Neanderpundit

There are a LOT of things that work a lot better if you remember to do them first- yesterday’s post, for instance: I learned a while ago that if you take Advil before beginning a major project the project doesn’t wreck you nearly as badly. My dr recently turned me on to the combination of 1000 mg Tylenol plus 600 mg Advil, which works even better. I also learned a long time ago that a little squirt of dish soap in your hand, rubbed thoroughly into your hands and forearms and allowed to dry, will make cleanup after a brake job way easier. My feet don’t hurt hardly at all after a days work if I remember to put on my work boots first. And if I’m going to be outdoors working, nothing saves the old boys like a generous dose of Gold Bond green. And I will often rub on some Sombra just as I’m going to be doing something like splitting wood.

Of course we all know about putting on condoms, etc.

Anyway, as I age I’m getting to the point where I remember to do these things more, possibly as a measure of self-preservation. Pity I never got this smart when I was younger, I might not be so fucked up these days.

Spent the day finishing the covered patio at hunting camp; hope to have pictures next week, but today I was just happy to have remembered to take the advil BEFORE i started, so now I don’t feel nearly as wrecked.

Finished the work party and had some backstrap that had been smoking all day, then drove home. One of my hunting companions from Africa was there, first time I’d seen him in over a year; it was so amazing to see him again, we both grinned, remembering campfires of exotic hardwoods and mornings on the veld. He hopes to come during hunting season. I hope he can.

Bedways is rightways now, rightright.

and defense, and it’s excellent reading as always.

The thing you need to remember is the training and the drilling and the workout will get you to that moment. The moment when you are face to face with an attacker and you have managed to get your firearm pointed at him/her.

That moment in time is important. Either you will take out your attacker, or you will be taken out yourself, and the difference is a different kind of preparedness.

Are you prepared to take a life? Are you prepared to deal with the legal ramifications of taking a life? Are you prepared to hit the road and never go back, if you have to? Are you willing to go to jail because of what you are about to do? Odds are good that you might, in this world. Are you morally prepared to end another human life? this is not a deer or a bear. This is a human being, capable of thought, a fellow traveller no matter how deranged. Are you at peace with God and the idea that you are standing in God’s stead, preparing to take someone’s life away?

That moment when your adrenaline is pumping and your attacker’s is too, and the muzzle of the gun is trembling a bit, perhaps, that moment is not the moment to be having these thoughts. Spend a part of every day picturing yourself in that situation, so that when the time comes, you have already had that inner dialog. If you are sane, it’s a godawful decision to make, and if you are normal, if you’re not heavily prepared ahead of time, you will falter, and die.

The mental preparedness to take a life is what separates victor from victim. The will to understand when it’s time to shoot, shoot. An awful lot of people think they’re ready to make that split second decision, but until you find yourself in that situation, you just don’t know. It would be a horrible shame if, at that moment, when your physical training has saved your life, if your lack of mental preparedness lost it agian, for you.

Sherriff Tom Bell(Tommy Lee Jones) is not the hero of “No country for old men”, it’s Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). He’s the one constant in the film; he has a specific job to do, and does it, with precision and thoroughness, through the entire film. he’s portrayed as the heavy, but he is really a guy who just has a job to do, and does it extraordinarily well. He does some things that are extremely distasteful to normal people, but he has the will to do his job no matter what.