12:51 – Back from the dentist, where it seems I’ve been spending most of my time lately. I had oral surgery Thursday and then follow-up work done yesterday morning and this morning. They’re mostly finished now. I do have another appointment early in the New Year, but that’ll be it. I wanted to get all of this stuff done now, while we still have dental insurance. Meanwhile, I’ve had more milkshakes in the past week than probably in the previous twenty years combined.
Fortunately, I’m no longer lactose-intolerant. I was for two or three years, about maybe 15 years ago. I’d never had that problem until suddenly one day I did. At first, I thought it was an aberration, but it turned out to be reproducible. Even a very small amount of milk, butter on popcorn, etc. and I’d soon be suffering disgusting GI symptoms. Barbara bought me some lactaid pills, which eliminated the problem. And then one day I ran out of pills but went ahead and consumed the milk product anyway, just to see if the problem had magically gone away. It had. No symptoms, and no problem with it ever since. I didn’t realize that lactose intolerance could cure itself, but in my case it apparently did.
Email from Jen. Their ten-day readiness exercise begins Friday afternoon. She said she’d report any significant issues they encounter, but they’ve done enough of these exercises that she’s pretty sure they have all the kinks worked out.
OFD loves himself a milkshake; the local Friendly’s where I grew up used to make me a mocha milkshake on request; I worked just down the mall at the department store then.
Overcast and breezy here; expecting snow flurries tonight and tomorrow. The weather liars are predicting a possible weekend of snow. We are doing household cleanup chores today pending the arrival of MIL and Princess on Xmas Eve, or so the plan has been explained to me as of this morning. Wife off now to get my RAV4 back and our bank card back from Princess, who managed to skate out of here last night with both. And then got into a 45-minute argument on the phone with her mother after she’d left, which is SOP. I expect there will be another one down at MIL’s where Princess is staying this week. Wife told me last night that 24 hours is all she can stand with Princess; interestingly Princess told me some months ago that she could never live with her mother again. Ain’t family dynamics great? Then they both appeal to me for mediation sometimes, and I’m about 50-50 on that, usually satisfying one party but not the other. It’s a lose-lose for me, so I try to disappear when these things erupt.
Oh look, the sun is peeking out! And somebody has a fishing shack set up off the end of the pier, on what must be very thin ice. I hope they know what they’re doing. I’m too old to run out there fast enough to save anybody. And I just know I’d fall right through immediately and drown this time.
I have to admit that if Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, et alia had fallen through the ice and were shouting at me to throw them a rope, I have enough humanity left that I would indeed throw them a rope.
The whole rope, including both ends.
That’s a good approach, RBT, but not as good as mine: stand right where you are, shrieking and flailing your arms. And crying. Because nothing says “not legally culpable under even the most asinine Bad Samaritan law” like tears.
New York does have Bad Samaritan laws (aka, Duty to Rescue or Bystander laws) but they’re complicated, contradictory, and unevenly enforced. So far as I can tell, enforcement depends mainly on public outrage or whether the pigs or prosecutor have a bug up their ass. Par for the course.
In fact, NY got some of the first Bad Samaritan laws in the US, following the Kitty Genovese murder. Never mind that the facts of that case were greatly different than reported, and which led to the laws. Par for the course.
The whole rope, including both ends.
For me that would apply to almost all politicians, not just the three. I might tie an anchor to it, though.
Fortunately, I’m no longer lactose-intolerant. I was for two or three years, about maybe 15 years ago. I’d never had that problem until suddenly one day I did. At first, I thought it was an aberration, but it turned out to be reproducible. Even a very small amount of milk, butter on popcorn, etc. and I’d soon be suffering disgusting GI symptoms. Barbara bought me some lactaid pills, which eliminated the problem. And then one day I ran out of pills but went ahead and consumed the milk product anyway, just to see if the problem had magically gone away. It had. No symptoms, and no problem with it ever since. I didn’t realize that lactose intolerance could cure itself, but in my case it apparently did.
I have been upchucking milk when I drink 2 ounces or more for several years now. The experience is so traumatic that I have run my last test (heaving up your toenails is not fun). But I can drink soy milk (soy nog for Christmas!) just fine. I tried a Blue Bell ice cream cone last Friday with no issues so I guess they cook their ice cream mix. And I had a slab of cheese on my cheeseburger Saturday so that still continues to not bother me. I do not understand what is wrong.
I take 50 mg of Doxycycline each morning for about a decade now (used to be tetracycline until that became unavailable. I have wondered if that is the problem but I do not see that in the literature.
The whole rope, including both ends.
Wire rope?
“In fact, NY got some of the first Bad Samaritan laws in the US, following the Kitty Genovese murder. Never mind that the facts of that case were greatly different than reported, and which led to the laws. Par for the course.”
Hard cases make for bad law. I have yet to see a good counter-argument.
All this silly business about ropes and anchors and crying and flailing one’s arms; if it’s politicians or financial speculators out there screaming for help, simply machine-gun ’em and be done with it. Or if bullets are scarce, laugh and jeer at them as they go under and wish them a fun time in the Warm Place where it won’t be so darned wet.
Nice thoughts and speech during Xmas Week you haters. Up here at the stores I’ve overhead many peeps, customers and cashiers and the bank, wishing each other a Merry Christmas. Plus more friendly banter with the blond MILF at the bank. All in all, a decent day so fah. Wife not back yet from retrieving our bank card and my car so I imagine all kinds of mayhem may be erupting down at MIL’s this afternoon, and I am well out of it, doing scut and grunge jobs here at the house and then planning the Xmas Eve and Xmas Day dinners. Easier now since Princess is no longer an uber-vegan and will eat fish and turkey and stuff like that. Boy am I glad that phase is over.
Heh. One of the wife’s first cousins living north of Binghamton, NY, posted on Faceboook last night that she is ready for winter to end. She has 42 inches of snow on the ground and bitter cold.
We are 72 F and not a cloud in the sky at the moment.
Oh, hell. *I* wished the staff at the dentist Merry Christmas. I may not celebrate it, but they do. I’ve also wished Jewish acquaintances a Happy Hanukkah or whatever. And one of my churchgoing Christian friends once shouted, “Io, Saturnalia” to me across the parking lot.
Speaking of blonde MILFs, here’s the dental assistant I met last Thursday. I thought she was about 24 but later she told me everyone thinks she’s younger than she actually is. She has an 11 year old son (who wants to be a pilot), and she’s 33.
http://cindylaurenphoto.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-face-of-cindy-lauren-photography.html
We got along great, and sat there talking for a long time waiting on the dentist. We like each other, but of course that’s probably because I remind her of her father.
…living north of Binghamton, NY, posted on Faceboook last night that she is ready for winter to end. She has 42 inches of snow on the ground and bitter cold.
Lake effect. We’ve gotten major storms smacking us here while north or south of us get nothing and then the reverse. I’ve seen it snowing full-tilt-boogie in the back yard with nothing in the front. And vice-versa.
Cindy Lauren seems nice and is certainly nice to look at today with the skies here clouding up again; I wish her success in her artistic aspirations; all three women up here are artists, two of them with work shown in various venues over the years, and the third giving performances now. Stick with it, kid.
“Revealed: Tunisian asylum seeker wanted for Berlin massacre was jailed for four years in Italy for burning down a school and arrested three times in Germany before police lost him”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4054140/How-German-police-bungled-hunt-Europe-s-wanted-man-Asylum-seeker-23-wrongly-blamed-Christmas-market-massacre-jumping-red-light.html
Europe is gone.
Those images don’t do Cindy justice. She’s really stunningly pretty in person.
DH wrote:
“Easier now since Princess is no longer an uber-vegan and will eat fish and turkey and stuff like that. Boy am I glad that phase is over.”
I love vegies but could not imagine being a vegetarian, let alone a vegan. Fish, turkey, chicken, pork, bacon, lamb, steak… YUM!
I can drink milk ’till the cows come home… 🙂
(I’ll be here all week, folks…)
RBT wrote:
“Speaking of blonde MILFs, here’s the dental assistant I met last Thursday.”
Heh, a dental assistant who cleaned my fangs 10 or so years ago was wearing a tight fitting, very low cut top, and while I was sitting helpless in the chair she was constantly pushing her boobs into my neck, arms and chest (and face? I don’t remember now.)
I thought of complaining to the practice owner about his employee’s blantant invasion of my safe personal space, but then I thought that, as a New Zealander, she probably wasn’t used to having close contact with handsome guys like myself, so I let it go.
Cindy looks very nice, is her hair colour natural? Looks like the true colour is growing out.
“…Tunisian asylum seeker wanted for Berlin massacre was jailed…”
Outrageous. Beyond belief. Oh wait–this kind of chit is routine here, too. Let out or lose recidivist violent offenders and then more chit happens, what a surprise. And of course we don’t really know what is going on from the various nooz sources anymore; what to believe, what not to believe. More pointless every day.
I don’t care what holiday people celebrate or what religion they practice as long as they don’t try to impose their beliefs on me.
Yesterday was Liz and my 36th wedding anniversary. I got her a nice pair of earrings and a card that read “It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”
Fortunately the earrings made up for the card.
a dental assistant who cleaned my fangs 10 or so years ago was wearing a tight fitting, very low cut top
And you have been having your teeth cleaned weekly ever since.
Fortunately the earrings made up for the card.
If it was my wife I would not be typing this as all my fingers would be broken and shoved up my ass.
“Yesterday was Liz and my 36th wedding anniversary.”
Congratulations, sir. My wife’s name is Mary Elizabeth but people call her Liz and that is what she uses for her professional name, email, and web sites. G-Grandma and I call her Mary-Liz or Lizzie. Which reminds me of Lizzie Borden, with whom I share a birthday, and who was from Fall River, MA right across the wotta from where I was born in New Bedford.
“…that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”
Good one! Up here we’ve certainly annoyed each other from time to time but it’s only been for nineteen years. And I evidently annoyed my first wife so much that she dumped my ass in 1996. But as we get older, we hopefully become a little more tolerant of our fellow humans’ foibles and live and let live.
Here’s another little annoyance; I’m here doing navvy stuff on the floors and furniture and rugs and suchlike and I just heard from Mary Liz that Princess took off with my car and is again gallivanting all over the area with her friends, and meanwhile wife’s car, the Saab that she was driving, has now been dying when idling and the engine sounds rough, etc., so it has to go back to the shop AGAIN. We already spent $4,000 on it this past year, how’s that for annoying?? And since wife and g-grandma can’t drive in the dark anymore, apparently, she’s not coming home tonight and will supposedly bring my car back up here tomorrow morning, which as I mentioned before, really means mid- to late-afternoon. So I told her I need the car by noon so I can get to my weekly combat vets meeting and that that takes precedence over someone else’s social and entertainment life. So she’s gonna call me back supposedly and/or come back up here tomorrow, we shall see.
In that case, as the back is sore and tired, I’m just gonna wrap up what I was doing and screw off the rest of the night, like everyone else is doing. I at least got the dining and living room floors done and tomorrow I’ll do the kitchen, which is a disaster area and probable EPA site soon. Supposedly Princess is coming here Friday night to help her mom do the upstairs, but I’m not holding my breath for that. Her friends are more important and she’s demonstrated that countless times since high skool, and not come to family events, like her brother’s wedding, her great-uncle’s funeral, etc., etc.
But hey, it’s Xmas week and why am I bitching and moaning about the same old chit? We’ve still got a roof, the heat is working, the wotta works, there’s food in the cupboards, fridge and freezers, the innernet and phones work and I’ve got a huge pile of books and of course multiple radios to listen to.
So I guess I’ll head out and see if I can find a cute twenty-something blond dental assistant chick who appreciates an older man’s accrued wisdom, character and gravitas.
Or maybe I’ll just watch more episodes of “The Walking Dead.” Wussup with how they never run outta ammo? And how come the dead are able to like immediately tear huge gouts and gobs of flesh from people with their teeth and jaws?? Did their teeth suddenly become giant fangs after they croaked? Doesn’t look like it. And I can see where a whole lotta practice would be needed to consistently make head shot after head shot, so that even the women and kids who’ve never fired a friggin’ gun before rapidly acquire that skill.
she’s not coming home tonight and will supposedly bring my car back up here tomorrow morning,
I think you have a misconception over whose car that really is.
meanwhile wife’s car, the Saab that she was driving, has now been dying when idling and the engine sounds rough, etc., so it has to go back to the shop AGAIN. We already spent $4,000 on it this past year, how’s that for annoying??
We spent $6K on the wife’s 2005 Honda Civic at 90K miles last year, getting the bearings in the manual transmission replaced and replacing the head gasket. No problems this year and she just crossed 100K miles. According to Consumer Reports mag, Toyota is the most reliable car / suv out there. I have been trying to get the wife to purchase a RAV4 but our finances have her worried so she just drives her little racing car. VTEC rules ! Until you have to work on it.
I’m just gonna wrap up what I was doing and screw off the rest of the night, like everyone else is doing
Hey ! I’m working here at the office. For some form of the word “working”. But not Thursday. And I gave everyone Friday and Monday off (we take Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as company holidays). And it seems that I am always on call nowadays with the smartphone.
Or maybe I’ll just watch more episodes of “The Walking Dead.” Wussup with how they never run outta ammo?
Just wait until season three or four. Ammo becomes a serious problem. Number one son and I have resolved to fill an 18 wheeler with ammo should a zombie apocalypse happen. Hint, armories have lots of ammo.
Dad and I watched “Forsaken” this last weekend. Fairly formulaic and two Sutherlands for the price of one. I lost count of shots by Kiefer’s six shooter but it might have been 7 or 8. And could anyone really shoot a 12 gauge cut down to a pistol ?
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/forsaken_2016
And I just looked and that 12 gauge pistol is “and at the general store picks up a big LeMat revolver, which holds nine bullets and a 10-gauge shotgun shell”. Oh my.
http://thegreatwesternmovies.com/2016/03/05/forsaken/
And how come the dead are able to like immediately tear huge gouts and gobs of flesh from people with their teeth and jaws??
They are hungry ?
Good one! Up here we’ve certainly annoyed each other from time to time but it’s only been for nineteen years. And I evidently annoyed my first wife so much that she dumped my ass in 1996. But as we get older, we hopefully become a little more tolerant of our fellow humans’ foibles and live and let live.
My grandfather used to introduce my mother and her sister as his daughters by his first marriage. Which was true, as he was only married once. It drove my grandmother nuts, but she understood his humor.
I’m about the same age as others here (64) and have only been married once. Since I was 28 when we got married, I always say I skipped the first marriage. This will also be my last marriage. If I outlive Liz (unlikely) or she divorces me, I might look for a nice young thing or a rich widow as a companion (not a spouse), but probably end up with somebody my age of modest means who can drive at night. I do need to remember Ben Franklin’s maxim that, in the dark, all cats are grey.
I used to introduce Barbara as my first wife, until I got tired of being smacked.
“I think you have a misconception over whose car that really is.”
You’re probably right. It seems every Xmas holiday week or two or three Princess ends up with my car, and she’s had it now for almost two weeks up in Montreal and now down here. Meanwhile her car sits in our driveway with expired MA plates, but no one can be bothered to retrieve the title from MA and register it here in VT.
“And it seems that I am always on call nowadays with the smartphone.”
I think you have a misconception of who is supposed to be on call down there.
“Ammo becomes a serious problem. Number one son and I have resolved to fill an 18 wheeler with ammo should a zombie apocalypse happen. Hint, armories have lots of ammo.”
I would imagine that at some point, yeah, ammo will become a problem in a total SHTF scenario like that; gun stores would have already long since been cleaned out, along with the grocery and liquor stores. You would indeed want a trailer filled to the brim with ammo and/or the ability to manufacture it yourself. That means bullets, cases, primers, powder, etc., etc. Working on the latter here once I get the attic space done.
“They are hungry ?”
That doen’t cut it; human teeth and jaws can’t inflict that sort of instant damage to human flesh. From what I’ve seen so far, they can just rip whole nine-pound chunks off your shoulder/arm or thigh/leg or abdomen. That’s just bogus. Maybe wolves or bears or sharks could do it but not people. Especially dead people.
” …do need to remember Ben Franklin’s maxim that, in the dark, all cats are grey.”
Ol’ Ben was chock-full of such maxims and aphorisms. He was also a supporter of men going for older women as being more desirable and beneficial but I forget the exact quote…ah yes, here it is…
http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/51-fra.html
And that’s where the part about cats being grey in the dark came from, too.
The real scoop on who hacked our national election:
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/who-really-hacked-the-us-elections-santa-claus-t19093.html
The quote I remember from Ben about older women is “They don’t tell, they don’t swell and they’re grateful as hell”.
I’m okay on ammo, but that’ll change fast if I end up buying a Slide Fire or two. I’m not a big fan of full auto, but I can imagine situations where 900 RPM might come in handy. Incidentally, OFD, IIRC the patent on it was issued in 2000, so it should expire soon. You wanna make one for me?
A goal is not a plan. Details matter. Get cracking.
It’s a massive pain, but pop the spark plug wires when you pull in the driveway, while she’s
homevisiting.I used to introduce my current wife as my not-yet second ex-wife.
The Romanian Revolution from 1989 became nation-wide on this day, 27 years ago. I’ve been watching youtube videos about it.
Two extremes here:
1. the extreme courage of people who continue to protests barehanded even after they learned that the *army* they face, has supressed other protests using war vehicles and munitions and killed many.
2. the extreme bloody manipulation that followed, organized by communist crooks and army leaders to save their asses AND gain the power AND gain people support AND escape any convictions to this present day. For that, they created a huge chaos and hysteria, fabricating ‘terrorists’ and other threats, with the army joining the revolution and ‘protecting’ the people, this time. They distributed guns to ‘patriots’ guards, made military units shoot each other, or with police or other armed structures, or just shoot like hell in buildings. And the chaos was lived coveraged on TV! So the crooks and army leaders posed as the saviors in the end! They also killed the Ceausescu couple to keep them silent and to demotivate the ‘terrorists’. After their execution, they stopped the ‘show’.
Overall there’ve been: 1,100 deads and 3,500 wounded.
Here are some pictures (which doesn’t tell the story) from then:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sn0j9MpMKs
“NEW MIGRANT ROUTE: Romania’s 13,000 border guards SCRAMBLE as refugees switch journey”
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/723105/romania-migrants-migrant-crisis-balkan-route-border-guards
Is Romania actually having a problem with migrants / refugees or is this just propaganda ?
We spent $6K on the wife’s 2005 Honda Civic at 90K miles last year, getting the bearings in the manual transmission replaced and replacing the head gasket. No problems this year and she just crossed 100K miles. According to Consumer Reports mag, Toyota is the most reliable car / suv out there. I have been trying to get the wife to purchase a RAV4 but our finances have her worried so she just drives her little racing car. VTEC rules ! Until you have to work on it.
I have 160,000 miles on a 2001 Toyota Solara. The trick is to buy the 4-cylinder Toyota engines, no turbo, and live with 0-60 in 8 seconds.
Honda/Acura transmissions from the early-mid 2000s are twitchy. The company does a real good job covering it by taking care of the out-of-warranty repairs for owners who bought new, but if you buy used, it is a cr*p shoot. Always try their customer service if you have a expensive problem, however.
Last year, we traded my wife’s 2002 4Runner for a new Explorer. Never again, Ford. Throttle body at 5000 miles among other issues make me doubt the vehicle will last much beyond the warranty.
Last year, we traded my wife’s 2002 4Runner for a new Explorer. Never again, Ford. Throttle body at 5000 miles among other issues make me doubt the vehicle will last much beyond the warranty.
I prefer the Ford Expedition over the Ford Explorer (I have owned both). My 2005 Ford Expedition, bought new for $33K (list of $42K) in 2005, has 175K miles, and no major problems to date. It is a 5.4L V8 and a four speed automatic. Gets 14 mpg in city and 18+ mpg on highway (the mileage very much speed related). Will go any speed you are crazy enough to go, I have had it up to an indicated 120 mph. I am on my fifth set of tires, my fourth battery, my third set of brakes, and my third set of spark plugs. The leather interior is starting to wear, especially the drivers seat with my large rump. The wife has backed it into two other vehicles (it won !) and I have backed it into the garage door twice (don’t ask), never fixed. I have sunk it in the mud once to be pulled out by another truck with a tow strap.
“Is Romania actually having a problem with migrants / refugees or is this just propaganda ?”
Propaganda.
“I used to introduce Barbara as my first wife, until I got tired of being smacked.”
I remember that.
“I used to introduce Barbara as my first wife, until I got tired of being smacked.”
I remember that.
“Incidentally, OFD, IIRC the patent on it was issued in 2000, so it should expire soon. You wanna make one for me?”
Like these?
http://www.slidefire.com/
Let me try it on a Ruger Mini-30 and I’ll let you know how it works and if it’s worth bothering with.
“It’s a massive pain, but pop the spark plug wires when you pull in the driveway, while she’s home visiting.
I might do that or something similar. I’m getting tired of this chit. But meanwhile Ima gon get that title up here from MA and register her car in VT myself in the next week or two, and look into snow tires for it. Hand it over and say “Au revoir, mon petit jolie fille.”
“Here are some pictures (which doesn’t tell the story) from then”
Very interesting photo-documentary and interesting music, too; I could find info on Valeri Starian but not the “Norvegian Singers.” Those mainly look like AK-rifle variants in the hands of all the guys carrying rifles, some with folding stocks or kind of like our pistol-rifle hybrids nowadays. The whole thing also looks a lot like what I’ve seen in pictures and videos of the mess in the former Yugoslavia. We could eventually end up like that here, but with 330 million and half a billion firearms, most of them a lot more lethal and reliable than those AKs.
Mr. Nick must be on his way back from the Mouse plantation; hope they all had a good time and they make it back OK to the great Lone Star State.
I asked the wife last night if we had a million or a billion dollars, where would she like to go or live, and she said she could manage nicely for several months of our winter on the big island of Hawaii, back in the rural areas with the real people. I told her I’m happy as a clam here with winter and ice and snow. Au revoir, mon petit jolie fille!
I’ll be checking out the local cute blonde female dental assistants around here while she’s over there.
Ah, but how do we know that you are not a part of the propaganda arm which is saying “Aaallllll is well, no need to be concerned, good citizens, just go back to your beer and videogames”?
No, in the face of epistemological doubt, the only thing we can do is start from cogito ergo sum and proceed from there. I’ve done that, several times, but the chocolate chip cookie recipe I derive from first principles always ends up with pecans rather than walnuts, and I don’t much care for pecans. Strange.
Obola is accelerating Mooslim imports. What are the odds they are being vetted “over there” before flying here?
But meanwhile Ima gon get that title up here from MA and register her car in VT myself in the next week or two, and look into snow tires for it. Hand it over and say “Au revoir, mon petit jolie fille.”
Good luck in getting that bad boy started. There may be more than one reason why it is parked.
What are the odds they are being vetted “over there” before flying here?
What is this “vetting” that you speak of ? We don’t need no stinking vetting.
They come here from love.
And if they can’t find love, then they’ll take what they can get.
(Plenty more examples, just from US crime reports, just concerning islamorrhoid “refugees”, just in the past few years.)
“Good luck in getting that bad boy started. There may be more than one reason why it is parked.”
It runs fine, nothing wrong with it. We spent a couple of grand on that car, too. Inside is a mess, same way Princess left it, and I’m not cleaning it up. Just needs the new VT tags. And I can’t wait to see the interior of the RAV4 if I ever get it back, seeing as how I’m the one making the payments on it.
“the chocolate chip cookie recipe I derive from first principles always ends up with pecans rather than walnut…”
Blasphemy! Heresy! We don’t put nuts in our chocolate chip “Toll House” cookies. My paternal aunt would make platters of them, and I used to hang around their kitchen and grab ’em right out of the oven. Washed down with cold milk.
What are the odds they are being vetted “over there” before flying here?”
What is this “vetting” you speak of, kemosabe?
I seem to remember predicting that the POS in the WH would do as much damage as he possibly could before leaving office. And he’s been very hard at work on it, too. Bastard. Of course he does what the rulers let him get away with, so there’s that. I guess the plan is to keep bringing in millions of immigrants from south of the Rio Grande and now from across the Atlantic and the Middle East shit-holes. Something like this can only destabilize a country, and badly, and that appears to be what they want. A radically polarized native population with tens of millions of non-Murkans rolling in. What could possibly go wrong?
“”And could anyone really shoot a 12 gauge cut down to a pistol ?””
I once shot a 12 gauge single shot shotgun one-handed with a 3″ duck load.
I’m definitely not recommending this, kids…
Trick is to make very sure no part of your body is behind the stock!
Yeah, it can be done; make sure you do what Mr. Spook suggests and maintain an iron grip on it with both hands, preferably.
Conversely, sort of; OFD recommends 20-gauge pump or semi-auto shotguns for inside household defense; the one I used to have before Champ ate it had a pistol grip on it but could be held with both hands; plus a nice light attached near the end of the barrel. These lighter loads cut down on the recoil and can be managed by smaller persons, such as most women, children, and the elderly. I liked it for myself; better maneuverability around corners and on stairwells.
The monster 870 I used to have before it got run over by a UPS truck had the handguard, light, sling, and See-All optic; that bad dawg was for outside home defense, and rifled slugs that would go through vehicles. Generally for strong and/or larger male homo sapiens sapiens.
YMMV
Small game hunting is pretty good as background for shotgun skills, I’d think…
Shooting any firearm or archery gear or air rifle or slingshot or anything develops that hand-eye coordination and/or muscle memory that should work in more hostile situations, some day, if needed.
I pity kids who never defended a back yard from (sadly) lots of songbirds, but maybe their video game skills will at least help a little if it comes to it.
There’s no substitute for handling the hardware, though. Back when I had shotguns, I recall being more fond of the safety switch button location on the M0ssberg 5oo over that of the Remingt0n 87o, for example…
“…I recall being more fond of the safety switch button location on the M0ssberg 5oo over that of the Remingt0n 87o, for example…
Yeah, the safety button on the 870 sucks, but it can be made easier with a larger one, like the Vang Big Dome.
Songbirds in our backyard either learn how to navigate it with our three cats roaming around or they don’t last long, sad to say. But the cats also dispose of rodents and we haven’t seen any in the house for quite some time now.
Eh? Wasn’t Princess there just recently?
I have outgrown persecution of songbirds.
I hunt only cats, lately (carefully).
I feel bad about harming native rodents, but Eur0-trash mice can burn!
“Eh? Wasn’t Princess there just recently?”
She is not a rodent. More akin to a parasite. One of wife’s colleagues told her that she is being used as an ATM by Princess. And one time Princess apparently lectured her mom that she “needs to manage her money better.” I about split a gut laughing at that one. A few months and her college BA will be done, assuming she doesn’t change her major again or find some other reason to keep going up there. Has mentioned grad skool somewhere to her mom, who allegedly told her it would be on HER dime, not ours. But watch; Great-Grandma will pay for it and then we’ll have to pay GG back; same old same old, a trick that’s been used successfully for years here.
Back to scut and grunge chores tomorrow and maybe the vets group meeting, and then later, another NFL game. Friday more scut work plus getting a few things ready for Xmas Eve and Xmas Day dinners. I usually do a seafood soup/chowder thing for the former with a chef’s type salad. Xmas Day will be the usual turkey, and I like to try different stuff with the dressing and spuds and cranberry sauce. Wife will probably make squash or pumpkin pies.
And the usual m.o. for these gatherings is that Princess will gradually take over every single device in the house; the tee-vee, which she’ll wanna watch something on, and then after about 20 minutes she disappears upstairs to do chit on this computer, her iPad, her iPhone and then will want to change the music stream we have going via a notebook Linux machine in the living room, and so on and so on. At some point she’ll harangue her mom about something and her mom will eventually blow her top and then Princess will say “Why are you so mad?” and “Why are you so upset?” “Take a deep breath…” Etc. Which of course infuriates her mom even more. GG might get in on it but I’ll be disappearing myself, probably work on chit in the attic.
Incidentally, Princess is 24 1/2 and exhibits a lot of the same behavior she engaged in when she was…oh…around four.
Meanwhile her older brother is now 31 with three kids of his own and may God have mercy on him; one is a girl. Girls eventually become teenagers. Need I say more?
But then I look back 45 years and recall all the unbelievable chit I used to do with no one the wiser and dial back my annoyance and irritation at this stuff. As far as I know, Princess doesn’t use illegal drugs, drink to excess, skip school, go on joyrides to the combat zone (red-light district in the old Boston), blow stuff up, or take her car or our cars up on the interstate and slam the gas pedal down till it’s up to 120. I did that with my old man’s car on Route 128, America’s Technology Highway, at around midnight; it was mostly deserted back then at that time of night.
Think that’s bad? My next-younger brother stole a car and drove it over a sand-and-gravel pit cliff and blew it up. Cops were looking around and at him but nothing ever came of it. He also got into hardcore fisticuffs in various Boston neighborhoods all the time and worked out at home with a heavy bag and a speed bag and lifted weights like a maniac. When we were kids he bounced a rock off the back of my head; several years later I drove HIS head through a window. Later still I threatened him with a fork. Now we get along great, almost like twins.
“But meanwhile Ima gon get that title up here from MA and register her car in VT myself in the next week or two, and look into snow tires for it. Hand it over and say “Au revoir, mon petit jolie fille.” ”
Dave, when did you have the cut-and-tuck operation?
Dave, you need to get the locks re-keyed and not give Princess the new key. Tell GG she will NOT be reimbursed in the future.
“I once shot a 12 gauge single shot shotgun one-handed with a 3″ duck load.”
Join the club. I once (exactly once) shot a .44 Mag derringer. The pistol ended up 30 feet behind me.
Another member of the club is my next-younger brother, who fired a double-barrel 12-gauge, both barrels at once, and fell on his ass.
Another member of the club is my next-younger brother, who fired a double-barrel 12-gauge, both barrels at once, and fell on his ass.
You and I are members of the 90mm club. Ugh.
Yup. Didja dig the crazy back-blast on those muthas or what? Instructors told us it was almost as dangerous as what comes out the front; picks up any loose chit in back and turns it to shrapnel.
Nah, Europe still has a chance. This latest atrocity (running an 18 wheeler through a Christmas market) has just about guaranteed the end of Merkel. The AfD (the alt-right of Germany) is now guaranteed to become a force to reckon with. Another event or two, and AfD might even win the next national elections – not bad for a party only founded four years ago.
It takes time to turn a big ship, but once AfD has real power, I expect to see a lot of expelled refugees. The refugees being expelled will, of course, react with violence – which will only confirm the need to be rid of them.
The thing I find really bizarre is that Merkel and her ilk cannot see the writing on the wall. Truly, SJWs always double down. They could have saved themselves politically by moderating their course. Now? It’s too late. She and her party will be out of power with the next elections.
We can be thankful for the sheer stupidity of criminal scum. In case it hasn’t made the news there: he basically kidnapped the Polish driver of the truck and made him move the truck around Berlin until the evening. He then apparently drove the truck himself into the Christmas market – but had the Polish driver next to him. The Polish guy tried to intervene, which got him killed, but in the struggle the criminal’s wallet fell under the seat, where the police found it. It’s not a plant, either, as they have since confirmed his fingerprints.
I suppose we can be glad that scum like this is stupid. Of course, if they weren’t stupid, they probably wouldn’t be scum, so maybe it’s a tautology.
Thanks for the Euro POV nooz update, Mr. brad; I haven’t seen anything yet like that in the nooz outlets over here but I haven’t looked very hard today anyway. That is roughly what I had figured, though, why there was a dead guy in the cab.
From your lips, figuratively, to the European voters’ ears; throw Merkel and her ilk the fuck out of office forever, and while they’re at it, dismantle the rogue criminal junta in Brussels. Dump the EC forever, too. Mr. Eugen may have a different POV, of course, which is to be respected.
The UK voters and parties also need to step up and make those bastards go through with BREXIT like RIGHT NOW. And hats off to the courageous leaders in Italy, France, Hungary, and Slovakia.
This latest atrocity (running an 18 wheeler through a Christmas market) has just about guaranteed the end of Merkel.
I doubt it. I suspect that the majority of the voters will return her party again.
If so, they will have thus committed national suicide.