Terrific Vacay

Gotta say, my unexpected 5 days off due to loss of computer was one of the most relaxing vacations I've ever had. The fact that the thought "I have to go to the office tomorrow" didn't make me want to cry rather proved its good effects.

I suspect that one of the reasons was that it came up so fast that I didn't have time to over-plan.  No time to over-obligate myself, or make arrangements to drive 300 miles to visit.  My daughter was in Detroit - no trip to Baltimore. And the heat was ferocious - I wasn't able to kill myself with day-long rounds of yard work.  I would have passed out from heat exhaustion.

So Friday morning was a vet trip for Blu, much to his dismay.  The other two cats are so frightened that it's easy for the vet to work with them.  Blu just gets pissed.  And in 13 years he's never figured out that Dr. Heilman ALWAYS wins.  With the assistance of myself and at least 2 technicians. And sometimes with some spilled human blood - did you know that pine tar is great for those kind of nicks and cuts?  When I got the ornery bugger home he sat in the living room for an hour and just hissed - one ticked off cat.

Which left an afternoon for the range. HOT!  Did you ever try to draw your pistol with a hand so sweaty it virtually squished out of your grip?  Yeah, I was hoping no one saw that.  Mediocre shooting, but as I was cleaning the guns that night I sort of got a mental picture of what I might be doing wrong.

Saturday involved picking around the big flea market - I found the bench grinder I've been looking for.  Next time I'll take some more cash and pick up a circular saw.  I don't need new, I just need functioning and right price. 

Did I mention it was hot?  Which made Sunday after Mass an excellent day to stretch out on the porch and pretend I was reading while actually dozing.  With an occasional round of yard putter.  I think that was the night the big storm came in and took out the power for the night - opened the windows, hung my little camping lamp over the bedstead and read some more, thoroughly enjoying the cooler air the storm temporarily brought.

Then flower beds at church on Monday morning, a lazy afternoon poking around Goodwill and such, and margaritas on a neighbor's back deck as the lightening bugs came out.

Murphey's Law blogged about our morning shooting here.  It was definitely a great session, although I feel guilty because he is so busy helping me that he doesn't shoot enough himself.  But I do think we got the reason for Friday's mediocre shooting worked out.  And I DEFINITELY think I need to get some pants that aren't made of denim - bad enough they aren't cool in the heat but they bind when you are trying to shoot from other than a standing position.  And the sweat poring into my eyes made me consider lasik even more than I have - bad enough it's in your eyes but it also coats the glasses.

So beer and burgers afterwards, and I cleaned guns and worked on using the speed loader for the .38 as I sat and watched episodes of my current addiction, "Pawn Stars", that evening. 

All and all a most excellent vacation.  Hope everybody had the same, and now I have to catch up on everybody's blogs.

Disconnect

Due to major Stuff being done to my computer, I will be disconnected from the computer world from this afternoon until next Wednesday.  Since I'm not much of a techie and don't have one of them SmartPhone or iPad thingies, I'll catch up with e-mail and the blogosphere later.

Part 1

Arrived today.

Other pieces are on the way.  Dies would have been here today but I didn't understand that UPS delivery meant to the Post Office, and I gave them my physical address for delivery.  Won't work and they will send it back out as soon as it gets returned.. 

Still need to order brass, powder, bullets.  And am discovering how short supplies of common calibers is.

A Little Politically Incorrect Hump Day Humor

Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel, "Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the Promised Land."

Nearly 75 years ago, (when Welfare was introduced) Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a Camel, this is the Promised Land."

Today, Congress has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the price of Camels and mortgaged the Promised Land!

I was so depressed last night thinking about Health Care Plans, the economy, the wars, lost jobs, savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc .... I called a Suicide Hotline.

I had to press 1 for English.

I was connected to a call center in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal. They got excited and asked if I could drive a truck...

Folks, we're screwed.....

Comparisons

The chatter is getting louder.  What was unthinkable seems to be being thought about a lot more.  Replace the Buffoon...

...with someone with more, um, gravitas...

In the smoke and mirrors world of liberal politics, appearances trump.  And Hillary at least looks like a leader.

Let's see... under her watch the U.S. has thrown Israel and Egypt under the bus, flailed around in Libya, is still flailing around in Syria, has not exactly had brilliant success with the whole Iran and nukes thing, pulled us into military activity in several other countries, turned tail in Afghanistan because of the admin's own idiotic rules of engagement, peace is NOT breaking out in the Middle East, American influence is on the wane and...and...and...  Just curious - what, exactly, has she accomplished?

Captured Summer Released

Dessert from Summer's orchards,
    peaches ripe and sweet.
Sunshine in a bottle,
   brought up from Winter's sleep.

Started in a crock
   at least a century old.
West Virginia heritage -
  sometimes sweet, always bold.

-----------

My peach wine experiment was brought up out of its resting place this weekend,  and I am much pleased.  Definitely a dessert wine - very sweet - but very smooth with a warmth at the end.   Ignoring it for several months smoothed all the initial harshness out.  This is an experiment that will now have to repeated, although I need to lighten up on the sweetness.

The problem...

...would be that if THIS is true...

...it leaves us with THIS...

P.S. - During The Chicago Jesus' Senate run in 2004, the AP also referred to him as "Kenyan born": http://web.archive.org/web/20040627142700/eastandard.net/headlines/news26060403.htm.  In case it gets scrubbed, infowars.com has a screen shot of the article.

h/t to Bluegrass Pundit for the Biden pic.

Awesome mockery!

Great mockery of Divine Leader's "war on women" absurdities from the Susan B. Anthony List.

h/t to Creative Minority Report

Thief

And then he had the cheek to hop onto the railing and fuss at me.

Some Pretties

Before I left to spend a long weekend here...

...I had to do my daily flower check.   I think I may have finally reached the point where I will have something blooming from early Spring until frost.  On Thursday the peonies were just about there:

Yeah, they be very happy this year:

The irises have been lovely as usual:

And the Asian lilies that the deer haven't found (they are sort of hidden behind some irises, which deer don't like), went from...

...to...

The clematis I thought I had killed is loaded with buds and beginning to bloom and the yarrow and speedwell I put in a couple months ago are happily attracting butterflies.  And all that lovely rain has got my summer flowering plants booming green, green, green.

Testing, Testing....

Status:  Testing complete

Comments:  Any fails with new Glock are purely user error.  Yeah boy!

A quick dash to range between downpours because not playing with new toy any longer was NOT acceptable. Accuweather postulated that there was going to be a brief break in downpours around noon, so much watching of radar this morning, a call to Murphy's Law, who reminded me that the bad guys come out in the rain, and a surprised look on face of gent on desk at the range.  ML mostly did some coaching with me so I will start with good habits rather than have to break bad ones later - thanks, dude.  And some competition on the metal targets showed me how a little pressure and distraction affect my aim.  Not to mention glasses fogging up...

Next step, reloading set-up.

I Need a Rich Uncle

One that I don't know about and who would be good enough to kick the bucket and leave me his fortune.  Because I want a house on a cove on Lake Gaston in  VA/NC and that's the only way I'll be able to afford it.

A friend has come into an largish inheritance, one which has allowed her to purchase her retirement home on the lake.  For cash.  +4000 sq ft of beautiful house on a quiet cove, with dock and boat house.  And whippoorwills at night.  I love whippoorwills.  And I got to go down with her for a long weekend just past to alternate between sitting on the porch and dock and poke around antique stores for furnishings.  Which was fun because we have a lot of the same tastes so things that I liked but had no use for got bought to put in the lake house - I knew they were going to a happy home.  Unfortunately, I have no pics to share - camera problems. Fa.

But good news received on Saturday - dumb a$$ bike thief was popping wheelies on my daughter's bike just a few streets away when spotted by police.  Bike is home, thief spent weekend in jail because he couldn't be arraigned until today.  I don't know what the penalty for theft of $600 worth of bike is, but at least he got two days in jail out of it.

Evolution?

Let me get this straight:  Same sex marriage is about evolution?  Really?  OK.  This is the “the science is settled” and “everybody has their own truth” crew.  We’ll ignore the lack of truth in the first and the logical fallacy in the second and take them at their word.   There is no absolute Truth – we are just animals, a part of Gaia, and not answerable to a higher authority. 

The animal kingdom is not warm and fuzzy.  It eats, drinks, sleeps, and seeks to keep its genetic line continuing on.  The drive towards the protection of that genetic line is so great that some animals, male cats for instance, will kill the young of other males. Homosexual unions can’t produce young – they can’t continue their genetic line through homosexual sex.  So homosexual unions utterly fail from the point of view of science.  They have nothing to do with evolution, because they can’t produce evolution.  They are, just as the Church teaches, “against nature” and "disordered."

 

 h/t enochvideo

Mine! Mine mine mine!

Glock 19, with extra magazines, a Blackhawk paddle holster and a Galco waistband holster.  And carry case. 

It's all Murphy's Law's fault.  I ran over to the range yesterday morning to meet him and try out his new Sig Sauer to see if it would be a gun I'd be interested in owning.  On the way out of the range office I noticed the Glock.  Seemed a reasonable price.  I think I was probably doomed the instant it was put in my hand.

It was poring rain, so I didn't check and see if they had any 9 mm for it so I could go play with it.  It's killing me that I haven't made it go BANG! yet.  And Wal-Mart only had a couple boxes of 9 mm and they were the expensive self-defense loads, not target loads.  I fed it with those for right now because I can't stand the idea of having a gun that I don't have ammo for.

Is it possible?

To booby trap a back porch so that only those (including pets) who are supposed to be there get knocked to kingdom come? 

Yeah, I know.  It's not.  Wish we could.  After someone tried to break into her row house while she was home last year my daughter installed motion lights and door alarms.  And sometime yesterday in broad day light some SOB came right up on the back porch and stole the $600 bike she had chained to the wall. Right now I'm daydreaming of a ferocious electrical charge being routed through the porch...

Responsibility

So the memo concerning 'Bam's so called "gutsy call" is available for reading.  According to it, “timing, operational decision making and control”  of the attack on the bin Laden compound were all in one Admiral McRaven's hands.  In other words, if the bin Laden hit had failed, McRaven would have taken the fall.  The guy who can't seem to stop saying "me me me" would have turned around, pointed his finger, and said "him him him."  I suppose we should be relieved that he wasn't planning to blame failure of that mission on Bush.

For contrast, on April 24, 1980, Operation Eagle Claw failed, with casualties, in its mission to free the 52 hostages held captive by Iran.  President Jimmy Carter's statement to America: 

It was my decision to attempt the rescue operation. It was my decision to cancel it when problems developed in the placement of our rescue team for a future rescue operation. The responsibility is fully my own.

Carter may have been a failure as president, but at least he had the integrity to accept responsibility for a disastrous mission ordered under his watch.

Delay...

Busy weekend in Bawlmer.  And my daughter needs to e-mail me the pics so I can blog them...

Decision Time

So Bill Clinton has made a video praising 'Bam for taking out bin Laden and saying that Romney would not have made the decision to do so.

Um, would this be the same Bill Clinton who let the chance to get bin Laden go by more than once on his watch?

Bin Laden on Biden

"The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there," bin Laden wrote. "Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis"  Osama bin Laden concerning killing Obama

Well, a stopped clock is right twice a day, particularly when the vice-president was supplied through Clowns 'R Us.

Not Enough Detail

The Obama campaign has over-simplified their slogan this year.  A simple "Forward" doesn't give much information - forward to what?  So I thought I'd offer a few more detailed images for their use.  I've only got a couple together right now, but it'll be easy enough to create some more for them.

Classy

A lot classier than our president has been about giving credit where credit is due.  Robert Downey Jr. dedicated the Tribeca Film Festival screening of the new Avengers film, in which he returns as Iron Man, to the heroes of 9/11.  

"We are proud that Marvel's The Avengers is the closing film of this year's Tribeca Film Festival and we are excited to welcome local heroes to the screening as special guests... when it really counts, it's our real-life heroes who save the world every day by making it a better place for all of us."

Downey is a conservative who credits his stint in prison with his conversion to reality, saying "...you can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal."

I knew I liked him.  Even with his shirt on.

Full article is here.

No public services for you, either.

How about no public transportation, no public toilets, and refusal of service to everyone that can be tied to disruptions?  Too bad there's no way to turn off cell phone service to participants.  And any other service they use all the while protesting its existence.