerful rifles. In my day, a normal bolt action rifle weighed 'purt near ten pounds with scope, sling and a magazine full of .30-06 rounds, which was four or five. Today a lot of rifles are a full two pounds lighter, some closer to four pounds. The lighter the rifle, the more the same round kicks, the more recoil, the quicker comes the flinch.

Speaking of rifle weight with sling, how many shooters today can get into a loop sling, quickly? How many can get into a loop sling at all? The loop sling is the single most important aid to accuracy there is in the field. A hunter who is used to shooting from sitting or kneeling with a loop sling is almost as accurate as the guy with his rifle snugged into sandbags on that big concrete bench at rifle ranges. And yet if a modern bolt action wears a sling at all it's one of those "Cobra" style things that are good only for carrying the weapon. So, as rifles get lighter, the slings get wider, modern shoulders must really be tender.

Still another idle thought. The new conventional wisdom is that a person needs a semiautomatic pistol with enough ammo in the magazine to fight the Battle of the Bulge, without reloading, plus have another magazine or two in reserve, all for civilian self defense. Seems that no one is rude enough to ask exactly what happens in a gunfight if you miss the first five or six shots that a revolver carries with that fancy semiauto. Let me be that rude guy. Seeing as how the only real reason for shooting at someone is that that someone poses a deadly threat, you can't solve it in five or six rounds, You. Are. Dead. Worse, those you were trying to defend are now at the tender mercy of the bad guy(s).

Or, what would happen to the civilian who fires the whole ten to fifteen rounds into a bad guy like they think they're in a big city police force. Can you spell prison term?

I have my own quarrel with outfitting city bluesuits with high capacity handguns, too many are not trained well enough to avoid spraying bullets all over the neighborhood, mostly missing but an unfortunate number of rounds going into the bad guy, who has not been convicted of anything, long after he's down. Big cities lack the funds, anymore, to do more than a cursory amount of training. So, when these kids in blue see a perceived threat, the first thing they do is forget about the front sight. The next thing is to start pulling the trigger until they hear a bunch of "clicks" instead of bangs. Somehow, the knowledge of only six shots beminds people to aim.

What the gunwriters and internet gurus have forgotten is that the semiauto pistol shooter needs a lot more training and constant practice than does the owner of a revolver. A revolver also can stand neglect a lot better than that auto. The military style semiauto can take abuse better than the revolver, the revolver, neglect. I have seen the old Colt 1911 dropped into sand, shaken off and fired, without missing a beat. Whereas a revolver can sit, loaded for years, until the brass shell casings have turned green, and those green shells still fired. A semi needs to be maintained.

Good News!

Just a quick post before the young sadists at the Physical Terrorist Office torture me some more:

Linda Lou is coming home!!!!11!!The target date is November the third, while I hope we are celebrating huge gains in the House, Senate and the lower races. Although I'm not sure they should be called "lower races", considering how much power a County Commissioner or Sheriff has.

Anyhow, Linda Lou comes home and then goes back in for the (hopefully) last round of surgery on the 18th. I say that this is the last round because if this next operation doesn't work, she'll then go back in, have the leg amputated below or at the knee and get a peg leg. Arr! This surgeon is quite confident and competent, though so I have confidence myself.

The bad news? I'd better clean up the house!

Bingo T. Pug, Therapy Dog.

I planned my visit to Linda Lou in the hospital so that I would get there in the late afternoon, so Bingo T. Pug would not have to sit in the hot car. Naturally, the nurse had a different plan, instead of Linda Lou coming right down in her wheelchair, they stuck another round of antibiotics into her IV line, we had to wait. And wait. And wait some more. It's not all bad news, it still looks like there is no infection from having that screw sticking out through the skin. And, since the last surgery, I can no longer say that she has a screw loose. (Which makes me wonder why she still keeps me.)

Well, anyhow, I needed a cup of coffee so I went downstairs, they have a pot of hospital coffee but I have my own brew in a thermos. Since the days when we had to be real careful not to make our morning coffee in the helmet that everyone had washed his feet in the night before, I've been picky about my coffee. Stop the presses, though. As I was getting off the elevator, there was a guy with some critter that looked like a miniature Collie. Are there Mini collies? Anyhow, I stopped him, politely, and asked if that was an official certified therapy dog. He said, no, he's just our dog, and up they went on the elevator.

I give you, my three or four faithful readers, one guess as to my next move. Up Bingo T. Pug and I went. I am not quite sure who was leading whom on that lead, either. Linda Lou was surprised, but pleased. When the IV bag of antibiotics was empty we had to wait a while because it was shift change and they were all busy talking. Eventually, though, the nurse came in to disconnect the bag and flush the line, she had nothing awful to say about Bingo T. Pug, therapy dog. This particular nurse is an Americanized daughter of Viet Namese immigrants, 40+ years ago I would have been really making my best moves. Pretty young woman.

Anyhow, although Linda Lou insisted on taking the camera, we forgot to take any pictures. Once we were clear of IV lines, we went downstairs and sat outside, I finally got my coffee.Alas, too soon, it was time to drive home.The extra fifty miles one way added to the trip between the hospital and home, as compared to the hospital closer to home, makes a huge difference. Not to mention the three visits per week to my physical terrorists, speaking of whom, for some reason the torture was worse today. There was no particular difference, it just hurt more. My Physical Terrorists could make the worst of the AlQ types sing like canaries. Ah well, I think there are supposed to be ups and downs. And I went in with a stitch in my back. Poor little me.

Anyhow, I survived today's PT and came home for an almost four hour nap, I awakened with Cochise' Apache Princess and Bingo T. Pug laying with me, as soon as I moved I had both of them wanting ear scritches. The excitement of my life continues to amaze me.

The Revinvented 7x57 Mauser, The 7mm-08 Remington

Like the .260 Remington, the 7mm-08 is simply a cartridge that matches the ballistics of some of the cartridges developed early in the smokeless powder era. The 7mm-08 Remington almost exactly matches the ballistics of the old 7x57 Mauser, the cartridge that drew a lot of American blood at Kettle Hill in the famously misnamed Charge up San Juan Hill by Teddy Roosevelt, that famous old war hero that went up right behind the widely ignored "Negro Regiments". That's another story, though.

The only real reason the 7mm-08 is better than the old 7mm Mauser is that factory loads for the old cartridge must be kept down for all those very old Mausers and Remington Rolling Blocks. This is, of course, a big deal to the factories seeing as how they cannot trust the courts to say, "you put a load, clearly marked as PlusP into that old gun? Sucks to be you."

The 7mm-08 is the .308 Winchester-7.62x51mm NATO cartridge necked down to 7mm or .284 inch. The cartridge case is six mm shorter than the 7x57 but since the original .308 case has a little less body taper than the 7mm Mauser, the case capacity is almost exactly the same. The working pressure of the 7-08 is quite a bit higher, again because of the old guns. The 7-08 runs about 10,000 copper units of pressure more than the 7mm Mauser.

The 7-08 will do everything the old Mauser did. And since people like WDM "Karamojo" Bell slew literally hundreds of tons of elephants with the old cartridge and the equally famous Eileen O'Connor, wife of that famous firearm and hunting writer, Jack O'Connor slew elk, deer, and African plains game with that cartridge, it's equally possible with the 7-08.

Today's wonder bullets have pretty much made the famous old 175 grain softpoint obsolete. While that old bullet, launched at 22-2400 feet per second will still burrow deeply into just about any critter, the lighter premium bullets, launched faster will dig just as deep. The old guns were throated for this bullet giving lighter bullets a long jump to the rifling. This gave the lighter bullets more chance to get a little cattywampus in the bore, spoiling gilt-edged accuracy. This, plus the improvements in rifles, gives the 7mm-08 a definite edge. Or course this matters mainly on paper targets. Unless the moose you see in the deep woods has the latest Guns and Ammo magazine sticking out from his pocket as he leaves the moose men's room, he'd never know the difference.

Speaking of moose, and other big critters like elk, here is a question that I have: Why is it that great big strapping Swedes can kill their version of the moose, the Alg with the old 6.5-55, which is loaded below the .260 Remington while American men need humongous magnums? The gunwriter John Barsness wants to know how come so many American men buy rifles like the 7-08 and .260 Rem for their wives and kids to hunt the same game which they hunt with .300 Magnums of one sort or another. It's thoughts like that that makes John Barsness one of my favorite gun scribes.

At any rate, the 7-08 will do everything a bigger cartridge will do, except a little closer. The only thing the big 7mm Magnums will do is shoot flatter than the 7-08, making those theoretical long range hits a little easier. Since I contend that not one hunter in a hundred has any business shooting at unwounded game past three hundred yards, this is advantage is lost, far outclassed by the simple fact that almost anyone can simply shoot a cartridge based on the .308 case better than any magnum.

We all shoot better when the recoil does not loosen our fillings and the muzzle blast doesn't leave our ears ringing for a week. There is a reason most old gunnies go around sayin' "huh, whazzat?"

I grew up when the .30-06 and cartridges based on the '06 case were the king of the hunting fields. Back then there were a lot of magnums, both factory and wildcat and most hunters ignored them. Of course back east hunters went into the woods with .30-30s, .35 Remingtons and other short ranged woods cartridges, they did well, too. Me, I stayed with the old '06through my hunting career. Had I been born a generation later it would have been one of the cartridges based on the .308. The advances in powder have made the .308 cased rounds as effective as the larger '06 cased rounds of my youth. The '06 has made some velocity gains since then but velocity will not kill critters. The advances in bullets have made the big cartridges of Elmer Keith's day obsolete. Back before premium bullets the only way to assure sufficient penetration on a big critter was to use a big, heavy bullet.

Today, though, a lighter, bonded core bullet like the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw from Federal or the new Speer Deep Curl bullets made the same way their newer handgun bullets are made with a core with the jacket electroplated on. This, BTW, deserves a seperate blog entry that I'll someday get to, probably after everyone else knows about it already.

Anyway, a 140 grain bonded bullet will penetrate just as deeply as the old 175 grain soft points do because they just don't lose so much weight as they go in. Now I would still choose a 175 Round nosed soft point if I were hunting the black woods where ranges would be measured in multiples of ten yards, rather than hundreds, not because of anything but the lower velocity would ruin less meat.

The 7mm-08 Remington will, with careful bullet selection, do for anyone hunting any critter in the United States except the great bears, the Grizzly and his cousin the Alaska Brown, along with the Polar Bear. Since my house is too small for a bear rug and I have gone out of my way to not live in their territory, I have no reason to pot one of those. It takes a lot of work to make bear meat tasty and we no longer live lives that make a diet including a lot of fat essential. I'm not mad at any bears. If I do get mad at a great bear I will have an '06 rebarrelled to .338-06 or .35 Whelan. As it is, a 7-08 or .308 is enough for black bears. Again, though, I neither live in bear country, nor am I mad at any bears.

A hunter interested in varmints can pot them with a 7-08 and the 110-115 grain bullets. These can step right out at well over3,000 fps, even from the short barreled rifles like those Model Sevens. Now it's not the round I'd choose if I were buying a dedicated varmint rifle for prairie doggin' but for the person wanting to zap the odd coyote or woodchuck, it's fine.

An Antelope hunter would be hard pressed to find a better rig than a 7-08 with a Barnes TSX 120 grain bullet at right around 3,000 fps, depending on the barrel. Speaking of barrels, you can find a 7-08 or, for that matter, a .260 or a .308, in any barrel between 16 and a half inch to 22 in hunting weight arms. And there are still, I believe, target rifles with longer barrels, 24 and 26 inches. I would suggest trying the balance on each and choose your preferred balance.

There are a lot of fine 140-150 grain bullets for those wishing to hunt deer and black bear. They move out around 2800 fps. Choose the bullet for the game. A Hornady Interlock, for instance, for open country deer, an Interbond for a bigger critter at a range that might be out at two hundred or twenty yards. For the Speer fan, a Hot Core for the far ones and a Grand Slam if they might be close, might be far. Other brands, the same thing. The important thing is that the bullet stays in one piece and mushrooms. A Barnes bullet is never a bad choice. Nor are Sierra Bullets a bad choice for more open country. For more decades than I care to think about, if I wanted to see how tight a group a rifle can shoot I would reach for those green boxes of bullets and do some careful handloading. A bullet that has got to the point of shooting just as well, these days, is the Nosler Ballistic Tip. When Nosler first came out with these bullets they were a little fragile for big game. Perfect for those rare broadside shots, they came apart too often on the difficult angles. It did not take them very long to fix that, though.

If the biggest game, a moose or elk is on the menu the top quality bullets are the best choice, even if they cost more. Some of the factory ammo with premium bullets is over two and a half bucks a shot. Y'all will excuse me for not being alarmed at this. When I was coming up we needed a whole new rifle for these big critters because no one had invented the premium bullets. After all, we can practice with the cheap stuff. I would be looking very hard at the Barnes 160, the 160 Remington Ultra Core Loc't Bonded, the 160 Speer Deep Curl, the Nosler 160 Partition or Accubond. The Woodleigh Weldcore from Austrailia is another good one.

It is only when I got into the very deep woods where I would think about the 175 grain bullets. Again, push these out at 2200-2400 fps, pretty much any critter hit will die. There is very little meat loss, in the words of that grand old man of gunning, Elmer Keith, you can eat right up to the bullet hole. There is also almost always an exit hole, those tend to bleed more so if the critter takes a little walk before piling up, there is a nice blood trail. This is important in the deep woods, light is usually poor, the game, while close, is usually moving so a blood trail is good.

About every big rifle company makes a bolt action in 7-08. Ruger, for instance, makes the Hawkeye Compact, with a 16 and a half inch barrel and the Model 77 with a 22 inch barrel. Browning has both 20 and 22 inch barrels. Remington has bolt actions from 20-24 inches. Savage has a couple of models.

There are a couple other cartridges based on the .308 case. The .243 Winchester is a fine varmint/deer cartridge although it doesn't quite have enough bullet for the bigger deer, in my opinion. The .358 Winchester is a good cartridge, too but I believe that the advances in bullet technology have rendered it obsolete. The .25 Souper was a wildcat based on the .308 that never caught on although it would be just as good as the .257 Roberts. I do not recall, off the top of my head, the name of the .270-308 wildcat that never got popular enough for anyone to care about.

The .338 Federal is the next try at a bullet bigger than .308 in the parent case. I guess it would be a little better than the .308 or 7-08 if I lived in moose or grizzly country but I don't.

The three, the .260, the 7-08 and the .308 are all nice, accurate and light recoiling. Any would be the right choice for a lower 48 hunting rifle.

Another Boring Health Post

On the Linda Lou front, she is now able to get up into her wheelchair again and is also able to go outside, weather permitting. Wednesday, after my bout with the physical terrorists, Bingo T. Pug and I will go see her. I'm not persactly sure how much she misses me but she sure does miss Bingo.

No one knows exactly why but Linda Lou is shedding weight like crazy, it's something called "water weight". Since it has been inconvenient to move and I'm not making her every wish come true on a minute to minute basis, she isn't drinking as much, meanwhile she is peeing like crazy. Sorry for the TMI there but, she's lost some thirty-five pounds since entering the hospital on Sept. 22. That is a pretty big deal. The bad news is that I think I foresee a major cake, ice cream and cookie famine when she gets home. Fortunately, she doesn't like the same kinds of pie I do. That's something.

I went for my first bout with the physical terrorists today, for the arthritis in my back. It's the same place I went for my shoulder rehab, after that repair in June, '08. The receptionists is the only person still working that location, though.

The first bout did manage to move the pain in my back from the lower region, just above my hips to between my shoulder blades and my neck. I hope this is a temporary thing. There doesn't seem to be much profit in moving the pain from my back to the neck. Perhaps the secret plan is to keep moving it up until the pain all flows out the top of my head and spatters on the ceiling.

More likely it's just that I'm using muscles that I don't normally use because it hurts. We'll see. Afterwards I took my muscle relaxant pill and died for a long nap.

Well, not directly after. First I, since I was already in Quinlan, went to Wally World. I noticed that the last time I made easy chili I used the last envelope of chili seasoning so I had to buy that, plus some diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Since I was there I cruised (more like limped) past the rack where they put out the marked down baked goods and there was a caramel apple pie. SCORE! That's one for the good guys.Then past the meat and there they were, busy marking down stuff. I the guy was marking Porterhouse steaks from $9.98 per pound to $3.99. I'm not exactly sure why there were only a few left but I got what I thought were the two prettiest. What's that they say in South America? GOOOOAALLLL!!!11!!

Then it was home with the Armadillos. We have armadillos, BTW, if I had a real lawn they would bother me, digging for ants and suchlike. We have all kinds of critters out here, I leave them alone, mostly. I don't even bother with a hunting license these days.

Anyhow it was home for the muscle relaxant, then a long nap and then I watched Four For Texas on the Western Channel. I sure lead an exciting life. I did notice Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress. And today Hollywood thinks that turkey necked Julia Roberts is pretty?

Anyhow, a porterhouse, baked potato and a sliced tomato later it was bedtime. What an exciting life.

The Great Primer Famine Of '08 Is Ending?

It may be a sign that The Great Ammo And Primer Shortage of '08 is finally about over but Midway USA actually has some of the cartridges that have been in very short supply in it's clearance section of their website. The prices, even at a clearance level are far above what they used to be but, still, prices on everything are high. One brand of Small Rifle Primers (the kind used in the .223/5.56 Nato) was also on clearance. It wasn't very long ago that none of those primers were for sale at all at Midway, for over a couple of years.

It's kind of amusing, too. This week's clearance includes several sorts of .380 acp ammo, along with .40 S&W, .45 acp, .38 Special, .357 and 9mmP. This latest addition of Handloader Magazine has a nice long article about how we should use the data in the article to handload .380 ammo because we just can't buy it these days. This gives an idea of the lead time in a magazine. I still contend, though, that every shooter should have some basic handloading gear and components, just in case. One can stow a Lee Loader, a thousand primers, two pounds of powder and a thousand handgun bullets into a big coffee can and two shoeboxes. A big game rifle cartridge would take more powder but then, even a full charge .30-06 will get like a hundred+ rounds per pound of powder.

There are only a few locations where a person who looks "of age" even has to show ID to buy reloading gear or components in the USA. As long as I pay cash, nobody would know I have enough powder, primers and bullets to go shooting, whenever I want, for a very long time. Assuming I had any cash. Sigh. Oh well, if will take me a while to build my stocks back up after the Great Primer Famine of '08, but rebuild I shall.

I'm sort of lucky on this rebuild process because as I have shut down on varmint and big game cartridges, I now only use two kinds of primers, plus shotgun, and even my brass shotshells use the same Large Pistol Primers that my .45s do. So, these days I can do all of my shooting with Small and Large Pistol primers and three kinds of powder, one for the full charge .357 and .45 Colt Loads, one for easy shooting loads in those, plus the .38 Special, and another kind of powder for the PlusP loads in .38. Plus the Black Powder for Cowboy Action.

Anyhow, as long as we can prevent the idiots in the Federal and State Capitals from ruining things, and there isn't another war, we will have a bit of a chance to rebuild our home stocks.

Some Days It Just Ain't Worth Gettin' Out Of Bed, Volume 327

So Linda Lou got out of bed into either her wheelchair or the bedside commode and she done sprang a leak. Hilarity ensued when the noticed a puddle of blood on the floor. Some of the hospital staff ran in clockwise circles, some in counterclockwise while a smaller group waved their arms.

The upshot is that she is now totally confined to the bed, until further notice. Meanwhile, a couple of days later, the Physician's Assistant comes in and tells Linda Lou that her latest bloodwork now shows that she is slightly anemic. Well, yeah! The iron that was in her blood was in a pool on the floor. Medics are supposed to be smart. I guess this is why the Texas concealed carry law exempts hospitals. Although I I really wanted to shoot up the hospital I'm not sure that breaking one more law would stop me. Lucky for them I'm a peaceable sort.

In other wonderful news, the 11th grandchild will not be coming in April. While it's always sad to lose a baby, Robin and Meleah have four boys already. While they, and we, were hoping that this time they get a girl, if He says that four is plenty, well, okay. The pics athe the top are some from a couple of years ago of the four they already have. There are newer ones, I just don't want to take the time to find them right now because it's time to get moving.

Today's big adventure is a visit with my Neurologist, followed by a visit with Linda Lou and then the Great Supermarket Adventure. I can remember when I had an interesting job, sometimes even exciting. Of course that excitement has much to do with the fact that I can't walk a block without my sciatica kicking up.

Oh well, time for breakfast. I'm having a Marie Callender chicken pot pie. hey, the good news about bein' a temporary bachelor is that I can eat the stuff I like, when I like. Right? Right?

Southern Strategy

Another election is upon us and I am again reading of the horrible Southern Strategy of those evil Republicans. That awful racist, Richard Nixon broke up the old Solid South where the Democratic Party and it's armed force, the Klu Klux Klan had kept the south in the Democrat column since the aftermath of the Civil War. The Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) love to claim that he did this out of racism. After all, there is nothing that the Party of Segregation loves more than accusing the Party that was born of the opposition to slavery and that fought against segregation of racism.

In truth, Nixon's famed Southern Strategy had nothing to do with race and everything to do with the war we were fighting at the time. It was 1968 and the Democrats were fractured. There was a large fissure over race and a larger fissure over the war which was raging. Only four years earlier, Landslide Lyndon Johnson had handily won the election by painting Barry Goldwater as a wildeyed warmonger. I remember that election. There was LBJ promising, promising that "Ah weel nevah send Amurkin boahs to do the job thet Asian boahs should do".

Then by 1968 the Dems were fractured in four camps, with some mutual grounds between them. There was the antiracist northern wing versus the Klu Klux Klan southern section and there was the antiwar faction vs the prowar faction. Nixon knew that the south had always been the section of the country that was most supportive winning wars that we started. Of course the institutional memory of losing a war was much sharper then in the south. The last of those who had endured the abject poverty of the post civil war era were still around. Actually in 1968 the south was still much poorer than the rest of the country. /funny how poverty and Democrats go hand in hand.

In 1968, the Democrat-ruled south is where the poverty was. Today it's the Democrat ruled big cities. But the southern strategy was all about race. Sure. And I'm the King of Sweden.

Last Linda Lou Update For A While

Linda Lou is being transferred to a rehab facility in north Dallas tomorrow and will stay there for the approximately six weeks until the next phase of the surgery. She will be in the rich part of north Dallas, right outside the Park Cities so I'd better not take a wrong turn around there.

The schedule seems to be four to eight weeks, most likely around six until the next phase of surgery. Then back in the hospital for the surgery, and, after the first few days, back to the rich folks rehab center for probably two weeks or so of work with the physical terrorists.

I cannot drive that far more than once or so a week so we will be depending on the phone and the twins between now and the time she can come home. It's going to be a long time. Anybody know a bimbo with a housecleaning fetish?

First Phase Of Surgery Okay

It was an adventure getting up there, we had some certified mail to pick up so I drove to the post office our mail goes through, which is not the closest post office, nor is it even in the same county. Don't ask. So, we hardly ever go to that town but on the rare times we have registered or certified mail. There was a construction sire and I had to drive through it to and fro, just after driving through it on the way back I had a nice blowout. Shucks and other colorful comments. So, after changing the tire in the Texas sun I then got to wait at the tire store, then hit Dallas traffic at rush hour. So I got there late but luckily they were later at the hospital.

The twins were there our youngest boy and only daughter, they pretty much kept me company until the Doc finally showed up after about 11:00 PM. So, here is the latest on The Saga of Linda Lou's Leg. The hardware is all out and there is a batch of antibiotic beads in there. There is a splint on the outside of her leg. There was no gross infection although once that screw poled through the skin they must act as there is infection.

Since there is a severe risk of infection they will not try to repair the break again for at least four but more like six to eight weeks.Until after the weekend Linda Lou will stay in that hospital, after wards they will transfer her to a rehab facility for (most of?) the remaining time until the next surgery.

Every day a new adventure. Meanwhile this hospital is a tad over ninety miles away. The important thing, though, is so far, so good. God treats me better than I deserve.

Back In The Hospital

We saw the new Doc and now Linda Lou is back in the hospital. They are, within the next day or two, going to take all the hardware out of her leg, again. then after a period of antibiotics to kill any possible infection, they will try again. The Doc says that this is the last try to fix the break. If unsuccessful the next step is the "A" word. I was kind of wondering why an almost sixty-five year old woman would need an abortion when it dawned on me that there is a different procedure that begins with "A", amputation. Well we wanted to lose a little weight but this seems extreme.

The Doc is in north Dallas at the Medical City complex. Med City seems to have no beds open right that minute so he sent us up to another hospital where he has a relationship, even further from home, if such is possible. This is some twenty-five miles north of Med City, I was expecting folks to speak Oklahoman or, perhaps, Canadian, eh?

The only good news is that she is in what is normally a pediatric floor, judging by the Old MacDonald pictures on the wall. Linda Lou likes that sort of thing.

The good news is that it's only about ten-fifteen miles from Stephanie and Dean's place so that's something. Anyhow we are still in limbo. I wonder how she'd be doing under Obamacare. Would they have given her the red pill or the blue pill?

Update 9/22/09 1:48 PM: Surgery at 7:00 PM this evening to take that hardware out of her leg. I was taking a nap. I was going to skip the drive up this evening, no such luck now. Coffee and into the car! Oh well, it's payday, I'll grab something good on the way.

Any spare prayers and good wishes you have layin' around would be nice. Time for me to start to practice speaking that Oklahoman/Canadian now, y'all, eh? I thought they did surgery in the morning, eh? Is this just when the Doc has time or is this something really more awful than I thought?

She's Our Witch!

Well it's sure now that my Linda Lou can't run for office on the Republican ticket, after all it's on record that she has a screw loose. (More on that after I vent a little. So, over ten years ago this O'Donnell woman casually mentioned that when she was a lot younger she dabbled in witchcraft. As in she dated a guy who took her to a whatever they call their meeting place and that there was alleged blood on the alter.

So, was it long enough ago that she was the one who turned Gingrich into a Newt? In the Democrat primary I think having dabbled in Wicca before turning to Christianity would be a definite downer, not because of the Wicca but because of the Christianity. Now I do not claim to be the greatest theologist around but I'm pretty sure that it is pretty normal for folks to go down some blind roads before settling into their faith. I also keep remembering that popular bumper sticker: "Christians aren't perfect, they're forgiven."

Meanwhile, alleged Republicans and alleged Christians are demanding explanations from O'Donnell. I saw the headline where Rove said she needed to explain.

Hey Rove! How about you go up to Alaska and slap the Murk a few times? What is it about the concept of "won the Primary" that you do not understand? It's past time you shut up about Delaware where we have a not so perfect woman running against a far left dweeb. Those are two races that we can win. If you idiot Party leaders" shut up; and either get with the parade or get out of the way before you get trampled. The Tea Party is a very important part of the Republican Party, Rove. It's the part of the Party that you have been making promises to for most of my life, and breaking those promises since the end of the Eisenhower Administration.

You "party leaders" are losing your chance to keep the Tea Party in the fold. If you idiots manage to chase O'Donnell out of the race at this late date all those hundreds of thousands of people who went to the Lincoln Memorial, the Gateway Arch and scores of other places in the last year+ will be sitting home in November instead of voting for those you have anointed. O'Donnell, Miller up in Alaska, those people are important to the Tea Party types, some like Linda Lou and I who have never been to one of those big hoo-raws, some like Sarah Palin. We are the ones who usually vote but can stay home when the big race is a foregone conclusion. Tell me, Rove, would you rather the O'Donnell and Miller supporters go to the Polls and pull the straight Republican ticket or stay home? That is the choice, Rove, that you and those other "Party Leaders" are forcing on the Party when, instead, you could roll up your sleeves and help. Just remember, the Tea Party candidates did not win in every Primary. Yet none of those candidates have refused to endorse the eventual winner of the Primary and none have started a write in candidacy. So, Rove, who is it that is failing the party unity test?

I think the motto for the O'Donnell Campaign should be "She turned Gingrich into a Newt! She's our witch!"

About my Linda Lou. She is going to a ortho specialist, the guy works almost exclusively with folks who need joint replacements and have bone cancers. Linda Lou, although she could use two brand new knees, does not have bone cancer, nor will they have to replace any joints. The break, though, is so close to the ankle joints that nothing anyone has done so far has worked. And now that screw is sticking through the skin. Not the pointy part, the head. It's really cute, when we change the dressing.

Patsy, our neighbor, insisted that Linda Lou go over there for a couple of days, before going to the new Doc. She says her house is easier for her and her wheelchair. She is back in the wheelchair, BTW. Whoopie! Ah, it was only February that she broke her leg, we can't expect healing so soon. Grump.

Anyhow, we were getting Linda Lou out the door and into her wheelchair when she simply toppled over. We had to call the volunteer fire department to get her up, they helped us get her next door. Now Linda Lou has gone in and out of that door
ever since she got home from the hospital. She would have this time if not for Patsy kept talking about her falling. Grrr! So, we waited around for the Volunteer Fire Dept. people, they came, lifted her up into the wheelchair and then helped us get her up the stairs and into the house. A little prayer about getting her out of the house Tuesday morning would be nice. I swear, if she falls down this time she can roll to the car.!

So, I'm over here with no wife and two dogs. Seems like I should have some bimbos swinging naked from the ceiling fans or something. No such luck. The dogs do go looking for Linda Lou every hour or two, sniffing around all her spots and then giving me a dirty look. Anybody want to buy a couple of bozo dogs? Cheap! Anyhow, the only good news is that I can watch all the shows on the Western Channel that Linda Lou doesn't like. Tell the truth, I'd rather have the naked bimbos. Or my Linda Lou. (Don't tell her that, she'd get the big head.)

Whining Establishment Republicans, PUMA Republicans

I was a Republican Precinct Chairman from the election that brought George W. Bush to the Governor's Office the first time to '1998 when I had to resign because I moved out here to Dogpatch. I like to think I know politics a little.

I remember well the '96 election where Bob Dole was chosen, mostly because it was His Turn. Pat Buchanan was running an insurgent campaign and he was very popular in my part of Texas. I wasn't too happy with Pat, mainly because his big political office was as a speechwriter, putting on paper the ideas of Ronald Reagan. He did that well. When it came to his own ideas, well I had many disagreements and we'll leave it at that.

On the runup to that '96 election there was a big county Republican meeting where we all had to do things like put a piece of paper with each candidate's name into a hat so we could then draw for ballot placement. A Precinct chair(wo)man, usually one that supported said candidate would then place the paper in the hat for drawing. No one wanted to take Dole's paper and put it in the hat, as a matter of fact there were boos when his name was mentioned.

Finally, just as I was rising, someone else did. When Dole's name was drawn, there were more boos. After the drawing for ballot order (my name didn't have to be drawn because no one dared to run against the Honorable Peter), the County chairman scolded the Buchanan Brigade types for lack of respect and reminded everyone of the Need For Party Unity. Much the same thing happened after the Primary. The Buchanan Brigade types were torqued. We got the same Party Unity speech at the first meeting. Some of the Buchanan Brigade types didn't listen and Clinton, warts and all was reelected.

Funny thing happened in this election. Some of the party chosen were cast out by those impudent voters who did not listen to the People Of High Status. Sitting Senators were cast out. Those Chosen To Assume Their Rightful Promotions were thrown to the curb. And, suddenly Party Regulars were screeching. In '96 George W. Bush was titular head of the Republican Party of Texas. Carl Rove, unless he is plumb senile, should remember '96. The Republican Party was facing a long shot against a fairly popular President.In addition, Gingrich had kind of stepped on his crank while wearing golf shoes.

So, the establishment put out a Party Regular with a good record but little chance. Dole lost. Dole lost against a fairly popular President with many, many negatives that, given a political insurgent knife fighter could have exploited. Establishment Republicans did not learn. George W. Bush kind of blindsided them, no one really expected him to win the Primary in 2000, win it he did, over another Senator who thought it was His Turn. a guy named McCain. You may have heard of him. McCain then put the next eight years of the Bush Presidency "reaching across the aisle and otherwise torpedoing Republicans. Thus it was His Turn again in '08.

I was long retired from the inner workings of the Party, I merely voted against him in the Primary and voted for him in the General. That's the party unity expected by the establishment. This is what we have yet to see in this election. We are lacking in party unity by the very people who demand it of us. I do not know Sharon Angle. I wouldn't know her if she walked up and started talking. I do not know Christine O'Donnell. Nor do I know the guy who beat Murk in Alaska. Still, every one of these was chosen by the voters, every one was attacked by the establishment Republicans before the people voted them in and every one is getting from zero to only lukewarm support of the establishment Republicans who always, ALWAYS lecture us about Party Unity.

So, establishment? How about some of that Party Unity you always lecture us about? And, when, oh when, will you figure out that selecting a Senator to run for the Presidency because it is His Turn is always a losing proposition. Establishment, if you want there to be a Republican Party in 2016 or 2018, you'd better sharpen your wits. There is an upheaval coming. Want to survive, get on board or you won't be able to ride it out.

No Drama, Only Catastrophe

Sunday Linda Lou was all discombobulated, running her walker into things, not being able to talk, just having a very hard time. By bedtime, though, she was somewhat better. When she was on her way to lie down I told her no drama allowed in the morning. So, she woke me up at about 7:30 AM to put Princess out, that dog does not like anyone else coming in the house and Patsy, our neighbor, is helping with Linda Lou's dressings on her leg.

So, I put Princess out and went back to sleep. My assistant sleeper, Bingo T. Pug and I were sleeping the sleep that only those with a clear conscience are allowed when Linda Lou woke me up, too early, BTW, telling me she had a screw coming through her skin and we needed to get her to the Docs to do something about it. Seems the elevation of her leg and the compression bandage was working well enough that the swelling was down so much that the wreckage in her leg was coming through the skin.

The good news, there was no drama, only a catastrophe. Sigh. So, we were convinced that Linda Lou would be in the hospital again so we packed a suitcase and suchlike and headed in to the wound Care Clinic, which locks the door between 12 and one for lunch. They had already told us that there would be no doctor there after noon so, when we couldn't get through by phone when noon came and we were still miles away, through the small town noon traffic, we changed to go to the Emergency Room in the same hospital as the clinic is.

Well, as we were sitting in the waiting room of the ER, the Wound Care Clinic called us on the cell phone and said they were waiting for us so, back to the car, around the front of the hospital, into the main entrance, up the elevator and down the hall, and there we were.

The looked at it and called the Orthopod. Meanwhile, the Doc they Shanghaied to look at her there started lecturing her about how she could lose her leg and to start following directions. I don't know that it did much good but I do have a little hope.

From there we went to the Orthopedist's office and sat around while waiting to be squoze in between appointments. More X-rays and waiting and we finally got told we have to see another surgeon who will go in, take all of the hardware our of her leg, put one of those outside frameworks screwed into the bones from the outside and, hopefully, after two unsuccessful tries, fix the broken bones so they can heal.

I only hope this new Doc has the sense to look at my Linda Lou and figure out that she is not some 92 pound ballerina trying to lose five pounds. We'll see him (?) next Tuesday. This Doc works out of Medical City in Dallas where I ended up after my stroke. Med City is one of the premier hospitals in the State so I fully expect it to be on the chopping block once Obamacare hits, unless the Republicans win with margin enough to kill this monster. Yes, everybody knows we need some form of medical reform, a couple thousand page bill that no one read before passing, ain't it.

Anyhow, we finally got out of there a bit after five PM. Since I left without breakfast, by then my stomach was gnawing on the back of my belt buckle. The last time we'd been to town we were going to this little take out Pizza joint, Peddler's Pizza that we like. Then they'd had a transformer blow up on the pole outside and so we were out of luck. The only good news of the whole day was they had lots and lots of volts and amps so I ordered a couple of pies, one for me and one for Linda Lou. She, somehow, decided she's a California girl and wants pineapple on her pies. I hope no old Moustache Pete Mafioso ever sees one of those, he'd machine gun the whole joint.

The good news, I had something to eat. the bad news, I had to smell it all the way home. The worst news of all, I had to stop and pick up a couple of scripts for Linda Lou and Wally World. The have a new policy. You go in and wait. Then you finally get up to the cashier and she gets the pills and rings them up and I get the honor of paying for them. At that point, those pills are my property, right? I've paid for them. But, noooo! Now I have to move down and wait for the pharmacist to stop whatever he's doing, like filling a scrip, and come up and check to see that he did his job right, meanwhile, causing me to wait and whoever in sitting on those stupid steel benches waiting for their meds to wait longer.

You may not believe this but I had a little something to say about it all. I do not understand a business that is bases on customer service to go around making life more difficult for the customer. We transferred all of our scrips from Brookshire's, a state of Texas grocery chain, to Wal Mart when we retired so we could get a scrip wherever we traveled in retirement. then the Donks took Congress in '06 and, since then, we haven't been able to go to the mail box every day. I moved my scrips back to Brookshire's because I kept getting excuses instead of a full prescription. Looks like I'll have to do the same with Linda Lou's scrips.

Anyhow, I finally got home and got something to eat. I deserved it. Bingo and Miss Priss got Pizza Bones. They deserved those.

The Wound Care Clinic And Other Adventures

Linda Lou had her second surgery on her broken leg back in May, the lowest inch or inch and a half of the incision still isn't healed. So, after months of asking various doctors, like every one we saw, including Docs we met in, say, the supermarket about it, our family practice Doc finally referred her to the Wound Care Clinic. So, we drove to town for the morning appointment ( you do know how much I love mornings, right?) and we were going to the lab to have blood drawn, too. I have a standing order, seems that I need this test called an "INR" that checks to see that my blood thinner is working right.

So we got there earlier than we were supposed to but, unfortunately, not early enough to be comfortable with going to the lab first so we had lots of time after Linda Lou filled out the new patient paperwork. Eventually, though we got is and did the rest of the new patient stuff. We finally saw the new Doc, nice enough guy, who explained that the reason Linda Lou's wound isn't healing is because she keeps her feet down too much and her lower legs and ankles swell. So, now we have this oddball sort of thing like a finely woven Ace Wrap only with little squares and rectangles in brown and green on it. Seems that if you pull it tight enough to make the brown rectangles into squares, you have so much pressure to keep the swelling down. This. BTW, turns the green squares into rectangles. They say that later we'll pull it tighter to where the green squares which turned into rectangles become square again.

Even more fun, Linda Lou is supposed to either lie down or sit in the recliner with her feet up, only a half hour at a time sitting in a normal chair or standing on the walker.

Now this, while exciting enough, is not the half of it. Linda Lou's breaks are "collapsing" and her leg isn't healing straight. So, after November, when her Medicare kicks in, she gets to go BACK in the hospital for the third surgery, please note that the original break was toward the end of February. and people wonder why I'm in a bad mood all the time. Oh, and the first trip to this Wound Care Clinic was Thursday morning, when we changed the dressing, she was bleeding from another spot on that leg. I think that one of the rods is starting to stick through the skin now that the swelling is starting to go down. This means that it may well not be able to wait until November.

You know I never really believed that it was possible for someone with halfway decent medical insurance to need to declare bankruptcy over medical bills. This, though, is really killing up. I do believe, though, that we may finally have paid enough to where we don't have that stupid percentage thing left for the rest of the year. I'm really spoiled with my insurance. Everything that Medicare doesn't cover, our insurance does. this is what Linda Lou will have, after November, assuming we make it that long.

By the time we finally got out of the Wound Care Center and into the car, it was after noon. Naturally, the lab closes at noon for lunch, until one. Did I mention that Linda's lab work was fasting? And that I had not eaten anything in solidarity? No wonder I'm always in a bad mood. So, we finally got into the lab and out in just minutes. If you have a Quest Diagnostics around and need lab work, try them. I have needed bloodwork every month for the last five years, since that stroke. In all that time I have only gotten one bad stick.

We then went to Wally World to get a few groceries and some dog food, as well as a tad of cash. We went, from there to Peddlar's Pizza, we don't often get to the county seat but, when we do, we sometimes go there. I don't think they are a big chain but it's a buy one, get one free place and it's some pretty fair pizza. So, we drove by the place on our way to Wally World and they were nice and open, by the time we got back they were sort of closed because the power was out, the transformer blew. I used an ugly word. My mouth was set for Pizza, I ended up at Taco bueno. Shucks and other colorful comments. Then home we went with one last stop for Linda Lou's burger.

Every day a new adventure.

About t Those Flamable Korans

Dear Washington:

You have been jawing about this little fifty-member Church down in Florida that wants to make a point about how if the Muslims get to build a center that includes all kinds of things, including a Mosque, they can burn some Korans. Washington, you have put yourself squarely in the middle of this, why? Washington, perhaps you might go to the records office or, perhaps a musty old encylopedia, and read the charter that exists between you and America.

Then look back on a couple of hundred years of Supreme Court decisions. Let us start with that old parcchment, especially that paragraph reading "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech...it goes on but that should be enough to get you the faint glimmering of the idea that this whole bruhaha is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. I wish I were one of those computer super geniuses who know how to make letters in words an inch tall, maybe then you peabreains would lern how to say about an issue, I am prohibited by the Constitution of the United States of America from doing anything about this mess so go talk to someone who is not so prohibited.

Just as an aside, Washington, if you would only learn to butt out of things you are not supposed to be doing, you might just have a few minutes a day to do what you are supposed to do.

Anyhow, this whole mess is far bigger than it needs to be. The building that isn't a Mosque but will contain a Muslim Worship Center, that is not at Ground Zero but is two blocks away where a building that was damaged by an engine of one of the planes that created Ground Zero (that is quite a name for it) may well be built long before anyone finishes doing much of anything at Ground Zero.

Meanwhile that little Church down in Florida seems to have backed off on it's plan on a Koran BBQ but that sick cult led by that expletive deleted Fred Phelps, the failed Democrat politician from Topeka, has picked up the challenged. And you all should know that Phelps will do almost anything it it grants him access to the news.

Anyhow, Washington, seeing as how you cannot do anything about The Incredible Flaming Koran Disaster, why don't you do something you can control, like finish the fence on the border.

Oh, and you should have kept your mouth shut about those Korans because, either way it's a danger to our troops and to US interests in general. If you, Washington, had kept your mouth shut, it would have been a small issue, unless flogged by the Democrat loving "free press" that gave us the "flushed Korans" disaster a few years back when it could harm Bush. Sure, if that bunch of "journalists" had gotten off their knees on their Obama prayer rugs long enough to file the story, certain wild eyed Muslims around the world would get all excited and burn some flags and kill off a few of each other.

Now, with all this excitement, if Phelps and his gang of thugs get together and burn some Korans, the excitable morons of the Muslim world will get together and burn more flags and kill more of each other. Now I'm trying pretty hard to figure out how people killing each other on the other side of the world bothers me. Y'know, Washington, it doesn't. I mean, okay. If big crowds of Muslims gather shouting Death To America! I have the old fashioned idea that we should drop a few cluster bombs in the middle of the crowd, eventually they might learn to shout Okay, America, We Will Be Nice To Our Neighbors And Stop Killing Folks! Or perhaps they'd just learn to shout In The Name Of Allah, Please Stop! and then we could send them all to "be nice to our neighbors and stop treating women like slaves" school. Ah, but that would fail the multiculti test, sorry.

You know, Washington, I've been saying for a few decades now, stop arming anyone who treats people like slaves. Every time we do that those guns eventually end up pointed at us.

All that aside, Washington, what is it exactly that brings you people "home" for election time where you talk like you actually can walk, chew bubble gum and watch for traffic, all at the same time, and then go back to your real home, Washington and act like the people my late mother, God rest her soul, called fatheads? Hmmm?

So, Washington, please stay out of things that do not concern you. You have enough to do fixing that idiotic Ponzi scheme you call Social Security. And the border. And our worn out military equipment. You know, Washington, that you've been using the heck out of our trucks, rifles, humvees, ships airplanes, not to mention boots. Meanwhile they're not getting replaced as they wear. You can only fix an airplane so many times, Washington. After enough time at sea a ship needs more and more time tied up for repairs, not to mention in a drydock. Meanwhile you are talking about giving Mexico another billion plus dollars so they can drill in the Gulf while we can't. Um, Washington, we don't HAVE an extra billion bucks, remember? If Mexico needs to borrow billions, let them do it like we do, borrow from the Chinese. If you can find a borrowed billion to give to Mexico, use it to repair or replace some tiny bit of the worn out gear in the military. That, Washington, is your job, not borrowing money to give to an oligarchy. Fatheads.

Washington, I turned ten in 1957. Back then a kid could leave the house in the summer, after chores of course, and be gone until suppertime. If said kid was near home at lunchtime,(s)he and all the other kids in the pack would storm the house for peaner butter 'n jelly sammiches and milk or Koolaid. Nobody worried. Often, near suppertime, phone calls were made for a kid to eat over.

Washington, those kids were safe, barring getting chased by dogs or angry cows we tried to ride. Washington, it was your changes in policy that made the whole durned country unsafe for kids. You want to know why we're in the TEA Party movement, Washington? It's because we remember when we were kids and could go outside, safely. That is the America we were born in Washington and we want our country back!

Wealth Creation, Continued

So the left, while run by the wealthy, does not want poor people to create or accumulate wealth of their own. The answer to that is for people to ignore the wealthy leftists and create their own. Those wealthy enough to provide for their own needs do not need the left.

Wealth creation is actually pretty simple, even for the poor. Assume the kid who gets out of high school knowing how to read, write and do simple arithmetic. He's already ahead of those who dropped out or majored in real loud crappy "music" and wearing his belt four inches above the knees.

The smart kid goes on to college or gets a job. The college-bound kid then takes classes that actually stretches his mind, no I'm a victim studies for him. He takes classes that will teach him something useful, something an employer might actually find valuable. When (s)he graduates he's way ahead of the angry studies major. The kid does not get a humongous dept going through school, either. There are darned few people who really care if one's degree is from Haaavud or Slippery Rock. That kid with the English Major from Yale and a $300,000.00 school loan is way behind the Kid with the four year degree in engineering, two years of which came from the local community college and two years from North Texas State and $1.98 in school loans.

The kid who graduates high school without enough money for a University education? How about a two year community college degree in auto mechanics or an apprenticeship in pluming? Plumbers make a nice dollar. Or, how about a hitch in the Service? The Service will teach a kid a LOT of valuable things. A kid shows up with an Honorable Discharge the prospective boss already knows some important things, like being on time. Doing what he's told, the way he's told, when he's told. Do you have any idea how many kids don't know that?

The whole idea is to get out of "school" knowing something valuable to others. My education, such as it is, is thanks to my parents who taught me to read, before Kindergarten. Then the Service and the Public Library. True story: I have known a couple of bosses who asked each applicant if he could see their library card. No card, no job.

So, our kid is now working, with no drug habit and has neither born nor fathered a child before marriage. Now comes the wealth accumulation. Each payday the kid buys something that is not consumed immediately, then, if there is anything left, a few bucks into savings. Along will come Miss or Mr. Right, sooner or later. Here comes something really important. Divorce will set you back to below zero. It takes forever and a day to climb out of one divorce. Forever and a year if there are kids involved, to say nothing of the damage to the kids.

Now most all of our paychecks do not help us accumulate wealth. My supper did not create wealth. Funny, though, that extra can of Spam I bought that I won't eat this pay period is a form of wealth. In case of some kind of emergency, extra food that does not have to be kept refrigerated or need to be cooked is wealth. When there is no way to buy food in the stores, say after a hurricane, the guy with canned pork and beans, Spam is wealthier than the guy with ten thousand dollars cash and nothing to eat.

There are many forms of wealth, aside from money. Money, though important, is a constantly depreciating asset. That money in the savings account draws less in interest that the politicians take away by constantly inflating the currency. True story: In the 1880s, after Colt's Firearms finished filling the orders from the Army a Colt Single Action Army, a holster and belt and a box of cartridges could be bought for a twenty dollar gold piece. You can still buy a new Colt SAA, gunbelt and box of cartridges for a twenty dollar gold piece. Meanwhile a twenty dollar bill will not buy a box of .45s, and I don't even want to think of the tiny size of a piece of gold that a twenty dollar bill will buy.

I am old enough to remember a trip to the grocery store with forty dollars filling the hole back of that Mercury Station Wagon. Today? Two twenty dollar bulls buys not much. Two twenty dollar gold pieces? Get a trailer.

Rent is not wealth. Renting accumulates wealth for someone else. So, buy a house as soon as possible and then, stay there as long as you can. Do not take home equity loans. A few years back there was a book titled The Millionaire Next Door. One of the more striking things about that book was that ordinary people who became wealthy did so by not buying more house than they could afford when they were young and staying in that house, paying the loan down. They were also far more likely to drive a Buick than a Caddy or Rolls, even when they could afford the more expensive car. Flash is not wealth, nor is bling.

See that guy driving down the road with those fancy custom wheels on his car? He'll never have any real wealth. A share of stock can be wealth but one should be very careful about that. Stocks are an important investment for those who can afford to lose.

My parents loved to go to Reno, to the casinos. They had an iron rule, though: never gamble with anything you can't afford to lose and smile after losing saying, thanks, I had a good time. When you gamble with games or stocks, you take a risk. In 1899 stock in the Acme Buggy Whip Company was a good buy. Funny how by 1910 or so, not so good a buy, nor a good choice for your retirement money.

Today, more than ever, it's important to have a little something that the government doesn't know you have. From that old .38 revolver you bought from a newspaper ad, no paperwork needed to that little gold necklace you paid cash for at the jewelry store and walked out with them saying "I need your name and phone number".

And another thing! Information is wealth for someone. Never give any information you don't need to.The sales clerk that wants your phone number for a cash purchase? Don't give it. Same with the address so they can send you ads you don't want. We complain about Spam E-mails, my mailbox is always packed with catalogs from people with whom I have never done business, nor will I. Retailers sell your information! so don't give it away.

Anyhow, before buying a single share of stock you should have a big chunk of your house not paid off, plus have started building up some hard assets such as some gold, some silver, that sort of thing, plus a month or so worth of stored food. I'm not really one to talk a lot about stock seeing as how I own not a single share, although I have. Still, in the Age of Obama, I would not buy a single share of any stock. We know that the Obama Admin picks winners and losers according to some secret formula only Soros knows, if your life's savings are locked up in a company they pick to loot, well, that's your tough luck. As your life's savings disappears you can think of the wonderful Obamacare you'll get. Bend over, here it comes again!

Wealth is nothing more than being able to be self sufficient. This is why the left does not want you to accumulate wealth.There are many types of wealth, from the food you have stored to a shootin' arn and a box of ca'tridges to money. None will replace the other very well. A years supply of food will not stop a rapist, he's just go away satisfied on more than one level. That .38 that will stop a rapist? Won't feed you very well unless you live where you can hunt. That hundred grand worth of stock? Won't get you up and inland very well if your tank is empty and the gas stations are closed and that hurricane is bearing down.

Wealth? There are many ways to accumulate many different kinds of wealth. the left doesn't want us to have any of it, and does nothing to create it. I have my differences with the Ayn Rand types but she was very clear-eyed when she saw the left as what they are, looters.

Now I'm going to shut up about wealth. Our kids will inherit our half acre, a falling down house, books, shootin' irons and not much else. Oh, and they already have something. the ability to make their own way. That's the best we could do.

Wealth Creation

There is something seriously wrong with wealthy leftists, The Kennedys, the Obamas, the Soros types have one thing in common. They either made their pile under somewhat suspicious circumstances (who wrote that book, Barry?) or inherited it. They got to the top, now they are sawing the ladder down so no one else gets there. Worse, while they are doing it, they accuse the right of wanting the poor to suffer.

I'm kind of curious. When George Soros wiped out the savings of all those Brits, how many jobs did he create? I know that, today, he finances a lot of lefties to help destroy my country and turn it into something the Constitution doesn't allow but is that worth the savings and jobs of thousands of people?

That fat pig, Ted Kennedy never created a single job, he was directly responsible for making it harder to find a job. That drunken lout was one of one hundred Senators who helped destroy the black family and yet, there he was, the Liberal Lion of the Senate. Why? The guy that left a low level campaign worker, a woman, to die, then became infamous for that waitress sandwich with Chris Dodd somehow became a champion of women. Huh. Meanwhile cops spend ten years in the sex crimes squad are Pigs to the lefties. Go figure.

It really doesn't matter which. The Pelosis won't let union labor on their vineyard but demand other people submit to card check. Cool. That will help with unemployment!

Meanwhile this Obama feller. The one claiming that he inherited the economic mess we're in. Excuse me, my memory isn't what it was before my stroke but I don't recall the country dying and leaving the economy to him. I seem to remember a rather ugly election with Obama not just running but refusing to say a word about some really ugly reports of cheating by his people. He didn't inherit anything in '08 unless his grandmother left him something. He fought for the job, he didn't inherit it. Although he does kind of act like one of those dumb kids inheriting too much money without ever having to work for it. Funny, he's still not working for it. Go figure.

There is a real problem with our truth in advertising laws. The Democrats tout themselves as the Party of the little guy and that may once have been true. I don't recall exactly when but, okay it might have been back in General Jackson's day, maybe. Today it is the party of making sure the little guy stays little.

Democrats run every big city with a substantial minority population which is pretty much all of them. Democrats have run the minority sections of the big cities even longer. Notice how wonderful the minority areas of big cities are these days? The left has really improved things, right? What, they haven't?

If we want to improve the lives of the poor, we need to let them create wealth. Not give them anything but let the poor get educated. Real education, not that pap in big city schools where the most important subject is grievances. Bring back shop class, too. I don't know how many kids I've seen since I got out of the Service that do not seem to realize that a job is not the place to spend all day on the phone with the girlfriends. I've seen a lot of high school graduates who cannot read the directions. Many who have been outraged that the whole idea of a job is to work. Too bad all kids can't go to work for the Post Office but, there it is. (I say this as the husband of a postal retiree. The only difference between a Postal retiree and about half of the postal workers in an MPO is that the retiree doesn't have to commute to do nothing.)

Even as poor as the big city schools have gotten, there is an almost guaranteed way to avoid poverty. Graduate high school. Avoid drugs. Do not have or father children until married. This does not promise riches, only that one will avoid poverty. Still, no matter how poor the first job, with those three things one's lot should improve. Even if that first job is janitor or burger flipper. Do you know how many McDonald's Franchise owners started as burger flippers? Most of them.

Almost all of the fast food companies try hard to promote and to offer a way up. So, naturally the Democrats hate the fast food companies. Figures.

Oh well, it's time to end this.It's past time to put a stop to the Party of Obama and George Soros being the Party of the little guy.

Birthday Meeting.

I forget to mention my twenty-five year birthday meeting, actually a meeting where the whole group celebrates all of the "year anniversaries" for the month. We left the kids at Germ Gardens and started wending our way back home, unfortunately Linda Lou turns into a pumpkin and cannot do a midnight meeting any more. Which meant that I got her home, got to visit my own bathroom and then had to get into the car and drive again to the group where I sobered up. Lucky they're giving gasoline away these days.

So, I drove another fifty-odd miles, in a slightly different direction, to the group I first sobered up in. I don't go there very often, just to celebrate these days. It's mostly a beginner's group, I fear it might be on it's last legs. The Saturday Midnight birthday meetings were once crowded and lively, this one was sad and attendance was sparse.

Worse were the people "celebrating". There was no joy. Well, I brought a few bucketsful but I don't know that it was enough to dispel all the gloom. If I was sitting out there with one day or one week sober I might have gone out for a bottle after some of those folks celebrating.

There is a reason we celebrate our AA "birthdays" and it has little or nothing to do with cake or a shiny new medallion, or "look at me, I'm special!" We celebrate birthdays because life as an active drinking alcoholic bites the big one. Getting and staying sober for the first few years is HARD! Things do, though, get better. Much better, eventually.

The whole purpose of celebrating those birthdays is to say, "I've been where you are". I am not anything special. I did a few simple (not particularly easy) things and now my life is much better. If I can do this, so can you. Come join me where life is better. I will help you but you must do it.

That is why we celebrate. If I had not stopped drinking those 25 years ago, I would not be alive today. This I know. We in AA have no opinion about other people's drinking, all we say is come see us if it causes problems in your life. We get asked a lot "what makes an alcoholic?" We don't know. There is a simple answer to those wondering "am I an alcoholic?" The answer? If it causes problems, it is a problem.

I got sober when AA was celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the forming of the first AA group. Well, now AA is seventy-five. And I have been sober for one third of that. And so, we look for the next drunk, wanting to change his or her life. So AA can have it's 100th anniversary. I doubt, with my health, I'll see it from this side of the grass. I hope many will, and are just as glad to live free and sober as I am.

Oh, speaking of "birthday presents", our number two boy called from North Carolina. He managed a promotion at his job and his wife is pregnant again. Grandchild number eleven will be here about next April. They're hoping for a girl, they already have four boys. We ran long on boys and short on cash around here. Anyhow, I don't know how many are in a full squad these days but it used to be eleven in a rifle squad, not that I ever saw any up to full strength. So, my dream of a squad in the Armed Services of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is almost complete.

Those disreputable looking fellers up top? Pals of mine in recovery, Doug, JT, Steve and the bald fat guy.