Time to add a new caveat, because from email it's not clear to some folks (mind you, if you don't read this it won't matter...) Being an open post, people (collectively, the Denizens) other than I post in the H&I. They sign their work (most of the time) - keep that in mind when you want to flame someone in email please - if it doesn't say "The Armorer" or "John" then I didn't write it! And honestly - if you don't like something said or posted... leave a comment, and hash it out (within the context of The Rulez which are clearly posted on the comment form, I would add).

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Heh. I've got permission to work from home... but I left my power supply at the office, and our house power right now is... fragile, with a few blips as there have been some big transmission lines south of us go down and that ripples through the system. All that said, we're doing better in our part of Kansas than we went to bed thinking we were going to be doing. Ew, that was awful english, but I'm not going to waste electrons fixing it right now... 8^ ) We're sitting in a winter wonderland of 1/4 inch of ice on everything - but happily, the temps are hovering just at or above freezing and I can hear the ice falling off the trees already - which, as long as it doesn't turn into branches falling... bodes well. Well, as long as I'm not *under* the tree when it falls.

Today will involve the first real test of the Castle's Polaris Ranger ATV - the horses are out in the pasture and will have to have hay driven out to them, with plenty of risk for the two-legs on the ice, too. As Boquisucio noted over at SWWBO's place... it might be amusing to watch a little keet-skating today... if power holds up, look for Castle Ice Storm pics.

This weekend had two seminal events take place. First, I rang bells for the first time for the Salvation Army - that's important for two reasons. If there is *one thing* I hate about the Christmas season... it's the bell ringers. Not because of what they're doing - raising money for the Salvation Army - but because for what hearing I have left... the bells just drive me crazy. But, the local service clubs engage in a friendly competition for who can raise the most... and since I'm in the rota to become President of my Rotary Club, I felt like I really ought to do everything I'll be exhorting the troops to do. That, and the fact that Mom (unknown to me until her passing) was a fan of the Salvation Army. So, there stands the Armorer, in front of Wal-Mart, ringing a bell, along with another Rotarian and his son. It's coooooooooooooold and windy. The Rotarians we're relieving after their two hour stint are blue and chattering. One of them has a big long red Santa-hat on - which I donned... mostly to give me a wrap-around wind-shield for my face.

Heh. Right. Put on the hat, which covers the still-dark brown hair, leaving the mostly-grey beard. Add to that the Raymond Burr-esque physique of the Armorer... and you have Santa! Or so some of the little people present thought. I quickly disabused them of the notion. I told them I was Santa's 2nd cousin, six times removed, and that I had been banished from the North Pole because I broke a key toy-making machine, and rather than ruin Christmas, I had to work to earn the money to repair the machine I broke... and not to worry - it was fixed, I just found out I liked standing around ringing bells helping the Salvation Army...

The other event was KU's fall graduation exercises. Which is significant, because August, our son's best friend since they were in the 7th grade, graduated. There aren't many in August's family who have gone to college, much less graduated - and we are really proud of him... and I thought I should say so here! -the Armorer

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Good email this morning, from a long-time reader:

We got a call this afternoon indicating that our son Steve was at the airport in Kandahar Afghanistan awaiting a flight to Qatar........and on home. It's now safe to say that we've survived our 7th combat tour, dodging the award of a purple heart along the way. Though we're not going to be able to put all of the kids together until probably mid January.........it will indeed be a ..........Merry Christmas.

Emphasis mine. Welcome home, Steve. -the Armorer

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Behold - the Ice Castle!

And here's a shot of the Chicken Coop of Argghhh! That's not plastic sheeting there... that's chicken wire, frozen so that the birds are essentially in a glass cage. Which they like, because it's pretty warm. -the Armorer

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Why, oh why do they hate the UN? *wringing hands* Okay, that was a borderline comment under the circumstances, but I plead the foulest of moods this morning. In all seriousness, this is a tragedy for the victims, and it is concerning in that it seems to mark the designation of UN interests as a "legitimate target" in the minds of terrorists. - FbL

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The Canadian government, through its senior civil service and political staffers, seems to be attempting to unofficially muzzle the Canadian Forces. And our politicians are either directing the communications coup or are allowing it to happen. Neither option is at all attractive to me; I voted for these twits.

While the government might gain some short-term gratification by micro-managing every single message, in the long-term, the CF and the Canadian people will be hurt by this wrong-headed course of action. - Damian

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Uncle Jimbo has our must-read for the day, about the former police officer who stopped the shooter in the Denver church. As he says, "This woman is magnificent," a classic sheepdog. Be sure to read the links he cites--you won't regret it (details of a Vietnam veteran who also played a role). - FbL

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[And today, it's FuzzyB who stomps on me...] [FbL sezs: Hey, check out the link! It was for a superb cause. :P] [Yeh, but it effectively killed *my* post on the subject Jimbo posted on, but you din't know that, and I'll just let him have it rather than just be another voice on the subject. -the Armorer]

It sounds, Damian, like your lot are where ours were in 2004, when we started beating them about the head and shoulders (the bloggers did) and it didn't start breaking loose until 2005, when CENTCOM changed, and now DoD has changed (Big Army is still kinda... well, dense, but they're moving along, slowly). -the Armorer

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Well, our power's gone at the Castle finally, and no, I've not (yet) installed a generator. Funds are not unlimited... It may be a while before we get restored, since it's growing into a large, regional outage, and we are a small, rural customer. The focus is gonna be on the big lines, and the cities, where it should be. Of course, we could get lucky and it'll be back before I get home, where I'm headed now, with a stop at the local emporium first. SWWBO tells me our forest is being devastated by the ice, so I guess there'll be plenty of firewood... next year. So... all y'all with posting privileges will have to keep this space lit while I go do a little "living history" and settle into a world lit only by fire... and listen to the wolves coyotes howl outside the walls. -the Armorer

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Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone."