One of the nice things about life is that it gives us a great timeline that we can look back on. Certain things are bound to get a little bit fuzzy here and there but for the most part we are all blessed with a good memory that is filled with the times gone bye.
More recently though I've been spending a lot of time looking forward, where is life heading? It's not the easiest thing to try and extrapolate out the trajectory of your life. If past experiences are anything to go by, the progression of life is neither linear nor exponential. At the best it's nearly completely random with periods of tranquility, disaster, contemplation, and explosion so closely intermingled it's hard to tell the difference at time.
So what's the point of trying to draw a plan out over the next five years? Well bluntly put I'm an engineer and having a set of blueprints is something so ingrained into my nature that to stray from it would be like trying to paint a picture with a cat as your brush. Sure it'll work, but it's not going to look that great, and you'll end up with some scratches.
With all that said though I've done the best I can with my lovely wife to try and lay in the trajectory of our life for a manageable portion of our future. There's no sense trying to map the whole thing as we've already discussed. But no sooner had we laid in this trajectory and set our heading did life feel the need to throw me one of the lovely curve balls it's so fond of and make me question my own heading.
Does this ever happen to you? It's not that I was knocked out of my trajectory or off the horse, rather that a new option showed itself that I hadn't anticipated that suddenly made me doubt the way I was going.
At times like this, I'm glad that I can look back and see other moments in my life when exactly the same thing happened. I was just as clueless then as I am now, but it's nice to know that I've been there before and lived through it to get to here. It's times like this that I'm grateful I have the Lord to lean on for direction, and a wife to experience the ride with hand in hand.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
But what about the Mustangs?
So as you know, or knew, or read, or something along those lines. One of the big things I had intended to do with this blog was to track the rebuild effort of the new project mustang that I was going to buy after our move to the Northern Alabama area. I even wrote at length about the epic adventure we took to visit a mustang of choice several states away.
And then silence.
During this time we made the move to Alabama from Kentucky. In the snow. No joke, it snowed the night before we were loading up the uHaul to come down here. So we woke, scrapped ice, and moved the much too heavy washer and dryer down the deadly stairs and got much too sweaty in very cold weather.
Otherwise the move was smooth. My first time towing a trailer and I chose to do it with the trailer loaded to the brim with all of my worldly possessions and the foundations of my new married life. No big deal. We just cruised and enjoyed the drive.
Yet once we got to Alabama we were met with another trial, there was no power in our new apartment. I had followed all the steps, gone online and set up the new account, but we were no where to be found in the system. There would be no power for us until monday.
Monday? We'd be home on monday right? The first week day after a move you'd think that we'd be in the new home that we were just trying to get set up. No, you see that would be far too normal. Monday we'd be in Atlanta, Georgia for my work as I took advantage of a workforce and a gun range that had down time.
But long story short it took a while to get back to being home. And when we finally got home, it became clear. There would be no Mustang in our garage. Because there was no garage. So until the garage is here, there's no Mustang to come.
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| Image Courtesy of RustingMuscleCars.com |
And then silence.
During this time we made the move to Alabama from Kentucky. In the snow. No joke, it snowed the night before we were loading up the uHaul to come down here. So we woke, scrapped ice, and moved the much too heavy washer and dryer down the deadly stairs and got much too sweaty in very cold weather.
Otherwise the move was smooth. My first time towing a trailer and I chose to do it with the trailer loaded to the brim with all of my worldly possessions and the foundations of my new married life. No big deal. We just cruised and enjoyed the drive.
Yet once we got to Alabama we were met with another trial, there was no power in our new apartment. I had followed all the steps, gone online and set up the new account, but we were no where to be found in the system. There would be no power for us until monday.
Monday? We'd be home on monday right? The first week day after a move you'd think that we'd be in the new home that we were just trying to get set up. No, you see that would be far too normal. Monday we'd be in Atlanta, Georgia for my work as I took advantage of a workforce and a gun range that had down time.
But long story short it took a while to get back to being home. And when we finally got home, it became clear. There would be no Mustang in our garage. Because there was no garage. So until the garage is here, there's no Mustang to come.
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| Image courtesy of FordMustangSearch.Com |
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Couch Commando or something more?
I work in the firearms industry, and I consider myself very lucky to do so. How I got here I'm still really not sure to be honest. To go from working in the heart of Southern California at Walt Disney Imagineering, to central Kentucky with Remington Arms Co and now northern Alabama at their new facility has been one heck of a crazy ride.
Interestingly enough though, one thing that I've really begun to realize as I become more and more immersed in my work and surrounded by people who eat breath and sleep gun knowledge, is how little I really know.
Up until getting my job with Remington my primary gun knowledge was knowing just exactly what was and wasn't within the limits of California's arcane and draconian firearms laws. You can have features A, B, or C, but never any two of them together, except on Sundays, when you can have none of them, unless you're 300 feet from a church in which case your going to jail. Because really they made about that much sense. But I had to know them if I wanted to be able to safely own and operate the guns that were becoming more and more a center piece of my life.
Out here though, owning a gun is about as easy as buying a gallon of milk. So there's no need to memorize laws and penal code sections for quote should I ever get bothered. People here who want to see my gun are honestly curious about what I'm carrying and why I've gone with that specific brand. Moreover than that, people here have been using firearms for generations as a way to put food on the table and provide for their family.
Opinions about guns are born from experience and generations of loyalty, not what looked the coolest or worked the best in this years Call of Duty franchise.
Interestingly enough, this brings me to a point that this image showcases so well. Most people look at the picture and think "Oh cool, I need me one of those!" and a few short months ago I would have thrown myself in with them. Now I look at it and can't but wonder "Why does he have a standard A2 front sight when he's running suppressed? He needs an adjustable gas block or he's so over-gassed that suppressor isn't doing him any good!"
And that's exactly the difference that I'm running up against now. It's no longer about looking cool (although let's just be honest that there will always be an element of that present) but now it's about what really is functional and helpful. And the people out here are much the same way, their gun is a tool that they use to hunt, not a status symbol that they take to the range.
It's really worked to change the way I've approached my rifles. What am I hoping to do with them at the end of the day? That's what I need to build them for.
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| Image Courtest of JurisMagazine.Com |
Up until getting my job with Remington my primary gun knowledge was knowing just exactly what was and wasn't within the limits of California's arcane and draconian firearms laws. You can have features A, B, or C, but never any two of them together, except on Sundays, when you can have none of them, unless you're 300 feet from a church in which case your going to jail. Because really they made about that much sense. But I had to know them if I wanted to be able to safely own and operate the guns that were becoming more and more a center piece of my life.
Out here though, owning a gun is about as easy as buying a gallon of milk. So there's no need to memorize laws and penal code sections for quote should I ever get bothered. People here who want to see my gun are honestly curious about what I'm carrying and why I've gone with that specific brand. Moreover than that, people here have been using firearms for generations as a way to put food on the table and provide for their family.
Opinions about guns are born from experience and generations of loyalty, not what looked the coolest or worked the best in this years Call of Duty franchise.
 |
| Image Courtesy of VG24/7.com |
And that's exactly the difference that I'm running up against now. It's no longer about looking cool (although let's just be honest that there will always be an element of that present) but now it's about what really is functional and helpful. And the people out here are much the same way, their gun is a tool that they use to hunt, not a status symbol that they take to the range.
It's really worked to change the way I've approached my rifles. What am I hoping to do with them at the end of the day? That's what I need to build them for.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Blogs are hard...
I had no idea when I told my wife that I would try blogging along with her, just how much work I was signing myself up for.
I carry a full time job, that on a good week averages somewhere between 45-60 hours. To say that it leaves me a little burnt out in the evenings is an understatement. But I really do love what I do and I know that this is only a temporary time of extreme workload. Add to that our normal trips to the gym in the evenings, plus the time that I set aside to invest in my wife and just spend time with her.
Well there's not much left for writing a blog. At least not with any kind of regularity.
And that's what we're seeing here. This blog is covered with the internet equivalent of cobwebs. It's just not at the forefront of my mind to write here.
Which really is sad. I do quite enjoy writing and I should take more time to write more. But until that happens I'll do my best to come through here on occasion and wipe the dust away. Just to make sure you know someone is still home.
I carry a full time job, that on a good week averages somewhere between 45-60 hours. To say that it leaves me a little burnt out in the evenings is an understatement. But I really do love what I do and I know that this is only a temporary time of extreme workload. Add to that our normal trips to the gym in the evenings, plus the time that I set aside to invest in my wife and just spend time with her.
Well there's not much left for writing a blog. At least not with any kind of regularity.
And that's what we're seeing here. This blog is covered with the internet equivalent of cobwebs. It's just not at the forefront of my mind to write here.
Which really is sad. I do quite enjoy writing and I should take more time to write more. But until that happens I'll do my best to come through here on occasion and wipe the dust away. Just to make sure you know someone is still home.
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