New Years Post

I wish each and all a better and preferably a prosperous New Year.

Nothing much else to say at this juncture. Stay Safe tonight.

Clear skys, quiet out, D.C. is sleeping.

Over at Western Rifle Shooters Association is a post that leaves me chilled.
At the same time though, new music for me to enjoy(new to me anyway) and I have been an admirer of Mark Knopfler for years.

Been doing some of that recently.

One thing that I did get to do over Christmas at my dads was stretch out the PSL.
One fine rifle. I had a tinge of doubt on the accuracy seeing how the receiver is of stamped steel similar to the AK. We took her and the SKS up in the hills to a mine reclamation for some range time. Very impressed. My Dad and my cousin were too. Of course my dad wasn't at all impressed with the SKS. LOL He likes something that can reach out (IE the PSL) and the SKS was a toy to him. He nick named it the Pea shooter on the way down.

Still, shooting across from one ridge line to the other, the PSL did VERY well. My cousin ranged it at 372 yards. The target was a Large block of soft sandstone with a dark surface about 12" across. After 10 rounds, there was a lighter surface remaining. The Steel core rounds are pretty impressive. I took a couple of Pics but with my camera all you can see is a ridge with some rocks on it.
Luckily for me, the scope mount is proprietary to the Rifle. Both my dad and cousin really liked the set up of the scope with its built in Range finder. Its a bit busy when you first look through it, but once you get the hang of it, becomes quite intuitive. It is calibrated in Meters but that turns into a simple conversion in your head. Bullet drop is already calculated in for a 150gr bullet so dialing in is fast. If it were mounted with Rings, They would have done everything they could to talk me out of it.

All in all, was a good Christmas this year. No major drama, other than the .GOV being what it is. Got to get some quality time with my dad whom I don't see nearly often enough. Managed to completely hurt myself on some damned fine Hill Folk Cooking(more than enough to feed a platoon for three days, and it kept coming) including some homegrown Ham, not that stuff you get in the store. Can't wait to get back there again.(hopefully to stay soon)

Mery Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

Good woods time was had and I have a better mental shape to start heading into the New Year with.

I hope all had good times with their families, Ate way too much food and regretted it, and Shared at least good Solid Hugs with those you love.

Quick note then headed to the woods for Christmas

The rat bastards passed that POS bill at 7:13 AM with a vote of 60-39. ON CHRISTMAS EVE WHILE THE MAJORITY OF THE U.S. WAS ASLEEP!

Nothing more to report till I get back from my dads house. I need woods time.

Let the Adventure begin.

Started working on 'Renovating' the Van today. Prepping walls and ceiling for Insulation. I don't want any rust starting up on the inside of the walls after I put this insulation in so I am cleaning up any Scratches and stuff and painting with rust-o-leum. With the weather being so cold I am going to give that a day or two to cure, then start on the insulation. I am going to be using that board style polyurethane stuff with a Silvered backing on it.
I found a pretty good site for "vandwellers" and it has a 'store' that has better prices than I am finding elsewhere. Still I do shop around as I have to stretch every dime as far as possible. My key areas that I am working on are basics like cooking and power for comfort/communications. The cooking I have a solution for that is fairly inexpensive and functional. Heating will be either propane or something similar. With the size of the van and good insulation it shouldn't take too much to keep comfortable. I am worried about ventilation but that 'store' has a solution there too. I only have to make some cuts for it that are going to have to be sealed up but that's what this project is about. My comfort for the road, and not doing it twice.

I won't be doing the solar thing just yet(unless I hit the lottery or some other wild miracle LOL) but I will be making 'reserve power' in the shape of Two Optima blue tops tagged into the vehicle electrics separated by a disconnect so I am not draining the Vans battery while idle. There will also be an "Edison" hookup for a charger that I am adding inline when House current will be available to me. (note: I always crack up when I here house current referred to as Edison current. He wanted to make things all DC and it was Tesla that made AC what it is today. Still, trends continue, most times without reason.)

One aspect that I am trying to maintain is 'stealth'. I want to keep that Contractor/Cargo van look as much as possible. I figure that I will be bothered less if I look like a work truck. I am even thinking about bolting a ladder to the rack for 'camouflage'. Granted I am setting up the rear under the bunk with Tool storage and the battery compartment, so its not a stretch to call it a work truck. I am going to have to consider how to store firearms though. I don't want them to be obvious, but I don't want to leave them behind either. I am down to three at this time. I have been pairing down on everything and that leaves me with my SKS, the PSL and one handgun. Obviously the Handgun will be more accessible than the rifles on a daily basis. Still, how to hide them in the open so to speak.

OK, its late, I am tired, and I am rambling. Will post more later and have pictures to boot. Probably after Christmas. So till then, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with those you care the most about. If you have lost someone in your life, think of them in fondness and warmth and know they would do the same for you. God bless.

The Wisdom of My Ancestors.

H/T to Theo for this one.

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

It's the Bill of Rights day.

218 years ago, the Bill of Rights was ratified.
Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority has a few things to say on the subject. I agree with many of his points and disagree on some. I won't go into them today since there are other things that are taking up my time.


To those that have been following me, My Brother in Law passed away today at 10AM. This is after a year and half battle with a very aggressive form of Bone cancer. It's not like the ending wasn't expected but the loss is very real. I will be posting more here in the near future, as I have personally told some of you out there. now that his passing will free up some of my time.

I am starting the renovation of a Cargo Van into a mini-RV and I will record that process as best as possible for any that are interested in it. That will begin next week or the week there after.
Till then, I hope that all have a wonderful holiday, and that your world is full of joy for the next few weeks.

apologies on the lack of posts.

I am still on Death watch with my Sister at Hospice. Things aren't improving, then again, that's why we are at Hospice, not a regular hospital.

Between that, the Holiday season, taking care of pets in various parts of the city(we live about 12 miles apart) and trying to keep the other machinery of our lives working, I have been a rather busy boy.

Sadly the last of this years gun shows are this weekend and next. I don't see me making it to either one of them. C'est la Vie. Maybe I will be able to make the first couple of next year. That may be when the deals are out instead of just before Christmas. All I really need is ammo(can never have too much in my opinion) though I have a hankering to get a newer 1911. Of all the pistols I have owned or shot, I keep coming back to that brilliant piece of engineering. All of the bells and whistles that the others have and yet Browning got it right 100 years ago. I would be curious to see what that man could have came up with if he had access to all of the newer composite materials that we have now.
Probably a 1911.
Like me though, I want nothing fancy. Parkerized finish, standard parts, no flashy grips. I may go with ambidextrous safety but that is more for ease of use on my weak side than anything else.

Now thats funny.

H/T to Theo

Couldn't resist it.

Back up and running

Being a bit of a computer geek helps loads when it comes to issues of the 'puter type. I am still on the borrowed laptop but have it indefinitely so went ahead and used it to dig all of my information out of the old hard drive. For those that have the will power to learn a little about white-rooming information THIS is an indespensible tool to have in your arsenal. I have used it to recover information from a laptop that had burned up before. I was able to recover about 75% of the information from that hard drive. That was an interesting recovery as I had to pack that Drive in dryice to keep it cool enough to not lock up while pulling off the data to a seperate external drive.

I was able to recover all of the information from my harddrive since it was not the problem with my last laptop. Seems that I am not the only one having 'puter issues either. Mike V seems to have had a major failure too. Granted the way they are making computers today they are nearly disposable pieces of gear. Unfortunately the information we pass around on them isn't so disposable. Hopefully he faithfully backed up his stuff elsewhere. I really want to finish reading his E-novel Absolved. Hermit seems to have had an issue lately too though not directly on his unit, but in the cloud by big brother.

I always work offline when setting up a post on the blog. I don't know what others are doing but that seems to work for me. I also have several thumbdrives that I use while I am working (each dependent upon what I am working on) that I continously back up to. I also have a 500GB external harddrive that is my backup of key information. Key in this case is all of my music and video's, family pictures and personal documentation that I can't lose (taxes etc)

Sadly the technology is also my Achilles heel. I can go for some time without Net access without panic, but it is rather short since nearly all of my banking and bill paying is done via the net. I really need to finish paying off some of these bills so that I can cut some more ties that anchor me down: not just in place but in life. I remember a time when I didn't realize that the net was so expansive. When I actually did things in the real world. LOL The worst part of it is, I can't remember what some of those things were. At least I haven't become so technology dependent that I don't pick up a REAL book occasionally and read by turning pages instead of the scroll bar.

Well, once I am back up to speed on things and have a more 'friendly' setup in this PC, I will post more, but Nothing about Tiger Woods, I haven't a care in the world about the mess that boy put his cock into. His business, not mine.

Never Forget.

And I did. No Excuses even on a death watch in Hospice. There are probably some of those old soldiers there too.

'Puter issues. slow posting

Sorry for the lack of posts.
Woke up Tuesday morning to a dead laptop. Power supply was fine as was the battery but the motherboard crapped out, no blinky lights, no flashing cursor, nada, zip, finato! Been working with a borrowed laptop and had to dig into the old harddrive to find some of the more recent passwords and whatnot to get back to my favorite sites. I have backups but only on files like pictures, music, etc; nothing like documents for me. That will soon change.

I will be back posting here on a regular basis here shortly.

Job: A Comedy of Justice

A comedy of Justice or just some higher power showing a sense of humor?(and that was the premise of the book)

I find it funny that my ex handed me that particular book when we first met as my 'introduction' to Heinlein. I became a voracious fan of him quite quickly even though this was one of my least favorite books by him.

Maybe that's because it hits too close to home in some ways. I am not whining here, but there comes a point where one only wants peace of mind. You can only handle disaster after disaster for so long before your soul starts to show scar tissue.

I guess thats why I want to build my house away from all of the drama of life and people and settle in. Nothing big, simple things to maintain, a small garden capable of supporting one or two people with enough livestock to accomplish the same. A small workshop for my creative side and somewhere to go shooting to keep my hand in the art of the gun.(never know when some others may want to take your peace away)

I won't go into details but I have found that alone, I have comfort. When I start interacting with others on a daily basis is when things start to get uncomfortable. Maybe I am the loner that I was labeled as in School. I know that I tend to work best when left to my own efforts. I can work as a team member but I have always been more effective solo than in a team effort. Granted there are times where everyone needs to interact as a group and I am capable of that; I just prefer to not have to deal with Politics and diplomacy in that situation.

My Ex gave me my wings by forcing my hand last year. I haven't used them yet and for that I am at fault. Its time to fly again.

More forthcoming as I figure out how to stretch these damned wings out and try to get some wind under them.

Addendum: I don't remember who this quote is from yet it sums up the above quite well.

The more I learn about people the more I like my dog.