Shockers...I ran a Cub Scout Range, actually I did it twice, I did it Yesterday and Today.
It was a simple Range layout,
Assortment of "BB" guns, all provided by us leaders, the council was supposed to provide them, we were doing a recruitment drive on both side of the county and my side of the county was on Friday and the other side was on Saturday. The Council was supposed to provide the BB guns, but they somehow were "unavailable", so we leaders scrounged up our own, Most of the ones on the table were mine, I didn't really know how I had so many BB guns...I guess they are like coat hangers I suppose.
Of course I had my "Workbench/PhoneCharger" that happens to look like a F150 there..
This was the Range setup on Saturday, we were setting up and using PiePans with the center colored with a marker. It makes the Cub Scout have a sense of accomplishment when they hear the "Ping" on the piepan.
I was using Just my "BB" guns today, 3 others had been pulled off line for failures.
Since I was waiting for Cub Scouts to arrive, I decided to start either diagnosing or repairing the 3 BB guns that had failed the day before.
The Sear/Trigger group of a Daisy Lever Action.
Here shows the work in progress, and it was fortuitous happenstance that I had tools in my truck.
The end results was 1 BB gun repaired, one diagnosed and possible repair likely and one scrapped.
As far as the recruitment went, we had possibilities on Friday, the Principals didn't put the word out in my area on Friday but we had some people show up because they heard of it on social media and came out and had a good time, I had several Dad and Cub Scouts shooting together and it was worth that to see the smiles on the kids faces as they spent time with their Dads and some Moms. I stressed the 3 always rules and I also mentioned the "Eddie Eagle Rule" What do You do if you see a real gun laying around some where?" And the Kids always say "Don't Touch it" in their kid voices, and I then ask them "What do you do next?" and they say "I don't know.." I point to their Mom and Dad" and I ask the kid while squatting at their level because they are 5 and 6 year olds, "Who is that?" and they always say "Daddy!" or "Mommy"! I smile and say "Yes, Mommy/Daddy, you tell them about it, ok? And they smile in understanding and the parents love it when I do that because they understand what I am doing.
On Saturday the word was out by the principals in the schools in that area, but we had nobody come out, it was a total bust. I was disappointed on that regard, but it was good seeing my friends and fellow leaders again, they haven't seen me since pre-covid and they didn't recognize me, the weight loss was that apparent. That part made me feel good, seeing my friends again.
The people that organized the event gave us adult leaders a gift who worked an event, I would have done it for nothing, In this case it is a Neckerchief that you wear with your uniform. I don't wear Neckerchiefs, I wear Bolo's on formal occasions along with my "WoodBadge" Beads. I quit wearing Neckerchiefs since I was a Star Scout and that option was presented to me way back in 1980. I still am appreciative of the gift and the gesture and it will go in my "patch locker" that every scouter has.
On a Different note....I am on a 30 day cooler run on Farcebook, The rat bastards went back to September of last year to ding me...
This is the one that got me.........and a week prior they nailed me for 72 hours for this one...
A few things...Last week my son returned from NOAC, the National Order of the Arrow conference in Lansing Michigan.
There were 14,000 scouts there, they had the conference at the University of Michigan. The theme was " It Start With Us". The theme promoted the belief that in order to make the world a better place..it starts with us...basically we have to start off the process. It also coincided with the "100 days of service". The theme also promoted the "ripple" effect. Basically that all people can cause a ripple, by itself not much, but when combined with many others can cause a tsunami of change.
He had a good time and he gave me a gift:
The mug along with my other stuff in my "man cave".
On Saturday Morning, I ran a BB range and a friend of mine ran the Archery range for a "Back to the Pack" event, it was a cub scout event to help the new leaders in the cub scout get trained and we basically helped keep the kids entertained while the parents did some training. It is all good, a whole new batch of shooters, and I also exposed some new parents to the idea of shooting, they had more fun than the kids did! While I was running the course, I always went over the "Always Rules" for firearm safety and then "what do you do when you find a real gun"? I stress the "Don't touch...and find a grownup". It was a good time. I have broached the idea to council about my working the National Jamboree in 2 years as a shooting instructor. National Jambo will be in West Virginia at "the Summit Bechel".
After finishing the morning events, I then drove down to camp, it was a bit of a drive, made worse after being outside sweating, getting into a cool air conditioning car....talk about getting sleepy. But I digress. About 6 weeks ago I had gotten an email from "Eric from Ammoman" wanting me to do an evaluation on some ammunition. Well I was skeptical, so I shot an email to my favorite blog babe Momma Fargo whom I remembered doing something like this. and asked her if this is legit and not a scam. She assured me that "Eric" is totally legit and a good guy and awesome customer service. Well I responded to "Eric" and a week later I had some ammo show up..
I was like a kid in a candy store let me tell you....I quickly opened the box to see what treasures awaited me:)
I was very happy, Some "Good" ammo....not the cheap crap I have been buying(More on the results when I do the write up next week.). But I went down to camp to do the shooting...it was a bit of a drive but it is totally quiet and peaceful. I didn't want to go to the local range, don't get me wrong, it is a very good range but it is crowded and I didn't really want to be explaining what I am doing to a bunch of people, so I contacted Mac 6 weeks ago and asked him if I could use the range and he was very gracious and said "Yep". While I was down there I met up with my good buddy Mac and finally met his girl Jackie, talk about a class act lemme tell you...and she shoots!
Here she is shooting Mac's 357 Revolver.
Mac had purchased a new AR platform rifle and he wanted to stretch its legs out. Any opportunity to shoot is a good opportunity and we had a good time. I did my evaluation on the ammo and will post this on either Tuesday or Wednesday. Part of my evaluation, I switched out the uppers on my AR and went totally "Old School". for the 55 grain stuff that Eric sent me and Mac shot an old school AR platform and was totally tickled pink
For Georgia the heat wasn't bad and Mac had made arrangements with a troop doing service work to add some ceiling fans to the range and it was real comfortable and relaxing. Shooting with friends..it don't get much better.
Well I survived another Cub Day camp. The kids had fun and we adult volunteers had a good time. I had recruited enough rangemasters to run 4 ranges, and I also had all the logistics and location worked out and everything ran smoothly and we all agreed to do this again next year.
On a different note I ran across this video from a Grocery chain based in Tennessee. When I go to Tennessee to visit My mom and Step-dad I would frequently get gas and assorted groceries there. Well they released a very good video that is a minute long.
it is veterans based and very well done. It would be a good addition for Veterans day posting, but I figured I would post it today.
I was out at the scouting base teaching Cub Scouts how to shoot BB's. it is one of the keystone programs at camp and the kids love it. I tried to post a couple of things while I was there, but the network was sketchy and my kindlefire was non-cooperative. Oh well.
I will post stuff once I catch up with my blogroll and some sleep.
I am getting this installment of my Monday Music early on Monday...rather than late monday or even Tuesday Morning. I will not have time tonight to post. My son is getting his Arrow of Light from his Pack.
The Arrow of Light award is the highest award available to Cub Scouts. It requires the Scout to have earned the Webelos Scout badge and eight activity badges. In addition to the skill and activity requirements of the preceding ranks, the Arrow of Light requires Scouts to learn the Scout Promise and Scout Law, and visit one meeting and one activity of a Boy Scout troop, in preparation for advancing to the Boy Scouts. Earning the Arrow of Light will help earn many of the requirements for the lower ranks of the Boy Scouts. The Arrow of Light award is the only Cub Scout award that can be worn on a Boy Scout uniform. Both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts wear the badge below the left pocket. Adults wear the square-knot version of the badge above the left pocket. Cub Scouts who earn the Arrow of Light are eligible to join a Boy Scout Troop prior to turning the normally-required age of eleven. I will be coming in later tonight on account of that.
I decided to go with "Chris De Burgh" and his song "Don't pay the Ferryman" This is from Wiki: "Don't Pay the Ferryman" is a single by Chris de Burgh from the album The Getaway. It was produced in 1982. In 1983, the single reached #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States.[1]
The song tells the story of a man who boards a ferryboat and sets off. A storm approaches and the ferryman demands payment from the patron. The song's narrator warns the passenger not to pay the ferryman until the boat arrives at its destination on the other side.
The repetitive lyrics are believed to have a connection with mythology. The song describes the ferryman as "the hooded old man at the rudder," and seems to connect to the classic image of the Grim Reaper, a hooded being (usually a skeleton) who leads lost souls to "the other side," also a lyric in the song. The ferryman demanding his payment is also similar to the Greek ferryman of the dead, Charon. He demanded an obolus (coin) to ferry dead souls across the River Styx. Those who did not pay were doomed to remain as ghosts, remaining on the plane of the mare, the restless dead. Therefore in former cultures coins were laid below the tongues of dead persons.
In the bridge of the song, lines from Shakespeare's The Tempest can be heard, spoken very low by British actor Anthony Head. Also Tom Baker from Dr Who fame played the ferryman. He is uncredited
We also took a shuttle boat to the Fort Sumter National park, the place where the War against Yankee aggression started, er the war between the states, er..the Civil War started. The trip is also a worthwhile trip. You can see how strategic the location was. They upgraded the fort after the war, and installed some of the disappearing rifles as part of coastal defence back in the day before the advent of airplanes and missiles made such defences obsolete.
Now a bit about the Boston Bomber..you know the jerks that paralized a city for 2 days and had people hiding in their house, I cribbed this from Boortz:
"The people directly responsible for the bombings in Boston are either dead, in the case of the older bomber, or shot all to hell and in custody, in the case of the younger bomber. (I don’t particularly like giving these people the publicity they want by naming them). So, is it over? With the death of one, and the arrest of the other brother, is this case pretty much closed? If they acted alone and absent outside coaching or influence, yes. If not … no. It is most certainly not over.
So there we have the Mayor of Boston yesterday telling America that these two bombers acted alone. That’s it. It’s over. We killed on, the other is in custody. Case closed. Nobody else was involved We have them, and there’s nothing more to see here.
Here’s an oddity for you to consider. When there is a violent incident; a mass shooting, a bombing, a political assassination; the media seems to be instantly posed to blame it on right wingers. This happened all the way back with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I lived in Texas at the time, and immediately the national media was blaming right wing elements for Kennedy’s death. In some areas of the country offices of right wing organizations such as The John Birch Society were being vandalized. In California cars with Texas license plates were being vandalized as well. Then … well what do you know? … the assassin turned out to be a communist? Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
The man show shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and killed several people? That was Sarah Palin’s fault, you know. In no time at all DailyKos and Think Progress, left wing websites, were blaming this on Palin because she posted a map “targeting” certain congressmen for defeat in the upcoming election. It was shown that the “targets” she used on that map were really surveyors marks obtained from the Internet – marks used to indicate geographic locations, like congressional districts – but to the left they were telescopic sights – Palin’s message that these people needed to be shot. The shooter turned out to be a complete lunatic with no discernable political leanings.
The man who killed those folks in the Aurora, Colorado theater? In no time at all he was identified as a Tea Party member because Brian Ross at ABC, operating under an assumption that the shooter simply must be a conservative, found a Colorado Tea Party member with the same (quite common) name.
This is common behavior for the left and the 0bamaMedia. There’s been an act of violence. Blame the right. After the Boston bombings CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was saying that due to the fact it was Patriot’s Day, and Tax Day, perhaps anti-government right wing groups are to blame. Looney old Chris Matthews was also blaming the right, saying that normally domestic terrorism comes from the right. We had a Salon Magazine columnist begging for the bombes to be white males. CNN had a so-called counter-terrorism expert on the air who said that pressure cooker bombs were a signature of the right wing, though there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever for that statement. MSNBC puts a Harvard Professor on the air to suggest that the “far right” might be responsible. An NPR “journalist” said that the attack could have been right-wingers celebrating Columbine or Hitler’s birthday. Can you believe this stuff? Well, believe it. It’s the normal course of conduct after an incident such as this … right up until the time when it’s discovered that the perps aren’t right-wingers, as is normally the case.
So then did you see the Mayor of Boston yesterday? After the identity and political and religious leanings fo the bombers became known the whole incident suddenly morphed from being caused by some evil right-wing political movement to two men out on their own..Sure enough the Boston mayor, a Democrat (of course) was telling America that the bombers acted alone. It was just them. Case pretty much closed.
The needs of political correctness dictate the “acted alone” conclusion. If government, particularly the Feds and Homeland Security, do not use the “acted alone” approach then the follow-up question will naturally be: “Well, what are you doing to find out who was involved with the bombers? Who influenced them? What happened on that trip to Russia? What about the Mosques the brothers attended? Are there other known radicals involved with that Mosque? Have known radicals who could have had influence on the members visited Mosque? You cannot address these questions without focusing on Muslims – on the wonderful, serene, peaceful, loving religion of Islam. And of course as soon as you start focusing on Muslims, on Mosques, and on the associates of the two bombing brothers --- you’re then engaging in the hideous, horrible practice of profiling! OMG! It might even be racial profiling! After all, the vast majority of Muslim radicals are from the Middle East!
Of course as long as you think that right wing militias committed some heinous act, or the Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Party or white supremacists – you can blame groups and movements and investigate to your heart’s content. After all … these people are perceived as predominantly white, and to make things worse, they’re largely believed to be white (ugh) males! But if a protected religious or racial minority might have been involved … be careful! You don’t want to profile!"
This is also an installment of my Monday Music, I am going to pull this from the "Born in the U.S.A." album from Bruce Springstein. I don't like his politics but his older albums are good where they spoke from the blue collar workers point of view. This song is "I'm on fire" it is a short song and a real cool video with a 57 T-bird.
I'm on Fire" was recorded in February 1982 during the first wave of Born in the U.S.A. sessions. This took place in impromptu fashion when Springsteen started making up a slow tune on guitar for some lyrics he had, some of which had been written for Spanish Eyes, which would later surface on The Promise, and drummer Max Weinberg and keyboardist Roy Bittan, hearing it for the first time, created an accompaniment on the spot. The result was a moody number that merges a soft rockabilly beat, lyrics built around sexual tension, and synthesizers into an effective whole; it was one of the first uses of that instrument in Springsteen's music.
The song peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles charts in early 1985. It was the fourth of a record-tying seven Top 10 hit singles to be released from Born in the U.S.A. It is also remarkable that the single reached #1 in the Netherlands for 3 weeks in August 1985, at the same time as 2 other Springsteen singles ("Dancing in the Dark" and "Born in the U.S.A.") were occupying the Top 12.
Unlike the first three singles from the album, no remixes were made for "I'm on Fire" (nor were any made for any of the subsequent singles released).
The music video for the song was shot in March 1985 in Los Angeles, and was directed by filmmaker John Sayles. Unlike the previous videos from the album, this video was not a performance clip but rather portrayed a dramatic storyline that alluded to some of the song's emotions.
In it, Springsteen plays a working classautomobile mechanic with an attractive, married, very well-to-do, mostly unseen female customer who brings her vintage Ford Thunderbird in for frequent servicing, always requesting that he does the work. She leaves a small bunch of keys with him when she leaves in her car, possibly including house keys, but declines his offer to bring the car out to her house when it's ready. Later that night, he drives the car up to her mansion high in the hills above the city. He looks to a second floor window with the light on and is about to ring the bell, when he thinks better of it and drops her keys in the mailbox next to the door. He smiles wistfully and walks away down towards the city lights below.[4]
The video began airing in mid-April, received extensive MTV airplay, and later in the year won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video.
I and my son went to Webelo resident camp so he can earn some activity pins on his road to the Arrow of Light. I took my Droid and my KindleFire. I was able to use my phone to create a hot spot to piggyback my kindlefire. I was able to surf around but I wasn't able to post. That is why I had this break on posting and activities.
This is my son practicing some of the knots that are a requirement for his outdoorsman pin.
We spend 5 days in the woods at Camp Thunder. It is a good Boy Scout Base that can handle Webelo and Cub Scout also. My son also learned many other things including "Readyman" or first aid and Geology. Also more outdoorsman or camping in the outdoors. Also Leave no trace and conservation. He also learned a new weapon system....
Pellet Rifles......This is his first exposure to it. He has fired Arrows, BB's, 22's and my AR-15:) He did well at it. the principles of good marksmanship applies to all.
