26 July 2012

A Plan, Coming Together

It turns out that yesterday night was work partner's last night, so I was on alone last night. Everything worked out OK, not as hideous as yesterday night, so the work week ended well. Next week I have my newbie to train.

My bullets are here.

The claims adjuster has made an estimate on the Firefly, lower than what the body shop guy quoted but if I can get the reconditioned wheel for the price quoted (doubtful) it should work out.

Off to Florida to pick up the boy. He's been gone all summer and he's had about all the fun and sun he can stand.

Next is to talk to the body shop and get the parts ordered so that the repairs can begin. Next weekend I'll get some powder and then maybe make some ammo.

25 July 2012

I Need A Reset Button

The only reason I didn't come home this morning and drink myself to sleep in an effort to forget last night ever happened is that I have to go to work tonight, too.

Tonight is the last night for my co-worker, he's going off to what is hopefully greener pastures. He's going to start his own business. I wish him well.

Sunday night I get to train a newbie.

My joy knows no bounds.

Scum Sucking Bottom Feeding Parasites

Since this happened the bulk of my snail-mail has been from ambulance chasing lawyers.

And chiropractors, since apparently they use the same tactics of feeding off of misery to drum up business.

A pox on the lot of them.

24 July 2012

RIP

Sally Ride, first American woman in space and at the time the youngest astronaut to boot.

Adventurer, pioneer, role model, taken too soon at 61 from pancreatic cancer.

Yet another reason to hate that f*cking disease.

Fair winds and following seas Sally.

21 July 2012

In other news

I have this on it's way. When it gets here I'll go shopping for a suitable propellant.

Stay tuned!

*%&$!!!



This time it wasn't my fault. Someone pulled out of a parking lot and got me as I was driving by.

Another trip to the body shop.  I guess I'll find out how good my insurance really is.

On a side note, if anyone wanted to know how the fake side scoops are held on...double side tape, no locating pins.

UPDATE: As expected once I talked to a real human being it is going against her insurance but my insurance company is handling the details. My body guy says rough estimate $4500, we'll see what the insurance company guy says later this week when he comes to look at it.

Fender, door, plastic rocker panel cover, wheel, fake side scoop and stripes, all from Ford, and the labor and paint which is the bulk of it. The good news is the door ding that my grand-daughter put in it right above the right rear wheel gets fixed as well. My body guy does good work, when he's done it will look like nothing ever happened to it.

The bad news is, the car will be in the shop for a couple of weeks at least. I miss it already.

Movie Night

Last night I went to the drive-in with the Heart of Carolina Mustang Club.  We went to see The Dark Knight Rises and Dark Shadows (it's always a double-feature).



It rained on us a bit, but all in all it was a pretty good time.



I'm not a movie critic but I enjoyed both movies. Dark Knight is a fitting end to the trilogy...if it is indeed an end (no spoilers but don't pay any attentioned to the buck-toothed idiot behind the desk, go see the movie). I wasn't expecting to like Dark Shadows, but I did.

The movie selection reminded me of this, which brings me to this.

Well said, good advice, amen.

20 July 2012

Today in History

1964
1969

19 July 2012

He's Right About One Thing...



HT: Emperor Misha

More here.

New Toys!

No singing frogs, but I did get these today (via UPS, not FedEx, which probably explains the frog deficit):


I have no idea what any of it does yet (that's not quite true, I've pretty much figured out how the primer tool works) but I will soon.

This weekend I order projectiles, when they get here I will obtain propellant.

18 July 2012

And In That Vein

JayG had a post up a couple of days ago talking about a Bowie vs a chef's knife, and the reaction of the terminally uninformed about each of them.

So while we're on the subject of perception vs actuality, observe:


























Two of these rifles spent time in the military, and one most certainly has a kill or two to its credit.  The question for the class is, what two are the military rifles, and which of the two has the bloodiest past?

Answer: the middle two, and the top one of the middle two is the most dangerous.

Top Evil Black Rifle - Saiga .223. Number of confirmed kills...zero. Time in military service...none. It was sold as a hunting rifle (I still have the original stock and foregrip for it) and dressed up by a previous owner, although I did do the trigger conversion. If you picked this one, go sit in the corner stupid.

Top wooden stocked rifle - Mosin Nagant 91/30 made in the Tula armory circa 1943. This one is the killer, all of them during that time frame were issued to Russian troops who then went on to face down the Wehrmacht. Every existing Mosin made before 1945 has likely had a Nazi in its sights. The bayonet underneath goes with this rifle. Anyone up for shishkabob?

Middle wooden stocked rifle - Arisaka Type 30 carbine, made in the Tokyo arsenal sometime between 1902 and 1904 going by the serial number. They were used in Imperial service during the Russo-Japanese war and were replaced starting in 1905 or so with the more robust T38, but some of the T30s saw service with Russia and England during WW1. I don't know the history behind this one, but I suspect it ended up at a Japanese school as a training rifle and was a war souvenir from WW2 (I base this assumption on the lack of non-Japanese markings or modifications). It may or may not have kills to its credit, being a carbine it probably doesn't (they weren't issued to front-line ground troops, but they were issued to cavalry). For the record, this is my favorite gun. I really don't know why.

The bottom one is a model 60 Marlin. If that one scares you seek professional help.

16 July 2012

Wars, and Rumors Of Wars

The news is full of the story of the Navy refueling ship USNS Rappahannock firing on a small boat in the Straits of Hormuz, killing one.  The Navy has gotten understandably nervous about small boats since the Cole incident.

In 1988 I was on USS Forrestal in the Indian Ocean as part of Operation Ernest Will. The mission was to escort tankers through the Straits of Hormuz. The more things change, the more they stay the same.One thing that is different, the carrier groups are operating in the Persian Gulf now. At the time of Ernest Will the gulf was too small for carrier ops. They must have stretched it out some since 1988.

Saudi Arabia is working on reactivating a pipeline to bypass the Straits, so soon the chokepoint problem may become a thing of the past anyway. I would welcome it.

The really sad thing about this whole story is that the US gets very little oil from the Persian Gulf. We get most of our oil from Mexico and Canada. The Persian Gulf oil goes mostly to Europe. And yet here we are, once again protecting European interests ahead of our own. (Spare me the explanation of how the cost of oil goes up everywhere because of OPEC, etc. I know.)

George Washington warned us about such things...

Moving On Up

Sean has moved to Wordpress.

For now the old URL redirects to the new one, but it's probably a good idea to update now so you don't forget.

14 July 2012

Tech Day

One of our club members is resto-rodding a 72 Mustang coupe. This car had been sitting in the back field for about 25 years after the owner had hit a pole with it and messed the radiator support up. He put it aside to "fix it later" when the weather cleared (it was winter at the time).  The weather finally cleared last August.

The last time we worked on this car we stripped the motor and transmission out of it, stripped the interior, cut out the old front suspension and put Mustang II front suspension on it, removed the leaf spring rear end and hung a coilover rear end in it's place, put the wheels on it and sent it to the paint shop.

Since it's been gone the old 302 motor has been looked at and discarded in favor of a 351C, a 5 speed transmission has been acquired from a 95 Mustang, and a set of Recaro seats has been purchased.

It's back in the owners shop sporting a fresh coat of Carolina Blue and a half roll cage. We finished up the front suspension, the rear suspension, bolted the brakes on and got the steering column installed and
hooked up. We also took a look at the way the seats mount and decided to modify it to use newer style seat brackets.

All in all it was a pretty productive day.





13 July 2012

Toys

I have just ordered one of these, one of these and one of these.

Next I shall order some of these (I'm leaning towards the Hornady A-Max but I haven't really decided yet) and maybe a bit of this (or maybe I'll just find some locally).

I already have about 50 of these, and Range Partner says he has more of these than he will ever use, so that should be enough to get started.

As soon as the bits and pieces arrive the games shall begin!

UPDATE: My order has SHIPPED!!!

12 July 2012

dammit

Prayers to CoolChange.

I hate this f**king disease.

With Many Thanks

to the ignorant buffoons that call themselves "reporters" these days.

The good news is there are four of us on this street.

Come and find me assholes.

09 July 2012

Celebrity Slab

So long Ernie. Thanks for everything.

08 July 2012

Saturday Car Day

Saturday was a day filled with sun and adventure.

To start off with, I went to Cars N' Coffee at their new Raleigh location at Waverly Place. The old place (that doesn't deserve a mention) turfed us last month, they hired security guards to turn everyone away. It's kind of funny considering that when I talked to one of the Porsche guys (they organized the event) he said he didn't think they (the Porsche guys) could stop it if they wanted to. He was wrong.

At any rate, the new location worked out wonderfully except that it was too small. I don't know what can be done about that, but it was a great location and it is an opportunity for the shop owners there that I hope they do not squander as the old place did. (Think about it, first Saturday of each month you know hundreds of people are going to be milling about right outside the front door of your place of business...what do you do?)

We completely filled the lower lot and had a couple of rows in the upper lot occupied as well.


Recognize that red car right in the center of the photo above? And just to the left of it...a beautiful matched set of Benz convertibles.


There was even a farmer's market.


It's a nice spot, complete with fountains.


Afterwards we grabbed a bite (at one of the Waverly Place shops, of course) and headed out to Lenoir NC for their monthly Cruise In. Last time there were only three of us, this time there were quite a few more (we had 7 cars from Raleigh and 14 total when we joined up with the rest of our party). Between us and the cars already there we filled up Mustang Alley (don't ask me how the Camaro got there, I don't know).


This show was a little smaller than last month, but still lots of interesting vehicles, including this one.


One of my favorite books growing up was The Red Car, starring a TC-MG. This one is black, but there it was in all of it's British glory. Something that I learned that I did not know was that the grille insert is supposed to be the same color as the interior. This car alone made the cruise-in worth the 3 hour drive.

But of course, there was more.


How about another unrestored original 68 Shelby GT-500?


or an original VW pickup?


My mother would love the Coca Cola car.


Speaking of pickups, when is the last time you saw one of these beauties?


I learned to drive a 3 on the tree in a car like this one, but it was a 4 door Bel Air not an Impala SS.


Chevy's W motors have distinctive valve covers, this guy has a matching air cleaner for his 58 Impala.

The drive back was in the mid to upper 80s, with the sun and top both down it was a pleasant end to an enjoyable day.

NOTE: The pictures are fuzzy, but they clear up when embiggened.

In The News

"Don't Hold Your Breath" edition.

Reclusive?

Whatever, all I want to know is where to put in my application.

06 July 2012

From The Sea

Order Up

I have just placed my order for one of these.

Stay tuned...

05 July 2012

Notes On Freedom

I'll call you on this:

and raise you.

04 July 2012

03 July 2012

Customer Service

I'm finally getting around to swapping the cable bill into my name.

My wife set it up when we moved into the house seven years ago, and I just decided that I wanted to be able to access the bill online. The problem is she already set it up, and I didn't have any of her passwords and information.

A quick call to the cable company and I was assured that if I went into the customer service center with a copy of the bill, my ID and a copy of her death certificate we could get everything set up.

So, pulling up to the customer service center I curbed another wheel.  Not that it has anything to do with this, but it kind of set the tone. So now on the right side of the pony I have one curbed wheel in the front and a bent one in the back. My joy knows no bounds. Back to the subject at hand.

What had to happen is the old account had to be canceled and a new account set up in my name. Why it couldn't have been as simple as changing the name and resetting all the passwords I don't know, but there it is. On a positive note I was able to get a promotional rate for the first 12 months which is less than I was paying before for essentially the same service.  I also traded in an old remote that didn't work so well for a brand new one.

When I got home I prepared to set up the new remote and lo and behold the cable didn't work anymore. A call to the customer service center and they swapped the accounts over...which is what I thought I was doing when I showed up in person.  With that done I got the remote working for the TV, but it won't program to run either the DVD/VCR or the surround sound. Good thing I still have the individual remotes for them, and we don't use either one all that much anyway so it's fine.

I then went to the magic elf box to set up the account online. I don't have a bill yet so I don't have a customer ID number. First hurdle. Another call to the customer service center to set up a callback to the number on record (which is where I was calling from, hello? even your stupid answer-bot figured that out). Customer ID number in hand I was able to set up the new online account.

The old account had a credit of a little over $200 but the new account had a charge of $180. Not only that, but there on the charges line plain as day was a modem rental fee. I have my own modem, and have had my own modem since day one. Another call to the customer service center and the rental fee was knocked off and the credit transferred to the new account.

All that just so I could view my bill online. It might have been easier just to not pay the damn thing and I'm sure they would have been all over the place to call me and get it all worked out.  But, everything seems to be in order now, so I guess all's well that ends well.

Still not a damn thing on worth watching though...

UPDATE: and now I don't have all the channels I had before either. I'm about ten minutes from telling them to come get all of their junk out of my house and going with satelite.

UPDATE II: Looks like they got it this time. We will see.

It's That Time

Project Valor-IT is having a fundraiser.

Go here for details.

Go here to donate or click on the sidebar link.

Go team Navy!

Ugh

What a hideous night.

02 July 2012

1 %

That seems to be the new meme, only 1% are freeloaders who will not get insurance and will have to pay the fine. So far I've heard it from Carneybarker and Pelousy so it must be true.

Damn 1%'ers!

(sarc tag off)