45.8 MPG in a 4 door sedan? Yep!

We traded in the pig of a Chrysler Pacifica which was in the shop on a regular basis for a Toyota Camry. And whats even better is that it's a Hybrid. I know, I know. Those of you who know me personally are still laughing, but if it helps, I figure the money I can save on gas can go to ammo, so there! It's now justified!

This is my wife's daily driver to downtown KC, and she has been keeping an eye on the MPGs just for kicks. Well this morning I was awaken to the sounds of my HTC 8925 mobile phone notifying me that I had a new message.

It went something like this.....................

My car rocks!

LoL! Yes it does sweetie.

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The next thing I know, I hear a loud sound only to discover it's the trash truck leaving the culde-sac. I suddenly remember I have yet to put the trash out at the curb. Good feeling gone! Oh well, looks like it's going to be one of those days.

Time away from the Bolg

I haven't updated anything in quite a while. I have realized that the number of things that take up my time vs the amount of time I have is a little lopsided.

Focus away from the family is never good. Work has been a little more than demanding lately, requiring a lot of off hours attention and sleepless nights.

Church has become an important part of my life and my relationship with God. I have joined the Men's Ministry in an effort to reach out to the men in the congregation and help equip them to be men of God, warriors for a spiritual life. I am also still involved in the Kids Worship service every Sunday. We alternate every other month with another team so that helps some to keep from getting "burned out".


This year we have a Senior in High School as well as a Sophomore. With the Senior comes Project Grad, a ton of fundraising and working the School Events. You can check out our website here. In addition we are on Twitter and Facebook. We have really taken steps to reach out this year for volunteers and donations.

We are planning several fund raising events , including Trap Shooting, Motorcycle Poker Run, Golf Tournament, and more. It's going to be a wild year. We need to hit the $35k mark to cover it all and have a little left for starting it all off next year for the next group of parents.

I am still maintaining the website for Dutch's Firearms and selling firearms on the side.

At some point, I plan to get my Instructors Certification for CCW courses, but don't see that happening until next year at the earliest.

So, with all of this going on, I still have to find time to meets the family's needs and wants as best I can. The kids are back to school which should be a bonus as they aren't home bored, but it brings it's own level of demand for the extracurricular activities etc.

We just keep pressing on and wonder what tomorrow brings. With the current political climate and the Socialist agenda being shoved down our throats, one has to wonder where it will all end.

I ran into this on someone's blog a while back. Not sure where I found it but it sure made an impression on me. I believe the stats are a little out of date but they are still astonishing!

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I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an Institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want To do that.''
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore For two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a Single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you Think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.
``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' One doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''
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Click the link to find out more about them

I have also added this video of an interview and footage from one of their races.

A Look Back

As I take a look back to past vacations, I remembered the trip to South Padre to see my parents. I don't know if it's just the weather recently or what, but I have been a little restless and longing for a warmer climate.

We spent an entire day driving down to Brownsville where my folks were living at the time. I think this was about the longest day driving ever. We left the KC area about 0400 hours and arrived in Brownsville about 2345 hours.

The next morning we headed to South Padre Island a mere 17 miles away from Mom and Dad's front door.

As we arrived in Port Isabelle , we stopped to take in the view across the causeway from the light house.







Our tour guide, (aka Dad) showed us around the island.





We spent some quality time on the beaches here, and the girls loved every second of it.





My youngest daughters passion is horses. So we were happy to find an outfitter on the island where we could spend a couple of hours on the beach riding. My ride for the trip was Vegas, he was a great horse. Willing to go anywhere I wanted as opposed to regular trail horses.



As the week progressed we spent a lot of time sight seeing on the island and surrounding area, including a great little zoo in Brownsville.





**more pics to come**

Sunday Plans

Sunday is shaping up to be a great day. We are starting out with Church Service and Sunday School, followed by lunch and an afternoon filled with shooting.



A friend had graciously extended the offer to come out to his place and partake in a little trap shooting. Looks like we will take some other targets out as well and make an afternoon of it.

I think the AR-15, XD45c, and my new Kahr CW9 will see some action. I plan to take pictures and will post them up in the next day or two.


*******

As it turns out, I took very few pictures on our outing. I spent the majority of the time discussing gun safety and working with my daughter and a couple of new shooters on their stances, grip and sighting. So Some day when I actually unload all of the ammo boxes, camera bag and other junk out of the back of the Xterra I will grab the SD card and post up at least one or two pictures.

All in all it was a good day, we all accomplished our goals for the day. I wanted to get my daughter used to the 12ga shotguns kick, action and sights. I also wanted to exercise my new Kahr CW9. I hadn't had a chance to run any rounds through it since I got it and have been wanting to carry it in stead of the XD45c. It did perform flawlessly as did my youngest daughter with the Remington 870 Express Super Mag.
Thanks again Roger!






BTW, we also were at Roger's house for this little get together. Thanks for the offer too! We will get to building that berm up at some point.




Here's a couple of pictures of my youngest feeding Roger's goats. I think she enjoyed that the most!

Been a while!

Well, It sure has been a while since I have updated my blog. Sorry everyone. I have been so busy. I have been spending most of my spare time helping a good friend start and operate his Gun Shop in Raymore.

This has been a real treat to spend the time with him and to get to know more about this business.

I plan to start adding adventures again soon folks so stay tuned.

Rain, Rain and More Rain

As I got the tractor out of the garage last Tuesday night to mow, I realized how odd it was for me to still be mowing this late in the year. Why wasn't my grass a wonderful hue of tan? ................. Oh yeah! It has rained a lot in the last several weeks due to the turbulent weather in the gulf and an interesting weather pattern from the west. It has also been fairly cool out as well versus the normal 95+ degree humidity filled goodness that usually plagues us this time of year.



As I pile on the tractor, I also realize how bad the ragweed has gotten with all of the cool weather and rain. After I regained my composure from sneezing my face off, I was underway! Now, this year has been a stellar year for grass growth, and I sit thinking how many times I have had to mow already. I HAD to mow twice a week all spring and sometimes a thrice was thrown into the mix just to keep me out of trouble. Now I am back down to once a week.



Typically this time of year mowing involves just ripping through the yard like I'm on the Kansas Speedway in first place getting ready to take the checker. (That reminds me...I need some racing stripes and a sponsor for the tractor, I have to pay for gas and maintenance on that thing you know!) Anyway this trip around the yard was time consuming as it was much like mowing grandmas 1970's Shag in her living room. I finally got done well after dark, glad the tractor had lights and ran in to take a shower to remove that evil pollen from my body while my head was still attached and my sinuses were intact. I was probably a real sight as I felt like the snotty little alien from Flight of the navigator.



Now with Ike threatening to see the Midwest later this weekend, I only wonder how long it will be before I can mow again, it already needs it now.