Today I listened to a Jocko Willink podcast where he talked about the disastrous police response to the Uvalde school shooting. Jocko is a former Navy Seal who was an operator and later a Navy Seal instructor. Given his background, he’s an expert on tactical assaults, armed intruder response and security. Jocko didn’t discuss gun…
Author: Steve Ainslie
Wide Open Spaces
I was dog sitting again for neighbor this week so I got to hang out in his house which is an “identical twin” to my house – except it’s across the street and it’s full of stuff that I don’t have. Like before, as soon as I opened his front door I felt claustrophobic. It…
Dirtbag Chic
When I was a little kid, I had a hard time getting dressed for school. I remember being upset when I was told I couldn’t wear my purple shirt with my orange pants to school because they didn’t match. I thought, “What is ‘matching’? I didn’t learn what “matched” meant until my wife taught me…
TV Watching Failure
Yesterday, I was dog sitting for my neighbor. I wanted to hang out for a while to keep the dogs company while they chilled out and laid around. So I tried to watch TV. My neighbor has all streaming channels. Netflix, Roku, Amazon, etc. I tried a few but couldn’t get past his parental controls…
Childfree
The older I get, the less I want to be around kids. I wrote about how grateful I am that I don’t have kids because of the commitment in terms of time, money and emotional capital to raise them. How do I know this? Because I helped raise 2 step kids. I was actively involved…
Dating Like A Married Guy
I was listening to a dating advice podcast recently when the host commented that the caller dated “like a married guy”. The host was making fun of the caller because the caller’s dates included evening walks, dinners at home, Netflix and hanging out with his girlfriend. The host said, “Where’s the excitement? Where’s the fun?…
When $25 Equals $7500
I was talking to my neighbor about upgrading my internet service recently and learned that he, like me, is a tech geek. This led to a conversation about cell phone service. He told me he uses Visible. It’s an MVNO that uses Verizon’s network and it has a unique “party plan” that makes it dirt…
Safe Space
My middle school years were some of the worst of my life. We had moved to the ghetto and I had to deal with a lot of scary things – the drunk who lived and hung out on the corner, the demented grandma in the attic across the street who screamed obscenities at us, the…
Covid PTSD
When I hear news reports of new Covid variant surging, that “everyone” is getting Covid (regardless of vaccine/booster status) and that certain regions are reimplementing masking and social distancing requirements, it upsets me. Yesterday, I had to ask myself why and spend some time thinking about it. Here’s the list I came up with. I…
A Lack Of Perspective
When the orthopedic surgeon told me to wear different shoes to heal my foot injury, I was relieved that I didn’t need to have surgery, get casted or wear an immobilizer boot. I wasn’t thrilled to have to spend hundreds of dollars on expensive running shoes. Nor was I thrilled that I could no longer…