Texting this morning with the badass dude I call Arete. Much chit chatting about this and that and something that led this…

A- Good veins mean you have good circulation. Never a minus on that.

Me- Pretty healthy and fit. Not bad for a middle aged broad.

A- Well for a middle aged broad as you put it, you got great gams. TSM is lucky.

Me- As long as TSM is willing to stick with me then I am the lucky one.

A- Yeah. Your safe there. Plus you like guns.

Me- I do like guns, but I try to keep that on the downlow.

A- Hmm, well then we really need to work on your presentation because that big ass truck with your goofy smile and Colt kind of defeats your goal.

Dang, I thought I was being so subtle.

So says my phlebotomist. Ok, ok, she was talking about my veins, but I will take what I can get.

As part of the application process to become a member of the rescue squad a full physical is required. Good news is my blood pressure is 104/82, BMI 19, and I am mighty flexible which impressed the heck out of my doctor.

Oddly, I shrunk an inch. An INCH! What the heck? I made the nurse measure me twice against two different walls. 5′ 7.5″ both times. My doctor did not seem the least bit interested in my shrinkage. I was freaking a tiny bit and really hoped she would be give me more than,”Yeah, your getting old.” Okie Dokie, thanks for the professional input. I am not that old and seriously should not be getting shorter. I liked my height.

It does explain why I am the same weight, but now have a little extra cushion on my hips. I have been perplexed as to why. I guess my new tiny stature can not dispurss my girth as well as my previous one:)

I also requested a new epi-pen. I discovered a few months ago when I was checking my supplies that mine expired…5 years ago. A bit of a fail on my part.

All and all not a bad visit.

One of the first things I talked to Arete about was knives. I had a folding utility type knife I carried, but I wanted something else for self defense. Again, I will say that in the event that my life is threatened and I am forced to defend it, I will use any and all things available. A rock, a pen, a lamp, a coffee mug, my fingers, legs etc. However, I do like to have with me tools that up my chances of survival. Hopefully quickly and with little harm to myself. A gun and good knife are my top 2 choices for that.

Everyone I spoke with wanted me to get a folding a knife. It’s easy to conceal(check your state’s laws. In Virginia we can’t actually conceal. At least the clip has to be visable. Although there seems to be some wiggle room) and the blade can be longer because the folding part makes the knife more compact. I did not want a folding knife because that would require me to open it before using it. Now, if you are Arete and you are freakishly talented and have already been in a knife fight or two that works. If you are me, well, lets just say the simpler the better.

I applied the same thinking I used to select my gun. I wanted a gun that had a long history of being well made and reliable. I did not want a manual safety. I wanted to be able to draw and shoot without having to mess with anything extra before I could take the first shot. I wanted to carry that gun in a holster without a retention strap or any other thing that I would have to unhook, unsnap, press or pull before I could remove my gun. Same with my knife. I wanted a knife that I could simply remove from the sheath and immediately try to stop the threat. To me that meant a fixed blade.

TSM, John and Arete all helped me research different fixed blade knives for me to carry. There were several I liked, but nothing that screamed buy me and carrying me around allday everyday. One afternoon I was watching different videos on You Tube and came across a young man reviewing the TDI Last Ditch Knife(LDK). He carried his in his boot. That looked snazzy to me and was very inexpensive, so I bought one. I liked it so much I bought 5 more. My son has one, my husband has one and I have three. Then I found out that TDI makes bigger knives, so I bought both the large and medium versions. The large knife is not a knife I wouldd carry unless I was maybe camping. It is very large and the sheath is not to my liking, but the medium one is a nice size.

I like that the total package is compact and that the handle is curved. I can draw quickly and slice a turkey’s butt(I practice on turkeys from the store not ones that are roaming around my neighborhood)in no time. No muss, no fuss. Very comfortable and very affordable. I don’t know if they make a left handed sheath, but I carry it on my right side since my gun is on my left. My only issue with the knife is when I put my shirt over the handle(part of the clip shows. No laws being broken here) the handle pushes out pretty far. I wear it appendix and cant it a bit to tuck the handle down, but it still doesn’t blend as well as I would like. Not a huge issue for me. The price, easy of use, sharp blade and size outweigh the handle issue.

So in addition to my gun and flashlight, this knife is part of my EDC set up.

I wanted to catch you up on the haps in the AGirl abode. TSM and I are a little more than half way through our EMT class. We are both enjoying it tremendously. In fact TSM made a comment the other day stating if he had it to do all over again he would go into the medical field. This is ironic because I have been telling hm that he should do just that for 20 some years and he has always said, “I would never enjoy medicine.” Course that is what I said about shooting, so… I am sure there is a lesson in there somewhere.

The weather in Virginia has been down right hot. Yesterday I wore jeans, a long sleeved shirt and a light jacket anticipating the chill that normal comes with December. After about 5 minutes in Jayne(she is my truck if you don’t know:), the coat came off and the windows went down. I normally start to get excited around September for the cooler weather. For one it is much easier to conceal carry in the winter and I love the iconic-ness  of snow and Christmas, but this year I am thankful for the current temps. To borrow a phase from my friend Brigid, I am pretty much a “bag of antlers” and the cold rips right through me. All that snow is dandy if I am inside my house bundled by the fire, but not so much if I am standing on the side of the road at a motor vehicle accident.

Speaking of Brigid, her friend EJ wrote a fascinating post on rifles. You must go read.

Lets see what else…oh there is a new link. I received an email from Ron asking if I would like to put a link to his site When The Balloon Goes Up. He started an online store. Naturally, I said yes(I don’t always)! Well, actually I said I would love to, but have no clue how, so as per usual, I contacted Barron and asked him to assist me. He did and voila. For full disclosure if you click on the link and purchase something I think there is some kind of compensation to me. Doesn’t matter though, the link is there to support Ron. He has done a great job and I encourage you to check out what he has to offer.

I have been doing a lot of cooking lately. I made my world famous peanut/pine nut brittle.

This batch was for Tam’s gift basket that Erin was putting together, so I used the finest ingredients, but often times I make it with vanilla extract and regular butter. It’s a big hit as a holiday gift. I did not hear if she liked it or not, but lets just assume she did:) If you would like the recipe email me.

I also made this…

My soon to be World Famous Chicken Coconut Curry Soup. By World Famous, I mean my family liked it. This one is easy, easy. I sauteed boneless skinless chicken breast and chicken thighs in a large pan until golden brown, added sliced mushrooms and red bell peppers(red are my favorite, but any color will do). I tossed in a good dose of garlic and ginger powders along with freshly ground pepper. Added coconut milk(I used the light and toned it down with 1% milk. It still has the coconut flavor and mouth feel, but a bit healthier for the heart) and curry powder(I used a pre-made version. There are lots of crappy ones out and with a variety of heat you may need to experiment to find one you like) Simmered until my sexy man came home(Your version will not have this element. You will need to insert your own sexy man, woman, cat, dog …). I spooned it over jasmine rice and topped with fresh cilantro. Normally I would also add scallions at the end, but I didn’t have any on hand.

Other than EMT and cooking we have been watching a lot of Christmas movies and reading a ton of stories about elves and reindeer. Nothing on the shooting front. Other than a bit of dry fire practice and regular carrying that is. Today I will be study for an exam, exchanging my EMT pants, working my ab routine and hopefully some pleasure reading.

This was yesterday’s post, but it got bumped by the whole “I am a celebrity and so everyone needs to know what I think about guns” post.

The title is a line from the end of “A Miracle On 34th Street”  The main character, a little girl, is trying to convince herself to believe something. She is trying to believe that  even though all evidence is to the contrary she should still believe in Santa. Of course, we all know that Santa exists and miracles do happen, but outside of the jolly guy with a belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly, we probably would be wise to look at the evidence as opposed to what we want to believe. Many times even when presented with overwhelming proof, many of us choose to still believe what we know not to be true.

After I wrote about the article my daughter showed me, I started to think about and discuss with my husband why it is that women are so willing to accept the suggestions made by the “expert”. Why do we read something and without even really thinking it through, believe it and pass it on? Why do we think that it makes sense that a bad guy would walk on by us if we had clothes that were not easily removable? I know I have read a million stories of women being attacked where this doesn’t hold true and yet, I know there was a time I completely believed that line.

When I look back on my anti gun days and the logic I used to explain my beliefs none of them hold water AND it doesn’t take a lot of critical thinking or facts to disprove them. Yet, I sincerely and truly believed that less guns meant less crime and I truly believed I was safe from the bad guy by just following a few simple guidelines. Guidelines that were found in that article. Why?

The reasons are many and complicated and are not the same for everyone, but to some extent I think for most it is simply because it is what we want to believe. Many of us are conditioned and many of us are naive, but there is more to it. I believe we accept these ineffective ways to keep us safe because they are what we want to be true. We want to believe that the world is basically a rosy place where bad things don’t happen to good people and when they do they are so rare, we need not worry about it. AND we want what is easy.

I think we want to believe there are ways to be safe without having to actually do or change much of anything.

I am as guilty as anyone. I spent the first 12 months ping ponging all over the place about carrying and I had the proof that bad things do happen to good people. Still I made excuses for not carrying(rarely) or trying to make my new lifestyle fit into the old one. There is no way for me to carry a big gun on this frame without wearing something a little bulky over the top. Showing off my hard work from the gym just wasn’t possible while wearing a gun, a knife, a flashlight and a spare magazine and it annoyed me. I spent a great deal of time being frustrated and pissed off at the bad guy and life. I hated  how unfair it is that I had to make all these changes and sacrifices in order to protect myself. Oddly, I used those emotions to look for ways to justify not doing what I knew I needed to.

Believe it or not there are still days where I just want to get up, put on a cute summer dress and walk out the door. I want to skip around blissfully unaware of the evils that lurk. I never do. Unfortunately once you know something, you can’t un-know it.

The reality is that taking responsibility for one’s safety will require sacrifice and compromise. There are lots of new products and creative people working on making those sacrifices less and less, but in the end there is no easy out.

Anything one does to be more active in taking control of their life is great. Becoming more aware, avoiding people and places that are clearly dangerous, carrying mace or a knife are all great things and they absolutely contribute to lowering your odds of becoming a victim, but taking the path of least resistance is probably not the best course of action.

My friend Tim sent me an email on the day I wrote about M. In the email he included an excerpt from Paxton Quigley’s book. As you read this think about how not wearing hair in a ponytail or wearing hard to cut off clothes would have aided in this situation.

I understand that when someone famous says something publicaly that is so ignorant, so wrong and so dangerous it is natural to want to call names and point out in colorful fashion the error of his ways, but I wonder if that is the most constructive way to response.

The top people in this country want to take our guns and they don’t care about truth or what is right. They do not care about the Constitution, the rule of law or common decency. They want power and control, but of course we are not yet a dictatorship, so they can’t, at this time, just walk in and disarm us. What they need is the people or most of the people on their side. If they can convince enough folks that guns are bad and citizens do not need them then they can pass laws and make major changes. Guess how they do that? They use people with a voice.

This sports announcer made a statement on Sunday Night football and it went viral in about half a second. I would say most people hearing his words now don’t really care. Don’t have an opinion, but they are reading and watching. What do you think when they see a bunch “crazed” gunners spewing hate and name calling? It feeds right into the antis portrayal of us.

Sure we can say who cares, they won’t silence me, I don’t give a crap. That’s fine, but I want to keep my guns. I am truly concerned about keeping my guns. I don’t want to be forced to walk around without having some ability to tip the scales in my favor. I know people say “from my cold dead hands” and if it comes to that, I guess we all have a choice to make, but to be honest with you, I would prefer not to have to die in order to secure my rights to carry a gun.

The truth is people who are willing to kill themselves or others are deeply disturbed and will commit their evil crime regardless of the tools available.  In addition no amount of control will eliminate guns. Especially for a person with power, influence and money such as a pro football player.

As a society we will never ever eliminate all bad guys or eliminate their desire and ability to to harm. No amount of hugging, self esteem workshops or hours of watching Dr. Phil will create a perfectly safe world. In the end the best we can do is find ways to limit the amount of harm those evil doers do. My choices are fairly limited and disarming me cuts my chances of survival dramatically.

Unfortunately, I have personal experience on both sides of this issue. My brother abused his wife and then took his own life.I loved my brother or I tried to. Lots of us did, but truth be told he was a mess. He was selfish and mean. He was self destructive and destructive to others long before he pulled the trigger to end his life. He had reasons. Valid reasons why he would be off. Our childhood was beyond violent and abusive, but all along the way he had choices to make. He was not mentally ill. He didn’t have a psychiatric disease. He knew he was hurtful and he chose to deal with it by making excuses until he no longer could. Sure he was in real pain and he truly struggled, but at the end of the day he made choice after choice that was in favor of destruction and harm. For whatever reason he decided the only way to end his pain was to end his life. He was determined to do so. Gun or no gun he was going to end his life. No amount of gun control, knife control or rope control was going to stop him. He broke many laws and breaking one more to get his hands on a gun wouldn’t have mattered one bit to him.

Conversely, I am law abiding. I don’t break the law. I don’t carry where I am not legally allowed too, but in order to be law abiding I am putting my fate in the hands of a bad guy. I have been in the hands of a bad guy and with every fiber of my being I do not want to be at his mercy again. There is no mercy to be found there.

If I had a chance to speak with Mr. Costas, that is what I would say.