So, This Happened...

I would have had this posted for Friday's car pr0n, but I was still pretty much in shock. Last Thursday, the new car had a baptism by fire...

Yeah. The plate means exactly what you think it means...

That's the result of being the last car hit in a four-car pileup on Route 66, the main east-west corridor feeding Northern VA into DC. It's been the bane of my existence for more than two years now, except now it has started escalating the stakes... Basically, a truck didn't see that traffic had stopped and rear-ended another vehicle, pushing it into the car in front of it that then hit me.

Yeah, it's a mess.

VA does things differently than in MA, and in this case, better. Back in MA, what I would have had to do in this case is file a claim against the guy behind me for damages. He, in turn, would file a claim against the person who hit him for both his damages and my damages he was responsible for. Repeat for the person behind him, until the vehicle that caused the wreck gets a claim filed against it for the vehicle it hit, plus the two vehicles in front.

There's a lot of paperwork involved. Here in VA, all three vehicles ahead of the truck go directly after the guy who started the mess. Oh, and to make things even better? A VA State Trooper was on scene as it happened - he even mentioned to me that he caught the initial impact on his dash camera...

Oh, there's another difference. Immediately after the accident, the trooper came over to my car and got my license and registration so he could fill out the paperwork. When he came back to give my info back, I started to hand him my CHP just in case. He stops me, says, "I saw it when you got your license out." and then - miracle of miracles - didn't freak out or anything. But I digress...

So now, my time is filled with appraisals, body shops and insurance companies. So far, everyone appears to be competent, but I'll reserve judgement until the car is fixed. My wife commented that I was remarkably calm about the whole thing, considering that my car is less than 6 months old and all. I guess it's a sign of age - combined with it being a very sensible RAV4 and not the Hemi Challenger in bright green that I really wanted...

Life is always interesting, if nothing else...

That is all.

They Say It's Your Birthday...

You know who's birthday is today? This guy:

Yep. TheBoy turns 15 today. FIF-TEEN. He's about 6 months old  this picture. He's now taller than I am. In six months he's eligible for his learner's permit. LEARNER'S. PERMIT. The little tiny baby that I used to hold in the crook of my arm is three years away from being an adult. THREE. YEARS.

Man, but it goes by quick. I got one of those "Facebook Memories" the other day from 2009. I think it's when I took over as Cubmaster for TheBoy's Cub Scout Pack. That was like a week ago, at least that's how it seemed. He went from a baby to a toddler to a preschooler to elementary school to middle school to high school in little more than the blink of an eye.

And in another blink, he'll be heading off to college, getting married, and having kids of his own. It's that whole "circle of life," "sunrise, sunset," "cat's in the cradle" thing going on. No one ever lies on their deathbed wishing they'd spent more time at the office, etc. One thing that dawned on me this year, as we planned our family vacations, was that we probably only have a few more years' worth. In another year he'll have a job; possibly a girlfriend, etc. Year after that he'll be looking at his senior year in high school. Then getting ready to head off to college.

We gotta make these next few years COUNT, knowwhattamean?

Anyways, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!!! I don't think you read this blog (and if you do, well, when you read through the archives just remember that dad tries to moderate the expletives IRL...), but someday when you're older I hope you find it and read the entries on you. I'm all kinds of proud of you, pal, and couldn't love you more if you were twins. I still say it and you (for now) still say it back, but I love you buddy.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go get this, err, dust of of my eyes.

That is all.

So, It's Been A While...

Yeah, with the holidays and all, life kinda got away from me for a bit. Consider it a year-end hiatus. In the past two weeks, I've had Christmas with all three families (hers, mine and ours); driven up to Massachusetts on Christmas day, driven into Boston, and put about a thousand miles on a rented box truck.

It's been pretty exhausting.

Driving from VA to MA on Christmas Day was actually pretty damn sweet. We left our house in VA at 8:00 AM Christmas morning, and pulled into my parents' driveway in northeast MA at 3:30, without breaking any significant traffic laws. We even drove through NYC, figuring (rightly) that traffic would be at a minimum. My son had the quote of the ride driving up 95 through NYC: "Dad, it looks like North Korea!"

We arrived in time for Christmas dinner with my family. If you've never had Christmas dinner with an Italian family, you haven't properly experienced overindulgence. I counted eight separate courses, not counting the three extra rounds of dessert and considering the antipasto and salad to be one course. Christmas is the one day out of the year that I don't count calories at all, and I make the most of it.


One of the main purposes of the visit was to work on clearing out my father-in-law's house. Monday saw us running around getting his car checked out by a mechanic (it's being willed to TheBoy for his first car, which is pretty frickin' sweet, especially considering it's a PT Cruiser - no racing in *that*!), then braving the wilds of Boston to see one of the farewell performances at Medieval Manor. I'd been twice before, as a younger man, and they really closed the place down right.

Wednesday I picked up a box van from U-Haul to bring some larger items back to VA (one of which will be featured later this week...). Started off delivering furniture to one of my wife's cousins, who lives in a densely-packed city on the north shore of Boston. That was a treat. Although the next day was even more exciting, hauling beds and dressers up to the cottage in Maine - including down a dirt road covered in snow that provided about the same amount of traction as a banana peel on a skating rink. Oh, and there was 6" of snow to shovel through to get in the driveway...

The U-Haul presented some interesting issues, namely that, even though it is the second-smallest truck they rent, it's still heavy enough to be considered a truck, and as such, our normal route home over the Garden State Parkway was not passable. I wasn't even going to consider taking a box van through NYC, so we traveled way west into PA and down route 81. It added a good hundred miles to the ride home, but absolutely no traffic. Made it home in 9.5 hours, longer than many previous trips but better than a good number.


It is good to be home.

That is all.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation...

I took the kids to King's Dominion for three (well, 2.5) days of roller coaster fun. The Mrs. took them to WI to visit with family the previous week, and they had a great time playing at the water park with their cousins and visiting the county fair. This week they spent the first half riding roller coasters and going on water rides.


I'd forgotten how great a good roller coaster can be for bonding. There's something about the shared experience of adrenaline and terror that just brings a family together...

This is the Shockwave. It's a stand-up loop coaster. It is also the oldest stand-up coaster currently in operation in the US. It's also being retired after this year, so this was its swan song, and I'm glad my kids got a chance to ride it.

Here's the Rebel Yell. It's not a fancy loop coaster, or a speed demon, or anything like that. It's an old-fashioned, wooden-frame roller coaster that spans a rather sizable chunk of the park. The ride lasts 2 1/2 minutes, one of the longer coasters, and is - for a wooden coaster - one of the more gentle rides (the other wooden coasters were, well, less 40-something friendly when it came to knocks on the ol' spine...).

In the middle is the Ricochet, a variation on the "make really sharp turns and make you think the coaster is going to fall off" rides, with the Hurler wooden coaster (made famous in "Wayne's World" in the background). Yes, we're on the Ferris wheel for this picture, and yes, that's exactly why I went on the Ferris wheel...

Lastly, though, is the most modern roller coaster we went on:

The Intimidator. An homage to Dale Earnhardt, it stands 305 feet tall and propels riders to speeds in excess of 90 MPH. Folks can and do black out from the G-force. That's an 85-degree angle of drop right there...

I went to King's Dominion when I was 17 years old. A friend attended ECU, and I drove down to help him move into his apartment. We took a week and hit both Busch Gardens and King's Dominion, so it's a heady rush to hit these same parks now with my son, who is only 2.5 years younger than I was. Many of the roller coasters were actually the same, which was pretty neat.

I sure handled them better when I was 17, though...

That is all.

They Say It's Your Birthday...

Actually, it's mine. It's a numerically significant one - but only because it ties in with a grail gun. I've made 44 revolutions around the sun as of today, so in that vein, I'm looking to acquire my .44 Magnum grail gun this year: a Smith & Wesson model 29.

But not just any model 29, no. See, that would be easy. What I want is the final piece of the Smith & Wesson target trifecta. I've got the model 17 (.22LR). I've got the model 27 (.357 Magnum). I need the 8 3/8" barrel, target hammer, target trigger, diamond grips version of the model 29.

I've got a year to find it. I may break down and buy the Dirty Harry model (6.5" barrel) if I can't find the 8 3/8" version for a reasonable price ($2K+??? It ain't a Python, folks!). I'd also be amenable to the 10" barrel version for the .44 Magnum.

Keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you come across one, thanks!

That is all.

I'm Not Dead Yet!

Just been out of pocket and crazy busy this week. Keep an eye on the work site for more particulars (but more than likely after NRA Annual Meeting), but I was invited to an extremely cool event this week. It involved new product and training with some industry experts, and basically kicked my rear end six ways to Sunday.

Nothing like good training to make you realize just how much more training you really need...

Anyways, things will kinda sorta be back to normal for a very short while, and then all kinds of crazy next week. NRA AM is our busiest time (for obvious reasons), and while I will be attending this year in Nashville, it's anyone's guess if I will have a spare second the entire weekend.

And *then* things can kinda sorta get back to normal...

That is all.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Feelin' Oooold...

So, I was reminded that "The Breakfast Club" is 30 years old. Yikes. Yeah, "Back to the Future" is the same age, and come this October, it will actually *be* the date that they traveled forward to in "Back to the Future2". Again, I say "yikes."

Now, I haven't watched a lot of recent movies, certainly not teen comedies, but one of the things that jumped out at me when I was a teenager was the prevalence of the 1950s. BTTF is probably the most representative, but there's a number of other movies either set in the '50s (like "The Wanderers") or featuring cars from the '50s (like "The Heavenly Kid" - also released in 1985).

Obviously it was a shout-out to my parents' generation, who would presumably be taking the kids to the movies and would enjoy seeing the time frame of their youth. This must have been a winning formula in Hollywood in the 1980s, given the number of movies containing throwbacks to the '50s and '60s. My folks would have been teenagers in the '50s and young adults in the 1960s; taking their teenaged son to a movie in 1985 would have put them in their early '40s - pretty much my age now.

Should I, then, be looking for a glut of movies aimed at my son and daughter that are set in 1985? Can we eagerly look forward to a movie containing 1985 Chevrolet Celebrity's and 1984 Plymouth Reliants? I'd wager if you own a mid-1980s Mustang, Camaro, or Dodge Charger it would be a great idea to keep it, as it's a good bet they'll be hot properties should Hollywood decide to reach out to Gen X'ers.

Something tells me, though, that the 1985 Buick Regal isn't going to be the star of any upcoming teen comedies...

That is all.

Some @#$%ing Assembly @#$%ing Required

So, there's an IKEA about 45 minutes away from Freedom House South. This has been an experience. Until we moved, the only thing I knew about IKEA was that it was Scandinavian, like SAAB, vikings, and ABBA. None of these are good things.

We made a trip out early last year to get a bed for BabyGirl G. When we moved, the movers completely destroyed the bed in her room (literally; they pulled it apart in ways it was never intended to be taken apart, rendering it little more than kindling. When we filed the insurance claim, we discovered they'd gone "out of business"...), so she needed something to sleep on (fortunately, we had a twin set and metal frame for the interim). We picked up a desk for TheBoy, as the one he had been using in MA was a computer desk I'd bought when we moved into our apartment in 1995. He was due.

I joke about being "mechanically declined", but in reality I'm pretty good at putting stuff together from a kit. I've assembled TheBoy's bunk bed, BabyGirlG's daybed, several desks, kitchen table and chairs, and other random pieces of furniture as needed. I will almost always put one part together backwards (it's the curse of dyslexia, I swear) and have to partially disassemble the item, but it winds up in the intended shape the vast majority of the time.

The rest of the time, well, that's what we have duct tape and bench grinders for, right?

Last weekend we took a second pilgrimage to IKEA and got some more furniture. BabyGirlG's desk was also damaged in the move and finally succumbed to its wounds, plus she really needs more than the three drawer chest that started life as a changing table. Got everything home last week and assembled the kitchen chairs (pre-teens and teens are *hell* on chairs; I figure the ones the kids are trashing now are my penance for destroying numerous pieces in my parents' house growing up) and a storage unit for our bathroom.

This weekend, I tackled the rest of the furniture.

Och. There wasn't anything difficult, except for one recalcitrant rail system in the file stand turned night stand, but that was simple enough to work around. Desk, night stand, desk topper, and several other incidentals later, and boy can I feel the effects of standing, hunched over, turning screwdrivers and wrenches. I eschew power tools when putting together furniture of indeterminate origin, as too much torque can turn a screw into a drill in microseconds.

It takes its toll on a back and shoulders, I gotta tell ya...

I will hand it to the folks at IKEA. They've got a fine balance between price and quality. Everything that was put together was solid, sturdy, and what wood there was was plentiful. I've assembled more than a few particle board wonders that didn't fare well when placed in contact with water (and one was a coffee table). So far we've been pleased with the items we've gotten at IKEA, the pain spreading across my shoulder blades notwithstanding.

Having a pickup truck plus proximity to IKEA = More Advil Please...

That is all.

Rumors of My Demise...

...Have been somewhat exaggerated.

I've been traveling on business this week, and while it's been great getting to (finally) visit the west coast and see some great folks and facilities, the visit has not been without it's down-sides.

First off, the day before I was scheduled to leave, I had a gout outbreak in my right knee. Shades of last year before the NRA AM when it hit the day I flew to Indy and all that. Managed to get to the doc in a box for meds and it appears to be on the wane now, but the first flight out was sheer agony.

And the flight. Oh, there will be a LOT more on this end. If you're friends with me on Facebook you're aware of my tribulations getting out to OR. I'm waiting until I'm safely home to post specifics, mainly because I have complete and utter faith in United to screw things up further. Be prepared.

Quick synopsis: United's handling of this trip made me long for the competence and customer service I received from JetBlue...

With any kind of luck I'll be home tonight and recovering. Should have my normal car pic up tomorrow, but I'll most likely cogitate over the weekend for the full-blown trip overview (with regards to the travel portion). The folks out here have beeb awesome - I've experienced some of the wonderful weirdness that is the greater Portland area (unicycles! midnight dog walkers! Churches converted to beer halls! stoplights on highway onramps!) I've managed to visit three different facilities and take three factory tours while out here - check the work page for more information on that.

It will be VERY good to get home tonight, although I will NOT be celebrating with any sort of adult beverage (I have localized the gout outbreak to consumption of alcohol as the only change...)

That is all.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Getting My @$$ Kicked...

I know, I know, not a lot of sympathy on this one... Sorry about the lack of posting this week. For those that are friends with me on the Book of Face, you know that I'm in Vegas for SHOT Show this week. I've had about eight minutes to breathe so far this week...

I know, I know, "sympathy" is in the dictionary between s**t and syphilis...

I've been on the go from 7AM until about 10PM every day, and given that I'm still on East Coast time, I'm getting up at 9 AM (EST) and staying up until 3AM... Throw in eating crap, or simply not eating, and I've been getting all kinds of run down. But there's only one full day left...

Will be back to regular posting next week.

That is all.

More Homeowner Trials and Tribulations...

Checked a bunch of little projects off the honey-do list this weekend. Freedom House is ten (going on 11) years old, and little things are starting to wear out, as they tend to do. We've rebuilt one toilet already, and this weekend I rebuilt two more (really just dropping in a new fill valve, which is so pitifully easy even I can do it).

The second toilet rebuild took about five minutes, start to finish, and if I'd had a third valve handy, I'd have gone down into the basement and rebuilt that one as well, that's how easy it was. It's nice to have toilets that flush again... Y'know, it's funny. A $7.50 part and all of a sudden there's no more flush toilet. Pretty much the hallmark of advanced civilization and it can be thwarted by a $0.10 piece of plastic. But I digress.

Also tackled the cold water pipes in the basement, and got about 24 feet covered in insulation. We'd been seeing some condensation when running consecutive loads of laundry, so the pipes got wrapped, and it's a good thing I tackled it when I did, because I found out that the freezer had stopped working...

As it turns out, I caught it pretty soon after it stopped working, because 90% of the contents were still frozen (and the remainder was close enough). The freezer is fine, it turns out; the electrical outlet it was plugged into gave up the ghost. Now, me and electrical work, we have an understanding. I don't attempt it, and it doesn't kill me.

I messed around with some serious electrical in another life, and came very close to making a rather permanent mistake, so I'm a little leery of playing around with anything more electrical than swapping out batteries in the smoke detectors, so I'll defer to an electrician for this (we need to have an electrician out for unrelated work anyways).

One of the things I thought about installing in the basement is a light fixture with an electrical outlet wired in. Dad G. had a couple put into his new workshop, and it seems to be exactly the solution I need for my work area. I picked up a couple cheap 4' fluorescent lights, and with the plug in the light socket, I can turn on both the fluorescent and the standard bulb at the same time.

Then I saw this:

Socket with Outlets.

I've got to be missing something. For $2.50, I get a pair of plugs I can screw into a light socket and control either with a light switch or a pull chain (there's two lights in the workshop, each controlled separately). I think I might pick up a couple and an extra fluorescent fixture and have more light in the basement.

Anyone have experience with these, good or bad?

That is all.

One Year In Freedom...

I missed this milestone last week. We've been in our house here in VA for a year now. As I alluded last week, we moved in just before Christmas, signing papers on our new home two days before Christmas, 2013. I have officially been a Virginian for a year.

One year of freedom. 

I still miss the friends and family left behind in MA. While I can't stand the state, I miss my small town and everyone I knew up there. I keep in touch with folks regularly - one of the great things of living in the future - and I keep tabs on my small town through Facebook and the grapevine. Lots of changes, some good, some not so good.

So, what has changed? Well, mindset, for one. I've discussed owning firearms with parents of my kids' friends without them recoiling in horror (I guess that once they hear who I work for, it comes with the territory). No canceled play dates when they hear that TheBoy's dad owns guns. That's a new treat. No one has thanked me for not causing "gun incidents" anywhere.

And the funny part? Now that I'm away from the "Approved Firearms Roster" and can buy any handgun my heart desires (and my wallet can afford), I've bought exactly two (and both were replacements for guns I sold before leaving MA). I have built three rifles - all of which have bayonet lugs and flash hiders, of course - and acquired at least one 50-round drum mag and a 33-round Glock mag. Because freedom.

We've also done things like explore the Civil War battlegrounds, gone to several minor league baseball games, seen Colonial Williamsburg, found the "Tank Farm" and made a pilgrimage to Busch Gardens. Next summer TheBoy and I are planning on some hardcore tent camping and mountain biking, with exploration of the Blue Ridge Mountain, Appalachian trail and other local areas on the docket.

I'm liking this whole freedom business...

That is all.

Light Week Ahead...

Family obligations up the wazoo this week, not a lot of time to post, sorry.

The holidays are always extra crazy to begin with, but when it encompasses family several states away, it's even harder. Time is even more precious than normal, and trying to get everything we need/want to do in is even harder than in years passed.

Now, granted, it's better than it was last year, but that's not saying much. This time last year we were a day away from closing on our VA house, and had little tracking information on where our worldly possessions were at that moment in time. We knew we'd be spending Christmas in the new house; what we didn't know is whether we would have beds to sleep on.

Everything worked out, and we only lost a handful of secondary items in the move. The movers showed up on December 24th, and left with an empty trailer at 7 PM. We spent Christmas Eve frantically unpacking the boxes we thought we'd need for getting through the week, and wound up having Christmas Eve dinner at Target...

On the plus side, it's the kind of memory that'll stay with you forever, kind of like a kidney stone...

That is all.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Freedom...

So, apparently something happened to Sitemeter. For years and years, I lived and died by the numbers that would pop up when I clicked the link at the bottom of the page, sometimes checking multiple times a day. Why, it's almost like my sense of self-worth came from a number loosely tied to the number of times someone clicked on a website vaguely affiliated with me...

And apparently, Sitemeter's been dead for at least a week, because I got my weekly e-mail with stats and it was all zeros. Literally, an entire week with no visits whatsoever. Now, obviously I'm getting something, because comments, so it's just not registering anything.

I know in the past year since I stopped gunblogging and the DGC that the urge to blog is less. There's a zillion reasons why, but I think one of the bigger ones is getting the hell out of MA. Sure, the traffic's worse now, but I'm living in a free state (had two Ruger BX-25s mailed to the house from MidwayUSA this week. HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, DEVAL?) and working in a job I really enjoy.

It was liberating seeing the Sitemeter record nothing but goose-eggs - and not realizing it for over a week.

That is all.

If Anyone Sees My Muse...

Kick that little minx in the tail and tell her to head on back.

Between the faux outrage over "shirtgate," the depressing news out of Ferguson (and the attendant stupidity from pretty much the entire spectrum of the perpetually offended), and other related news-type stories, I'm all "shocked-out".

Plus it's Thanksgiving, which means a full-court press for Christmas. This time last year, we were working frantically to clean out the house in MA for the move to VA, and wound up moving into the new house on December 23rd. Ergo, we didn't have a Christmas last year. This year, I want to make up for that transgression. Think this:

Okay, that might not be as grand as I've got in mind, come to think about it...

I'll still be here, but the posting, as you've probably noticed, is going to drop off a bit in the coming weeks. I'm hoping that the new year will bring with it a renewed lease and more to talk about, but one thing I'm finding, now that I've gotten out of MA, is that there's a lot less to be angry about. Sure, there's the overall, national-level stuff to be sure, but the day-to-day stuff has gotten a lot better.

I mean, I haven't acquired a rifle that didn't have a bayonet lug since I've moved to VA...

That is all.

Tech Bleg

Yesterday, when I left the house to go to work, it was 15 degrees. With a wind chill. In November. In Virginia. I was talking with a friend about heat and the upcoming winter, and not looking forward to heating bills (while contemplating raising the thermostat a degree or two), and the suggestion was made to get a programmable thermostat. We can set the temperature low during the day, and have it come up a few degrees warmer at night.

Now that the Mrs. is working a solid 9-5 M-F gig, we can investigate something like this. For years, she worked second shift or overnights, so a programmable thermostat wouldn't work for us - there was only a few hours where the house was empty. Then we had kids, and she went down to part time, so along with the off-schedule, there were one or two days during the week where someone was home all day (especially when she worked weekends, because there would be a second week day she'd be home).

So, basically, I have no idea whatsoever what's a good brand of programmable thermostat. I'm fairly confident in my skills for installation (I figure if I can install a dimmer switch without electrocuting myself, a programmable thermostat should be about the same complexity), so it comes down to brand and features. Also, never having used one, I'm figuring there will be some trial-and-error when it comes to turning the heat/air conditioning up/down.

The US DOE claims a significant savings - 5-15% of your heating bill - with a programmable unit. I find it interesting that their default temp is several degrees higher than our regular setting, and is in fact even higher than the new temp I was thinking of raising the thermostat to... It does makes sense, though - with our current lifestyle, we should be able to run the furnace at a significantly lower temperature for half the day, and bring it up as the Mrs. and I get home for just the night.

So, anyone got a recommendation for a good programmable thermostat?

That is all.

Of Bargaining...

There are many reasons I'm in no rush to replace the Earthf**ker. Some are financial: Having no car payment is really nice, doubly so now that the Mrs.' car is paid off, too. Taxes are lower on an 8-year old vehicle, as is insurance. It may need the occasional repair, that's true, but unless and until something major goes wrong, I think I'll hang on to the Dodge for as long as I can.

The real reason for this revelation, you ask?

Simple. I *HATE* the car shopping process. When I bought the Earthf**ker, I had it narrowed down to three vehicles: The F-150, the Toyota Tundra, and the Dodge. I forget exactly what it was about the F-150 that turned me off, especially considering I have a friend who's a Master Mechanic for Ford, but the decision came down to the Tundra vs. the Ram.

I was all set to sign on the Tundra, too.

And then the dealership went and reneged on their deal, expecting the Toyota name to be worth enough that I would accept $2,500 below book value for my trade while paying above MSRP for the Tundra. Nope. Doesn't work that way, guys. You want above MSRP for your new vehicle, you pay me top dollar for my trade. You don't undercut every single used car guide out there and not take a penny off the sticker price.


Needless to say, I am looking forward to buying a new car with about as much relish as I am going back to the dentist after a long absence. 

It helps that I have a larger pool this time. I'm looking at small, economical cars. If gas prices stay where they have been, this will be an easy thing. When gas was $4 a gallon, you couldn't get anywhere near a Toyota Corolla. Now that it's under $3 (I paid $2.57 yesterday), larger vehicles are back in vogue.

Also, the field is larger. While there are five vehicles that qualify as full-size pick-up trucks (counting GMC and Chevy as one, of course), there are literally dozens of small, fuel efficient cars out there. I'm also not averse to looking at the used market, either - I won't do that for a truck that will be used for towing, because I've seen *way* too many abused trucks out there to pick up someone else's tow vehicle (unless I personally knew the person selling the truck).

Being willing to walk helps. I'll do my research, have a half-dozen competitors' vehicles in mind, and gather several appraisals of my trade-in (KBB, NADA, representatives on the used market). I'm also not opposed to selling the truck privately if I get a screwball low offer, either. We recently sold our travel trailer in record time in the off season because we knew a willing buyer and made them a rather generous offer. While we could have waited until spring, cleaned the RV up and put out ads, we offered it for a bit below the going rate for other campers of that size and vintage. I'm willing to do the same with the Earthf**ker if I have to sell it outright.

But no, I'm not looking forward to the new car buying experience. 

That is all.

Nope, Not Dead...

Just insanely busy.

Away on business for the early part of the week, so posting will be light (read: this is about it), as I'm limited to the iPad and the BlogPress app (and, let's not forget, I've been up since 4:30 to catch a 7 AM flight; ah, the glamour of travel...) Still all kinds of happy about the events of this past weekend; regretting not having taken *any* pictures, although Bubblehead Les did send me this one:




That's me on the 100 yard line shooting the 20" BCM upper AR (and ringing the 10" steel plate continuously). I'm still kinda geeking out at the accuracy that upper is capable of achieving - or, more precisely, the accuracy *I* was capable of achieving with that upper.

The scope - a Leupold 4-12x Mark AR - certainly contributes to the shooting. A crisp, clear picture does wonders for shooting decently - imagine that, in order to *hit* your target, you need to *see* your target. One of the things I've totally changed my mind on in recent years is the importance of good optics.

I continue to be amazed at my progress the past year. Certainly, some can be attributed to the excellent tips I've picked up from working on the magazine. I think, though, the greater reasons are receiving training from qualified instructors and just plain getting out to shoot more.

And that's always a good thing.

That is all.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Fairwell and Fair Seas...

As of Sunday, for the first time in nearly 20 years we will no longer own a camper. Our home-away-from-home, the traveling sanctuary that has served us so well in the White Mountains, at the beach, on Cape Cod, and elsewhere will be picked up by her new owners and given a new set of adventures.

Farewell, old friend.

We bought the camper in March, 2007. That's seven and a half years, with an average of two or three trips a year. Some years we took it out more, a couple we didn't even get it out once. Even if the move to VA hadn't forced our hand, I think we'd have been looking to sell it in a year or two, anyways. The Dodge has another couple years in her (at least); I think we'd have sold the camper before trading it in and avoided another pickup.

But that's neither here nor there.

The biggest reason is that the kids are growing up. The last time we took the camper out - when TheBoy was 12 and BabyGirl G. was 10 - TheBoy complained about the bunk bed being too small. He had a much better time sleeping on a cot in a small tent with me than on the family trip - sure, part of that was the one-on-one attention, but I think the bigger part is the independence. He's asserting more and more every day, testing limits and boundaries, etc. and I think the last place he wants to spend a week is a small metal box with mom & dad...

Besides, we have a lot of exploring to do here in Virginia without bringing a camper along...

It's going to a friend-of-a-friend, through a family who lived on our street that also owns a travel trailer. They're going to be able to camp together, that sort of thing, and will get many years of fun out of the trailer; certainly more than we would have gotten. Their kids are younger, the folks buying the trailer are younger, I think she's going to a good home.

It got me to thinking, though. Some of my favorite memories growing up involved the small class C camper my folks owned. They bought it when I was 5 - I remember one of our first trips in it was a road trip out to visit family in Minnesota, and my sister was just a baby - and sold it when I was either 10 or 11. My folks had that little van-front camper for less time than we had our travel trailer, yet I still, some 30+ years later, have vivid memories of it. I remember nights spent listening to the foghorns of the ships passing through the canal as I "slept" on the bunk over the cab. I remember walking on the beach at dusk, collecting seashells.


I hope my kids have the same types of happy memories from our camper, and I hope the folks who bought it make some memories of their own...

That is all.

One Year...

As of 8:30 this morning, I will have been at the new (dream) job exactly one year. I still cannot believe that I managed to score a gig that pays me to write about guns on the internet. Heck, one day I actually was tasked with posting a picture of a shotgun with a bayonet on Facebook.

As. Part. Of. My. Job.

In the past year I've gotten paid to attend SHOT and the NRA Annual Meeting (which, BTW, is NOWHERE near as glamorous as it sounds, trust me); I've gotten to go to Wyoming to learn how to shoot at ridiculously long distances (that WAS as fun as it sounds), I've been to Smith & Wesson as a legit media-type, and I've met literally hundreds of folks in the business I'd followed for decades.

There are times when it's stressful, when we're under a deadline or waiting to hear back from a manufacturer for a critical spec for a story. But that's life, really. I had deadlines at my last job, and the job before that. I had episodes where I was waiting for input from folks outside my sphere of influence in both previous jobs as well.

But neither of those jobs paid me to post a picture to Facebook of a shotgun with a bayonet attached, either...

A year. Wow. It has flown by, and I have learned so much. One of the biggest things I've learned is that I still have so very much to learn. As I expand my horizons and learn things outside my comfort zone I see how much more there is to learn and how much I truly don't know. It's rather zen, really. I'm still having a blast, loving the new job, and getting used to the idea that I got the hell out of Massachusetts.

Still miss the friends and family I left behind; the politics, though, not so much...

That is all.