TGO David

You know, Smyrna is on the way to Lynchburg and we have several nice hotels right off of I-24 on Sam Ridley Parkway and there's a huge Super Target shopping complex right down the road, tons of restaurants and significantly less chance of getting car-jacked or gang-raped compared to Antioch.

I think I have fixed the broken images in MSIE. I will work on getting the HCP, MIL, LEO, and Gender icons back in. That was on my list of things to do but I just hadn't gotten to that just yet.

Leftover sloppy joes from yesterday. Maybe an EAS protein shake later.

I had some of his Warthog grips on one of the 1911s in years past. Good stuff. I also recommend www.vzgrips.com

Say no to Antioch.

There's an old saying... Don't trust those who don't like dogs. The more people I meet, the more true this statement becomes.

Fonts are actually the same size as they were before.

I don't think he would have even used a Glock as a paperweight. He was pretty vocal about it.

Well... if that's what you really wanted. Congrats?

Really? It seems a lot easier on my eyes. What part makes it more difficult?

While we were offline today for our Moment of Silence, I did a little introspective thinking. The sort of thinking that our buddy Marswolf did while sitting on the porch, watching the storms roll in. One of the things I thought about was the obvious observation of how fleeting life can be. It seems that one minute someone is here, and the next minute they are gone. Pretty unfair, yes. But also it impacted me how important it is to treat each other with respect when we do interact. Looking back, I can see a few things that stood out as signs that Mars may have been up to something. It stretches back over the past year, actually, as he began selling and giving away various militaria, firearms, etc. claiming that he was just trying to clear out some things he didn't need anymore. More recently than that, he posted a thread searching for songs with religious intonations but that were not overtly religious in nature. Mars always liked to say that he was a true heathen, a proud Methodist. But he also had a fairly different view of God and rarely talked much about it. It would almost seem that his search for music with covertly religious messages might have been part of him reconciling himself to God. Ultimately, I wish I had taken the time to check on him more. I wrote off his increasing distance from the forum as just him being busy with work or whatever. I just didn't see it for what it was evolving into. So I'm left with the realization that we never know where a person might be in their life or what problems they may be dealing with. A kind smile from a stranger on the street might lift their spirits significantly. But a harsh word from a stranger on the Internet may crush them completely. That being said, I've decided to take something positive away from this. I'm going to do my best to think twice before snapping at people out of frustration. Mars once told me that he had a happier life when he learned to let go of the things that were beyond his control. I wish he were here now to see that I'm going to take that to heart. To those of you that I've been curt with in the past for silly things here on TGO, I apologize. I hope that you'll forgive my brashness. Now, I wonder what else I can learn the next time the storms roll through. I'm anxious for it to happen. I look forward to sitting on the porch, feeling the wind, listening to the rain. When it happens, I'll lift a glass to toast my friend Shannon and thank him for lessons learned. Even if they were learned a little too late.

Believe it or not... most of the work was done yesterday. During the downtime I really did spend quite a bit of it just reflecting on things. I hope others did as well.

Possum, you've experienced exactly what I have also. Namely that the West VA office is staffed with some of the most helpful people I have ever encountered in government positions. I can't say enough good things about them.

Yeah, those do need to be redone. I'll be changing them today I hope.

Baller. Too bad it sucks at colors. Did you order the monochrome version by mistake?

Your video card fails at life.

Thanks. My brother says it looks rather "blue" on his computer. I noticed that somewhat on my Thinkpad at home but my Dell at work and both of my Macs show that the background is more "flat dark earth". Anyone else seeing blue?

Unfortunately I am unable to adhere strictly to the 9am - 12 noon schedule. Today is our monthly meeting at work and I wanted to be able to throw open the doors again prior to actually being stuck in my meeting. I don't think Shannon would mind. He'd probably think we were silly for sitting here twiddling our thumbs for the past few hours anyway. Thanks to all of you who voted YES to allow us this period of time to reflect and remember. I'm sure in some way, some where, it made him happy to see that we cared.

Today I have decided to unveil the new look and feel for the TGO forum as we come back from our "Moment of Silence" honoring Marswolf. It seems fitting to me and others agree that it marks a transition between the days past and the new days ahead. Hopefully more of you will like the new look than will hate it but feel free to offer comments and constructive criticisms here in this thread. Please note that I am still working on some aspects of the style. I rushed to get this ready for today and had to leave some things on the table to come back to and finish later. So what you see right now will undoubtedly evolve some over the next few days. I will definitely take feedback into consideration as I move forward with finishing it. Thanks.

I have been given approval by Shannon's ex-wife (essentially his only remaining relative) to post more details about Shannon's passing. The first post in this thread has been revised. Thank you.

Zombie Clowns, my friend... Zombie Clowns. The worst of the worst.

I'm quite envious of that rifle! Congrats.

That's going to be one long-ass rifle with a can on the end of it. If you run out of ammo, with that overall length you can just shift forward a little and poke 'em with the end of the rifle.

Sadly, even though the public at large cannot see who voted on a poll, admin-level members can. I'm somewhat disappointed but equally curious why. If that person would like to PM Me and explain, I'd be happy to listen.

Sloppy Joes and Spicy Nacho Doritos.