MacGyver

You’re welcome to come shoot your old .458 Win Mag anytime. Talk about recoil sensitive...

We've got tomatoes coming out of our ears over here. Usually, with 5 of us, we stay out in front of them. But, with some big projects around the house and traveling some - we're behind the curve. We've got a lot of tomatoes to eat.

It ought to take about 12 weeks - so maybe you'll see it around the holidays. Figure this - the value of the data that the credit agencies have on you - and sell to anyone and everyone on a daily basis - is worth more than $125. So basically, consider it your moral duty as an American to file a claim.

You may have recently heard about Equifax agreeing to a sizable settlement in relation to their data breach last year. You may not have heard that as a result - you're eligible to get $125 or 10 years of credit monitoring. We're trying to encourage as many people as possible to claim it. Basically - making breaches more expensive for companies so that maybe they actually take this stuff seriously. If you're over 18 - they lost your data - and you're eligible for the settlement. This means that you and your spouse - and your parents - and pretty much anyone else you know in America - are all eligible to file. It takes about 3 minutes. To claim it - go to https://www.equifaxbreachsettlement.com There’s a quick form that you’ll need to fill out - You can likely ignore parts 3 and 4 of the form detailing extra time and money spent. If you did sign up for something like LifeLock following the breach - you can claim those expenses and time spent in those parts. it’s pretty much as close to free money as you’re likely to find this week. We do expect criminal groups to start filing soon on people's behalf - so the sooner you file the better.

You get bored of all of them sooner or later...

Glad you finally got around to shooting the Model 70!

As I’ve gotten older, it seems I’ve gotten much more careful in my use of safety gear - be it eye and ear protection using saws or whatever. I put on fall protection gear when I clean my gutters. Thankfully in my current house I don’t have to do it much.

Pastoral work is rarely easy. It’s hard and dirty. We’re not tossing a rope down into a hole and hoping the person climbs out on their own. So often, we’re climbing down into that hole with them and saying, “let’s figure out a way to get out of here together.” All I know is that when a person finds their way through our doors, they should encounter Jesus. Anything less and we ought to just shut the doors - we’d be just as well at the gym or the coffee shop or the bar down the street.

My old Ruger no. 1 in 45-70 might be the last rifle I’d let go of.

Okay, I’ve gotten some time to come up for air. I’ve reread everything here and will offer a few thoughts. Upfront, there will certainly be folks who disagree with me. Take these thoughts for what they are, and maybe use them to process your own church’s response. It sounds like you’ve got a good engaged leadership. First, this is absolutely Kingdom work. Scripture is concerned with three types of people over and over again - the sojourner, the widow, and the orphan. You might argue that a young drug addict doesn’t fall into any of these categories. But, he’s clearly an “other” who society has little use for. Jesus would see this young man and engage with him. This young man is Jesus’s kind of person. Second, working with folks like this is a long effort. It’s dirty. It’s personal. It can be life changing - for the people doing the work as well as the person being helped. When you decide to help - it will change the way that you see things. Things are rarely as simple as we like to try to see them. And working with folks with needs like these will change the way you see things. We’re a small church (150 on a good Sunday) and have worked regularly with 3 or 4 folks who’ve struggled with addiction and homelessness for years now - literally 8 years in a couple of the cases. There are rarely any clean breaks. We work towards that - but there are definitely systemic issues that make it tough. Be prepared for the long haul. Third, there are going to be some people who will be quite vocal in opposing working with this young man. The way I think about this is sort of like this - if this is Kingdom work - it’s very much at the border of the Kingdom. We’ve built our comfortable suburban churches to be at what we see as the center of the Kingdom. So, we rarely have to get our hands dirty if we don’t want to - and a lot of us don’t want to - so we’re really uncomfortable with it when we experience it. Think of a person who’s only ever bought meat neatly shrink wrapped at the grocery store suddenly having to slaughter their own meat. Many really aren’t going to like it. —- File this next part under the thoughts of a church of Christ guy who is deeply skeptical of some of the ways we’ve organized our churches today. What I’m about to say is likely to offend a lot of folks. Feel free to skip ahead. I’m deeply skeptical of the “security teams” that we’re organizing in a lot of our churches. We’ve organized these suburban churches that give us these curated experiences that make us feel good about our personal relationships with Jesus. But, do we see the Gospel in our churches? if we’re not careful - the illusion of security in our churches can become idolatrous. I think we really need to struggle with this more than we do. To go back to my Kingdom language from earlier, I think we see ourselves as being close to the center of the Kingdom. But, in reality we’ve created these cloistered, walled off churches and don’t realize that we’re way more isolated than we think we are. Jesus referred to folks like this as whitewashed tombs once upon a time - and I think It’s probably worth holding up mirror every now and then and taking a good hard look. The irony of it is, we don’t realize it - but we’re not fully experiencing the Kingdom either. There’s a rich seven course meal waiting, but we’ve convinced ourselves that the stale sandwiches we’re eating are as good as it gets. This young man is isolated in ways that are public. But, what we don’t realize is that a lot of us experience isolation in ways that are just as debilitating - but we suffer in private. One of the things that we’ve lost in the modern Western church is that historically there was no idea of personal salvation. Redemption and salvation was delivered through community. I’d offer for thought that by leaving our comfort and heading to the borders of the Kingdom, we might find that salvation comes to us all. Happy to discuss this further out of this thread. —- Back to this young man, I’d offer some pragmatic thoughts. 1. Let your safety team operate as sort of “congregational concierges.” I think we see shootings and want to see the outsider as an opposition force. But, in the Kingdom, everyone is welcome. This young man may in fact go to the front of the line at the proverbial wedding banquet. We need people on these teams who default to being welcome and generous. 2. This young man may not be in a place where he’s ready to accept help. He may not know that he needs help. But, if we figure that God brings people though our doors for a reason - then we need to see him and invite him into the Kingdom. 3. But, it’s okay to set some ground rules. Sort of a framework like - we’re happy to help - but you can’t be high at services. You cannot ask members for money. Appoint a point of contact (maybe a deacon) and funnel through that person. 4. Think about other resources in your congregation who might be able to help. For instance, you might have folks who would never volunteer for a “safety team” - but who work in other helpful spaces. In our church, we have nurses, a mental health resource, people who work in non profits in housing, and social workers. The value that they bring to the table is infinite. And, it’s great to see them use their professional talents for the Kingdom. 5. Consider outside help. We put something in place a while back where we basically subsidize counseling for our members. Specifically, any member of our church can go to counseling for $5 per session - which basically rounds to free. We pay $70 as a church to make up the difference. I see both the bills and the uptake in our church - and from a pastoral perspective, this is probably the best money we spend in a given year. You’re in middle Tennessee - so I could put you in touch with resources that could set something like this up. 6. Scaffold your help. This is a long effort and there is some fatigue that can go along with it. Have that point person or persons - but check in regularly and have your elders keep up with what’s going on. 7. Work towards reconciliation. This young man needs healing - and his family needs to be a part of it. He and they may not be ready for it - but it’s worth looping back on. 8. Know that the Holy Spirit certainly plays the long game and will work in ways that we cannot even fathom if we’ll just make room for it to happen. That was a long answer to your question - but know you’re doing Kingdom work. Certainly my prayers are with you. Happy to talk further if it’s helpful.

That hollow grind looks great. Really clean lines.

I’ve got some thoughts. I’ll put them together later today.

I’m out of my depth here, but a zoologist would say that each of those animals are very dark brown. Black provides contrast where there shouldn’t be any. This is the reason why you rarely see black in any of the commercial patterns.

Black doesn’t exist in nature - this the desire I remove it. It was removed from out later woodland camo patterns. ACU phased it out entirely. Neither multicam nor marpat patterns contain black.

Every time I see a Tisas thread come around I get a little itchy.

Doug, I’m glad this is settled. I think it’s going to be a great move for you - both in the near term and the long term.

I went out to Burger Republic with an older friend recently. I watched him as he read the beer menu with a sort of puzzled look on his face for two or three minutes. Finally, he put it down - utterly confused - and offered, “they’ve got 75 beers on this damn menu, but no bud light, coors lite, or anything I’ve ever heard of. But, they’ve got PBR in a can? I just don’t get it.”

This run sure made a lot of folks really happy. I've got several friends who flew to Omaha for it. Mind you, I've got a couple of friends that take in the College World Series every year. They say it's awesome baseball all the way around.

They’ve stopped production at NRATV: https://t.co/hOwYLFZF6Q

I work with a lot of distressed organizations. One thing I can guarantee - if what’s making the press is this insane - what’s going on behind closed doors is a magnitude of scale worse. The unfortunate part of a lot of this is once the lawyers get involved - there are suddenly a lot of outside interests represented. Many of those are necessarily sort of winner take all and do not align with the interests of the organization. They may well survive - but it’s going to get worse - before it maybe gets better. Unlike most organizations going through hard times - they’ve got a lot of people who are lining against them at the same time.

You know, in all my years of fishing, I’ve not ever used a bubble rig. I need to pick one up and give it a whirl.

My go to is the mullet pattern. Followed by the red head and peanut bunker. But, I think I’ve fished every one of them with success in the Gulf. They make an inshore topwater popper that is loads of fun, too. I think it weighs in at 7/8 ounce, so it’ll cast a mile. Kind of like your kastmasters, anything with some silver flash is great. I love a blue/silver combo like the mullet pattern. I’ve taken to fishing those lures on an 8-foot fast, medium weight rod. My surf gear used to be way over rigged - but of late, I’ve been going the other way. A ladyfish on a lightweight rod feels like you’ve hooked into a tarpon.

When the red flags are flying - people need to take it seriously. We’ve pulled way too many people out of the water over the years. Two drowned on Priest on Friday. One swimming at Smith Springs, and another who didn’t surface jumping off the cliffs at Long Hunter. I’m kind of surprised they haven’t dynamited those things.

Pompano have been good recently. Spanish Mackrel have been hitting fast lures off the beach, too. I’ve switched almost entirely to Yo-Zuri 3D Inshore lures. I like that they’re a little heavier, so they cast longer in the wind, and they seem to last about three times as long as an equivalent Rapala. This one is my secret weapon: https://www.amazon.com/Yo-Zuri-Inshore-Twitchbait-Sinking-Crankbait/dp/B079ZBQYJ4?th=1&psc=1 It’ll catch everything in the Gulf. It’s good for reds, and pompano, and Spanish Mackerel. It’s also good for my kids’ preference - the trash can grand slam - consisting of a whiting, a ladyfish, and a bluefish all caught in the same day.

Seasons and limits have gotten a lot more restrictive in the last 20 years. And, while there is a bit of dissonance between recreational and commercial regulations, overall those limits are a good thing. We’re catching more, bigger fish all around. Yes, we put many back so they can grow, but my freezer is full of better fish. We regularly catch redfish that are way over the upper limit on the slot - 34-35” fish aren’t uncommon. You didn’t see that 20 years ago. The fish we *maybe* caught then were well below the now 18” low end of the slot limit. I get it that it’s frustrating to not be able to keep that red snapper when it doesn’t line up with the week you’ve got for your vacation - but, we’re definitely better for the limits and good fishery management.