A long time ago, before I moved to the great state of Georgia, I used to love driving out past the dry lake bed just west of Boulder City, Nevada and practice my marksmanship with my rifles and my pistol.

My idea of the perfect weekend included spending one day out in the desert blasting cans, targets, and other assorted items in need of air conditioning, and the following day spent cleaning guns, browsing for the best new gun parts and preparing for the next weekend.

I never got a chance to go shooting with some of my other friends who had more hardware, and watching a video from AR15 Magazine reminds me what I really missed.

It’s been over 13 years since I visited that dry lake bed, and I can still remember which roads to take, how far to drive, and the very spot where I used to set up my targets.

Those were some good times. Many of us would drive out in the morning, stay all day, build a fire on the lakebed that night and head home in the morning. Alas, there are no dry lake beds in Georgia (that I know of), and I am too busy with the wife and kids to sneak away on the weekends (for too long anyway).

Gospel legend Marie Knight has died in New York City at age 84. She came to prominence while touring with Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the 1940s and singing hits such as “Beams of Heaven.”

Her manager, Mark Carpentieri, says she died Sunday at a Harlem nursing home of complications from pneumonia.

Rest In Peace, Marie.

Taking a break from everything while I prepare for the week ahead. I have lots to do this coming week, with a project to work on, another health care bill to review, and who knows what else.

Enjoy these photos from a recent photowalk.

While we were bird watching I hurt my already aching and cracked teeth, so I will be searching for dental discounts in the near future before my mouth explodes on me.

Tomorrow is a new day…

The father of Terri Schiavo, who became a national symbol in a closely watched right-to-die fight, has died, his son said Saturday. Robert Schindler was 71.

Schindler, a tireless activist through years of legal wrangling, died from heart failure at a hospital in St. Petersburg. Terri Schiavo, who courts ruled was in a “persistent vegetative state,” died in 2005 after the feeding tube that had nourished her for years was removed according to her husband’s wishes.

Rest In Peace, Robert, and give Terri a hug from us.

DJ AM, the sought-after disc jockey who became a celebrity in his own right with high-profile romances and a glamorous lifestyle, was found dead Friday at his apartment, which had drug paraphernalia in it, a law enforcement official said.

Paramedics had to break down the door to his Manhattan apartment before they found his body at about 5:20 p.m., the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because family hadn’t been notified. There was no evidence of foul play, the official said.

Rest In Peace, Adam.

I’m looking forward to the weekend. I’ve spent most of this week working on a new project and learning some cool techniques in the software I use. I can hardly wait to relax and let my mind rest too.

Of course, once I sit down and realize I have some “down time” I am sure I’ll be thinking of all the items left on my list that need to be done this weekend. The camera club is having another field trip and the lawn needs mowed, but the one thing I should do is go visit my mom.

She lives just down the road in a senior community and I haven’t seen her in quite a while. It’s an independent living place, where everyone has their own apartment. They are really quite nice, and very affordable. She loves the convenience of having her own place and it’s less than ten miles from us.

I’ve been busy lately and she needs a re-install of her computer and some other “techy” stuff done, so maybe if I get time this weekend, I think I will head over there. That just might shock her.

Ellie Greenwich, who wrote classic pop songs such as “Chapel of Love,” “River Deep, Mountain High” and “Be My Baby” with Phil Spector, has died, according to her niece. She was 68.

Greenwich died of a heart attack Wednesday at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, where she had been admitted a few days earlier for treatment of pneumonia, according to her niece, Jessica Weiner.

…

Greenwich also worked as an arranger and singer, a role that saw her working with artists including Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.

She is also credited with helping Neil Diamond get his start and was a co-producer of early Diamond hits “Cherry, Cherry” and “Kentucky Woman.”

Among the more famous songs she wrote are Baby I Love You,” “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” and “Look of Love.”

Greenwich is survived by a sister, brother-in-law, nephew and her niece.

Rest In Peace, Ellie.

Author Dominick Dunne, who told stories of shocking crimes among the rich and famous through his magazine articles and best-selling novels such as “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles,” died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 83.

Actor-director Griffin Dunne said in a statement released by Vanity Fair that his father had been battling bladder cancer for some time. But the cancer did not prevent Dunne from working and socializing, his twin passions.

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Dunne and his wife, Ellen Griffin Dunne, known as Lenny, were married in 1954. They divorced in the 1960s but he wrote that afterward they remained close nonetheless. She died in 1997.

Beside Dominique, they had two sons, Alexander and Griffin. Griffin has acted in such films as “An American Werewolf in London” and “After Hours.” He branched into directing and producing as well, with “Fierce People” and “Practical Magic” among his credits.

Rest In Peace, Dominick.

Sen. Ted Kennedy died shortly before midnight Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 77.

The man known as the “liberal lion of the Senate” had fought a more than year-long battle with brain cancer, and according to his son had lived longer with the disease than his doctors expected him to.

…

In July 1969, following a party on Martha’s Vineyard, Kennedy drove off a bridge on the tiny Massachusetts island of Chappaquiddick. The car plunged into the water. Kennedy escaped, but his passenger did not.

Kennedy later said he dived into the water repeatedly in a vain attempt to save Mary Jo Kopechne, one of the “boiler room girls” who had worked on Bobby Kennedy’s campaign. But Kopechne, 28, drowned, still trapped in the car.

Questions arose about how Kennedy had known Kopechne — he denied any “private relationship,” and Kopechne’s parents also insisted there was no relationship — and why he failed to report the accident for about nine hours.

Kennedy pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of an accident. He received a two-month suspended sentence and lost his driver’s license for a year, but the political price was higher.

The political price was serving 47 years in the U.S. Senate. Puh-leaze. Ted Kennedy never paid a price for the death of Mary Jo Kepechne and he never made things right while he was still here.

Now he is facing God and answering for what he did so many years ago.

Rest In Peace, Ted. I don’t think you deserve it, but then again, it’s not my decision to make.

William A. Emerson Jr., a journalist and author who covered civil rights flashpoints as part of a cadre of gutsy Southern reporters and later served as editor in chief of The Saturday Evening Post, has died. He was 86.

Emerson, whose health had declined following a stroke, died Tuesday at his home in Atlanta.

A boisterous, outsize figure in an era of colorful New York magazine editors, Emerson stood 6-3 and his booming voice took over any room. His gifts as a phrasemaker made him a sought-after speaker for years. Last month, he included hundreds of speeches — on subjects from journalism to religion — with the papers he had donated to Emory University’s archives.

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William Austin Emerson Jr. was born in Charlotte, N.C., on Feb. 28, 1923. His family later moved to Atlanta, where the Emersons had deep roots. Emerson was married to Lucy Kiser for 56 years before her death in 2005. They had five children.

Rest In Peace, William.