testing picture upload with chrome

A little crane of some sort.

lava on the beach..

Advantages of getting old...

Bigger Drawers

My wife has always hated my old dresser.  The drawers are always over stuffed and some are hard to  slide open, in addition to looking like cheap plastic-covered particle board.  A couple of weeks ago I finally found the "to-it" to get around to replacing it.

The new one is better looking plastic covered particle board... courtesy of IKEA.  However, the drawers are much bigger, it has metal and bearing drawer slides, and just looks better.  But I'm not a fan of the IKEA Scandinavian 'modern' look so I went to the hardware store and bought a set of knobs for it.  They certainly change the appearance of it, a softer, more traditional look I think.

Rat Shot

I've always wanted a .22 cal tin can plinker (TCP).  So the recent whoo-hah brought about the coincidence of my want of a TCP with my desire for political protest against the libs.  My new Remington 597 HB arrived a couple of weeks ago.

It is at the moment a thing to look at, not a firearm, due to the complete lack of ammunition... anywhere... at all.  The only .22 ammo available for sale is #12 shot.  Commonly known as "Rat Shot", or "Bird Shot".  I did finally order some normal 22 ammo online, backordered that is, due sometime late February.

Speaking of Rats...  A couple of weeks ago I went to the garden shed to get the rakes only to have a rat run past me as I opened the door.  It ran to the neighbors yard and into one of the brush piles they've left on the ground for months.  We then went into the shed and chased another out.  This one Toby caught (good dog!).  I disposed it with a shovel and then went straight to the hardware store for traps.  The next day we had the first rat, and several days later we had another pair!  Four all total so far.  Our neighbors who left the brush piles have also been evicted and have left piles of garbage and stuff throughout their yards.  In addition we have another back yard neighbor doing the whole urban-chicken thing.

Here's a good link;  Lack of ammo.

Democrats Elect the Insane to Public Office

Bill proposed in Oregon would make cigarettes prescription-only drugs

KPTV-TV [Salem, OR], by Staff    Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 1/24/2013 12:52:45 PM     Post Reply

SALEM, OR - If you´re a regular smoker, you may want to keep an eye on a new bill in the Oregon Legislature. Rep. Mitch Greenlick, from Portland, is sponsoring a bill that makes cigarettes a Schedule III controlled substance, meaning it would be illegal to possess or distribute cigarettes without a doctor´s prescription. Under the proposal, offenders would face maximum punishments of one year in prison, a $6,250 fine or both. Other drugs and substances that are considered Schedule III controlled substances are ketamine, lysergic acid and anabolic steroids.

Michelle 'Romulan' Obama

Celtic Knots Balls

"History is kind of spotty on the Celts (they never wrote anything down, and many of the witnesses died brutally) but what facts survived confirm one thing: They had gigantic Celtic balls." -Neal Nicholson

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_16972_the-5-most-terrifying-civilizations-in-history-world.html#ixzz2IYH5o8pl

Over-whelming Appreciation

Gun Appreciation Day

The local gun club accepts application for new membership the third Saturday of each month.  According to their website you arrive at 9am and the orientation begins at 11am.  I arrived at 9:01am.

Torn

So tomorrow is 'Gun appreciation day' and I'm torn between my current plan of joining the local rifle range club and going to the demonstration at the state capitol.  The rifle range only takes new members and does an orientation on the 3rd Saturday of each month.  This was on my current plan.  Now the local pundits are saying that there's going to be a rally at the capitol.  Well... I guess there's always next 3rd Saturday.

Normalization

Comment found on a website discussing gun control:

 "Maybe we need to display guns more frequently and normalize them ... kind of like breastfeeding in public? ;-)"

engineering

Engineering is doing something when no instructions have ever been written.

Contradiction

"She such a sweet girl... just don't piss her off."

Capitalism vs. Communism

Mali

So... the French are fighting islamists in Mali. 

The reason for this post is that I had to look up 'Mali' to figure out why the French would give a damn.  I had to look up where Mali was.  I'd say I was fair at geography, certainly better than today's average high school graduate, but yes I had to look it up.  After all there are roughly 200 countries on the planet.  I say roughly, because the number all depends on how you define a country (there are something like 270 territories).

I didn't know off the top of my head where Mali was (although I guessed somewhere in Africa), but then again do you know where Kiribati, Montserrat, Eritrea, or Vanuatu are?

It seems that Mali was once part of the French Sudan.  Ahhh, there's a more familiar name you might be saying to yourself.

The article about the fighting said the French are fighting because they see a threat not only in that region but to France and Europe.  I suspect it's similar to one reason why we're in Afghanistan.  That 'If you're going to fight them either here or there, it's better to fight them there'.

Al-queda is of course vowing to retaliate against France directly.

spending my bonus

Visited a couple of gun shops today.  Boy what a zoo!  Still couldn't locate my preference locally, so I made the leap and I'm purchasing online.  To be shipped to a local store for FFL transfer.  Yep, 51 years old and I'm making my first firearms purchase.  Next week is 'gun appreciation day'.  I think I'll spend it joining a rifle range club.