Happy Birthday, BinkerMom!

The Baby of the Family who has the only baby in the family just turned 29!!

Thank you, Mister Ford

Thank you for helping end the long National Nightmare. Thanks also for reaching your final peace and coincidentially knocking all the wind out of Al Sharpton's sails. Who's the ultimate role model? A wife-beating, substance-abusing entertainer? Or an Eagle Scout football player who passed up an NFL contract for law school, served his nation in the Navy, House of Representatives, and the Oval Office. Vaya con Dios, Gerry.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody's holiday found you with family and friends and kept you from reading the blogs...mine especially.

Under the Tree

Uberti reproduction Colt Walker Dragoon .44 caliber cap-and-ball revolver.

Midwestern Meat Mailers...You Suck!

I can live with it if my own Sloth and Procrastination is the reason my Christmas presents get delivered late, but when I drop hundred of bucks into your company to mail high-end frozen goodies to family and friends, you better deliver them when you tell me you will! Don't wait until the expected delivery date to Email me that there's a problem with my credit card...the problem is with your own on-line ordering system! I know that because, against my better judgement, I made an additional order after your first screw-up and got the same error...your system screws up credit card expiration dates! Or is that just your excuse because you're so busy this time of year?

Y'all ought to at least send me a free cheesecake for my trouble.

MMM = not their real name.

It's Not Exactly Catnip, But...

I Gots da Best Lil Bro in the World

After cursing my younger sibling (not pictured) up and down for cheating at cards (or winning...I forget which) and for telling me he'd just received his mail-order Christmas present to me in the mail, but wouldn't let me see it even though he's been driving on the truck tires I'd chipped in for for a whole week, I gotta let up on the guy...he finally let me fondle the greasy goodness of my giftie tonight. Well, he had to check inside the box to see that they got it right.

Tomorrow I journey down to Laurel MD to hang with my buddy Chief and his wife for the weekend. Nothing more serious than rain in the forecast until after Christmas. I know Mama Nature is saving up the suckiness for my return trip.

Y'all do know what I'm getting for Christmas, right?

Earthlink, Maybe

Well, I tried connecting to my account on Lil Bro's computer...and it worked on only the second try! I could be that my 7-year-old Gateway laptop modem sucks ass.

Earthlink, You Suck!

My first nights here, I could connect via dialup from both Mom's house, where I'm staying, and Lil Bro's house. They're in the same area code and phone exchange, yet different counties, and after a couple of days my ability to dial in from Mom's went away. Earthlink lists one other number that I suspect would be a toll call from Mom's, so I'm basically incommunicado from her place; tonight, the connection from Lil Bro's sucked royally (the handshake sounded like signals from Voyager picked up by a 70s transister radio). Service like this tempts me to dump them when I return to AZ and get a real ISP.

December 14

2000
"Fini" Flight on EC-130H
Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona











2001
After Retirement Ceremony
Osan AB ROK











2006
South Tamaqua PA
Drinkin' Coors Light with Lil Bro

PA Farmer's Guns

This Stevens single-shot was my father's first gun, my first deer-hunting weapon (on loan from Dad), and the only firearm in the gun cabinet that I insisted was mine after Dad passed away.

Sure, I've got some "museum guns" that might be as old as these and probably more valuable, money-wise, but these family treasures hold more history to me than a Springfield or Garand which may or may not have seen action. This 16 gauge Stevens has dispatched many a copperhead or ground hog around the barn, as well as a stray kitten stricken with distemper.







My grandfather kept this Ithaca 16 gauge side-by-side in the kitchen corner, with a margarine dish full of shells atop the cabinet next to it. It's claimed several snakes and critters down by the barn, as well as a rattlesnake coiled inside a frying pan in the cellar pantry. My grandmother was equally proficient with it.








I'm not sure about the history of this simple 16 gauge; it had spent decades in the home of my grandfather's cousins and came into Dad's possession after that generation passed away. We've been warned not to fire it.

These guns have something in common: they're no-frills, utilitarian tools for the low-budget farmer.

Adventures in Play-Doh

Snow Goons from Hell!

Road-Tripping

Since I'm going to be schlepping cross-country in the truck this week, why don't y'all amuse yourselves with a caption/photoshop contest?

You can either do something with this pic (Tam's Oleg Volk photoshoot) or photoshop me (or a white Ranger Supercab) at some imaginary stop along my trip.

Contest ends next Monday (Dec. 11) when I should be able to bogart Lil Bro's computer for some roadtrip posting and contest judging.

The Winner is:

OK, smile Mister. Smile, pliss. Hokay, could you smile maybe? Say Chees. Smile, пожалуйста. сынок суки.

*sigh*

by Trainer!

Let Us Eat Cake!

Happy Birthday, Lil Bro!

Since Big Sis has to work on the night of Lil Bro's birthday (Dec 11), we had a get-together the day before. Yipee!

Trip Stuff

Hooray for Memphis! Since last year, its I-40 goat trail has been upgraded to equal Nashville's donkey path! The only city I hit during rush hour was Knoxville (I always seem to hit Knoxville around rush hour, no matter my direction), but the by-pass was efficient and snagfree.

The only hitch on the whole eastbound trek was a giant wide-load with a police escort near Wilcox AZ that kept traffic bumper-to-bumper for almost an hour. Good thing I had automatic transmission and a kickass MP3 player to keep me from getting clutch-cramp and/or road rage.

Made it!

Door-to-door in about 44 hours. I was motivated by snow flurries in TN and VA to get home before that stuff got thicker and started to stick.

Feel pretty beat up, though. Something got kicked up by my long-unused defroster vents -- dust probably -- that irritated my allergies the entire trip. That and shivering violently from pumping gas in zero-degree F wind-chilled air. Time for some beer at Lil Bro's.

Go Figure

Just before the saloon lights go dim for the Holidays....

Thanks to Law Dog for the traffic. The Blog Suckage starts tomorrow...unless I don't feel driving again.

Some Gun Show

Got Distracted

Yeah, I'd intended to leave this morning. I changed my mind. I can do that.

Fixed

Darned booger-hooks in the trigger guards....

Yeah, I'll Keep the Camera Handy

Nope, wasn't mine (I usually take the I-10/20/30 route through Texas).

I Thought You Knew That

For You Bad People Out There

Thinking of burglarizing the Hacienda while I'm gone:

Beware the Decoys!

I Gotta Be Meeeeeeeeeee-ow!

Cat-shun/Photoshop Contest!

That's "caption," folks. Got a funny line to fill the speech balloon? Leave it in comments. Hilarious photoshop? Send it in or post the URL in comments! You could win a one-week BlogAd on my sidebar!

Contest ends Monday night (this post remains on top until then).






Update: The poets beat the P-shoppers! And it's a tie! Lawdog's Feast of St. Kitten speech and Chris Byrne's Hamcat "to nap or not to nap" rendering topped an extremely entertaining field of submissions. Great job, everybody!

Photoshop authors: TD / CB / EHROSS / Marc / Marc /Bagelblogger /El Capitan / Serr8d








































Other Contests:

Outside the Beltway
GOP & the City
Right Pundits
Bagel Blogger
The Right Place
Wizbang
Gone Rick Motel
RightLinx
Willisms
Bravo Zulu
Electric Venom
Bullwinkle Blog
Sgt Stryker

All Wound Up

And no place to shoot. It's a sad feeling to download half a dozen P-16 magazines into a recycled peanut butter jar. Kinda throws a hitch into my plans to bring the P-14 out next year...what, with all this yummy .40 ammo out of the box waiting for a sunny Arizona day of shooting.

The three mags of .223 I won't download...heck, I'll take the Bushy on my roadtrip East with me. I only need to avoid New Joisey...I can do that with one brain tied behind my back. I might actually do some shooting while I'm home (I'm handing my BDM on to my B-i-L, Binker-Dad, this Xmas)...if it's not too freakin' freezing!

When Ya Gotta Go...

Ya gotta Gooooooooooooooooooooooooaaallllll!

Rather Disappointed

I knew it was too good to be true: four matches in five weeks! The December USPSA match was called today on account of wind just like last year. Now begins the shooting drought until the Cactus League shakes its 2007 schedule out with the Ben Avery folks and those carpetbagging snowbird cowboys who hog our range in January.

Friday Fertography

Mmmm...Cookies....

Donated platelets at the ARC today. They asked politely if I wouldn't mind having a supervised trainee take my history and stuff. Sure, why not? The nice lady trainee had input a lot of data into the laptop, then asked, "May I ask why you are donating today?"

"Because the Lady on the phone asked me to."

The supervisor piped in, "How about 'To give back to the Community?'"

Jeez, Luis! What was wrong with MY answer? It's probably multiple choice. Should have asked what the other choices were. Next time my reply will be, "Because on my previous donation, I didn't finish The Last Samurai DVD and I don't want to ruin the resale value of the DVD I still have in the plastic.

Actually, this time I watched Godzilla, and even though I was able to give two units of platelets, I still didn't finish the movie. That's okay, since I picked one of which I'd seen the ending, but not the beginning. They would have let me finish the movie, but I was already looking forward to my can of Welch's Grape Juice and a package of Nutter Butters. And a pack of mini chocolate chip cookies. I almost never buy cookies for home, and even my road trip travel bag is heavy on beef jerky and cheese/peanut butter cracker packs, but no sweets. But I love me my free cookies at the ARC cantina!