I know this will tick some of you off but I have a question for you. Concerning the Dormer situation in southern California, does the action of LAPD and other agencies in that area cause you concern?  Don't get me wrong.  I have no sympathy for Mr. Dormer.  He was obviously a sicko that needed what he got.  However, look at LADP's actions during this affair.  They have at least two incidents  in which their officers shot up two vehicles which were similar in appearence to what Mr. Dormer was supposedly driving, without any attempt to ID the occupants.  Only by the grace of God was no one killed.
Then in the end it appears, according to radio traffic that was made public, that they intentionally set the cabin Dormer was occupying, on fire.  It plays like a scene from an old cowboy movie. 
Again, I have no sympathy for this police murdering pycho, but what precedent is this setting for future police action.  We are constantly seeing scenes of police swat teams using military equipment given to their department by the Federal government.   I saw a picture in the paper recently showing armored fighting vehicles that were given to local police departments.
 The government has recently determined that they have the authority to kill American citizens abroad who are a threat to national security.  Are we looking at a future when the government also has the authority to kill Americam citizens in the United States who they deem as a threat to national security without giving them the rights guaranteed them in the U.S. Constituion? 
I know many of you will write me off as a right wing nut job, but I ask that you spend some time thinking about what we are witnessing.       

Happy New Year---pt. 2

After posting the first part of this, I remembered that I had forgotten an important 2010 event.
On Dec. 15th Becky and I celebrated our 38th anniversary, her worst mistake and God's second best gift to me. Thank you Lord for all your blessing.

A New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!!!!!!!

God really blessed me and mine in the year 2010.

I personally had a great year. My health was good by nearly any standard, as was Becky's.

Our children and grandchildren had good year also despite the Twins having to have tubes put in their ears.

Josh is still putting out Bluff magazine, for all practical purposes, by himself, and Nikki is still working for the Gwinnett Daily Post and managing a growing photography business.

Chuck is still at Calvary in St. Peters, MO. and Amy is still working for Citi.

All the grandchildren are doing well. Trip finished kindergarten this year and started 1st grade.

Quinn and Eli are in pre-school preparing to start kindergarten in the fall.

Annabel, Harper, and Webb all celebrated their first birthday.

Yes siree, it has been a blessed year.

Our Christmas was especially pleasing. As usual, the whole family was here in North Carolina

for Christmas. Plus we had a white Christmas. That was a mixed blessing in that Chuck and I shoveled snow for 3+ hours on Christmas day so that Josh's family could make it the 1/4 mile from the highway to the house.

The day after Christmas was beautiful with 4+ inches of the white stuff on the ground.

After Chuck and Josh did a little more shoveling, we went outside with the kids for a snowball fight and the building of a snowman.

Check out some of our pictures.

Last Weekend

Last weekend we were in Buford for Josh's birthday. The weekend started with going to a Gwinnett Braves game where Josh had the honor of throwing out the first pitch at the game.
A lot of his friends from college were there and a good time was had by all.

Saturday we played with the grandkids most of the day, including taking them to a park after supper and then out for ice cream. I ended up feeding about half of mine to either Annabel or Harper. As much as I love ice cream, I couldn't possibly enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed feeding it to the girls. They looked like baby birds with their little mouths open wide waiting for a bite.

Sunday we took Josh out for a birthday meal and then after their nap we went outside and played some more. Josh and I played a little ball with Eli and the girls until they were all soaked with sweat and so were we.

Eli has started pre-school now and is excited. Both Annabel and Harper are now walking and are really excited about their mobility.
Here is a short video of them.

Great Week

We just got back from a week in St. Louis visiting Chuck, Amy, and the grandsons.

Trip is in the 1st grade now and the school district he is in has year round school. They go for 6 or 8 weeks then have a week or so break, then start another session. We missed the summer break so we didn't get to see as much of Trip as we did the other boys.

Quinn and I got to spend alot of time together. We worked in the yard together and played some catch. Quinn really throws a baseball well for his age but has yet to overcome his fear of the ball so catching it is a bit of a problem.

We went to the park one day but it was so hot there, even before noon, that most of the equipment was too hot to play on. We went one morning over to their church and Trip rode his bike around the recreation field while I walked. We played a few games together but Becky played games with him alot.

Then there is Webb. I have no idea why I was blessed with such cute grandbabies. Of course we get to Josh and Nikki's twins more often than we do Webb, but if there are three more cute ones around , I haven't seen them.

Webb is now 8 months old and crawling everywhere. He has also taught himself how to pull himself far enough up a stair that he can then get a knee up. The little rascal is climbing stairs.

Here are some some pictures of the boys. As you can see Webb hasn't fallen far from the tree (Grandpap).

On the down side I found out that the land where we shoot both Cowboy and Three Gun is being sold so we are losing our Range. No idea where we will shoot or if the clubs will survive.Well as we old retired police used to say, I'm 10-42.

IDPA Match

This past Saturday I shot in an IDPA in Spartanburg. I am classified as a Marksman, which is the lowest class there is except for novice. I usually finish near the bottom of my class because I am slow. I cannot seem to force myself to shoot faster.

I don't know if it is because I spent all those years as a police officer either being taught or teaching others that there is a lawyer attached to every bullet out of your weapon, or I an just getting old and slow. I do know that my friend George keeps telling me I can move faster because the targets aren't going to shoot back at me. He usually says that after I have been really slow doing a building search scenerio. I know that I treat them as the real thing and search and use cover and "slice the pie" like I taught all those years at DKPD.

Here are some short videos of my friends Mack, George and myself on one of the stages. This was a really simple stage so I did well. It is 15 shots on three targets. Because I was shooting a 1911 I had to reload twice. The first part was shooting two rounds on each of three targets, then a manatory reload, then two more on the three targets, then come back with a head shot on each target. I will never be competitive. I don't have the inclination to do all the practice required, nor do I want to develop the bad habits that this type of competition brings to the real world. However, I really do enjoy the matches and it really is a decent way to your skill level from completely deteriorating. I keep telling my friends that I am just there to keep in practice in case I need to repel boarders.

Starting my blog.

This is all new to me. I am always way behind the trend. As I understand it, hardly anyone blogs anymore. It's all Facebook, Tweeting, texting, and probably a ton of other things I know nothing about. In fact I had to get Becky to get me logged in just a few minutes ago.

I decided to give this a try so I might let my friends know what is going on in my and my family's lives.

Last week Becky and I had our grandson, Eli, up here for a few days. We had a great time. We visited local places that we hoped would be fun for a four year old.
We were a little concerned that Eli would become homesick and we would have to take him back to Atlanta before the weekend. Not to worry. We must have been good at the grandparent job of spoiling grandchildren because when we told him we were taking him home on Friday, he said he didn't want to go home and wanted to stay with us from now on.

I think he misses not being the center of attention now that he has twin sisters, which he certainly was the days he spent with us.

Of course when he got home he was very glad to see his mom and dad. The look on his sisters' faces when they saw him was something I would die for. They must have missed their big brother.

We are going to St. Louis soon to see our other set of grandchildren. We won't get as much time with Trip, the six yr. old, because he started the 1st. grade today.
(They go to school year round in his district) It seems like only yesterday that Amy brought him home from the hospital. At least Quinn and Webb will be home all day for me to spoil.

I have an IDPA match this Saturday. I'm pumped. I've missed that last couple of matches. Even though I still shoot local cowboy matches and three gun matches, my favorite is IDPA. I am certainly not a "competitor" in any of the shooting disciplines, but I enjoy the matches and the comraderie I share with other shooters.

Well, I guess I will call it quits for now.
Take care and God bless.