Got it scheduled. 24 December. ACDF. Fix my neck.
I have to isolate 7 days before hand (Covid precaution), and then home for 2 weeks after.
Found out a guy at work had the exact same thing done. He said he woke with a catheter and a collar and yet felt GREAT. Said it was the best moment of his life.
"You have a wife you've been married to for 25 years and 3 kids, man"
"I said it was the best moment of my life!"
That's encouraging.
Now I want to go back. Try again. At least get my trigger pull more polished up.
Only one or two time I liked my trigger pull. Disappoint. But there is a cure for that. Take 4 full mags and go next week. It'll come back, and it's a shame I let it go this far downhill.
14 rounds of American Eagle, no malfs, 1259 total through the gun since built.
"There is no constitutional right to walk around without a mask." -- Gov. Larry Hogan. Maryland.
Whoa, there, cowboy. Let's break this down.
"There is no constituional right to walk around wearing a red shirt"
"There is no constituional right to walk around."
Naw. There sure is a right to do that. Mask mandates, if they actually work, might be for folks' own good, but they are also a rights violation. Your statement is illuminating on what you are like, deep down. Your default reflex is dark and wrong.
Larry is ok. For Maryland. I am glad for a GOP governor to tamp down the awful Dem impulses a different governorn would bring. That doesn't mean he doesn't show his ass and disqualify himself for higher office.
I guess he'd be good in the Senate. Better than what we have. A tyrant like Larry is better than the worse tyrants we already have.
Like Susan Collins. Horrible GOP Senator. But a choice of Collins or Elizabeth Warren? Collins every time.
Forget the WH, Larry. The country can do, and needs do, much better.
You don't want him. Don't vote for him. Marco Rubio would be better, and he is... not good.
Soon they’ll say this if you decline the vaccine, too.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) November 23, 2020
Keeps getting worser and worser.
Pete Davidson to lead all-star version of 'It's a Wonderful Life' https://t.co/ccMQiWdBdT pic.twitter.com/YzyRZ6fwZC
— New York Post (@nypost) November 24, 2020
What if, I could invent a bullet, and it'd be the same size as the 7.62x51 we use now, but instead of effective range of 800 yards, it would have an effective range of two miles, for the average skilled user?
That would be a game changer as soon as we were able to see that far.
But that's the game changer of the Minie Ball, which came out just before the Civil War. An order of magnitude better than the standard spherical ball.
I first learned about these in Civil War History, in college, of course, and it's stayed with me ever since. Able to be loosely packed in a rifled barrel, the looseness defeated fouling from residue. But it could still be muzzle loaded as quickly as a non-rifled musket patch/ball. The cupped base made the round expand on firing pressures, to engage the lands and grooves and thus spin from the rifling. Hence the performance jump for standard issue small arm. Not small, Minie is a French guy's name. The French were great military technologists with poor timing. They never seemed to get their advances in and deployed late enough to be of use to only them, and not improved upon by the Germans. Not after 1815.
And JFK is still dead. 57y +2d.
Of course his party is closer to Lee Harvey than to him, now.
But at least the clan is losing its luster. The name doesn't guarantee a win in Boston anymore. That Howdy Doordy is the son of Joe Kennedy II. He is not the one that paralyzed the late Pam Kelley. 2 did that.
Hard to follow them without a program. Lessee. The Original Joe Kennedy, bootlegger, child lobotomist, and Nazi pal, had a son, Joe Jr. Junior blowed up in a flying bomb in WWII.
Joe Senior had another son named Bobby, who had a son he named Joe 2. No direct relation to Joe Jr. Not a father-son thing, I mean. His grandad was Joe Sr. He dead. Joe 2. And, well, so are all the other people mentioned so far.
Joe 'Doody' 3 is HIS kid. Number 2 named his boy Joe 3. Joe 3 is not going to be Senator this cycle. And is unemployed here in a month or two.
Oddly #3 has a son named Jim. Maybe that is why he lost to Ed Markey. Broke the chain of Joe's. That's bad juju. JoeJoe. Or in your case, bad JoeJoeJoe.
Went to the range. Didn't stay long. My neck issues make my hold extra weak and the nerves tingly. I don't like this one bit.
Also, only had 14 rounds with. Forgot to reload mags, so...
Fixing this issue cannot come soon enough.
Because of the back pain I’ve been sleeping poorly, but it’s much better since Wednesday. Still, I’ve gotten 10+ hours Friday and Saturday night but have been dead on my feet anyway all weekend. I hope this isn’t a trend.
I doubt it’s mono. I don’t KISS anyone.
This is what I want done to me.
Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (gross surgery stuff. don't click if that squicks you out.)
Fuse some neck vertebra and stop disks from pressing against my spinal cord above and below C6.
The neurosurgeon has shown me with simple strength tests, "Hey that left tricep and right bicep aren't getting full enervated. You probably can't do a pushup anymore."
Boy howdy.
The muscle is brawny enough, but the nerve signal to it is inadequate.
You've heard me whinge about not having the stamina to do a class with a 500 round count? 50 is more my speed? It's because of this.
10 years ago I tried to get up into my attic. Stand on the top of the ladder and hop up into the hatch while doing a tricep dip. Whoa! Lucky to stick the landing and not kick the ladder out from beneath me. I remember Dad, in similar shape, having no issue with such shenanigans at this age. Now I know. It's because of this.
Steroid have done wonders for my lumbar area, but the imagery there is normalish. The neck is awful.
"Who is gonna wipe your butt, T-Bolt, while convalescing? Better hurry up and get married."
Actually, the procedure is less than 2 hours, out patient, and I can do everything on my own immediately. Including watch movies and surf the web. And wipe.
"That's all you do at work, so you will just go to work T-Bolt?"
Naw. You have to commute to the office. That's the issue. Neck movements driving, or, heaven forbid, in an accident. Two weeks off.
But I should be much better after.
No big gun show today in Chantilly Virginia. The leftist AG got it throttled down to 250 attendees, effectively choking it to death.
Excuse: Covid.
You don't need guns right now, sez he.
If the Covid vaccine comes out next week and works great, I wonder what excuse he will try to use next time becuase you don't need guns right now?
My state and county are much more liberal than Virginia was or is, and we used to have a decent gun show at the fair grounds here. But guns are icky so they got that cancelled 30 years ago. Just not welcome anymore by the powers that be, so... their will prevailed.
How long before we have to go to West Virginia to attend a decent gun show?
Spine and Pain.
Got shots in my lower back. Steroid. Seems to help quite a bit. I walk like a normal man my age, and not an 85 year old. We'll see how this progresses. A bit less neuropathy would be welcomed.
Scheduling nexk surgery. Trying to get in before the Covid hammer falls. It's outpatient, so that helps. Screwing plates to my neck, with 12 screws and scraping about... And I walk out 2 hours later. Impressive.
It's been a long time, so I better hit the range. Might be a long time again, after.
You have to get through a Babbel ad.
But it explains more, in cartoon form, than many know about the Moros. Plus liberal use of the term 'stopping power'
I was interested in the new Call of Duty title. It appeals to me because it is set in 1981, and I am old. Plus, it has the Gipper in it.
So I watched some gameplay. A point against it. Reflex sights and laser sight on the rifles. Booooo! They didn't have the good stuff in '81.
"But the Terminator had a .45 long slide with laser sighting, T-Bolt!"
Yeah, and Arnold had a car batter strapped to his ankle to power it in those scenes.
"So whatcha whining about?"
It really took my head out of the story, ya know.
I understand why they are in there. For the multiplayer games you gotta have that stuff. Kids today hate iron sights, even in their pixel guns, apparently. So I'll have to suspend disbelief, and rock a .45 with a red dot on it. And a Tritium front sight.
Just over-pedantic gunnie whinge .
Also. Part of the story line is concern over Neutron Bombs. That was a thing. Yes, Neutron Bombs were in the popular culture by 1981, I remember that. "Kills all the people but doesn't hurt the infrastructure!" That was a thing. A concern. Check out the movie Repo Man. But Time magazine was talking about em long before the movie.
Plate of shrimp.
I am kinda surprised gun control support ONLY plummeterd seven points in 2020. What with actual Marxists hurting actual innocent, bystanding, ordinary citizens right there in front of you on the view screen.
And that support is still above 50%. About 10% of the voting public bought a gun this year alone. Accounting for some of you people buying more than one.
They were low on Paper Towels, and TP was trending down, yesterday.
Everything else seemed plentiful.
I used to find Spatini there, and don't now, tho.
Top of the charts again., for Covid surge.
I wonder what the grocery stores look like? I won't run low on terlet paper this time, and I have flour and yeast now, and I didn't even touch my emergency supplies. Gonna swing through one today, see if there is a run on the stock.
My biggest worry? I'll get surgery scheduled and they will kibosh it.
"Why is your area always highest hit. T-Bolt?"
Well, decently high population density. Plus a HUGE retirement community in the north end of the zip code, also quite dense.
I wonder if they will send all the govies home again?
In the nineties, a friend of mine tried to help gentrify Riverdale Maryland. Even helped them change the name. Riverdale Park.
It didn't take.
Body found inside Riverdale Park clothes donation bin.
Oh dear.
The Glorious ACB is gonna see her first 2A SCOTUS case. Well, two, actually.
Alito talked about Covid, so the news covered that. Cam noticed a brighter prize in that speech, like a Faberge Easter Egg. Justice Alito seems as frustrated with recalcitrance as we are, and telegraphing he hints the distinct future possibility of finally approving cert on various 2A cases.
And finally, a baby case. One that just started. Well, another swing at it. A case to make Maryland a Shall Issue state instead of may issue is just booting up.
"I live in Wyoming T-Bolt, why should I give a rat's ass what happens in Maryland? Don't hurt me none."
No, but it protects you. It moves the 2A firewall in a Leftist enclave in the correct direction, so when Bloomberg is inthe legislative driver's seat, he has another obstacle to spend resources on defeating before he gets to Wyoming.
What REASON do you have for wanting a CCW in MD?
Because I wanna.
Here you go.
Gonna try some SAIDs instead of just NSAIDs. Including injections next week. For the back pain.
I hear tow things about these. They work great. Or. They work horrible.
Tonite, MRI. For the neck. Again.
DoD is thinking about getting new machine guns.
Replace the M240B (.308 in Olde Timey units) with something that shoots .338 Norma Magnum. And almost double the effective range.
"Also get rid of the M2 Browning heavy."
Why?
"Because it is old!"
And?
What's gonna stay in the inventory longer? B52 Stratofortresses, or the Ma Deuce?
The 'replace the M2' is kinda click baitey, but it got me to click. The article only brushes up against the concept. It's more concentrating on the 240 Bravo.
But they are getting into that logistics control issue. You got 5.56, 7.62, .338, and .50, all on belts for a time. Hard to keep track of. Makes what you pack in the M3 for resupply kinda tricky.
Co-worker brought up, "I heard that Dragon Skin armor went bankrupt? That was cool looking! Like scale mail armor. I wonder why it didn't do well? And what happened to Interceptor?"
I dunno, buddy. Not up on body armor. Let me look and get a crappy amateur uninformed opinions for ya.
Second queation first. Intercreptor went away when they made something better? I have to admit, Interceptor is a good name. Good marketing.
Dragon Skin didn't get the big contract because the little disk fell off on hot days.
There, now I feel dumber.
I totally forgot about the blog post for today. Sorry. Bit distracted, as I've already whinged. Next appointment Thursday morning.
Here is good news. For the longest time even HOLDING my knees, below the patella with any pressure would cause SEARING pain. Kneeling was way out. My knees are quite a bit better. I could crawl on a mattress right now, without too much issue. Little victories.
I am really digging on Tam's fall offerings reviewing S&W auto-loaders this fall. A whole plethora.
"Do you even know what 'plethora' means, T-Bolt?"
Yes! Why you gotta be like this? Could it be because you are turning 40 today?
Anyway. I missed out on 3rd Generation Smiths, not yet being interested in firearms like that. And I missed the police department turn-ins of used S&W metal auto-loaders. Still not in the game. Plus Maryland. So I know very little about these, and appreciate the learning I get.
Now Tam is a big time super-rich gun writer, (all pro gun-writers, I don't have to tell you, light their Cuban cigars with $100 bills) but stuff for publication has to be cool and antique-ey for, say, the back page of American Rifleman, or it has to be something in production, and can be purchased at Bass Pro by the reading public. We get these free reviews, I'd wager, because a) it is cool, and b) not something that can be monetized. So, win for us.
Had I got into guns as soon and legally able back in 1990, I'm looking at Miami Vice and Lethal Weapon examples. It was much harder back then to learn gun stuff, without the internet. You had to try to learn. Instead of simply letting all the information blast you in the face via internet firehose. And I didn't know how to get started and no one was around to guide me. Eventually I would have figured it out, with persistence. And I'd have one of these in my gunsafe. At least one. From back then. But I also might have fallen for the Sigma. And I was pretty poor in the 90s.
"We won't pay for another MRI until you do 6 weeks of physical therapy Mr. Bolt."
I just did that.
"Six more weeks."
You just sent me a letter saying you won't pay for the 7 week of the original physical therapy. That you have paid enough for physical therapy.
"Yeah? And?"
It costs me $30 copay without your help paying. Thirty bucks, times 6 weeks, time twice a week is $360. I bet if I have to pay it all myself it will me more than $30 more per visit...
"Oh yes, lots more."
If I went to get the neck surgery without the new, clear, MRI imagery to guid the surgeon, you'd pay for all of that?
"Yes. Yes, definitely."
How much does the MRI cost?
"$500"
OK! Get the f--- out of my way. I got a credit card in here somewhere.
I expected an earth-shattering kaboom.
Trump's victory looks probable, but not definite. Biden had to come from behind in a lots places. Trump just needs one and then one more, of places he is leading. That's why I say probable Trump. Well, if you discount some of the cheating Shenanigans, at least. It's all Biden if you go ahead and count them. But... question mark.
Senate won't flip.
House get's tighter.
Not but onesy twosy State races flipped, but they flipped red.
More of a national stand pat. Even if Biden wins, stand pat.
I expected more violence. From the left, of course. Convulsions inside Dem stronghold. The right in this country only get's violent in self-defense, these days. There are exeptions, but that's the rule.
Less violence from the Democrats is good, but I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. Not up in the air state controlled by Dems wants to be the one that confirms Trump's re-election, so... foot dragging. A day? A week? Three hours before I schedule this post making this all OBE? Dunno.
We really did need a red wave, and we didn't get it. Something to repudiate the deadly, flawed. new-commie ideas. To make the Dems semi-sane again. To shift Overton back to the center. So disaster is only staved off for another cycle, instead of for a generation.
Republicans added 11 new female members to the House of Representatives last night.
— Dan Isett (@DanIsett) November 4, 2020
I feel like this should be, ya know, newsworthy.
What will be your Purge costume?
— Chris Loesch (@ChrisLoesch) November 3, 2020
Did the riots start yet? Yesterday I filled my tank, looked at the poll lines, and got some groceries.
You know the 20 years before the Russian Revolution there were tens of thousands of assassinations of Russian officials, both big and small. I guess we should be glad the Marxists in BLM and Antifa haven't taken to that. Imagine some Republican city councilman in small town Ohio goes out to his car with his family and KABOOM! As well as the occasional Secretary of State or what have you.
Yeah, them Commies have always been awful sonsabitzes, even before 1917. Much tamer now. But rich mega donors weren't propping them up back then. Oh sure there was some support from the wealthier folks, just not oligarchical. I like to picture the looks on their faces when they turned on and fed into the revolutionary furnace.
We haven't had the interest in assassinations in this country ever since the Baby Boomers got too old to be arsed. Well, the 1960s were a bit of a bummer in this department. I can see folks getting sick of it. On this we can be thankful. Don't rekindle the hobby. Leftists.
There was NO line at my regular polling place. There never is, usually, but they closed all the polling places for Covid except High Schools. Liberals aren't voting very hard. Meanwhile, in the hinterlands where the churches and gun stores and non-governmental economic activities are... long lines. Others noticed this as well, but after me.
Remember, after you vote, to pick out your costume. I'm gonna honor the late Sean Connery with something like this.
I got lots of notices from my county that there were no lines at the early voting centers. "No waiting!"
Montgomery county is liberal. Very. And we have 900,000+ people here in this adjacent to DC county. 11 early voting centers.
Friend in more rural counties report long lines and wait times of 90 minutes. Counties like Calvert and Carrol. Slightly more conservative. 170,000 peeps served by 2 early voting centers.
So, same number of facilities per capital. Totally different voter enthusiasm.
Interesting.
I don't think Maryland is going Trump. But things might be closer than 2 to 1.
Naw, it won't be THAT easy!
Supposed to get an MRI scan this afternoon. My insurance is balking because this is the second time in 2 weeks. Why would I need more? Bastards. You paid car prices for a go-kart, insurance. And I need the car.
I am at my wits end and am willing to pay for the re-shoot myself. $400 - $3,500. My guess is it is $1,500. Just 20 minutes and no weird things added like IV contrast.
Where we know the FBI knew ahead of time and failed to act.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Boston Marathon
Nidal Hassan, Ft Hood
Carlos Bledsoe, Arkansas
Dylan Roof, Charleston, South Carolina
Omar Mateen, Orlanda
Those are just the famous ones we know about. "Hey FBI, I know this guy and I think he's a gonna go on a spree." "Thanks for the tip! We'll flub or ignore it like the others."
To cover their tracks they make flashy arrests for crimes they arranged, "Hello, fellow kids! Anyone want to do some terror crimes? I got a lead on some 'C4' explosives and here is the instructions. Just say the word. What are you, chicken?" And an otherwise harmless crank or a mentally stunted person gets on the news with a perp walk.
I think if the FBI paid even a little bit of a price for a failure like these, I'd fall out of my chair, break my coccyx. Just a smidgen of integrity. A scintilla of accountability. But the FBI never has. A semi-crappy arm of the DOJ, damned with faint praise by being marginally better than the ATF, the FBI specializes in high standard of dress codes, and having really good PR. The true legacy of Hoover, that marketing ability. And they've been skating on an unearned rep for a long time.
