Confederate Sharpshooter

No, I've not fallen off the planet. I hope to be back soon. I have a lot of pent up posts, I just need to find time to get them typed up.

Thanks for your patience- both of you.

Mtn Man.

A news story last year highlighted our local drive in as one of only 11 left in the state of North Carolina. Unfortunately, as of March 15th, that number has now been reduced to 10.

The holes you see are where the original, 1955 era pole-mounted speakers stood last weekend. The picnic tables still stand, but the benches and chairs for the 'front row' crowd have already been moved to the concession stand.

Reaction to the news locally has been overwhelming. Hardly anyone within driving distance of our town hasn't watched a movie at "The Bright Leaf." My parents took my sisters and me to see movies there on hot summer Friday nights, crammed into the back of a huge 1967 Ford Station Wagon, hoping we'd fall asleep so they could watch the second feature in peace.

In the sixties there were Westerns- John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. The Seventies brought Vanishing Point, Billy Jack, and the "Trinity" Westerns.

Always, always a double feature. Sometimes, if you could stay out late, all night shows.

Unlike a lot of drive in movies, The Bright Leaf stayed open year round. The original owner, Don Davis, was always there with a smile and knew you by name. He's always ask me how my dad was doing. On Halloween there would be an all night spook-tackular, and if you weren't careful one of the concession staff would likely scare the bejesus out of you with a rubber mask and a growl before the night was done....

Unfortunately, Don died a few years back. The Bright Leaf was almost closed then, but the outcry from generations of movie goers who grew up with her bough her some more time. Some of the remaining employees- all of whom had day jobs as well- leased the property and worked hard to make it a great place to go spend a night under the stars. They did well- when the weather was nice, you had to show up hours before dark to get a good parking place. The food was some of the best anywhere- try getting a hot dog like that at the local movie chain! and they still showed the old trailers from the 1950's- talking popcorn and soft drinks encouraging you to stop in at the CONSESSION STAND during the intermission. And my favorite, a vintage 1950's short encouraging you to attend your place of worship this Sunday...

I have had a few emails wondering about the lack of posts. Health issues and work have kept me from posting, but hopefully I will be able to do some serious posting very soon.

Meanwhile, thank you for your patience, and feel free to email or comment on past postings.

"Mountain Man"

For those of you who have been wondering where the dickens I have been the last few weeks, and why I have not been posting, it is finally time to reveal the answer:








Friends and neighbors, behold, the MAN CAVE.



Yeah, still in the finishing up stages, but this will be the new home for hobbies, projects, and the occassional odd job. Amazingly, this entire project got completed in under 2 weeks, and that includes setting up, wiring, plumbing, and inspection by the local codes officers. Hopefully, this will be a asset in preparing for future needs, and certainly will be a great learning experience on setting up a new, modern home shop. I will keep you posted as things progress.

Seems I woke up last night an irregular heartbeat. Things did not improve, and I ended up spending the night at a hospital in a nearby city. I'm back home now, but very weak.


The good news would be I will have some extra time to blog this week. Depending on how well I feel, I will try to post a few things that have been on my mind.

My apologies for the lack of posts in the past month. The good news is, I am once again gainfully employed- something 14% of the folks in my area can’t say right now. Better yet, I am working for an excellent small business that is more than firearms friendly- they are rabidly supportive of freedom and the second amendment. The bad news is, of course, that with any new job comes an adjustment period-hence the lack of posts. But hopefully I’m getting to the point now where I can spare a few minutes per day to post some things here, hopefully to amuse and entertain my legions of readers- both of you.

In addition to the new employment, springtime has brought quite a few personal things to blog about- in such diverse fields as auto racing, electronics, survival, and even my first formal firearms training course. I hope to get to all of those in due course. Of course we’ll also have to visit the unpleasant reality of the overreaching massive federal government expansion, and the porkulus package.

As always, I welcome your suggestions and comments. One thing is for certain- we won’t be lacking for things to talk about in the coming days, I just hope the story has a happy ending.

Thanks for reading.

If you have been watching the national or mainstream news much the past few months, you are probably about ready to call the United States of America deceased. You would have valid reason for doing so, what with the banks failing, GM either taken over by the Feds or bankrupt (who do you root for in that fight, anyway?) and of course the eviiil corporations on Wall Street and elsewhere that the elites would have you believe are the source of all our woes.

I'm here to tell you it ain't necessarily so.

Yeah, times are rough right now. But we've been through tough times before. I've spoken to some elderly folks about the great depression a great deal lately, and they have told me what we are doing now doesn't hold a candle to what happened then. Those folks survived, and brought us the greatest, wealthiest nation in the history of the world. Any historian will tell you that the War between the States in the 1860's pretty much determined what kind of nation we live in now. We lost a half million lives in that conflict, decimated the infrastructure and way of life of over half the country, and shredded a good portion of the Constitution. Yet we rebounded, overcame the difficult reconstruction period, and became a superpower in a little over one lifetime.

The trick in times like these is to not listen to those who preach gloom and doom. Instead, look for opportunity. Wouldn't you have liked to been around in 1930 and bought some stock in Boeing Aircraft? Or the dismal days of Jimmy Carter in the late 70's and foreseen an upstart company building software under the funny name of Microsoft? Yeah, hindsight is 20/20. But I promise you the American spirit isn't dead yet, and somebody out there is working on the next 'big thing.' The trick will be spotting it first, or coming up with it yourself, and being ready to jump on it. That's all there is to it- be at the right place at the right time. A lot of people are going to suffer mightily for the current problems. If you are not one of the people who bought a house you can't afford, or have way too much debt, however, there will be opportunities as well. As a baseball coach told his team once: "put the ball where they ain't." It's as simple as that.

I know, I know- I haven't been at this long enough to slow down already. Unfortunately earning a living in these perilous times must come first, and I've been lucky enough to find employment that pays well above the average for my area, not an easy task when the unemployment rate for my county currently is the 3rd worst in the state. So please accept my apologies for not posting the next few days, and I will try to do a good one this weekend.

If you have not done so already, please feel free to read some of the prior posts archived on the left.

Thanks again for taking the time to visit my humble home here in blogland, I do appreciate your company.

Via http://www.drudgereport.com/

Russian media has been poking fun at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she gave her Russian counterpart a "reset" button with an ironic misspelling.
Clinton's gift to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at their meeting in Geneva on Friday evening was meant to underscore the Obama administration's readiness to "to press the reset button" in ties with Moscow.
But instead of the Russian word for "reset" (perezagruzka) it featured a slightly different word meaning "overload" or "overcharged" (peregruzka).
Daily newspaper Kommersant put a prominent picture of the fake red button on its front page and declared: "Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton pushed the wrong button."
A correspondent for NTV television called it a "symbolic mistake," pointing out that US-Russian ties had become overcharged in recent years due to discord over such issues as missile defence and last summer's war in Georgia.
"The friendly US gesture was upturned by a small amusing incident," the news website RBC.ru wrote in an article posted late Friday evening.
"Yet this curious episode did not stop Clinton and Lavrov from pushing the button in front of television cameras."
US Vice-President Joe Biden spoke of pressing the "reset button" on relations between Moscow and Washington during a speech in Germany last month. It has since been repeated in various forms by both US and Russian officials.

The US media has pretty much laughed off this gaffe, and made excuses about how hard Hillary has been working and how little sleep she has had while toiling tirelessly 'for the good of the country.' Yeah, right.

Ask yourself a question: What if this had been Dan Quayle? Or Ronald Regan? You know the answer. We'd never hear the end of it, along with endless commentary on how dangerous it is to have such an intellectual lightweight in an important government position. No wonder the new administration is so desperate to shut down any and all voices that might oppose them: they can't handle the truth getting out. They need a compliant and lazy media to cover up what a bunch of arrogant impostors they really are. Luckily for them, they are blessed with a mainstream media that borders on religious zealotry. Unfortunately, even that isn't enough to cover up the obvious: they don't have a freakin' clue.

Just a quick note of appreciation to The Freeholder for helping me figure out some of the HTML labels here on the blog. I'm still very much on the learning curve here, and I'll take all the help I can get. Hopefully then I can devote more time to blog content and original postings.

For those of you in the same situation, check out this resource.

I am still obviously very new to blogging, and still very much trying to decide how I want things to look and work around here. I appreciate any and all suggestions, and hopefully things will settle into a productive pattern soon. As you can see I have changed the template, in order to work better with blogger and have more control over layout. Obviously, colors are not my strong point- be patient and perhaps one day someone will convince me there are more than 5 colors in the world. My main concern is that the entries be easy to read on everyones screen, which isn't always possible, but I am trying to come as close as I can.

About the only regular feature so far is the "Sunday Morning Biographies" which I decided to use so we could have at least one day a week to look forward to some good news, and easy reading. It is not my intention to preach gloom and doom every day- enough of that out there as it is. Rather I'd like to mix some entertaining and light hearted stories in with serious discussion of ideas in the hope of attracting readers who may not agree with everything I say, in order that I might get them to think about what position they have taken. I may not change a lot of minds, but I find that a discussion with someone who disagrees with you makes you think a lot harder and work on your own position more so than 'preaching to the choir.'

You will notice I have started catagorizing stories at the lower left hand of the page now. The catagories are far from perfect, and there are some things that will be hard to find, but I hope this will help you find what you are looking for if you want to find something specific, or if you like one subject I cover but not the rest.

Finally, feel free to post comments as you feel the need. I enjoy the feedback, and it lets me know what is working. Should you have something you do not wish to post publicly, I will consider a email address for feedback in the future if enough people ask for it.

Thanks again for stopping by, hope you will want to come back soon.

Mountain Man.