Neanderpundit

Tammi tells a story of a roadside deer encounter and a fish on a board.

This brought some memories back, I have to tell you.

it’s 1998. I’m on my way to work, heading north on 394. I see a big champagne colored Escalade.

Escalade? pussy. Champagne? yuppie pussy.

Anway, traffic is fairly heavy, not the least because of Escalade boy. As I approach, I realize that Escalade boy has pulled up to a deer alongside the road , and as the deer has a nice typical rack, is trying to save the head.

So he’s using the one impliment he has to separate the head from the body.

A tire iron.

He’s swinging away at the deer’s neck, trying to separate the head from the body, and his aim is bad, and he’s just turning the neck into hamburger. He’s spraying blood and bone and fleckls of meat at the tan pants and white shirt he’s wearing, and he looks like an axe murderer fresh from a spree. I wonder if he’s going to go to work like this, and if he even knows what he looks like. He’s only focused on getting this rack.

I drive past and see that the front end of the Escalade is untouched- being mostly plastic afore, they tend to self destruct on contact with woodland creatures. he didn’t even hit the deer himself.

Anyway, as anyone knows, Deer antlers are only valuable if you hunt them yourself, be that with a rifle, shotgun… or pickup truck.

Fuck everything I say. What I have to say is nothing. Go read this. Go! NOW!

I’m home now, under roof with my wife and child. I have battened down the hatches against the oncoming winter- tucked mortar joints, calked window seams, fixed weatherstripping. My home is a secure place against most of what mother nature can throw my way. I keep the door and window locks working, and everyone here can shoot- and shoot well. The wife and I both work, so that we can live in a manner that pleases us. So part of our shelter is the physical, part of our shelter is preparedness, and part of our shelter is our ability to provide for ourselves and our loved ones.

From the very first time a man piled up fallen trees and branches to take shelter from the elements, and built a fire in the lee, and cooked dinner on that fire, people have understood the need for shelter. As man learned and grew there were more and more sophisticated shelters, and better and better versions of preparedness, better abilities to provide for themselves.

Shelter is not something to be taken for granted. The work I have done to this home, to get it back into good condition, and keep it in good condition, takes some times, and requires vigilance. Likewise, my ability to defend myself and my family is something I can easily lose without practice. And the skillset I have to earn my bread is expanding every day.

The most vital shelter we have, as a nation, is our federal, state, and local government. It protects us from those who would harm us from without, it shelters us from people who would interfere with our abilities to defend ourselves, and it allows us to proceed with our lives in the manner we are best able.

It may not the be the best shelter, but it’s a damned good one. It was founded by men and women who had vision and courage, and who wanted their offspring, and the generations which followed, to live in freedom, which is every man’s birthright. Unfortunately, do to having weathered the abuse of many storms and many sieges, it is in dire need of repair. The current crop of republicans may not be the best bricks and mortar with which to path those gaps, but they are what we have. We must make sure that we keep the holes patched lest they enlarge.

Vote. Hold your nose, if you must, but vote. The safety, security, and prosperity of our nation depend on it.