July 2021 Thread

[joecool]

As we head into this holiday weekend, for some reason Janis Joplin's lyric popped into my head. "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." Some music pundits say that it referred to a lifestyle so casual that it leads to boredom and eventually to self-destruction. It certainly did in her short life.

The Scotsman Wallace may or may not have yelled "Freedom" as his last word, but it certainly summed up the purpose of his struggle to throw off the shackles on his people. Paul certainly had a lot to say about freedom as well. But he warned that it wasn't something to be abused and used up. Too many people today are doing that, whether politically or spiritually. Don't be one of them. Each generation needs to preserve it.

Have a great Independence Day.

[joecool]

Online today, someone wrote "You have to leave America in order to appreciate it." True that. How many of you guys have been to 3rd world countries? (How many of you worry that we're heading in that direction?)

Leftists who live in their 24-7 cultural bubble, and complain that others' bubbles are bigger than theirs just don't get it. Pray, get a plan, work hard and take advantage of opportunities. And that's not to make your material bubble bigger so you can boast. It's to make life better for your family and community.

[ccm2361]

(How many of you worry that we're heading in that direction?)

I fear that we are all but lost. The radical left now holds most of the power in this country. I see litte hope of recovery short of a move of God or civil war

[joecool]

Just back from a trip to Seattle. It's sad to see it continue to fall apart under the horrible mismanagement of a socialist city council. BLM signs and rainbow flags abound; sex shops no longer need to cover up their windows; homeless encampments by the dozens; prostitutes everywhere, punching the time clock at 9 am; only saw 1 police car on the streets in 3 days. A mission field for sure for those called to serve there.

[ccm2361]

On vacation this week-so of course it has rained almost all week

Finally off of the night shift-Praise God for that

[joecool]

I can't believe I just finished an overnight run to Mt Rushmore and back. The original plan fell apart and I had to adapt. Just call me Max Flex.

[Claymore]

I just wanted to briefly check in.

I am recovering from a full replacement of my right knee (result of bending & milking cows for 12 years, and then 22 years in the Paratroops &’Light Infantry, carrying a 70 pound back pack up & down mountains).

Anyway, the operation was on July 1. With the pain level, I’m not ready to recommend the Procedure on T.V. yet.

I just got myself off of the Pain Meds, 3 days ago in order to not post something overly stupid on the Interweb…..

(But the last statement should not be considered as a Guaranty.)

[joecool]

I am recovering from a full replacement of my right knee.

Hang in there, Claymore. It gets better. My pastor had a knee replaced a couple of months ago and gets around pretty good. A slight limp is all he has now and he can't wait to get into the water and go fly-fishing. As for you, it would have been real tough if you had rotator cuff surgery or something. Rest up for a few days and you'll be back on the gun range.

[ccm2361]

Agreed, hang in there. my dad has had both is knees replaced. He gets around fine now.

[Claymore]

I truly appreciate it, Guys.

It has been 3 weeks and 3 days since the Operation. I am mostly confined to the Living Room Recliner (when nor doing Physical Therapy). It just reminds me that it’s about the same way that my own father was for the last year before he died.

However,

I am to the point to where I can get up and give the Dog & Cat a scoop of food, so THEY think that I am getting near to full useful function.

[joecool]

I guess they're waiting for all the reporters to go home, so that what they're about to do becomes old news and not worthy of reporting on by tomorrow morning. The CDC is going to announce that K-12 students will have to go back to mandatory masks and social distancing...

...because that worked so well the last year and a half.

And after that announcement is made, multiple big city school unions will then say that the classrooms aren't safe, and they're going back to online (mis-)education. Another year of our kids' lives wasted, and I mean that in a literal way. There was a report last month that the suicide rate for teen girls skyrocketed the past year.

I got a letter yesterday from the Secretary of the VA thanking me for my past service and telling me its time to volunteer once more...to get a COVID shot. Also yesterday, the VA told its 115,000 healthcare workers that they had 8 weeks to get vaccinated, or else.

Still room here in Montana for any of you Rangers stuck in blue states. But the land rush over the past year horribly raised prices. It's estimated that up to 200,000 people are in the process of moving here. (That's a 20% increase of our population.) So if it helps, I have a walk-out basement level that you can rent for $3000 a month...$2900 if you pay in cash.

[Phillip Gross]

Hello all. The Special Forces came looking for me yesterday and said I had been AWOL too long. It's been a wild ride the past few years, and I'm still trying to sort out the good from the bad! I suppose if wisdom is gained then maybe it was worth it, but sometimes there are ugly scars that go along with it. That is meant proverbially, but I did receive a couple literal scars recently from stupidity too. A couple months ago I was in a rush to get a project finished and needed to fix a broken weld. I needed to grind some paint and old weld down "real quick" before being able to apply the new weld, so in my haste I grabbed the side grinder (guard removed so that any angle is accessible) and commenced to grinding. Because it was just a "real quick" deal and wouldn't be that much I neglected to grab my leather gloves. Yes, the grinding wheel caught in an unfortunate way and twisted around in my hand in the blink of an eye destroying the skin on my right index finger down to the knuckle. I elected not to go to the ER and instead pulled the skin together with steri strips and kept it slathered with neosporin and wrapped for a couple weeks. It's healing nicely and no longer wrapped up, but there's a pretty nasty scar in plain sight to anyone who sees my hand. The moral of this little story is that it's the little non thought out actions in life that leave the worst scars. When we go out into life without the armor of God we end up with nasty scars too. Usually they're on the heart and most people won't know they're there, but we know they are.

In Ranger news, the church we moved to a few years ago just recently shut the outpost down. I'll hold off on the intricate details of that for the moment, but the result is that there really isn't a functioning outpost in our vicinity anymore. There is a new Trail Life troop being started close and I've reached out to the troop master starting it. Supposed to meet with him soon and will probably get involved at some level with that. My older boys are aging out, but my youngest is just entering the prime age for this. He would've been entering DR this fall and now it's been shut down. I believe in the design of a scouting ministry and want him to have that in his life. Trail Life makes no bones about their stance on Biblical issues and they are very active outdoors. They are very against the classroom setting as much as possible. Without going too much into this most recent RR outpost closing, the classroom and merit work had become the main focus. RR 2.0 at it's finest!

[joecool]

The Special Forces came looking for me yesterday and said I had been AWOL too long...The moral of this little story is that it's the little non thought out actions in life that leave the worst scars...There is a new Trail Life troop being started close and I've reached out to the troop master starting it.

Good to have you back! I just knew that Claymore had been off on a covert mission, and was using knee surgery as a cover...I was moving a very heavy swivel rocker into the back of my truck. I thought out the "What's the worst thing that could happen?" scenario, figured that I could perfectly balance it, went ahead and pinned a finger as it rotated. Without my wife there, I wouldn't have extricated my finger. Lost a big chunk of flesh and have a bright and tender scar...With my pastor's blessing, I was looking at Trail Life and had reached out to the only other troop in the state, as well as a couple of regional advisors. Had just started a conversation when they all quit communicating. All I asked was, does Trail Life tend to get the younger men involved? Hope your experience turns out better.

[Claymore]

Phil,  It is truly great to hear from you.  I know that, at your stage of life, wife & family, church, job, (and possibly military), can all be pulling for a greater chunk of your life.

Sorry to hear of your church shutting down the Outpost.  I just put it simply to the Church Council.  Every week, I designate $25.00 of my offering toward Royal Rangers.

Now the Rangers pay for themselves, maintenance of the Church Flag with pole (3 flags replaced annually at a cost of $160.00 each), brick walkways, & flood lights, and we pay for the computers, firearms, and equipment for Church Security Training and Firearms Safety for Ladies & Youth.  Plus, we bring in about $1,000.00 per year for receipts from State Firearms Certification Training.

Simply put, if they shut down Rangers, that's $2,200.00 per year that will stop coming in to the church.

No one has given me a hard time about it, so far.

[Phillip Gross]

It was definitely a shock to some of the commanders. I wish I could say it was a shock to me. There didn't seem to be fire in most of the leadership for what "could be". It was an older, very established outpost that had lapsed into blah... When that happens to an outpost, or even the whole organization at the top level, I don't think doing a whole change or scrapping it is the right thing to do. The best thing to do, in my lowly opinion, is to go back to the original intent and get excited about it! Get rid of the fluff, tighten up the standards that make it special and get to it! Now am I talking about RR or our whole country here? I guess it applies to it all. Outposts, churches, families, government, etc.

To the point of the Trail Life, I guess I'll see how it goes. On the surface, reading their main website, and talking to some guys I know who are in it, it seems an awful lot like the original JB system. Time will tell

[joecool]

It was an older, very established outpost that had lapsed into blah...

It's been a few years since I took a look at the RR outpost locator online. Turns out that my state has only two outposts left. Wasn't too long ago when it was a dozen, and even that number was down from its heyday. That's what happens when we lose the ability to pass on vision. Daily life becomes blah and even a struggle when we forget why we're in it. Saw a church the other day that had a temporary chain link fence around it. I worry about the future when I see what's going on. But the Bible tells us to get a fresh infilling and get to work.

Recently came across a great quote from Mother Theresa: "We fear the future because we are wasting today."

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