The M&P is sweet!

Well, yesterday afternoon I finally got the opportunity to run a box of ammunition through the S&W M&P 40 Compact that followed us home a little while ago. Nice shooting gun! With a 3-1/2″ barrel it’s not exactly a long range target pistol, but that’s not what I bought it for. What surprised me Continue reading “The M&P is sweet!”

We seem to have trouble learning new things.

If there is one thing I hope we have learned from the present conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is that US involvement in the Middle East can have no positive outcome. Involvement by pretty much ANYONE in the Middle East can have no positive outcome. When you’re dealing with governments and groups led by people who lack the slightest shred of common thought patterns, you just can’t expect to be able to play in their sandbox. Continue reading “We seem to have trouble learning new things.”

Post-Christmas bloat

Some year I’d like to figure out how to convince myself I really do not need to eat enough for a small town during family get-togethers.   I think I did better this year than last, but it’s still going to take some gym time to work this off.   It may actually work out better for the dog.   Now that I have a decent hat to keep my ears from freezing, I may start taking the poor little guy out for walks again.   It’s easy to do when it’s warm, but at 20 degrees and windy it’s far too easy to just let him run in the yard and chase him around the house.

Well, back to the gym like the rest of the winter lemmings…

Is it just me…

or did the snow come about a week or two too early this year? I wasn’t quite done with things in the back yard when it started. I’m hoping we get a reprieve, maybe just a few days of decent temperatures with the snow melted off. I’ve got antenna work to finish!!

Successful quest!

Well, we did find helmets last night. We started with what we figured were the two best chances to find a decent selection. Both had a good stock of helmets – as long as you wear one size, and don’t want a flip-up modular. We left both places with the same story — “Well, our stock isn’t so good new, it’s out of season”. This from a motorcycle dealer, and a motorcycle parts & accessories dealer? In the Spring we’ll hear, “Well, stock is low, everyone’s buying now”.

So we ended up at Dillon Brothers H-D. Less than an hour later we had a matching pair of modular helmets, both of which fit. They had them in our size. Imagine that. Yes, they’re KBC like everyone else has, but with a little higher price tag… but they HAD them. Now all I have to do is get two new headsets…

Mixed blessings

On one hand, the emergence of the Internet has been a huge blessing to many of us. I’d even say most of us. Access to information (some of it even correct some of the time) has been greatly improved.

On the other hand, just TRY to find a specialty shop that carries anything you need. Sheesh. Continue reading “Mixed blessings”

There’s no reaction quite like a knee-jerk reaction…

I received an email today, another forwarded message with someone’s teary reflections on how sad the world is. This one dealt with the recent Westroads mall shootings in Omaha, which are still pretty fresh in our minds. Locally, at least – the national news has pretty much forgotten them already and moved on to the next catastrophe. Part of the email read:

“We’ve learned that while the gun lobby keeps saying “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” that in this case “people with guns kill people.” We need to find a way to keep adolescents and guns away from each other, and that no hunter needs a semi-automatic assault rifle with armor-piercing bullets to kill Bambi.”

It saddens me to see that some people are shifting the focus away from the human reason for this tragedy, and onto the convenient scapegoat again. I’m not the least bit surprised, of course; it was only a matter of time. Usually this time is measured in minutes, if not seconds.

Let’s start with the glaring factual errors first: The moron was 19, not an “adolescent”, a mentally Continue reading “There’s no reaction quite like a knee-jerk reaction…”

What, me blog?

I’ve resisted this for a long time now, but I’ve finally decided to give it a try. So, with the software installation being so bloody simple (thanks, GoDaddy!) I’ve started blogging.

Woo-hoo.