Erf Day

It was Monday, and I completely missed it. I was at work that day.

Heck, I even drove the Subaru in, the Mustang never stirred from the driveway! I've been seriously remiss.

Good thing Iowahawk is on the job!

UPDATE: And the winner is...

sometimes I wonder about this guys sense of humor.

Quality Time

These came in today.

I'm surprised at myself, I thought I had mentioned ordering some but now I can't find it. Due to the backlog they took 3 months to get in, but the long wait is finally over.

I also have some .270 Weatherby to reload for one of my co-workers, and now I have .45 ACP to reload for me, so I'm going to spend some quality time with my reloading bench.

But first...off to enjoy the sunny day (and see if I can find some H4895 powder locally).

EDIT: Bonus! Graf & Sons has 6.5x50 brass in stock! No luck on the H4895 but the semi-local MoD has IMR so I'll go down tomorrow and check them out, looks like the quality time will commence tomorrow.

Nothing More To Add

The "Little Sister of the Gun Blogosphere" proves why she belongs.

Well said.

Terrible

When I got up I turned on the news and caught the story of a bomb going off at the Boston Marathon.

May God have mercy on the victims, and the Devil have none for the perpetrators.

This Lack of Posting

has been brought to you by Glowbull Warming!

Well, sort of.

Back to work this week, after having two weeks off it was kind of tough getting back into it. That's not all bad though, it's been warm and sunny so I've been driving the convertible in to work. I need to stop that, I don't really like to take it to work in case I get into something really dirty, but I haven't been able to help myself. The car I wasn't going to put a lot of miles on now has 55K on the clock.

We're on mandatory overtime right now (not because we need it, because someone down the hall needs it so the managers figure if they need it everyone else does, too...I imagine it will last up until the bean-counters get the bill) so I'll be going in tonight. I'm forcing myself to take the Subaru.

Tomorrow will be nice and sunny, too. I think I'll try to find something to put on the grill.

End of an Era

The President, the Pope, and now the Prime Minister.

They were instrumental in bringing down the Evil Empire, and now they are gone.

Farewell Lady Thatcher. Britain, and the world, is a poorer place today.

Hot Buttons

We all have something that provokes an immediate reaction.

Cancer is mine. I hate it with a searing intensity that borders on irrationality.

So when someone asks for help, I can't help myself.

Go here.

All Good Things

Yesterday morning (Saturday) was the first Saturday of the month, which means Cars n' Coffee!

These two photos show the three versions of the car jointly produced by Subaru, Toyota and Scion. Subaru made the motor and drivetrain and Toyota made the fuel injection and did the styling. The only thing Scion contributed, as far as I can tell, is a name badge (but then again, they are owned by Toyota).

Vacation ends today. Back to work tonight.

It was fun while it lasted.

Springtime in the South

Sunny and kind of cool yesterday (mid to upper 50's), today is 45 and...sleet? Seriously? Good thing I got the lawn mowed early today before it started. Guess the Mustang will stay in the drive tonight, I have somewhere to be this evening but the Subaru is sure-footed.

Starting tomorrow the sun comes back out, and next week is supposed to be in the lower 70's. We will see how much the forecast changes by tomorrow afternoon. (Not that the weatherman would lie, but he has been known to be mistaken.)

Victory Laps

 The Heart of Carolina Mustang Club met up at Virginia International Raceway today to run some charity laps. This sessions beneficiary was Victory Junction. It was a bit cool, but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. After two sessions we had a group photo taken with Kyle Petty and presented him with the clubs donation. All together between the donation and the laps we raised a bit over $2000 for Victory Junction. More photos can be found here.

I'm happy to say the Continentals performed well. They don't seem to be quite as sticky as the Pirellis, but for the extra tread life I'll gladly make the trade. Not only that, but the Continental DWS tires have delusions of all-weatherability (DWS means Dry Wet Snow) which is something the summer only Pirellis never even pretended at. I still won't press my luck, after all I have a perfectly good Subaru for nasty weather.

Rabble Rouser

Nice work Sean, well done.

By Request

A request has been made to reveal the source of this month's header photo.

I should actually do this for all my header photos, so expect this as a new thing.

Our April header photo is April Macie, comedienne and (of course) redhead extraordinaire. I got the photo here.

Enjoy!

Home Base

Traveling is nice, but it's always good to be back home.

The Story

28:5 And the angel answered and said unto the women,
Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

28:6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.
Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

28:7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead;
and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.

28:8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy;
and did run to bring his disciples word.

Matthew 28:5-8

(The rabbit had nothing to do with it.)

Happy Easter everyone!

Cars n' Coffee, Jacksonville

Son In Law found an online listing of the car events happening here and today (every Saturday from 7 to 9) there was a cruise-in at a donut shop in south Jacksonville.

I took my dog and headed out bright and early. It was a rather small gathering, but several nice cars showed up.

There were three Model A's, I did get one picture of all three of them together but unfortunately it didn't come out right.

In the "they don't build them like that anymore" category is this nice woody Town n' Country. Yes, that coachwork is all real wood, and it looked fantastic.

A little juice for the car, a little juice for the driver...

Quite a few nice rods there as well.

That's a familiar sticker.

The Mustangs were well represented, too. This nice Mach 1 was just one of several ponies to appear.

The rest of the pictures can be found here.

Playing Tourist

I lived in Jacksonville from late '94 to almost 2000 and never once went to St Augustine to do the tourist thing. With the temps in the 70s and a house full of kids to entertain today was the day.

The four of us got there in the afternoon, we found a good parking spot and walked through the old jail first. After going through the gift shop we went down to the ticket booth across the road and rode the red train (actually we rode the black train, but it was being used as a red train) and then went through Ripley's.

Boneshaker bicycle

St Augustine Old Jail

 Castillo de San Marcos

House made from redwood log, that's Grand-daughter posing for the picture

 The Great Cross, Mission of Nombre de Dios, St Augustine FL

We didn't get to go through the fort or see the Fountain of Youth, but they will be there another day. Sonny's BBQ rounded out the days events.

All in all, a fun day.

Book Reports

I've been remiss, there are several books I've finished that I should have told you about. Allow me to correct my oversight now.

All of these books can be had through the Amazon Kindle store, but a few (Terms of Enlistment, any of the Sabrina Chase books) can be had straight from the author's websites which usually nets them a little more coin. I've put up links to the authors websites where appropriate. I usually get them from the Kindle store just because its easier to download them to my 'droid.

In the order which they appear on my Kindle app (love that thing, but I really could stand a bigger screen. Problem is that would take a bigger device, and the 'droid is already pushing my limit where communications devices are concerned. But I digress):

The Scent of Metal by Sabrina Chase. So far I've liked everything by Sabrina Chase, and this is no exception. Pluto is no planet, but what it is may surprise you. Highly recommended.

The Flux Engine by Dan Willis. Steampunk in the old west starring Wild Bill Hickok, a rollicking fun read that would be great for anyone who likes the steampunk genre.

Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos. Marko is well known for his essays (particularly "Why the Gun Is Civilization") that have been bandied about on and off the net, mostly attributed incorrectly, but this is his first novel. Long time readers of The Munchkin Wrangler know what to expect as far as style; Terms of Enlistment is a good solid mil sci-fi read that will not disappoint.

"The Long Way Home", "Queen of Chaos" and "Raven's Children", the Sequoyah Trilogy by Sabrina Chase. Did I mention that I have liked everything so far by Sabrina Chase? More space novels, this one follows a space pilot with an interesting past that has a secret to tell someone...if she can just figure out who that someone should be.

Space Eldritch, a compilation that I got from one of Larry Correia's book bombs. I didn't really care much for it.

Old Habits by Christopher Taylor, I started reading this one when he was publishing it on his now defunct website and got sucked into the story. I was very glad to see him actually publish this one. It's the story of a thief who finds himself in strange circumstances trying to track down his loot in a medieval magical world.

So that's what I've been reading. I liked everything but Space Eldritch, it just wasn't my cuppa tea but someone else might like it. Hopefully it gives you a few ideas.

Enjoy!

Karmic Opportunity

Go grease some wheels.

Gator State

and raining. Liquid sunshine.

But it was already in the mid 60's when I got up at 9 this morning.

It's going to get colder this week, it's going to be all the way down in the lower 60's the first part of the week and only get to the mid 60's the last part of the week. I'll definitely need a jacket while I'm cruising around with the top down, at least Tuesday and Wednesday.

Weather at home during the same time frame isn't expected to climb out of the low 50's.

It's a burden I must bear.

UPDATE: By 3 PM it was sunny and in the low 80's. Burden indeed.

Tough Love

This past week as I was suffering under the nasty bug, Eldest Son got himself locked up.

To hear him tell the story he didn't actually do anything, but he was riding around with someone who had enough weed on him to warrant a possession with intent charge.

He has had a lifetime of poor choices, with the entirely predictable bad results, but none of them have ever been his fault, of course. This is called "bad luck" by those who don't realize that we make our own luck.

Anyway, he burned up the phone lines at $10.00 per call (on my plan, naturally) to his sisters trying to get bailed out without letting me know about it, but finally had to call me to tell me what had happened. The first call he told me that he wouldn't be home for a while.

The second call was to tell me if I would put my property up as bail he could get out.

Last tax assessment period the house and land was assessed at $157K. His bail is $600.

He was hurt and surprised when I declined this generous offer.

My tax return came in this week as well, and I had already planned what I was going to do with it. First I was to replenish the credit card for the tire purchases and wheel repairs made earlier in the month, and then I was going to put exhaust on the car, and finally it was vacation time.

Bottom line, I had the money to bail him out. In fact, I still do. And I could go downtown right now and bail him out.

Just as I always have.

Eight years ago he came to North Carolina from Florida to "straighten his life out" and get back on track. Eight years later he has accomplished nothing towards that goal.

He still doesn't have his GED. He has no vocational skills training that would help him get a good job. He hasn't worked a real job in over five years. He owes the state of Florida $24K on back child support and fees so he doesn't have his drivers license. No forward progress, and a bit of backwards progress.

He doesn't realize it just yet, but his life has changed. He will start his new life by sitting in jail until his April 1st court date. He will turn 30 years old the day after. We will see if he will spend that birthday in jail as well. When he does get out he will find that Dad is no longer willing to pay his bills.

One year from the day he gets out of jail he will have his GED, or he won't live at my house any more.

Two years from the day he gets out of jail he will have some sort of vo-tech training in progress, or he's out.

Three years from the day he gets out of jail he will be working in his new profession, or he's out.

Four years from now he's out anyway because I'm selling the house and getting out of the kid raising business altogether. By then Youngest Son will be 18 and he had better be graduated from school and starting on his new career path that doesn't include "sponge off of Dad" because he knows that option has been closed. At least his older brother has served as a good bad example in that regard, and I'm happy to say he's been scoring straight A's for the past few months.

He will get one single apology from me. I will apologize for not kicking his ass eight years ago.

His bail money sure does sound great on the car though.

UPDATE:  Recent developments have me cautiously optimistic. He called me today and, without me prompting him, laid out his new life's plan which pretty much paralleled my life's plan for him. He usually figures out the right thing to do once he runs out of all the other options.

He even told me he didn't expect me to believe him, so he would just prove himself to me. We'll see if he sticks to it. That will be the real test.