Kwajalein

Whoa.  This is amazing.  Wire recording of the Battle of Kwajalein.  The sound guy is from DC, and the commenter is from New Castle, PA.  Near where I live and where I vacation.  The accent of the commenter and his slang is interesting.  Not quite modern Pittsburg or Cleveland.  Know what else is interesting?  All the bullet snaps from incoming fire.  They are at the wrong end of a rifle range.  Novel journalism for 1944.  Maybe one day they'll bring sound and MOVIE cameras onto the front lines. 

My crotchety old neighbor's boat, the USS Rockwall visited the atoll during the war.  He wanted to know whey there was a forest of trees under the salt water.  It wasn't trees.  It was the mast of sunk Japanese ships.

It's a Wonderful Life

Some YouTube movie reaction videos I enjoy watching.  Like young people watching It's a Wonderful Life for the first time.  I just find it enjoyable, like introducing someone myself to that movie for the first time.  In a way I get to experience this great flick for the first time but through their eyes.  In a way.  You know what I mean?

Anyway.  I like it.

I always get choked at the beginning for Mr. Gower's prayer.  Well, the second time I watched the movie, and knew what was coming.  The T-Bolts come from a Druggist background from that time.  My great great grandfather was an alpine dairyman, then a New York cheesemaker, his sons were druggists, and my grandfather was Kresge's man  

But no one born in the 90s ever know what a 'run on the bank' means. Even after Covid grocery/terlet-paper shopping in April 2020.  That scene is confusing to them.

Why do I know what a bank run is?  I've known since high school at least.  History class?  I'm sure.  I didn't hear about from Grandparents.  There hasn't been a real 'run' in my lifetime.  Not really since FDR, has there?  And the invnetion of FDIC insurance, I suppose.  

"To my big brother, George!  The richest man in town!"

These Canadians are adorable:

Hahvahd Hog

Why did Harvard let this dullard in?  

Does seem to cover the Admission department in glory, eh?

He's strident, but not bright.  Harvard will certainly let the pedigreed in, even if dim, but his liberal parents are more second tier.  I guess the media exposure bumped him up a notch into the rarified air or Cambridge, MA. 

I mean, they let this sickly dullard in, 80 some years ago (yes, i am of the opinion he had help with books and grades).  His father was actually Irish.  Irish-Irish.  But... you can get your pedigree by fine breeding.  Who your people are.  Nowadays by a fortunate and woke media exposure (Kyle Rittenhouse was never going to be offered Ivy League spots, plenty of media, but the wrong side of the politics).  Or, now and back then, wave around enough greenbacks the right way...  Plus a legacy?  Yeah Joe Sr. went to Harvard.

Oh, and they let in a few brainiacs.  Keep up appearances that way

The Song of my People

 "Which do you prefer, T-Bolt:  A day at the range where every thing works out, or a day at the gunsmithing bench where everything works out?"

You know, that is a hard one.  You can HAVE more days at the range, because how often do you need to rebuild your pistol?  And fixing something that broke, well, that means the range day before was less than stellar, so you have that bad taste in your mouth.

A really good day at the bench is awesome!  But few and far between.  

I miss them both, and hope to one day get my stamina and feeling back to at least dabble at it.

Old Henry

In my advanced age, one foot in the grave, older than Trajan's sandals, unfit for infantry service what with the eyes, the feet, the strength failing... anyway!  As an older coot, I enjoy westerns more than when I was a kid. 

Very decently done film, the setting doesn't range far from what is supposed to be 1906 Oklahoma, and probably is (Oklahoma, I mean, it is still 2021, not 1906...).  But the entire movie might be contained to that one piece of property and even that could be only 100 acres.  What I am saying is they told a good story and didn't have to spend a lotta money to do it.  

It stars Tim Blake Nelson (Buster Scruggs, in a previous cowboy role) and he also produced the thing.  Character of Henry McCarty.   He's a widower farmer, stern, with a teenaged son and some trouble comes to his homestead that he then has to deal with.  Henry's never taught the boy how to shoot.  Doesn't want him even touching a trigger.  Only keeps out a ratty old double barrel shotgun his own self.  But...

Lots of gun play, and a big twist or two.  

WAY ahead of you kids

I hope your content doesn't suck.  Write good stories. 

 

Millennials just invented the radio drama https://t.co/X6ohCxTBCm

— 🎅🏻jimtreacher.substack.com🎄 (@jtLOL) December 26, 2021

 

I don't NEED another shoulder holster...

But this WWII style(ish) shoulder/chest holster really tickles my fancy.  

Yeah, let's go with 'ish'.  But the modern version has features to help recommend it.  It's a shoulder holster, watch when you draw for muzzle sweep.

Definitely Open Carry unless it is parka season.  Decent hunting rig in case you have a twitcher.  (But how often do folks have to do a finishing shot when you find your only winged deer in real life?)

It's called 'Alaskan' and I can see wanting a rifle and something handy and BIG is the rifle fails and you have a big Ursus problem contending.   

Sol Invictus

Gambling was encouraged instead of frowned upon.

Masters pretended to be slaves and slaves bossed around the masters.  For a week!

Drunken Caroling was done at night.  Usually in the nude.

I am glad you co-opted this popular midwinter celebration, and pointed it toward the Son instead of the Sun, Constantine.  Good job.  But I am super appreciative I don't have to sing Good King Wenceslas at the neighbors house all starkers in the 30 degree weather.

 

Triple Dog Dare

It's a Christmas tradition!  Like Peking Duck.

 

Be good, for GOODNESS sake.

 

Here's the thing...

When you start getting better and stop jerking the trigger so much (hell it only took me 10 years) you'll be surprised how you can ring a silhouette sized gong at 50 or 100 yard ranges.

So practice at range. Hold right on.

Gong is better than paper because of the instant positive/negative feedback

Then try something that moves.  Faster movers require a bit of zen to it, and you'll miss more than at range.  A Texas Star spinner is fun when you are in practice and get a decent run.

 

Now THAT is a nice murder weapon

Neat!

 

With Omicron Spiking Cases

I gotta watch this number.  See how fast the deaths rise.  

The county graphs won't make it obvious.  Right now (the 21st) they are only reporting cases increases from the 4th of December (they were hacked.  no really.  so the deaths are prolly stalled at the 4th, too).  It was highish then and is probably alarmingly high now.

The state graphs have up to date cases, but only the deaths up to the 4th of December.  Wonder

Well, no...

 The linoleum was mostly before them boomers.  Boomer did shag wall to wall.

pic.twitter.com/tnU6AWMBXu

— Braxton McCoy (@braxton_mccoy) December 16, 2021

A1

 I was thinking...  I need to get A1 steak sauce when I am out and order steak.

No, not for the meat.  For the steak fries.  I'm not going to a Sizzler, the cut of meat at places I do go to are usually very good.  I used to put A1 on Cube Steak in the 80s.  

Where did they get the Cube Steak, anyway?  Is it from dairy cows, grown too old to give milk?  Is that a New York Strip from a steer the cattleman hated?  

Anyway, while the cut of meat may be tender, the french fries can be hit or miss.  Duck Fat fries with some sort of truffle reduction aioli?  Prolly doesn't need the sauce.  The A1 is only for AFTER all the steak juice has been mopped up by the potato.  

In my reading

 I vary between fiction and non-fiction.  (Well, duh….)

No, I mean I usually read a bunch from one column, get tired of that, then switch to the other for a while.

Binge History and technical stuff for a week or three, then binge Fiction.  

Same with the video screen.  Mudlarking, WWI history, and horology, then Ralph Bakshi and John Ford movies.  Cowboy Bebop.

"Horology, T-Bolt?  Is that about…."

It's about clockmaking.

"Oh. Ohhhhh.  Right.  Of course."

Recently?  Sanctuary, Gene Wolfe, Dickens (Christmas Carol, then Copperfield).  Not highbrow at all.  Well, Gene Wolfe is.  

And non-fiction?  Ungentlemanly Warfare, The Fall of Dachau (I know the grandson of this guy), Combat Engineer (huh... WWII heavy) Blood on the Ohio, How to Run a Lathe.

WTF?!

No.  Don't normalize negligent discharges, idjit.

dog i cant breef pic.twitter.com/HEqxPXy7V0

— golira🦍 (@spoogemane) December 18, 2021

Weekend Morning Tradition

 Is it really a tradition if it is less than a year old?  I have been indulging a sweet tooth.  Coffee and these:

Or these:

I got cancer, what the hell.  I hold myself to only 3 cookies.  I don't have to.  I just do

(The Berger cookies are native to Bawlmer.  They are really just plain Jane shortbread cookies that are a vehicle to the fudge.)

We moved to a new house the day before my 3rd birthday.  I have distinct memories of that day.  I was three and I got three cookies.  I put two and two together... or really two and one, and figured I was a big boy a whole three years old that was why I was getting three whole cookies now.

When my fourth birthday rolled around, I still retained that logic and was looking forward to getting FOUR cookies for the next year.  My parents disabused me of that notion.  I was sorely disappointed.

Then it was Oreos, Fig Newtons, or homemade stuff.  Mom whipped up fork crushed peanut butter cooking quicklike. 

Chevy

My grandfather always liked Chevy's.  Ever since that Model T let him down and some nice soul towed him and his college buddy across the entire state of Ohio.  With a rope.  Different times.  He was selling encyclopedias....

Had a song he'd sing with our last name.

Jingle bells, Jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh what fun it is to ride

In T-Bolt's Chevrolet

This was Paw Paw T-Bolt.  My other Grampa died in '44, as you may remember.

Carry Options

"How do you carry your pistol?  OWB kydex?"

Nah.

"Milt Sparks, IWB?"

No.

"Pocket?"

Not any more.

"Ankle?!" 

No, I Clog-Carry in my TactiCrocs.  The pockets of my Cargo Shorts were all spoken for for other gear.

G-g-g-g-Ghostguns. Scoob?

It's already illegal for those 'too dangerous to own a gun' to have a gun. You want to make illegaller? Super-illegal? Illegal-Plus-Plus?

It's not illegal for me to own a gun. Let me, and everyone like me, gunsmith in peace.

— J T Bolt (@NewJovianTBolt) December 16, 2021

Good News

From another blog. 

The ATF is letting the boot on our neck up a little bit.  They aren't taking it off, but it's a little less uncomfortable.

Suppressor approval in 4-6 weeks instead of 8-14 months?  Yes please.  

Master List 4

Getting simpler over time. Had a half dozen of so on Master List #2.  Fewer on #3

In order of desire...

1.  A .45ACP rifle with a big honking suppressor.  DeLisle repro
2. I kinda jones for S&W Model 65 with a 3 inch barrel?  K Frame, "the perfect carry revolver".
3. A .308 rifle good for hunting, with glass.  A tikka?  
4. S&W Model 625.

And I am just sorta spitballing now.  If I happened in to my favorite gun store and Tom said, "Hey, we just got this in" and it was one of the above?  Credit card snap.  I can't think of anything else that would do that.  Not in the sub $3000 range.  

---

I'd buy a $10,000 gun, but I'd have to think on it.  I just can't think of a gun that price I would want.  Working BARs go for much more.

Am I weird for wanting a relatively low magnification fixed power scope for a hunting rifle.  4x can get you pretty close to the action for any venison.  And sniping bad guys...  Hell 500 yards is pretty far and Marines routinely quality at that range over iron sights.  A 4X ACOG is pricy, but all decent scopes are pricey.  Kinda weird hunting with a bolt action and ACOG combo.  But why not?

Though it is not like I am going to go rifle hunting anytime in my future.  No, wait, you never know.  A hunting trip could fall in my lap, some season, somehow.  "I'll drive you to my buddy's lodge in West Virginia, we'll hunt and then cigars and bourbon.  The stands are a easy stroll from the warm comfy beds."

Christmas Future

 

Boltie

I never did get a bolt action rifle.  

Years ago I should just got a Finnish Tikka.  They have magazine fed versions, and lots of left handed options.  Just a hole that was never filled.  

I think the closest dealer is in Frederick Maryland.  Which is above the Interstate 70 line.  North of that line is where hunters can use rifles.  Which might be a clue as to why decent Euro hunting rifles are sold at that gunstore.  Frederick is plenty close enough to go gun shopping for me.  

.308 of course.

---

I need to make a new Master List of 'gonnes I wanna buy.'

I haven't updated it in forever, and my tastes and desires may have shifted.

Snuck Past the Algorithm

An ad on Facebook:

 I've seen a lot more of firearm related products on Facebook, and no fewer than usual products for sale in Amazon's website, this holiday shopping season.  

I don't do blog related stuff on FB usually.  So how do they know to serve up gun ads?  Well, blogger is Google and Google talks to FB.  But I also lurk on "Custom 1911s" groups, too, to eyeball the pretties. Nothing too mysterious about them trying to sell me a Rittenhouse t-shirt even though they might not realize it is a Rittenhouse t-shirt.  Also, a LOT of brass catchers to attach to an AR.being hocked to me.  

I bet if someone snitches them out that long sleeve shirt will get pulled.  But I'm not gonna snitch.  

Montgy County

My county.

Once the richest and safest county in the state.  A quiet bedroom community for DC commuters.  Now with policies that attract inflow migration of Hispanics, many of which are illegal aliens, and now it is easy to get cheap labor at the Dunkin Donuts and the Home Depot. Lawn mowing and house cleaning services are affordable because of the off books nature and competition.    

Carjackings more than DOUBLED.  Yeah but does that mean it went from 5 to 11 per year?  I mean, we get crime, but this isn't Baltimore of DC...  And murders are a single digit type situation too.  

And as long as you don't hang around the rum joints that was far from my neighborhood... Malicious destruction or petty crime doesn't really extend beyond some littering and parking disputes.  So I am grateful for that.  I don't get porch pirates come for my Amazon packages, even.  If my neighborhood is infested with illegal aliens they are honest middle class illegal aliens that keep their noses clean and press their high school age children to do the same.  

I am still on the lookout.  You know, locking the door to the car on entry for carjacking precautions.  In case of one bad apple.  A burglar wants in my house when I am at work, well, he is getting in, except my neighborhood doesn't totally empty out.  My neighbors all wave.   They'd notice someone besides me.  So that helps some.  

Back to cops.  The MoCo PoPo.  Not noticed a dearth of patrol cars, but how could I tell, 10% either way?  But the county let go 25 officers and didn't back fill 30 positions where an officer left of their own accord.  60ish out of 1200?  Who does that satisfy?   It doesn't make the Defund Police types any happier, and doesn't help normal people at all.  It's nibbling a margin, slowly attriting  .  Just useless.  Our local gov't office are filled with cowardly dolts, but that is a universal condition these days.  Never super competent, but less so lately.  You can say that going back a century, though.  

Men's Magazines

 It actually HAPPENED.

"I was chased by pack of bloodthirsty otters that bit me 26 times in TEN SECONDS… I thought I was going to die, says Brit"

Yeah, but what KIND?

You all heard about that congressional aide accidentally toting his firearm downtown where that is a no-no.  And got arrested for it.  Poor guy.  Prolly forgot his perfectly legit CCW piece was in his backpack.

It was a .45.

Is it weird that my only interest other than 'poor bastard' is 'wonder what kind of .45....'

It was a Gunny, too, up for promotion, and now has to face this music.

I bet it was a Kimber.

PSA on the Radio

Virginia Department of Health:

"Fall is in full swing, so be sure to keep protecting yourself from Covid 19...  Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly..." etc. and summat.

Well, we know that WuFlu doesn't spread on your hand contact.  It's respiratory aeresol, which is why masks that work aren't used (too hard) and masks that don't just don't (but are easy to use).

Still...  The hand washing thing.  I don't mind that.  Seen too many people come out of a terlet stall and just keep walking out the door here at the office.  ~shiver~  That changed because of this novel Corona virus because of all these Public Service Announcement.  

Now, some people, when this is all over, will go back to their slovenly ways. But I am hoping in the main that  greater percentage of folks in the population will be habitual post ablution hand washers.  And that is a good thing for a whole host of other reasons un-Covid related.  Move the need from 80% hand washing to 83% hand washing in 2032, still?  Net plus for society.  With luck it is a greater improvement than a mere 3%.  

A noble lie in the PSA I do not mind a whit.  You disgusting Typhoid Mary wannabe savages. (not YOU, you always washed up.  That other guy.)   

---

Typhus... Typhoid.  I often got those confused.  I should remember it because Typhoid Mary had bad hygiene and was the cook, so she she spread a gut disease.  And Typhus is the lice one, and Scrub Typhus in some Pacific theaters was AWFUL for the warfighters that got it.

I'd have to gut you like a fish!

Even an ox dies.

Yeah, I don't have 3 bad men to go against in a saloon, so let's not make that kind of arrangement.  Nor do I need copious quantities of laudanum just yet.  

Head Cold

Anecdotally, nigh everyone is coming down with a head cold.  Kind of a nasty one.  Non-Covid.  The president sounded like a frog.  This guy.   Those are the 'famous' ones  Buddies at work also got the crud.  Not laid low  

Peeps are hypersensitive about the WuFlu so they are in tune with maladies and hence sharing said info.  

That said

I still made it 52 years without seeing this movie:

I KNOW!  That's not like me at all.  I mean, I don't gravitate to musicals, but still!  If you can watch Wizard of Oz every year until age of majority you can watch this once. 

Come to think of it, it didn't get a lot of syndication repeats for my area, to my memory.  Miracle on 34th Street got a lot more air time.  It's a Wonderful Life, of course. 

General Waverly was the same actor from Twelve O'Clock High.  Major Stovall, the Group Adjutant.  Dean Jagger

I thought the same actress appeared in both this and It's a Wonderful Life, but I was confusing Mary Treen and Mary Wickes.

The sets were gorgeous.  On a huge soundstage.  And in VistaVision.  Most of the outdoor shots were indoors.  Fire in the fireplaces and everything.  Inside.  And I have the same steamer trunk as Danny Kaye.  There is a LONG scene in the dressing that Bing and Danny make look effortless, but just memorizing the script for it would have been a big deal.  No cuts. Vera-Allen has some serious dancer gams, and watching her, the boys, and Rosemary Clooney to a quartet  about snow....  I found myself going "Damn!" at numerous points, so impressed was I with the performances.

And it starts out Christmas on the WWII battlefront.  Sorta appropriate for what started for us EIGHTY years ago.  I still haven't forgiven the Japanese for all that.  I should probably let it go.  I'm not Irish; I shouldn't be willing to carry paper on a grudge that long.  

Gun content:  I think I saw an unscoped Springfield 03 among the soldier in was was set late-war.  I saw the 03, pretty sure no scope.

Another Side Effect

Of the infusions?  They pump me full of Benadryl to keep my chance of having an adverse reaction low.  But then I am wiped out the rest of the day.  

Minor, I know.   

Two things I didn't expect.  Being that cold, and being that sleepy.

And I can't sleep a wink all night

It only took 50 some years.

Despite recent challenges, I feel... satisfied.  Like I've simplified and distilled my life down to well worn paths and habits.  And that's a good thing.  

I feel like the Detective Somerset character in Se7en.  Coasting into retirement, but before get roped into the event that then happen.

Sure, something could also happen to ME and knock everything into a cocked hat.  Something will, eventually.  That's the way life works.  I could get worsening health outcomes, I could get fired and struggle to get another job, my neighborhood could get hit by a meterorite, levelling it...

But, right now, I am satisfied with where I am.  

And my health could/should improve.  I'd like to re-add some missing paths.  Like a regular trip to the range.  Seek out the grail of firearm acquisitions...  A DeLisle repro.  Now that I can't, I long to have the ability to get back into the workshop and make something out of wood.  So, I got things to maybe look forward to.  

Yeah, this cancer is gonna kill me, but first we have to do that time period where I go "I'm in complete remission," until I am not.  Probably.  That is probably what is gonna happen.  

 

Improvise

A much better weapon than the CCW pistol in your holster.  More quickly deployed, effective at stopping the threat, and I have ready access to it in my gun-unfriendly state.  

**Here’s the best way to stop a potential carjacking. 😳🤣
*Follow me for more safety tips.😉#CriminalJustice 🚗😆 pic.twitter.com/lxrJT0kYHo

— Politically Incorrect Joker 🃏 (@rikki7s) December 2, 2021

County Covid

Almost fully vaxxed

Still 81 cases a day.

Well, whatcha gonna do?  Low utilization of hospital beds for it, at least.  5%.  Last January is was 27% taken up.  County doesn't post data on deaths.

All in all, SUPER fast, not just here but errywar

I was hoping

I was hoping that with a new generation we might lose school shooters.

From Columbine to Parkland, the school shootings had all been Millennials.  Few GenX or Boomers shot up a school. I was hoping the Zoomers would not take that path.  Sometimes a generation will do that.  Break from the previous' trend .  But I can't twist the 15 year old into the previous generation and blame a cohort with an irrational and sweepingly broad brush anymore.  Silly, I know.  It was just a trend I wanted ended.  

It's not the gun that's the problem; it's the fact that teenagers have come to want to solve their problems with violence. https://t.co/fXqkkVUh5f

— UR a Smart Ass, Carl (@cleflore23) December 1, 2021

I said no side effects

From the mono-clonal antibody infusions, but that's not entirely true.

All these are mild.  Very mild.  

I get the scoots.  Light scoot, admittedly.  WITH constipation.  That's a new experience.  Simultaneously having the runs and not being able to go at the exact same time.  INORITE?  Weirdest damn thing.

3 minutes of fever.  And an hour later 3 minutes of fever again.

Sleeplessness, but then the next morning not suffering from that perceived lack of sleep.  

So, the real answer is 'no truly bothersome side effects.'  Noticeably more energy.  No impact on neuropathy?  Maybe more pain sensors activating in the bad areas.  My fingers sting like burnt.   

I miss beer.  I miss cocktails.  I miss bourbon.  I want to smoke a pipe of tobacco.  

Question

When do I tell my boss about the cancer?

I've told family and close friends.  That's it.  No casuals like co-workers.  But co-workers notice my time off and my f-ed up feet and f-ed up hand.  And knew about my whinging over back pain until the lyrica took that down to a dull roar.   They KNOW shit is wrong.  I can't hide it.  Limping and hobbling at half speed.  

I should prolly tell the guy that approves my timesheets.  

But it's also none of their bidness.  I shouldn't have to tell anyone I don't want to tell.  This is going to kill me, but it's not going to kill me soon.  I will probably get to retirement age.  Maybe even switch to another company before that happens.  Get the jump-ship-pay-boost.  So telling them is moot. 

I'll tell the boss.  You think I should tell the boss?  Just him tho.