Arguments about PTSD

To be upset, pissed off, angry and hurt all at the same time is quite an accomplishment. Been thinking of a recent conversation I had with a good friend about PTSD, a conversation that has two very different point of views. My friend thinks that the whole post traumatic stress disorder is a scam most veterans use to get disability. "Its a disorder that cannot be proven either way so they can play it up and act like there is something wrong with them."

While we will always have those that will play the system to gain benefits, most veterans that are being diagnosed with PTSD are genuinely trying to seek help. Because of people like my friend, most veterans avoid seeking help because they fear of being seen as weak.

"My grandfather served in World War II and he didn't have any problems. Those guys saw more than anyone that was in Iraq or Afghanistan." The generation that went through hell during WWII are some tough old guys and they deserve our respect. Most guys were suffering from the same problems the guys from Iraq and Afghanistan are. Back then it simply wasn't common to express your feelings, most guys simply swallowed their pain and suffered quietly.

To discount any of our service members is a disgrace to the gift they have given the rest of us. To those that have been to hell and back, those have been battle hardened, each and every one deserves the help they seek to ease their pain and to have peace in their lives.

Doctor Who

I am currently waiting for the new season of Doctor Who to come out later this year. I have only been watching the show since about November of 2013. I have known about the show through friends and the constant ramblings of a ex girlfriend's sibling on Facebook. Problem was I never was able to sit down and watch and episode until recently after switching from satellite to cable and was given a DVR as part of the switch. Now it doesn't matter when the show comes on, I can watch them on days of and never miss one again.

When I first started watching the show I didn't know what to expect. I always had love for sci-fi shows, growing up with reruns of lost in space, Star Trek, and current shows of Star Trek Next Generation. But here was s how about a guy that could fly anywhere and at any moment in time and always ending up somewhere that requires him to save the day.

Since November with the help of a friend loaning me their Amazon prime account, I have been able to watch all the episodes since the show has been restarted in 2005. Couple nights was a major Doctor Who overload.

Ever Evolving Interests and Hobbies

For years I have been plagued with short lived hobbies. Although most I still have interest in but the drive and obsession is no longer behind it. I will simply move on to another hobby only to later circle back on a previous one and begin the obsession one again.

This past year I noted the different hobbies or interests I had. One thing led to another and another. I started off with camping and backpacking and made a few trips out. This led to bushcraft which helped me learn new ways to pack and to simplify what I took camping. I found interest in muzzleloaders, primarily the Hawken rifle design and ended up finding a beautiful Thompson Center Hawken. This also led me to make a few things from leather, knife sheaths, axe masks, pouches.

Bushcrafting also got me interested in older tools like the axe, drawknife, carving knives. This in turn helped me rediscover my interest in wood working tools: planes, saws, chisels. I quickly had a nice collection of mostly older Stanley and Disston tools.

I was collecting older double edge razors, and while it was too cold to be out in the shop I focused on the razors for a few months. Purchased a few that were on my wish list, found a few cheaper ones to give away as starter sets for friends. I also rounded out my collection of shaving brushes, all new but of various types of hairs and styles.

Now my interest is currently on Lego's. Buying several sets that I had as a child, sets I wish I had, and newer sets that I find interesting. Not sure it I will get the bigger sets seeing how they cost more than I wish to spend but I will buy a smaller set here and there as I find ones that really draw my attention.

All previous interests and hobbies are not forgotten about, the planes and saws and everything else in shop is disorganised, and needs proper storage. The razors have taken over the bathroom and the ones I don't use on a regular basis will be put in a display case to show off each one.

The camping gear needs to be reorganized so that this fall I can make a few trips up into north Arkansas and explore the state parks. My geocaching adventures have pretty much come to a close until it turns cool again.

I enjoy all my hobbies, and will probably add more once I discover something else is cool and exciting to me. I guess I need to start looking at it all as if I have something for each season rather than thinking I am simply obsessing over one and forgetting the rest.

Dangers of geocaching in the south

As the weather begins to warm up and temperature begins to rise, we all know that spring is almost over and summer is just ahead. This also an indication that everything is coming out of their winter slumber.

Past couple weeks I have been to several geocaching locations only to see the potential hazards of this hobby. Yes everything comes with a risk and being outside offers so many dangers when we are outside of nice trimmed yards. The great places that these geocaches are hiding in also make great homes for very vicious critters.

One cache was within a pile of bricks laying on the ground. Now the clever hide would be just under a top brick revealing a cavity between more underneath. Well black widow spiders and snakes also find that cavity would make a great home. Another cache was inside a an abandoned oil well location inside the electrical service box. The power lines have been removed and was clearly marked that no live wires was running to it. The hazard wasn't the idea of being shocked but being stung, inside this service box and family of red wasps had taken up homestead and didn't like the idea of being disturbed.

For those caches that are off the beaten path in the now thick undergrowth of a young forest, there is always the potential of picking up a few hungry hitch hikers. Last year the ticks down here were horrible, just walking around in the yard was a hazard of picking up at least a dozen ticks. These little guys are just sitting waiting for you to walk by and brush up against that small tree as you are marching on in towards the cache. If you do find yourself with the tiny blood suckers removing as soon as you find them, hopefully you found them before they get a chance to latch on.

During the warm part of the year down here in Arkansas there are several extra precautions that one must take to be careful around wildlife. As for me I believe my geocaching season is over until mid November. I will still probably do some urban caches and a few park and grabs that don't require poking my hand in somewhere that something else could have made a home out of.

Trains and Lego's

I have always been fascinated with trains, always wanted to get into model railroading but never have thought I could afford it and lack the room to set up a decent size set that would keep me entertained very long.

Lego's is my other weakness, I love building the city sets mostly and have recently been getting back into the obsession of collecting. With buying several sets from eBay and several more from the now from the recently discovered bricklink.com I am completely absorbed back into the addiction. I am at the moment trying to hunt down the sets I had as a kid and the ones that I have always wanted.

Lego has always had train sets while I was growing up, with a couple sets in their current line up. I have always been more interested in the freight train sets more than the passenger trains. The only thing preventing me from diving head first into getting any of these sets is the cost, I cannot justify spending so much on them.

Tonight I discovered several reviews on building block brand Enlighten, and they also make train sets, once I found out they made a model of the Union Pacific freight engine I knew i had to have it. Growing up in south Arkansas, it's a common sight to see a bright yellow Union Pacific train to be rolling down the rails. Problem is I cannot find the set anywhere online in stock. To bad, the low price of the enlighten brand made buying a train set so much more desirable.

For now I can only dream about having a awesome Lego train set running through my Lego city as I count my nickels and dimes saving up to buy one of these wonderful sets.

Legos then and now

Growing up I always enjoyed playing with Lego's. Started out with Lego Duplo blocks and went to the standard size blocks as I got old enough. I remember my first set of the regular Lego's It was the 6671 utility repair lift set. This set included a small truck with a trailer that had a mounted scissor lift. the set came with one mini figure and a couple of tools. The set was released back in 1989 but I am not sure as of when exactly I received this set from my parents.

I have had several more sets since then, one Christmas I received almost the entire series of the western sets from my parents and sisters. I tried to keep the sets together but eventually everything ended up in a huge bin all mixed together. Looking back I wished I hadn't done such a thing, since now I have no knowledge as to where this container of childhood treasure may be buried.

Recently I rediscovered my love for the little building blocks and have purchased the 6671 set off of eBay just to have the set complete. I have also discovered that Lego has made two sets very similar to the old utility repair left set. One is the 3179  repair truck, which was released in 2009 and it is a stand alone truck instead of having the lift on a trailer. the lift itself is different with it being a cherry picker style boom lift. The other set is the 60054 light repair truck which came out in December 2013. I just kicked this set up at Wal-Mart since it is in the current Lego product lineup. I really like this set as a model, very nice looking truck modeled after a pickup, very well thought out.

Now with having all three sets I really like that Lego keeps introducing great sets and continues to produce new exciting ways to make things. But I see a growing problem with the way they design their sets. Most will agree that the older sets it was fun to build the intended model shown, but the back showed that there was potential within the set to make much more, the back showed a couple examples of what else you could build out of the set. With the specialized parts and reducing the number of pieces I feel that Lego is really limiting the imagination capability of their sets. As an adult I am buying the set for just that the set to display, building a model that is made from bricks. But what about the kids that wants to play with these, you build the set and play with them as if its a over sized matchbox or hot wheels vehicle. There is no replay value once the kid grows bored of that particular set.

Getting older

Was having a conversation with a coworker tonight about how both of us are turning 30 in November. I have come to realize that getting older is not fun. Now I have already been pretty banged up from the time I was in the army: pulled muscle in my lower back, knee joints hurting on and off. But now I am getting a lot more pain and problems, elbow hurting non stop in my left arm, middle finger on my right preventing me to grip anything. Where did these problems come from?

As much as I hate to admit it, I think I need to start running again and try to get back into shape. I've always hated running, to me it's boring and feels like it never will end. But I guess I just have to suck it up and deal with it. So anyway I can make my time running more enjoyable? Mp3 player with a awesome motivational playlist?

I recently started taking one a day multi vitamins, although it is tough to remember to make sure I take them, always hated breaking in a new habit, anything out of the normal routine usually gets overlooked and forgotten.

Geocaching and Harry Potter

First day off for this week, since I was called into work Tuesday night for a special post. I didn't accomplish much today other than cleaned up a air conditioning unit to go in the house and rinse off the pollen that accumulated on the motorcycle these past couple weeks.

By late afternoon I decided to head out on a geocaching series southeast of Magnolia called the "I spy" series, about 20 - 30 caches along three roads spanning between Magnolia and El Dorado. Each cache was only a level 1 with a couple being a level 1.5. I only made six finds before calling it quits to go in search of dinner.

After settling back in at the house I watch the third and fourth Harry Potter movies. A friend recently loaned me all eight movies to see if I would like them or not. I have to say I do find them interesting. When the movies first came out I never paid them any attention, I was forced to sit through the first movie and because I didn't pay attention I ended up completely lost. So now I decided to give each a fair chance with my undivided attention and although this isn't my favorite genre of movies they do entertain me.

Drives Cache Closet

Geocaching is a treasure hunting game using GPS devices, players navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and attempt to locate a geocache, a container, that is hidden at that location. I have only been playing for a few weeks now and really enjoy getting out and hunting for these little treasures. The container can be as small as a peanut and as large as the cache owner wishes to make them, but usually about the size of a ammo can. Each cache usually has a logbook for the players to write their names in and the larger ones even has small trinkets that you can swap with. Since playing I have really been getting a urge to put out my own caches for others to find. I have been gathering ideas of what containers to use and looking for vendors to purchase various things I may need to complete my caches before hiding them.

One vendor sparked my interest and I quickly began to fill my online shopping cart. Drives Cache Closet has a huge variety in caches from large to small and their prices are better than most I have seen. I selected five bottle preforms and two nanos, Drives's prices are very competitive, beating most other vendors on several various items. Drives Cache Closet includes a log book for every cache you purchase, no more having to purchase them separate or making your own to fit, each is sized appropriately to the cache container size. Once the provided logbook is filled up, you can use the links provided on the website to download and print off more.

While checking out there was an option to select to have a travel bug sent to you with your order. A nice idea to help a travel bug to reach new areas that wouldn't get to by simply hitching a ride with a geocacher.

Along with my order I also received a couple bits of promotional items; a pen, a rubber bracelet, and a pathtag with a Drives Cache Closet business card. I will be using the bracelet and pen as swag for swapping items in a found cache but with keep the pathtag since it is my first one and I read that they are meant to be collected.

I really enjoyed ordering from Drives Cache Closet and hope to do business again with them soon. Go visit them over at www.drivescachecloset.com/ you won't be disappointed.

Thoughts for the night

The past several days has been stressful. Stress from work is taking its toll, over the past several months we have been losing people for various reasons and those that remain has been forced to take up the slack. A 40hr week with two 12hr shifts and two 8hr shifts has quickly become four to six 12hrs shifts. The limiting patrol procedures has created complacency due to performing the same route each and every day. I hope that we can hire a few people soon, but with as strict as they are on the standards most that has came through the process has been rejected somewhere along the way.

The passing of a friend's mother has also been draining. So hard to see someone lose their parent. Someone that has always been there for you since you were born, a friend that never wants anything but the best for you. There is a deep void left that cannot be filled. A son and daughter lost their mother, a husband lost a wife of 58 years. Only thing that you can do is comfort them the best you can. I cannot begin to imagine the pain and saddest to lose a parent, although it is one thing that I fear, because that day will surely come, I only can hope that I still have several more years to enjoy spending time with both my parents.

The Introduction

Well Iam at this again, trying my hands at creating a blog. I once did this but lost interest quickly after realizing that I usually keep my thoughts to myself. Now armed with a new computer and a head full of thoughts that I no longer can contain. So what's in store for this blog, well just about anything and everything I think of and have interest in at the moment. This will include hobbies, habits, and random thoughts that I thinking of at the time. I will try to add new posts on a regular schedule but will probably end up just as the title mentioned, random... Anyways, I hope that you will stick around and enjoy.