Copycat

Another shooting.  Dude in Trenton NJ went postal with, reportedly, an AK!  But AK's are verboten in Jersey.  3 dead including the shooter.

These outrages grow tiresome.  People!  Stop murdering people!

Where to spend my money...

Remember all those big plans I had for my surplus cash, post re-fi?  I had all sorts of ideas.  New roof!  Writer's Shed!  A natural gas generator!  Then some pistols!  But first, I was gonna have a driveway put in.  That was definite.

I figured, based on the work a buddy was having done on his and how much he was paying for 3 cars worth, that my out of pocket was going to be around $5,000.  If it was $7,500 I'd bite the bullet and just go for it.  Then save up more for the next thing on the punch list, always having a significant amount for the next car I'll eventually need to buy.

Well, I got the estimate from the guy.

$22,800.  "But it will look SUPER-nice" 

IT BETTER!

If you don't count the new car I bought 11 years ago (never again), I haven't paid $22.8k total for all the cars I've ever owned in my LIFE. 

[Update...  The contractor may have been thinking on shoehorning into a tiny spot the driveway for 2 vehicles.  I only want one.  So less retaining walls and whatnot.]

Uh oh

And I was doing so well.  I've gone bingo on blog fodder.

Plenty of current events, but they've been done over in other blogs.  Usually better than I can do.

Hmmm.  MBtGE and I were scouting, AND gathering a passel of bloodsucking parasites for later enjoyment, this past weekend with an eye to maybe doing primitive weapon hunting.  I'd have to borrow his blackpoweder muzzleloader, and he would use his crossbow.  We have new alternative stand locations, too.   One is closer to the house (facing away, tho) so the house smells would mask the hunter smells.  And the deer don't seem afraid at all to approach the house.

The muzzleloader has an EOTech scope on it.  So even I can use it. I know stuff zeroed by MBtGE shoot to zero for me, too, so no worries there. 

At the time of this writing, I am half an hour out of a HOT shower and the bites don't bother me at all.  I'd be comfy at work if only they'd let me take a hot shower ever 2 hours.

Silent!

When we were done scouting deer, MBtGE took out his Glock 21 with a suppressor attached and he fired off a couple rounds.  We didn't have hearing protection.  That was the point.  To see what it sounded like without.

It wasn't quiet.  Not at all.  It was quite loud.  It would wake everyone in a sleeping house.  It wasn't loud enough to hurt your ears, but much louder and it would be.  I was surprised. 

With hearing protection on at the range, it sounds as quiet as the suppressed .22.  Not so in person.

How big would the can have to be to make it as quiet as the suppressed .22 for that .45ACP?  How much can was the DeLisle?

Game Camera

I got a game camera to play with.  It was on sale and what the heck.

In my yard.  I want to catch the neighbor throwing crap into my yard.  And maybe see the rats.  I got rats.  Well, my neighbor does.  Too much garbage.  But they traipse into my yard, too.  We used to have feral cats in the neighborhood.  I wish we still did.

I think I'm gonna die

I look like I have chicken pox.  But it's chiggers from the deer scouting!

Ahh!  Hundred of them!  I think I'm gonna die!  THIS is why I like to wait til the first frost.

Protip:  A hot shower... HOT as you can stand it... is Glory, in this condition.

5000 Clams

For a Lefty.  $5250, to be exact.  On page 22 of the latest American Rifleman.  A Left Handed 1911.  Everything is reversed.  The casings eject to the left, the mag release is on the right, etc.  From Cabot Gun Company.

I want to get a custom 1911 some day, but this may be a bit much moneys, even when I have lots. 

Plus, there are lots of things on the standard 1911 I like as a lefty.  I use my social finger to release the magazine, and that seems to work better than folks that have to use a thumb.  About the only thing I don't like is the fact I need an ambidestrous thumb safety.

Still, it's a very nice gun.  The grips are beautiful, too.  For use, I prefer VZGrips, so those nice burls would be wasted on me.

 

So, maybe a custom Commander one day.  Not today.

Vermont Country Store

Cool 'old people' products.  Been seeing it everywhere, lately.  It's like a 1980s Lillian Vernon catalog without the marital aids.

Serendipity because someone mentioned the founder and I found the store last week and I went down that wiki hole. Uncanny.

I think they are using mind control on me.  And I need to buy some bedroom slippers now.  It's like They Live without the special dark glasses around her.

You know what I don't own?  A whistling tea kettle.  Done.

Where did they get the idea...

To do Fast and Furious?  Well the same sorta scheme worked against the Black Panthers in the 60s and got more gun control out in California.  Then the pretense was for the Cold War and against subversives.  Now it is for the War on Drugs and against illegal immigrants.

I composed the above after hearing it on NPR and then saw everyone beat me to the punch.

Gotta Have that Funk

Sponge

Spongebob Zed

Movie: The Dead

Zombie movie.  In Africa.  The Dead.

A stranded American military flight engineer is stuck on the dark continent during a Level 4 outbreak and his evac means fails.  So he is trying to get to someplace with a modicum of safety.  He ends up with an African soldier who is looking for his son.  Together they set out for military base in a rickety vehicle. 

The zombies are EVERYWHERE.  They are pretty slow at least.  Between them they have 2 pistols, an AK, a machete and not enough of anything else.  Gas, food, water, ammo.

The West African countryside is practically a character in itself.  It seems like a blasted scrubby heath, hot and uninviting.  Yet it has a beauty to it.  If I were to find myself in such an environment that unfamiliar land would be daunting.  Familiar Mid-Atlantic forests and rivers is one thing to be stuck with, but to be there, with all the unfamiliarity, plus the equatorial heat...  It gives me shivers. 

All the time they are walking in that landscape I am reminded of various safari videos I have watched.  It would be ironic to be escaping zombie jaws only to be eaten by a lion.

The gun handling is actually pretty decent.  The movie isn't listed in the imfdb, so I can't ID the pistols.  Here is pic of the more serious pistol:

The other is a smaller one, .380 or 9mm.  Looks kinda Warsaw Pactish.  I was thinking Hi-Power for the pistol in the pic, but that trigger guard is the wrong shape and throws me off.  Maybe a SIG 220?  But that stuff forward of the dustcover doesn't feel right.

Reasons People Love Zombie Flicks

Reasons People Love Zombie Flicks

The bullet list in the article:

1. You can plausibly be the hero
2. You can have that cool stuff you’ve always wanted
3. The playing field has been completely leveled
4. You can get the girl (no word on if you can get the boy, too, if that is where your preference runs)
5. It makes life simpler
6. There are no more rules

Unlisted reasons why you should love zombie flicks

• It's good simulation training.  (Should I go down to the basement?  No.  Should I get a well stocked defensible bunker?  Yes.  You see the pitfalls of what doing something stupid entails) 
• It inures you to the horror that is definitely coming (see:  Friendships Final Duty)
• You won't waste time on center mass shots on Zed, now, will you?  Again: the Learning Curve is flattened because of cinema

Remember:  You never select a shotgun as your primary anti-zombie firearm. It's great for onesy twosey, but zombies travel in hordes. The reload time is onerous, and the ammo, while effective, is heavy and bulky and short ranged.

Wood Stove

The PERFECT woodstove form my 10x14 'writer's' shed.  My 'outbuilding'.  My Brick Shed-House.

The Sardine.

The laptop of cookstoves.

They make a 2 burner sized one called the Little Cod..

Homeowner Expenditures

So, I re-fied, my house, and I got some decent money saved up that is liquid, I am spending 200 less a month on the mortgage, and am financially stable right now...  What to spend my extra money on?

I want off street parking.  A driveway would be a luxury AND add to the value of my home.  An expenditure, not an expense.  Maybe even an investment.

So might a shed in the backyard.   Ya know...  I always wanted a room out there. An outbuilding I could go to.  Like an office.  Or a workshop.  Or a writer's shed.  My grandfather had an office...

 
Like Roald Dahl had.  Or Mark Twain.

Been thinking on this since before my vacation and did the rough draft for this post back in July.  I am not the only one thinking on these lines, serendipitously.  At least I came upon it independently. Hey, all the cool kids are lusting after small outbuildings, now.

I could put in a mini woodstove for heat.  More.

And electrify it so it could have fans and lights and maybe a window shaker AC.  Maybe a fridge and a small microwave.  With that set up and a cot, I could live in something that looks like a garden shed.  Handy in emergencies like after fires or major renovations.

I want it to be built like a 'brick shed house,' like this writer's shed.  But this, is nice too; or these and these.



Another thing to spend money on?  A new roof.  Even considering a metal roof.  More practical than a writer's shed...

Same with replacement windows.  These, on my house now are all failing.  But THIS line item might be the most expensive of the group.

New doors.  Strong doors.

A natural gas generator is $5000 installed.  As soon as I get one we won't have a power outage for 12 years.

What?  No gun?  No new gun is burning a hole in my pocket.  Custom 1911?  Meh.  That's an idea.  Spares.  A 640 #2, a Commander #2.  A bolt action .45 with a can like MBtGE is thinking.  The single stack XD.  Must update the ol' Master List.

The other thing?  I have enough saved up now to replace my car with the same, but newer, model, and pay cash.  Lotta power in that freedom.  Of course if I blow that money on sheds and a roofs...  I'll have tapped too much of it.  But right now the pile is growing.  And $200 extra, per.

Art

Check out the art at Illustrations on Demand.

Sample:

Keep Calm

Carry on.

To carry on the Brit theme.

Plus a London Olympics tie in.

Sean of the Dead redux?

Cockney v. Zed. Brown Bread in the East End.

Format

On Borepatch's hint, I changes the column width a bit.  Much wider and it was less readable.  This is the closest compromise I liked.  Didja notice?  It was trial and error with the template HTML changinging pixels in the body width.

Now pics can be a little more legible.

Gunsmithing

Actual quote from the Contrarian, a work buddy that's been shooting all his life:

"My 10/22 is jamming a lot.  Like every other shot.  The rounds are pretty scraped up but will go through a second time if I put them back in the mag.  I want to grind down the feed ramp to fix that, but need to know a good gunsmith you might recommend.  Otherwise... I am pretty handy with a Dremel."

His first thought was to gallop right to the receiver-destroying grinding tool...

I told him not to use a Dremel.  Use a full on Angle Grinder!  And use that to chop up the cheap 50 round drum mag you are feeding your .22 into.

"How did you know I was using a cheap 50 round after market magazine?"

Oh, I knew.  This is not my first rodeo with 10/22 mags.  Luckily, MBtGE made all the mistakes in that department for me and I learned from his experience.  That said, the new 25-shot Ruger factory mags have worked pretty nicely for me. Him too.

Brain Pickings

Dot org

Poems

OMG, Arsenal!

A work buddy's Father In Law died.  He is now in charge of dispersing the dangerous firearms.  Mother In Law reports to him that "It must be hundreds!  He was a nut case!  It's a danged arsenal!"  Everyone in the family knew it was that bad.  Arm a small Central American country bad.  So, to me, GOOD!

My work buddy knows nothing about firearms and asked my advice.  I told him to send pics of what must be a warehouse full of guns.  Don't point the dangerous ends at anything.  Don't get your fingers or what not near triggers.  And then you'll be as safe as houses.

So what was the haul?  Dozens of BARs and Barret .50's?

Nope.  A lever gun, a couple deer guns, a shot gun, a .22, a revolver, a Lugar, and a Glock.  Ammo.  A compound bow.  The Father In Law was a hunter, it seems.  Even my work buddy is wondering about the fuss other fambly members made over it.  But he's been exposed to me and knows not to get excited over sub-JayG numbers of boomsticks.

I'm sure you've noticed the same phenomena.  For those unfamiliar with firearms what to us gunnies looks like a very few or a good start looks like holy Hell to the unintiated or to hoplophobes.  This is a thing we can calmly change.  You don't have to make a shooting enthusiast out of a hoplophobe to make them think that kind of gunsafe is no big deal.  I mean, they have an over, a toaster, a microwave, a gas grill, and a George Forman.  All those different ways to burn up a piece of beef...  Works the same with guns.  Different guns for different things.

Here's the thing...

I can buy an AR lower without issue (the only part the gov't cares about).  I'm a good boy, and I pass the NICS check.  I can also now make one, buy an 80% kit or with a 3D printer.  Eventually, the price will be the same either way, and I'll just go with whichever is most convenient for me.  This is not a problem, the constabulary isn't really worried about me as they have many more bigger fish to fry and fret over.

But, with the 3D printers, nefarious types that are prohibitted persons will one day easily be able to do the same and not even have to be that clever to accomplish it.  The technology will be as if someone waved a magic wand and turned everyone into a master gunsmith.  A world of nothing but gunsmiths.

When that happens, we are back to 1969.  NICS checks will be nullified and bypassed.  It is up to the individual not to break the law, not the government to watch over him and approve or disapprove all prior-constraint like.  Which, I think is a good thing, but that the freedom loving libertarian in me.

But man, Hoplophobes aren't gonna like that at all when they grasp the ramifications.  They can't put the genie back in the bottle.  What WILL they try to go after instead to short circuit things?  Case primers are hard to make on your own.  Maybe they will regulate anything that has or is a primer.

Slip Slidin Away

These would give me nightmare, seeing 2 zombies eating my feet...

Is anyone else?

As bad a typist as me?

I mean is their any hope?  Will some say, "oh yeah, Faulkner was a hunt and peck 15 wpm with an error every other word... his poor editor..."

In my wildest fantasies, I am not Faulkner.  I am not Tam or Marko or Farmer Frank. THEY are my fantasy.  SOME coin coming in from scribblings, but still a day job.  And I think that bar is set too high for me.  SHEER fantasy.

I wish blogger did images as such that this was legible without embiggenation.

Bukowski, btw

Let Your Fingers

Some people get peeved when a new phone book get's dropped on their door stoop.  They HAVE the internet, what do they need THAT for?  It's just inconvenient litter to them.

Not me.  Keep em coming!  When the zombocalypse comes, and the supply chain breaks down, and their Charmin is all squeezed out, THEY will have to let their fingers do the walking.  I, on the other hand, have a Sears catalog style facsimile, for wipeys after my morning constitutional.  Better than corn cobs.

I like to tape the weather channel

So that I can watch it later.

Why does the National Weather Service need ammo?

What NWS person is armed with a .40?

Typewriter 2

Lemme typecast a new addition.

click embiggens



Here is the WWII instructional film.  I posted it the other week, too. You see my OTHER typewriter in it at times.  The Remington Rand Model 17.  This one is a Remington Rand Noiseless Portable.  With SLEEK Art Deco styling.  Handier AND prettier.  And ten years older than my Grandfathers Desktop war model.

Aw jeez, this is almost verbatim what my previous post of 3 weeks ago.  Got sort of jumbled up I guess in the set up for my 2 weeks out of pocket.  

I have to add a bleg for  this...   Does anyone have a source for correction paper/film?  Ko-Rec-Type invented it I believe but doesn't seem to make it anymore.  Unless... Wait, this might be it.  I'll just have to buy some on spec to know.

You know, typewriters used to be ordinary.  Pedestrian.  Ubiquitous.  Now they are a throwback and people use them for the joy of using them.  The novelty AND nostalgia.

Hey that explains a lot about me.

Old tools like a Stanley plane or a Disston saw on workshop bench... no rechargeable drills or tablesaws.

Steam and hit and miss 2-stroke engines.

Linotype.

Browning designed firearms.

Fountain pens.

Pulp fiction now in the public domain.

Blacksmithing.

All appeal to me, and I am drawn to them.  If even to dabble with them, in my mind, from afar. I may never touch a working linotype, or see a working steam train again, or another flying B-17.  But I want to.

Maybe I wasn't born too late.  Maybe I'd whistfully look to the past no matter what era I found myself.



 -----------

Hey, that typewriter sure beats buying $15,000 worth of linotype machine I have no place for, huh?  Hope that itch stays scratched.


------------

Now I want a Writer's Shed.

Most popular

The most popular Gun Blogs?

I dunno...

Don't get me wrong, there is some good stuff on that list.  But no Uncle, or Tam, or Snowflakes...

Jointer

But this is the sort of tool I have now. And love. Look at the size of this benchplane, the #8



The biggest plane Stanley made. You do that to make an board edge absolutely flat. Or as flat as wood can be. What he is doing is flattening the sole of the thing. The flatter the better. Though the old stuff came from the factory pretty flat. Stuff made 30 years ago? Well, lets say to cut costs the quality went down. On some stuff you can SEE that the cast iron is warped a bit.

In my opinion, the plane you get from the 'Sweetheart' era of Stanley tools were the best. That was between the wars. The makers knew what they were doing, and all the features that were going to be invented were invented. If you can see 2 or three patent dates in front of the rear grip on the cast iron, that plane is a Sweetheart (Name after William H. Hart)

Back

Was in Uganda.  The usual.

More my speed

This. Probably more my speed vis tilling the soil. Especially cabinetmaking or pattern making. I was always more of one for the Mechanical Arts. Or something bookish.



Or I could weld:



Or be a machinist like my great grandfather:



Perhaps I was born 60-75 years too late.

Even older...

And this one is more for Farmer Frank's father.



Frank said farm animals were mean sumbitzes and you had to have a will of iron, like his dad, to bend them to your bidding. I am SO glad I am not of that generation that had to work the land 100+ years ago. Hard HARD work. We are so lucky, living today.

But. Look at all the modern conveniences available for agricultural professionals in the 1930s! In the 1920s, farming was hard back-breaking work. In the 30s it must have been as easy as falling off a log.

What?

One for Farmer Frank

When he was a lad, it might have looked like this. More corn though. He's in Indiana. More corn land than wheat, I think.




[sorry for all these videos. I know some of you are bored to tears with this stuff, but it fascinates me. And I am still out of pocket and can't concentrate on the blog. Thanks for checking. More guns stuff in a week, I am sure.]

Wow!

Look at the size of this 4 cylinder hit and miss engine. Musical, too:



They used tiny versions of this for crab boats on the bay. I have no idea what application this one would be applied to.

MD CCW

Hey did Gansler, MD's AG manage to block the CCW thing?  Or can I go get my application ready?  Put it in comments...

Alright Already!

Enough of the old Word Processors. What else you got?

Well, I like old tools. I have a few woodworking tools. A hand cranks drill press. That sort of thing. But I also like old STEAM things. Like a steam shovel! Straight out of Warner Brothers cartoons:

AUTOMATION

Of Printing

Letterpress

Now you could set up your own custom print shop, doing letter press job. There is some demand for such boutique printing like this nice lady does.



and



I did that sort of monotony with a bottling line way back. It is GAWDAWFUL boring to do that. Automation! That's what I want if I have to make a print run of 100 custom public domain books. I'll get Breda to do the end papers, because those have to be pretty.

But more automation, yes:

Linotype as a Vocation

Well, not THESE days. But I love these old career films.



You know I may have posted this and one or two more this time last year...

Linotype who?

Who is John Galt? No matter...

Who is Keyser Soze? Pfff. Does anyone care?

Who is Etaoin Shrdlu?!!

Now THAT is the question...

Linotype at work

Here is how it would look in a professional space.

I worked a Hospital as a janitor for years when I was younger. The hospital had a printshop in the basement. Might as well relegate the ink stained wretches to the basement. It was all photostat stuff, no linotypes, but this video had the flavor of the printshop at my hospital I would walk past many times a day...

Linotype: the Museum 2

I could do this! I could absorb an interest like this without even thinking and end up with a museum in my house. And I don't have the excuse of being an old school newspaper man!