This is not the story I had planned to tell. Instead, I have a different story to relate. Pull up a chair. 

I have not attempted to shoot any sanctioned IDPA matches since 2019, limiting my time to the occasional local match. In the year following the "cardiac event" in January 2019, I did shoot a few big matches. From a health point of view, all was well, but I never seemed to get back in the groove. My shooting has since been limited to 50-60 rounds at local monthly matches.

This year I decided to shoot the MD State IDPA Championship, which was held in Lexington Park, MD last Saturday. This is always an enjoyable match, with interesting stages and fun people. I've even had a modicum of success at it. I was looking forward to the day spent with friends.

Despite pleasant weather the week leading up to the match, the weather for Saturday was predicted to include no small amount of rain. As it turned out, the rain was limited until the shooting day was over. The intermittent showers had no effect on the waterproof targets employed by the match organizers.

Shooters waiting to start

I started the match shooting poorly. Was I rushing, not paying enough attention to my sights, or just succumbing to pressure? Maybe all of that. But, there was still a lot of match to go. On our fourth stage, I left the point of cover and moved to back around the end of a wall. Then I heard "Stop!" I obeyed and looked at the timer SO to my right, thinking there was a prop malfunction on the stage. He turned to the score pad SO who said I had broken the 180. I was stunned. I quickly asked him if I had muzzled him, and he replied the gun had not broken the line by much. I obviously was unaware, but a small infraction is an infraction nonetheless. After, "unload and show clear" I thanked the SO, hung my head, and began packing my gear. Thirteen years of competing in IDPA and I had never experienced a DQ. I've always heard, "There are those who have DQ'd, and those who will." I've never subscribed to that, and believe it to be a defeatist attitude. And, now here I am.

Looking at a bright side, lunch was now being served. I retrieved car keys from our driver for the day, stowed my gear, and headed to lunch. At least it was a tasty Mission BBQ spread.

Now there was nothing left to do but watch and enjoy the show. Fortunately, I had packed a few cigars, intending to enjoy a wind down smoke at the end of the match. That was now a consolation smoke. 

Since I wasn't able to leave, I also opted to help paste with my squad to pass the time. Even that was limited as the squad was efficient and quickly swarmed to reset the stage between shooters; there was a lot of incentive as the rain was quickly approaching. Conversations with the SOs on each subsequent stage was also quite humbling. Each roll call still included my name, with which I answered, "Dave's not here," followed by an explanation from my squad mates, which could also include a friendly dig, at my expense of course. I'd expect no less from my friends. Despite not shooting, I still logged 3.7 miles of walking that day.

After the match, I was able to enjoy another smoke with some other shooters as we waited for the award presentations. Then it was time for my second favorite activity when traveling to Maryland for IDPA — shopping for bourbon. I picked up something new, and a replacement for an empty. 

There was no time for a smoke after returning home. An after dinner drink was comforting after a day spent on the range, watching.

Cheers!

That evening's smoke was a long-time favorite, the Southern Draw Manzanita. This stick has been resting in my humidor since last October so was ripe for lighting up. I truly enjoy the earthy smoke accented with bold dark chocolate and cedar notes. There is kick of pepper to help it match the simple demands of the bourbon.

The Blanton's Single Barrel is one that is considered allocated in Virginia's state-run distribution scam scheme. Since it's not often easy to get, I'll drink it on limited occasions. Not only special occasions, even Tuesday evening will do.

Of course, before the cigar was finished, the next batch of rain was moving through.

Cheers!

I've been trying to get back to posting with some regularity. Obviously, that has not been successful. It's not that I haven't been penning posts. I have been drafting Musings fairly regularly. I never committed to publishing them, and soon they seemed too "in the past," or were deemed to be thoughts or opinions best kept to myself.

Yet, I've missed it. I frequently note that this blog is primarily for my own enjoyment. It's a way of reliving interesting occurrences in my average life. Yet, it seemed that there was little variety in the content. These days, that reminiscing purpose has somewhat been supplanted by Instagram. Just about all my cigar, bourbon, and beer experiences get logged there. Check it out.

Surprisingly, over the past month I've had three folks mention to me in person that they noted the absence of content. Frankly I was shocked. First, I rarely talk about this blog to friends, yet some knew. Second, I didn't think there were that many readers!

I've got a few posts in draft, and some ideas for others in mind. It felt odd to just jump back in without some intro though. I don't know to whom it will be interesting, but it will be to me. That's what matters.

Cheers!

I have avoided camping at Powhatan State Park because it's only 25 minutes from home. It turns out, that was a mistake. Powhatan is a fabulous park. The campground is only 29 sites, but all 29 are large, wooded, and private.

We arrived on Friday evening after work, and after a quick dinner of hot dogs and chips, we spent the evening around the campfire. Only being 25 minutes from home meant we had a solid cell signal at the campsite, so I listened to the Red Sox game. They blew the lead in the 9th and lost to the Cardinals.

Saturday morning we got up at 7 AM and headed out birding. The Turkey Trail runs along the line between a forest and a meadow, and it was a fabulous area for birds. I saw my first Prarie Warbler, and heard my first Kentucky Warbler, but the KY Warbler was deep in the woods and not inclined to come any closer. The meadow was covered in Indigo Buntings, but none of photos came out well as the blue was always washed out. Shockingly, I have not mastered bird photography in 2 weeks!

After lunch on Saturday I went for another hike, and shortly after I made it back to the camper a line of thunderstorms rolled through, chasing us inside for a while. The Red Sox had an afternoon game on Saturday, and again blew the game in the 9th when the bullpen imploded. The threat of rain kept us inside that evening too, where I watched had the Dodgers - Padres game on TV in the background as Michelle kicked my ass in Gin Rummy and Scrabble. A fitting result, given it was Mother's Day weekend!

On Sunday morning we again when out birding, back in the same area. Afte that it was time to pack up and make the long 30 minute drive home. Pohatan is close to Richmond, so it's going to be really hot and humid in the summer months. But it's a nice base if you want to camp while exploring the RVA area.

BTW, it is pronounced Pow-ah-tan.

A couple of weeks ago I felt an urge to revisit the classic Bob Segar live album, Nine Tonight. Released in September, 1981, it propelled Segar to mega stardom. I owned the double album as a young teenager back in the day, but had not thought about the record, or Bob Segar, in many years. I have no idea why I suddenly wanted to hear the record.

Luckily, it's 2023 and I have a YouTube Premium subscription, so the album was only a couple of clicks away. I've gone back to it several times in the ensuing weeks. In a word, the record bangs. It's mostly a greatest hits compilation of his previous three records. He was on a killer run in the late 70s so he had plenty of material for this September 1981 release.

I don't have any specific memories of the record. When it was released, I was an almost 14 year old latch key kid. It probably got a lot of turntable time in those hours after school before my parents came home, when I could crank it up with no repercussions.

It holds up very well. I've always preferred the live version of Old Time Rock and Roll to the studio version. But every song on the record is a keeper. This is a 100% filler, no fluff record. It's also a well done live record in that you can actually hear the audience and get a sense of what is was like to be there. In September 1981 I was almost exactly 3 years from attending my first concert. But that is a different story that I've already told here.

Normally, I'd buy any record I'm listening more than three or four times. But Bob got his payday on my purchase of this record in the early 80s, so I don't feel bad leaving this one in the streaming library at YouTube.

It was a 72F and sunny today, perfect birding, or any outdoor activity, weather. We headed to Tuckahoe Creek Park with my new camera, a Nikon Coolpix B600. I took over 60 photos to end up with 5 that aren't horrible.

We identified 20 species, and we both saw a gorgeous blue indigo, which unfortunately didn't hang around long enough for me to get the camera pointed at him. We kept hearing the indigo bunting, but could not find him. So I googled the bird, got an understanding of his habitat preferences, and when we heard another on our way back to the car I was able to quickly find him quickly.

Yay for learning!

There were also at least a couple of dozen red-winged blackbirds in the park. The water lilies are blooming with yellow flowers that are covered in tiny aphid like bugs, and the blackbirds are feasting on the bugs. The circle of life.

Trip 31
Nights 101-102

You know you married the right person when she doesn’t blink at weekend camping plans that include getting up at 5 AM to go birding in a swamp. Camping season #4 with the Ascape has officially begun!

We started this season at Chippokes State Park, which was the closest campground (that I would stay in) to The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge on the VA/NC border. It poured rain all day Friday, but the forecast showed clearing around dinnertime, and the forecast was right. The 90-minute drive was wet, but we got to set up camp without getting rained on.

Normally, I try to reserve campsites far from the Group campsite. That was not possible this weekend. The Group site was about 200 feet from us, and it contained about 7 tents that each held 8 kids. I’m not exaggerating, not by much anyway. The kids were generally well-behaved, and the parents did a good job of getting them quiet around 8 PM each night. So I’m not complaining. However, the group of kids, and there were seriously 20+ of them, were loud. They turned the campground loop into their bike and scooter racecourse and just pedaled and ran and make an astonishing amount of noise, which is exactly what a group of kids should be doing on a blue sky Saturday afternoon. I assume the parents were all drinking, because I don’t know how they could survive that cacophony without alcohol!

As mentioned, we had a 5 AM wake-up call to go birding, so Saturday was an early day. The forecast was for clouds and gloom all day, without rain. Mother nature delivered blue skies and a perfect 68F spring day, after a slow start of gloom and clouds. We IDed 35 species, including 4 or 5 lifers, so that was a good start to the day! That afternoon, my Aunt that lives in the area joined us at the campground, and we grilled steaks for dinner. So all in all, an A+ day that ended early because we were up at 5 AM.

There was an original Cabin A in the campground, which is the spiritual predecessor to the Aliner Ascape. I never saw the owners around, though, so I didn’t get a chance to say hello.

Sunday, we woke up to rain, but got enough of a break to pack up and head home before the next wave of raindrops hit. So trip 1 of the 2023 season is in the books. Next up is a weekend a Powhatan State Park, where birding will likely be the primary activity again. Our big trips this year are back loaded on the calendar, in October and November.

In other news, I am the proud new owner of a Nikon CoolPix B600 camera, purchased mostly for bird photography. If photos of birds are going to bother you, unsubscribe from this website now because bird pictures are going to be a thing around here.

This blog post puts forth a theory that Mastodon is doomed. His argument, as I interpret it, is based on several ideas:

1. Running an instance is hard
2. Picking a username and server is hard
3. Instance admins may not be up to the task of securing the server
4. He doesn’t like Eugen’s technology choices
5. There is no central plan for monetization
6. All the interesting development activity is with ActivityPub

Let’s take these on one by one.

1. Yes, running an instance is hard. So what? Blogging was hard until Blogger made it easy. Installing WordPress was hard until WordPress.org eliminated the need. Mastodon may or may not ever get to a point where somebody offers Mastodon-As-A-Service, but it doesn’t really matter. There are 1000’s of servers available that are happy to have you join, often for free, sometimes for a nominal fee of $5 or $10 a month. The ideal state of everybody owning their own instance is just that, an ideal. Nobody expects it to happen in real life. We may eventually end up with a handful of massive services, ala Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc. It’s still early, and nobody knows where this will end up, including those who have already written it off.

2. I quote from the post, “The act of choosing a server has kept more than a few people away from Mastodon.”

And I respond, good.

Not everything has to be easy. The act of picking a server is no more complex than deciding if you wanted Gmail or Yahoo Mail back in the day. Mastodon is a tool for microblogging, short-form communication, or whatever. If you aren’t willing to invest 15 minutes to understand a tool before using it, you don’t need to be using that tool in the first place. I ran a tech blog for parents for a short period of time back in 2007/2008. Everybody was confused by Facebook and Twitter back then. Expecting something new to make sense instantly is, quite frankly, silly.

3. Every day, countless people have their Facebook and Twitter identities hacked. The world’s largest corporations and government entities get hacked regularly, too. Yes, the well-meaning person maintaining the Masto instance you use may get hacked, which will suck. But I don’t see the risk as any more critical than exists without Mastodon in the picture. Arguably, that risk is a point in favor of the decentralization that is being criticized here. With Mastodon, they have to hack your instance specifically to impact you. There are more targets, each one worth way less as a target than a centralized service like Twitter.

4. Debating technology choices is arguably the 2nd oldest sport online, after porn ;) His argument against Rails with a Postgres database is that it's ten-year-old technology. Another term for that would be mature technology. Not everything must be a React app storing data in a NoSQL database. Is there a better way to build Mastodon? Probably. There is almost always a better way to build anything online. Are the choices made by Eugen bad? I have no idea, but the author here didn’t provide any evidence that he made bad choices.

5. Again, I quote from the post.

For me, the final nail in the Mastodon coffin came from a Decoder podcast interview with Eugen Rochko , the CEO of Mastodon. Throughout the interview it’s clear that Eugen has no plans for monotization beyond donations and running instances for interested users.

The lack of a monetization plan is a feature, not a bug. Not everything has to be a VC-funded play to get rich. In fact, the Internet would be a far better place with fewer VC-funded start-ups trying to get rich. Does this mean that Mastodon will never scale to replace Twitter? Probably. Again, though, it’s a feature, not a bug. Mastodon is a success today. It’s a worldwide network of thousands of servers populated by millions of users, all chatting away and sharing stuff relatively seamlessly. As long as Eugen can pay the bills, feed himself, and pay his small staff, it’s all good. The lack of a growth imperative here is a good thing. A very good thing, actually.

Also, Mastodon is open source. If somebody wants to fork the code and build Twitter 2.0 with it, they are free to do so.

6. And finally, the focus on ActivityPub in the development world is also good for Mastodon. Masto is just one node in the Fediverse, but it is the overwhelmingly most important node today. Anything that spreads that risk across more entities is good for both Mastodon and the Fediverse. Masto can continue to be Masto, and Tumblr can be Tumbler, PixelFed can continue to be PixelFed, and they can talk to each other. Interoperability is the point of the ActivityPub protocol. It’s maturation as a protocol is good for everybody, except maybe VC funded centralized services serving algorithmic content to increasingly bored users.

Mastodon is Eugen Rochko’s idea of how a microblogging platform should work. He founded the service back in 2016 on a few key ideas that he thought would negate the worst aspects of Twitter, and he really hasn’t wavered much from it. It was built as an anti-Twitter, not a better Twitter. Bigger isn’t always better, and in this case, bigger is worse.

I’m referring specifically to Facebook camping groups here. I don’t know if any other forums (are there still other forums?) are the same.

1. A photo of your camper. Don’t do it. You will immediately be overrun with requests for the weight of the camper, photos of the inside, the measurements of the bathroom, etc. I used Google AI to crunch some data and determined that exactly one person in 2022 actually acted on your response when they asked those questions.*
2. A photo of your campsite. Again, just don’t do it. If you are doing it, be prepared for 20 people to want you to call in a surveying crew to assess the levelness of the campsite. Also, it doesn’t matter how prominent the campground name or location is in the post, the first comment will be somebody asking, “Where is this.” The second comment will be somebody asking you to post photos of every campsite in the campground, so they can pick the best site for the trip they will never actually take.
3. A photo of your tow vehicle hitched to the camper. Some dude, and it’s always a dude, will immediately post 1000 words on why your tow vehicle is too small for the camper.
4. A question about tires. Some dude, (again with the dudes) will use his Chinese made iPhone to tell you how all Chinese goods, including tires, are inferior.
5. A photo of your sun shelter. 40 people that have no intention of buying a new sun shelter will grill you about where you got it and what you paid for it.
6. A question about the best campground near X. It’s been asked and answered 5 times this week already. Just use the damn search feature.
7. A question about how to buy a camper with bad credit. If you are not sure if you can get a loan for a camper, you can’t afford a camper. Buy a nice tent.
8. Can I tow this with my Rav4 questions. First, you’ll hear from the guy in question 3, and he’ll be correct. Also, you already know the answer, you are just hoping somebody will convince you it’s okay to be unsafe.
9. Complaints about how crowded campgrounds are. The result is a 200 comment thread of people bitching. Campgrounds are crowded, and the best way to make sure you can go where you want for a holiday weekend is to reserve a site way, way in advance. It’s not fun, it’s not fair, and bitching on Facebook isn’t changing anything. Also, you have to hear from the "we never pay for campgrounds folks" and the "I only cowboy camp with a buck knife to hunt my dinner" guy.
10. And finally, never, ever post, “What camper should I buy?” Nobody can answer that question for you. Do your research, and asking for random opinions in a general Facebook group is not research.

*I didn’t really do this, but ya’ll just glossed over the sentence because in your heart, you know it’s true.

I leave it to the reader to decide if this is satire, sarcasm, or sincere.

Food Lion has had only Bud, Coors, etc. NA beers in the cooler, until this week. I checked this week and much to my surprise they had upgraded the selection. They had Guinness, Sam Adams, and a couple from Athletic Brewing. So I bought a six pack of the Athletic Golden Ale, and Breck and I finished it in one night. So that should be a tell.

It's tasty. It's got some fruit in the nose and flavor profile that don't really belong in a Golden Ale. It tastes more like a NA juicy IPA. So not particularly representative of what a golden ale should taste like, but a very tasty and drinkable beer, which is all that really matters.

I think we've hit the point that if you want to cut back on real beer but like the taste of beer, you have enough options for good NA beers that you can make the switch and lose nothing except calories, which is a good thing to lose.