Milt Reynolds: Thinking Out Loud

The 3.5% Rule ...It Only Takes A Spark, To Get A Fire Going I'm a fan of bushcraft and camping how-to articles and videos. In all that I've seen and read, there is one basic skill that is repeatedly taught: how to make fire. Fire is life-giving and life-sustaining. It need not be seen as a metaphor for destruction and loss. It may be better seen as a metaphor for change...change for the better. But, this is true only when the "fire" is carefully tended, controlled and guarded. A reckless disregard for vulnerable, tinder-dry materials nearby can make the life-giving "fire" quickly become a catastrophic storm of violence and destruction. Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change. *Look deeper: www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world

COVID-19 is not "just the flu" In May 2020, nineteen law enforcement officers died in the line of duty nationwide. Of those nineteen deaths, more than half were due to duty-related illnesses: nine were the result of COVID-19, one was the result of 9/11-related duty illness. Five were the result of gunfire (four felonious, one inadvertent), two officers were struck by vehicles, one died in an aircraft accident, and one died as the result of a heart attack. At the end of May 2020, a total of 93 officers have died in the line of duty in the U.S. - a significant 48% increase over the same time last year. This increase is largely due to the 40 COVID deaths that have occurred in the last two months. http://blog.odmp.org/2020/06/end-of-watch-may-2020.html?m=1

The Great Bus Adventure I apologize for such a grandiose title. More, I need to warn you that this post is woefully banal. I thoroughly enjoyed my day, and I want to share my joy with others, but I know that it will be disappointingly trivial for many of you. So, in an attempt to avoid needlessly wasting your time, or worse, provoking you to disdain, please consider this warning: IF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS ARE TRUE FOR YOU, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER, ELSE YOU RISK PERMANENT LOSS OF VALUABLE TIME AND NEEDLESS EXPENSE OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS! 1. You have lived in a city big enough to support a public transit system AND you have been daring enough to patronize said public transit system. 2. You know how to interpret bus schedules. 3. You know the difference between "downtown" and "uptown". AGAIN, IF ANY OF THE PRECEEDING STATEMENTS ARE TRUE FOR YOU, YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO READ THE REST OF THIS POST. Ok. I'm glad that's been settled. H...

Getting Up Early Seven months have passed since my last post. Seven months ago my wife and I were managing a self-storage business, living on-site, in a small town in eastern Oregon. The work was interesting (for awhile), frustrating (often), but it provided for our living. Sharing the work with my wife allowed me several days off each week. I connected with a fishing buddy, learned to fish for salmon and sturgeon. I caught two salmon, a couple bass, and one huge monster of a sturgeon (a 7-foot long sturgeon is a monster in my book). We had deep connections there with family and friends, but felt cut off from our grown children and our one grandchild, who all lived in southwestern Idaho. Many applications for work in Idaho returned unanswered, but we decided in early May to buy a camp trailer, move to our daughter's farmhouse in Meridian, Idaho, and see what might develop. We submitted our resignation from the self-storage business, began packing and saying our goodbyes. ...

Tumbleweeds "You youngsters have it so easy!" The old tumbler shook his head sadly and spat into his soda can. I laughed silently at his grumpy whine, and I got ready for him to settle into his typical reminiscing rant about the "good old days". I liked the old guy, but I'd heard his stories now for years, and they never changed. "Ever' house has a fence a some sort, and yer tumbleweeds jest nat'rally get caught. You don't haf to no more'n step out yer front door and you got a dozen fresh tumbleweeds in nothin' flat. Hell's fire! A six-year old boy can grab more'n two or three by hisself an' still have time to play Nintendo all afternoon!" He made another deposit into his can. I peeked around at the faces of the folks gathered round the campfire. A couple were rolling their eyes, but most were smiling and encouraging the old geezer to continue his song and dance. I didn't mind it myself. He might be exagger...

Tolerance: The Definition Has Changed The New Oxford American Dictionary has not caught up with the change, but the modern, popular definition of "tolerance" is radically different (I believe, dangerously perverted) from the "old" meaning. Oxford defines TOLERATE as "allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one does not necessarily like or agree with) without interference". The word originated in the early 16th century from "tolerare", Latin for "enduring pain". TOLERANCE is the ability or willingness to tolerate something, to "endure the pain" of the existence of something. What is the new definition? According to D. A. Carson , "tolerance" has changed from accepting that lots of people have different views, some of which are wrong, to agreeing that all views are equally true. What difference does this make? A diametric difference! Mark Driscoll recently wrote an essay about...

New Door Here's some pix of a new door I installed in our new home: I mounted a bipass track on the living room side of the opening, hung a 32-inch hollow-core door, and concealed the track with a 1x6 piece of hemlock. Applied a thick coat of oil with a rag, let it set for about 10 minutes, then buffed it smooth with another clean rag. The next day I did the same to add a second coat. Being impatient and pushed for time, I installed it. It feels smooth and dry, kind of a satin finish. The instructions on the tung oil container said to add daily coats to get a glossier finish. My next project is a kitty litter cabinet. We want to conceal our kitty litter box in the house. We've seen several examples: https://www.google.com/search? q=conceal+kitty+litter+box+in+ cabinet&num=20&newwindow=1& tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa= X&ei=cNTiUc7dCoK3iwKP_YA4&ved= 0CGMQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=785 We bought a 24-inch bathroom vanity cab...