When I got married, my life changed. Not only am I now responsible for taking care of myself, I'm now responsible for my wife's well-being as well. Someday I hope to have children which makes that burden of protection even greater. Before I got married, I hadn't considered my safety so much. Now though, things are different. It's hard to explain, but it's safe to say that I'm much more aware of our well-being than I have even been before.

I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. One of the ways I feel more security is by having firearms. If someone breaks into my home in the middle of the night, I want to have the quickest means to neutralize the threat they are imposing on my family. It's not that I want to kill someone, because I don't. Given the option of the safety of an intruder or my family, I will choose my family above all else. It's that simple. I have no way of knowing their intentions in advance. I have no way of knowing if they are armed. I can only assume the worst and do my damnedest to stop it. I will feel no pity and have no remorse should I be forced to take action on someone threatening the safety of my family.

Having that kind of power also means more responsibility. By having firearms, I now have to educate my family members about their proper and safe use. For those that aren't old enough to understand that, then I must ensure that they are kept out of reach and locked away. My wife is comfortable handling a gun.  We've been to the range and she's shot every gun that I've shot.

I generally try to stay out of political conversations.  Everyone has an opinion and it's hard to change people's mindset.  The 2nd amendment was put in place to allow us to protect ourselves not only from criminals, but from the government itself.  An armed nation will help prevent a political party takeover our government by military force.  I'm not being some crazy gun toting wack job, I'm just telling you why this is included in the bill of rights.  

If you don't personally feel comfortable owning weapons that is fine by me.  I don't want to impose my beliefs on others, but I do want the right to protect my family.

This has been a spectacularly crappy month for me. I ended th month at 267 lbs which puts me at a 1.2 pound gain! The month started off with a week of vacationing and overindulgence. After vacation I didn't jump back on things like I should have; so I basically just maintained. Just look at the graph.

Losing weight is going to be hard these last 2 months. It's getting colder, and I really won't feel like running in the freezing temperatures. I'm going to give it a go though because losing weight is all about momentum. I'm sure the holidays won't do much to help, but I can be good on the non holiday days. I need to finish this year strong!

I am not going to stand idle and let this happen.  This has renewed my interest in celebreating Christmas.  My lights are going up and my friends are going to know that we should all be celebrating.  I'm tired of the focus being on how much crap can be sold to the masses.  I just want a good old fashioned Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

In order to do these manly things that we do, we need tools. It's not always feasible to go out and buy a tool that you might need only a few times in your life. You could go out and rent a tool, but that costs money. The next best thing is to borrow something from your buddy. Before you go out and borrow your friend's chainsaw, please read on.

Take care of the tools. There is nothing worse than letting someone borrow something only to have it returned dirty, scratched up, and rusted. Sure, they are tools, and normal wear is to be expected. At the very least, just clean it up before returning it. I've returned some things in better shape than I found them. It's the least that you should do considering you were getting something for free.

Return the borrowed tools in a timely manner. It really sucks when you go to use a tool that you own, only to realize that your buddy still has it. Where did I put my reciprocating saw? Oh yeah, Fred still has it from when he rebuilt his deck a year ago. Bastard. Don't let this be you. This is a sure fire way to get on my never-borrowing-my-tools-again list. If you need to borrow a tool for an extended period of time (big project!), you had better say so in advance.

If you break a tool, you bought it. Sorry, that's just how it goes. Borrowing tools for free has its risks. If you happen to be the unlucky sucker in possession of a tool when it kicks the bucket (no matter how careful you were with it), then it's your responsibility to fix it or replace it.

Borrowing tools gives sweat equity to the tool lender. The next big project I have that requires help (moving!?), I'll be calling on my friends who I've loaned tools to. Of course, you can get out of this by returning the favor or returning the borrowed tool with a gift (beer, gift card, or other manly gift).

That's all I have on this subject for now. I really like my tools and I worked hard to earn the money to be able to buy them. I expect others to treat my tools with respect.