quote:

Originally posted by PR64:
These guys make me happy.

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I love dogs! The one on the left, it’s that always it’s facial expression or is it genuinely surprised?

Calm, relaxed, being pet face:


.1 seconds later…

“I’m certain someone is trying to break in and kill us all” face

That's DugthePug.

He's mine and is a fun little guy.

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Won Military Performer of the Quarter today, pretty decent coin and a 24 hour pass I may take tomorrow before I start my new job.





My wife is on a health kick but bought me and 8 oz filet today for dinner…good day all around!

Just adopted this little guy from the local dachshund rescue. They were convinced he is a standard sized wire haired dachshund. We’re not so sure - but he is one energetic bundle of love. Lots of puppy energy around the house now. Not surprisingly, our other two dachshunds are not completely sharing our joy.

Nothing like a doxie on hard ride, Mach 1.1, skimming the ground with the grass touching its belly and a big grin on his face.

Mrs. chbibc and I enjoyed another great season of boating and will soon be celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary.

This is a Lucinda Williams song, and “joyous” is certainly an apt word to describe it.

My very thoughtful and beautiful bride had a custom metal/ coin holder made for me for my birthday it now hangs over the desk where I reload in our utility room. Now all those coins and medals from various shooting competitions over the years ( decades actually) and 25+ years military service challenge coins accumulated have a place of honor for easy viewing.

Met up with my kid, who is still in college, for the day. We thought yesterday might be the last day oof year with over 75 degrees temperature and wanted to take advantage with an outdoor adventure.

Since wife was along, who has limited physical ability, we chose to go to Nolde Forest State Park.

Very easy trails to hike. I usually have the mindset to bring out more than I bring in. It was a pleasure at this place that I didn't have to do that. Very clean for a public area! At least on the paths that we were on.

Very family friendly place with no riff raff or shenanigans.

If you're in the area, it is like a hidden gem worth considering.

Hiking trails at Nolde Forest near Reading, PA
https://uncoveringpa.com/nolde-forest

I went out yesterday and shot a round of sporting clays with my adult son and he beat me by 3 clays. He doesn’t beat me often, but yesterday he hit his best score ever 85/100 on a really tough course. There is a history behind our competitiveness.

So I love when either of my kids beat me at something. They both know that when they do it was all earned. My son started bird hunting with me at the age of 12. At about 13-14 he started to become better than I was and it was apparent that I needed help. As someone who traveled every week, I found a coach and started taking monthly lessons when I was away. I did that pretty religiously for about three years and didn’t tell him. Well, as expected I got better and he was confused as to how it happened. At about the age of 20-21 sitting in my back yard with a bunch of friends and neighbors enjoying some nice bourbon a neighbor who had played golf me in a tournament asked me how I was playing. When I informed him that I rarely played (5 handicap) and that most of my feee time was spent shooting clays with my son he was a bit surprised. When my son was a teenager, it was near impossible to get him to play golf at our club but if I asked him to shoot clays, he was in the car faster than I could load it. So I more or less stopped playing golf and started shooting clays. During that conversation, it came to light that I had taken lessons and my inebriated son accused me of “cheating, or at a minimum using my means to gain an advantage”. We all had a good laugh.

About a year aqo as my son finished school and struggled a little to get started on his career path, we had a conversation as to the why I took lessons. I told him that when he started to get better there was no way I would have the ability to offer help or coach him to be better. I never once withheld tips or skills to win, I always pushed him to be the best he could be and was adding encouragement even if it meant I would get beaten. Yesterday, I got beat in a real dogfight! On one station that I struggled, my adult son was offering tips to coach me up. I may have been beaten, but it sure felt like I won. He didn’t gloat, in fact he didn’t say a word because he knew he”d earned that win. We kept the scorecard as we often do, and I was on cloud nine about his mental breakthrough of crossing 80. Last night, I cleaned his shotgun beaming with pride about the man my 24 y/o son has become.

^ that's good stuff right there, Dking.

I just finished a 27 mile 2 day hike with my brother and son. My son has been wanting to get in shape, and asked to come along of his own initiative...he typically hasn't had much interest in hiking. He worked his butt off and we got to have some good talks about why we hike (even when it kinda sucks), the value of hard work for hard work's sake, and even got into some family history. There was a lot of good dad stuff that got to happen in those 27 miles.

I just found out that Friday was the last time I would drive my son to morning practice. I really thought he’d be driving himself to morning practice when he got his license, but in Florida, 16 year olds can’t drive between 11pm and 6am while 17 year olds can’t drive between 1am and 5am. Work is the ONLY exception.

Districts were Saturday, Regions are this coming Saturday while States will be the Saturday after that. They are tapering between now and States. Tapering is a period where they don’t practice as hard so theoretically their bodies can be 100%.

I don’t have to get up at 4am tomorrow to get him to 4:30am practice for the first time in four years of high school swim seasons!

My wild child loves the blue one the most.

The SV650 track bike is finally in cue to get fixed up. One day this will be her bike.



This will remain mine because it’s the perfect blend of sport and comfort. That 996cc 90° twin is a so much fun. Yeah it’s a little heavier than the mighty SV650 but I’m going to put mine on one hell of a diet.



On another positive note I took my YZF-R1 for a ride tonight. This is something I do only two to three times a year (for max effect).

MIND BLOWING.

Riding a 1000cc superbike is the closest you can come to feeling like a NASA Astronaut/test pilot.

It is such an incredible experience when you haven’t ridden in a long time. Especially if your bike has a race exhaust that is loud enough to wake the dead.

Pippin celebrating the rain.

Today is our 52nd wedding anniversary. Best years of my life!

My son is going to the high school swimming state championships in an individual event!

It’s his senior year and his last chance, but his best 500 Free all season was a 5:15 which isn’t even close to good enough for states.

Out of the blue at districts last Saturday, he came in second with a personal best time of 4:59. A huge improvement, but still not good enough for states.

Yesterday he was sick, but he managed fourth at regions with a 4:53 which gets him to the state championships.

The houseplants are staring at me....

My nephew completed his board of review for Eagle Scout last month and is officially an Eagle Scout. Really proud of him for all the hard work he put into it.