Every Day Carry

I've never thought much about what I carry with me every day.  I just load my pockets and go.  Now I've found out there is an entire genre of websites built around "EDC", or Every Day Carry.  Apparently some people don't just load their pockets, they pack luggage:

I'm pretty sure somewhere in there this guy has a kitchen sink.

I've always subscribed to the old adage, probably military in origin, that says, "Travel light and freeze at night."  I doubt I'll ever need to drag around a case of MRE's or a dome tent, so I've pared down what I carry on me to this:

Depending on the season and what clothes I can wear (shorts and t-shirt vs jeans and a jacket) I'll often carry, where legally allowed, a small pistol, either in a waist holster (shown) or a pocket holster.  Since I was a kid I've carried a pocket knife, and now a car FOB and an apartment key, an iPhone 6, a nylon (?) wallet from REI (that has lasted 10 years with zero sign of wear), and a Casio watch.  Not shown are a Medic Alert bracelet and a wedding ring.  That's it.  My glasses are the kind that darken when outdoors, so I don't even need sunglasses anymore.

In my car I keep a small bag containing a sheath knife, a glass breaker/seatbelt cutter, a screwdriver with various tips, a Gerber multi-tool (small saw, blade, file), a couple of spare carabiners, a phone charger, a space blanket, and in a second compartment underneath, a pair of Mechanix gloves and small first aid kit.  I can usually find a spare bottle of water somewhere, a koozie, and a few towels in my car, too. 

And finally, as I usually spend an inordinate amount of time waiting for every thing *agony* I carry an iPad mini and some wireless headphones.  I'll usually read news (BBC, The Guardian, AP News, CNN, The Economist), listen to podcasts (I like Ted Talks, Planet Money, The Indicator, American History Tellers), and read Kindle books (currently Directorate S: The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Steve Coll).  Rarely fiction, and not much music, either.

I suppose, except for an absolutely apocalyptic event, I have what I need.  So how about you?  What do you carry daily with you?

S

EDIT:  In the back of my car I have a plastic box with a small tire compressor, jumper cables, and other assorted car/road emergency equipment.

Some new Pintrest favorites....

 Dogs 

 Girls and Guns 

 Cool Airplanes

 

 Europe

 

 Small Houses

 

 Guns

 

 Cool Cars

 Watches

Funny Stuff

An odd duck....

....that would be ME!

I've always been a bit "not normal".  Okay, a LOT not normal.  The things that most people do, or aspire to do, hold little appeal for me.  I've always been an outlier.  The flow usually goes its merry way without me.

I HATE summer.  I loath heat and humidity.  If I'm sweating, I'm not happy.  (To my Florida friends....what were you thinking? :)  Autumn is my favorite season, followed by spring, and I enjoy winter, and snow, too.  Keep in mind I live in Texas.  I'm not suggesting I want to winter in International Falls, Minnesota, however.  Is it true body parts spontaneously fall off people there in the winter?

I'm only marginally coordinated, which might have been at least partially responsible for my pitiful athletic career.  A golf ball on a tee is safe from me.  

Speaking of....I'm not a sports fan, at least as you normally think of a macho sports guy.  I love (American) football, particularly at the college level.  I know the teams, their standings, star players, etc.  But I wouldn't walk across the street to see a baseball or basketball game.  And golf to me is about as exciting as watching a bear hibernate.  I do enjoy Formula 1 (Grand Prix) racing and English (Union) rugby.  Thanks to me both those sports now have an American audience of one.

I'm an introvert who is intrigued by people.  I can see someone in a park, for example, say "hello", and in five minutes know where they're from, what their day job is, if they have any kids or pets, what kind of car they have, etc.  People somehow seem more than willing to open up to me.  I enjoy people-watching from a distance, too, wondering what each person does by observing them.  However I have very few friends.  Lots of acquaintances, but few close friends.  EDIT:  It's been suggested that I'm more "introvert heavy / extrovert lite".  EDIT #2:  Simon Butler says I'm an extrovert, and I trust Simon Butler on such matters / definitions.  He's very smart.  :)

I have three daughters (and six grandchildren) and I love them dearly.  I hope I was / am a good father.  I sometimes think I wasn't good enough, but then I look at them, see how they turned out, and realize I must have done something right.   (BIG kudos to their mom, too!)

I don't mind apartment living.  To most people an apartment is just a layover on their way to a house of their own.  Been there, done that....too much maintenance.

I like fast airplanes and cars.  I don't have an airplane, and my cars have been rather mundane, but I still appreciate high performance mobile exotica.

I like firearms.  *gasp*  But I'm not a hunter.  I'm too lazy to get up at O-dark-thirty, go out to a cold, damp hunting stand, sit there for hours hoping to see a worthy target, shoot it, field dress it, drag it to a processor and pay him $$$ for his service, when I can just go to my meat market and get a beautiful steak M-Sat, 9-6 for a fraction as much.

I don't understand vanity or narcissism.  If you have to tell someone how cool you are, you aren't.

I'm very organized.  I think three steps ahead.  Odd, huh?

I love dogs.  To hear of a dog being abused really eats at me.  If I were ever to actually see a dog being abused I'm afraid I'd wind up behind bars....but the abuser would wind up in the hospital!  While I'm not a great lover of cats or birds or squirrels, etc, I would never abuse one. 

I'm extremely loyal.  I appreciate loyalty shown towards me and happily return it.  Yes, I've stumbled before, and learned from it.  In my business I have friends (subcontractors and vendors) who I've worked with for 20 or 30 years.  To bring in somebody new means someone else either retired or died.

I'm NOT technologically savvy.  I have a smart phone with probably 100 features, but I only use five or six of them.  In a world where Microsoft Windows dominates, I'm an Apple guy.  I don't play video games.  Hitting a little cartoon monkey over the head with a club when he pops out of a hole in a log just seems dumb to me.  Do game designers really make BILLIONS of dollars designing them?  *I don't get it*

I'm NOT a music aficionado. Back in my "yout" I was, and still know the lyrics to the Beach Boys, Dion, Chuck Berry, and the other REAL rock and roller's songs.  I've heard the names of todays big "musicians" (?), but couldn't for the life of me identify one of their songs.  The music of today just isn't pleasing to my ear.  My few exceptions are barely on anyone else's radar.  Ever hear of Enya, for example?  Didn't think so.  Jazz?  *crickets*

I'm a skeptic.  I can see through most scams and political bullshit.  The Democrats and Republicans, although they like to tout their own piousness and lambast their opponents, are in reality equal partners in crime.  I trust them both about as far as I can spit into a hurricane.  I'm NOT an ideologue, and can't imagine how anyone else could be, either.  Inflexibility is stupid!

I often don't understand our legal system.  How can something be so wrong (as God and my mama taught me) and unethical, yet still be "legal"? "Loopholes" are evil.

I have more, but I'm tired of typing.  :)

S  

I have the answers, but you won't like them

So this time it was a mentally disturbed individual with a legally possessed gun who shot up an airport terminal in Ft Lauderdale, FL, killing 5 people.  And again, some are asking, "How did this happen, and how are we going to fix it?"

If we lived in an authoritarian society where there are visible police everywhere as well as many more unseen secret police, and a small army of informers to keep an eye on their neighbors, yeah, we might could have prevented this.  Guns and gun ownership would be outlawed, and the mentally ill would simply be locked away.  There would be no "due process".  You would just be picked up one day off the street, and in short order find yourself in a gulag.  End of problem.

But we live in a free society where people have rights.  There are millions of guns in the hands of our citizens right now, and the Supreme Court has validated the 2nd Amendment concept that guarantees Americans the right to own them.  The guns aren't going away, and even if a future, more liberal Supreme Court changes their interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, there will be millions of people who will always say our Founding Fathers said it, SCOTUS be damned! 

So to answer the original questions:  How did this happen?  An obviously mentally disturbed person did not get the help he needed, and he got hold of a gun.  How are we going to fix it?  We need to spend the money necessary to get the mentally disturbed the medical/psychological help they need, and we need to invest in a government-wide computer system that allows names of the mentally disturbed, wanted criminals, felons, those with restraining orders against them, etc, to be added (or subtracted) instantly. 

They won't be able to legally buy a firearm, they will be singled out for searches, both of their body and their checked baggage, if they fly, or perhaps not even be allowed to fly at all.  The same goes if they travel by train or bus.  It certainly won't stop every madman, but it will go a long way.  Right now this type system apparently doesn't exist at all, or if it does, is not kept current and properly utilized.

So, Mr/Ms Taxpayer/Citizen....your choices are to give up your liberties, spend the fortune it would cost to implement a better reporting system, or accept the fact that these things are simply going to happen.  I'm pretty confident we won't choose the first or second options, so we may just have to accept the realities of living in the 21st Century.

Stay vigilant.

S

COMPROMISE dammit!

I have quite a few friends and family members who are justifiably proud of their principles, their sense of right and wrong.  To waiver for even a nanosecond is unthinkable.  I respect them immensely.  But they are wrong.

Here's why:  Once again there has been a mass shooting, a massacre at a school, this time in Oregon.  And once again the rhetoric from both the political right and left is in-your-face.  The liberal left would just love to outlaw all guns, just declare them illegal and confiscate them all.  The Tea Party and the NRA say that will happen when you pry them from their cold dead...well...you know the rest.

And nothing gets done.

The left must understand they can NOT close down gun makers, gun stores, private ownership of guns, etc. If they try the matter will be tied up in the courts for years, decades even.  Not gonna happen!

The right must understand that no one is going to knock on their door and rifle through their stuff (pun intended) and seize their guns.  If someone tries, there will be blood in the streets.

Nor can they grab up all the ammo.  There are already hundreds of millions (billions?) of rounds of ammunition in private hands.  If they try it will just give the black market and smugglers another product to profit off of.  Not gonna happen!

Both sides need to suck it up, bend their principles a bit, and find common ground.  To a pragmatist like me this is just so obvious.  They need to sit down and find out exactly what both sides CAN agree on. 

Obviously criminals past and present can not...MUST not have guns.  When they are found in possession of guns, it's off to the lock-up they go.  Look aggressively.  Not enough prison space, you say?  Then MAKE more prison space.

Obviously the mentally unstable can not...MUST not have guns.  Find a way to identify these sadly troubled people.  Look aggressively.  

Surely both sides can agree on this.  Yes, compromise is often dirty, and often leaves a bad taste in the mouth.  But at least SOMETHING gets done.  And something desperately needs to get done.  We all need to quit beating our chests and refusing to bend.

Lets face it:  The only difference between good guns and bad guns is who is holding them.  Lets stop focusing on the guns, and concentrate on who is holding them.

Compromise, dammit!

S

Guns!

I'm on a roll....my last several posts have pissed off a lot of people.  Now I'm really gonna stroke people out.  My topic today is GUNS!

It would be pretty easy to make the argument that the world would be better off if there were no guns at all.  (Hunters might disagree, but that's a topic for another day.)  No guns would mean fewer wars, robberies, accidental shootings, and ex-spouses offed by their former mates, all good things.  Some countries have even outlawed guns in the hands of private citizens, with varying degrees of success.

Fact is, though, in the USA there are already well over 300,000,000 guns in the public domain.  Fortunately most are in the hands of decent, law abiding citizens, but sadly more than a few are in the hands of some really bad people, hereafter referred to as "the Bad Guys".  What makes them "Bad Guys" is the fact that they disobey laws.

Guns are a major political issue.  One group wants to ban them entirely, one group wants virtually no restrictions at all, and another group is somewhere in the middle. 

Those who want to ban guns are IMO living in La-La-Land.  Even if a law was passed that said everyone must turn in their guns, only law abiding citizens would comply.  Bad Guys, by definition, disobey laws, and this is one they would surely disobey.  Guns are the tools of their trade, just like a hammer is to a carpenter, or a Word program is to a writer.  We will NEVER get rid of all guns in America.

The crux of the "ban-'em-all" argument is that the Constitution says only MILITIAS can be armed, not individual citizens.  To which I say, it's a moot point.  Those 300M genies are NOT going back in the bottle.

At the other extreme are the hard-core NRA types who say they will give up their guns only "when you pry them from my cold, dead hands", and I believe they're speaking literally.  They will (reluctantly?) agree that felons and the mentally insane shouldn't have guns, but not much more.  I'm always amazed by the power of the NRA.  (Full disclosure:  I'm not a member of the NRA.)

Unless you're one of the unlucky ones who lives in a high crime area, you've probably never been the victim of a violent crime, which might lead you to say people don't need guns.  The odds of being attacked are infinitesimal.  Not true.  You can be a victim anywhere.

Some examples:  I have a friend who was shot when he was caught in the middle of a botched robbery.  He walked in to a rather nice restaurant on Mockingbird Ave in Dallas, not far from the fashionable M Streets and Lakewood, at the wrong time.  (He recovered.)

My cousin and her husband were once the victims of a home invasion.  They lived in a comfortable neighborhood, but were run over by armed intruders who ruffed her up and pistol-whipped him so badly he needed brain surgery.  (Fortunately, he recovered, too.)

And this lady....

She was visiting friends at the high-end Shops of Legacy, the same neighborhood where K and I lived for three years, when she was abducted.  Now, five months later, she's still missing and presumed dead.  I've parked in the same garage she did, dined at the same restaurants, and walked along the same streets. *gulp!*

I think the middle-grounders are on the right track.  Some people definitely should not have guns, but others, those who know guns, all the safety rules, and the legal obligations of gun ownership, should be allowed to have them, and even carry them concealed.  Odds are they will never need to use them, but the odds are their house will never burn to the ground, either, but they still want the protection of fire insurance.

It's relatively easy to identify who the good guys are.  They agree to being fingerprinted and photographed, a very detailed 2-3 month long background check (by local, state, and national law enforcement), and take safety classes and pass proficiency tests with their firearms. 

These measures seem to work.  In the most recent year my gun-totin' state of Texas has records for, the number of crimes committed by over 500,000 licensed concealed handgun carriers was only .1897% of all crimes reported.

If you ask a concealed carrying gun owner why he carries, he will likely tell you there are too many Bad Guys, and not enough good guys (cops).  True.  Cops are almost always RE-active.  They show up AFTER a crime has occurred.  

A super efficient police force might take 4-5 minutes to respond to a call for help, but in many cities that might be 30 minutes or more.  In rural areas it might take an hour.  Most violent crimes are over in less than 2 minutes.  

Unless we're prepared for a DRAMATIC increase in taxes to support 5 times (?) as many cops as we have now (and good luck even finding 5 times as many potential cops!), enough to put one on every corner, we can't depend on the police to protect us.

The real answer to the "to have or not to have" guns issue is finding out how to get guns out of the hands of the Bad Guys, and that is an answer we may never find.  *sigh*  Figure that out, and everything else will fall into place.

Some might say, "two wrongs don't make a right".  Just say "NO" to guns.  Others will say it's human nature to want to protect yourself, and the more you tell people they CAN'T do something, the more they'll want to do it.  

Bottom line:  Guns are here, now.  People already have them.  Many people will carry them concealed for protection.  I would rather see them reasonably regulated and made legally available to those who are vetted and properly trained, than have them purchased with no restrictions from a guy named Rocko in a back alley somewhere.

S

Gun talk

So far autumn, my glorious autumn*, hasn't disappointed.  For the past 3 days the early morning temps have been in the mid-50's, with the high barely touching 80.  Blue skies, slight breeze, and low humidity, too....true Chamber of Commerce weather.

I love autumn.  Spring is nice, but it reminds me of Sunday afternoon:  It's very pleasant, but you know next up is Monday morning.  Yuck!  But autumn, autumn is like Friday afternoon.  You know the full weekend lies ahead.  :)

* We even named one of our companies "Autumn Investments".  Now that's hard core right there!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lets talk guns:  I'm baffled by all the paranoia about licensed concealed firearms.  The big push for concealed carry in my state (Texas) came after a mass shooting in a Luby's cafeteria in Kileen, TX in 1991.  A deranged man crashed his truck into the cafeteria during lunchtime, then walked table to table, shooting 50 people, killing 23.  It was pointed out that just one properly trained and armed person might have been able to neutralize the shooter and save many of those victims.

The public's knee-jerk reaction to concealed carry was there would be "blood in the streets".  As we now know, that did NOT prove to be the case.  The behavior of concealed handgun license holders (CHL) has been statistically MUCH better than the population as a whole.

And I really don't understand why businesses would post signs on their doors saying they prohibit CHL holders from bringing their firearms inside.  By doing so they are specifically taking responsibility for the safety of their patrons.  Deny a CHL holder the ability to protect himself, he's yours.

A CHL holder has undergone extensive classroom training as well as gun safety and must pass a live shooting test.  He has submitted him/herself to being fingerprinted and photographed, and he has undergone a lengthy (roughly 4-6 week) background check.  

Think about it....if you are a business owner, who would you want standing across the counter from you?  That properly trained and vetted CHL holder, or some guy off the street you know absolutely nothing about?

IMO, we need to quit wasting our time and energy trying to keep guns away from us all.  They're here now, and they aren't going away.  I would like to see enough citizens properly licensed to carry that bad guys would have to think twice about who to rob, mug, or rape.  

We need to support those who are willing to undergo the scrutiny and training, and concentrate on identifying and getting help to those among us who are mentally ill.  And slamming those who are walking around illegally armed. They are the real problem.

S

Guns and girls (this ought to get LOTS of readers!)

There are some really screwball ideas being floated these days on how to prevent gun violence.  For example, to protect our schools it's proposed we put a uniformed police officer on every campus.  Many schools have done that for years, and while I don't see how it can hurt, more than anything I think it just gives people a warm fuzzy.

Think about it:  Retailers have "loss prevention" specialists who look for shoplifters.  They wear street clothes and appear to be just average customers meandering around the stores.  They don't wear neon orange vests that say "I'm watching you!"

If you were a disturbed person intent on shooting up a school, wouldn't the first person you take out be the one with the gun?  Your opening shot would be to the back of the head of this guy, then you could roam around and shoot at will.  These people might be "disturbed", but they're meticulous planers.

Make it public knowledge there are __ armed security in the school daily, but never let it be known who they are.  Is it the janitor?  The PE teacher?  The cafeteria lady with the five-o'clock shadow?  One of the maintenance crew always on campus doing something?  Never tip your hand.  

Just my take on it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you keeping up with the verbal oogling incident Brent Musburger put on Alabama QB AJ McCarron's GF during Monday night's national championship game?  He went on and on about how beautiful she was, which is true.  (Brent might be old, but he's not cold.)  But here's something no one else seems to have brought up:  Is she smart?  

In one video clip they've shown over and over she's sitting in the stands when Alabama scored and everyone around her raised their arms and yelled..."WooHoo!!"  Then about 3 seconds later she raised her arms and yelled..."WooHoo!!"  I've never seen a fan with a built-in time delay like that.

I dunno, maybe she doesn't really understand football and didn't realize what just happened.  Or maybe she was thinking about how she'd really rather be home with a book and her cat.  

And didn't she go to Auburn?  Ummm....I thought in the state of Alabama Auburn folks and Alabama folks didn't fraternize?  And they certainly don't breed, 'cause they're afraid of how the kids might turn out. I guess exceptions can be made when you're the back-to-back national champion team's QB and she's the reigning Miss Alabama.

Yeah...that must be it.

S

"Meaningful action"

Pure evil has raised it's ugly head again and this time taken from us 27 people, 20 of them innocent little children.  We're all in shock.  We're mad.  We feel helpless to do anything, but at the same time we're determined to do something.  The President says we must take "meaningful action".  I concur.  Here's where it gets tricky.  Do what?  

The logical first suggestion is "gun control".  I don't understand what that means.  What exactly constitutes "gun control"?  Does it mean everyone who owns a gun must register it, listing themselves the owner of 1 or 2 or more guns, make X and model Y?  How will that prevent any more massacres?  Have you noticed that in many of these horrible shootings the shooter takes his own life, too?  A person could somehow lose his mind and then use his legal firearm to kill many others plus himself. And of course there is a HUGE black market in stolen guns.  This seems like it would be a huge exercise in futility.

What about just outlawing guns, with a very few exceptions?  Everyone just turn in their guns, where they would be permanently destroyed?  How would that be enforced?  After the turn-in date would the police go door-to-door looking for guns?  The obvious problem....we don't have enough police now, much less enough to take on this additional role.

In this scenario you'd probably get good response from law abiding citizens, but certainly not from the criminal element.  By definition they don't obey laws.  Why should they obey this one?  I think it fair to say you will NEVER be able to get all guns, or even most guns, off the street.  Again, a huge exercise in futility.

Why not try this:  Instead of trying to scrutinize all 300,000,000+ Americans, why not concentrate on the few million who have done something to indicate they are troubled or have already committed a crime?  Every time a restraining order is issued against someone for cause, their name should INSTANTLY go on the FBI list that precludes them from buying a gun (legally).  Any time a person is committed to a hospital for serious, dangerous mental issues, their name would INSTANTLY go on that same list.  And in both cases, a search warrant would be issued INSTANTLY requiring police to search that person's residence/belongings and confiscate any firearms found. 

And for anyone found selling guns on the black market, they would be sent to the most horrible of all prisons....an old fashioned rock-busting, brutal, hellish prison.  And if it could be proven that a gun they sold illegally was used to take a life, then they would be held as complicit as the shooter, and subject to the same penalties.  (Life in prison/ no parole or even capital punishment.)

This would take an extreme effort to pull off, and it would be expensive.  But it would be "meaningful action", and it just might work.  Meanwhile, since it has become evident that law abiding people are to a large extent responsible for their own safety, they could still possess the means to protect themselves.

There honestly aren't any easy answers, but as the President has said, we must do something.

S

"Survivor: Texas"

Did you hear about the newest TV reality show?  It's to be called Survivor: Texas.  Here's how it works:  Contestants start at the Dallas Convention Center, then drive south to Waco, Austin, San Antonio, then to Brownsville.  On day two they drive west thru Del Rio and El Paso, then turn back east to Midland/Odessa, where they spend the night.  Finally on day three they head north to Lubbock and Amarillo, then back south/east towards Abilene, Fort Worth, and finally back to Dallas.


Each will be driving a pink Toyota Prius with bumpers stickers that say:


I'm a proud Democrat


Amnesty for Illegals


I love the Dixie Chicks


Boycott Beef


I voted for Obama


George Strait Sucks


I'm here to confiscate your guns


Re-elect Obama 2012


The first one to make it back to Dallas alive wins.


;)  S

Hey man, gimme a case of that baby soap...

This is odd:  It was reported on the news this morning that authorities are investigating several brands of baby soap because they will supposedly cause baby's blood tests to show positive for marijuana use.  All have been traced back to the Cheech and Chong's Good Times Soap Company.  (Actually the last part I made up, but the investigation is legitimate.)


In a nearby town thieves broke into a self-storage unit and stole 85 military-style rifles and pistols.  The owner said his family had been collecting them for over 30 years, hopeing to one day open a gun store.  I don't buy it.  I don't think any gun store owner would be dumb enough to store $150K worth of guns in a mini-warehouse secured only by a padlock.  Automatic rifles are worth their weight in gold.  I'm guessing there's a lot more to this story that we know right now.


When you open the shades first thing in the morning and see the sun instead of clouds do you feel pressure to get going and be super productive?  I do.  Conversely, when it's gray and overcast it's almost an invitation to cruise.  Maybe that's why I like a cloudy, rainy day once in a while.  Plus it makes the air smell good and greens things up.  I wish today was one of those days, but it's not.


S