So the grill runs out of propane.

No big deal, I have spares.

In fact, I have 3 spares.

all 20 lb tanks of propane. Ready and waiting.

Or do I….?

I get the first tank, and hook it up. Still has the blue cap covering the threads.

Has pressure, but what was in the tank surely wasn’t propane.

No flame, just a hiss.

Tank # 2, purchased (exchanged) at the same time, was the same. No heat, barely any flame.

Tank # 3 was not full, oddly enough. I had thought it was, but I must have been mistaken. I generally don’t put them back in the same place as the full ones.

The point is, I THOUGHT I had at least 2 full tanks of propane, when I actually had two tanks of air.

If you are planning on propane as a prep, test the contents before putting them away.

The girl at the propane place said that they had several pallets of exchange tanks that had issues late last year (which is when I purchased these tanks).

Just an FYI if you have propane as a prep.

This time it was merely an inconvenience as I just had to cook indoors. But if you are planning on that tank for heat or to fuel a generator…….

So it would seem that a US soldier is worth at least 5 Taliban commanders, (which is probably a bargain for the Taliban) or our State Departement can’t bargain worth a shit.

You decide which.

Seems that the Feds already think that reading your emails, watching your surfing habits, listening to your phone calls, checking where your phone goes (and when) reading your texts etc…isn’t enough.

Now they wanna know who you owe money to, where you are spending it, and any other credit related or financial information on you. 

And this giant database will, of course, be kept private and secure. No one will ever be able to hack it to find your SSN, address, D.O.B., Mothers Maiden Name, etc.

And just WTF do they need the info for, anyway? (yeah, bad sentence structure,  I know…so?)

This is mission creep, like the Census questionnaire, where  the only thing you are legally required to answer is number of adults and children living at the residence, but they make like you have to answer all of the questions under the pretense that it is a legal requirement, but it really isn’t…..and then they sell the aggregated data? The National Mortgage Database was never envisioned to have all this information, it was never intended to be used this way.

” “Congress did not explicitly require (or
even explicitly authorize) the FHFA to build anything resembling the
NMD,” the Chamber told Watt in its May 16 letter”

and yet, due to staffing issues, I have to do a menial job and miss it.

Hey, at least I am saving labor costs….

So I downloaded the targets for EJ’s June E-postal match.

And printed them.

And went to the range for an hour. 30 yards…

I shot a 70 with the 10-22. Not good. My form offhand sucks, and I am a bit wobbly. I tried with a loaned to me tricked out 10-22 with a VERY heavy barrel as well, but it caused me to be even wobblier, so I gave that one up as a bad idea.  I’d like to steal that trigger though….

Then I shot with the Buckmark with the red dot. Yeah, I am out of shape. I shot a 65.

the 15-20 knot crosswind didn’t help, but I can’t blame everything on that. I just plain am out of shape when it comes to shooting. I guess some dry fire practice is in order.

Could be worse, but I can (and have) done a lot better. I didn’t embarrass myself, but I used to be better when I had time for the range.

You should take the time to see how you do.

I am again reminded that marksmanship with a pistol or a rifle is indeed a perishable skill.

SO I am at the Doctors. Office today.

I like my Doc. He’s older, wise, doesn’t preach, and is genuinely concerned about my health. He gives advice, but not to the point of preaching at me when he knows I am not gonna follow it. (“Stop drinking cheap whiskey!”, etc)

So, in addition to the multitude of tests that I am about to undergo, he wants to discuss diet…

Asks me how healthy of a diet I eat..

“Well, doc, I’m not eating handfuls of lard and salt, but I could, of course, eat better”….(I actually eat a fairly decent diet, but only fairly…it could be better)

“Are you getting enough vegetables and fruits?”

Well, I could eat more fruit, but I have vegetables every day….in fact, every morning!”

“Every morning?”

“Yessir: Beans every morning”

“Beans?”

“Yep. 2, sometimes 3 cups”

“Really?”

“Yessir… Coffee”

“Coffee isn’t a vegetable.”

“By my book it is, Doc.
Coffee is a bean, beans are vegetables. Coffee is made from ground beans….ergo, coffee is a vegetable.”

He didn’t buy it. More broccoli and such for B.

He also didn’t buy the argument that vegetables are what food eats….

Yer ass. 

If that’s true, then let’s see YOU walk on it now.

I think it’d take me WEEKS to get my sphincter unclenched.

Follow the links to see the picture.

If it were you, or me, and we were involved in a shooting (good or not) then OUR names would be released….

Why not Police Officers?

Why should they have the veil of secrecy to hide behind?

Much like the courts deciding that is is OK to video Police Officers in their official capacity.

No more special treatment. No special immunities. Just the same rules as normal citizens.

Maybe we will get a better quality of police officer out of this.

If their actions cannot stand the light of inquiry, then what are they hiding?

That we, as a nation, are all responsible for the VA issues. The lack of care, the failures in management, the deaths caused by people waiting for care.

THis didn’t just happen overnight. We have all known that the VA was a cesspool of mismanagement and underfunding. That the level of care was poor and that there were issues with the management that never seemed to be fixed.

For many years, and for many administrations there have been stories after stories about the failures in the VA.

Yes, this latest scandal happened on Barry’s watch, and yes, he should have Done Something before this.

But so should Bush, and Clinton and the elder Bush, and Reagan, and Carter. They didn’t. And we let them Do Nothing.

When Obamacare was being trotted out, even before there was a vote, we used the VA as an example of why Obamacare wouldn’t work.

Yet we did not demand that out Presidents and Senators and COngressmen actually fix the VA.

We, as a nation, failed our Veterans.

We allowed this to happen.

We too are guilty.