To Auld Lang Syne

to times long past.

While I'm not holding my breath, Happy New Year Ya'll!  May the next be better.

Meanwhile I'm drinking Stella, watching a Three Stooges marathon on IFC and periodically watching the fire burn in the fireplace.

The indestructible Curly Joe

The man said pass it on

So I am.

On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.

-Thomas Jefferson

As a footnote, as the libtards work diligently to bring this country down they know not what they do.  If they succeed and the shit hits the fan, they will be the first lambs to slaughter as the gangbangers sweep through their urban bike lanes and set their coal fired electric mass transit on fire.
Keep our powder dry.

Haven't had shinola to say

Getting close to a month since I've posted anything.
I've been enjoying the fallout of the oil and gas boom, courtesy of fracking technology and been working off what's left of my ass damn near nonstop for two years.
I'm about to get a breather as the price of oil plunges to $50 a barrel.

Society continues to devolve to the lowest common denominator.

The presidential election cycle is warming up...yawn.
Mittens Romney plays hard to get. His wife assures the press he is not running...which means he probably will.
Buzz is Rand Paul will run. (The country club republican elites will ensure he is un-electable)
Ted Cruz is making motions like he will run**. (see "Rand Paul" + the RNC hates his guts)
And, JEB BUSH has enlisted the help of an exploratory committee to pursue the office of President!

Oh, fucking Yay!

To quote my Optometrist:

Is number 1 better?

Or number 2?

Or D. None of the Above


** I'd vote for Ted Cruz in a heartbeat. I'd even vote for Rand Paul.  Ted scares the crap out of liberals, democrat politicians and the country club republicans, so he's going to have to climb out of the Marianas Trench and up Mount Everest to get the nomination.

The Science is Settled

Renewable Energy is


not Renewable.


Tam sums it up...could have just posted, "DUH"

Ran across this again

It still cracks me up.

What you know if you own an AK:
You can put a .30" hole through 12" of oak, if you can hit it.

What you know if you own an AR:
You can put one hole in a paper target at 100 meters with 30 rounds.

What you know if you own a Mosin Nagant:
You can knock down everyone else's target with the shock wave of your bullet going downrange.

There's more.

Mosin Nagant Humor.


My 7.62 order arrived today.  I need to git to sum shootin. Now that deer season has started, I won't have to worry about the fussy deer hunter next to me trying to tweak the hole over 1/32nd of an inch and getting all pissy when I drop my club rifle on the bench like a brick.

In Preparation for Thanksgiving

We are having Vietnamese Take-out.

Because Belle has been busy all day baking these.  :)

Apron on, reading glasses half way down the nose, a few strands of blonde hair loose and a finger print of flour on the cheek.  She's also a bit testy at the moment because she is in full mission critical kitchen mode.
"Did you..."
"YES I ORDERED YOUR EGG ROLLS!"
"K"


One of the things I give thanks for is the people I've come into contact with via this Blog.
Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll.

The Opiate of the Masses

Random thought.

Take away their guns.

Legalize Weed.

Colorado.

.

Ferguson

Stragedy is not the same as Strategy.
I've been watching this lynch mob petri dish* since the "Gentle Giant" Michael Brown crushed Darren Wilson's orbital socket and got himself ventilated.

The stragedy here seems to be to delay, and delay some more, the Grand Jury's verdict until it gets too effing cold for even rabid out of state trust fund socialists and gang bangers to want to participate in riots peaceful demonstrations.

So.
We wait and watch.




* Courtesy of your Federal Gubmint interfering in what should be a local and state criminal investigation and prosecution.
We don't get this kind of shit down here because Houston is too decentralized and the city proper encompasses 627 square miles. The whole metro-plex area is more than double that.
Tough to get riot mob critical mass.
The closest we've had is a Latino Bar fight spilling out into the parking lot.  Also, most of us are well armed.


.

I feel particularly good about this past Friday now

Nothing bad happened. Nothing great happened. Just the usual workaday grind.

Mine was way better than this guy's though.

He survived an 11 story fall.

God bless him. Apparently is was not his time to go.

Meanwhile back on Terra Firma:

The owners of that building have already circled their wagons attorneys I can assure you.

Let the litigation begin. Letters will go out to any company that ever touched the building including the construction cleaning company staffed by illegal Mamacitas.  (hmmmm*)

Cal OSHA will be on them like white on rice. Having met with the OSHA folks in San Francisco personally, I can tell you they take window washing safety very, very seriously. 

* Quick check..nope not one of our buildings.  Pass the popcorn.

.

LIke a moth to light

Crikey, I'm on a dash cam jag again.
I need to stop. Watching these makes me wiggy, driving insane traffic every day.

Not sure what the heck this means but.............

I decided to take this little test that everyone's been all keen on and this is what it came up with...   LOL...   too funny, me a progressive?   

You are a: Conservative Libertarian Total-Isolationist Nationalist Progressive

Collectivism score: -67%
Authoritarianism score: -67%
Internationalism score: -100%
Tribalism score: 17%
Liberalism score: 50%

Suggestions please???

I need some suggestions for holster options for my sweet little Sig P238.  I've considered the Flash Bang holster, but not sure if I want that or not, it didn't really work well for me with the SW Shield, but the Sig is smaller than the Shield so it may be a good option.

Typically I carry IWB and checked with Dragon Leatherworks and no luck there for the Sig so thought I would see what you all may come up with.

Thanks!!!


Belle

She's A Lady

Meet Lady...  the newest edition to the Belle's harem of lovelies...     she's a Sig Sauer P238 and I am just loving her.

My early Christmas present and I couldn't be happier.   I decided this summer that I really needed a small, summer carry pistol that is easier to conceal in shorts and tank tops.

She fires very smooth and I love the trigger on this sweet little thing.

So why did I name her Lady?   Well, from the time I snapped this photo (at the range) and while I was running her first rounds through her, I kept hearing Tom Jones "She's A Lady" in my head.

I am one lucky lady to have a hubby who is willing to buy such marvelous toys for me....     I can't stop smiling.

*Rainbow finish with a feaux wood grip...  she just looks good enough to eat!!!

Merry Christmas to me.....  quite early!!

Rain, rain go away

Sigh.
Only a week ago, I was here.

Oh goody! another intertubes test to splain to me what I am

Found via that hippie moderate, Borepatch.
snick, snort, heh, bwahahahaha! Damn, almost said that with straight face.

According to this totally sciency test, I am:

Nope sport, I'm just from Texas.
(fucking youtube adds!)
Ray Wylie Hubbard sums it up succinctly.

Bait

And Switch.

WTF? This is an open air beach bar.

oh.

There's always the fine print.

.

Double Nickel

55.
Hippo birdy to me.
I happened to be in a good place to celebrate however, with the lovely (and likes her $ilver Jewelry) Southern Belle, and some of my kin.

Did you know that Mexico has a Nucular Program?

Wait.

Never mind that was sunrise the day we left.

My theory about why linux exists

The dudes that write virus programs need something to program in that won't get infected with their own work.

Case in point - analogy:

Three is a pattern

Airplane crashes always seemed to come in threes.  Maybe it was just the way the media reported them back in the day, but within a week or two there'd be one, then another and then the third.

Three of my blog-buds have recently been through some rather serious physical trials and tribulations.

This stared with The Big Guy effing up his bike. Wait, that is slightly misstated. TBG had assistance from another retard driver.  Fortunately, Ogres are physically denser than dark matter with the exception of  the gonads, which when placed into contact with a gas tank at a high speed of deceleration tend to catch fire due to the high coefficient of friction. His bike suffered more damage than he did fortunately.

TRE aka The Redneck Engineer recently went under the knife and some star wars laser beam for a double cervical fusion.  He did not say how he came to need said bone fusing, but hopefully it was not because of riding some infernal two wheeled contraption. TRE reports he is recovering well.


And most recently, Borepatch laid down his ride and did some serious, serious hurt to himself.
Other drivers are very unpredictable, even at low speed and the ground is very hard.
If he is not home now, he will be shortly to continue the healing process.

You guys be more careful.* The blogosphere would not be the same without you.
You would be missed.
I would miss you.
I never had any clue about the personal connections I would make by writing on this blog, not one.
The intertubes are an amazing thing.

* I highly recommend 4 wheels and lots of sheet metal, or at least air bags.

.

Wish me luck

Belle is trying to quit smoking again.  Good on her, but I'm concerned about my survival.
Nicotine withdrawal tends to make people a wee bit testy.
She's not going cold turkey though. She's got an electronic hooker, no, wait...electronic hookah for nicotine delivery that's she's using to ease down off the addiction.

Wish her well. Say a prayer for me.

Vacation!

Well, not really. Just took the whole weekend off. First time in quite a while.
I feel...human again.

Friday, Belle and I went to the Alamo Drafthouse for dinner and a movie.  We saw Denzel's new flik, "The Equalizer".  If you like improbable movies where one good guy takes out many bad guys, you'll like this one just fine.  The pain of paying for movie tickets was mitigated by a few hoppy beverages and a bacon burger.

Saturday, the man child came over to borrow the driveway for an oil change and hung around pretty much all day.  That was rejuvenating in and of itself.  It's nice to have the brood off the BAR payroll, out on their own and independent, but I miss them terribly.

Sunday, the Musical Daughter and her S.O. spent the day with us. We went out to lunch and then paid a visit to our favorite indoor pistol range.  Daughter is very comfortable with handguns now.  Her Beau had not shot anything in a decade, so I gave him some remedial tutelage.  He did just fine.  No gun safety gaffs, loaded his own mags and 99% of his bullet holes were in the paper.


Did I say "Musical Daughter"?  All those years beating drums in school, I'd no idea she could sing.
That's her, the percussionist singing backup...harmony no less.

Fun with math

A recent poll showed that 75% of people believe they are above average intelligence.

Which kind of explains why this country is in the mess that it is.

Proper Sequences

For a Wodka Tonic

My adult beverage had run dry and I was in the kitchen looking into my empty glass.
Belle, being always on point and aware, started handing me parts to assemble a reload, but they were coming out of sequence.

I politely explained the lime gets squeezed first.
Then the Wodka to ensure I don't get too much get a sufficient amount and to mix the lime sufficiently with the Wodka.
Then the tonic.
Then the ice...being the least important component.
If the tonic is chilled, the ice can be omitted under dire circumstances. I recommend a gas generator and under-counter fridge for the prepper minded.
If you have the KW on your generator, sparking up the freezer to deep chill the Wodka is a bonus but not completely necessary.

Oh, and as my last public service announcement today, wash your hands so you don't get et up with the Ebola.

.380.....Crikey!

Work associate was talking to me at the end of the day today about his .45 and how spendy it was to shoot.
That and how the slide burned a hole in his left thumb due to his propensity to point it upwards when gripping his pistol.
"Check some of the online ammo retailers."
"Adjust your grip, lay your left thumb out level below the slide."
Problem solved.

Out of curiosity, I went to a couple of online ammo retailers to look at .45 ACP prices.**
Yikes!
The best I saw was about 41 cents a round.

Since Belle is jonesing for her perty little .380 now, I thought I'd check ammo prices for that.
Thirty-nine?!?  Thirty-nine cents a round?  For a gun that's makes the pew-pew! noise?
srsly?

So much for the economy of scale.  We've been a 9mm household for quite some time now. Well, 9mm and 7.62x54R.  Simple and easy to remember. And, less expensive to boot.

Not for much longer.




** Memories of Borepatch's .45 that whispered sweet nothings in my ear some time ago surfaced in the recent past.  I found myself wistfully perusing gun sites for 1911s not long thereafter.
I sat down, gritted my teeth and gave myself a good talking to.  That time, I escaped unscathed.

Range date and my next love...

Last week, KX and I went to the gun range and this sweet little lady caught my eye....

A Sig Sauer P238 with pink pearl grips....    sighs..

Normally I detest pink on a firearm, but this little baby is just fine looking.

I have grown very lax about carrying, in the summer.  My Springfield is just too bulky for summer clothing so I've been debating on alternatives.

That little beauty will do just fine.

Today we went to the range and I was able to fire one that they had for rental (didn't get charged the rental fee).  I have to say that I was very accurate with it.

The trigger is very nice on it and the action was very smooth and well...  all around I just loved it.

The size is perfect for summer concealment and I don't even mind the pink pearl grips!

Only sad thing is that I will have to wait until at least November to get it.. but it's all good.. that's not too far away.

Until then.. she can just pine away for me and I for her.....    sighs....................

Never published weird crap I've written, found in my drafts

As a disclaimer, I might have been drinking Tito's and tonic when I wrote this, god knows when.
Also, I've never claimed to be nOrMaL

"I have ruined a brand new shirt.
I am not upset about this.
Straight out of the packaging this morning fold marks ironed out. (I iron my own) This shirt will never look this good again.
I went to put my cell phone in the shirt pocket to discover there was no shirt pocket. wtf?
Like the other shirts I bought recently, the cut on the sleeves appears to be for a cadaver; arms at sides never to be raised above the shoulders, laid out in, " he looks so life like" splendor. No pleat on the back. wtf?

What this post is really about is chopsticks and Asian food in general.
I have grease spotted my new shirt while consuming Vietnamese food from a local restaurant.
When I eat Asian, I find it a great challenge to eat with chopsticks. Now I have a reason to never wear this shirt again."

Blowing my car again

Wait.  That doesn't sound quite right.   I like it ok, but not that much.
Noticed a really musty smell this morning in the Scion roller skate. I thought it was remnant O de kx59 seeing as I'd traipsed all over an un-air conditioned office tower yesterday and sweated my ass off.  Monkey brain offered an opinion and said, "you need better deodorant"
I picked up a stack of paper this morning that I'd thrown on the passenger side floor board to find it soaking wet.
Great.
AC condensate drain is plugged again.
So I left work early (that's 5 pm for you normal people) so I'd have enough daylight left to put it up on the ramps and crawl up underneath.
Yikes that exhaust collector is hot.
Why the condensate drain tube does not extend down below the sub frame on this car I cannot imagine. **
That little winky is tucked way up in there.  There's all kinds of scalding hot naughty bits, around which you must navigate to reach it, unless the car has been sitting for a while.
So a bit of scrap rubber hose held to the end of the drain, a quick blow and a half gallon of water drains out. Good for another 25,000 miles.

** Probably to keep driveway crawlers like me from fixing my own minor maintenance issue. I'm sure this is a real money maker for Toyota. Almost as good as pulling the rumpled driver's side floor mat out from under the gas pedal.

Should I tell her?

Belle is away visiting friends.  I got home this evening and broke off my front door key in the lock.
SRSLY?
Insult to injury after two of the shittiest weeks I've had in quite some time.*
Fortunately, there was just enough of a nub of the broken key that I was able to pull on the door knob and turn the lock out.

The broken key in the lock was not wanting to come out, so I was thinking I might have to run to the hardware store and get a couple of replacement dead bolts for the front and back doors.

My lizard brain thought,"If I do, maybe I won't tell Belle and she'll get home and her key won't work and she'll totally freak  HA HA HA HA"

My monkey brain having a higher IQ by at least 10 points simply responded, "Not Funny Dumbass".

So, with  slumped shoulders of self inflicted shame, I went back and worked on the key a bit more, and of course now it came out of the lock.

Now, time to go spelunking in the junk drawer for spares.





*Why I have not posted in a while.

A life less virtual

This I needed. No cable or Satellite TV. Damn near no cell signal.

The Motley Crew

Family. 

My Brother In Law lands a 37" Bull Red. Duly measured, photographed and set free.

Red Fish are good eatin, but they don't breed until they get big.** 

My Bro works another Bull Red.

Oh. Wait.

Never mind.

This Trophy Red Fish morphed into a (trophy?) Stingray 

by the time he got it up off the bottom and along side the boat.

Also known as sea scallops :) if you've ever ordered them in a restaurant.

Nasty buggers.

Known to kill cable TV wildlife show hosts.

**  For the libtards, this is known as conservation. It is not necessary to set the human race back to the stone age to take care of the environment.

It's not fair. I did not get to catch a 37" Bull Red Fish. I demand that the federal government pass a law and do something about this because I am one person and therefore the smallest minority group ever (2.857 e-9 of the population) in the history of the Socialist Republic of America.  Therefore I deserve special consideration, privileges, and State forced acceptance of my red fish deficiency.

Adventures in Home Taxidermy

Kx and I were at the local steakhouse for a nice dinner tonight and while waiting in the bar for our table, looked up and saw this...

By the look on his face he is either....

A Surprised to be up there.
B. Terrified of something or other..
C.  Not the sharpest tool in the shed.
D.  All of the above...
E.  None of the above, but whoever stuffed this cat had either a strange sense of humor, or was just as surprised as the bobcat to have something to actually stuff in the first place.

Whatever the issue....   it had to be this person's first because I've never seen such a goofy look on a dead cat's face.....

Belle

Guns Welcome Sign increases business!!

Bluegrass Bruce  posted up an interesting little story on his blog.  He sent an email to me and pointed it out to me.  Bruce, thank you for reading our blog and welcome to the blogroll!!!  

You can find the story here .

On a side note, a bank in Chappel Hill, Texas had been robbed several times within a month or two and they posted a similar sign.  Interestingly enough, the robberies stopped.

Amazing what happens when you allow encourage law abiding citizens to exercise their right to self defense by keeping and bearing arms, in your establishment.  You increase traffic and suddenly your place of business becomes a much safer place.

Also, I can recall back in the 90's car jackings in the Houston area were on the rise.  It seemed that every night on the news there was at least one in town that was reported.  Often the owner of the car was at a stop light and pulled from their car and either killed if they resisted or left standing there while the perp drove off.

Once the concealed carry law went into effect and people were getting their licenses to carry....  well, car jackings decreased significantly.

Again, when you allow encourage people to exercise their right to self defense, violent crime tends to decrease and your neighborhood is a much safer place.


Belle

Gray hair and computers do not mix well

Actually that is a misstatement.
People and computers do not mix well...from a security standpoint.

Anything a human hand touches will get fucked up to some degree. That is more absolute than taxes or death.

One of my very senior partners emailed today to tell me he ran the computer "cleaner" program my part time IT guy put on his computer and now it was asking him for money to "clean" his computer.
He was on the intertubes and clicked the pop up that told him his computer was infected.
Similar name to the malware program we do use, so he clicked away.*

My gray haired users fuck up their computers because of ignorance.

My twenty something users fuck up their computers because of stupidity, and "OH! A Shiny Thing!"

I see all kinds of quips on the net about how adept the younger generations are with computers. Hell I can't figure this out, I'll get my ten year old to fix it.
It is a lie.  Yes, they know how to get this app and that app and how to stream music on their iphone.
Yet, they still have to find the email with the link to click for their timesheet so they can get paid.

Really? That's how you get to your timesheet?  Let me show you how to make an icon on your desktop with a quick link that will get your right there.

We are still cavemen, we just have higher tech clubs.

My network would be pristine and perfect if the "users" did not have to touch it.

* Years ago, pre-pentium days, when we first got Winders, he clicked the excel icon and it did not open right away.
So he clicked it again, and again...and again. He called me and said his computer was not working right.
As I arrived at his desk, I witnessed about twenty-seven instances of excell cascade across the screen.
PIBCAC
"May I have your chair?"
click "X", Click "X" twenty-seven times.
" if the program does not open right away, wait for a minute"
"ok, thanks Kx"

He's a very healthy cat

So said the vet when Belle took TC in for a check and to get his nuts cut.
Well, except for all the scabs from claw marks on his head and shoulders and the abscessed bite wound on his front leg.
Oh, and the..gak...tapeworm...in his mouth.  First time i've ever heard of a Vet uttering the word, "gross", but I have to agree.

The Vet says the locations of his fight wounds point towards him being aggressor.
He adopted us by seige and he protects his territory aggressively.

I'm waiting for the remaining testosterone in his system to wear off.  He needs to chill out a bit.
Giving him his pain meds is no fun. Why can't they make that stuff taste like fish?

I have been there

I know for fact it is real.
A friend emails confirmation from the road:

Also: have you ever wondered...via instapundit

Dragons in the kitchen....

I just thought this was too damned funny.....

A day without a meeting is like...

Totally productive!
I loath meetings. The decisions and useful information that can be distilled out of a 6 hour meeting could be accomplished in twenty minutes or so if the participants were willing to make a decision.
However, plausible deniability seems to be a fundamental defense tactic.
" If I make a decision, and it goes South....I could get in trouble. Egads!  Quick, deflector shields UP!

I've had two whole days in a row with only one short meeting. Yesterday I got a butt load done. At the end of the day* I got in my car and realized my stress level had gone down noticeably.
Today I got a butt load done and was feeling quite peppy at the end of a 10 hour day as I got into my car.

I've come to realize meetings are sucking the life out of me. I've known, and do know people that actually love going to meetings. They tend to be the ilk who's one contribution to the discourse is, "If we used Fedex Ground delivery that would only cost $2.67."



* Stop me if you've heard this preface in a meeting before,  "At the end of the day" is the preamble to, "We've run out of time, the deadline is TOMORROW, Please make a fucking decision!"

Fishing is soooo relaxing....

Okay not really so much when you're on a boat.  Nope no relaxation about it unless you hire the boat and they have their own deckhands.....

Yes, this is Belle, deckhand for the BAR boating and fishing trips.  Kx is of course the captain, since he has way more experience at all things nautical than I, especially when it comes to being at the helm.  Years ago, while I have learned to pilot a boat and I do pretty well, it was decided that  I really am good at all the grunt work that's involved in boating.

I am always in charge of the anchor, both deploying and pulling up the anchor.  I am also always in charge of or better said really, I am THE BAR standard and nonstandard methods of unsticking the boat as referred to by Kx in his previous post.  Here let me explain these methods to you.

The standard BAR method for unsticking the boat is for when it's a typical sticking such as, but not limited to:

1. Trapped in the mud due to anchoring close to shore to find the fish in salt grass or other in water structure close to shore.
2.  In the sand when the boat is intentionally beached for fishing or fun purposes.
3.  Trapped in the mud simply because there is a low tide and the navigator (oh yeah that's me too using a GPS and a map) is just slightly off course.

The standard BAR method for unsticking the boat consists of Kx at the helm, barking at deckhand to get to the front of the boat.  Deckhand then takes the depth sounder (otherwise known as an oar) and uses it to push the boat out of the mud while the captain is at the helm maneuvering the boat using the wheel and the engine.

The non-standard BAR method for unsticking the boat is used after at least 20 minutes of standard method being tried.  This method consists of Kx at the helm, deckhand finally throwing up her hands and saying, screw this and laying depth sounder on the deck and going overboard to push and 'manhandle' the boat off of sandbar or out of mud while Kx is expertly maneuvering the boat using the wheel and the engine.

So, after having read Kx's account of events on our 'relaxing' fishing trip, you can see that really it wasn't very relaxing until we got home, ate dinner and for me personally, after I took a muscle relaxer and had two glasses of wine.  I was so sore when we got back to the house that even my eyelashes hurt.

Hubby and I, are really a good team on the boat.  Though when the kids were small they would think that we both lost our minds because there is a lot of raised voices and creative cussing going on.. but really if I am ever in a jam, then it's Kx that I would always want in my corner..  thank goodness I married him!

I really have nothing else to add about our outing other than it was great to be down there despite the issues we had and I can't wait to get back down there...

Away for a year and everything changes

Plans work perfectly until they meet reality.
Belle and I headed down to the coast to do some fishing for the first time in well over a year.

Let's just say that pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did.
I'll try the abridged version.
* Full Moon Friday night - more on this later
* Favorite restaurant out of bidness.
* Backup restaurant lost liquor license.
* Cut from Caney Creek to Intercoastal:    Cut is now silted to 12" deep. Stuck the boat, slowly thankfully. Boat in front of us and boat in back of us stuck as well. (I am amongst good company)
* Deploy standard BAR boat unsticking protocol.
* Air was dead still, surf was still too high to get out in the gulf and fish the sandbars. damnit.
* Seaweed moving on the incoming tide was immense in the channels nearby.  Got a Bite! No. Wait. just a ten pound clump of seaweed.
* Tidal current shifted the boat while anchored onto a mud shelf, boat stuck again.
* Deploy standard BAR boat unsticking protocol.
*  Back to the intercoastal to head 6 or 7 miles west wherein we snagged a sizable sheet of plastic floating subsurface on the lower unit that plowed copious amounts of water OVER the stern. Brain says, " I don't remember the boat doing this...something must be wrong.
*  Clear Plastic.  Decide to call it a day.
* Change mind on the way back and decide to hit the bay through the really narrow and shallow cut.
* Stick Boat.
* Deploy standard BAR boat unsticking protocol.
* Ease across bay, fish bird island...nothing.
* Head to the south shore of the barrier island separating the bay from the gulf. Nothing.
* Really decide to call it a day.
* Stick the boat on the way back through the really narrow and shallow cut to the canal.
* Deploy standard BAR boat unsticking protocol.
*  Barge traffic now looks like rush hour interspersed with shrimpers too lazy to hit the deep parts of the bay pulling nets in the intercoastal.  WEEEEEE!
*  I think I've figured out where the deeper part of the cut from the intercoastal to Caney Creek is on the way back.
* Stick boat for a good half hour.
* Deploy Nonstandard BAR boat unsticking protocol.  Belle is likely to post on this later as well. You could never ask for a better deck hand.
*  Belle brought some truly awesome steaks which pretty much made all the bad day go away.
* The two things that did go right is I did not trash the lower unit on the boat while sticking it and the engine did not crap out on us. (been there, done that, got the sunburn scars to prove it, once 30 miles out in the Pacific...not my boat.)



* Full moon. When the moon is full, the fish feed at night and lay up fat and happy during the day.
We know this, but we had not been down to fish in over a year and we were going FISHING DAMNIT.

I think I've missed two other boat stickings and omited some other miscellaneous shit that went wrong, but that's enough for one post.

Can't wait to get back down there again! 

R & R

On the water.

Peer Reviewed, no less

The climate "scientists" that have foisted the global warming hoax upon us have forever given science in general, a black eye in my personal opinion.
Just about any report that comes out regarding a "scientific study" I look at with skepticism now.

"Peer Reviewed"  scientific papers just don't carry the same weight they used to IMHO, considering the Peer Review process appears to have a history of being rigged.  

 Today I find this is not limited to the climate sciences.

60 scientific articles retracted.    I find my skepticism reinforced rather than abated.

Doing my civic duty

Jury duty tomorrow.
So far I'm batting a thousand.
I've yet to be selected. This even includes a federal jury where I was on call for a week.
I suspect it is because I am unequivovating in my responses to loiya's questions.  One set of eyebrows will go up, the other set into a scowl.
The scowl has historically struck me from the pool.
And then I'm on my way with the rest of my day.

Mindless amusement.

Happy 4th Ya'll.  I'm certainly enjoying the down time.

Playing "Red Dead Redemption" loaned to me by Son.  Third person action game on the Xbox 360.

Things are not going so well.

So Far:
I've ridden my virtual horse all over the map with out a clue as to what I am supposed to do.
Been gunned down by the town's people.*
Accidentally bought a whore house.** and now I'm broke.



*Not my fault. I was just practicing my six gun draw. Ok, I was out in the street and the auto-aim thing targeted a guy.  To my surprise, he drew and started shooting me. So I shot him.  The whole town chased me and shot me down like a mangy dog.

** Also not my fault.  Blue dot on the map. Blue "X" when I arrived at the waypoint and a HUD display popped up that read "purchase". So, I did.  Normally, dots on maps are objectives, not money pits.

I suspect there's a deep moral lesson to be learned here, but it's escaping me at the moment. I'm busy. I need to find some wanted posters and go kill some bad guys.

Back on the BAR homefront....

On Sunday I began getting a shooting pain in my neck, up into my head.  Turns out I have a pinched nerve and it is causing my neck now to be numb.  I'm on meds for it, but will see what happens with that..

Today, KX was putting on his socks.  He was moaning and groaning and wincing in pain.  The conversation went something like this:

Kx -  "Ugh, ooh ow..moan groan, grumble"
Belle - "My goodness are you okay?  What is the matter with you?"
Kx - "I have this pain in my hip and am having trouble putting on my socks!" (wincing and groaning)
Belle - "well geez, between your hip and my neck, I'm a pain in the neck and you're a pain in the ass, aren't our kids lucky?"

Laughter.


Hope everyone has a great 4th!  Happy Independence Day!!!


Belle

When to only tool you have is a Hammer

All problems begin to look like a nail.

"Historians looking back at this period in America’s development will consider it to be profoundly odd that at the exact moment when violent crime hit a 50-year low, the nation’s police departments began to gear up as if the country were expecting invasion — and, on occasion, to behave as if one were underway. The ACLU reported recently that SWAT teams in the United States conduct around 45,000 raids each year, only 7 percent of which have anything whatsoever to do with the hostage situations with which those teams were assembled to contend."

Well, after all, a bureaucracy's budget must, at all costs, be justified. 

Cold Fury is one of my favorite blogs. I think the only reason Mike doesn't have a bleeding ulcer is his blog.

I do believe it is time for a drumstick.

Pot Pies and Drumsticks

No expense is spared in the BAR corporate HQ executive dining room.
For the main course, frozen pot pies.  Desert is drumsticks.
What?

Ga'head. Tell me you don't want one now.

Forest Gump rides a bike

99.9 miles in one day.

Now, we're so old now we don't care that we're old anymore
While surfing through old pics I ran across this.
I think I was 36 when I got a hair up my ass to ride the MS150 from Houston to Austin.*
Ah, to be 36 and pencil necked again....sigh.

*Technically it turned out to be just shy of 165 miles and I should have circled a few times to round it off to an even 100 for the first day, but I was so elated that my legs had not fallen off at the knees it slipped my mind.

Range Date Sunday

I find that Belle and I are going to range a little more frequently these days.
Going to the range with someone is far better than going alone.  Especially when it is your best friend and spouse. :-)
For today's range date, lunch was at one of the better Tex Mex places and a trip to Shiloh to run rounds through the pistols.

A few things are contributing to the increasing frequency.
Ammo prices have come down a little. Both the former college students graduated and are gainfully employed*, and Belle has a renewed interest in her personal armory.

So, I ran both my nines**. I decided to use the short mags in my Ruger to work on my grip without the extended mag grip. The pistol is a bit more "hoppy" without the extended grip, but I was not dissatisfied with the target group.
 Today I made a point to shoot one handed, both strong and weak. I tend to forget to do this.  That was a little sloppy but I managed to not put any holes through the white on the target. Boy, the recoil is much more apparent in the weak hand.
Quite a pleasant day. Capped by watching the Houston Grand Prix...from the air conditioned comfort of my couch.





* I know! right?
They both came out of school with skills and knowledge unrelated to dead languages of women's studies.
** Belle recently mused about a revolver.  I hear the distant siren call of a .45.

Liquid cat

Peavey has begun to outgrow his perch...   He folds himself up accordingly... Hubby informs me that really cats are classified as a liquid..   I think I see his point.

Range Day - Getting to know Irina....

I have decided that Tuesday mornings are going to be my range day.  I will alternate between long guns and pistols every week.  Although last week I went to the rifle range, I decided to go again this week since I left them with my Mosin Nagant (aka Irina) and wanted to keep pecking away at sighting in the scope on Aphrodite (the AR15).

I've not fired Irina much since the sights were way off so I really didn't know her.  Natasha (Tokorev), I know very well, but not my sweet Irina.  When I got to the range today, I was very happy that she was ready to go, so I took her to the line, got situated and loaded her up.

At first I was pulling high and to the left, no doubt anticipating my shot, not really remembering or knowing what to expect from her, but as I really got the feel for her.. well let's just say that I was much improved.

I still have a lot of getting to know you better sessions before I get as consistent as I am with Natasha but I'm very pleased with the outcome.  The one almost dead center is a beauty and makes me hungry for more.

Getting to know your weapon is somewhat like getting to know a lover or even a friend.  You must take the time to really understand them.  To know what they like and dislike, to know how they are going to react when you touch them here or there, or know exactly how to hold them.  You need to get to know every contour to get the most pleasure but most of all, you have to nurture the relationship to keep it sharp and to stay in tune, otherwise, all you're doing is spinning your wheels and getting no traction.

The better you know your firearm, the better the relationship between your weapon of choice and yourself will be.  Understanding how they work, how they feel, knowing every curve and edge is of the utmost importance for a true partnership to occur.  When you are at one with your firearm, then you are accurate, safe and I would even say, at peace.

This past year or so, I've neglected my girls.  With the ammo shortage and cost of shooting, I've neglected to go to the range like I used to.  Shame on me.  My skills are not what they once were and I no longer feel confident in carrying my pistol day to day for fear of the what ifs....    What if I actually have to draw and fire, will I be endangering someone else?  What if I miss?  I am responsible for every round that leaves my gun, period.  So out of worrying about the 'what ifs' I am not carrying these days.  Again, shame on me.

Now that I've settled in to being at home again, I have set aside Tuesdays as my range day and I have to say, when I get home from the range, I feel happy and I feel like I've done something wonderful.  Life is good and I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to enjoy my weapons.

Until next time....     Belle.

Got an email from Tactical Firearms....

 a couple of days ago, and two more today.*

Yep, that Tactical Firearms.
I read  all the emails and I find myself not "all in" on this one.

I've been watching the net for past few days to see if this got any traction.  Not that much...
I've seen in the news where banks are getting strong armed into dropping gun stores accounts, but this part made me think things weren't so cut and dried:

"When it became time to refinance the loans, one of our owners (30%), [Name Redacted**], decided to back out. It is our belief based on what we have since learned that [NR] wished to seize control of the company."

Tactical Firearms has been aggressively tweaking Obama's nose with their signs, and so it is plausible that Obama's Orks have in fact gone after their bank to get at them.  But that one quote gives me pause.

A statement that a sleazy banker made to me many years ago has always stuck with me, "In business, your friends will fuck you, your enemies will fuck you bad."
Unfortunately, I have found this to be true.

The internet never forgets, and neither do I.    My reply to a comment on the post seems to have come home to roost.

"Gaining customers via competition is fair game. Gaining customers by having the Federal Government put them out of business and impinge on my rights in the process is not."

Karma is a bitch.


As I stated before this could be Obama's minions coming after Tactical Firearms, but I'm not totally buying it just yet.  Call me skeptical.




*  Shot there once with a bud. After the subject of the second link, I've never gone back.

** I am a highly educated redneck, I am not stupid enough to get dragged into this moron's problem.

Cat Prepping

Belle picked up kibble for the cats.
I thought we adopted...by siege... a lost cat. Not a freaking Mountain lion.

Can containing my my highly efficient nicotine delivery medium provided for scale.


Good Lord No. I am certainly not up at this hour on a Saturday.  Blogger schedule thingy werks Gut.

OOPS! My Bad

All your email are     belong to Us are lost.
Really now.  Conveniently all the email from the IRS fascists associated with suppressing any organization with the keywords "Tea Party" or "Patriot", among others, have been lost.
Hard drive crashed.
Oh and yeah, uhm, the hard drive was recycled within days, because the infernal gubmint is so incredibly efficient.

Oh! and the other six IRS people's email you "requested", their hard drives crashed too!.  It was a request, right?

I fear the sad thing is the Republitards are going to go, "well shucks, there you go.  I guess we'll never get to the bottom of this."


You can bet your sweet ass the government's email is not cached on the user's computers.  You can bet the farm that the only place the User's email would be stored is on the user's computers. I mean, that would be a huge security vulnerability.  (ok, I know, it's a federal bureaucracy, but still....)

The email servers are backed up at the very least.  It's the infernal gubmint and they tend to be a good ten years behind current technology, so perhaps a replicated server is out of the question, but they have backups, bank on it.

Looking forward to the IRS audit on my next tax return.  ;)
With no dependents now, I'm damn near back to being able to file on a 1040 EZ form.
This might get down to the typeface or font I used to fill our the form.

3 boxes of BS appears to be down

Error establishing a database connection

google has muted me

For whatever reason I find myself unable to comment on blogs.
I am logged into my google account. I am able to post on blogger, but when I go to comment on another blog and hit the publish button, my text disappears and my comment does not post.

srsly?

No wonder they call them pussy cats.....

I absolutely love my cat Peavey.  He is really a darling.  Very smart, playful and so affectionate, that it warms the heart.

At first I thought he was brave.  I mean really, any cat that will climb on your chest while you're in the bathtub to curl up and sleep without fear of being dumped in the water, is brave in my book (especially since I can be quite the prankster).

I'm not sure if Kx told the story of how Peavey got his name, but he is full of Piss and Vinegar, P&V, PV, spelled out = Peavey.

Well today, we had thunderstorms roll through and Peavey wasn't enjoying all noise..  he hid behind me and meowed, which is actually a squeak, not a true meow.

Yeah, Cat Prime is a chicken....  

Weather Radar?

I find I have defaulted to doing an awful lot of blog reading and internet surfing with my phone.  This evening I started looking through my bookmarks on the ole laptop.  I have a lot of good bookmarks on this thing. Way more than my phone.

One that I forgot I had is a weather radar mosaic site - This One.  Which some of you might find useful.

Another that I found and was watching leading up to and after Hurricane Ike hit was the Harris County Flood warning site.  I used this site non-stop to ensure my state of freak-out never subsided. :-)

How did we ever survive in the pre-internet days?

Range Day with Natasha and Aphrodite

Ahhh yes...   today was the first time in ages that I went to the rifle range all by myself and took along my beloved Natasha (the Tokorev) and my sweet little Aphrodite (AR15).

Naturally on a Tuesday morning the range was not busy but the ones that were there were either more 'seasoned' gentleman and one lone high school aged boy.

As per usual, I walk down to my lane and the guys kind of look but pay little attention, guess they figure it may be odd for a woman to be out there alone but could she really do much damage?  I unpack Natasha and load her up, then fire off my first shot...    heads whip around and suddenly I have gents watching and waiting for me to screw up.

I love that for some reason.  Maybe it's just in my own silent way educating the old timers that while we may be ladies, we can be just as capable that fuels the thrill of it all, or if it's the knowledge of knowing that I have a splendid tool in my hands and I am very capable of using it that gets me going, but whatever it is, I do know that the sound of the bang and the recoil that follows sustains me in an odd sort of way.

When I'm at this particular range, I always feel my father there with me.  It's the same range where he taught me to shoot when I was only 10 years old.  Good times.  Dad is gone now since 1996 but he still lives in my heart when I'm shooting, playing golf, fishing or if I happen to be working on a car (which i rarely have to do thanks to KX).

I digress.

Today was just a nice peaceful day and I am hoping that Tuesday will be my range day and will alternate between long guns and pistols.

The target that I am posting is of course Natasha.  I'm too ashamed to post the other simply because I was sighting in the scope and so some of it was really really bad...

At any rate, Belle is back.  I got kind of burned out on blogging and really didn't have much to say of importance but then I as reminded that it doesn't have to have all the eclat of a proverb for me to post... just do it......and you know what?   that's a very true statement.

Range day was really wonderful.  I got to shoot of course, but the conversation of the old timers and the youngster that was there was really priceless.   I am truly blessed.

TANSTAAFL

WEEEE!  Yay! Free apps for my phone!

Need a sound meter? There's an app for that!
And it's free!

Well, not really because like many free apps, it accesses all the naughty bits of your phone and reports you location to god knows where.

I have very few apps on my phone because of this. I did install a sound meter app to do some empirical testing* a few days back.

As usual, my battery life diminished rapidly and my phone remained rather warmish for the 48 hours I had the app installed. So, I uninstalled it when I was done.  The code for apps, by and large, is not written for free.  The publishers of said apps will make money off your metadata somehow.



* How loud is a commercial wall mounted toilet when it is flushed?  How much does a cheap ass gyp board partition reduce the sound?  Every now and then, my profession requires that I wander off into the weeds.
Sometimes I find my way home.

70 dB btw.

I didn't know this still existed...

The look of horror on my face when they brought it to the table..  

Lunch with an Ogre and the discovery of a new disorder......

Yes it's been a while since I've peeked into the blogosphere and put words to well, not paper, but screen.  Fact is, I really haven't had much to write about these past... months?  year?  years?  Hell I've lost track.

The wonderful KX has been keeping the blog going while I took a break from blogging for a while, off doing other things, but enjoying myself just the same.  I figured it was time to start working my way back here and there since now it has become two against one, I got something of a lecture from The Big Guy today as well as the hubby......

Today, KX and I met The Big Guy at Goodson's Cafe' in Tomball, Texas and enjoyed Chicken Fried Steak, 2 sides and of course dessert.  Goodson's is famous for their CFS and has been featured on The Travel Channel as Texas' Best Chicken Fried Steak.  I tend to agree, but then I may be a little biased.

The conversation with The Big Guy is never dull.  Always full of funny stories complete with sound effects, animated gestures and we must not forget the very creative cussing.

After about the (well I really lost count) 6th? 7th? creative cuss word he looked at me and said, as only a gentle giant can, "Oh I'm so sorry sweetheart, pardon my language."

Of course I assured him that a woman that is used to hanging out at gun ranges and hanging in bars playing poker and darts, that I'm not unfamiliar with cussing....   on occasion, I've been known to be as creative as the wildest of sailors.

He smiled at me and went on to blame it on a case of Chicken Fried Tourette Syndrom, caused by the massive Chicken Fried Steak on his plate, one that was big enough to feed a small village in Africa and certainly most worthy to satisfy even the hungriest of Ogres.

So after finishing off the meal, dessert was in order and TBG opted for Banana Pudding and I, of course, ended up with the one thing that I cannot resist.....     Chocolate Pie.....   I was in heaven.

Oh yes...  Goodson's Chocolate Pie...    it's the best of the best...  to truly understand my love of Chocolate Pie I send you here for your reading enjoyment .

It was a lovely day and when I got home, a nice little nap was in order.

Until next time.....    Belle.

I'm not dead yet

A lone Lilly has sprouted next to the a oak tree.  It's been years since Belle planted lillies.  The oak has grown into a mighty tree and sucked the life out of everything around it.  The monkey grass is all bit gone.
The Lilly apparently saw its opportunity for escape.
FREEDOM!

Insomnia

I get it form time to time.
Sometimes it's one night.
Sometime's it goes on for days.

I got again last night

It freaks me out to open my eyes and look at the clock to see 1am, then 2am and 3am.
knowing I have to get up at 5:30.

This happens more than I'd like.

My ultimate vacation would be to go somewhere ridiculously expensive with an awesome bed, by myself, and sleep for four days.... maybe five.

Infinite loop

The Cat Prime*  apparently has diarrhea which is making him not smell so good seeing as it sticks to the luxuriant fur  folding around his hind quarters.
He has made repeated attempts to lick it off which keeps perpetuating his problems.
infinite loop.

Tonight Belle informs me that an intervention is required.
 "We" must capture PV so we can wash his Ass.


It has been communicated to me that I am the one that is to receive all the cat scratches.
Pointers on putting a choke hold on at cat are appreciated.





* There are two now. Another adopted us by Siege.

On a less technical....computer geekery note

Apparently, this one is worn out. Time to find another matching orphaned sock.
And.
No, I do not wear the white tenner shoes with my gray slacks.
I have a really snazzy pair of black and gray cross trainers with reflective silver stripes on the sides.*

*  I wish

Spam, spam, spam

Spam!
No, not the Monty Python show tune, nor the gelled pig fat in a can.
Actual spam.
As I've mentioned before I am not a trained IT professional, but I play one in real life.

The bullet point version:
*  Early on a Tuesday morning I sent an email to be greeted momentarily with a Non-delivery report.
*  A quick check of email blacklists shows Megabuildingarchitects.com on two blacklists for SPAM.
*  A glance at the outgoing email queue shows thousands of emails rejected by the recipents waiting for resend.
*  SHIT!
*  suspend the outgoing queue items containing 1035 down to 10 email messages.*
*  frantically search the email server to figure out what the eff is going on while researching online.
*  Event viewer shows a successful logon by the  firm founder...hmmmm....who passed away over a year ago.
*  Disable founder's account and every other non-essential account...oops not that one.
*  Spammer is locked out but spam continues to inflow.
*  In the Exchange 2007 receive connectors I find an encrypted IP address.
*  Delete Encrypted IP address and spam stops like a switch is thrown.

Sounds like this took all of thirty minutes no?  Try 4..long... days.
It took another week or so to get de-listed form the email black lists.

The spammer has a bot sitting out there, or in here somewhere, that continues to randomly try log on IDs and Passwords.
My favorite ID attempt was  "BATMAN"

Meanwhile, my other full time projects (3) grind on.



* My best guess is that tens of thousands of spam email messages were relayed out before we got black listed.  If you received an email from Megabuildingarchitect.com promising to make your penis immensely large by only taking this one weird supplement, I humbly apologize.

Woe be unto you

If you have the misfortune to be flying into Houston this evening.
That's not concrete you see in the street. That's water.
We've been a bit behind on rainfall as of late.
Catching up now.

9mm

Ammoforsale.com has 1000 rounds of Magtech 9mm for $320.
At least they did a day or so ago.

Sumbitch

I have a company bowling tournament tomorrow night.  No! you can't not bowl! It wouldn't be the same with out you!
Oh, horseshit. K, big deal. My team has won the cheesy plastic trophy twice and I can drink the entire office under the table.  (did I say that out loud?)
BFD.

Belle: " Don't you like Joe Ely?"
kx59: " yeah, why?"
Belle googled up the Dosy Doe's schedule and Joe Ely is playing there tomorrow night.

Sumbitch!

The tangled web slowly comes un-weaved

IRS Scandal:
Scandal is the wrong word. This was no "scandal" this was criminal activity using the force of the State no less.
As email and documents continue to be wrenched from the claws of the Infernal Gubmint, the trail to the prime mover points ever higher.
Lois Lerner has been declared in Contempt of Congress. Good luck getting Eric Holder's Injustice department to prosecute. Unfortunately for Lois, Obamma's, and concomitantly, Eric Holder's terms run out before the statue of limitations.  Lois' options don't look all that great.  Not to get too melodramatic but it's going to boil down to winding up as the only person to die in a very suspect plane crash, or sing like a canary and pray that a non-federal witness protection program exists.

While it galls me, the wiser tack would be to give her immunity in return for the proverbial bean spilling.

Today we learn via a post and document dump from Judicial Watch, Senator Carl Levin's, (D) from Michigan, finger prints (and email)  are all over the IRS' illegal targeting of conservative groups seeking a tax exempt status.  (Way to go Michigan!)

Talk Radio Host, and actual Loiya, Mark Levin says Carl Levin should be dragged in front of a federal grand jury.  Yes, yes he should.  Will that happen?  No.

But this brings me to a thought followed by a question.

The various organizations with key words such as "Tea Party" and "Patriot" in their org names were scattered among several States.  I wonder if the esteemed Carl Levin, (D) Michigan could be dragged in front of a grand jury in each of those states?  A second question comes to mind. Could Carl Levin, (D) Michigan be sued personally in each of those states.
As a US Senator, he probably has some immunity for which he, or others of his ilk. voted into law, but I'd like to see that tested all the way to the Supreme Court frankly.
Seems rather discriminatory to me.

Is that really the time?

How long have I been home?
Really? I made it home that fast in drizzling rain?

This is either good....or bad.
Either I've mentally checked out of L'hotel Sanity or my giveashit factor has reached an all time low.*
I'm in uncharted territory. **

* For you government spooks reading everything on the intertubes, this is commonly known as a joke, or snark. Don't forget this footnote when you screen cap this post, please and thank you. Fuckers.
** Both my kids donned robes and walked across the graduation stage last Friday.
Now, what shall I do ?

It's really good...try some

Said I.
Looking at Nana, aka Belle, my oldest granddaughter asks, "should I?"
This was preceded by Scooter asking why Nana was putting salt in her milk.**
Belle is drinking...Gak!  buttermilk.
It's getting tougher to get one over on Scooter, having reached the wise old age of eight now.

via Wikipedia:
"This fermented dairy product known as cultured buttermilk is produced from cow's milk and has a characteristically sour taste caused by lactic acid bacteria. This variant is made using one of two species of bacteria—either Lactococcus lactisor Lactobacillus bulgaricus, which creates more tartness."

MMmmmm. Bulgaricus. Yummy, no?

Tart my ass. Buttermilk just tastes plain nasty.

** apparently it does not taste bad enough.

.

The aforementioned Chicken Fried Steak

Just to tease the Ogre  Big Guy.
It's not quite Goodson's Cafe chicken fried steak, but you can't get small venue Blues at Goodson's.
Ah well. Nick Moss, Tommy Castro and Barnstormer Ale compensated just fine.
Bonus round was Nick jamming with Tommy Castro at the end of his show. It was seamless. Man those guys are good.

I'd post up video of Nick and Tommy IF I could find one that freaking works.  Youtube has gotten to be no fun.

Only good thing I've seen come out of Chicago on a while

Live blogging from the Dosey Doe.
Chicken fried steak, fried green tomatoes and Blues.
The Nick Moss band from Chicago.
Opening for Tommy Castro.
Nick and the crew rock.

On Monday

a man who answered the phone at Nehoray's law office wouldn't identify himself and said the attorney would no longer comment on the audio or Stiviano's case.

I just bet. His client has "complicated" his defense. That little thing about it being illegal in California to record private conversations without all parties' consent is going to be a nuisance.




Who the heck is "Stiviano"?

Oh. Yes. The gold digger* that outed Donald Sterling as a racist.

In my estimation, there are no "victims" in this tragedy, including Ms. Sterling, patiently waiting for the $$$Mr. to kick the bucket. No, no victims really, only race baiting blood in the water.  Never let a good crisis go to waste.

Karma's a bitch. You reap what you sow, sometimes before your next lifetime.

Meanwhile, the latest Benghazi emails released point right to the Whitehouse.

Priorities, priorities.




*"She" looks a bit manly don't you think? Note the Adam's apple.

,

Shell eco-marathon

Ah, hell nah. Not that kind of marathon.
You see me running, you'd best turn and run the same direction. It means something big, mean and nasty is chasing me.
This is Shell Oil's annual hyper-mileage concept car event.  My soon to graduate mechanical engineer son is part of his college's team in the event.
The build on the car has taken 9 months and every spare second the participants had to give.
It has been touch and go over the past two weeks for them to finish the project, including a flame out in a three phase motor controller built from scratch 36 hours before go time.
The electronics group was still fussing with the contoller when I rolled up.
None of the team has slept much in the last 24 hours.
While I was there, they got it running, so I got to see a run on the test track.
Carbon fiber body design and build by the one and only Sonnage.

.

Yes, it's still alive

Been quite busy. I'd had enough. Recoil therapy was in order, so off to the range with Belle, WWII Russian rifles in tow.
Sighted in the cheapo scope on my Mosin. Belle ran rounds through her Tokorev.  I feel better. I really must do this more often.