the 50 best guns ever made

Field and Stream magazine online has a photo article about the 50 best guns ever made.  After looking at the list I do agree with most of it, there are a few that would not be on my list because I have never used them.  Anyone have any suggestions for guns that are not on the list that should be?

Great day fishing

 Yesterday was a beautiful day. I went fishing on the Snake river for a few hours and had a great time. I didn’t catch any fish, but I enjoyed being out on the water and watching he water fowl.
The weather was good, however the wind was a bit cold. Not bad for February in Southwestern Idaho. The only bad part of the day was the fact that someone else had been to the spot I was fishing before me and left a camp fire smoldering and garbage around the camp fire. When you have a camp fire that is just a few feet from the edge of the river there is no reason to not make sure the fire is out before you leave. I put the fire out before I even started fishing. After the fire had cooled I also picked up the garbage and took it with me when I left. I always try to leave any area I am fishing at cleaner than when I arrived. It really pisses me off to have to clean up after some other jackass that is to lazy to clean up after themselves. The public access points along the Snake river are really nice and it makes it a great day for those that use them, however lazy jerks that leave garbage behind are the reason that we have so little access to private land.  The owners get tired of their property being left in such a mess. Most owners would not mind people accessing rivers, ponds, or whatever if everyone would  just clean up after themselves.  Lazy people that leave garbage behind hurt everyone that enjoys the outdoors and give us all a bad name.  If you are going to go out and spend time along the river or lake just pack out the garbage you brought with you.  Save a few plastic grocery bags to take with you for this and everyone will be much better off.

Galaxy collisions series wiki

My friend, and aspiring writer, Ken McConnell has created a wiki site for his galaxy collision series of books and short stories. I have never contributed to a wiki site before so I am not quite sure what I am supposed to do to add to the page.  I will play around with it and see what happens.  If you want to check it out here is the link.

Test post

I have just added Scribe Fire to my Fire Fox browser.  It is supposed to make posting to the blog easier so I am trying it out.

In memory of Christian Goodpaster

This morning I watched an episode of Spanish Fly on ESPN2. this episode was dedicated to Christian Goodpaster. Christian was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis in 1986 at the age of one and a half.  Christian died recently at the age of 24.  Christian was an avid fisherman and enjoyed writing about fishing as well. Jose  Wejebe, the host of Spanish Fly, and an idol of Christians for many years. Talked quite a lot about Christian and the time the two spent together since they first met in 2000.  Before he died Christian wanted to make sure that his life meant something. He wanted to know that he has made a difference.  The show was Jose and Christian fishing for Tarpon, and Permit in the Florida Keys.  It was a good show, but the part that I am caught up on is did his life mean anything? I have read a lot of things written by people that are losing the battle with a terminal disease and they All at some point want to know before they die that their life meant something.  My thinking is why do we wait until we are facing emminent death to wonder about these things?  I know that if I were to die tomorrow that my family would miss me and would remember me, but would anyone else?  Have I touched any lives outside my family and made them better? I think that we should all try each day to make our lives mean something.  Help someone that needs a hand. Work to improve our communities. I don’t know if my life will mean anything when I die, but I do know that there is a lot more that I could do to help improve the lives of those around me and I have not been doing all that I can.  I will need to work on that,.

Winter driving

So I have been back to work for two days and we have had snow both mornings.  I know how dangerous snow can be when driving.  I have seen many accidents that were caused by unsafe driving in snowy conditions and have helped get people injured in some of those accidents to the hospital. The smart thing to do is to slow down and leave extra space between yourself and the car in front of you.  I always follow those simple rules when driving in snow, however I get frustrated by those that take it to far.  20 to 25 miles per hour on the highway is going TO SLOW!  If someone is that afraid of the road then they should not be driving at all.  The roads this morning were not that bad, and I could understand speeds of 35 to 40 miles an hour.  This is the main reason I would like to see an increase in public transportation here in the Treasure Valley.  With more and better routes we could get a lot of these people that are so affraid of driving in the snow off the road and on the bus so those of us that are not afraid of the snow can make our commutes at a safe, but reasonable speed.

Yesterday December 7th, 2008

On December 7th 1941 the Japanese army attacked the U.S.Military port  at Pearl Harbor Hawaii.  Every year there are plenty of news articles relating stories from the few survivors of the attack that are still alive.  Although December 7th 1941 is “A day that will live in infamy.”  I have a much better reason to commemorate that day.  My mother was born on December 7th, 1941.  Sadly Mom died on December 14, 2007.  Yesterday was the first year in my life that I did not talk to my Mom on her birthday.  It was a very unusual day.  I kept wanting to call her and wish her a happy birthday, but I don’t know the number for heaven.  Lat year Christmas was overshadowed by Mom’s passing and I had hoped that this year would be better.  So far I am not able to get into the Christmas spirit.  I am still not over the loss of My Dad who died in 2001 and now with Mom’s death just a year ago I am really hurting.  I have spent a lot of time over the last year thinking about what is really important in life.  I thought that I had my life pretty well figured out. I new where I was going and what I wanted to accomplish.  I was to busy all summer of 2007 to find the time to take a few days off work to go visit my Mom.  My sister called me at 4:00 am on December 14, 2007 to tell me that Mom was not doing very well and that I had better get there as soon as possible.  My world has not been the same since.  I have realized that family is much more important than anything else in my life.  That it is far more important to spend as much time as you can with your family now and not put it off till later because there may never be another chance.  I will for the rest of my life regret not taking time to go visit Mom that summer, and I don’t think I will ever get over the feeling that I let her down by not being there.  I don’t know if I will ever get over the loss of my parents, but I do know I think about them both everyday and I will never forget them.  Now that I have a Grandson of my own I wish that they could see him because I know they would love him as much as I do and they would find as much joy in playing with him as I do.

Happy birthday Mom.  I love you.

StarStrikers the book

My friend and aspiring author Ken McConnell has self published his book StarStrikers. It is available in paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon.com.  You can also check out his StarStrikers page here.

The meaning of Christmas

What is the meaning of Christmas?  Every year the holiday seems to get more and more commercialized.  The stores all bank on Black Friday sales to boost their profits, and more and more people are hanging their entire holiday shopping on that one good after Thanksgiving sale.  This year a t a Walmart in New York a temporary worker was trampled to death when the store opened and a crowd of approximately 2000 people stormed the store to get those great deals.  Other workers were knocked down and trampled as well when trying to get to the person that was trampled.  Shopper in such a rush to get the great deals were stepping over this poor mans body to get in the store.  No one stopped to help him.  Is this the meaning of Christmas?  Is a good deal on an electronic gadget worth more than a human life?  I did not participate in the madness of Black Friday shopping this year.  I instead was out in the hills of western Washington cutting firewood and enjoying a nice morning away from people.  My wife and I were together and had a wonderful day.  It was a little cool and did rain lightly at times, but it was very nice to be together in the mountains.  I have always maintained certain religious beliefs and as I have gotten older I have started to look more deeply into what is really important in life.  I have for several years now also been caught up in the technology craze.  I have lusted after many of the latest and greatest new gadgets like everyone else.  I have been so busy with work and trying to get these fancy whizbang gadgets I have not had time for the simple pleasures in life.  Until this weekend It had been almost a year since I had gone out in the woods and just enjoyed being in the woods.  To me the real meaning of Christmas is not what kind of deal I can get on some doodad at some department store, it is sharing the season with family and friends.  Remembering those that helped shape who we are and giving thanks for all that we have.  I am tired of the commercialization of the holiday and I am tired of the people that want to put a stop to our celebrating christmas because it might offend some group that does not celebrate christmas.  I do not celebrate Hannakuh, or ramadahn, or kwanza, but I do not have a problem with those that do.  I see no reason for them to have a problem with me celebrating Christmas.

What is the meaning of Christmas?  For me, Christmas is a time to reflect back on the past year and see what goals were met and what goals remain.  Christmas is a time to celebrate family and friends.  A time to renew connections with friends and relatives that you have been out of touch with for the past year.  And Christmas is a time to remember those friends and loved ones that are no longer with us in body, so that they will remain with us in spirit.

As for the gift giving I believe that Christmas is a time to give gifts to friends and family, but I do not think those gifts need to be some gadget made in some foreign land that we had to fight our way through a crowd of people that want to give that same gadget to someone.  I think the gifts we give should be much more personel than that.  I think the gifts we give each other should show the person receiving the gift how much we appreciate them and show that we took the time to think about them and what they really mean to us.  This gift could be purchased in a store, or made by hand.  Maybe the gift is a poem written about the feelings you have for that person, or maybe  aphotograph of a place or event that reminds you of the person you give the gift to.  I know that from this point on I will spend the whole year working on and searching for the gifts that I will give to my friends and family so that I will not lose touch with those that have helped to shape my life.

Congratulations Daryl

Last Thursday was opening day of late buck season in Western Washington.  My son Daryl went out that morning and was aboe to get a really nice buck.  Check out the picks at Flickr