Linotype: the Museum

This is what I might want to be. A docent at a printing museum.

Linotype: The Movie

There are apparently contemporaries that share my madness and a modern movie/documentary is coming out.

Here is the trailer.



See? We delve into this hobby and you can go MAD!

Linotype

If you think typewriting is anachronistic, what happens if I go all Linotype on you?



Yup, I've even investigated this. I have no place to put it, but a machine may run me $5,000. And it's no good without a building in the back yard ($50,000) and a press ($5,000) plus the accoutrement (another $5,000) and that doesn't even account for the fact I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM DOING!

If you watch that whole documentary you might notice that it parallels the book Linotype Instruction Book. All that is done with a motor and a resistance element to melt the lead/tin/antimony.

Why, T-Bolt, why, WHY?!! Well, my father's mother's father was a linotype machinist... That's a big reason.

I wasn't much into printing or typography or fonts or what have you, when younger. It's a sin I've adopted late in life...

Typewriter

I've mentioned how I've been bitten by the typewriter bug.  Oh, it's worse than that.  But here is a WWII film (gun content!) from the Navy Dept. (beat Army) that actually mentions and show my Remington.




Like I said, it get's worse from here...

Going all Covert and Junk

I'll be out of pocket for a good while.  Romero training.  You know how it is.

I have queued up some posts about stuff that interests me.  Mostly Youtube videos.

There is precious little gun content.  Just eclectic ephemera that interests me.  Regular blogging will resume when I return.  Thank you for your patience.

Montgy Wards

Goes Royal typewriter, in 1961.

I love Lileks' stuff.

Zombie Products

There are some new zombie products out there for you to buy with no kick back to me whatsoever (dammit!)

Some zombie rifle cases.

And a popcorn bowl that MBtGE desperately needs

Trifecta

A Metrocon Trifecta at Uncle's.

Kristol, O'Reilly, and Savage.  YOU need to be limited in your liberty, apparently, because guns are only for hunting or something.  According to those guys.  Those guys are not on my side 100%.

New Remington

No, a typewriter.  And not so new.  It's from the 30's.

I have a thing about tools I use, be they woodworking, guns, or typewriters, or what have you.  They should be younger than my grandfather (1906) but older than my father (1938).

Yeah, the bug has bit.  A SECOND manual typewriter.  This one a Remington Noiseless portable with Deco design.

It comes with a case.  Portables are often pristine because they are packed away for 60 years INSIDE the case.  As long as they are out of the basement flood...

I like Remington only because my grandfathers desktop typewriter was their model 17.  Oh, and it was Remington RAND and that's like the greatest Objectivist author of the 20th Century.  Oh and I find the idea of the Noiseless mechanism cool.

Oh, plus 'Gun'.  Remington.  Duh.  I'll probably typecast at some point.

I need to build a Unabomber style shack in my backyard now to write my manifesto.

Auroroa shooting victim

Here is one of the luckier Colorado Massacre victims.  She fled immediately, still got shot, but was treated and released.

She posted a picture of her wounds.  Go look and read.

The narrative is the shooter set off his smoke/gas canisters, then opened up with a shotgun, transitioning to his other weapons after.

Looks to me that he shot the young lady with birdshot.  What say you?

If so, this could have been much worse.  Would she be even talking to us in her post if she had been hit by just two 00 buckshot?  Less likely, I think. 

Worse?  That ass could have eschewed firearms and use gasoline fire bombs in a crowded theater.

Four

Four of my favorite gunblogs are actually co-located.

[ok, ok, one of them is old tech and less old guns, but still...]

I have other blogs I like, but they are often separated by miles and not under one roof.

Oooo, Pulpy

I love pulp stuff.

Big Nose Serrano!

The Ocean!

Wade Hammond!   (not the musician)

Only Ones

The disease is more prevalent, but they are all under one rubric.

A sentence I saw in this article and it's a quote from Clayton Cramer:

"Many people support gun control regulations because they are convinced that the average citizen is either incapable of using a gun in self-defense or will use the gun in a fit of anger over some petty matter. Those assumptions are false."

This applies to the usual suspects.  Brady types,  Bloomberg, Journos.  But also a lot of cops (especially high ranking ones), Fudds (what do you need a Glock for?) like the late Bill Ruger, and even our friends.  Case in point is what Caleb noticed about Travis Haley.  Does that sound like "if you don't have crapload volume of training X, then you should really lock all your guns in the safe and not carry"?  An odd position to take for someone ostensibly on our side, and Caleb calls him on it.  Correctly, I think.

Not that I'm knocking training and practice (both are different).  More of each is probably better.  I am thinking that maybe all those attitudes, above, are anathema.  All of those attitudes smacks a bit of Only Ones disease.

Paw Paw

Paw Paw was a Republican, born on July 13th.  Friday the 13th.  Obama's (D) gaffe requiring him to throw himself under the bus would have been a good birthday present.

MARYLAND SHALL ISSUE

Sebastian is right. 

We shall see what shennanigans the State comes up with next.  But I may have something to do in September, now. 

LIKE GET A MD CCW PERMIT!

Drought

The Dust Bowl of the 30's.

The Great Drought of the 50's.

Today's troubles.

What do they all have in common?

Yes.  Keynesian economics causes droughts!  You hear it hear first, folks.  Stupid Eisenhower.  Such a RINO...

WEAPONS OF WAR!

From Senator Feinstein:

"weapons of war don’t belong on the streets. We’ve got to sit down and really come to grips with what is sold to the average citizen in America. I have no problem with people being licensed and buying a firearm. But these are weapons that you are only going to be using to kill people in close combat"

It's ok Di-Fi, ma'am.  These aren't weapons of war.  They are just regular ol' civilian weapons.  In fact, a Cop (another civilian's and average citizen) has a much more war-like weapon in the form of his Patrol Rifle in the trunk of his squard car.  We just have regular 'ol rifles.  Less fancy.  So no need for PSH (Pantsuit-Soiling Hysterics)

Yeah, that WOULD make me buy...

... More tinfoil...

Aurora shooter.  What if.  What if his AR was an F&F walking gun. I'd spontaneously hear Twilight Zone music.  Even coincidentally.

And that might hurt Obama politically...

Naw, couldn't be.

I like Eggs

From my head down to my legs
Scrambles or fried
With my family or the guys
I like eggs

I thought all this "Organic Brown Eggs TASTES Better" was bushwa.  But you know... this last half dozen.

So is that how it is?

Cokie Roberts, on NPR, is appalled that you can buy 1000 rounds of ammo online and get it delivered.

Of course.  It's much cheaper than going to Wal Mart.  And you can get what you WANT that way, instead of what is there.

Look to this...  Gun Control types trying to shut down online ammo sales.  Or at LEAST add reporting requirements.  That'll call that 'reasonable.'  I call it none of their damn business.

-------

Also, this:

“You know, should we reinstate the assault weapons ban? I think we should, and I think that’s where it starts. We ought to be taking a look at how this guy was able to accumulate so much ammunition. He had enough ammunition for, like, a small army. I mean, this is — there’s something wrong about that,” Perlmutter said.

History

SEAL Sniper and the .223

The latest American Rifleman had a story about SEAL Sniper  Chris Kyle, who has a book out.

In the story he has a detail that would make Jeff Cooper smile down from gunnie heaven. 

"Several times he shot insurgents at close range with 5.56mm rounds and they did not halt. causing him to question the cartridge's effectiveness."

A HA!  Poodle Shooter round!  Well, with the .30 carbine round, the lack of effect was blamed on the Chinese heavy winter clothing. Or bad marksmanship.  Which I can understand.  But niether would apply to a SEAL sniper in Fallujah Iraq.  So what gives this time.  Because it's not like a 5.56 doesn't hurt a lot.


"The ineffectiveness may have been caused by drugs."  Oh.  Well.  Heroine junkies.  Based on needle tracks and spoons and black tar heroine found around town. 

So, his favorite round must have been the 7.62, right?  Hey!  That's mine too!  What?  Oh.  Yeah.  He likes .300 Win Mag, and .338 Lapua.   

What round for rampaging former Minnesota Governor?

This is why

This is why I prefer a 1911.  Captain Miller carried one.  And there is a half way decent chance he used it to explode a Tiger tank.

Sure, a P-51 flew over at the same time.  But I'm thinking there is a 50/50 chance the 230 grain projectile went down the barrel of the 88 mm tank main gun and caused the HE round in battery to explode prematurely.

I wonder how many other tanks have been taken down with pistol/rifle fire?

Revolver Vs Shotty

Saw this on Hell In A Handbasket.  About a poor Pizza Delivery man... with a CCW.

I guess that should be plural Shotty.  Two.  And the guys with the shotguns had the drop on the Pizza Delivery Driver.  Driver won, somehow.

He delivered hot lead instead of hot pizza that day.  With extra cheese.

What I found most interesting is that one of the perps was wounded in 3 separate places and is transported to the hospital when found a short distance from the scene.  Perp #2 two was at large but texted his family reporting 2 wounds.  Cops reported Driver fired 5 to 6 rounds (that could have been better checked, obviously, but a more diligent reporter...). 

So he might have gotten 5 hits.  With a revolver.  Good shooting!   Most of these kind of things you hear about a whole bunch of round fired and a lot of missing.

Those 5 hits ended the fight.  Also a good result, especially where, on paper, the driver had the odds stacked against him.  Clearly he had a will to not go easy.

No one got immediately dead.    Which is interesting, certainly.  Obviously we are all thinking .38, and probably not something like .357 magnum.

Posit

We are all familiar with post Apocalyptic headgear.   After a nuclear war from when the oil runs out and Anthropogenic Greenhouse Warmening make the earthquakes come and destroy civilization as we know it; all the most stylish neo-barbarians will have a colander on their head.

It is my theory that these metal pasta strainers are not, repeat not, helmets, to protect the wearer in battle.

My theory is they are actually to protect the wearer from the sun.  Go out in Indiana this week.  It will be like that in February, or I don't know my 80s movies. A colander is lightweight even in stainless steel, reflects the harsh sunlight, is mostly opaque to shade the head, but there are air holes for circulation.  Regular boonie hats like I prefer will rot away in the first couple decades.

And the strongest collander still makes for poor protection against a cudgel of any kind.  Much less a baseball bat studded with nails.

Discussion?

Farmer Frank

Now that Indiana, this season, is all dried hard pan, like kiln-fired porcelain...  I guess Farmer Frank picked the right Autumn to decide to not put a crop in his land his own self...

Good luck to your compadres out there, Farmer Frank.  This has got to be hell.

Zimmerman

Zimmerman is talking to Hannity again.

Didn't doing that LAST just end up awful for him?  Does Zimmerman want to lose his case?  I hope that's his lawyer with him this time, but even then, how wise is this.  I am dubious.  Not because I want to see justice for Zimmerman, and I think he is being railroaded and at most is guilty of unsound (but in no way criminal) judgement, but if he loses his case, the RKBA loses a little something.  And I don't want that, for that is all of us.

I hope it is a productive interview and not a narcissistic one.

Energy

Some Pinko Neckbeard College Professor, 40 years from now...  I predict this theory will become all the rage in the Ivory Tower...  will posit that the US only got strong during the early-middle part of the 20th C, and again in the mid 21st, because we were blessed with an abundance of natural resources, particularly fossil fuels.  And that the only time our power ebbed was in the later part of the 20th Century when we became a net importer of oil.

This theory will infer that mere chance presented us with out wealth, that any other factor is not just inconsequential but infinitesimal, and that thusly, it is unearned and we should redistribute our power and wealth further as if we hadn't already been doing that for decades. 

This selfsame professor will overly credit any Mid-East power during the US's so called ebb.

I don't think the Socialism impulse will ever die, no matter how many stakes we drive through its heart.

5 Year Anniversary

I started this thing 5 years ago today.  About the same time as JayG, and Breda.  I've had over 480,000 hits.  Was so hoping to hit a half mil before today, but... 

I bought my car from Car Max.  It had that new car smell.  So they musta sprayed that in the vents.  Cuz it wasn't authentic new car smell.  120,000 miles and 6 years later I can sometimes smell it again. Or still.

This blog doesn't have that new car smell.  I'm not changing the name to Jovian Thunderbolt until I am an expert at something shooty, tho.

.

Book Review 2

Fascinating book, the Man Eaters of Kumaon. 

I was already aware of Jim Corbett's theory about man-eating cats.  That the big predators normally eschew human prey unless injury or illness impacts their effectiveness at acquiring their normal quarry and take to the easier to catch human meat.  But in this book he reinforces that with examples.  That's fascinating of course, but more so is the hints of the extent of Corbett's woodcraft.

It's hard to convey competence afield through the written word.  Even in person little important habits and cues would be missed.  More so in that you can really only be stealthy alone.  So even a witness, there with him at the time, wouldn't get the full effect.

Time and again the hunter is stopped by instinct.  Like he could FEEL the Tiger's eyes on him without ever seeing of hearing it.  And this gut instinct, this 6th sense, kept him alive.  There are many quite close calls.  Tigers that eat people are very dangerous.  The whole book reminds me of the velociraptor scenes in the Jurassic Park movies, with the big game hunters.  Except these are actual creatures, rather than CGI, and creatures that had killed hundreds in just as gruesome a manner as in the movies, and thus were much more frightening.

One section that particularly conveys well is a section where he's tracking a cat on game trails.  Of course footprints or 'pug marks' are something I, and you, grok.  Tigers also sharpen their claws like a housecat.  I'd expect a 15 foot tall outsized upholstered sofa would last barely a week in the jungles of India.  Of course, there is no furniture there back then, but tigers made do with tree branches, logs and the like.  From the signs of such activity, Jim Corbette could tell:

1. whether the cat was male of female
2. the direction of travel
3. how long since the scratches were made
4. the direction and distance to its 'Headquarters'
5. the nature of its kills
6. whether the animal had eaten human flesh

I don't doubt his claims, but I only half know how he might gather such information and have an inkling on maybe one or two other details.  For instance, direction of travel, #2.  Corbett would know the wind direction and prevailing winds and where the sun was rising and setting.  From this he'd have a general idea on possible directions from knowledge of tiger habit.  A tiger uses its nose, too, to hunt and wind direction is important.  And a tiger knows the prey can smell, so it has another reason to travel with the breeze in its face.  One or two pug marks would also, naturally, give direction of travel.  Number 2 is relatively easy.  Number 4 you'd need long experience with tiger habits.  But #6?  I have no idea. 

Pinko

The most offensive thing the man has said:

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.  There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen."

 Worse than the Carter malaise speech.  In a just world he'd step aside, even now.  Just disgusting.

Gunsmith a 10/22 trigger

Every time I do a new gunsmithing project there is that point in the assembly/disassembly process where I panic.  I'm NEVER going to get all these parts back together in the right order with the springs in the right place to have a functioning firearm EVER again.  Not without four extra hands.

Does that happen to you?

Anyway, lots of people recommended the inexpensive Volquartsen trigger kit to improve the performance of my Ruger 10/22 rifle. 

You want this, page 39, to have any hope of following the instructions that comes with the kit.

Here's something....  My rifle didn't come with hammer bushings and washers(shims) from the factory.  They were built into the factory hammer.  So I didn't use the washers in the kit. 

So, what do you get with the kit?  Some new springs.  Instructions that recommend smoothing the ball end of the factory hammer strut.  And most importantly, a new hammer.  What's the point of that?  Well the bottom radius of the hammer is the the sear.  This is the vital bit, as if that is smooth and shaped right your tirgger will feel crisp.

 So, now that I've done this once I could do it again much faster.  Which is also a typical experience for me and gunsmithing.   So-called gunsmithing.  It's more gunspartsing.

Anyway, function test has be excited to try the new lighter crisper trigger at the range...

It comes in lefty

I like the looks of this rifle from Remington.

The stock, I mean.  Probably the vent holes. Years ago, when I first laid eyes on such, the guy as Bass Pro told me it came in .308 and left handed but I didn't believe him as I didn't see it on the Remington website.

Well it's there now.

Gonna have to update the list. 

.308 Winchester
8.5 pounds
 Barrel Length 26"
OAL 46 1/2"
1:12 twist
model # 84229

Self Portrait

Here is me, typing at my Remington Rand.  I know many of you have wondered what I look like, so... wonder no more.

I need a haircut.  It's getting long.  I look like a hippy.

Remember when I told you how Breda shot me in the throat with Jay's snubbie?  Well, now you know why I was unscathed.

Tam

Apparently their is some meeting about Tam.  Anyone goin' to it?  Cuz I just heard about it.

Free Typewriter

From here.

Coyote

Saw my first coyote in the wild.  Never, to my knowledge, laid eyes on one anywhere else, actually.

It was during my morning commute, on the on-ramp to the DC beltway from Connecticut Avenue.  Practically in the shadow of the Mormon Temple.

It was in the open area between the road and the brush and seemed to be eating grass or something. Maybe a dead critter that I couldn't see.  Lots of groundhogs and deer in that vicinity as it is connected to Rock Creek Park.  That park ambles about a goodsome distance for miles and miles.  Bears have been sighted in that park IN DC.   (The Park proper is on the District of Columbia, though the creek outside the city limits is parkified and patrolled by the Park Police.  It ambles north through Maryland quite a ways, up through Rockville and touching Gaithersburg.)

When I first laid eyes on it I thought it was a HUGE brown fox with no bushy tail.  Then the brain clicked a bit.  Coyote.

Maryland Power/Poiticians

When a storm comes you normally get a break on your bill when the power goes out on you, right?  They aren't delivering you power, so why would you have to pay for it?

Not in Maryland.  My power company, Pepco, gets to slap a surcharge on us.  Pepco supplies DC.  They don't get to put a surcharge on customers there.

So Pepco gets paid whether you get juice or not.  Sort of a perverse incentive, no, when the power comes down?  Why pay lineman overtime to restore service?  Overtime is EXPENSIVE!  Just, when you get around to it. 

I wish I got paid the same if I worked or just stayed home doing my own thing, too.

Food Stamps

JayG's favorite guvnah vetoed a bill that would have banned the use of food stamps to purchase tattoos and pr0n.  Well, "tattoos, guns, porn, body piercings, jewelry, fines, and bail"

It seems like his state and mine are racing each other to the bottom, for latest big government outrage outside of greater NYC and Cali.  Tax revenues are down in my state by $1.7 Billion only because the wealthy are voting for new tax measures targeting them with their feet.

Then there is Scranton PA that did the whole "I'm paying everyone that draws a paycheck from the city minimum wage" scheme, without legal authority.  Exciting times!


But back to food stamps.  I can't be too bent out of shape out of the misuse of gummint cheez.  I took a tax rebate check Nancy Pelosi sent out in 2008 and squandered it.  Not on pr0n or tattoos, but on a Marlin 1894C.  I'm sure former speaker Pelosi, and Bawlmer native, would be ever so pleased if she knew that.  Hey, at least my gummint money was put into the system initially by me.  Or will be by my great great grandkids... or...  Aw, YOU know what I mean.

Of course I am a beltway bandit contractor type.  Maybe I am just a parasite.  All but 7 or 8 years of my working life or so has been.  Only in that brief time, making less than $140k total, was I not drawing, ultimately, from the taxpayer.

Aw, now I'm bummed.  I didn't even get shot at like my brother has.

Man Eaters of Kumaon

I'm reading Jim Corbett's book.  Man Eaters of Kumaon.  He did great service on the sub continent tracking down man-eating tiger's and leapords.

I'm not done, but I wanted to note this detail.

In quite a few of his tales he runs out of ammuntion.  He goes hunting mountain goat for a hetman for meat, and only brings a single clip of 5 for his .275.  He goes hunting great cats with his .400/.450 and has 2 in the gun and one extra for 'emergencies'.  Then he ends up missing once, or a bear shows up or, surprise surprise, the tough majestic animal that he has described as essentially being a bullet sponge takes a few not-well-placed rounds and still has some fight left...  Imagine that...

Here's a thought wily and respected old timer... be a little more wily and pack a spare clip or 3 extra 'emergency' rounds for that double rifle.  Especially since it appears India was crawling with game the first half of the 20th C.

Yeah...

Like many bloggers, I want more details on this story.

I mean...? 

A lady hugs a cop.  Somehow his sidearm goes off, somehow, killing her.  Did it jump out of the holster?  Was it holstered, even, at the time?  How was the trigger pulled in a fumbly hug?  It's just too fishy, and I call journolistic shennanigans.  I can't get my head around it, as is.

Only real clue so far... Officer was off duty.  He may have been unwisely Mexican Carrying his Glock.  Glock stuck in the wasteband is trouble incarnate, yes.  But the story makes it sorta sound like it was a shoulder holster, but definitely holstered, and she grabbed him from behind.  That puts us back to 'how did holstered weapon get its trigger pulled.'

I need to know that to avoid it myself.

[hey, after I composed all that, the Metrocons debated it.  Maybe Jonah will learn sumthin. I like "Huey 07/09/12 19:44"'s theory the most. But I still want better journalism and fact reporting.]

{update number 2! The video report says it was a S&W M&P .40, holstered on the officer's waist. In a 'neoprene' holster. Ok, I still don't see it, and I am leery of rubber holsters.  Tho the holster they demonstrate looks like stiff nylon, not thunderwear, sorta like an Uncle Mike's clone.  Now it sounds like the gun worked it's way loose and it was fumbled.  Who says "never catch a dropped gun"?}

$15?!

That's outrageous!  I won't PAY it.

I got nothing so I scanned a Sears catalog from 1908.  $15 for a pocket hammerless.  Sheesh.  And $.90 per magazine...

I was LOOKING for old typewriters.  Hmph.

Bank Precautions

"Banks are now advising parents to think carefully before naming their child’s first pet. For security reasons, the chosen name should have at least eight characters, a capital letter and a digit."

Your computer security tip for the day.  

Act Of Valor

I watched Act Of Valor on DVD.

The core poem:

--Tecumseh

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion;respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

Every tragic hero has to fall on the grenade...

Man, proper use of machine guns is devastating.  Jeff Cooper is wrong.  And army of sharpshooters may do better against an army of MGs, but they won't win.

PT

How many of us exert ourselves and then try to shoot?

We'd need our own range.  Maybe some privacy.  The strict bench rules of a crowded public range might not be the best place for such experiments.

I was thinking, a buncha pushups, pullups, and sprint a couple hundred yards.  Then immediately, while you are still huffing and puffing, heart pounding, sweat in the eyes, pick up a rifle and from the standing position try to get meaningful hits 100 yards away.

A Marine buddy suggested this after I told him about the seasickness test I saw on Firearm Blog.

He shared it is nigh impossible to get an aimed shot off while wearing MOPP gear.  That's the anti-chemical suit.  At a minimum the lens fogs up.  Cheek weld is problematic.

Sheesh

Sounds like a bait-n-switch theur, RobertaX.  I hope the Lupine didn't Shanhai folks with such misleading promotions.

BLM and Fires

If you listent to the Bureau of Land Management, every single western forest fire has been because of gunnies (hey a new angle for gun bans!)  There has been discussion on whether is was pistol or rifles, tracers or steel core bullets.

Looks like ONE case was due to some idiots shooting off Dragons' Breath incendiary shotgun rounds into the brush.

Metrocon Reportage

Of Fast and Furious.

Looks like ATF was padding the data.  To inflate the number of guns traced.  And thus attempt to make the Mexican Canard appear true.  Maybe.

It's like you can't trust the gov't anymore or sumthin.

And another.  Lamenting ignernt reporters.

Love Liberty?

TERRIST!

According to the Dept of Homeland Security, you are.

"A new study funded by the Department of Homeland Security characterizes Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority,” and “reverent of individual liberty” as “extreme right-wing” terrorists."

That's not the definition of a terrist.  That's the definition of an AMERICAN.  Didn't the DHS watch any of those movies played on the TeeVee yesterday.  Like 1776?

This is why they invented Fence Rails, Tar, and Feathers, in combination.  More delicious that PB&J.  Like Torches and Pitchforks.  Roll back and disband every new Federal Agency that came into being in the last 50 years.  TSA, DHS, DOE, DOE, HHS...

Seems too new

To me. I'll take a wait and see attitude on this device, stick to my reliable manual. Another 'land hurricane' might come and steal my power, again.

Modified Lotus for Sale

Done up to look like the Bond car.

Money quote: 

"Okay, so it's a little hinkey, it's also $8,500, which is usually a price point for Esprits when they're on fire. "

Did I mention?

When the storm hit and knocked out power to the region, I took Archie up to his daughter in WVa.  She had power, and AC, and I was happy to do it.  Archie could sweat in the engine room of a Victory ship in 1944 at age 18, but he did his part then, and at age 85 he doesn't need the aggravation of a sweltering home.

Montgomery County Maryland, under Pepco, has at LEAST one major week long outage yearly.  You can find more reliable electricity in Sierra Leone or Belize.

But on out way North out of the area on Interstate 270 we had to pull over.  Lights and sirens behind us.  Presidential motorcade heading out of DC.  Park police car followed by a plethora of black vans with tinted glass and black Chevy Suburbans.  Hd to pull over in stop and go traffic and get the hell out of THEIR way.  Heading up to Thurmont and Camp David, certainly.  Almost certainly the President took Marine 1, and that was staff that passe me, but still...  President needed a vacation.

What did THAT guy do?  Did he sweat it out in the Pacific beating back the Japanese hearing mines bump up against the hull and PRAYING they didn't explode?  Don't they have generators at the White House?  You HAVE to flee the city in its hour of need?  Pitiful.  Think of us poor benighted peasants!

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day!


I hope the power holds out...

Zombie Summer

Ya know... when the Zombies come... If i have to go through a summer without power for AC....

Mag Sale

Cheaper than Dirt had a sale on MagPul PMAGs, last week.  Neato!  What a bargain! 

It's not like they go bad, right?  A lower and a half dozen magazines for the totality of my AR inventory.  Not even a single round of 5.56.

Oh wait!  This is Maryland.  Those hold more than 20 rounds don't they?  Yeah, they can't sell and ship to my address.  Well that's inconvenient.

Et Tu Reagan

Always thought President Reagan would sport American iron when riding around an velociraptor.

RPG? And who's Personal Defense Weapon is that? HKs? A German gun? A Russian rocket? Gah!

Like Reagan needs more than a steely eyed stare. But he'd be a Colt man, I'm guessing. SAA. M1911A1. That sort. LAWS or old skool Bazooka.

This is just not that realistic for me.

I dunno...

...Yeah.  I'd watch this show.  Over and over.  And buy the stuff in the commercials.  Superelasticbubbleplastic!

Archie

I'm at work right now, and Archie is with his daughter, but I can still find out if there is power at my house.

Archie is old school and doesn't cotton to new texhnology much.  He's got a hifi that doesn't do that fancified 45RPM stuff.   So, his answering machine is practically a reel to reel tape recorder.  Well, that answering machine doesn't work when the power is off.  So if you call it will just ring and ring. 


I just called.  ~Ring~  ~Ring~  ~Ring~  ~Ring~  ~Ring~  [old guy voice] "you have reached 301..."

Woot!  I hope it holds out til I get home.

Hmmm

Only $2500.  I wonder how much to install...

still dark

And hot.  I'm in the Torrid Zone.  Can't sleep.  Sticky.  Tired.  Hallucinating.

I aintent ded

But I am without power to fuel my desktop.  Posting will be sparse.

Incredible storm.  Night was lit up like day with constant cloud lightning.  The tree killing winds were reminiscent of the hurricane 10 years ago that came through.  It was raining Cats, Dogs, and Sticks to beat them to death with.

I took Archie up to his daughter's house in WVa. Her power was not impacted.  I took his pills and he packed skivvies and a shirt.  I also too every cooler I owned to bring back ice.

Pepco actually turned my power back on for 30 seconds last night.  Not even enough time to get to and turn off the TV.