Howdy everyone! Just thought I would say hi since I have been lurking in the shadows lately. It's sure been awhile since I posted on here. I pop in here and there to check things out just not often or regularly. I really miss this place, but for some reason life just smacked us hard the last few years and I don't have the time that I used to.

I finished my Bachelors degree while I was working on the road by taking on line classes. It helped to keep me out of the bars in the evenings. Military budget cuts caused me to lose my job, but I was hired back in another position. That actually happened a couple of times. But that is the nature of my line of work.

The wife and I have officially hit the age where body parts either fall off or just simply break. Mama has had several back surgeries in the past few years plus other procedures. I had both my knees replaced at the same time then had to have a couple of other surgeries due to continued bleeding. Ended up tearing my bi-cep tendon off the bone and had to have that repaired surgically. Ended up with some unexplained severe balance issues that caused me to almost tip myself out of the duck boat a few times. Now the wife is waiting on an appointment at the Mayo Clinic for another issue. So medically it has been a cluster for us around here.

But my daughter has given us a grandson. He's my pride and joy. Of course my daughter had a hard pregnancy with many problems. Her, the baby and her boyfriend moved in with us for a while to save money to buy a house. Now they have their house and things have settled down somewhat for us.

I got back into my reloading room and realized I had neglected it for several years. I spent a good two weeks prepping brass and ended up loading about 500 rounds of various flavors. I realized that I was low on the cast bullets for the 45-70's and 450 Marlins so I had to start casting more bullets to keep loading. During my clean up in the reloading room I found the coffee cans full or near full of other cast bullets that I was putting in storage for my kids inheritance.

I may go missing for long periods of time but I usually check to see what is going on.

Good to see you again!

Great to see you back on board The Nut mate. My goodness, both you and SWMBO have certainly had a rough trot over the past couple of years. Something I have identified is, “the older we get, the better we used to be”…I’m in the same boat unfortunately. I’m interested to hear the Doctor’s reason for your balance problems. I too (I’m a few weeks off 73) have suffered some balance issues and a few embarrassing falls with the last one a week or so ago off a 3/4 metre high rock wall when out fishing. I simply over balanced, luckily I fell onto sand, but it was damp and damned hard. I’ll be seeing the Dr in a few weeks, so it’s a subject I’ll be mentioning to him.

Congrats on your Granddaughter mate, so begins the next most wonderful and rewarding phase of your life…spoiling the Grandkids.

I’ve been doing a little reloading as well, and now that I have loads sorted and rifles zeroed, I’m seriously considering locking my gun safes and not touching them for some months…and certainly no range time as I’m sick to death of every time I go to the range there seems to be more Rules introduced. I’m thinking it won’t be long before we have a specially trained (and qualified, with a Certificate) person putting the bolt in our rifle, loading it and holding it steady whilst you take the shot, followed by them unloading the rifle and either preparing it for the next shot or securing it off the firing line, and not allowing the shooter to touch it. This WOKE society is getting worse by the day. I wonder what they will target next once firearms are made totally illegal to own (it’s on the horizon).

I sat down at my computer yesterday and did an update for my Will (must remember to take it to my Solicitor) where I allocated individual firearms to those grandkids who will use them. I have also indicated those to sell (I’m considering selling some shortly).

Anyway mate, it’s great to see and hear from you again. Pass on my regards to SWMBO, your daughter and her husband, and give your new granddaughter a hug from this rough headed old Aussie.

Vince wrote:

Great to see you back on board The Nut mate. My goodness, both you and SWMBO have certainly had a rough trot over the past couple of years. Something I have identified is, “the older we get, the better we used to be”…I’m in the same boat unfortunately. I’m interested to hear the Doctor’s reason for your balance problems. I too (I’m a few weeks off 73) have suffered some balance issues and a few embarrassing falls with the last one a week or so ago off a 3/4 metre high rock wall when out fishing. I simply over balanced, luckily I fell onto sand, but it was damp and damned hard. I’ll be seeing the Dr in a few weeks, so it’s a subject I’ll be mentioning to him. Congrats on your Granddaughter mate, so begins the next most wonderful and rewarding phase of your life…spoiling the Grandkids. I’ve been doing a little reloading as well, and now that I have loads sorted and rifles zeroed, I’m seriously considering locking my gun safes and not touching them for some months…and certainly no range time as I’m sick to death of every time I go to the range there seems to be more Rules introduced. I’m thinking it won’t be long before we have a specially trained (and qualified, with a Certificate) person putting the bolt in our rifle, loading it and holding it steady whilst you take the shot, followed by them unloading the rifle and either preparing it for the next shot or securing it off the firing line, and not allowing the shooter to touch it. This WOKE society is getting worse by the day. I wonder what they will target next once firearms are made totally illegal to own (it’s on the horizon). I sat down at my computer yesterday and did an update for my Will (must remember to take it to my Solicitor) where I allocated individual firearms to those grandkids who will use them. I have also indicated those to sell (I’m considering selling some shortly). Anyway mate, it’s great to see and hear from you again. Pass on my regards to SWMBO, your daughter and her husband, and give your new granddaughter a hug from this rough headed old Aussie.

Well Vince I have been dealing with the Veterans Administration (VA) on most of my issues. The balance scared the hell out of me. I ended up seeing an eye doctor that specializes in TBI's. They called me out of the blue on an unrelated matter and started connecting the dots. During my time Inservice I was exposed to several large blasts and had a very heavy tank hatch drop on my head. So in their MRI's and scans they have come to the conclusion that because of these injuries my eyes wont' focus together properly. This gives me distorted vision and occasionally it will effect my balance.

In the end any day above dirt is a damn good day!

Pumpkinslinger wrote:

Good to see you again!

Thanks Buddy! Been missing everyone

“wiersay111” wrote:

…During my time Inservice I was exposed to several large blasts and had a very heavy tank hatch drop on my head. So in their MRI's and scans they have come to the conclusion that because of these injuries my eyes wont' focus together properly. This gives me distorted vision and occasionally it will effect my balance. In the end any day above dirt is a damn good day!

I’m hearing more and more of ex servicemen suffering from the after effects of large blasts/explosions and even gunfire from when they are shooting. Things like detached retinas and down the track TBI. I have an eye problem with my right eye…a bleed in the back of the eye has buckled the retina…and now have a blurry blob in the middle of my right eye. I’ve seen an Ophthalmologist and there isn’t anything they can do. I’m wondering if that is related to all the shooting I’ve done. I had a mate (also ex Army) who developed a problem with one of his eyes (started out as trouble with night vision), ultimately they removed his eye and he developed a tumour behind where the eye was…and we know what that ultimately caused…my shooting buddy is no longer with us.

Certainly something I’ll be keeping a watch out for in case things go “pear shaped”.

Doctors are learning to recognize new and more things now with the advanced technology. Figuring out how to treat things is the hard part in the VA it's a government run entity that is very slow to change or adapt to new ways. You can't expect to push the human mind and body to the extremes that we did and not develop health problems.

wiersy111 wrote:

Doctors are learning to recognize new and more things now with the advanced technology. Figuring out how to treat things is the hard part in the VA it's a government run entity that is very slow to change or adapt to new ways. You can't expect to push the human mind and body to the extremes that we did and not develop health problems.

So true mate…in all respects that you have mentioned. I’m lucky in that I hold a Vet Affairs Gold Card (TPI), and they as a rule don’t argue over Drs fees. Hardest part is finding a Dr that will accept the “rates of pay” designated by Vet Affairs (generally the basic AMA Rate), although I’m sure the Drs have worked out a way to “pad” their bills.

Welcome back!
Yeah none of us is getting any younger, and thats sux

gelandangan wrote:

Welcome back! Yeah none of us is getting any younger, and thats sux

Ya that's the truth. It seems like every week it's something else.