A Good Ruck With Eaton Rapids Joe

After the range I drove out to Kensington Metropark to meet up with Eaton Rapids Joe, who was coming from the other direction.

Met at the Nature Center, got our packs on, and headed out on the trail.

It was a beautiful fall day to get some rucking in.

 

We walked the trails, chatting and catching up as we did so. ERJ told me about how things are going on the farm, which is always interesting to learn about. Many more topics were discussed and much laughter was had as we moved down the trail.

Along the way, there were some Sandhill Cranes wandering about.

ERJ noted they are often called the Ribeye of the Sky. This sounds quite culinarily interesting. These ones, however, were not on any menu.

We rucked for an hour and 18 minutes, for a total distance of 2.98 miles.  So, we got some exercise in, which is a good thing. The trail was overall pretty moderate in grade and condition, so it wasn't bad. I only rolled my ankle on a hidden rock once, doing an impressive hop and skip performance to regain my footing and prevent from falling.

It was a darn good ruck, as rucking with a friend is better than rucking alone, and it was good to meet up with ERJ yet again.  He also got me some locally sourced organic wood for my smoker from his farm, which I highly appreciate.

We will need to meet up and do this again. 

A Great Blogger Fly In

A great day today flying to meet a great bunch of people.

 I flew from Pontiac to KFPK, Charlotte airport, with Mr. B of In The Middle of The Right blog flying in as well.

I had Tosh as a passenger, his first time in a small plane.

Winds were pretty light at 6 knots out of 300 which wasn't bad. The cloud layer was low and MVFR earlier in the day and bu the time we left at 11 am it was scattered at around 3,500-4,000 feet.  It was spaced apart in solid lines of clouds followed by completely blue lines of clear sky like waves and you could climb above the cloud wave,  and then drop down behind it through a ton of clear sky and surf up again staying out of the clouds the whole time.  We did that for a bit and then stayed low so Tosh could sight see.  I could see the ground the whole time so it wasn't VFR on top, it was still VFR but with lines of clouds every now and then.

Besides there were some great fall colors to see.

At Charlotte, the clouds were lower at around 3,000 and the wind kept shifting.  Still about 6 knots, but one moment it favored Runway 21, the next Runway 3.   I decided to land on Runway 3 and the wind stayed there long enough to make it a nice easy landing.

Awaiting us on the tarmac was Scott of Providentia, Scott's dad the Sargent, and Joe of Eaton Rapids Joe.

Mr. B landed ion short order right behind us.

Then we headed off to lunch all together and talked for a few hours, catching up, and on the important matters of the day.  

An excellent time with a really great bunch of conversationalists.  A very smart and experienced bunch and the time just flew by.

Mr. B. generously picked up the tab, so we all chipped in the equivalent of our meals as tips for the waitress, hopefully making her day, as the restaurant was pretty quiet.  I'm getting the next one.

Then we headed back to the airport and preflighted and did our run-ups and got ready to head out.  The Clouds were still pretty low.

As I left the parking area, the AWOS report the wind was favoring Runway 21 as did the wind sock, so I started to taxi to 21.  Of course then wind shifted in completely the opposite direction, so I had to taxi back to Runway 3.  Not a big deal, but a good decision that didn't take too much time to carry out.

So with low clouds were flew back at around 2,500 feet.  There was a bit of light chop and bouncing around, but Tosh took it with aplomb and enjoyed himself flying, and at 118 knots we made good time back.

Pontiac tower first set me up for Runway 27L but then knowing I park on the north side, had me cross the departure corridor and then enter the right downwind for 27R. I did a normal downwind leg.

Then, we had to do a quick tight base due to traffic, so I came in a bit higher and faster speed than usual as it wasn't the usual downwind to start the descent so there was a bit of float and I landed a bit longer than usual,  but it was a sweet, soft touchdown.  I do like to keep my passengers happy with my landings.

Then taxi back to the hangar and put the plane away.

A great time was had with some absolutely great people.

1.8 and two excellent landings and another happy first time small airplane passenger.

Socially Distant Jiu Jitsu Party - With Brisket

I had invited friends from Jiu Jitsu over for a fun socially distant get together at the house today.

I enticed them with a promise of my homemade smoked brisket. So smoked brisket there had to be. I purchased a whole packer brisket earlier this week and got the preparations underway.

So I made the rub and applied it to the brisket, than into the smoker it went.

Then began 18 hours of smoking low and slow over locally-sourced hickory wood (I'm running out of hickory and apple wood now).

It came out rather awesome, if I do say so myself.

The meat from the flat was nice and lean but still moist and fork-tender. The meat from the point of the brisket was fatty as expected and described by some of my meat-loving jiu jitsu friends as "candy".

The brisket was a big hit and we pretty much devoured the whole thing.

Everyone brought a dish to pass (and some brought more than one - a generous group they are), and they brought beer to help wash the brisket and other delectables down.

A great time was had by all 10 guests as we sat around in a socially distant manner and had some good food among a good bunch of people.

Comforting The Bereaved

I had mentioned before our friend and his wife and child who had suffered the double loss of first his father, who had lived with them for 20 plus years dying, and then whose son committed suicide within days after his father's death.

Today was our day to bring them dinner. Basically, a bunch of friends and neighbors have all signed up to coordinate and check in with them regularly, bring them a meal, and offer what small amounts of comfort that is possible in such a situation, which really isn't much.

So we brought them a full meal, and talked with them. They've got their cousins there, who are staying over which certainly helps.

They get regular visitors from their church, and their strong connection to their faith is certainly helping, as is the flood of friends and family constantly being around. But, they're certainly living with a terrible sorrow and trauma.

You can tell that they've been having a rough time which is more than understandable. Losing a child is every parent's nightmare and they're living that right now. Add the loss of the grandfather of the family and it's a horribly heavy burden. Their grieving is perfectly normal and I would have been surprised if it was any less than it was.

They're the first people outside of our own family who we've hugged since this whole lock down thing, which was very surreal but needed.

We stayed and talked with them for awhile, reminisced about those they lost, and then had them get back to their family.

Really good people, and I hope they can recover from this family tragedy in due time.

Last Night's Meeting With Good Friends

Some people you can not see in person for years, just online, but meet up with them and the conversation flows and its like you've never been apart. Some people are like that.

I had a good meetup with Keads and Nancy yesterday when they visited Michigan to tour the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

They had a great time visiting one of this Country's finest museums, and I was able to meet up with them afterwards for dinner at the Dearborn Inn.

Keads even brought be a gift which is otherwise unobtainable in Michigan:

Yuengling is not distributed in Michigan, so getting any of it is always a treat.

Thankfully, I had planned ahead knowing he was coming, and on my last trip to Canada had gone to duty free to buy a case of his favorite libation (in bottles, not cans mind you), which is similarly very hard to find this side of the border.

I had a darn good dinner with both of them, the fine southern gentleman and southern lady that they are.

Friday Friend's Furniture Follies

Friday morning before work, I'm out walking the dog and pass by one of my neighbors, Casey, further down the street with his dog out in his front yard. The dogs are god friends so they get to playing while we chat.

He asks if I could help him that afternoon to move and load up some furniture that they were donating.

It's a light enough workday so why not. I leave the office around 1:30 get home and change and walk over to his place to help.

He's got a small Ryder truck already in position and another friend helping him move stuff. Heavy stuff.

One bookcase must have weighed about 500 pounds - that sucker was solid, shelves all in place, and not movable and it was a bit of an effort to get that thing out the front door and loaded up into the truck.

After that the sofa and loveseat were easy by comparison but an old curio cabinet, which again weighed a ton and didn't have a lot of spots to get a solid grip which made for some more fun. A few more sundry things and the truck is loaded and ready to go. Casey's other friend heads off and I volunteer to go with him to drop the stuff off.

Then off to the donation site, only to find out as we pull up that this week they're not accepting furniture. Oops. A little unexpected twist there.

So we head off to the Salvation Army, after I call ahead to verify that they are taking furniture, and they are, which is nice.

Unfortunately the guy taking the donations isn't helping unload the stuff as he has a half hour until his shift ends, so Casey and I are doing all the work. This kinda sucks as its rather frickin' heavy stuff and an interesting angled loading ramp. I do get to see the warehouse area of the Salvation Army which is interesting as normally you can't go in there, but since were the ones dropping stuff off, we put it all in there anyways. Good thing I was there or Casey would likely still be there unloading the stuff.

So we finish up and head back to his place and he offers me a nice cold Bells Third Coast Old Ale.

Very tasty, then it quickly hits like a brick. Checking the label its a 10.2% alcohol beer. Good thing I'm not driving.

It's a barley wine and is a smooth, tasty, 10.2% alcohol treat. It's a fantastic beer, but have one and you're really not driving anywhere as it certainly buzzes in fast. You may be sore after moving stuff, but after a nice cold bottle of this you don't mind so much, great stuff.

So back home I go with my good deed done for the day.

Drinks With A Progressive Anti-Gun Democrat

So we have a group of friends, our kids are in school together, that gets together for weekend lunches/dinners on a somewhat regular basis.

Saturday afternoon was the end of summer before school starts blow out. It was held at the home and association beach lot of one of the couples, who are very nice, well educated, and progressive types to the core. I pretty much never discuss politics at these gatherings.

But, after the gathering at the beach lot had ended, I drove the man of the house back to his house and we chatted, our wives and kids had gone off and left the house to do some things with the kids, so we were sitting around chatting about dogs and such and he then produced a 1.5 liter bottle of Eagle Rare bourbon and asked if I wanted a drink. An offer of Eagle Rare cannot be turned down. He decided he liked the taste of it himself and one glass led to another and ooops, we started discussing politics. Ruh Roh.

Turns out he is very progressive and almost on the Bernie side of the spectrum, but, there is some common ground in terms of some basic things such as a dislike of corruption, ridiculous debt and the situation the country is in, but that's about it, and the proposed solutions we had for such were rather divergent. He still couldn't believe Trump won, had voted for Hillary even though he knew she was a terrible candidate. We at least kept this civil.

Then the talk turned to guns.

Oh boy. Not only did he think the NRA was a bunch of maniacs against gun safety, but it turns out Josh Sugarman and the Violence Policy Center's deliberate lies on the assault weapon issue did indeed work.

Assault weapons — just like armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and plastic firearms – are a new topic. The weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons – anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun – can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these weapons.

Yep, my friend gleefully conflated "assault weapons", semi-automatic rifles, automatic rifles and everything else in a gleeful burst of anti-gun ignorance.

He stated that while he didn't want to ban guns he did want to ban assault weapons and stated everyone should just have a double-barrelled sawed-off shotgun for self defense - shades of Joe Biden, that. He eventually stated handguns and hunting rifles were ok but not these evil assault weapons that can shot through schools. Oy.

I respectfully pointed out that he was conflating so many things and I certainly would not agree with him, and that having an unregistered sawed-off shotgun is a 10 year felony and not exactly the best choise for home defense, and explained a bit of the differences and how he had conflated all these things and nicely pointed out he had no idea what he was talking about. I explained that had I told him with his knowledge of his profession to do x in a situation as I'd seen it on TV he'd think it was ridiculous as I had no idea what I was talking about, and it dawned on him that he had no real idea about firearms, only what the media and Democrat party line had given him. This caused some food for thought and it was an overall friendly conversation, but it was interesting to come across someone who had been fed and could regurgitate the party line so well and is otherwise a very bright guy indeed.

It ended up with my offering to take him to the range and he accepted so we'll be going sometime soon.

It also ended with over three quarters of the bottle gone in a few hours, rather tasty stuff, that, and with Tash texting asking what the heck I was doing. It also ended that I was in no shape to drive home -- at all, but impressively my spelling while texting was pretty much impeccable.

So Tash came and picked me up and we had dinner at home with one of their kids over for dinner with us, and so when the lady of the house came she took Tash with her so she could pickup my car. A good example for the kids of drinking and then not driving responsibly.

It turns out progressives have bigger hangovers than conservatives, and least in this sample, as when I took Abby over there to play with their daughter this afternoon after the Kayak experience, he was still the worse for wear. Heh.

Well, soon it will be "Take an anti to the range day". I plan to just take him out to have an enjoyable experience and keep the politics to an absolute minimum. Wish me luck.

AJ Has Now Joined The Blogosphere

Better late than never, and a little arm twisting and peer pressure was required.

AJ, a most excellent fellow and commenter on many a blog, and fellow attendee of the NRAAM and other shooting events, has finally opened his own blog at Wandering Neurons.

Expect him to come up with some good stuff for your own neurons to process.

The Glorious 4th

Yesterday we had planned for a small group of friends to come over and celebrate the 4th with a backyard grilling extravaganza.

Unfortunately we went to sleep before midnight so I missed the text that the group would be diving at 9:30 am on the 4th...next time more notice guys.

So we slept in till 9:00, I awoke and saw the text, realized there was no way I would make it and went off to brew some coffee.

We then started cleaning the house and outside and preparing for the guests.

This involved cleaning the outdoor table and getting all the accumulated leaves and debris cleared off the front and back porches and I decided it would also be good to get some of the leaves and stuff out of the gutters considering it was calling for thunderstorms.

The day was truly hot and humid - 97+ degrees and what felt like 100% humidity, so I was well soaked by the time we were done.

Then I changed and prepared some burger patties from some freshly ground beast and awaited the guests.

The guests arrived and we had a good time, even though it was too hot and humid to eat outside.

So we ate inside and had delectable burgers, hot dogs, kielbasa and nice sides and desserts.

Then around 6:30 or so it started storming quite heavily.

Luckily, it cleared up around 8:30 which after having fully soaked the ground gave us time and a safe opportunity to do some fireworks for the kids - bottle rockets, ground blooms, sparklers and salutes - the kids loved it and it was nice that it was legal to do so this year.

It's always a positive thing when the law is actually in accord with what everyone is already doing.

I'm sure that many in Michigan were sad that people were responsibly having fun with fireworks, but too bad for them and their sad state of existence.

Next year we'll do some more serious fireworks as the kids want to see some good stuff.

Then it thunder-stormed yet again throughout the night and we awoke to find the clocks had been reset due to a power outage - oops.

So we rushed out all discombobulated and I'm right back to work, feeling like its a Monday somehow.

On with the week and I hope your 4th was as fine as mine.