NorCal PatCon

I know y'all are waiting breathlessly for a report on Bill's get-together this past weekend and I gotta tell you that this is actually hard for me to write. There was some good and there was some bad. I'll tell you the good shit first:

Me and Woody rolled in about noon and were greeted first by the world's largest German Shepherd and a Little Big Dog, then Bill and Joe came out and introduced themselves. Joe had gotten there a couple hours before us and was giving Bill a hand with last minute details.

We retired to the house where Bill was getting the meat ready for the grill and started our meeting before others started trickling in.

We ended up with about a dozen folks there, mostly locals. Bill told me that there were some youngsters that worked for him showing up, plus a couple of older ladies that were curious about what we stood for. The ladies were an absolute delight and a welcome addition to our movement.

The youngsters? I cannot begin to tell you how impressed I was with these young men. All in their early to mid twenties and true Patriots. They were full of questions, expressed their opinions, listened to ours and were eager to learn, plus they took over the firewood detail for which I was grateful given my advanced age. Come nightfall we all sat around the fire pit and did manly things like spitting in the fire and scritching dog's ears and solving the Nations' problems.

Now comes the bad shit and it's coming with a Bill Nye attitude:

I ran information and an RSVP survey for 7 weeks and had 16 people respond that they were attending. Out of that 16, 3 of us showed up. Out of the other 13, nobody wrote to cancel.

Folks, Bill went to a lot of trouble and great personal expense (food for 30, porta-potty, etc) to do this for something he believes in. He's a working man and as with all of us, money is tight. Now we all know things come up at the last minute but damn it, it ain't that fucking hard to let somebody know you can't make it. Okay, that covers the rudeness part of the post.

I also know that California is a big state and maybe there were last minute thoughts about driving that far. Uh-uh. That ain't no fucking excuse. I drove 5 1/2 hours and Joe drove at least 4 hours, plus he left his wife defenseless against 2 young children. That's a small sacrifice for something so important. The only exception to this that I can see is the gentleman from Canada that wrote and said he would try to attend. Him not making it, I can understand.

I know that folks forget, although I can't see how anybody could let something as important as this slip their mind. Everybody I know has a fucking calender. Shit, I was counting the days down! No fucking way in hell was I going to miss this.

Bottom line - Talk's cheap. We found out the hard way who we can count on, but at least those that made it Bill's know when our backs are against the wall we have Men that will stand with us.
Ironically, Bill had expressed concern about attracting keyboard commandos. It turns out he didn't have much to worry about.

So you got a mixed report. Maybe I shouldn't have posted the no-show part but I'm calling a spade a spade, not to mention it cost Bill a bunch of money that he could've put elsewhere. Common courtesy goes a long way.

But as Daniel remarked "Wirecutter - better a no-show than leaving you to hang later on..."

Regardless though of the disappointing turnout, I gained some new friends and that right there made it all worth while.

Bill, I want to thank you again for your hospitality and a great time. That was a weekend that I will always remember. Keep mentoring those kids, they're our future. You're doing a fine job.