Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks .....

Next week, I start firearms training for my Private Investigators license. I have been putting this off. It is expensive, time consuming and for me at least, it will be physically painful. I don't even need a PI license to do investigations for my legal clients in Oklahoma.  And, it is really kind of ironic. The investigations that I have been conducting and will continue to conduct are done mostly online and by telephone.  It is really kind of boring, high tech snooping.  Nothing like what you see on TV.  I am not and do not want to be a junior James Rockford.  But, you do occasionally come across a really bad character and they can get really ticked off when someone reveals their presence in an organization.  But, since the Oklahoma legislature in all of its wisdom does not allow unarmed private investigators the same rights to self defense under the concealed carry act as other citizens, it is necessary for me to either go the full PI route or refuse investigations for clients who are not also clients of my law practice.

CLEET (the Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training) is picky about firearms. I found that I did not own a handgun that they would allow me to train with. Most of my experience has been with 1911 frame or Browning type weapons. CLEET prefers the Glock styles. So, I arranged to use a Glock for my training.

This week, I have been trying to get familiar with the beast. It has not been an easy task. The Glock is a well engineered weapon. But, for reasons known only to God, it is a world apart from a 1911 in use. Maybe it's just my old
dog habits, but the 1911 frame points naturally for me. The Glock does not. I have to concentrate on the sight picture instead of just pointing the front sight. And, the balance doesn't feel right. The heft of the 1911 seems to settle my aim. The Glock is light, even when fully loaded.

Make no mistake, it would not be a good idea for an attacker to stand in front of me firing a Glock. At simulated combat ranges, I hit the attacker ninety percent of the time. So, with 15 rounds in the magazine, that means thirteen rounds are going into the attacker.  But, the hits were not the steady, center mass pattern I was accustomed to with my older weapons. I was all over the target. There didn't seem to be a pattern. Next week will tell the tale. It remains to be seen if I can even physically get through the firing routine which requires drawing and firing after advancing, firing while kneeling, looking around barriers, etc. much less hit the target consistently enough to pass. But, I won't know until I try.

Phil and SI Do A Sitcom ....

Several months ago, Sheila and I ditched our satellite and cable connections in favor of internet streaming.  Aside from costing way less, streaming gives us the chance to literally program for ourselves, choose what we want to watch when we want to watch it and choose over a much wider range of programming.  Aside from a few things on PBS, we haven't watched pure network programming in years.  Almost everything you see on the networks, both broadcast and cable, is released for streaming the day after it's original air date and will be available then for several days or even indefinitely. So, why pay $50.00 per month to watch your favorite show on A&E when you can stream it for less than $10.00 per month the next day?

I was surfing Hulu Plus ($8.00 per month for literally hundreds of foreign and domestic movies and more TV content than you could ever watch) when I saw a promo for a new season of an ABC sitcom called "Last Man Standing" that included Phil and Si from "Duck Dynasty."  I figured I would watch a minute or two to see what it was like.  I was shocked.

I never thought that I would be saying the words ABC (normally the Anything But Christian), Tim Allen (the poster child for the stupid father image that is destroying American families) and sitcom (usually thirty minutes of mind numbing pop culture propaganda) in the same sentence as "well written," "smart," "funny," and "provocative."  Well, "Last Man Standing" is just that, well written, smart, funny and provocative (in a good way, that is provoking thought on issues that matter.)  Here is an example, a comedic discussion of fracking, environmentalism and decisions made on pop culture values: FRACKING EPISODE   (Sorry YouTube won't allow to embed, follow the link).   But, here is the kicker.  Bet you thought you couldn't even mention Christ on TV much less teach a mini Bible lesson.  Guess again, executive producer Tim Allen pulled it off with the help of Phil and Si from Duck Dynasty:




And here is Tim talking to the Phil and Si, admitting he comes from "a church family."  The show is worth watching.  Watch it on the internet.




Postscript:  During every show, Tim does a little monologue that manages to be funny and thought provoking. Listen for the political/social commentary:

A Weekend At Home In the City

I know that some of my blog readers live in the country.  You may wonder what a city dwellers weekend is like.  I will take a shot at answering your question.

Friday evening, when Sheila got off work, we had dinner at our favorite little Vietnamese joint at 21st and Memorial.  The waitress (and part owner) knows us well enough to not even bother to bring a menu much of the time.  We had our usual, an order of cold spring rolls followed by a bowl of Bun Ga Nuong.  The spring rolls are filled with salad, pork, shrimp and herbs and are served with a delicious
peanut butter sauce on the side.  Bun Ga Nuong is a combination of salad, vermicelli noodles, sprouts, herbs and chicken served with Nuoc Mam (fish sauce) on the side.  It is a light but very tasty and satisfying meal.

After dinner, we bought groceries at the WalMart SuperCenter on South Memorial near Woodland Hills Mall. As we shopped, I saw a shirt that I wanted but was not available in my size.  (Yes, I do wear WalMart clothes around the house, at the farm, etc.)  More about that shirt later.  We finished shopping and got home around 8:30.  We then had a bowl of fat free ice cream and a cup of decaf coffee while watching an old British movie on Hulu Plus.

When Sheila resigned from the University of Tulsa to take her current job, they asked her to stay on part time under a consulting contract.  A couple of times per year, she has to put in several long days at the University.  Among other things, she proctors the Registered Professional Engineer Exam and maintains the website and online publications for a four university research consortium based out of TU.  This was her weekend to work on the website.  She left early and was gone all day.  I was still getting over a round of flu/summer cold so, after a couple hours at the desk, I spent most of the day with a good book.

Around lunch time, I called Sheila and said I would take her out to lunch.  We went to a little Greek place north of campus a few blocks on the edge of the bad part of the hood.  Sheila had a Gyro sandwich (lamb sausage and salad wrapped in a pita and served with cucumber dressing).  They had no chicken and I try not to eat much red meat.  So, I went vegetarian with rice stuffed grape leaves.  We split a large of pita bread and humus.  It wasn't a bad little lunch.  By dinner time, Sheila was dead tired.  So, she brought home carryout chicken and we ate in front of the TV.

Sheila likes to cook breakfast on Sunday morning.  This Sunday, she fixed a nice omelet that we ate on the deck.  It was delightfully cool.  I actually had to go back in and get a tee shirt.  After breakfast, she cleaned house for an hour but I stopped her.  The house wasn't that dirty and I really didn't want her working around the house after working all day Saturday.  So, I talked her into going shopping for the camo shirt that I saw in WalMart Friday night.  There are several big WalMarts around Tulsa, so I figured we would be gone a while and riding around in the car and bumming around is a lot more restful than cleaning house.  But, she outsmarted me.  At the second WalMart, she took a smaller size of the shirt and had a clerk look it up on the computer.  Sure enough, it doesn't come in my size since "young men's" sizes only go up to 2X.  So, we went home and took a nap.

Dinner was special even if it was easy.  Sheila decided to visit our common German roots by fixing oven roast potatoes, grilled bratwurst and sauerkraut.  It was good.  And, one of our favorites from PBS was on later in the evening, Foyle's War.  So, we ate a nice little dinner and settled in to a good British mystery on TV.  Not a bad evening.  Not a bad weekend.

I'm Impressed ... and a little shocked!!!!

As you probably know from my previous posts, our farmhouse was burglarized last week.  Now that my anger is subsiding, there is something that I need to say.

I am deeply impressed by the response of the Sequoyah County Sheriff's Department in this matter.  When my cousin John discovered the break in a deputy was there in less than an hour.  I was there within two hours and within an hour after that the deputy was back taking a supplemental report.  For a rural county with a small department and high crime rate, that is impressive response.  That was faster response than we could have gotten in Metro Tulsa.

Here in Metro Tulsa where there are literally hundreds of officers, a smaller land area to cover and two departments working offenses and sharing jurisdiction (PD and Sheriff's Dept.) officers simply do not respond to theft calls.  As a matter of fact, as evidenced by my past posts here they don't even respond to grand theft auto calls.  But, here in Sequoyah County, USA darn they still act like you are a person and your property is important to you.

The real capper came at lunch time today.  My phone rang and it was a Sequoyah County Sheriff's investigator.  She asked me a few more questions and I gave some further information.  I also described a possible suspect.  I was already in awe that they were treating my complaint like the real crime that it is instead of blowing it off like the officers do here in Tulsa.  But son of a gun, this lady was actually investigating and talking about pulling in a suspect or two for questioning.

In Tulsa, I would have been told to fill out a form online so that could send me a letter in 90 days telling me they were closing the investigation and the file on it.  After I got over my shock, I realized that this is how things are supposed to work.  That in the REAL AMERICA, cops still do their job and treat the community with respect.  Increasingly, Tulsa metro police are "too busy" for things like street crime and theft.  That is sad and counterproductive because the criminal class no longer respects the law, the police or the law abiding population.

I was ready to treat this like a "Tulsa Situation."  Before the nice Deputy called, I was already going through my files looking for the number of a tough young ex-Dallas cop PI I know who could go down there and ask some questions and shake some trees.  I was getting ready to make the telephone calls to local LEO's in Sequoyah County to let them know that my PI would be down there nosing around.  But after the nice Deputy's call, I realized that Sequoyah County is NOT TULSA and I don't have to pay someone to do the cop's job for them.  

Again, I'm impressed with Sequoyah County and saddened that Tulsa, my hometown, has become the mess it is.