You'll find, as you go deeper down this particular rabbit hole, that guns cause friends...not crime. - Me

4/29/2014

Just an FYI.

  If you want to post a comment, don't be shy. I don't require verification nor do I moderate comments that are on posts newer than two weeks. I will however keep an eye on comments to see that they conform to my rules. I don't even mind differences of opinion as long as you can back up what you say and do so in a civil manner. I can be hateful and angry in my posts and often do, this is after all my little corner of the net. It is how I vent when I feel the need. However, this isn't just a journal for me. I do this as a way to connect with folks and seek others input on how I see the world. Granted I like some anonymity which is why I use the handle, It's a shortened version of one that I've used for over a decade.

                     Jeff W. "JRebel"

4/25/2014

I'll never understand women. Updated 4/27.

As some of you might have learned a week or two ago from my comment at Brigid's blog. I have an old girlfriend visiting from Europe. Fair warning. Some of the things I am going to talk about might make some of the more testosterone laden readers uncomfortable. Y'all are free to leave if you wish, no hard feelings.

For the rest of you, for the first few days that she's been here things were going along like we were still in high school and dating, except more talking. We couldn't seem to spend enough time with each other. Over the last few days though she's been keeping me at more of a distance, barely wanting to talk to me and not wanting to spend as much time with me. The only conclusion I've been able to arrive at is that something about me or my personality ticked her off on some level. Granted, I like to stay home and watch movies rather than go out partying. But last night I "thought" we had planned to go out to a movie, which coincidentally would have been our first "real" date, EVER. However she chose to go shopping with my sister and stayed gone too long for us to then make the drive to the cinema to see the movie.

Also rather than mention to me anything more about going out turkey hunting like she had mentioned earlier in the week. She never said more about it after that first time. I had told her I could take her out, that all I needed to do was pick up my tags. But her never mentioning more about it I didn't know what to do, I'm not a mind reader. So then she decided last night after not going to the movie that she would stay with my sister and brother-in-law and go hunting with him and one of our friends this morning.

I still have no clue how women think but I do however think they all hate me on a gut level and just enjoy seeing me suffer.

Update. 4/27.

We got things sorted out Friday evening. The miscommunication from earlier in the week for going hunting was the start of the whole deal. I was upset that she said nothing about going and then decided to go with my friends. No one had even thought to ask if perhaps I might wish to go along and it showed. She picked up on the fact I was upset and wanted to avoid me, thinking I was mad at her (that will never happen). But her avoiding me just made it worse. At least we got things sorted out Friday afternoon, then went to the Bar n Grill for dinner and drinks and had a great time.

But, I did tell her the one sure fire way to avoid this in the future. Something that has always worked before. Stop in front of me put her hands on my chest and ask me whats wrong. Granted this isn't something everyone can do when I'm upset. However, for the women in my life that mean the world to me, it's the fastest way to calm me down enough for me to talk. Why yes, I am a big brute but even I have a tender side. Even I have issues, I'm human, I get angry about simple things just as easy as I do the big things. But there are a few people out there that I love enough to do anything for. Even if I haven't seen them in over a decade. I'm going to miss her terribly after she leaves this evening.

4/12/2014

Cattle and Turtles and Horses and Tyranny. Oh My.

After the events of the past couple weeks I felt I would weigh in with a bit of natural science. This being learned by living on a farm, something the PETA panderers apparently never did.

My first point is this:

Their main argument seems to center around two species, one of them invasive to the region. The desert tortoise, and wild horses. Guess which one is the invasive species... Some have argued that horses are here naturally, they are not. The horses of today share a common ancestry from Asia, the Middle East and other parts of the Mediterranean region. The horses of Ancient America migrated to these other lands over the Bering Land Bridge or died off. Only to be reintroduced to the Americas by the Spanish. Which is why we still refer to the wild horses of the west as Spanish Mustangs, whether they have much in common with the old Spanish herds or not.

Now for my second point:

 My family has raised both cattle and horses on the same land. Now I'd like to point out this is in southern Missouri not the arid climes of the Southwest. As always I could be wrong depending on the location, but here it is anyway. I'd like to say, coming from my actual experience. Cattle are incapable of overgrazing land ahead of horses. Horses by nature of their articulating lips can draw graze into their teeth and are far more dangerous to future growth than cattle. We've grazed horses on ground that was eaten down by cattle to the point that they (the cattle) could no longer forage enough to continue on it and had to be moved to another pasture. Just ahead of us turning the horses into the former pasture to graze what the cattle couldn't for several weeks to a few months depending on time of year and rainfall. YMMV.

As for the tortoise, by the nature of natural selection of turtles and tortoise, they tend to outlive humans, cattle, horses and government agents (who I have doubts about being human), some have even outlived entire governments. While not the same species there is something to be said for living your life slowly. You don't have to fight your competitors if you can outlast them, and their great-great-great-grandchildren.