Blackhawk Knives Garra II
Across the span of the past decade I've written knife reviews of knives made by Masters of Defense (which was later bought by BLACKHAWK!) as well as knives from the newly formed (a couple years ago) Blackhawk Knives. As I attended the recent Writers' Conference sponsored by and held at BLACKHAWK! I realized I've never tested or written a review of the Garra II. An evolution of the Garra first made by Masters of Defense, the Garra II is an aggressive hawksbill design that may be overlooked for anything other than serious defense use. After considering what I knew about it I had to wonder why that is.

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Warrior Wear Lightweight Tactical Pants
A couple years ago when BLACKHAWK! first introduced their Warrior Wear line of clothing I was impressed with the design features they included and how they had (essentially) improved over existing tactical lines of clothing from competitors in the industry. When they came out with their "tactical non tactical" (TNT) pants I thought they were a good idea but I never really took to them. I still kept wearing the original Warrior Wear pants. Now I've had opportunity to wear test the latest version of the Warrior Wear Lightweight Tactical Pant and I have to say that I'm impressed with the evolution that has occurred, especially since this evolution required the designers to reconsider some features they once touted that they've now done away with due to lack of practicality.

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Father to Son, Part Eight:
Inevitable Loss & Change
It's funny how some consider parenting a job and others consider it a blessing. Although each of my children has been challenging at times (that's a polite way of saying "frustrating, upsetting, stubborn, etc") they have each been a blessing as well. Due to being divorced from my first wife I wasn't a part of the daily life of my oldest son until after he got out of high school - and then not for very long because he joined the Marine Corps. In the case of my youngest son (second marriage) it's almost the complete opposite: I've worked predominantly from home since he was three years old so I've been in his days far more than most dads who have full time jobs out of the house.
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