MacGyver

I'm with you on that, Greg. While I do keep supplies set aside, and am trained in and regularly practice survival skills, the heart of the matter for me is that me holed up with my family while everyone else starves or whatever is out of sync with the way I live the rest of my life. There is a part of the Mormon ethic that's really found it's way into my planning and preparation. While they believe in having a year's worth of provisions set aside - that's as much about being able to help the community around you as taking care of your own. So, I guess for me - I still have to answer the question of "who is my neighbor?" - even when times are bad. Maybe especially when times are bad.

That's neat!

Look forward to it.

Bizarre, but yes.

I'm not, but I do prefer to reel left handed.

That's probably part of my problem. I need to go for whatever the Stradic equivalent baitcaster is. I've just not invested in one for freshwater. In saltwater I run a Penn 525 Mag that is amazing! I can't say enough good things about Penn saltwater reels.

To this day I don't know how it didn't tear a hole in my transom. I sure thought I was going to be swimming back. And the crazy thing was I never saw any indication of the car other than the red paint on the skeg on my lower unit.

I'd take the mud any day of the week over the car I hit the last time I put in on Percy Priest. Turns out nothing will tear a lower unit up quite like a submerged but not quite sunken Honda Civic.

I'd be happy to bring the boat up that way if Doug would do a clinic with us on using plastics. Truth be told I'd love to get him to teach me to really run a baitcaster, too. I can do it, but I'd be willing to bet he's forgotten more on the subject than I'll ever know.

I wish I was as comfortable with plastics as I was with live bait and other artificial lures. Maybe I've just never put the time in - or gotten someone like Doug to really teach me what I need to know. It's something I'd love to get more comfortable with.

That's something I really respect about you, Greg. And, maybe truthfully one of the things we need to get comfortable with is a much smaller community - closer to maybe 2009 numbers than 2017 numbers. We've got a lot of people who bring different life experiences to the table. Respect for those experiences is important. Using the two of us is an example - we may see Trump differently. But, that doesn't matter. That small difference of opinion is tempered by the huge number of things that I've got a great deal of respect for you for (work ethic, community involvement, the financial choices you and your wife have made, the kids you guys have raised, etc.) Community is hard. But it's worth it. That's what we're trying to figure out.

Obama's exit probably really does have something to do with it. Once people realized he wasn't going to be able to be the boogeyman they expected - well...I'm not sure the industry at large knows what to do.

Interestingly, the anti-Trump voices were not the ones complaining. Rather, the people who took vocal offense were actually the reverse. When you look at the data, a lot of our moderates simply logged out. Anecdotally, politics wasn't what interested them in the community - and as it took over the 'Unread Content' section - they just left. You might think that a gun forum would skew to the right - and you're mostly correct. But, it's not nearly the percentage of our population that you might think - nor does it skew as far to the right as you might think. In a community as large as ours, we resemble the population at large more closely than you might think. I think that's what caused us to press the pause button for a bit. It begs the question - what do you do when small segment of your population is poisoning the community at large? I have avoided booting a couple of folks that I probably shouldn't have. They bring nothing of value to our community and suck the air out of otherwise good dialog. Y'all certainly know that I like talking about big topics. But we've got to figure out a way to do it that makes sense and doesn't hurt the community at large. Feel free to discuss.

This thread is probably as good of a place as any to discuss.

Wow, you picked a great platform to start with! i can't wait to hear how it shoots.

Do tell, for sure. Maybe @robtattoo can come along and talk you into some wildcat raygun caliber that will take an elk at a half a mile. Politics has people stressed, but I wonder if a lot of folks stopped shooting regularly during the ammo shortage and just haven't started getting out again.

I'll admit that I've kind of enjoyed looking at 'unread content' and seeing a gun board today.

I was in Canada last week and everyone wanted to talk about the Preds. Everyone was impressed with how Nashville fills an arena. Last night at the buzzer, you could hear the celebrations downtown from my backyard in Brentwood.

David moved it this morning. It sounds like we've still got some work to do.

College is kind of a time to learn how to operate as a grown up - hopefully with some boundaries - and hopefully without permanent consequences. I think you've kind of answered your question. She's around people her age - and some of them are going to do stupid stuff. Your responsibility as a parent is to help the consequences of that matter less. You've clearly done a great job so far. I wonder if a conversation about defense for a college aged girl coupled with some pepper spray and a good knife wouldn't be a better option? On the firearm front I like a handgun with a lockable safe that can be bolted down. College apartments aren't the most secure places. I don't like the shotgun just because it's harder to secure.

Man, almost 10 years later and it still catches me sometimes when I see this thread come up. I get my hopes up for just a fraction of a second...

The Russians are getting too much attention. Gotta go big.

Awesome! Some of the best engineers I know came out of TTU and UT Martin.

I wonder if Eddie Vedder is calling up Willie Nelson and asking for advice?

That's awesome, Greg! Congrats to you all. Does he know what he wants to study at Tennessee Tech?