Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619

Here's a Pacific Rattler in camp in the Ingalls Creek drainage in Central Washington May of 2017. We see them around there often.

I only accept the finest Cordovan for my footwear...

I think the first three are very good and that Matt Damon is excellent in the role.

There's a difference between 'dry' and 'desert'. Central and Eastern Washington are semi-arid, but they aren't deserts. They make great 'cowboy' country. Likewise Central and Eastern Oregon, except that Southeast Oregon does have some true high desert. As for proximity to Hollywood, think of the Alabama Hills, the location of countless westerns, including many of those of Randolph Scott.

The only rattler native to the Pacific NW is the Western Rattlesnake (not to be confused with the the Western Diamondback), sometimes called the the Pacific Rattlesnake. It's small, and there are only a couple of recorded fatalities in the last century. We've seen them often camping and hiking in the Central Cascades, east of the crest. They are timid, and we pay them little mind. Just part of the local wildlife.

Of course the Post Office has been run by the Federal gov't since 1789.... In the course of 45 years of law practice I must have sent and received thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of pieces of mail. That and personal mail-- always worked quite well for me.

A few years back, I sent monies to a family member using commercial money orders. They worked well and were secure enough. Never have used a postal money order. If you are going into debt with credit cards, they are not good. But if treated like a charge card and paid in fulrl every month, their buyer protection and airline miles are very useful!

We shot fireworks off on and around July 4 all the time when we were kids, and I don't remember any dog issues with them at all. Never gave it a thought. But back then the dogs ran at large and I suppose they may have hightailed it down the gulch.....never paid it any mind. Now everybody talks about their dogs at fireworks time.....

Very doubtful. Most likely you'd be cited for fishing without a license.

This was highly variable. My grandad talked freely about his WWI experiences, for instance. My four senior partners in the practice of law in my early professional years were all WWII vets. Two were late-war entrants who didn't see combat. But two did. One was a submariner who went on four war patrols with the USS Pogy. One was particulaly fraught, a cruise in minefields in the Sea of Japan. He told me that he'd never been so scared in his life, and had never really been afraid of anything since. He never hesitated to talk about his war experiences. He stayed in the naval reserves and retired a Captain. The other was one of only a handful of survivors of his LST hitting a mine in the Western Pacific. He was on deck and blown clear. He didn't care to talk about it. In the decades immediately after the War, most just wanted to get on with their lives. Besides, why talk about the experiences that so many others also had? As the decades went by, and vets got old, many began to more freely discuss their experiences.

How do they carry their flint and steel?

It's been remarked that WWI was an artillery war, and the first use of aircraft in that war was for artillery spotting. The pilots would observe the accuracy of artillery fire and report by dropping lead-weighted reports written in the air. My granddad, a Canadian, entered the war as an artilleryman, and that path put him into the Royal Flying Corps, which became the RAF in April of 1917, a few months before the war's end. We have his perfectly preserved uniform with RAF wings and a lot of his written material. He said that when he became a pilot and officer, he was required to grow a mustache and carry a swagger stick! On one mission, he lost power at 4,000 feet and glided to a safe landing, though just behind enemy lines. He evaded, getting a whiff of mustard gas on the way. I grew up a few blocks from him and was close to him, often hunting on Saturdays for pheasants in the local Puyallup valley. I own the 12 gauge Sterlingworth side-by-side that he hunted with. I was 29 when he died at 82, while I was the midst of a jury trial. So he lived long enough to see me enter a profession, which he had urged, and to see several great-grandkids, my children. He told a few stories of the War, but I wish I had inquired more deeply and gotten more details. We donated his handling notes for his Clergy engine, which were accepted by the RAF museum in London. A day came when there wasn't a single WWI veteran left in the whole world. That day isn't so far off now for WWII vets....

A moving story, for sure. My grandfather was in the Royal Air Force in the Great War; flew (biplanes of course) as an artillery spotter. He had many interesting stories of that war.

Any observance will do, and nobody should break the bank. Personally I know of several deaths during Covid where it was announced that the obsequies would be had at a later time. A couple did. Several never did anything which I was sorry about. It's becoming more common.

That's exactly what I do. Rib steaks for much less, and same quality.

That's my 'umble opinion, at least in contemporary eyes. When I started CAS and bought a Colt .45 revolver, my eldest daughter bought me a box of .45 ACP for a stocking stuffer.....she thought that's what Colt .45 was and she had a good point.

Folks have lots of ideas, but to me it's just do what has usually been done from time out of mind: a ceremony, burial or cremation, and a good reception/wake. Simple enough. Funerals are for the living, not the dead. When I see "in accordance with his wishes, there will be no nothing" I always wonder about the family's actual wishes. I've often regretted seeing that myself for some I knew well.

Weather forecasts these days are way, way better than they were a few decades back.

My weather app is always remakably correct.

I live in the same city that I was born and grew up in. I practiced law for 45 years here, etc. etc. So funerals, funeral receptions, etc have always brought together friends, acquaintances, and colleagues dow the years, many of whom I'd never see otherwise since retiring. My kids know to put a good one on for me when the time comes, with a good spread at the reception!

Here's a pic: BAR MK 3 - Semi-Auto Rifle - Browning It's a fine rifle, but I wonder why they call it a BAR? Well, I don't really wonder....

I own a Browning "BAR" Mk. 3 in 300 Win Mag. It comes in many chamberings. It's a great rifle, and I really like it. But the 'BAR' bit is pure puffery, and deceptive, really. It's not a "BAR' but Browning wants the customer to make a connection. Sort of like Henry has done. Among other things, it is of course not an automatic rifle, it's a semi-auto. How often have we explained to people that semi-autos are not automatics? And it is unrelated to the BAR in any other respect, except that Browning makes it. Well, marketing and the dollar rule, alas.

If it wasn't for funerals, I'd never get to see dozens of old friends and colleagues.

Round steaks have great flavor but are tough. My ma used to pound them and braise them with sauces for what was called 'Swiss steak'. For years you could by 'rump roasts', that 'watermelon cut' but now we never see it except as 'round roast'. Thick-cut round steak has been sold for London Broil for several years now as an alternative to flank steak, which is more expensive, and in fact it works extremely well. Cut thin on the bias it's as good as flank to us. In recent years there's more of an appreciation of the lean cuts; with the right prep they are great, full of flavor.

Sounds like a plan.