Fiddlers Green

The military has always been filled with traditions and stories. Being from an Army National Guard unit that transitioned from infantry to cavalry I have seen my fair share of traditions. One tradition is the poem of the Fiddlers Green, a place meant only for cavalry troopers. With Memorial day weekend coming up I thought I would share this poem.

Halfway down the trail to Hell,

In a shady meadow green

Are the Souls of all dead troopers camped,

Near a good old-time canteen.

And this eternal resting place

Is known as Fiddlers' Green.

Marching past, straight through to Hell

The Infantry are seen.

Accompanied by the Engineers,

Artillery and Marines,

For none but the shades of Cavalrymen

Dismount at Fiddlers' Green.

Though some go curving down the trail

To seek a warmer scene.

No trooper ever gets to Hell

Ere he's emptied his canteen.

And so rides back to drink again

With friends at Fiddlers' Green.

And so when man and horse go down

Beneath a saber keen,

Or in a roaring charge of fierce melee

You stop a bullet clean,

And the hostiles come to get your scalp,

Just empty your canteen,

And put your pistol to your head

And go to Fiddlers' Green.

Tonight's Thoughts

I can never get anything done around my house. I will be picking up the living room and boom I am rearranging the dishes in the cabinets in the kitchen. I was taking out a couple of coke cans outside to the bucket I keep them in when I noticed the ice coolers I had out in the carport was covered in the recent pollen attack. Had to clean the coolers off and put them away in the store room.

Tonight has been a juggling act between washing dishes, doing laundry, picking up the living room and kitchen, restoring two more Stanley woodworking planes, and reorganizing the store room / workshop. Everything is finally done, don't know how but I managed to circle back on everything to have everything completed.

Only thing left undone is the two Stanley planes, the bodies are restored but still have to finish cleaning up the blades and chip breakers, sharpen the blades and apply three more coats of finish to the handles.

I am heading to bed, good night.

Lego obsession in full swing

Well within a two weeks time I have bought eleven Lego sets, all are single vehicle sets. Four sets from a seller from Brick Link, five sets from eBay, and two from a local Wal-Mart. I still have one more set on the way from eBay so I don't have pictures of it yet. but here is a picture of my current purchases.

I just realized that most of my sets are yellow, I really love the construction sets and will have to get some more. but which ones?

Brick Link

With my interests returning to Lego's, I quickly learned that eBay was not where I want to purchase most of my sets, most of the sellers are being way to greedy with their prices and most did the free shipping which only means that the shipping costs were included into the bid price, resulting in over pricing if you purchased more than one item from a seller. I have purchased a few sets off of eBay and have gotten them for reasonable prices but knowing most sets that I wanted were over priced I would have to find another source for acquiring these sets.

A couple of YouTube channels mentioned a place called Brick Link, not knowing what this was I looked it up and quickly became overwhelmed with the amount of things I could find there. Brick link has members that have set up stores and within each store they list their inventory. You select your items and checkout. Checking out doest mean you're paying for the items just yet, checkout means you agree to pay for the selected items by agreeing to a contract. The seller will be notified and will send an invoice with the final cost that includes shipping and insurance if you select it.

I have a first experience with Brick Link with the transaction finishing up tonight. I purchased four older construction sets from the 90's. The 6658 Bulldozer, the 6667 Pothole Patcher, the 6649 Street Sweeper, and the 6512 Landscape Loader. All four sets came from a seller that is located in Germany. The seller had reasonable prices with the most being S10 for one set, shipping was also reasonable with it being close to S6.50, not bad when you consider this coming from half way around the world.

All four sets have been assembled and been played with. The Pothole Patcher was the only set I remembered having as a kid, the other three came out about the same time but I never got a chance to have them. I wanted the Street Sweeper and the Bulldozer most of all and after building them I haven't been able to leave the Bulldozer alone. The condition of the kits were listed as used but most of the kits pieces were looking brand new, with only small amounts of dust collected on the tops of the sets once they were assembled. these were put together and sat on a shelf to look at. Two of the sets were however missing a couple pieces, the Pothole Patcher was missing two 1x2 black tiles that were needed under the truck frame and the Landscape Loader was missing the minifigure's head. Neither set was missing anything of great value and they were both fixed with parts I had.

I had an overall great experience with brick link and the seller from Germany and hope to do more business soon. Go over and have a look for yourself.

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.