At Last, A Clue

I misplaced my debit card yesterday.  I keep it in my pants pocket in a little Tyvek sleeve I got from Texadelphia years ago. Being a creature of habit, when I get home at the end of the day, all the pocket stuff comes out and goes in its usual place. This morning, ready to head out the door got the wallet, keys, pen, my can of bad habit, and debit card...debit card...debit card? Where's my debit card?
So, I checked the auxiliary pocket stuff locations with no luck.  Annoyed, but not alarmed. I was 99%...87%...50% sure I'd arrived home with it.
The good news is that this evening I found the single dollar bill that was in the same pocket as the debit card on the floor of my closet.  The bad news is that most likely my debit card is on the floor of my closet as well.  Well, at least I have a good idea of where it is.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, "Closet Spelunking".

Texadelphia. I haven't been there in quite some time. They make a mean Philly Cheese Steak sandwich with a Texas flair.  My favorite is loaded with cherry and banana peppers with honey mustard sauce.  The location on Westheimer is the best in Houston in my experience. I mentioned this to Belle as I was typing, and that we had not been in quite some time.  She suggested that we should go on Sunday...oh but it will be raining.  Being professionally trained in finding solutions I noted that we'd be wearing a car, so it wouldn't be a problem.
That wasn't actually her point. They have a, mostly covered deck with picnic tables where we used to take the BAR Brood for some meaty spicey goodness. It leaks a bit.

TGIF

I think that the above pretty much says it all.  I'm glad this week is almost over.

Yesterday was a pretty good day.  When I left the office, I went to the gun range to poke holes in a silouette on some paper.  I have to say that my groupings are getting tighter and tighter and I'm not pulling low left any more, though still shooting a tiny bit low anticipating my shot, no doubt.

After the range, I went to the bowling alley for league.  What a pleasant surprise to find out that my team is in first place!

Last night I bowled above my average, so I was very happy with that.

All in all it's been fairly uneventful this week.

Oh, so I see how it is....

Apparently, I'm going to have to switch jobs.

While I was hobnobbing with a BAR blogosphere hero of ours, the Lovely Belle whipped this up for her Boss' birthday party tomorrow.

Cheesecake, just prior to the cherry topping.

 

Blog meet and Road Hypnosis

I don't haz it.
 I only drove to Austin and back.  I could have flown, but that would have turned a 2 1/2 hour trip into a 3 1/2 hour trip.  ( I sense a declining return there ).  I ventured to the land of T sips for a business meeting, which to regress to my teenage surfer dude days, is a totally awesome thing.  Too much work is a much better problem than not enough.  My bonifieds? 7'-8" Jacobson surf board purchased at Jesus is Lord surf shop in Surfside, Texas for around 250 1976 dollars. Traction provided by Dr. Zog's Sex Wax.
Where was I?  Oh yes, Austin.
Borepatch is in the process of decommissioning the BP F.O.B. and heading back to Georgia.
My meeting in Austin was scheduled to be done mid afternoon and Borepatch was free as well, so I managed to squeeze in a meet up for some Tex Mex and Cerveza.  I'm thinking back over the day as I type. The bidness meeting was positive in an economic sense, and face time with a blog bud was a bonus.  It was a good day. (That's kx59 speak for, "I stopped to smell the roses".)  Blogshoots are an awesome experience, but being able to converse sans hearing protection and all the activity is truly a wonderful thing.
My life was enriched today.  Simply by making a connection.  Interesting thing, the intertubes, n'est-ce pas?  Algore's internet made an otherwise impossible connection, possible today.

P.S. BP will poo poo this statement, but he really is as wicked smaht as you think he is. Well, I mean, you read his blog every day...right?

Turkey???

I was looking at my blog stats today and this week we at BAR have had 130 hits from Turkey.  That's not in a month but in a week.

I always find it so interesting that people from so far away have something they want to read or see here.

I haven't blogged much this week, my muse on a break I guess.  I'll be back to regular blogging soon though.

So anyway, to whomever it is in Turkey who is reading.........   leave a comment...  and thanks!

Pollen wiping and other nonsense

The turn of the leaves in the fall is a beautiful sight much further Northeast of the BAR.  Fall and winter here seem to just turn a gray shade of green.  The oak trees here shed their leaves in the spring by the bushel full and pollinate. We are talking full on Vegas floor show with feather fans pollination.  Parking next to a 50 foot tall pile of sulfur in a gale would deposit less yellow stuff on your car.
Between auto mechanics in the first part of the day, and cutting the yard at the end of the day, I grabbed a microfiber towel and the hose and did a quick rinse and wipe down of the cars. The flood line along the curb left a long line of yellow on the street.  Pollen wiping. It's a loosing battle. The cars will be coated in yellow again by tomorrow morning. Fortunately, this will only go on for another week or two.
Today was good. I spent the first half of it on my back with my Son under his Jeep.  One of two things is for certain. When you leverage a transmission pan to make it let loose from the dipstick tube and crunch your own pinky and it makes you laugh hysterically, you have either stopped to smell the roses, or you are abjectly crazy. My Son had no idea why I was laughing.  What made me laugh is that I did it twice....in a row.  Pan was loose and I was starting to make some headway on getting the tube from the pan to release from the dipstick tube. So, my attention was focused elsewhere. First crunch was a little "ow", second crunch got my attention, which reminded me of the first crunch.  Monkey brain said, "maybe you shouldn't do that again." The homo sapiens part of my brain simply responded with, "Really?"
It's still making me chuckle.  Pinky is fine. The laughter made the hurt go away.
Best part of getting greasy today was that I was in a happy place, because I was turning wrenches with my Son, and I told him so.  Must be some oak tree pollen in here. Now I'm getting all teary eyed.

Don't Patronize the Lady Shooters!

Yesterday was bowling night, so I typically leave from the office and go to the indoor range, queeze off a box or two of ammo and then go bowl.

I was out of ammo (aside from the full magazine in my pistol) so I stopped off at the local large chain sporting goods store and went to gun counter to get my ammo.

Behind the counter, the clerk, who probably had the education level of the 8th grade though he was around my age, was trying to sell this woman and her husband a short barreled 12 guage shot gun for home defense.

Good idea of course; however, it was the woman that is wanting the gun as the husband works nights.  The counter guy was telling her, "well, if I were you, I wouldn't worry about the bruises on your shoulder or the kick because this will stop them dead in their tracks, better to have a bruise than to be dead!"

My mouth drops and I put my face in my palm.  The lady turned down the gun and started to move away from the counter.  I politely stopped her for a moment and this is what I said to her,

"I'm sorry but that guy should never try and sell you a gun that you aren't comfortable with.  While in theory he's correct, better a bruise on your shoulder than to be dead, but the problem is that you may have to fire the thing more than once.
"If you are worried about the kick, buy yourself a short barreled 20 guage and load it with buck shot.  It won't kick as hard as the 12 and no burglar is going to laugh at you for shooting a 20 at him rather than the 12."

Store clerk puffs up like a blowfish and says, "Well the 12 guage has more power!"

I smiled my sweetest Southern Belle smile and said, "Yes of course it does, but it's better to have a little less power and be confident of what you're shooting and be able to handle your weapon properly and accurately, than to have all that power and the fear of pulling that trigger because of the pain involved.  Hesitation breeds disaster."

Store clerk, still puffed up and a little red in the face, "Power is better!"

Me, still smiling at him said, "What good is power if you can't use the effing thing?"

Store clerk just looks at me, unable to say anything and moved along to help another person down at the other end who had been waiting before I arrived.  The lady and her husband both thanked me and said they would be back for a 20 guage. 

Once the clerk returned to help me, I said, "I will take 3 boxes of Monarch 9mm Luger FMJ and 1 box of 9mm Luger Monarch Hollow Points"

I don't know what it is about this guy but he just couldn't resist, "Well hon, are you sure you want Monarch, we have some really nice Winchester rounds on sale for just a couple bucks more and it's much better quality!"

I smiled again and said, "Did you really just ask me that?  Winchester is the dirtiest ammo that I've ever fired and I refuse to put that crap in my gun.  Monarch, is cheaper, it has quality enough to hit what I'm aiming for and it is extremely clean."

I think that guy was just trying to save face because had been served and quite possibly owned.  Never patronize a lady shooter.

The only reason I stepped in to the conversation was because the way he was talking to that woman, was not promoting a concern for self defense, but just plain old bravado.  Shame on him.

This is a hilarious commerical

Was not a commercial during the superbowl but it should have been!





A Video Game Review

Also courtesy of the One and Only Son.
If you've never played a video game, or wondered why you bought this piece of shee ite game, this will not communicate.

I almost spit beer on my laptop

I'm having an adult beverage. It's been a rough day.
The One and Only Son thought I would find this humorous and emailed it in... and he was correct.
A Dramatic Reading.
It gets particularly good around the "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" part.