Life At the Refuge

Work has begun on TDP. The head got taken off yesterday and sure enough, three of the four intake valves and at least one exhaust valve has tapped the pistons. Estimates for the head work run in the $400 range. I'll be glad to get it out of my driveway.

BIL has dumped a piece of junk on me as well, he brought his Toyota down for Eldest Son to repair. We are now waiting on parts, but I promise that I won't wait very long.

There will be a new shed arriving soon, I ordered a 12x20 footer that should serve nicely for motorcycle storage and repair. This one has high enough walls for lofts, which will supply some much-needed storage space for the seasonal supplies. The smaller shed will then become the home of the lawn mowers.

The riding lawn mower has worn out another of it's spindles, the same spindle that has already been replaced in fact. The lawn mower parts guy says it's common, he thinks it's because it is on the discharge end and should have been made heavier. I think it's all in the pulley, they are stamped metal and should have a milled hub (my opinion). A new spindle and three new blades are on the way and soon it should be mowing as it should.

The state of Iowa has decided I can keep my license. While I was back on vacation I got a little exuberant passing a truck and netted myself a nice little ticket. Since the speed was in excess of 25 MPH over the limit it was considered a severe violation. A little begging and pleading and I'm on probation until this time next year. Cruise control is your friend!

Last but not least, my checking account has been charged for Monster Hunter: Vendetta so it will soon be on it's way! I'm rather proud of myself, I've had a copy of the E-arc and have not even looked at it (although I did not delete it either, so the temptation was always there).

UPDATE: Shipped, ETA 4 October 2010. Soon, very soon...

Link

The Big Ditz. Just cause I loved the phrase "hugging the bear" enough to want to steal it, but credit where it is due.

Awesome

I found this at The Other McCain. I don't even remember what the post was about, but these guys RAWK!

Better Late Than Never

I missed my chance to die horribly in Monster Hunter: Alpha, but I will be dying in what I hope to be a loud, gruesome and awe-inspiring manner in a future Larry Correia book.

Hopefully he can work my new shooty stick into the action somewhere as well.

If you have not already done so, please take a moment to investigate your opportunity to die for a good cause as well.

UPDATE: Yes!!!! I have a good chance of being eaten by werewolves!

Cospunk? Steamplay?

Whatever it is, you can thank McGoo.


























































Click to embiggenate.
(This last one seems to be pretty well armed.)

Up To The Challenge

A little over a week ago Aggie Sith issued the Challenge of the Sith. It's basically a "tell me ten things about yourself" meme. So without further ado, here are my ten things.

1) I have never been a liberal. Even when I was in grade school I was pretty sure that Jimmy Carter was an idiot and that if you punish those who do good things pretty soon no one would do anything good. "Tax the rich, feed the poor, till there are no rich no more" always seemed to me to be a warning that we would be wise to heed.

2) I am the son of a son of a Sailor. My grandfather was a Seabee heavy equipment mechanic in WW2 who told my father that he didn't want his kids to be Sailors or mechanics. I'm sure I would have either been a source of great disappointment or great pride to him, having been both Sailor and mechanic (on Navy aircraft).

3) I am an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church (and you can be one, too, if you follow that link). The only reason I did it was because one of the people in a chatroom I used to frequent was one and used it as his "moral superiority" for any arguments he would make. I got ordained so that I could follow his "As an ordained minister, I think..." with an "As an ordained minister, I think you are a jackass" of my own.

4) I am a Darwinist at heart. I believe that stupidity should be painful, and occasionally fatal, and that the only thing that safety equipment has done is make it harder for the truly stupid to kill themselves off, and humanity is dumber as a result. For reasons that should be obvious, I hate ambulance chasing lawyers.

5) Both of my parents have been ordained ministers (Oral Roberts University instead of Universal Life Church, with divinity degrees and everything). My father still is one. My parents became ordained ministers after all of their children had left the house, so although I am technically a "preacher's kid" I wasn't one while I was a kid.

6) I have five children, but I only helped to create one of them. One of them is a red-headed step-child and another is actually my great-grandson if the family lines are all drawn out, so I am my own grandpa. The only one I helped to create was raised by her mother in Wyoming so she was spared all of this insanity.

7) I will occasionally mangle the English language on purpose to see if anyone notices. One of my former shipmates used to get crazy about it because I was "obviously intelligent so why do you DO that?!?!?!?" I didn't tell him that it was because I thought it was funny that he got so nuts over it because I figured if he knew he would stop letting it bother him and rob me of my amusement.

8) I have always had a fondness for unusual vehicles. One of my current vehicles is a Subaru Baja, and the one before that was a Dodge Rampage.

9) The first motor vehicle I ever owned was a motorcycle. I have owned at least one motorcycle ever since. I currently have two (a Harley and a Suzuki), neither of them run, and I don't have a current motorcycle license so neither of them are registered.

10) I have never broken a bone or had major surgery. Other than being short for my weight I am unreasonably healthy.

Finally!

Maybe we'll be able to get us some flying cars here like they promised!

HT: Ace of Spades HQ

The Wisdom of Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett, creator of the Discworld:

"In every case there was a chorus that forecast, more or less the end of the world. Well, here we are and if the world is ending it would appear to be for other reasons. People, you and me, are not trusted. The right doesn't like us because we don't do what we're told by our betters, and the left doesn't like us because it secretly thinks we would be on the right given half a chance and a lottery win. And both think we should not make our own decisions, because we might make the wrong ones."

and

"We are presented with a version G.K.Chesterton's game 'Fool the Prophet'. Governments and religions make rules that the compliant populous puts up with right up until they decide not to."

It is probably fortunate for him that he is not an American citizen, otherwise I would write his name in for President. I might still.

Looky! Linky!

I don't know why I had not added fellow Rott LC Aggie Sith to the old blog roll. This glaring oversight has been corrected. LC Aggie Sith coblogs with ArmedGeek, so it's a twofer.

Also welcome Laura from Fetch My Flying Monkeys. She's a "stream of consciousness" blogger, so you never know what you're going to find.

Lastly but certainly not leastly, welcome Mr Bingley from The Coalition Of The Swilling.

Enjoy!

Lifted From The Other McCain:

Submitted without further comment:

Hey, I’ve got an idea: How about asking voters in Delaware to compare the two candidates?

No contest. And besides, she’s right: You really do masturbate too much. Cut it out, you sick freaks.

Awards

I haven't yet written a detailed post about Staff Sergeant Giunta because he hasn't yet officially been awarded. As soon as he is, I will enter his name in the Last Refuge Hall of Heroes.

I just wanted you all to know that I am paying attention.

Hello

If you are here because Patrick sent you, tell him that you found me to be a charming, witty and handsome fellow.

No need to let reality intrude, right?

Representing

My Congresscritter was in town and didn't even let me know.

I don't think he likes me.

HT: The Other McCain

Burning Down The House

If you find it offensive that some would object to the building of a mosque two blocks from ground zero because of the concepts of freedom of speech, why do you find it offensive that others would want to burn books? Isn't the concept of freedom of speech still the same?

And the only thing that Gen. Petraeus said was this will make it harder for the troops to do their jobs and put them in more danger. To all of you who were bothered by that statement, what's the big deal? Does he not have the right to voice an opinion as well?

And to all of you who opine that the lives of US troops are made to be sacrificed, I have as much contempt for you as I did for the leftists that espoused the same beliefs not long ago, and the same vitriolic level of hatred for you. How dare you presume to spend such precious coin so carelessly?

Once again, the bottom line is just because you can doesn't necessarily follow that you should.

Someone To Look Over Me

Today I took the clan out to practice our zombie elimination skills.

Along for the ride was the .223 Saiga, the .22 Marlin and the new semiauto shotgun.

Also along for the ride was middle daughter and youngest son, the first time for both of them.

Last night in preparation for today's events I went over the Four Rules with youngest son, with the admonition that he would not be allowed to touch firearms without being able to tell me what they were. This morning he passed the test admirably.

The Marlin is still a tack driver, it consistently hits in the center at any range. It's a great little gun to teach new shooters with, but it is a bit large yet for youngest son. I'll have to get him a junior size one for his own until he grows a bit.

The Saiga shoots a bit high at longer ranges, so it will have to be slightly adjusted. Youngest son fell in love with the Evil Black Rifle, but he is a bit slight of stature yet to fire it well. Middle daughter shot a few rounds out of it and she was done.

The semiauto 12 gauge Franchi shot well, but it's plugged for 3 shots. I'll have to dig through the owner's manual and find out how to take that out.

When I shot the Saiga I was shooting at a 3" swinging target and doing pretty well with it until it disappeared. Turns out instead of hitting the center point of the target, which is what I was aiming at, I was hitting the bar that it hung from instead and two shots took the bar right off. The two shots that actually hit the target itself nearly penetrated the 3/8" steel that the target was made of.

With the swinging target neatly disposed of, the last victim of the day was a 2 liter soda bottle filled with water. I took my turn and couldn't hit it at all, Middle Daughter took one shot and missed it as well, but Eldest Son, aiming for the bottom of the bottle, put a round neatly through the center of the top about 2" below the cap. We never found the cap.

As to the title of the post, I pulled the guns and ammo out from the closet where they are stored and put them on the bed prior to loading up the Baja. As we carried everything out to the truck, Eldest Son found a golden band on the bed with the words "First Best 10 Years" inscribed inside. It was my wedding band, lost these past 6 months. Laura had it inscribed for me on our 10th anniversary.

There Goes Another One

Once more, just because you can doesn't necessarily follow that you should.

Even if the shoe is on the other foot this time.

HT: Marko, the Munchkin Wrangler

Some Days

it's just not worth going to the store.

Or as the fighter pilots used to tell me, some days you eat the bear and some days the bear eats you.

Maybe more appropriately in this case, some days the deer hits your Kia and some days you eat that deer with Heinz 57. Sometimes it's even the same day.

At any rate, see if you can go help out a fellow American who's down on his luck. Even if they haven't acknowledged my presence.

Photo from The Other McCain

Cruise In

I attended my first cruise-in today and had a great time. There were lots of sharp looking cars and mine got some looks and comments as well, even though I had not polished it up to show. It was the only brand-new GT with the 5.0 Coyote motor, so that got a lot of admiring looks.

There was one other California Special (a 2007) and lots of other good looking Mustangs including a 66 convertible (the red one in the picture). The blue car is a supercharged Cobra and the black one is the 2007 GT/CS. There was also a 2004 Mach 1 and a Saleen of the same body style.

The lesser pony cars were represented by several 60's Camaros, a 'Cuda and some 70's vintage Challengers, and a brand-new SS Camaro. There was also one Firebird, one Model T wagon, and a couple of nice looking pickups as well. A slew of restorations and rods rounded out the mix, one of the more notable being a 59 Fairlane Skyliner with the continental kit. All together there were probably 50 - 75 cars.

A good time was had by all.

Picture taken with my crappy cell phone camera, I'll have to remember to bring a good one next time.

Just So You Know

I have always been a gun liker, but just because I have made a few purchases recently doesn't mean the Refuge will become a gun blog.

I did just pick up a new semi-auto 12 gauge Franchi from my neighbor though.

I also picked up a 100 round box of shells from the local Wally World.

I can't wait to shoot it.

Yay!

The Refuge has recently acquired anti-zombie equipage.

Middle daughter now wants to learn how to make holes in things.

We will now do the happy dance.

Thatisall.