USA! USA! USA! It's been 239 years since that monumental day in 1776 when the signers of the Declaration of Independence put His Majesty King George II on notice that we've had enough of his taxation w/o representation, repression and heavy handed rule and that we were going to go out on our own from then on out, like it or not, come hell or high water. So, what is your game plan for tomorrow then? Me, I'm going to get up and try to cut the grass before it rains again (been raining here A LOT lately), then hop on my motorbike and go to work.
Have a BBQ with the fam and watch the fireworks, happy b-day to the USofA and god bless her! :flag_USAwave:
I guess I'll BBQ some ribs to really shove it in King George's face! Back in 1776, if you BBQ'd ribs a bunch of Hessians would show up and threaten you with long pointy bayonets; Nein! Nein! Du kann nicht putten jalapenos auf das Schweinefleisch. Es ist verboten! Raus! Raus! Then they'd steal your ribs, scrape off the jalapenos, cover it with sauerkraut and mustard and eat it themselves. Then they'd tax you. You'd have to go out and whack a porcupine for dinner. And they'd tax you for that. I think the porcupine tax was about a farthing, which was a lot of money in those days. Forget the hickory smoke! The hickory tax was so high only the wealthy could smoke their ribs, and even they couldn't put jalapenos in the sauce. That's why we loaded up our Kentucky rifles and started shooting every flouncy perfumed British aristocrat who dared to criticize our ribs. As for shooting the Germans, that just got to be a bad habit. I'm glad we quit doing that. The Hessians did bring over potato salad and lager beer, which was rather nice of them. We're all friends now. Try not to leave the potato salad out in the sun. Happy Independence Day!
We're celebrating my father's 75th birthday (a few days ago) and if the rain holds off, I will be conducting a firearms skills exposition on the backside of my parent's property, along with various relatives.
Cookout, beer, family, get drunk, blow some shit up, hopefully no hospital trip. I love the mortars. One year I wanted more power so I started packing some black powder in the bottom. Wanted more power, so I wrapped the mortar tube with duct tape to reinforce and upped the black powder. More beer. Need more power, more reinforcement, up powder charge. More beer, boys egg me on. Wife gets worried, leaves and starts looking for a designated driver to take me to the hospital. More beer, cheers. Let's try two shells at once. More powder. Big esplosion, laying on my back in the street, debris everywhere, everyones quiet. Wife comes running out of the house. I get up, damn. You OK? Yeah, think so, let you know when the flash blindness goes away. Am I bleeding? Don't think so, you have little black spots all over your face and it looks like your eyebrows are singed. Cool. Bring me another beer and another mortar.
Happy Birthday U.S.A. Gonna go spark up the grill with friends and family and hope my son doesn't set the place ablaze with his fireworks display.
Well, got up early and cranked up the lawn tractor. I really enjoy cutting the grass. Put on the headphones, listen to some tunes, burn a few stogies you know, then beer and BBQ to follow usually, but no beer and BBQ today. Had to go back to work, pooh! When I got just about done with the front yard, the bottom fell out and I got hosed real good trying to make it back to the carport. Riding a metal object in a thunderstorm is not a lot of fun. Anyway, while cutting the ditch, I kind of got stuck in the mud. It's been raining here just about every day since late March or so, so it's sort of gooey out there. I started pushing when a car stopped and a young fellow got out and ran over to help. Nice kid. He had a Ranger haircut and an OD t-shirt with some sort of artillery unit crest on it. I asked if he was a gun bunny, and he said no but was a medic attached to an artillery unit. He saw the 82nd Airborne Division stickers on the rear windshield of my truck and said that he was airborne too, or used to be since he just got out of the army. He spent 12 yeas as an SF medic, and transferred to the National Guard in preparation to going to LSU in the fall. The state has a tuition exempt policy for guardsmen here in Louisianan not sure it they do elsewhere. Anyway, he helped me get out of the ditch and hopped in his car and left. I felt pretty good, except for losing one of my flip flops in the mud.
Thanks for the birthday wishes from our cousins and neighbors. I clean forgot to say Happy Canada Day, so I'm saying that now.
Well I had a good time, good food, cold Dos Equis, got to watch fireworks, the sons bought them and shot them. As I told Bobby; "Had a good time. Thinking I may have been misled for many years though. I'm thinking I may not be the biological father of my sons. SAFETY! Where would they ever get such a concept. Definately not from me, it's not in my DNA. They insisted on shooting the fireworks as designed, established a safety zone around them. All kinds of strange communistic garbage." When I went over to help and they actually told me, "that's OK Dad you and mom just sit back and enjoy them. We've got this." What's the world coming to?
Yeah I'm with you over the safety issue. As kids we ran about with firecrackers and threw jumping jacks. A banger in a stairwell made a satisfying boom. Also built our own bonfires dancing round with flaming torches. The fire was not deemed a success unless the fire brigade came to douse it. We survived - well most of us did.
At least they didn't make you wear a helmet and eye protection. If they did that, I'd definitely have a paternity test done.
Yeah then there is the whole genetic vs environmental argument (nature vs nuture), how much of how we are is determined by our genetic blueprint and how much by environmental factors from our upbringing. I did my best to bring them up right, where I went wrong I do not know. When they were younger they were just as much, screw the consequences full speed ahead, as I am. If it seemed like a good idea, go for it, don't overthink possible negative outcomes. Now it's, don't want anyone to get hurt, don't catch anything on fire, someone might call the police. My oh my, where did I go wrong, I'm so ashamed. I inititially thought that both having very small children, one a month old, one a year and a half, plus having the negative influence of wives, might have caused temporary insanity making them be over cautious. Then I came to my senses and searched about for a more rational explaination. Genetics, that's all it can be. I'm missing the "look before you leap" gene, and obviously they have one. I'm glad their cousins from down in Louisiana weren't up here to see such unacceptable behavior. It smacks a bit of heresy!
There was alcohol involved in case any of you were wondering. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/07/05/man-dies-fireworks-head/29734471/
Not much that can be done with ignernt people. That's the "Darwin Effect" at work for you. Come to think of it, I've done more ignernt stuff than that in my time. Just lucky I guess.