Outstanding! :lifter

I'm friends with a few breeders and trainers that began a grassroots organization and are now working with RetrievingFreedom. Their mission is similar in scope. I appreciate anyone willing to bust their tails and help train man's best friend to support our Veterans.

Patriot Guard
 

Yesterday, we sent my wife off to her MOB site. From there, her unit heads to OEF. We were amazed by the turn out of so many Veterans that showed up to send them off. Some of the ones that I met didn't have any "family" going, but said they were like family and that meant so much to me.

Then I saw, or shall I say "felt" the Patriot Guard rumbling down the street as they lined up to form their motorcade. A brief count revealed at least 30 riders, if not more, by the time it was all said and done. I've always admired the low rumble of a Harley, but yesterday the sound of so many bikes revving up to take our troops down range left me motionless and left a profound effect on me.

It's a feeling I'll never forget and if there are any Patriot Guard members on this forum I hope you know and realize that it lessened the strain when we're called to let go of one of our own. I'm truly grateful for your presence.

In the midst of all the gloom and doom and campaign ugliness, I'd like to see more happy themes. This thread hasn't been updated for a while, so I'll play...

FT Bragg represents the best and cleans the house at a recent trauma course. Distinguished honor grad, honor grad and all :lifter

It's a challenging course with 1.5years+ grad school material compacted into < 5 months. Being the most junior and inexperienced student, I was shaking in my boots to say the least when we got the books and syllabus. By His grace, it was doable. One day at a time, one page at a time.

I'll attest to the applicability of lessons learned from my mentors and this site outside selection: Don't be late, last, lost, light, or lippy, do the best you can, pay attention do details, don't FTFSI, and practice selflessness. The last one is the best as not only I survived, but thrived, never whined, volunteered to lead PT and be S6, and was able to tutor officer and enlisted alike, giving back mother army more than the expected ROI.

Attitude of gratitude and beggars can't be choosers went a long way too :)

Following judging & awards, genius grand-daughter brought ME the rest of her apple pie when she stopped at the fairgrounds up the street to pickup her Blue Ribbon.
:D

The rest of the house is on their own.

Getting to 'hang out' with my grandson while my daughter and her husband are at the hospital, and then getting the pleasure of meeting the little lady for the first time as they brought her home... baby, mom, and dad all doing fine. I watched my 2 1/2 year old grandson excitedly scream, "That's my baby sister!" over and over as he hurried down the stairs to greet them.

Life is good.

Aww congrats to the whole family, ZonieDiver!

Congratulation QP ZD! New additions are always fun :lifter

On that note, I was just notified by ISACA that I passed their CISM(Certified Information Security Manager) exam. Gotta celebrate life's little victories. :D

A little late, but last week I was able to take my British in-laws out shooting. They got to shoot a couple of handguns and an AR-15. We discussed the differences in our laws vs. theirs (guns, knives, etc.) and how our respective medias use each other's countries as an example of what not to be.

They were so excited to go out and shoot, it was great. By the end of the morning they saw how guns were tools and how you don't have to be afraid of them once you've experienced them in a safe environment.

Now if I could only have shown them how to shoot the pistols more accurately.....

Dishonorable Disclosure's new thorn in the side of Washington. I love how they have stirred up the media. That makes me feel good......

Amen. Me, too.

At the intersection of Olive and Denial
 

Thanks to Google Street View, I can count parking spaces in downtown L.A. without having to ponder the implications of the various smells.:cool:

(It sure is a good thing that I'm not OCD. Otherwise, I might be in danger of counting the same spaces multiple times before moving on to the next lot.:( Yep. Not OCD.:) Not even OCD-ish. That's me. Now, if you'll all excuse me, I need to wash my hands a few times.:o)

The inner smile of victory when..

The neighbor that used to mention you shoot too much. Asks you to teach them to shoot.

That is a happy thought.
As I'm an NRA rifle, pistol & shotgun instructor that's great news.
Maybe my business will pick up, haven't had a class in a month.
m&c

That's pretty awesome. My dad had a similar situation when we were growing up. Our neighbor felt that he was insane for teaching all of us kids how to shoot and couldn't believe any man would raise his kids around firearms. Next thing ya know, our neighbor gets broken into. It wasn't long after that little episode that our neighbor was supplying the brass and learning from dad (and us kids).

Beautiful day in northern Arizona.
Morning walk across the street gave a good view of the balloons.