It's been downhill from here......

JACIII WellDigger Nate

Just so you know, this is how it starts. Wimpy little geek bikes - not much more than scooters - dark sunglasses, leather jackets, and a willingness to waste large amounts of time rippin' around on Tennessee's two lanes no matter what the wife says.

- Where ya' goin' ?
- Don't know.
- Well, when are you gonna be back ?
- Don't know.
- Are we going out to Demo's (fine Greek resturant in Murfreesboro, TN) ?
- If we get back in time.
- When's that?
- Don't know.
- We're supposed to go to Brook's to play pictionary tonight!
- (Insert bellylaughs from Nate's big brothers here.)

Now, that's for an afternoon ride, think what the conversation was like for a week out west at Felony Velocity.

To be fair the womenfolk have been remarkably tolerant of this sort of behavior, as womenfolk go. Or we'd be single by now !

The OTHER Big Red

Some of you fellas out there probably goin' around sportin' those green caps with that yellow deer on 'em. "Nothing runs like a Deere", eh?

Came across an article on the values of used tractors - IH appreciates, JD depreciates.

'Nuff said.

Yuck

Is the weather shitty or what?! I don't know what's goin' on in your neck of the woods, but the monsoon season has set in herabouts. If it's warm (relatively, that is) it's rainin'. The yard is squishy, the gravel in the driveway is sinkin' into the mud, and the horses have churned a formerly green and lush pasture into a muddy moonscape. It's downhill from here. Makes me almost hope for a freeze so I can quit trackin' mud into the house.

I need to move to Florida where it rains damn near every day but you can't tell it ever happened 30 minutes later. Anybody in south Florida need a horseshoer?

From Al on the 'Poodle Shooter' :

"That is why I do not like the .223 it did not kill enough of the enemy, who had nothing but contempt for anything shooting them. Give our people a weapon that is superior is my point. I was sort of hit by a sniper in bad guy country. He got frustrated that I did not give him a good shot and managed to hit my butt pack and kill my lunch. A C-Rat. can of spagetti and mystery meat. Pieces of the can embedded themselves in my right buttock and I can tell you tomato sauce sure stings. I qualified for most embarassing purple target award in Laos and only Kerry had me beat in SEA because his was self inflicted. Although my staff sergeant did come close when he got most of his butt blown off by an RPG on the banks of the Mekong River. They just do not make bandages big enough for that but we got a poncho to fit and I was amazed when I got back stateside and I found out he had survived."

Thanks for your service, Al, and the insight. A lighter, more compact M-14 was certainly doable back then. The stuff Springfield is making now isn't so much high tech as it is simply updated from WWII materials and methods.The M-16 was most certainly a political decision, and the bean counters in the pentagon were focused on 'numbers' (weight, capacity, etc.) instead of practical application and war worthiness. Plus, it was a 'new way' (high velocity - low mass) which always feeds the egos of the next generation believing everyone before them was a little less sharp.

As we look back on this fiasco, and it's attendant switch to 9mm handguns we can see the lesson is learned, but I will bet the farm it will not be applied to future equipment issued to our men in harm's way.