We had this new gym teacher who was an ex marine sergeant. He had us doing these exercises that, I suppose, he had learned in the marines. It wouldn't have been a bad idea if he had gradually worked us into it, but he had us jump right in at the advanced level. He didn't last long, but I don't think our petition had anything to do with it. I seem to remember my mother asking me why I had been limping around the house lately and, I suppose, other parents expressed the same concern. Anyway, one of the kids was circulating this petition that said simply: "Petition to stop exercises". I remember thinking at the time that I could have come up with something more literate, but I signed it and forgot about it, assuming that nothing was going to come of it anyway. I don't think the petition was ever submitted, but the teacher got ahold of it somehow and brought the principal into the case. I was surprised that they both were so upset about it. To my knowledge, there was no rule against doing something like that. Indeed, we had recently been taught that the constitution guaranteed our right to "petition for redress of grievances", which is probably how the author had gotten the idea. I was amazed that they were mad at us for doing exactly what they had taught us to do, and I said so in my essay, among other things.
That foolscap paper was just like notebook paper, but it didn't have any holes in it, and I think it was a little longer. We bought out own notebook paper, but foolscap paper was passed out by the teacher for special assignments. I don't know why they called it "foolscap", although that spelling is probably correct because the spellcheck didn't flag it like it did "fullscap".
The regular firearm deer season ended yesterday, having run for 16 days. I only got out there eight days, which is less than I would have liked, but more than I did last year. I only saw one doe for a few seconds, and I never could have gotten off a shot even if I had a doe permit, which I don't. They only issue a limited amount of those, and my name wasn't drawn this time. The muzzle loader season starts this Friday and runs for 10 days, so it's not over yet. There is also a bow season that runs for three months, October through December, but I don't bow hunt. I tried it for a few years but I wasn't crazy about it, and there are lots of other things I need to be doing that time of year.
Muzzle loaders are fun to shoot, but their range is limited to about a hundred yards, which is as far as I can see anywhere on the property anyway. They are not as accurate as a regular deer rifle, and they only hold one shot, so hunting with a muzzle loader is considered to be a handicap. Modern muzzle loaders became popular decades ago. The first models were reproductions of the old guns that were used up to about the end of the Civil War, when the first cartridge guns were developed. Because they were using primitive weapons, the muzzle loader fans were able to persuade the DNR to give them a special season like the bow hunters already had, but not as long. Almost immediately, gun makers started coming out with new improved muzzle loaders that had more reliable ignition systems. Some purists still gripe about that, but most hunters have embraced the newer models. In the muzzle loader season, you are not allowed to shoot any extra deer, you can only fill any unused tags that you have left over from the regular season.
I usually spend about four hours a day in my blind, about half of that actually awake. It takes a half hour to walk out there and a half hour back, so the whole operation takes about five hours. I take a thermos of tea with me, but no food because I won't be out that long. It might seem odd that I walk a quarter mile into the swamp at 7:00 AM to take a nap but, if I wasn't sleeping there, I would be sleeping at home, and I'm not likely to get a deer that way. We do see deer out our windows occasionally, but my hypothetical wife has forbidden my to shoot through the windows, even if I open them up and remove the screens first, which is not as unreasonable as it sounds. I am the King of Beaglesonia, all 88 acres of it, and all she wants to be is Queen of the House, so I let her.
I looked up that Ferguson thing on Wiki, and I don't know what to make of it. Different witnesses have given different accounts, which is not unusual. Some say that the grand jury was rigged, which is certainly possible. It seems clear that Wilson was justified in shooting Brown the first time during the initial struggle through the car window, but I'm not so sure that Wilson should have pursued Brown after he ran away. He had called for backup, but it hadn't arrived yet, and so Wilson was abandoning his police car in a hostile neighborhood, which leads me to believe that he was angry and not thinking as clearly as he should have been. It's agreed that Brown was advancing towards Wilson when the fatal shot was fired, but some say he was trying to surrender, while others say he was not. Brown had been shot multiple times by then, so he probably wasn't thinking too clearly either. It's important to remember that the grand jury did not exonerate Wilson, they just declined to indict him at this time, so I don't think the "double jeopardy" rule applies here. I'm sure that we've not heard the last of this case, not by a long shot.
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