The Man Cave

Is it the heat? 

Is it the time of year?

Is it boredom?

Do you ever have desires to do something, or memories, that are brought on by a time, place, location, event, etc. . . ?  

These last few days, I've had an itch I just won't be able to scratch till September.  Not that this bothers me, because I can wait, but everytime around NOW, I get the same urge to be on the hunt.  It doesn't go away till February.  At which point, a small side of depression is served up.  Ahh, the cycles of our lives. . . . .

I haven't been working Friday's lately, and it's given me some time to do things that I wouldn't normally get around to.  Idle hands are of the Devil, right?

I had a varitable cornucopia of happenings this weekend.  I got up on Friday, and slayed the dragon that was my yard.  Later, I met up with a buddy, to go do some shooting.  The armament of choice was the 12 ga. shotgun, my favorite.  We are plumbers, so we had a few old plumbing fixtures to punish with extreme prejudice.

Have any of you ever seen what a shotgun slug does to a toilet?  Have you ever wanted to see a toilet EXPLODE?

Saturday, I fixed my wife's Jeep.  It has been over-heating, and I determined the first problem to be the thermostat.  My blogger friends, you must know that I am no stranger to automotive repair.  I have the scars on my hands as credentials. 

The repair went really quick.  I was surprised.  I got all dirty, which apparently turns my wife on.  Of course she is in Honduras........  The thing that surprised me the most, was how it felt to get engine dirty again.....  It had been a LONG time since I last worked on something, and I admit that working on her car actually felt good, and not because I was serving my wife.  That felt good too.

Sunday, I listened to a really good lesson on the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Sometimes, I cant stand church lessons, because they are too canned, they seem to have no feeling behind the teaching.  It seems as if the teacher is just trying to get through the lesson, you know, one step closer home kinda thing....  It was nice for a change to have a real lesson.  I also got set apart to be an Elder's quorum teacher, hopefully I can bring that kind of lesson to the table.

Monday is NOT actually part of my weekend, but I really need to mention this.  Let's give it honorable mention for the weekend....  Kelly got her celly stolen this weekend.  Funny thing was, there was a satellite phone right next to it.  I don't know about you folks, but if I was that douche bag, I woulda jacked the sat phone.  HELLO!!!!  It's ufckin sat phone!!  Well, I guess you really can't fix stupid....

Will

First off let me state how much of blatant waste of taxpayer dollars this really is. 

Several months ago, Arizona passed a state law, that enforced a federal law.  That's right people, illegal immigration was already illegal before Arizona got off her ass and decided to enforce it.  It also required officers of the law to check immigration/citizenship status during traffic stops, investigations, etc.  To all of you that want to cry about "profiling", I'll address you later.....

Now, the federal government sees fit to sue Arizona.  Check out here, here, and here.  This is SOOOO wrong on so many levels.

For the "OMG, that's profiling..." crowd.....
    
     Okay, I understand why you think that to be a bad thing, believe me I get it.....  Where your logic falls short, is when you fail to realize that you are profiled EVERY DAY.  You are profiled by other people, by people you know, as well as others.....  Do you remember the last time you were asked for ID?  Was it when you used a credit card, bought beer, bought smokes, got pulled over by the po po, or went to a rated R movie???  Guess what folks, you got profiled.  Hate to break it to ya, but you did......  Now, if you are within the legal bounds on any of those things, you don't have a problem proving your age or legal status, I know I sure as hell don't.  Why then is it so hard for you to apply the same responsibility to everyone else in this country?  This is something you are okay with when it is done to you, but OMG if someone else gets profiled......

As for you "OMG that's racist!" crowd.....

     Puh-lease!! The law is not racist by any stretch of the word, unless you want to make it about race.  Illegal, is illegal, is illegal, is illegal.  Just ask the underage drinker, the pedophile, the embezzler, the crack slinger, etc. when they get busted.  Are we to now, as a country, cry that all laws are racist against someone or something, when we get caught breaking the law??

Now that the idiots are dealt with.....  Let's move on, to the real discussion.  Immigration is supposed to be controlled by the Federal government.  There are federal laws against illegal immigration. 

What is a state to do, when they feel like the government is NOT doing their job?

The government has obviously taken note of Arizona's plan to enforce federal laws.  Why then has the government decided that the state has no right to protect its own interests, when the federal government, has refused to and IS REFUSING to take care of the situation?

The only action that the Federal government is taking, is to tell Arizona to knock it off, and let us do our job.  Which they are not doing.  It would appear that Arizona's interests and safety, are of no real concern to the Fed.  If one state's, interests are of no concern to Fed, how sure am I that my state's interests will be protected?

In my opinion, it is plain to see that the Federal government is seeking to expand its power, all the while usurping the rights of the states.  It is also plain to see, that the Federal government has no real intention of addressing the problem and ease of illegal immigration any time soon.  I would close with asking everyone in eyesight of these words, what is a state to do when the Federal government falls short of protecting its borders and a state's interest.

I get really, I mean REALLY, frustrated fishing.  Like curse like a sailor, when fishing.  I like to do what I call catching instead.  It's really simple actually, it's what happens if your fishing skills are up to par.

Anyways, I got invited to go Kokanee salmon fishing today.  But WTF is a Kokanee salmon you ask?  It IS hands down, THE MOST DELICIOUS fresh water fish you can catch.  Specifically, a Kokanee salmon is a smaller Sockeye salmon, that is found in landlocked waters.  It is fairly common in the West.

My buddy Larry and I decided to go to Causey Reservoir, which is the closest body of water holding said delicacies.  When we got up there, we were the first ones up there.  AWESOME!!  The water was glass, and the sun hadn't quite made it over the tops of the mountains yet.  As soon as we got our gear in the water, BOOM!!, we were catching!  EXCELLENT!!  We filled our limits, which was four fish a person.  The Kokanee are not terribly big, most of ours were between 12 and 13 inches, a pound to two pounds a piece.

Catching Kokanee requires some rather interesting gear.  The names of the gear used are "squids" and "dodgers".  Again, you might question what these interestingly named bits of gear are.  Let me paint a picture for you.......  You've just eaten a can of sardines, and the lid is the dodger.  Looking on the ground, you find a thing that looks like a fishing lure sized mop head, the squid.  You get this great idea, to tie the mop head about 6" behind the sardine lid, add a hook or two, and you chuck it over board.  Holy shit, you caught a fish!!  It is ALMOST that easy.......

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some hibachi salmon to go prepare.

How many times have you heard that?  I think it is used to the point, that it has to mean, or at least stand for something.

So what does, "Take it like a man" mean?

I think this can mean different things, given certain situations.

Recently, I had to go get a physical, so that I could drive the company vehicles.  In my physical, I was weighed, and my blood pressure was taken.  I had known for some time, that my blood pressure was not where it should have been.  I was weighed, and then measured for a Body Mass Index, indicating that I was 34% fat, and 75 lbs overweight.  Yikes!! <====  This is the PG version of what I really thought.

After some discussion, I discovered, that given my height, I should weigh about 174 lbs.  The doctor took one look at me, and said "174 is unrealistic for someone, with your muscle build, but you need to lose some weight to bring this pressure down."  I had a straight conversation with him, and asked him all the hard questions, that had answers that would undoubtedly prompt me to change.  It was tough to be told, that not only are you a fat ass, but you're pretty much gonna die from heart failure.  Look up hypertension if you doubt me.  It's pretty damn serious fellas.

So how did I take this?  I'm changing my life.  I'm making the hard decisions to preserve the future, and in my humble opinion, that's part of "taking it like a man."