9/10/2014

Oh No, Those people in Washington are Playing Politics

I fully expect the leaders in Washington to tell us the truth when they lie to us.  How can you tell they are telling lies, their lips are moving.  I just had to get that out of my system so I could move on "smartly."   Or dumbly depending on what you expect to get out of reading a free blog.  I would say that I am, trying my best but I'm not sure that I want you to have lower expectations than normal. 

There are times I just want to make sure that everyone knows what form of Government we have and why it is limited the way it is.  First it is based on a piece of paper that was written a long time ago.  It has been slow to change by its very nature and yet has changed very fast by practice.  You and I don't have any real say in how our country is run because we vote for the elected officials and they really run things.  To compound that, a lot of you don't really get out and vote so we are really run by a simple majority of one party over the simple minority of another.  If the electorate really got out and voted, I wonder what we would really look like.

There is a truism, "Do what you did and you will get what you got!"  If we continue sending the same people to Washington, and expect change, who are we fooling?  Isn't that the definition of insanity? 

Shifting Gears -  The weather here in the heartland is looking a lot more like fall right now.  The skies are overcast and the wind has switched around to the north.  It had rained some but not hard of long.  I have this one area that the water puddles up and only when it rains more than a 1/2 inch or longer than a couple of hours.  There was no water collecting there like usual.  We do need an inch or so over the next week and a couple of inches over the rest of September.  Got to put those trees and plants to bed with their feet wet.

Yesterday I went out to my new storage building and looked way up by the door rail.  I saw a big black object there high in the rafters and it appears to be about the biggest wasp nest I have found here on the farm.  Sometime in the next couple of days I will go out and shoot it with one of those sprays that will shoot about 25 feet and then run like hell.  Dave and I don't like wasps and he more than I.  The only good wasp is a dead wasp in our book.  It does kind of make me wonder how big that nest would get if I left it alone.  Now if they made honey, I might consider leaving them alone. I'm not sure they are doing anything for the good of the farm or to earn their keep.  At least the Mud Daubers will catch spiders to put in their mud tubes.  I love wasps when compared to spiders.  My niece asked the Master Gardener what she would do about a big spider in her yard.  My one word description for that is "Squish." 

The other day I saw a TV program about snipers.  It reminded me of a story I call. "Someone shot my Jeep"  In the mid 70's, there were no full time recruiters for the National Guard and not much money to hire part time recruiters.   I was very fortunate to have one hired for my unit and we really liked the guy.  If he had to go out and recruit at one of the local High Schools, he would take my jeep and the kids loved to go out and ride around the countryside in that 4 wheel marvel.  It was my understanding that my recruiter also loved to take his rifle along and they would hunt coyotes as they drove around.

On one rainy Friday evening, I was driving to Fort Riley where we were going to have a Battalion Commander/Battery Commander's call.  As I drove down the road, I discovered that there was a patch on the roof of my jeep and somehow it was dripping right on my knee. The jeeps were left over from the Vietnam buildup so I didn't think too much of it until later.  Being the curious person I was, I waited until we got back home on Sunday to bring it up.  After our drill we would meet in the training room and discuss things over a beer. (or two) 

When I brought up the subject of the leak, the Motor Sergeant just pointed to the Recruiter, Larry.  Larry said he didn't know how to lie well so here was a bucket of the truth.  It seemed that he and a recruit were out traveling to the home of a kid they wanted to recruit.  (Good story but not, I suspect, the whole truth) As they drove down a road they spotted a coyote.  Being always ready for anything, Larry jumped out all set to plug that coyote.  After jacking a round into the chamber, he threw the rifle up on the top of the jeep to get a steady bead.  He looked through his scope and there was a clear shot so he took it.  Bang, and it was clear that he had missed.  The kid with him said, "I think you shot the jeep."  Sure enough about an inch and a half below the view through the scope there was hole in the canvas top and an ugly hole in the windshield frame.  In the sniper story on TV, the sniper shot two rounds into a short block wall that he did not see in the scope picture.  Same with the jeep top, unless there is a way for the top to jump up and get into the way. (Not)

Being aware of the ways of the system, he took the jeep back to the armory and removed the top.  It was sent to the canvas repair shop in Topeka.  He took out a couple of hammers and beat the hole as closed as he could and with a little body filler and OD paint, it was hard to tell where the incident had happened.  Probably had the leak not dripped on my knee, no one would have been any the smarter.

The guys in the Training office didn't know what to expect from me for a short minute.  I think my comment went something like, "You gotta' be shitting me.  He shot my Jeep?"  After that, I thing it was always kind of a joke that some one would ask, "Who Shot My Jeep?" if things were a little tense over some small problem.  I think we laughed about that for at least an hour. 

I'm not sure if that was a funny to you as it was to me.  Somewhere in the near future I will tell you about the two bayonets and how they made an impression on my young officers.

MUD

No comments:

Post a Comment