25 October 2018

It's Not That

I don't have anything going on.

It's just that I don't have anything interesting going on.

As soon as that changes...I'll let you know.

26 September 2018

M Gets a New Ride

M bought her car two days after we met, a 2015 Ford Focus in Ruby Red. She told me about it in a message, saying that she liked my red car so much she had to go out and buy one of her own. This is what got us talking to each other in the first place, so Ruby will always have a special place in our memories. However, while she really liked it overall the transmission was something that she never did like.

The 2015 Focus came with an option for what they call a Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) which as far as I have read on the 'net (where they can't ever put anything that is not true) is essentially two computer controlled standard (IE, not planetary gearsets?) transmissions with actual dry clutches instead of torque converters that work in parallel. One has the even number gears and the other has the odd number gears and they switch off as the car accelerates. It works like an automatic, but it isn't really an automatic because it doesn't have a torque converter (which absorbs a lot of driveline vibration in addition to it's clutch-like duties).

The up side is improved fuel economy due to the actual clutches instead of the torque converter slushbox and faster shifts, but the down side is increased driveline vibration because there is no torque converter. M didn't like it because once upon a time she had a Jeep with a bad torque converter and it felt just like the DCT, so she was always worried that the torque converter was going to fail in the car and leave her stranded. Apparently the salesman didn't know enough about the DCT to explain the difference between it and the automatic and the service people only told her "it's supposed to do that" without explaining why. Judging by the many complaints and the quiet discontinuation of the transmission in future models she wasn't the only one, but alas for poor Ruby it was just a little too little a little too late.

Bottom line, she wasn't ever completely satisfied with the car, and the electronic power assist unit going out within a couple of hundred miles after the warranty expired just sealed poor Ruby's doom. When the she took it in to have them look at the transmission yet again (they had already replaced at least one clutch and the electronic brain under warranty) and they quoted her a 2K price tag to replace the clutches yet again she had had enough, especially since they wouldn't warranty the work (which IMO they should have because they had already replaced them once).

So last Saturday she took Ruby back to the dealer and drove home in this:

So far she's liking it but we'll see how much of that good feeling remains after she makes the first payment on it. It is a 2018 Escape SEL, fully loaded. Seat warmers (which, after driving the Mustang she decided she just had to have), dual zone climate control (which is something I am very fond of), 2.0 Ecoboost which satisfies the drag racer in her, and best of all it has a true automatic which means no more driveline shudder, which was the whole point to begin with.

What I like about it is she got the extended warranty and the extended service plan, so I won't have to be wrenching on it any time soon (unlike the Subaru which went through a right rear brake caliper last weekend). With the extended warranty if she does have issues with it she won't end up paying extra for it like she did with the EPAS and would have had to do with the clutches (although part of me thinks the clutches weren't all that bad and the service department was just looking for something to change so they could tell her they found and fixed the problem).

Hopefully it won't have any issues at least until the last payment is made.

14 September 2018

Miscellany

Aunt Flo has come to visit.

Hurricane Florence, that is. At the time of this writing she's a Cat 1, about 35 miles off of Wilmington and moving at 6 MPH, which will put her at the shoreline at about 8 AM unless she puts some pep in her step.

So far at the Refuge just north of Raleigh we have some wind blowing the treetops around, enough rain to keep the ground wet, and that's about it. The power and cable is still on and I still have cell phone reception.

There is still quite a bit of storm left to go so keep coastal Carolinas in your prayers, the large size and slow speeds of the storm is going to keep the storm surge up for quite some time, which means flash flooding and high water is going to continue to be a problem for a while.

In other news, my barrel came in for the Glock 19, so as soon as possible I'm going to have to get another range day in to sight it back in.

10 September 2018

Shooting Day

Saturday there was supposed to be a cruise-in near me.

I made plans to go to the cruise-in, which also happened to be in the same town as the shooting range, which also happened to have a yarn store. So M and I decided to make a day of it. We were going to take the new bows along...well, the old bows that I got from my father in law...but the case wouldn't fit in the Mustang so they stayed home.

First we met Range Partner for some shooty goodness and I discovered that I suck at this game and I need to practice more. I also found my Glock 19 shoots to the left until the third or fourth shot, and then it slowly comes back to the right although I was shooting consistently slightly left of centerline even when it was all warmed up.

In fact the 19 shoots so far to the left that the sights are drifted way to the right to compensate for it, which should not be a thing. I have ordered a different barrel for it, hopefully that will cure its ills. Between the 19 shooting sideways and the 36 being such a jam-o-matic I'm starting to rethink my whole Glock ownership status.

Whatever. I like the Sig better anyway...but M has effectively commandeered it. Oh no, I guess I will have to get another one...oh woe is me...

While we were there Range Partner unlimbered his Lapua for the first time in a long time, and she still sounds off with authority and rings the 300 yard gong with boring regularity. Much to my surprise I was able to make some 300 yard ring-a-dings with the 30-06, even though it's sighted in for 100 yards. The 200 yard was no problem, either. That's a flat shooting round, and I was using Winchester target rounds, so any qualms I ever had about going with a less expensive bullet slinger are now laid completely to rest. I am altogether satisfied with my Mossberg 100ATR.

After the last round had cleared the chamber we all went out for a steak. Something that I failed to mention, at my last annual checkup I had the whole battery of blood draws (and I should have worn the kilt even though it wasn't September yet), and last week my doc sent me a text message saying she was very concerned about the numbers. Nice gal, young-ish (any more they all are), small fingers, wanted me to lose weight and get more exercise, yada yada. I told her I was walking the parking lot at work 3 times a week (about a mile, getting it done in 20-21 minutes) so she would have to be satisfied with that. She's not, wants me to do it 5 days a week. I don't work 5 days a week...so guess who isn't going to get what they want? But I digress.

The medical center puts all of the test results and whatnot on a portal, so I signed in and checked my messages to see what she was on about. It turns out my cholesterol is good, my blood pressure is on the high side of good (she wants me to watch my salt. Whatever, I don't use it much anyway), but my A1c is IN THE DIABETIC RANGE!!!OMG!!!IMMEDIATELY GO ON A LOW CARB DIET AND MAKE AN APPOINTMENT!!!

Panicked, I flip over to the blood sugar test results, expecting the worst...and...it's at 7.1 (normal is under 7 for those of you who have never had to deal with it, myself included). Which, yeah, it's above normal, but seriously?

So I've cut out the bread and rice for a while, which is about the only thing carby I eat. Well, that and sugary drinks from Dunkin' Donuts where M is a regular customer, so it's back to plain old unsweetened iced tea for me when we go through the drive through (good luck with getting M to give up her DD iced coffee/extra/extra). We'll see what the numbers are in a month, I'm guessing they will be under 7 again and then maybe she can ease off of DEFCON ELEVENTY. I'll still leave the sugary drinks and rice alone though.

Anyway, so off for a steak where I get a salad for my side rather than a potato, some good conversation and then we're off to the...waitaminute...M forgot her coupon for the yarn store, which is why she wanted to go to the yarn store in the first place. Also, it's a couple of hours yet to the cruise in, and quite frankly I'm ready to call it a day. So instead I hit up the train store for some scenery supplies and we went on home.

I hope they had a good turnout at the cruise-in.

25 August 2018

Tuning Up the Ice Cream Machine

So what's happening for the past month or more?

I am one year older, we had our family vacation, my brother got married (again) and this time I actually made it to the wedding, and I got to see the only child I helped to create for the first time in 25 years. I also met the son in law and 4 grandchildren I had not met.

I'm making progress getting the train layout scenery done, I'm not getting everything done on the house I wanted to but I am getting some things done, I had to change the oil in all my cars this past weekend, but they are all running well (including the Subaru).

M goes back to work Monday, she is doing something new again this year. She has had a different class every year that I have known her, I just wonder what they will come up with next year. She has a couple of grades she hasn't been through yet, so it is possible she will do something different next year, too.

That's about it, I guess. I hope your summer has been good.

16 July 2018

Dear Senator

I've been watching this whole deal unfold, with the Russia thing that I don't quite understand (was it Trump colluding with them against Hillary or Hillary colluding against Trump, and what's the deal with that dossier they keep going on about?) and the other day you had that FBI guy, whatsisname, Strunk or something like that, and damn but that guy...that fuckin' guy...

I mean to tell ya that if you don't put his ass in the slammer for disrespecting Congress or whatever the hell you call it then you need to go apologize to every swingin' dick you ever put the screws to for it in the history of ever. I mean to tell ya, that guy just OOOZED disrespect  out of every pore of his body, not just for you...but for us, We the People, us little guys...you know, the guys you suck up to and lie to every two to four years to get us to vote for you so you can go suck the tax dollars out of my pocket for your cushy digs in DC and your fat ass paychecks with the free medical and dental.

Which is kinda what I'm here today for.

So my question, Senator, is after all the investigations and testimonies and dispositions and guys going to jail for not remembering they said and instead of or on the third of October at two thirty-seven exact EST and all of that...when are some of these people going to prison? And I don't mean the Scooter Libby kinda guys, I mean the big guys, the ones who sit on airport runways and schmooze to each other about looking the other way and then lie about talking about grandkids and such and swear to God on a stack full of bibles they never talked about what we all know they talked about. Those guys.

I mean, some of these guys, if I pulled half the shit they did I can guaran-damn-tee ya I wouldn't be sitting on some pile of cash from the book I just wrote making pathetic excuses for not doing my job, or even worse, flat breaking the law, no...hell my ass would be buried so far under the jail it would take a whole TEAM of geologists just to find it. But hell, these assholes are smugging it up on the Sunday news shows, so what gives?

I mean, there's that guy who went on national TV saying Hillary flat broke the law but no prosecutor would ever make a case against her. Really? And that Navy guy goes to jail for taking pictures of his bunk on the sub but whatsername stuffs classified documents in her panties and tries to sneak them out and nothing? Are you f'n KIDDING ME???

I remember reading that book, Atlas Shrugged or something like that, and they were talking about people with pull instead of ability making the decisions, and I thought it was a boring long-winded book at the time but I'm beginning to think, damn, did she nail it or what? And now I'm listening to people talk about the new civil war, and I mean to tell you...it bothers me.

Maybe it's just the 24 hour news cycles and such and they gotta fill the time with something, but I'm watching all these riots and assholes in pink hats screaming at the sky cause they lost elections and crazy people shooting congressmen who are playing baseball and I'm wondering...just how bad is it going to get?

Cause seriously, I know the only reason something bad hasn't happened is guys like me ain't got the time for that shit. See, the daughter's dance recital is next Tuesday, and she needed this dress see, but the budget just wouldn't handle it unless I pick up a little OT this week, which isn't a big deal cause we were kinda letting some things slide so we could make our numbers for end of quarter, but now that's over the boss is carping about getting caught up...so the OT is there. Only thing is, I can't do it past five Wednesday cause the boy has a baseball game that I promised I'd make it for and if I miss it the ex is gonna hold it over my head, and honestly that's just one more thing I really don't need from that bitch. And besides, that's my boy and I don't want to disappoint him any more than I have to. He used to look at me like I was some kinda hero, ya know? and lately...well, let's just say I understand the old man more now than I used to, and if he was still here God rest his soul I'd love to sit down and have a beer with him, but he worked his way into an early grave when he was in his 40's busting his ass and not taking care of himself, providing for us, and I was such an ungrateful bastard. If I had only known, ya know?

Which reminds me, the old lady is bitching about me making a doctors appointment cause I got a little dizzy mowing the lawn last weekend, but what the hell it was like 100 degrees in the shade and I felt better when I got some water in me, so what's the big deal? except my dad...well, you know. And my buddy at work just got a new fishing boat, man it's a beaut, but if I want to go out on the lake with him Sunday like he invited me to I promised the missus that I'd get some stuff done around the house on Saturday. Happy wife happy life, right?

Point is, I ain't got time for all that. Which is why we hire guys like you, to take care of stuff like this. And then you go to Washington and set yourselves up like kings, which we mostly don't mind as long as you leave us the hell alone, mostly, but once in a while...it would be nice if you would do your damn jobs. Cause I don't wanna live in a Matthew Bracken novel, ya know? I like my comfortable life, I like sleeping in on Saturdays and grilling in the afternoons, and days on the lake, and tee times, and all of that, which is why I'm willing to put up with the bullshit from you jackasses that I put up with. But seriously, it's getting out of hand and we're way overdue for tar and feathers if you know what I mean...and if you don't maybe it's time for you to pick up one of those Bracken books.

Thing about those books, it doesn't end well for any of us, which is probably closer to the truth than what some of these idiots are spouting off about.

So step up and take care of this shit like I hired you to do, cause I've done my time in shitholes like Trashcanistan and the former Yugoslavia and such garden spots as Uncle Sam sends his uniformed folks to, and even though I may not have seen any actual fighting I've seen enough to appreciate that it doesn't happen here. And I know some guys. And the stories THEY tell...well they ain't pretty. Which makes me even MORE glad we have guys like that, and that we don't have to deal with the stuff they dealt with Over There over here. And I'd kinda like to keep it that way. And all these Antifa pussies and the other assorted dingleberries who have never seen shit like that and think it might be fine and dandy to have a little war over here? I don't wanna have to deal with them. Not that I won't, if it comes to that, (I have my battle plan all laid out, I'm gonna follow Johnny and just hand him ammo cause the guy is just a stone cold bad-ass, he doesn't talk about it but I've seen his medals) but I don't wanna. So handle it.

So that's about all I got to say.

Bottom line: my advise to you, take care of it and let guys like me sleep.

It would be best for all of us.


(disclaimer, my Dad is alive and well thanks, this was just a sort of stream of conscious thing that I came up with listening to some of the guys I know)

05 May 2018

Speaking Of The Bow

The recurve bow that we got from Father In Law had a simple rubber tip arrow rest that had gotten old and brittle and then fell off. I haven't been able to find a replacement online, but today after we went to the yarn store we went to the sporting goods store and they had one!

The guy behind the counter told us that some of the Bear bows are collectible, so when I got home I looked it up. What we have is a fairly standard 52" 45 pound Bear Kodiak Magnum. The brass coin and K series serial number puts it fairly securely right at 1970, which was the last year for the flush mounted brass coin and the first year for the K series serial numbers. The value of the bow is probably somewhere between $150 and $200, so not very collectible. That's fine, with its new arrow rest installed it should be a fun bow to play with.

We also inherited his compound bow, a Bear Whitetail Hunter of approximately the same vintage set to 55 pounds. It looks to be in good shape and has reportedly taken a deer or two in its time.

So maybe next range day we will take the bows along.

Range Days

I've had a good week.

I've been off work all week since I had some days I had to burn up or lose. This gave me a chance to complete a couple of projects around the house, and it also gave me a chance to go to the range a couple of times.

Youngest Son's birthday was last Friday and one of the range days was his. We shot rifles that day although I did take a couple of rounds through the Glocks and some through the Sig as well. I took the Arisaka and Youngest Son took the Saiga, both performed well. I am extremely happy with the scope on the Arisaka, with the iron sights I can't hit a darn thing but with the scope it is a bullseye shooter, much more capable than I am.

With the pistols I finally got them all sighted in and if I take my time and carefully line everything up, watching the flinch, I can hit the X ring with all of them (although the Glock 36 continues to demonstrate why I don't carry it anymore, having its occasional FTE every forth or fifth magazine, never the same magazine, sometimes two or three in a row).

Today it was Mrs Hades turn. We met Range Partner and his companion at the range, of course we were late and they were already busy putting lead downrange when we showed up. As usual she laid claim to the Sig and I shot the Glocks. Both of us had much success with our chosen firearms (the 36 with its usual failures) and we quickly shot through a large part of the ammo we had brought.

Afterwards we had lunch with Range Partner and his girl and then it was off to the yarn store! A relatively quick trip through netted enough to keep Mrs Hades happy for a day or two, and then it was off to the gun store where we bought more ammo to replace what we had shot off and also picked up a magazine loading tool for the Sig and an arrow rest for the bow that Father In Law had gifted us with.

When we got home Mrs Hades was insistent that she learned to clean the Sig. So we broke out the cleaning gear and the manual for the Sig and everything got the necessary attention. Afterwards as I was putting everything back in the safe I noticed I was a box short. Look as I may I could not locate the Sig. I went back through the house and there, poking up out of Mrs Hades range bag, was the missing box.

It looks as if I may have lost a Sig.

I can't think of a better place for it to go.

All in all a very good day. Heck, all in all a pretty darn good week. Too bad it all comes crashing to a bad end on Monday.

03 April 2018

The Cat Is Away

And when that happens...

M is off visiting her mother this week, I couldn't go along because I'm saving my vacation days for other things. So while she's been gone I've been finishing up some of the trim work around the new flooring (it is in all the way through the kitchen into the dining room now) and trying some recipes that I can't try while she is here, due to her lactose intolerance mostly. One of those things is beef stroganoff.

Beef Stroganoff

1 1/2 lbs beef, sliced thin. You can use just about anything...heck, you can even use hamburger if you get the lean stuff...but the better the beef the better the stroganoff.
1/2 medium Vidalia onion, sliced thin
8 oz mushrooms, sliced thin
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
2 T butter
Salt and pepper to taste
1 T flour
2 C beef broth
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 C sour cream
Egg noodles or rice

If you are using hamburger, cook and drain it. If not, skip to the next step.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet, add the olive oil. Stir in the beef (unless you are using hamburger), onion, mushroom and garlic. Cook until the beef is browned and the onion begins to turn translucent. (If you are using hamburger, add the cooked hamburger in now.)

Add salt and pepper to taste, then add the flour and stir until smooth. Add the beef broth and the soup and again stir until smooth. Allow this mixture to come to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes.

Now is a good time to cook the egg noodles or rice as per package directions.

Stir in the sour cream and cook for another 5 minutes until everything is heated up. Serve over noodles or rice.

26 March 2018

I Am

This was payday weekend.

As with all payday weekends I got online and did the electronic bill pay thingie. I also activated my new credit card.

And since the new card went active I had to change some reoccurring payments that uses the card. One of those was my lifetime membership payment for the NRA.

And before you start, I have to be an NRA member to be in the gun club. I'm also a member of my local pot-stirring group, so that makes up for any tendencies the NRA has for going wobbly.

Anyhoo, when I went on the NRA site I saw I only had a single payment left. So I made it instead of updating the card information.

Which means...


Natural Progression

For all your firearms related videos go here. As of April they will no longer be found on the 'tube.

Just another example of how the hoplophobes ruin things for everyone.

At least they will still have model train videos. I hope.

On a side note, since this blog platform is hosted by evil (nobody says the G word) I wonder how long it will be allowed to continue. It's not a "gun" blog per se, but there are at least a few firearms related posts here. It's not like I can get completely away from them either, since my cell phone carrier seems to be intimately intertwined with them as well.

Maybe one day I'll have to go back to landlines and snail mail. Oh the horrors.

Oh well. Wha'cha gonna do.

Woohoo!!!

She's back!

Doom on those who drove her away. May you spend eternity in the Special Hell.

This post makes it all worth while (that's a lie, of course...all of them make it all worth while).

And now we do the dance of joy!

11 March 2018

Projects

They just never end...




I have to finish up the last strip on the right, it was too dark to drag the table saw out by the time I had gotten this far. After that is the trim along the edges and doorway thresholds, and then the baseboards and door trim. The wife wants to go with simple 1x4 or 1x6 baseboards and door trim. I'm not objecting, it's quick and easy.

This flooring looked so good when it went down that now she's thinking about running it through the rest of the house. I kind of wish she had decided that before I cut that near edge off, but that's fine. They make a T shaped wood strip that will cover the seam just fine.

But that's a project for another weekend.

20 February 2018

It's Not That We Aren't Listening

It's that we've heard it all before. Gun control, yadda yadda, scary rifles, blah blah blah, FOR THE CHIIIIILDRENNNNN (and may I point out to you that accusing us of not loving our children is not conducive to getting us to agree to your inane schemes that have proven to a) not work and b) be extremely destructive of personal liberties).

Observe:

Evil AR-15 thundercannon murderstick
 This is an AR-15. It is the generic term for a rifle originally designed by the Armalite Corporation (hence the A in AR) and sold to Colt in 1959. It is a semi automatic magazine fed rifle chambered in .223 Remington. It has been available to the civilian market since 1964, but after the original patents expired in 1977 the market really exploded. The select fire version, designated the M-16, went into service in 1961when the US Air Force purchased 8500 of them. The AR-15 is the most popular sporting firearm in America today. I probably should own one some day.

Nice Ruger Mini-14 like Grandpa used to have
This is the Ruger Mini-14. It is also a semiautomatic magazine fed rifle chambered in .223. Functionally there is absolutely no difference between the two rifles; they are chambered in the same cartridge, have the same size magazines available, and have the same rate of fire (just as fast as you can work the trigger). The Mini-14 is also a very popular sporting firearm.

If you show these two pictures to a hoplophobe they will most likely wet their pants in sheer terror of the first one and not mind the second one so much since it looks so much like Grandpa's squirrel rifle. After all, they are trying to be reasonable, they don't want to take your guns...right?


Ruger Mini-14 Tactical
yeah...

OK, fine...

I have been taken to task for my lack of blogging.

Not really, but it was pointed out to me that I haven't done it for a while.

So, here's what I've been up to:


 This dollhouse has been a work in progress for several years, Laura bought it ten or eleven years ago. I finally got it done and took it to Florida for the eldest grand-daughter. She's going to have to finish the shingles on the roof, but all the structure is complete at least.

 Along with the bathroom we are also pulling up all the carpet in the house. We got the front room more or less complete (SWMBO still hasn't decided what final floor covering she wants) and moved the bookshelves in what will become the library when I get around to relocating a few walls.

 My Little Pony got a styling bar for my birthday, I've wanted to put one on it for a while and now I have.

 Eldest Boy finally moved out and I got my train room back!



 I had some passenger equipment custom painted. Above is a 4-6-4 Hudson streamline locomotive in Erie paint. To the best of my knowledge the Erie never had Hudsons, much less streamlined ones, but it sure does look good. It leads a set of streamline cars that I also had painted in the Erie scheme...just before finding a full set of factory painted cars at the local hobby shop.

Below is a set of heavyweight passenger cars in Norfolk and Western paint. Of course, as soon as I had them painted a set of factory painted ones showed up at a train show...

 I also had a semi-streamlined Pacific painted for the N&W. Again, as far as I know the N&W did not have semi-streamlined Pacifics. It was a fine running locomotive when I disassembled it for paint. Unfortunately it isn't any more. It will look good on the display line I guess.  Maybe one day I'll figure out how to get it to run properly again, but until then I have a pair of J class locos to pull the varnish.

Last but not least, yesterday was the third anniversary of my first date with M. It was snowing, so the restaurant was empty and we had the full attention of the wait staff...which wasn't so good when I was trying to monopolize her attention...but the date went well.

And that's about it.