Unfortunate, no rain in the forecast today

Being out in the county, juusst outside the city limits, the skies light up on July 4 and New Years eve in a big way.
We've been blessed with a statistics defying number of rain days on those two dates in the time we've occupied the BAR Corp. HQ.
The day after I find dud mortars around the yard and occasionally on the roof of the house.
The closest call was when my own brother knocked over the tube while lighting one up.
The projectile impacted the tactical bullet proof 1/8" thick glass in one of the front windows.
Fortunately, the angle of impact imparted less vector force normal to the glass than parallel and the mortar bounced off into the neighbor's front yard.
I have never seen fat old people run that fast in my life.*

I happened to be inside the house and heard a thump on the front window and a massive BOOM at rather low horizon.
"WTF are you people doing out here!", said I as I exited the front door.

My brother's wife has never allowed him to come back up this way for farworks.
The danger close mortar strike was bad, but I suspect it was lighting up the mortar cake he spent $150 on that was the final straw.
See, there was no visible fuse. So, he started picking at the paper till he found one.
Remember kids, stop, drop and roll!
Bro lit the "fuse".
BOOM!  BOOM! BOOM! etc, etc, etc,
Bro hit the ground within his body length from the munitions like a seasoned WWII soldier and rolled away.
"Are you okay?!"
"What?"
"Are you okay?!"
"What?"
His hearing recovered, but he's not allowed to come out and play anymore.**

Oh yeah, almost forgot, HAPPY NEW YEAR YA'LL!
I'll be asleep most likely.

* I totally made that part up.
** most of his eyebrow grew back, in case you were wondering.

Staycation

Took off between Christmas and New Years. A long needed break from a very hectic year. I've been hanging around the house just decompressing.
Two weeks back the water cut off valve for the powder room toilet decided to start dripping. So the valve was closed and the powder room out of commission until I had time to get to it.
No big deal thinks me, I'll take care of this while on my staycation. I'll just go down to the big box hardware store and get a replacement valve.
What a pain in ass this turned out to be.
While attempting to fix the original leak, I managed to make things worse. To cut to the chase, as of the last thirty minutes or so, it appears we have a successful repair. 100% silicone sealant is your friend.

Then came the "twenty minute" light fixture replacement.  Okay. It was more like an hour, but this one came off without a hitch.
 Last time I replaced a fixture, it turned into two days. That'll happen when you drill through a water pipe.
It was that same damn powder room now that I think about it.  Cursed it is.
Anything else goes wrong in there, I'm just going to nail the door shut.











*The framers did an awesome job on this house. The "plumbers", not so much.

Oy what a Day!

Elated.
Exhausted.
That sums up my day in two words.

I hit the office at 7am this morning.  In the days leading up to today, my consultants assured me they were ahead of the curve and would have their documents to me, no problem, for today's deadline.

I left the office at 9pm.
Thumbs up!
Good job you buncha highly educated morons!
 Learn to use a calendar. Look at it every day. Every day, so you don't wait until the last week before the deadline to try to design all the shit that makes a building work in 120 hours.

In the midst of this chaos, the man child called.  The last 8 or so calls have been because his POS jeep wouldn't start.  I saw his caller ID.  Brain said, "no, please tell me the replacement used previously owned "certified by Habib the dude who moonlights as a parking valet" car hasn't broken down".

Fortunately, my son is a compassionate soul.  Immediately he said, "I called to give you some good news!"
"I got a job offer"  (for quite a livable wage I might add)
He has one semester to go. Come May he will graduate with a ME degree.

Elated.
Houston, we have a successful launch.

I am ashamed to say

I don't own an axe. Not even a splitting wedge.  In my late teens I used to burn off excess energy by splitting wood....man I miss those high T count days.

I have tools no average precious urban snowflake knows exist. Universal spring compressor for GM 700 R4 transmission for example.*

"Why do I not have an axe?", I found myself asking, er..myself over the weekend.

Needing an axe has not come up much until recently.

Winters have been so mild over the past two decades at the BAR Corp. HQ that a couple of bundles of firewood wrapped in cellophane from the corner store would handle the few odd days where the temperatures even flirted with the concept of cold.
So, now the climatic cycle appears to have circled back around to something akin to 1983 or 1989; years it actually snowed down here.
My FIL and MIL sent us home with as much firewood as we could stuff into the trunk of Belle's BARmobile a while back.  Quarter split logs from a very fat Oak.
And I mean, very fat.  I can fit a total of one at a time in the pathetic metal box that masquerades as a fireplace in the HQ.

Wanting 10% of the heat from a roaring fire and the cozy ambiance I applied copious amounts of natural gas to said one hand clapping log. It was good and the Lord did grin, until the gas bill comes next month.
I was at the hardware store yesterday. I could have rectified this problem. It didn't even occur to me.

I suppose I'm going to have to schedule said axe purchase on my smaht phone calendar.

Jeez. I need more time out from under the fluorescent lights.








*No, I did not buy it at a garbage garage sale. Yes, I did actually use it rebuilding a transmission.

Global Worming? Not so much.

Let's see:
Two snowstorms in the Northeast before Christmas.
Dallas got zapped by Gru's freeze ray.
It has snowed in Egypt for the first time in 100 years.
It has snowed in Israel.

And the Sun's solar cycle activity is at its weakest in a Century.

But, but! Correlation is not causation!*  There's no proof that the sun's inactivity is directly related to the lack of rise in the atmospheric average temperature the pause in Thermageddon!**

All you faithful Global Warmists are behind the curve.  The nutjobs writing about the coming ice age back in the seventies had it right after all.

Yes, Obama "sciency Czar" John Holdren, I'm mocking you directly.

"White House science czar John Holdren has predicted 1 billion people will die in “carbon-dioxide induced famines” in a coming new ice age by 2020."
Wait....What?
Ice Age?
I thought the entirety of the earth was going to turn into desert a'la Frank Herbert's "Dune".

Faith in Global Worming is a mental disorder foisted upon us by people that despise themselves.
Since they do not feel worthy to live on this magnificent blue marble floating in space, they think you shouldn't either.  Holdren in particular.  I do notice however, that he as not led by example and offed himself.
That would be because, IMHO, he's a Psychotic Fascist.


*Why yes. Isn't that so? Funny how the rise in atmospheric CO2 trails behind the rise in average temps when graphed with actual data as well, n'est-ce pas?
** I totally stole that term from Borepatch.

Well..doesn't everyone have one?

Blogbud Keads kickstarts a meme via inspiration from the ever epic Brigid.

Hey! thinks me. I have one of those! I'm in!

Bought it when I was 18.
Pic is darkish.  3" Mag, 12 gauge.*
Goose gun.  No sky too blue.

* Ever since the first BAR blogshoot, Borepatch declines to shoot sabat slugs out of it. I can't recall a cogent reason why...;)

Culinary News Alert

This just in from Belle's deeply embedded contacts in the People's Republic of Kalifornia
Word is that Huy Fong is being sued in California due to the vapors emitting from the facility where Rooster Sauce, aka Sriracha sauce, is produced.
Production has been halted and Huy Fong has been prohibited from shipping.

Fortunately Sriracha sauce is not a mainstay foodstuff of vunables, so the likelihood of riots and looting are small.  However, you might want to hit the grocery tomorrow and stock up.

The legal process in Kalifornia is designed to last one day longer than the defendant's money lasts.

How to drink from the faucet without getting water up your nose

This is what PV has been working on for a few days now.
I'm easily amused.

A house divided

Many of us down here in Texas have not been too terribly happy with our Senator John Cornyn (R) who has habitually gone squishy on us almost immediately post election.  Cornyn's idea of representation is to tell us what DC's opinion is of us rather than the other way around.
Cornyn is in full conservative chameleon mode right now seeing as he is coming up for re-election in 2014.
I heard on the news today, one of our truly conservative U.S. Congressmen, Steve Stockman, SURPRISE!  filed at the last minute to run against Cornyn in the primaries. The stupid party establishment lost continence.

This is going to be a dog fight. Both have plenty of name recognition in the state. Cornyn has a massive  political machine behind him and millions in his campaign coffers.  Stockman, at the moment, has something like thirty-seven thousand.
Stockman has a very steep uphill climb ahead of him. While I'd like to see him unseat Cornyn, I fear Texans may lose twice on this one. Cornyn gets re-elected and we lose a great congressman in the process.

But then, Cruz was a long shot running against a very long time establishment pol too, so we shall see.

The time has come for the establishment republicans to retire and "spend more time with the family".
Although, I bet they suck at that as well, being the self centered self serving jack asses that they are.

Done been busy

One of the things keeping me busy.
Got a long way to go yet.

Dx

Chezd. C e rcrrrrrrrrrrrrrdrrdr

Upon inspecting blogger I discover the current Cat, Peavey also know as "get the eff off my computer" queued up a draft post, twice no less, in Blogger, to which you have now been treated.

He needs to learn how to use the spell check.

Label: Random. Very.

Towel - throwing in

No not the blog.
Two vehicles headed to the crusher soon.   You know how it is. You make one last heroic effort to get it to run right, then you trade it in for a shiny new car loan.
The old Astro Van leaks at both ends now when it rains. Rust is eternal.
 The man child's Jeep crapped out again, downtown in the basement level of a parking garage after we'd changed out the fuel pump. The jeep leaks when it rains also. Egregiously.  And, it is truly a piece of shit car. Although, it runs like a bat outa hell...when you can get it started.

While I may be curmudgeonly, I am not enough of a money grubbing evil son of a bitch to trade either of these vehicles nor sell them to any poor soul.  I will have to answer for my sins eventually after all.

He and I shopped used car lots last Saturday until we couldn't remember which we'd already been to.
He's got a newer and more fuel efficient vehicle now...by a decade plus model year.

So the two oldest beaters in the BAR Corp. HQ fleet will be headed to the salvage yard soon.
I need to pull the stereos and other assorted stuff out of them first...they are worth more than the scrap iron.

The old van, inherited from my mother turned into a bit of a quest for me.  83K miles on it when I got it and it barely ran.  Via a bunch of driveway crawling and getting greasy, I got another 100K+ miles out of it.  I can turn a wrench.  The rust I was unable to overcome.

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Slumming in the theater distict

Its amazing how much loose change you can pick up down here. I just knew this tattered Texans jersey would be good for something. ;)

The clothes have no emporer

What a great line. Wish I'd thought of that.  I can't remember where I read it.
As Obummercare unfolds into a slow motion train wreck, the other half of America slowly awakens from their ambulatory slumber to realize what a liar and fraud the current resident of the white house is.
This shit storm is only getting started. When the employer mandate kicks in, the buyer's remorse will rise to epic proportions.

Meanwhile, Harry Reid changed the rules in the Senate to make it easier to stack the federal courts with the "correct thinking" type of moonbats. Why?  Because the Democrats can't shake the obummercare tar baby off their hands no matter how much they shake, shimmy, and spin.
They are in for a shellacking come the 2014 midterm elections.
So, they will legislate from the Bench.
Once again, the Republicans stupid party gets out maneuvered.
But, no worries. It's only the little people that get fucked over.
You, and me.
and
all the dumb asses that voted for our first Gay Kenyan Muslim president.

Good Grief! another week blurred by

Everything seems to be frantic these days.
My clients make decisions at a glacial pace and DEMAND action yesterday.
Everyone is so covered up, trying to schedule meetings is far worse than trying to herd cats.
But! We've Got to Have a Meeting!!!!!
Half my client team are the cats.
Got the fuel pump replaced in son's jeep a week ago. He called this evening from a downtown parking garage to report said jeep would not start.
I drove into town after work through blinding rain and flooding streets to lay hands on the jeep, hoping all the way I could get it started.
It was parked in the basement level.  Pushing that effer up to the street level, was not the way I wanted to end my day.  I willed it back to life.  There is something wiggy with the relays going on in that car.
When it's running, it runs like a bat outa hell.
The jeep is not afraid of Sonnage. It is terrified of me because it knows I brought it into this family and I can sure as hell take it out.
Saturday I bought two more new tires for Duh's Cobalt and replaced all for four beat to shit wheels.
 Sunday I bought new wiper blades for my Scion roller skate. My new wiper blade on the driver's side was worse than the old blade.  My scheduled overdue oil change for rollerskate got rained out.*

I'm taking off Wednesday.  Wednesday I get to drive down to Old Hickory Lake to get finger printed because some douche nozzle suddenly decided the practice of architecture was so over run with felons that finger prints and a criminal background check were needed to renew my registration for the thirtieth time. And no, I can't use my CHL finger prints and back ground check. That would be so... un-bureaucratic.
Yeah, there's places closer, but they're all booked up through the end of the month when my license expires.
Plan ahead? You've got to be kidding. I pretty sure I saw myself leaving the office when I arrived this morning.



* I will be on my death bed before I allow some dipshit at Fred's croissant, fill dirt and lube to change the oil in my vehicles.

.

Tab clearing my brain

Move in, or move out?
When we moved into the BAR Corp. HQ, the only "store" close by was a lonely Texaco gas station.
I hated the long commute to work.  As we have gotten closer (very close) to the childrens graduating college, Belle and I have mused about moving closer in to town so my daily commute isn't such a long grind.

It has gotten so crowded out here now it's beginning to bug me.  God help me, I'm leaning towards moving further out.

Doh! Biden visited the Port of Houston Today.
He gave an "inspiring" speech about things of which he knows nothing.  By "inspiring" I mean he managed not to step on his own tongue.
I can remember when it was a cool thing and big deal to have the president or vice president visit Houston.  Now when they show up my reaction is, "Oh jeez, please go back to DC before some of the fail oozes off of you and pollutes one of the few surviving economies in this country".

Fog out there this morning, drive safely.
So said the weather report this morning.
"Drive safely" apparently means drive slower than physically possible during rush hour.  I left ten minutes ahead of schedule and got to work ten minutes late.  The fog was "thick". Visibility couldn't have been more than two miles in front of my car. Thank God it didn't "rain". I might not have made it to work by quittin time.

One down

Looks like it will be a weekend of getting greasy.

My son and I spent a few hours today replacing the fuel pump, strainer and fuel filter in his jeep.  Has there ever been a differential that didn't leak? Man that was grubby back there by the fuel tank. The good news was we didn't have to drop the tank to get to the pump. The bad news was we had to get all kissy-smacky face with the greezy differential to get at the pump.

Nonetheless, mission accomplished.

In spite of the circumstances, it was really good to see him.  He's a busy young man these days. I don't see him too often anymore.

On the to-do list for tomorrow is an oil change for my car, rotating the tires on my daughter's car and, if she manages to get over here, finishing the electric lock repair on my youngest step-daughter's car.

.

Milestone

I feel kind of like the three year old running behind his siblings, but the BAR blog recently rolled past 100,000 page views.  Compared to the BAR blogroll, this doesn't even show up on the radar scope.

I apologize to all those that have come here expecting to find actual content or cogent thoughts.

The lovely Belle started this blog. Somehow..."you should post something on my blog" I got roped into this.*

I request that our my readers leave comments demanding that that Belle re-engage in "her" blog.
We just had a "discussion" about whether I should take her pictures off the blog.

heh.




* I like blogging. The true bonus is that I've met quite a few folks IRL that I never would have otherwise, for which my life is richer.

Al Gore's next gig

If you were wondering what was going to come after Global Worming, wonder no more.

As the global worming schtick has waned, temperatures have refused to rise and the polar icecaps have increased at record rates, the UN saw the writing on the wall and attempted to get some traction with "biodiversity".  The Wormists and the skeptics* were too far gone in a rut induced horn lock to even take notice.  Whatev.

So what's the next ozoneholethermageddon tax dollar gravy train?  Ocean Acidification.

"This Summary for Policymakers states with "very high confidence" that increasing acidification is caused by human activities which are adding 24 million tonnes of CO2 to oceans every day."

Very high confidence. 
Human activities.
Indeed.
Where have I heard that before?

So, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and global average temperatures now appear to have no correlation whatsoever. One thing the wormists poo poo that has managed to, begrudgingly, creep into the nooz is the sun seems to be taking a nap.  Sun spots are almost nonexistent.  Could it be? Nah, Sun activity couldn't possibly have anything to do with temperatures on earth could it? Perish the thought cretin, pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.


So now the PH level of the oceans is rising because atmospheric CO2!!!111eleventy!11.

Really?
Which tree ring will the sciency-tists point at as the safe PH baseline?
Has anyone thought to look into volcanic activity on the ocean floor? I'm just asking, ya know. Personally, I think we need some federal legislation against those nasty, mega-polluting volcanoes.**

I am officially calling bullshit right here, right now. I no more trust "scientists" whoring for government grants than I do obama.








* I am a skeptic.  Well, actually that's an understatement. I think global worming is unmitigated bullshit.

** When Mount Pinatubo erupted, it put more pollution into the atmosphere in that one event than all of mankind from the beginning of the industrial revolution up to that very moment in time.
We should file a class action lawsuit against the earth for polluting itself.

Scout Scope

Initial fit up on the scout scope setup for my Mosin Nagant.
I'm dubious as to how well this mount is going to hold up under the Mosin Mule Kick Recoil.
Time will tell.  Loctite on the allen screws will be s.o.p.
As it is, there's clearance to shift the scope back some, which I think I will do.
Then comes the process of sighting in. Time to learn something new. This I have not done before, but I'm just having the best time with a rifle older than me.
I'm not too proud to be coached btw.

It's a date then

With a fuel pump next weekend.
God laughs while man makes plans.
The man child's jeep crapped out again.  He and I have been chasing this "no start" issue for a while.
So I drove 40 minutes to lay hands on it.  No error codes stored..again.
All this time I've been thinking it was an ignition issue because after cranking it a while I could smell gas like the engine was flooded.
I popped the hose off the intake and hit it with some carb cleaner while sonnage cranked it over.
It started.
So it appears the fuel pump has gotten rather long in the tooth. It's not putting out enough pressure for a cold start. It's still putting out enough to run the engine, just not get it started up. It takes about 15 psi more pressure at start up than required to just keep the engine going.
So, the fuel pump's time has come.

A mechanic shop charged me $600 to replace the fuel pump in my Jeep some years ago.
I was not a happy camper. So I decided I'd be doing the next one myself.*  Rockauto.com lists a replacement pump for $72.79.  Even with a couple of hours of my time invested, that's a pretty healthy reduction in expenditure.**

Most people I talk to regarding shade tree auto repair believe that modern vehicles are too complicated to repair themselves, what with all the sensors and dohickies.  For 26 bucks, you can buy a code reader. Often, the computer in the car will tell you what the problem is. Once you discover how simple it is to replace many of the engine management and emissions sensors you will not be happy with what your auto shop charges you to do so.
When the error code search comes up empty, there's either no spark or not enough (no) fuel.





* I also fired the mechanic shop I'd done business with for ten years.  The fuel pump episode was the last straw after finding out they were charging me 4x retail for parts. Yeah, I know they have the parts warranty thing...whatev, bite me. They aren't even paying 1x retail for parts.  sunsabitches.

** I have saved not spent tens of thousands of dollars on auto repairs over the years.

New toys

Scout scope for my Mosin, rings, mount and laser bore sighter.
Oh...yeah, almost forgot, got a bunch of stripper clips too.
If I'm not too assymetrically sore after attempting to glof*, I might just get some recoil therapy this weekend.

* Pros golf. I glof.

On Vacation!

I'm not on the water right now, but that is my pic from a while back.
Decompressing.
Sort of.  I've only responded to 15 emails or so in the last 36 hours.  :-)

The Eurozone's panties in a wad

Not that I'm defending obummer's NSA, but do you think that the US intelligence apparatus are the only spooks that don't have their fingers in their "friend's" pudding?
Personally, I think the three letter federal agencies have devolved into a state of paranoia wherein they've completely forgotten their fundamental mission statement and are just trying to get one up on all the other foreign, evil three letter agencies around the globe.

 Merkel's indignation over Snowden disclosing the fact that her sexting* has been tapped is ingenuous, or she's a rube. I doubt it's the latter.

Aside from the other "evil" three letter agencies around the globe, the thing that terrifies the US three letter agencies the most is the American People.

Together we stand. Divided, we fall.





*  that is hyperbole, but the NSA probably has that on file as well.

An Affinity for things Mechanical

If you can quiet your mind and observe and follow written instructions, you can fix just about anything.
These days, someone out there on algore's intertubes has had the same problem you have, and with a bit of searching you can find several possibilities that may be making your car not do what it is effing supposed to do, as in GO.
Sometimes, it just takes a little "fondling" and the "force"

Sunday, after leaving work, I stopped by my son's apartment to lay hands on his ancient and dead Jeep Cherokee.  He and I have been through this "no start" issue several times before.

I took my code reader, my volt / amp meter and some carb cleaner to use as "starter fluid".

No codes came up on the reader.
Pop the hood.
A calm came over my mind.  The Jeep 4.0 liter inline six.  Man that is a great engine.  200+ hp and tremendous torque.
I checked the battery connections then just stood there for a  minute looking.
My hands went to every electrical connection under the hood. Coil to distributor, plugs, injectors, etc., etc.
 Meanwhile, the man child pulled the top off the under hood fuse box and started poking them, stating he'd checked them before.
He went to put the cover back on, and I said, " take that back off".
I inspected the fuses for broken links, then began pushing down on each.  One of the "black box" circuit breakers moved, ever so slightly under pressure.
I pulled it out, and re-seated it.
I told him, "that one moved just a bit"...."really?"
"should I try to start it now?"
"yeah, give it a crank"

VROOM.

Sometimes things work out the way you want them to.

Greetings Earthling

Hey kx59, how are we doin today?
hey, how's it going?
How ya doin?

Every now and then I'll respond with a canned, "ok", "just fine", "Ok, you doin' alright?"

My favorite thing to do though, is give a response just outside the envelope of polite platitudes.

" well, I'm still on the right side of the grass"*
"I'm still standing"
"I've been better"

Sometimes it's just the facts.

"man, I'm really dragging ass today"
"I'm sick as a dog"

My responses usually take people back just a bit, and then a nervous laugh.  Break the thin barrier of polite platitudes and they don't know how to respond.  If it's someone other than a random passerby, I smile and launch into conversation, rescuing them from their societal confusion.

It's never fails to intrigue me how little it takes to snap people out of their sleepwalk through life, nor how quickly and deeply they fall back into their ambulatory slumber.






* at the age of 19, I was told by someone I admire and respect that I had the attitude of a 90 year old.
I considered that a compliment. I should live so long.

I'm not dead yet!

But I feel like I'm getting close.
Been a while since I posted.  I've been working my ass off supporting the other half of the population on the gubmint dole that refuses to work. Damn vunables.

Come mid next week, I'm finally going to take some vacation days and not work a weekend.

It's been a long, long year so far.

I don't actually smoke. This was staged. I prefer "smokeless" tobacco.

.

I will never be bored on a long flight again

I'll just take my camera phone into the lavatory....and....
Wait, that seems to be headed in a rather unseemly direction.

I might just have to try my hand at creating 

15th Century Flemish self portraits.

.

Government Shutdown / Martial Law

It'll never happen. Couldn't happen.   Not to this great Republic.

The Freedom Outpost put up a post suggesting that Sheila Jackson Lee was "suggesting" Martial Law to end the government shut down.

Let's not soft pedal this little leak of information.

Sheila has never had an original "idea" in her entire life.  I have a 22 oz. framing hammer in the garage that is smarter than she is, and can pronounce three syllable words correctly.*

At best ( or worst, as the case may be) Sheila is parroting something she heard "someone" else say.

Do not discount this slip of a "highly educated" moron's tongue.


*Classic Sheila:  Dear sweet lady, Vulnerable is an adjective, not a noun and it is not pronounced "Vunables".

Yep, That's Austin

We've managed to keep the moonbats contained in a fairly localized area.

But, as I've written before, to all you folks with out of state license plates moving down here in droves* for jobs,
Check your progressive politics at the State border.

As a friendly reminder, you shit your bed with your liberal proclivities from whence you came and now it's an impossible place to live  survive.

Ya'll have a nice day.

.


* Also, learn how to fucking drive without using your middle finger and your horn.  Down here, that is considered impolite, and this not being the people's republic of Massachusetts, the return gesture might not be a middle finger.

Light at the end of the Tunnel

October twenty-three.
Then I do believe I'm going to burn some of my vacation time.
I apologize in advance, but what a fucking grind this year has been.

I do believe I feel a good one coming on.

Cold Calls at work

I've mentioned before that I'm not a trained IT professional but I play one at work.*
When the "support" staff cannot understand the foreign accent or the subject of the call, it MUST be IT related so the call is put through to me.
About twice a year I get a call from an Indian call center "taking a survey on our computer and network hardware" to which I reply, "for reasons of security, we do not give out that information", whereupon the indian woman on the end of the line starts getting pushy, to which my reply is, "click".
I got a call the other day from some "kid" wanting to know who the "president of the company" was.
"what is the nature of this call?"
"My boss told me to call and find out who the president of the company was"
mumble, mumble, something about a luncheon presentation next Thursday**
"And what is the subject of this luncheon?"
"My boss told me to call and find out who the president of the company was"
"you are not answering my questions and you are wasting my time."
"click"

I was called at work by the 2nd Amendment foundation again for a donation a few days ago. I never give my credit card info over the phone. I told the guy I'd make a donation online. he said, "I'll give you till Thursday"**. You...will....give....me...till...Thursday?
"yeah"
Second time in a row the 2nd Amendment telemarketers have gotten snarky with me.
Jackass.
I decided not to donate.
Now it's a toss up between writing an ass burning email to the 2A foundation, or just letting my membership lapse and gleefully hanging up on the next caller.

When I was young, I used to feel bad about telling telemarketers "no" and found it difficult to extricate myself from the conversation.  I was nicer then.  I have damn little time, energy or patience  left for bullshit anymore.  What is heard on the other end of the line these days is my fading, "no thanks, not interested" as the hand set leaves my ear on its way back into the cradle.


click.


*   Architect by day, IT McGuyver by night..and weekends...and the wee hours of the morn.  Also "help desk". "Is the surge protector turned on?".  "uhm....no." "k, turn that on, then push the power button on the computer again." "oh! there it goes!, thanks so much!" ***"Please tell me you aren't registered to vote."
** what is it with Thursdays?"
*** footnoting my footnotes - not a good sign.  That was from an actual computer help conversation...except for the last line.

An Armed Society

Is a polite society. So said Robert Heinlein.
I do believe he was correct.
Chicago, gun free-est zone in the world - murder capital of the U.S. continues to devolve.
With a little more work they can catch up to Detroit Wayne County.*

The ultimate game of chicken

Who will crack first? Boehner or obummer?  Now the ChiComs have enjoined the stand off.
 If the GOP can manage to find their balls in their wives' unmentionables dresser drawer, it will be barak.

History, if there is a history of this once great free Republic, will not be kind to bho.
Surely he must know that the only positive legacy he will have is that he was our first black half black president.*
Other than that, it's been a total slow motion train wreck.





*nevermind, I just reread the definition of "narcissist". It's the tea party's fault. It's Boooosh's fault.
HALIBURTON! NO BID CONTRACTS! THAT! WHICH! SOME OTHER DANGLING PARTICIPLE!

well shucks

My weekend started about an hour and a half ago.*
I'm sitting here reading through the blogs on the BAR blogroll, looking at scout scope set ups for my Mosin** and having a grand time.
I had a nice cold beer in hand and was in the zone thinking of nothing much really.
As I went to the fridge to resupply, it dawned on me. "oh, tomorrow's Monday"

Looks like it'll be another five before some down time.

Well, we must make hay while the sun shines, mustn't we?




*This will be only 25 days straight. Were I younger this would be nothing.  As it is, I'm a bit tarred.
In my younger days it took 13 weeks of back to back 10 and 12 hour days to wear my out this much.

** My  early belated birthday present to myself.

Boycott the Federal Government

Pissed has the right idea.

Change your travel plans, go somewhere that your worthless obamadollars are welcome.

What if they had a shutdown, and no one came? Or cared?

Meanwhile, those of us that support the lazy, shiftless half with our tax dollars, and pay obama's salary, have work to do.

It's the end times for sure

First, the infernal gubmint shut down.*  I think. I'm pretty sure. I can't tell any difference personally.

Now cats and dogs are laying down together. It's just not natural.

* Obama and Harry Reid want to make this as painful for the American People as they can.
I say let it ride, and we'll see who experiences more pain.  2014 is just around the corner and 2016 will be here before you now it.

So

Senator  Secretary of State Mr. Heinze Ketchup Kerry has signed the UN Small Arms Treaty.

Under what authority did you sign that and intend to enforce it?

來，並把它

приди и возьми ее

As Forest said, " that's all I have to say about that."

Error, laptop inaccesible

Because prime napping human unavailable.

You going to be done soon Mom?

BAR Corp. HQ Cat 4.0

So, after we put ailing cat 2.0* down, Belle and I talked about perhaps getting a Siamese or a Russian Blue around Christmas time. I was rather enjoying the discussions about the merits of one breed over the other and the anticipation of getting a new cat.

A few days ago, our oldest daughter texted a pic from work. An abandoned kitten had been found in the parking lot.  She asked Belle if we wanted it. Belle showed me the pic, and after long deliberation that lasted about 2 miliseconds I said, "OK".

He's only 4 to 5 weeks old, 12 oz. of skin and bone under that frowsy fur, but at the rate he's eating that won't be for too long.  He made his first visit to the Vet today for a checkup. Vet says he's healthy

Belle and I are working on a name for him.  She keeps coming up with names from Harry Potter. bleh.
I like "Lord Tennyson", LT for short. (I've no idea where that came from)

* In order of acquisition:

Cat 1.0, Jasper - came as part of the package deal when I married Belle and her two daughters. Shredded my fake leather couch. We eventually came to terms.  Deceased.

Cat 2.0 Miss Kitty - Socially retarded. I blame our children. Recently deceased.

Cat 3.0 Ballou - Neighbor's cat that adopted us. Passed from complications associated with feline aids.  I really liked that cat.

Two is one, one is none

Sometimes two is none.
Warning: computer geekery.

I got a call last night from one of my partners. The electrical power to our entire building went down for about 9 hours yesterday. This resulted in a less than graceful shutdown of a dozen servers.

We office in a very upscale part of town.  The electrical infrastructure is almost third world. :(

When access to the server backup image requires access permission authentication to the server that is toasted you have what is known as a conundrum.

I have a backup image of the server.
I cannot get to the image of the server.
This is because the device storing the server image wants to check my access credentials with the server that is missing*...the server for which it holds the backup image.  Therefore, backup storage device is inaccessible.

Fortunately my redundancies have redundancies.  Were it not for the secondary domain controller, we would not have been able to work today. This would have been very bad. North of $10k per hour billable lost.

We have expensive high fallutin' backup software.  I have seen this software fail to make backups frequently. So, I have a backup backup, aka as an MS Dos batch file that launches via the task scheduler and has yet to fail.**

I see now that I need to add the domain controller backup image files to that MS DOS Batch file routine for events like this, so it is somewhere that I can get to under almost any circumstances.

 If you can't get to your backup, it might as well not be there.



* for those that know of such weirding ways, it is was a virtual machine that is now listed as "inaccessible guest" or some such helpful information on the host server.
** The MS DOS xcopy command is your friend.  Believe it or not, MS DOS still exists in Windows 7. I'm not sure about Windows 8. If not, I'm never down upgrading to Windows 8.

Such a Deal..Oy!

Clearing the Yahoo email.
Ammo for Sale emails to notify me that 1000 rounds of 9mm 115gr FMJ are available for $355!

Now I'm not dissing Ammo for Sale*, but I really miss the good 'ole days,before the great ammo shortage of '13, when those emails advertised 1000 round bricks for $199.

I haz a boohoo.





* I've bought a lot of 9mm from those guys, as in thousands with nary a problem.

About time!

Rain.
We've had an inch or two today. Well we'll see what the total is tomorrow. It's still raining. :)
This kind of rain totally freaks people in Phoenix out.  I've been delayed on flights out of Phoenix because of what we refer to as "Seattle rain" where it just pisses on you slowly. I mean really. If you notice, the rain is actually falling straight down, as in 90 degrees, also known as normal to a plane, to the ground.
OMG! it's a MONSOON!*
Srsly dude?
Down here, the reaction is, "Finally!"
We are way behind on August ball busting thunderstorms.**

Let's see.
The traffic map shows a bunch of construction zones and..
Oh! Look! anywhere from two to four morons managed to have an accident at 10:08 pm long after the "rush" hour traffic is gone.
-little red diamonds on the map.










I think I'm going to grab another brew from the fridge and go out on the front porch
and just watch it rain.



* I personally witnessed this conversation on a connection out of Phoenix.
** Yes, I"m aware it's September. I'm getting older, but I'm not that far gone.

and, In Category of Artistic Culinary Presentation, F-

Tasted just fine though.
There wasn't enough ice cream to put the carton back in the freezer, so...


My own creation - the banana "break". Similar to a banana "split" but less work.*




















* oh yeah, go ahead and be critical. Do  you have three flavors of ice cream,  marachino cherries, crushed pineapple, crushed nuts and readi-whip just layin round the house? I mean, who do you think I am?  Brigid?

You have got to be shitting me

I don't know how this has evaded my attention up to now.

"As promised, TBAE can now provide some preliminary information regarding the new requirement for Active-status registrants to submit fingerprints for the purpose of a criminal history check. Please see the link below for all the latest information on the new requirement, and check back often for more news and updates as the program nears full implementation. "

Fingerprints?!?! *

Apparently, the profession of Architecture in Texas has become so over-run with convicted felons going to architecture school, spending 3 or 4 years in indentured servitude as an intern just to qualify to take the licensing exam, that finger prints are now necessary to ferret out all the drug dealing, murderous, father-raping licensed architects.

What jackass came up with this brilliant idea?**
This is Texas for crikey's sake!



* Of course being a government program, similar to obummercare, things aren't quite up and running yet. So while you might be mandated to submit said prints, there is no means by which the TBAE can receive them ...just yet. But.  As promised, they are working diligently night and day to strip your civil liberties as I type.

**Probably some California transplant loiya in Austin.
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
not helping. 
damnbusybodylibtardmotherfuckers

Not Ashamed

Relieved is more like it.
Coop posts up words of wisdom.

Words to Live By

Stronger? Luckier is more like it.

Note the scar juuuust to the left of the big fat vein on the back of my right hand.  That could have been a real bleeder.  There was plumbing, a very long machine screw and a pair of pliers involved in acquiring this scar.  I don't recall exactly how I managed to lay open the back of my hand, but I missed the vein by that much.
Instead of a trip to the doc in the box for sutures, triage was nothing more than a wad of paper towels.

There's a story behind every scar.
I showed you mine, show me yours. ;)

I know, I'm a little slow at times.

Our most recent member, Joe Schmo from The Daily Smug has been added to the blog roll.
Joe posts actual content unlike the drivel and snark I post here.

Figures, the Naval Yard Gunman was from TEXAS!

Buncha crazy bible and gun clinging flat land hillbillies!
SSSSssss, oooh yeah, uhm that's not going to quite fit the appropriate white psycho domestic terrorist gun nut narrative.*
Don't we have something we can run about Snooky or Kim Kardashian?

Shall we start a pool to see which political party this nutcase belongs to? Or, which presidential candidate he voted for in the last two elections?  Making the bold assumption he voted...


I suggest a golf score pool.  The best guess on the lowest number of news stories, or shortest number of days this gets traction in the laimstream media wins.






* Hey spook computer nerds!  Just a shout out to my closest NSA "friends".

the final nail in the Global Worming Hoax coffin?

Bill Nye, the sciencey guy, so voraciously vocal about global worming, lo these many years is on Dancing with the Stars.
I remember watching his short spots on TV with my brood when they were young.  Somewhere along the line, Bill Nye the Science Guy episodes got cut.
 I suspect Bill never got over those fleeting moments in the limelight. Not finding actual sciencey stuff  actually interesting, or lucrative, or providing the rush of stardom, Bill hitched his wagon to the global worming hoax.
Now that it appears we are headed into another small ice age, Nye has jumped ship.
Nye is a competitor on Dancing with the Stars.*
I have to give him credit, his dance routine to "Weird Science" was not bad, if not apropos.

On the other side of the "Life as Reality" approach, Bill Engvall just absolutely tore up the Fox Trot.


Yes, I'm watching Dancing with the Stars.  I'm watching for no other reason than the Lovely Belle wants to.





*Star is perhaps not the correct label for Nye.  Opportunist, yes.

I haz a sad

The cat's condition worsened over the weekend.  Belle took her to the Vet again today.
Miss Kitty went from 15 pounds to 6 over the past year or so.  Her liver and kidneys were failing.
She spent most of this past weekend mouth open, panting and drooling.
We had her put down this morning.
Of all the cats I've had over the years, she was the least affectionate of all of them, but after 14 years of living with her, I'll miss her nonetheless.

Barak rides bitch

Laughing my ever loving ass off

via Larwyn's Linx

.

Range Date

Belle and I resurrected a BAR tradition that used to occur weekly before the great ammo shortage of '13.  A nice Tex-mex lunch at Elisia's and a jaunt to the shooting range.
We looked like we were going to war when we left the house.
Plan "A" was the rifle range to break in the "new to us" Mosin Nagants.
In the event that the rifle range was over-run by deer hunters sighting in for the upcoming deer season, plan B was to head to our indoor pistol range.  So we both had rifles, multiple pistols and  heavily ladened range bags.

Plan A worked out.  Yay! both the Mosins go Bang!  The iron sights are off quite a bit.  The bolts got a little sticky from time to time, but not bad.  I had shortened the springs on both of them. I did a little polishing on the bolt cam surfaces on one of them. The polished bolt did in fact work a bit better.
So I'll be polishing the unpolished bolt, and polishing the other some more.

The recoil pads, while not exactly cushy were worth the 15 bucks. The curved shape provided to the butt by the pads did help to mitigate the mule kick.
On each side of us at the range was a Dad with an 8 to 12 year old daughter. One with a .22LR, the other with a .223.  Heart warming. :-)



Happiness is a warm Mosin.

Belle GitSum.
Note the stylish pink earmuffs.
What you can't see is the devilish grin on her face.

Best News I've heard all day

John McCain hints at retirement after 

his current term.

Good Riddance.


"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hinted that he may be serving his last term in office, admitting that he does not want to become “one of these old guys that should’ve shoved off.”

Too late John, too late.  You would have done the country a service by shoving off long ago.

The four letter words are about the bust a hole in my cranium trying to get out, but I'll just leave it at that.

-not a McCain fan.

.

Poor Penny

Penny is Belle's toy poodle. She's a rescue dog.  No worries, she's fine.
It's the current cat that is starting to have issues.  Belle informed me today that the cat has started to drool.

Miss Kitty has had better health care than I have over the past 15 years because Belle cannot pick me up by the scruff of the neck and put me in a cat carrier and take me to the Vet whether I want to or not.

However, a while back the Vet said the cat had some health issues and for umpteen thousands dollars we could get some tests done, pharmaceuticals,  etc., etc. etc.

My reaction to that was, "Phbbblt, she's hardly worth half a cat frankly."
She's a cat with two cats worth of tail that came from a line of Manx cats and I've sworn all this time we've had her that she's abnormal.

I've never had a cat that I can feed a can of cat food that will eat half, then forget she was fed,, and forget that there is still food on her plate, forget to even go look and stand in the kitchen and meow at me to be fed.
At which point I have to pick her up and put her in front of her plate.

So, Miss Kitty is going to the Vet again soon.  If the prognosis is bad, we will put her down.

The conversation about the replacement cat has already begun.
Personally, I'm rather fond of Female Siamese. My experience with Male cats is that even after neutering they still pee where they shouldn't.

Penny the Poodle will be very busy raising a Siamese kitten.

Dogs, Science and the Infernal Gubmint

Shaming your dog.
Sometimes, they deserve it, and don't tell me dogs have no self awareness or sense of right or wrong.
No impulse control?
Sure.
I've arrived home to be greeted by the dog whereupon he immediately put his tail between his legs and put his sad puppy face on then skulked upstairs. Seconds later I'd find the trash can tipped over and the contents spread across the kitchen floor.
MMm, I bet that aluminum foil with a hint pork fat on it was just yummy.
If you watched him when you let him out to do his business in the back yard, he'd turn his back to you while he was taking a dump.

But to put silly hats on wild life, 

simply because they are "slow", and you can....in the name of science, is unconscionable.

You say potato, I say O' Top Hat*

* Tracking device glued to a Sloth's head.  Boy, that must have been some really, really boring electronic tracking. No, wait. Scratch that.  You could sit around, drink beer and check the tracking device, I don't know, like every 5 hours or so while getting paid from a huge Federal Gubmint Grant.
"Nope, he hasn't moved.  Who's making the next beer run?"
Sign me up!

.

Unfortunate

So the problem with AC wasn't the breaker after all.
I did learn how to replace a breaker without frying myself like Wyle E. Coyote for 6 bucks and change, but it turned out to be strictly academic.
The reason the old breaker would not stay closed is because it was doing it's job.  The compressor on the other hand, was not.  Sometime last Friday afternoon, it overheated and fused all the electrical connections into one molten mass.
The good news was the condenser unit was only three years old and the compressor was still under warranty.  (Yay!)
The bad news was the labor to replace the compressor was not. (Boo!)
Overtime service charge for the tech to tell me, on Saturday, my compressor is hosed and a replacement cannot be had till Monday:  $144
Frigidaire window unit purchased at the local big box hardware store to reduce the melt of "still summer": $299.*
Labor charge to replace the compressor:  $800
Working Central A/C: priceless.

My debit card is weeping quietly in the corner right now.


* Might come in handy after the next hurricane.  The BAR Corp. HQ. emergency generator will run that little gem jest fine.

Actual Gun Pron

   Hit the link. NSFW

shooty goodness?

.

random epiphany about beer

If you need a coozy to keep your beer "cold", in your heart of hearts, you really don't like beer.*
My beer bottles, naked, never get warm.


*Pro tip: When eating out skip the monkey bread and butter placed on the table. Politely request another beer from your waitstaff.  Make your carbohydrate calories count!

News alert!  

This Just In!

Overheard on the BAR Corporate HQ couch:......Belle in constant comm with friends in Ireland has issued the warning to NEVER kiss the Blarney Stone. Unconfirmed sources have  confirmed a death toll of 16 24  1000  the Irish locals pee on the Blarney Stone!

Joys

Of home ownership.
The dual 60 amp breaker feeding the outside unit on the air conditioning system gave up the ghost sometime this afternoon.*  Thank the gods it isn't the AC unit. I coughed up $6k to get that replaced 18 months ago.
If I can find a matching replacement in the morning, this should be a fairly easy fix.
The big IF is the only thing that concerns me.

 I bet I go to Lowe's and Home Depot and find hundreds upon hundreds of replacement breakers, none of which are, or ever have been installed in any house in the lower 48.  They will be dust covered and have manufacture dates of 1984 on them because no one has every bought one.**  They will also be randomly sorted into incorrect boxes by small children having picked them up and asked, "Daddy, what's this?"
"Put  That BACK!"
"K,  jeeze"




It's going to be a warmish night tonight.




*How do I know it's the breaker you ask? While trouble shooting I found the breaker in the off position. When I went to close it, it sort of made a half-hearted attempt to snap into the "on" position, threw up its little breaker hands, looked at me and said, "meh".

** A pessimist is just an optimist with all the facts.

On the way home from Austin

Over yonder is a Semi that rolled it on I-10 east bound,  west of Houston.
One minute I was booking it at 80, next minute zero.
I did not see an ambulance on the scene, which is good news for the truck driver.  The bad news is that the cab is on the service road, the back end of the trailer is half in the left hand lane, on its right side.  Given the orientation of the truck, I suspect Mr. big rig truck driver was west bound and traversed about 100 feet of grass median before the unplanned garage sale.

The Future is Here

Frrom bthe saulnier's comment on the video below "Acutally, it's about a future where cars have pretty much all been made illegal by "The Motor Law".

The EU plans to put training wheels on your super car.

No more Autoban for you!

Labor Day

I do hope that my brethren and like minded friends out there in the blogosphere are having a good holiday.
I, for once in a long while, am not laboring on labor day.
Scooter has gone back home now.  Belle asked her what her favorite part of the weekend was as she said her goodbyes.
"Working with Paw Paw on the gun."
Pretty high marks there imho, considering that competed with a Looney Tunes ACME ARSENAL video game on the xbox.
By last night, Scooter was completely owning me in the game.

Some glamour shots of Scooter's handiwork (Paw Paw helped too!)

-did a bit of polishing on the bolt cam surfaces and shortened the springs just a bit.

Progress on the Mosin Nagants

Cleaning up the second rifle today.
To my surprise, the recoil pads arrived. I just ordered them this past Wednesday.
-got them at www.tickbitesupply.com  AKA David's Collectibles.
The fit the stock well and feel good when I seat the butt in my shoulder.  We'll see before too long how they perform under live fire. ;)

I had some help today.  She operates a screwdriver surprisingly well.
Scooter, my oldest granddaughter.  Future Gunny.

Currently I'm pretending to be a restaurant patron.  Scooter is the waitress.

How to accumulate tools

Projects.

Home projects require at minimum two trips to the hardware store.
Automotive repairs / projects require at least two trips to the auto parts store.
Sometimes they require deep googling and impatient waiting on a UPS delivery of a part or hard to find special tool.

I'll be doing some polishing on the cam surfaces of my Mosin bolt this weekend. The file marks are so bad I can see them without my glasses on.

I ran my Dremel to destruction a while back cutting out a small bolt in a tight space on the Sonnage's Jeep.

It seems I'm now in need of a new Dremel tool. :-)

The bonus is that Scooter, my oldest granddaughter is coming to stay with us over the long weekend.
Scooter, her younger sister and my daughter stopped by to visit Belle the other day.  Scooter was very interested in the table set up at the back of the family room.
"What's all the stuff for?"
"Paw Paw is cleaning the rifles we just got"
"Oooh."

The Paw Paw / Scooter project for the weekend is going to be field stripping, and cleaning the other Mosin Nagant.

Every well bred, well educated young lady should know how to field strip a Mosin, IMHO.

damnit stop helping

The last post left me famished so I'm online trying to order a pizza from Dominos and they've re-vamped their website to make it "more user friendly" I'm sure.

Now I'm confused, and what would have been a rote muscle memory exercise is going to require actual attention to detail.

do not try to help. if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

This is how it starts, isn't it...

I mean the WWII rifle jones.

I've had the good fortune to shoot Mosin Nagants and an M1 at past blogshoots, and of course Belles's Tokorev SVT40 anytime I get the hankering. Others as well I'm sure I'm forgetting.
I thought they were cool to shoot. The M1 almost seemed to not need my participation to put a round on target. But, I had somewhat of a "meh" reaction nonetheless.

Now that I've torn down one of the Mosin's Belle brought back from her trip up yonder, something existential has changed in my mind.
In the process of field stripping I came to know how the rifle was put together. In the process of cleaning I came to know how the moving parts worked, the Mosin bolt I found the most interesting.
Simple solution to a complex problem.

I find I'm searching for ways to make the Mosin bolt work better. (woe is me)
 I've already ordered two recoil pads that fit up in place of the steel butt plate on the stock.*

I've yet to break down the other Mosin Nagant and clean it up.  I'm saving it for this coming weekend, because my brain tells me that I know myself and I will want another rifle to break down and fondle.

The bad / good/ bad? thing is all of the sudden I really, really want an M1 Garand of my own.**
There's also this little niggling spark of a thought in the back of my mind about an Enfield.
must
sit
down
and
grit
my
teeth.
resist urges.








Do not look at me like that!  It's a Mosin Nagant for crikey sake. At $139 it's hardly WWII collector's item.  It's more like buying a rusted out 1968 VW bug with a seized engine. Ripe for a resto-mod.
 I could put on a  buffalo hide coat and a big fur hat I suppose, to damp down the recoil, but I'm pretty sure I'd pass out before I got through twenty rounds in this heat down heah.

** OOh! and a BAR too! what a tall cool drink of water whoopass that would be.  Make a good banner pic for the blog, dontcha think?

Some Chicks Like Big Guns

Belle finally got around to getting her Tokorev taken care of.  There was some mild pucker factor around the BAR Corp. HQ. for a few days as the gunsmith working on her beloved SVT 40 had misplaced the mag. This is the original mag issued with the rifle.  While that was going on I went online looking for some additional mags and bought two.
All is well that ends well.  The original mag was located and the day Belle went by to pick it up she took "Natasha" to the range and ran a few rounds through her.

She texted the image below to me at work.  (mumble, grumble)
Looks like the tango is down to me.




Belle noted that the "new" mags would not fit in the Tok.
The original is in the center.  The two recent additions are to the left and right.*



Belle said it seemed to be the square nubs on the back of the mags. while not clear in the pic, the nubs are slightly taller than the original mag.
Not sure what I'm going to do, return the mags or take a file to the nubs.
I haven't personally inspected, nor tried to insert the mags into the Tok yet. So I'll do my own test fit before I make a decision.
To my own credit and sometimes detriment, I've not much fear of  modding things.
I'm no Redneck Engineer, but you know, Fools tread where angels fear to go.
















* Yes, bed wetters, the "mag clip thing that goes up" on the right is in fact "loaded".
I bet if I dropped it on the floor in front of you, I could get a brown note out of you.

.

What to do about Syria?

Nothing.

The U.S. has no vested interest and certainly no ally in the Syrian Civil War.
Doing nothing is the perfect course of action.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
In this case, no.  The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy.  Let them sort it out.  We've shed enough blood in the middle east.


Note the deafening silence from the anti-war protesters?  Code Pink? Hello?
Crickets.

Cleaning the Mosin

De-Cosmolining actually.
Today was 9 hours of working on the Austin project interspersed by periodically going out to the garage to jiggle the pan of Mosin parts soaking in mineral spirits.  That, and re-position the lawn sprinkler.*

Man, that rifle is simplicity defined.








Time to extract the parts from soaking and start brushing, wiping down, and oiling.

Prepare for the Doctor's secret handshake.

Still more cleaning to do on the barrel and stock, which will give me something mindless to do in the evenings over the next few days.  And, I have a whole 'nuther Mosin to strip down and clean.  :-)

Wish I had a ginormous ultrasonic cleaner. I saw on youtube where some guys have bungied an electric sander to the side of a rubbermade tub to agitate the cleaning solution for auto parts. Years ago I had the  idea to attach an audio speaker to a metal tub for the same purpose.  Never tried it though. Certainly not ultrasonic, but some agitation is better than none.





* We had a 68% chance of rain today. I was certain if I started to water the grass, it would rain.
Nary a drop.

.

And speed limits keep people from speeding toooo!

Seattle Mayor encourages businesses to post "gun free" zone signs to deter criminals.

snort, snicker, pbffft.

SRSLY?

Maybe you should just pass a municipal law banning criminals in general.