Gun show observations in the age of NObama

At the show this weekend, whenever I wasn't politicking for KC3 I was doing my own shopping and watching what others were buying.

The show was JAMMED on Saturday and still busy on Sunday. People were buying both days and not just gandering on Sunday as they sometimes do. ARs were still high on everyone's list, but people weren't springing for $1500 S&Ws, Bushmasters, Rock Rivers and the like which had been marked up to ridiculous levels. They were trying to stay under $1000-1200 in price, and buying basic guns. The people at Double Star/J&T Distributing were selling lots of stuff, including top ends in various configs, and lots of accessories and parts and add-ons which their armorer was installing on the spot. The impression I had was that the initial buying frenzy for ARs at any price was over. People were shopping for bargains and reasonable prices, not willing to dole out big bucks for just any AR. If you had a quality brand at a good price, though, it was snapped up. However, if the seller had loaded up the carbines with rails and lights and collapsible stocks and all that, and driven the price to $2000 and beyond, people didn't even pick them up off the table to look at them. They were BUYING those gee-gaws for their own guns, but a piece at a time, not as a package installed on a pricey gun. Handguns were surprisingly hot. Lots of folks were stopping at Bud's Guns' tables, apparently buying more handguns than long guns. They were spending real money, too. There was less haggling than I'm used to - if the price was reasonable (and most shoppers had obviously done some research before coming to the show) then they bought the gun without much discussion. Bud says that his internet business is booming. AMMO was still the thing. The vendor next to our table was selling ammo by the case lots, a lot of that to dealers. One dealer trucked off with 10 cases of 124gr Federal 9mm ball at $10 the box/50 rounds for resale in his store. Apparently the wholesalers are still not stocked up as well as they should be. But again, people were shopping prices and not just buying the stuff at any price. While our neighbor was selling ammo hand over fist, the guys down the aisle with the same stuff at higher prices weren't. People were paying attention and when he ran out, they quit buying from anyone. It appears that the initial surge of "survival and fear" buying has passed, or at least until NObama decides to do something else rank. Some ammo was still overpriced, but the major calibers - 9mm, .40, .45, .223, .308 - were available in ball loadings again in addition to the JHP/defensive/hunting types and at prices closer to what you'd expect to pay from the online vendors. A lot of people had guns of their own to sell - saw several CETMEs, Dragunovs and ARs of different configs, but those were going begging for the most part. People seem to have spent much of the cash that they could allot to things that weren't necessary to their core holdings. Older guns and traditional guns were trading among the older guys as per usual, but not as much as the newer or milspec guns were among the younger crowd. AR magazines were more available. I saw the C-products aluminum black-Teflon-coated 30 round AR mags for $15 each, and they were moving fast. The MagPul P-mags with witness windows that had been marked up to $25 weren't moving and neither were the steel C-products mags at $20 or the GI-spec aluminum mags priced over $15. I saw ZERO basic P-mags without the window - none. Basically, mags for any platform, AR or AK, that were priced over $20-25 weren't moving nearly as well as at the previous two shows. But the ones that were priced at the right point were FLYING out of the boxes. FAL and M14 mags were scarce and the FAL mags I saw were ratty. I did see some really neat European/Combloc surplus stuff that was new and different, such as a complete spares/arsenal trunk for the CZ58. Seeing it made the militaria nut in me wish that I could afford to add another platform to the collection right now but alas, such is not the case. Saw some interesting new AK mags - made of steel but lighter than most Combloc mags, finished with a light grey parkerized finish, very clean lines and crisp corners with steel followers. They appeared to be well made and well finished with very precise spot welds holding them together. The story is that they're US-made for a contract to equip the Iraquis, and that these are overruns or that the contract had been cancelled. I bought one to evaluate, but neglected to find out where they'd acquired them so can't do more research on them. At $20 each the price is okay, now that any AK mag costs almost as much as an AR mag, and they're enough lighter than most surplus AK mags to be worth considering. My impression is that most folks have gotten the things that they HAD to have, the guns and mags that they thought might be legislated against the most quickly, and now they're filling in the gaps in their supplies as they can afford to do it. They're also holding onto their money because the economy is scaring them. They're still buying, but they're not buying blindly or spending money they're not sure that they can let go and they're trying to winnow down their collections to generate funds.
I can identify with that!

You were warned

My apologies to those who've been checking in here to see what's shakin' only to find that nothin's happenin'.
I really do get the winter blahs, jus' like I toldja, and when that happens I hole up with the critters and read a bunch and drink coffee and eat ice cream and whatever else tickles my palate. Just can't get ginned up to do much writing, don't want to hear what people think about what I think. Just an ole hermit and curmudgeon.
During all this cold nasty weather I've been seriously preoccupied with the Engineer Trilogy by K.J. Parker.


It's an absolutely BRILLIANT fantasy series (and I say that as one who absolutely loathes most fantasy literature!), three books of great complexity and completely unapologetic examinations of the lives of the characters. I found myself again and again re-reading a passage and saying 'damn' - just plain old 'damn'. There were so many situations that really hit home. Even though it's set in a fantasy world, the manner in which Parker plots the evolutions and the individual events that dot the story line are so very bleak and unequivocal, so hard-edged with unblinking reality that it's unsettling, compelling. Parker makes no attempt to soften the edges of the narrative. Lives are wasted, fortunes destroyed, nations wiped away - just like real life, with no pretending or gilding to make anyone the least bit comfortable about any of it. I've never read anything quite like it.
So while I've been having the blahs and Bloggo has been absent from the keyboard, the time hasn't been squandered, at least not from my point of view. There're going to be things to read and think about on the ol' blog in the days ahead. Just didn't want anyone to think that I'd vanished or anything like that.

"I told you I'd come for you."

Wow. Talk about your non-stop slam-a-matic movies.

Liam Neeson's new action flick "Taken" winds up just a bit slowly in the beginning, but when it busts loose it just keeps on rockin' and rollin'. I'd read some positive reviews of it from friends, so I took a chance on the roads being passable and went to see it at the matinee this afternoon. I'm glad that I did.
Basic story line is simple - Neeson is an ex-spook whose daughter is kidnapped on a trip to Paris. He goes to get her back. Along the way he lays waste to a significant number of bad boys. It would be easy to nit-pick some things in the movie, such as the fact that it's hard to accept that one man can take down so many guys, especially at the last of the movie. On the other hand, the violence that he employs is so direct and believable that you can cut him some slack on some things. His gun handling is good - solid, no weird techniques, no messing around - very direct and businesslike. That's pretty much how he handles it all. He's smart and has experience with the technical side of the business but when he goes at the guys who've stolen his daughter he goes HARD and never lets up. From what I've learned about this stuff over the years, that's what works.
Then there's all that footage of Paris, which is my favorite city in the world. I don't like cities, but I love Paris and going back there this spring after almost twenty years away from La Belle France was great fun for me, despite some problems with one of the folks who was along for the trip.
More than anything else, the movie speaks to me on a personal and emotional level. I have a daughter whom I love to distraction. If anything ever happened to her I would want to be able to go after her just like he does, an avenging force of nature - implacable, unswerving. That's not realistic, of course, but it's what every dad would like to think that he'd do for his girl if she was counting on him to bring her home. When he says "I told you that I'd come for you" deep down in my gut I know it's what I'd want to tell her. Not just to say it, but to mean it and to deliver on it.
Great stuff. I loved it. I recommend it to you - especially to you dads.

Speaking of 9mms

I would have loved to go out to the range during all this crappy weather but the roads were the pits.
It would have been grand to take some of the guns out to see how they performed in the colder temps we've been having. But the road to my gun club where I shoot isn't in the best of shape and I don't have an SUV nor nuthin' like that. Both my station wagons - excuse me, my station wagon and the DOGS' station wagon - have road tires on them so they don't go in the snow like they had oughta. Sideways, sometimes, yes, and without phoning ahead to let me know.
But all that sliding around (and my screaming) annoys both the dogs (it IS their car, after all) and my insurance agent and since right now I'd rather be buying mags and ammo and a really nifty little steel-framed Commander (that is going to be a limited edition from a major maker who agreed to make them that none of you know about yet - heh, heh, heh), I just can't afford to be paying higher insurance premiums.
So I'm staying at home except for rare forays out onto the more well-maintained roads. I am getting in some dry-fire on the Para LTC and the Noveske carbine, dropping the hammer on the talking heads on cable news shows (I never shoot Fox News - they're on our side) so this weather isn't a total waste. Maybe all this front sight - press will have them slicked up when I can get back out to the club, and then we'll see if I can still remember that stuff about sight alignment and trigger control and all that jazz.
The Para feels nice. I like it. Wish I could shoot it here in town without annoying the neighbors. They wouldn't say anything to me, but I'm purty sure that nice young patrolman just up the street at the PO-LICE station would wanna discuss it with me. So I won't.
Hope you guys are staying warm. Front sight - press.

Name this pistol - and win it.

Our friend Bill Wilson has a new gun over at his web site at Wilson Combat firearms. But it doesn't yet have a name.
(click photo to enlarge image)

So Bill is running a contest on their web site where you can suggest a name for the pistol and if your entry is selected you win one. Such a deal!
When I first found out about this I contacted Bill to get more info about the gun, since there weren't any specs on the web page, just a nice photo of what appeared to be a slick polymer 1911. I was curious to know if it was intended as a replacement for the KZ45 polymer framed .45 ACP that they sell. I reviewed a KZ45 a few years ago in an article in a Harris magazines publication. I took it with me to Gunsite for the GAS (Gunsite alumni shoot) and I liked it so much that I bought it after the review was done. While I was very positive about the one that I T&E'd, the gun hasn't been a big seller for Wilson Combat and has received mixed reviews in various quarters. It's a shame, because despite being a double stack it fits my hand well, more like a Browning Hi-Power than a 1911. It's also lightweight and gives you 10+1 rounds in the gun while incorporating all the major attributes of the classic 1911 platform in the design. If the one you have runs right, it's a fine pistol.
So the question was, is this the gun to replace the KZ45? I fired off a quick email and these are the answers that I got back from Bill.
First, it's a double stack pistol but it's chambered in 9X19mm, not .45 ACP. It has a magazine that's a completely new design and has a capacity of 17 rounds. The slide is narrower and lighter than a traditional 1911. The lock-up barrel-to-slide is like that of a Sig, but it retains the swinging link of the 1911 design. The frame is a new design and is made in the USA, unlike the KZ45 which is made under contract for Wilson Combat in the Republic of South Africa. (I forgot to ask whether this one is made of Kevlar and Zytel like the KZ45 is, so I'll have to get back to you on that.) The frame is smaller in diameter than the KZ45, which should make the folks who like slim guns happy.
As yet there's no price point set, but Bill says that it's going to be hand-made alongside their custom 1911s so it won't be cheap. And as of this moment, there's no plan to produce it in .45 ACP. (Somehow, I think that will change in future, but that's what he said in his email.) Finally, they plan to start deliveries of the new pistol in July.
It's going to be an interesting gun. On the one hand, it reflects the new interest in the marketplace for 1911s chambered in 9mm, which is fueled both by a desire among shooters for guns that are easy to teach with because they're easy for novices to shoot, and that use less expensive ammunition while allowing the shooter to keep his 1911-specific gun-handling skills intact. Being a high-capacity gun it's right up there with the Glocks and others in the number of rounds that you can take to a fight.
On the other hand, it's going to be more expensive than other 9mm 1911s such as the Para LTC. While people who own and shoot Wilson Combat guns tend to be very satisfied with them (and Bill has an absolute guarantee that you WILL be satisfied with your gun, no matter what he has to do to accomplish that), will people pay custom pistol prices for a 1911 with a polymer frame that's not chambered in .45? Does this gun fit some niche in competition that I don't recognize? If so, that would be typical of Bill since he knows all about the ins and outs of action pistol competition.
Among some folks with whom I correspond there has long been a stated desire for a single stack, lightweight polymer 1911 in .45 ACP. The Glock G36 didn't fill the bill, and to date no one else has ventured to produce one, so far as I can recall. All the polymer .45s have been double stacks and, excepting the K45, aimed mostly at the competition market. They've been criticized, sometimes unfairly, for being too big in girth. That hasn't stopped some excellent shooters from burning up the ranges with them in IPSC matches, but those folks who carry pistols for personal defense don't want heavy or bulky .45s. How else can you explain the continued popularity of the basic, original M1911 design among serious pistoleros after all these years? I carried and competed in USPSA with a Para Ordnance P14-45 with a steel frame for awhile several years ago. It weighed a TON. With an extra magazine along I almost needed a gun bearer to tote the thing for me. I gave it up muy pronto and swapped over to an alloy framed P13-45 that I absolutely loved. The S&W 1911PD I carry on occasion now has a scandium frame and is a single-stack. I gave up the extra capacity in trade for the lighter weight, and I don't list to starboard or give myself a herniated disc when I carry it.
I hope that I can get one of these new no-name pistols while I still have the Para USA 9mm LTC in house so that I can compare them side by side. In any case, I'm going to get in my entry so that I have a shot at wining one, and you can enter your suggested name for this new Wilson "Wunder 9" here.

Bloggo say - shut you face!

Climate alarmist and professional Chicken Little James Hansen has now been rebuked by his former boss at NASA - read it here.

Seems that his now-retired boss, Dr. John S. Theon, says that computer climate models such as those that Hansen and his chums are using are unreliable. He has announced that he, Theon, now aligns himself with the climate skeptics who don't accept a human-based cause for climate change.
Now if only NObama and gazillions of wailing left-loonatics can stir themselves to start paying attention to this kind of info - naw, it'll never happen. On the other hand, folks such as you and I can take comfort in knowing that more and more of the world's rational scientists are making their voices heard in opposition to The Goracle and his minions.

The Union Switch & Signal M1911A1 pistol

My father was a man who loved military weaponry.
He served as an infantryman in World War 2 and never lost his interest in the guns that equipped the American and German armies. He paid scant attention to collecting the guns of the Japanese, British and Italians although he was conversant with their technical specifications. Pretty much all guns interested him to some degree, but the personal weapons, the small arms of WW2 absorbed him. I acquired the bug from him.
After he passed away my younger brother and I inherited several of his firearms, and one of those which I was fortunate enough to acquire was this M1911A1 made by the Union Switch and Signal corporation - (click on photos to enlarge them)


Generally speaking, military issue M1911s are judged to be more or less collectible based on the number that were made by a particular manufacturer. By far the most collectible from WW2 are those made by the Singer Sewing Machine company. Singer produced only 500 to prove to the US Ordnance Board that they could meet the specifications, make the gauges and pass the inspections. After delivering the pistols and all the required parts and dies to the board they then decided that they'd rather make other materiel for the war effort - and they never made another M1911A1. That fact, and the fact that many of those 500 were issued and then lost in the war makes them supremely collectible. A Singer M1911A1 can fetch $30,000-50,000 at auction!
In contrast, other makers turned out hundreds of thousands of M1911s, so their basic production models have less cachet and less collectible value. Of course, Colts that are uncommon because they were limited runs, commercial production or had special features or unusual characteristics also fetch high prices.
But Union Switch and Signal made only 55,000 M1911A1s in 1943, which makes their guns second only to the Singer pistols in scarcity among production M1911A1 models. Every other maker - Ithaca, Remington-Rand and Colt - produced more pistols than USS did.
I believe that this pistol is one that my Dad had had since the early sixties. It's in excellent condition, with minor blemishes to its exterior finish. The interior is spotless. It's possible that the only time that this gun was fired was when I shot it for the salute to Colonel Jeff Cooper on the anniversary of his death in 2007, done in concert with a number of other Ravens, which is what some of us who've graduated Gunsite like to call ourselves since that's the symbol the colonel chose for his school.


This pistol has all the correct markings and so far as I can determine from the reference texts which I've consulted is a true and correct USS M1911A1.
The pistol is shown in the photographs with a Boyt military issue holster from 1942 and a British-made magazine pouch from 1943 carried on a genuine military web belt. Those belong to my brother, and have a history of their own which I plan to relate to you in future.
Compared to the newest generation of whiz-bang 1911s that's on the market now, with every conceivable gadget and "improvement" built into and onto them, the gun seems almost primitive.
Almost, but not to the discerning eye. These guns were built to a very high level of precision for a firearm in mass production. The lines are clean and the parts are tight, made to close tolerances. The finish is durable and had to meet very specific standards. The slide fits tightly and glides smoothly on the frame, closing with an authority compelled by the sixty-five-year-old recoil spring. The trigger is crisp and light.
The sights are small, yes, but for the uses to which this pistol would have been put, fighting at close quarters and often in the dark, hand-to-hand and nose-to-nose, the reliability of this pistol would have been far more important than the size of its sights: that, and the caliber for which it was chambered. Alone among the armies of the world, the United States relied on a caliber pushing a wide, heavy bullet that dealt a solid blow to the enemy. The British also had large-bore pistols, but their velocities and impact energies were anemic compared to the .45 Automatic Colt Pistol (ACP) round.
Hefting this gun you have an appreciation for the men who carried them on patrols, in the trenches, through the mud and everything the weather could throw at them. You can understand why they held this solid fighting pistol in such high regard, even to this day.
All that, and it was my Dad's. It stays in the family.

Haiku Feb. 2009

Tiny yellow cat -
lying still in padded box
she snares a sunbeam.

Dark, sleek and lethal

For doing down your foes there's no finer hammer than John Moses Browning's great gift to the world, the M1911 pistol in .45 caliber.

There are other guns that will do the job, but none quite so graceful and pleasing to the eye, so balanced and well-proportioned as the 1911, the apex of his career. Glocks and Sigs and XDs and all the rest will launch lead and run reliably, but they're just so much industrial hardware compared to a well turned-out M1911. Now this smooth dark S&W 1911PD with the scandium frame that I wrote about before is even more the sleek black lethal witch with the addition of these fine stocks from brother Bill Jeans of Morrigan Consulting. Bill's a Marine combat vet, a SWAT officer and one of the best and most practical firearms instructors in the world. Not least in his resume is the time that he was director of operations at my alma mater, the Gunsite Training Center in Paulden, AZ.
He's also a lover of all things Celtic, which is where he gets the name for his company. It's from him that I bought these stocks with the interlinked Celtic symbol on them. See his web page for a full explanation of what it means and how he uses it.
Made of G10 laminate and textured with small round holes, they stick tight to your hand when you grip the pistol, no matter how sweaty or wet it may be. More than that, they just make it look wicked. It was a good gun before these stocks. Now it's even better.
Contact Bill for training. If you care enough for your own life and the lives of those you love to arm yourself, you should take the next step and let Bill teach you not just about shooting, but about fighting and the will to prevail.
Good stuff, good man. Wicked pistol.

To sleep, perchance to dream.

I've worked as an RN for almost 27 years, in ICU and ER and public health and home health and temporary staffing in all sorts of units and as a travel nurse.

I've worked in 22 different hospitals in 2 different countries, and the years that I've enjoyed most in all of that have been the those spent working in Intensive Care in various university hospitals. I like the learning environment and the collaboration between the docs and the nurses and all the other staff.

I like to be able to pick their brains, to ask about what they've read lately and what's changing in medicine and surgery. These guys bust their butts when they're on duty, and whenever they can grab 40 winks you'd best believe that they take it. They deserve it. Working in ICU is tough a lot of the time, but the reward, knowing when you go home that you held off the Reaper for another shift, is worth it.

Winter walkabout

Well, it's been an interesting week here, just as it has been for a whole passel of other folks around the country.

I drove home from Cincinnati to Frankfort on Wednesday morning in the middle of the blizzard that was cranking up just as I hit the road. Visibility was down to 50 yards in some places, and the secondary roads were pretty ugly. I found myself constantly reviewing all those snow-driving tips that I hadn't exercised in a long time. Made it all the way home without bashing into anything and then got my car stuck in the piled-up snow in front of the house. Yeesh.

I let the dogs out and we took a tour of the house and yard to look things over. I got this photo of one of our bird feeders, which pretty much sums up the state of things here in the Bluegrass

right now -

Yesterday we paid a young stalwart who was looking to raise some cash and build up his muscles to chip out the ice and shovel out the whole mess. Made for quite a pile. He's enlisting in the Marines, substituting snow hauling and tree clearing for his usual weight lifting during the current crisis. He was a Godsend and we wish him well. With his willingness to work and his gung-ho spirit he's just the kind of young man we need in the ranks. Good for him!

After the runways were open and dog transport "K9Krew-1" de-iced (check, check and check, ready for take-off) I got the dogs loaded up and we tooled around town for a bit to give them a breather. I waited until today to take them down to their favorite spot along the river because as things re-froze after the afternoon melt yesterday there was ice all over, and the dog-sled/station-wagon ain't the best in the slick stuff. Home again, tomorrow's another day.

Today we ran errands for awhile, then steered toward the river and our favorite playground. The dogs were fired up, keening and bouncing around as they realized where we were going. As soon as the doors opened they burst out of the car and scrambled all around the place, torn between stopping to sniff all the new "pee-mail" other dogs had left, and just plain running and jumping for joy.

Trailing along behind them, I was really happy for the clothes that I had worn as I got out to where the open spaces were being whipped by the breezes. My darling daughter in France has over the years sent to me several of what are known as "trucker's" or laborer's sweaters, basically a pullover with a zip closure and a turtleneck at the top. It's what all the guys out digging ditches and driving trucks and doing the dirty work in la Belle France wear every day. I love 'em. Worn over a polyester zip-neck fleece, (also from my sweetie, don't know what I'd wear if she didn't keep me in clothes) I was just toasty. The thing that I like about the zip-necks is that I can adjust the level of warmth in an instant, so that once I'm out of the car and walking around and warmed up I can keep from being over-heated by just lowering the zip and opening the turtle neck. With all them zip-thingies worn under a Carhart coat and my feet wrapped in Carhart poly/wool boot socks, I'm a toasty guy.

Of course, whatever I wear has to allow access to the Springfield XD45 on my waist and that dictates certain wardrobe elements as well. If all else fails, there's the M642 S&W in the front pocket, which has a trigger guard just large enough for my finger in those Duluth Trading company thermal gloves which are so handy and CHEAP (Wow, that all sounds like something out of Cosmo, don't it? Be at ease, gentle reader, I'll spare you the details of the underpinnings. Some things you don't want to know). I try to pay attention to events around me so that I'll have the time that I need to deploy the XD45, but my hand on that Centennial in my pocket as I mosey along is comforting - just in case.

The dogs were having a grand time, with Sunny in particular in her element, very much feeling her Husky ancestry: bouncing around in the crusty snow, challenging Churchill to a scuffle. She raised him from a puppy, so she still favors him over the other boys. Watching her play with him always makes me wish that all of my girl dogs could have had puppies while I had them, so that we could see what kind of mamas they would have been.

(Sigh. Can't get through a day without missing Vanya and Lucie and Sergei, especially when the snow falls. Dammit.)

Once before when I was out in the snow on this open field I noticed strange ribbons of ice floating in the air, glinting in the light as they glided slowly to the ground to land in the snow. I kept watching for them, couldn't figure out where they came from and finally realized that they were melting off the wires from the power transmission lines far overhead. Before I knew where they originated I was mystified to watch them rocking in the wind, slipping back and forth in the air, easing down to the ground like snow-snakes. After the freezing rain we got that blanketed everything the whole of the area is like being in some store selling fantastic sculptures carved from crystal or molded from glass. But the ice covering everything else is a lot less benign than those gossamer slivers off the power lines.

Trees are down everywhere due to the weight of the ice that accumulated, and it's smart to pay attention when walking anywhere near the woods at the edges of our field. Ice breaking up and branches breaking down all make the same cracking sounds, an arrhythmic popping that was a constant background noise as we plodded over the crusty snow. I was watching the dogs and keeping my eyes and ears peeled the whole time, ready to hop if one of those cracks lasted too long and turned into that tearing sound that signals a widow-maker plunging down.

Some people might worry about the world ending in global heat or a fire, but I'm more threatened by the cold. Cold is merciless, a creeping death. It kills more quickly than overheating, and you can't just get under cover from it like you can take shelter from the sun. It soaks into things, draws life out of you, saps your energy, works its way into your core and alternately numbs and scalds your limbs and peripheral pieces as it inhales the heat from you. The worst "end of the world as we know it" scenario of which I can conceive is a world covered over with ice and snow, gradually fading into silence as the freeze immobilizes and crushes life.

So while I enjoyed being out in the snow along the river with the pack, as I stood on the bank and watched the river - running high almost at flood stage, carpeted with logs and debris, pocked with whirlpools popping up and sucking down branches before fading back into the current, all of it flying along in that opaque brown mass -  I was shivering, glad not to be in that heedless flow.

Makes me all the more happy to be back at the shack at the keyboard now, enjoying a coffee and hot chocolate mocha while the dogs splay out on their beds, catching up their nap time. Churchill is lying in front of the gas heater, worshiping the glowing orange plaques at his own private altar, jerking in little twitches while he grunts and dreams his doggie dreams.

Snow and ice and all that glistening beauty are fine for awhile, but give me the snug and the heat and a pack of snoring dogs at the end of the day. Let King Winter have the rest of the world for another night.

Kudos to Clint Eastwood

Went and saw the new movie "Gran Torino" this weekend.
While the plot is conventional in most respects, Clint Eastwood does a great job of playing a man at the end of his life, showing a fragility that is so different from all the roles that preceded it. While he has no less piss-n-vinegar in his spirit, his character has the weaknesses that go with age, that force him to adjust and come to terms with his mortality.
I'ts not a GREAT film but it's a good one, and the personal values that Eastwood's character holds to are some with which I agree. I saw a lot of my own father in the man that he played. A lot of that had to do with the generation that was depicted (Eastwood's character is a Korean war veteran).
Well worth going to and cheering for. He makes no bones about how he feels and doesn't hesitate to follow his own lights when situations get tense. I liked it. Hey, how can you not like a movie where the guy carries a 1911 and a Garand to a fight?

Free and easy

Yesterday afternoon I looked up and in the skies above my house were over 80 vultures, wheeling and gliding in the wind in a tall rolling tube reaching hundreds of feet into the air.

Even in the dead of winter, socked in and no sun in sight, they soared in one of their vast dances in the air.
I don't know why they come to this area so often. Frankfort is in a river valley so maybe it's the updrafts and wind currents generated by the cliffs along the river, which is near my house. Maybe it's just some kind of social event. Maybe it's the legislature being in town. Who knows?
Whatever the reason for these amazing gatherings, I like watching them. Such huge birds with such long wings, making the whole act of flight seem so completely care-free and effortless. They move in circles first vast and then narrowing and closing in, moving up and down at will, changing altitudes with just a tilt and the flick of a wing-tip.
It appears that the large gatherings are different flocks or groups getting together for some kind of buzzard fly-in, since they finally split off into smaller groups and head out in different directions.
They may be ugly when they're on the ground, greasy and neck-deep in a deer carcass, but in flight they're glorious. In the spring when it's not so damn cold I lie in the grass and watch them for an hour or more at a time. In the winter, when the air is so silent from the chill and my heart is often as gray as the day, they lift my spirits.

In the midst of the doldrums

Well, it's official. I'm in the winter blahs, the doldrums, the seasonal affective whatevers.

The last couple of weeks, whenever I haven't had to work, I've done some errands and taken care of the dogs and cats, and done a lot of reading - and that's about it.

I keep thinking about things that I'd like to write about, things that I WILL write about at some point, but just can't get up the get-up-&-go to get it going. I've read some good books, such as a biography of fighter pilot John Boyd, the man who personally changed the nature of aerial combat forever. When you read stuff like that, it's not wasted time.

The cats like it, of course. We now have a heated pad on the bed along with some new bedclothes and a new blanket, and they think that having my large warm corpus in the rack is just dandy. I move around, they stand up and wait for me to settle in, then snuggle in again and it's back to snoozeville.

Our newest cat, Nikita, joined us last summer - or was it before then, in 2007? In any case, it took her awhile to decide how she felt about being in a house with dogs and another cat and me. Now, she follows me around and curls up in the crook of my arm while I read. It's funny how tuxedo cats seems to have such distinct personalities, or maybe we just assign personalities to them because of their unique faces.

Whatever - she's decided that the food's okay and the lodgings are tolerable, and that it's okay to play and enjoy herself and use me for a heating pad.

It's not like having our old tuxedo, Chin-chin, back with us, but it's nice.

More to come in the days ahead, many topics to cover. For now, it's off to work.

All the best from the 4th Street Irregulars

To all of you who take the time to stop in and peruse these musings now and then - all the critters and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and the very best in the coming New Year.

I often reflect on the fact that we despair over the state of our world and our lives as if we truly were living in the end times.  Yet our world is not engulfed in a global war such as those that devoured past generations.  Our scientific resources are greater now than they've ever been.  The state of science is greatly advanced over even that from which our parents benefited, and more is being learned about how things work every day.

The tools available to us to protect and improve our health are amazing.

The toys and electronics and other things which enhance our leisure have become ever more incredible.  In my lifetime I have seen a transformation in consumer electronics which would have been fit for a science fiction novel in the 1950s, and perhaps hardly credible even then.

Yet people despair about the state of the world, and perhaps that is the cause for greatest concern.  I look around at the children who I see, and examine the people who appear on TV, and that, more than anything else, causes concern for me.

At a time when our store of knowledge is vast beyond imagining, when just keeping up with what's new and being discovered is almost beyond our ability each day, the human race is failing to live up to its promise.

Children are getting fatter and less fit.  People don't value education and intellectual attainments, preferring simply to consume mediocre amusements that don't challenge the intellect at all.  Curiosity, asking questions, challenging the conventional thinking and popular assumptions is a lost art.

The popular culture places a greater premium on "reality" shows than it does on dealing with reality itself.  When the promise of a world filled with technological wonders is being brought to life all around us, a significant portion of the human race is failing even to meet the most mundane standards.

People, many, many people, are becoming slobs and THAT worries me.

I don't care if people are slobs.  There will always be those who do nothing, contribute nothing, value nothing.  What does concern me is that we are subsidizing these slobs when we should be marshaling our resources to give to our best and brightest, letting go the ones who are content to sit and stew in their own juices so that we can direct life's rewards to the ones who excel.

Working in health care I see so many people who are basically just zeroes who devour the resources of our health care system.  Alcoholics, drug addicts, idiots who destroy their own lives with bad choices are using up millions of our dollars and wasting our time.  Jerks who take turns shooting each other waste millions more.  And yet the nanny state insists that we're not doing enough for all these losers.

Worse is the fact that they come from long lines of losers in many cases, people who live in a state of consumption of resources while doing little or nothing to improve the state of the world.  And our political and social systems are increasingly geared toward simply giving them more, on demand, regardless of their values or the value of their contributions to our world.

We have so much that we know and can share, but we foist our wealth on people who waste it and don't appreciate it.  That, to me, is the great tragedy.

Colonel Jeff Cooper often despaired that the Age of the Common Man gave you just that - common men and women with little to recommend them.  He championed the idea that it was far better to exalt the Uncommon Man - the few who displayed higher standards and achieved more with their lives.  And I agree with him.

TV programs that are filled with the foolishness of stupid people teach us nothing about being exceptional.  They simply take up time better spent in many other pursuits.  Yet people sit and ingest this crap.  It defines their lives, in my estimation.

There is too much left to learn, to do, to know for this to define our species and our age.

We live in a time of great opportunity and great attainments, yet we stand - no, we sit, too lazy to stand for long - ready to squander the vast wealth that still fills the world.  People are happy to be mediocre and worse, as long as their bellies are full and pap fills the airwaves.

I despair not for the state of the world, but for the decline of the human race at large and the political institutions that foster this idiocy.

Yet even these things are reversible.  Humanity did not get to this exalted position by being inadequate, but by hunger for knowledge and being willing to do the work to find it.  There are many of us who still feel that burning to learn and achieve, and it's incumbent on us to devise systems that reward that mindset.

We are only defeated when we admit defeat.  I'm not there yet, not by a long shot.

As long as free people are willing to take stock of the state of their world and set out to improve it, to preserve their freedoms and their values, to give their children a better place, to deny triumph to the sloths and the mediocrities then there is hope for the future.

Merry Christmas!  And let's do what we can to make this a Happy New Year, the start of many to come!

The Para LTC at 500 rounds

I made it out the range in the cold today (temps in the 20s with a very brisk wind, Arctic air whipping through, lows tonight in the single digits) and quickly put another 300 rounds through the 9mm Para lightweight LTC 1911, bringing to 500 the number of rounds of Federal 'American Eagle' 115gr ball ammo fired to date.

The gun runs just fine, never missing a beat no matter how I shoot it, fast or slow. It hasn't been cleaned since I started this T&E, only field-stripped and lubed with LSA at the outset. The only hiccups have been related to one factory magazine, which is now labeled and being watched as we work to identify the glitch. The gun itself has never had any problems. I like the feel of it the more that I shoot it. The trigger is starting to break in nicely so that just thinking about it more or less breaks the shot. When you haven't shot a 1911 regularly for awhile, it's so nice to feel that kind of trigger quality again.

The Wilson ETM 10 round mags are very high quality and have worked perfectly so far. I've had them apart and the details of their construction will be the subject of another posting in future. They are definitely the ticket for anyone using a 1911 in 9mm.

More to follow later this week, including photos of the gun, mags and targets. I hope to get some more powerful ammo and some JHPs through it at some point, budget permitting. We know it shoots, now what will it shoot?

AR magazines

With all the frenzied buying of ARs, AKs, magazines and ammunition going on now it's hard to get the stuff that you want without running into 'out of stock' messages on all the web pages I shop at.

Since so many of the AR magazines that I would normally use have been sold out, I considered various options that popped up. One of those is a polymer magazine from the Lancer company. Another is a new steel magazine from a company named Fusil USA. They've both more expensive than the current benchmark magazine for ARs, the MagPul P-mag, or any of the conventional aluminum or steel mags from high-quality makers such as C-products and Brownell's. Are they worth the bucks, even in times when mags are in short supply?

Samples of all of these became available at somewhat reasonable prices, and we picked up several in order to test and compare them. My work schedule during the Christmas season has made it hard to get much done on the blog and with testing in general, but we've taken one of each of the Lancer ($25-40), the Fusil ($25-40) and the P-mag ($15-25), loaded them to capacity (30 rounds) with 55gr ball ammo and set them aside until we can get them out to the range and see how they do. Photos and detailed comparison to follow later this month.

The new carbine is one fine machine!

I was able to get the Noveske Light Recce mid-length 5.56mm carbine out to the range just long enough to put 30 rounds through it the other day, to see how it felt and functioned. Yowser! Bloggo is happy!

It was cold and time was limited so I simply loaded the Noveske GI-style magazine that came with it with 30 rounds of Federal 55gr ball (M193), aimed it at the center of that large flat rock out at 150 yards on our range and pressed the trigger.
Bingo! Hit!
Continued to do that until the magazine was empty, and got hits every time. I don't know how it shoots for group, but if someone had been out there who had just needed shootin' they would have been hurtin' fer certain.
A guy who was on the range with his 24 inch Bushmaster .223 AR varmint gun shot a couple of rounds through the Noveske and he commented that it seemed to kick less than his own 16 inch carbine. I hadn't told him about the mid-length gas system before he fired it, so his impression coupled with my own seem to indicate that the longer gas tube does help reduce recoil - or maybe it was just shooting such an obviously well-made carbine!
Looking forward to getting it on the bench and shooting for group in the next couple of days. As of now, I'm very happy with it.

Is it the winter blahs?

I've been in a rut between being too busy, doing work for KC3 and just doing nothing but hanging out with the dogs.

So not much blogging going on, hardly any shooting.  Just reading, drinking coffee, playing with cooking different foods and hanging out with the dogs a lot.

We've put up bird feeders in the back yard, and have had to deal with learning how to secure them against the ravages of the squirrels and the larger birds, but we have most of that dealt with now.  We're even feeding the squirrels so the little buggers will mess less with the bird chow.  I like watching birds and reflecting on how fragile they are.  Getting through the winter here is no joke. The lowly sparrow, shivering and striving to survive, has my deepest respect.

There will be some shooting to report on soon.  The Noveske mid-length Light Recce carbine has arrived and it is a beaut!  Now we have to get it to the range and see how it shoots.  Photos and more on that to follow.

I just went through the process of buying a computer for my son, Jared, but since he knows nothing about what's been done on that front I can't speak of it yet, don't want to tip him off when he checks in here at the blog.  Sure do wish that I could have talked him into a Mac instead of a Windoze Vista machine, but maybe next time.

I'm still getting over losing Lucie, which I think accounts for a good deal of the blahs I've had lately.  That, and working nights, working a lot, working hard when I'm at work in the ICU is wearing me down.

I've logged a lot of time making phone calls and writing emails for KC3 to get our web page upgraded, finding an ISP, finding an attorney, answering questions and researching answers, meeting with one of our legislative friends and mentors, taking over the newsletter and getting it ready to print - just a lot of stuff to do, some of it things that have languished for years due to the neglect of the former president and vice president who did NOTHING during their tenure!  Just trying to get back up to speed on a lot of this stuff is taking a lot of time.  The good thing is that I have more time than most of the board members to do this stuff, so I do it.  The down side is that doing it uses up MY time.  One look at the mess that I live in tells you where my priorities lie.

So if you've wondered what's going on with the blog, that's it.  I've been busy or I've been blah.  And just like everyone else, I have to make some preparations for Christmas so adding that to all else that I've volunteered for I've had some busy days and nights.

But we're making progress!  And for those of you who care, you can start monitoring our KC3 blog at http://kc3blog.blogspot.com and keeping up with what the pre-eminent personal rights group in Kentucky is doing to defend our right to self-defense.  If you live in Kentucky, you owe to yourself and to everyone who has a concealed carry permit to get on board and work with us to keep our Commonwealth free!

Range report on the Sabre Defense 6.5mm Grendel rifle

This is what I posted to fellow Gunsite alumni about the rifle my friend just bought.
(photo copyright Sabre Defense)

Since this was written, Sabre Defense overnighted to us the remaining parts and box for the scope, along with a free digital camo boonie hat. Based on the quality of their product, the speed with which they fixed things and their willingness to fix their errors, I'll do business with them again. Next up, an M5 upper in 6.5mm Grendel for my AR?

Quoted text below -

A friend of mine decided last year that he wanted to get some kind of rifle for long-range shooting that would allow him to engage multiple targets fairly quickly and when he saw the designated marksman's rifles that the Army and Marines were building in .308 he liked them, but decided that he'd rather have it in 6.5mm Grendel for the reduction in recoil and the ballistic advantages.
I took him to see the Precision Marksman's Rifle (PMR) at the Sabre Defense booth at the NRA show this spring and he decided to buy one of those.
Late this summer he ordered one, and it arrived FINALLY last week. Yesterday we took it out to the range to get a rough zero on it and to see how it functioned.
It's on this web page, fifth item down.
The Leupold scope is very nice - crisp, clear, easy to adjust and focus. It was easy to pick out gray rocks from brown leaves on an overcast day with these optics. It's an M4 6.5-20X with the mil-dot reticle. We haven't checked out the illumination of the reticle yet because Sabre Defense didn't include the battery with the scope when they shipped. They also didn't send the box for the scope or the manual or the front Butler Creek lens cover - more on that later.
The rifle comes in a padded bag with an Otis field cleaning kit, a pad to lie on and a single shoot'n'see-type target to use with it, as well as two C-Products 25-round steel magazines of excellent quality.
The rifle is very well made. Everything felt crisp and secure. The fit between the upper and lower receivers is tight. The Magpul buttstock is well made and nothing on the gun in the way of parts or assembly quality was lacking. I disassembled the bolt, scrubbed the dried carbon off of it, lubed it and we started shooting.
We were using the Wolf Gold line of ammunition, with the 120gr open tip ball bullet loaded. The ammo is clean and the brass bright, with the annealing lines apparent on the brass. The ammunition would be a match for any US commercial production that I've seen lately and I understand that it's made by Prvi Partizan.
We fired three rounds at 25 yards and found that it was pretty close to zero already - three inches low and an inch left. After shooting and adjusting, we ended up using about 15 clicks right windage and four clicks up to bring it in roughly where I thought it should be. Checking it at 50 yards seemed to confirm that. The match trigger in the gun is EXCELLENT, the best that I've ever used in any AR. There was a failure to feed in the first magazine and I don't know why, but it didn't happen again.
Since we were short on time and the weather was chilly, we then shot it for fun at a very large rock at 150 yards. We weren't just hitting it, we were putting all the rounds into a fairly small area on the rock. So I started shooting at 8-12 inch rocks, then at 3-6 inch rocks and we were hitting them all. Basically, the rifle was dead to point of aim at 150 yards with what little adjusting we had done to the scope. Hitting small rocks was so easy it was like shooting beer cans at 25 yards with a .22 than shooting targets 1/3 that size with a full power rifle at 150 yards. Once we get it on sandbags on a good day we'll tune the zero to the cartridge's ballistics.
The muzzle brake is what SD calls a 'gill' brake because of its appearance, I suppose. It may have contributed slightly to the muzzle blast, but what it did to lessen recoil and keep the gun down was worth it. It was easy to watch the strike of the bullet through the scope and stay in the scope for succeeding rounds. Shooter fatigue with this rifle should be more or less inconsequential.
So for a very brief (60 rounds) range session it was very satisfying. The rifle and scope performed superbly. I couldn't believe how easy it was to shoot this rifle. I could shoot one rock, see it hit, pivot on the bipod to another, hit it and keep doing it until I decided to quit. I've shot .223s that had more apparent recoil than this gun. The trigger was another key contributor to this ease of shooting.
The only downside has been Sabre Defense's customer service. My brother ordered the gun, then checked on the order and they'd lost it. He placed the order again, then called some time later to find out where it was. He was promised a delivery date. That date passed and he called again, and got another date, which also passed. We waited nine weeks for this gun, and one of his conversations with a woman there was less than satisfactory, which led him to ask to speak to someone else to whom he very frankly described his dissatisfaction.
When I saw how they'd shipped this rifle, missing the scope accessories, I called them and spoke with a young man named Aloysius who explained that the delay had been caused by delays in receiving the scopes from Leupold. I told him that I was personally embarrassed because I had recommended this gun and his company to my friend, and had been let down by their performance and by their broken promises.
It appeared to me that when they became anxious to ship this rifle they just put the first scope that they had on hand onto it, then sent it out without the box, battery, etc. since they weren't lying around nearby. They're supposed to call me back today to tell me when they're going to send the box and the other accessories that SHOULD have been with it out to us.
Final impressions - the customer service was lacking. Delivery was delayed and I'm not sure that I accept their reasons for that. But the final product is superb! The rifle is easy to shoot and I'm looking forward to when we can run some of the Alexander Arms 123gr Lapua Scenar ammunition through it at longer ranges so we can see how it performs in its proper role. This was also my first exposure to the 6.5mm Grendel round and I really like it! This round is everything that I'd been led by my reading on it to believe. Even this basic Wolf ammunition is capable of excellent practical accuracy. The Leupold scope is excellent and I look forward to trying it with the illuminated reticle.
If SD can do better on delivery there would be nothing to complain about with this system. For long range shooting it would appear to be the thing. Respectfully submitted this 24th day of November in the year of our Lord 2008, I remain, yr obdnt srvnt - Charles

"A man may smile and bid you hail
Yet wish you to the devil;
But when a good dog wags his tail,
You know he's on the level."
- Unknown

Data points, winter

I told myself that I was going to the range today. Then I got outside and saw what a nasty day it was and changed my mind.

I'd had some of that lovely breakfast casserole that we learned about from Brigid at the Home On the Range blog, so I was content on that count. Thinking about things Celtic last night had reminded me of 'Rob Roy' with Liam Neeson, so I had already downloaded that movie from iTunes. There - I had plenty of reasons to stay socked into the house and slurp coffee and write stuff. God knows that I have plenty of housecleaning to do, too, as well as things to follow up on for KC3 before our meeting this coming weekend.
But I couldn't resist it. I hadn't put any rounds down range in too long. The sky cleared and I packed up and headed out.
Took the dogs along and since no other IDIOT was out there but ME, we had the run of the place. You take a pack of pooches to a large grassy area on a cold day and you have a formula for fun. They got to run and check their pee-mail for a bit, then got bundled back into the car and it was down to business. They got to get back out every time I had to go set or check targets so they didn't get bored.

The quick data set -

The ParaUSA LTC 1911 Commander-sized lightweight 9mm pistol ran through a hundred rounds of Federal 115 grain ball without a hiccup. Both the 9 round factory magazines and the Wilson Combat 10 round mags are very smooth now as they wear in, as is the trigger. It shoots to the sights at 25 yards. I was going to try to do a nice group to photograph for the blog, but with the temp at 40 degrees and the light failing at 1700 hours that wasn't happening. Still, 100 rounds fired at a fairly brisk rate ate the center out of the target quite handily.
Second, I'd put the new Swift Premier 1.5-4.5X32mm variable scope on the Remington M660 .308 in the Warne steel rings so today I did a rough zero using milsurp ball ammo. Put three rounds touching in one cloverleaf at 25 yards. Put three rounds within 4 inches of each other at 100 yards. Good enough for conditions and the ammo I was using. This little carbine can shoot, the scope is very clear and bright, and the rings are tough as hell!
Third - the Prvi Partizan commercial ball 7.5x54mm ball ammo runs just fine through the French MAS 49/56 semiauto rifle. It'll require re-zeroing since it was hitting way high but it grouped well enough to smack a paint can around at 75 yards. However, the trigger slap was NASTY! Hmm. No one's mentioned that in any reviews of this gun that I've read. Maybe cold hands made it worse, but my finger was swollen and numb for a bit after firing ten rounds. Can I put Sorbothane on the trigger face to fix it? What else to do? Something to ponder.
So all the guns ran fine, the dogs had fun, the guns still need cleaning but I can do that while 'Rob Roy' plays on iTunes and the bean soup is slowly cooking down on the stove.
So what if it's winter? Life is good. I'm glad we went.

Quantum leap ahead in James Bond movies

Thank God for Daniel Craig. He's saved the James Bond franchise.

Of course, he couldn't have done it without the intelligent scripting and high production values that have been evident in the two movies he's done as Bond, first 'Casino Royale' and now 'Quantum of Solace'. Craig plays Bond with the kind of unhesitating savagery that a man in his line of business would have to possess, the sort of borderline sociopathy that Ian Fleming originally wrote into the character in his books. I saw 'Quantum' twice this weekend, going to matinees on two days, just like I did when 'Dr. No' and 'From Russia with Love' came out all those years ago. I could quibble about some minor points in the film, but I won't. That would be petty and mean-spirited given all the enjoyment that I derived from seeing Craig playing a Bond that was vital and powerful again, not bogged down in foppishness the way that Roger 'dipstick' Moore played him, or burdened with silly gadgets that way that Sean 'gun control' Connery ended up. Bond doesn't dick around in this film. When he's attacked, he responds with ruthless and effective violence that has nothing in common with the silly stage-ish 'fighting' that prior Bond films displayed. As a student of the martial arts, with and without weapons, and lover of cinema at large I exult that they've taken Bond back to the basics in a big way, while making the production look better than ever. You like Bond? You should see it.

Damn, don't you HATE when that happens?

Big 'oopsie' for the climate change ninnies in the British online newspaper the Telegraph today, but Al Gore won't be telling you about it, nor will the mainstream media in this country if they can avoid it.
Read about it here.
Seems that Dr. James Hansen, the agenda-driven bozo who's been the NASA cheerleader for ruining the world's economy in the pursuit of nebulous reductions in carbon dioxide in the mistaken belief that it drives climate change, has been fudging the numbers - and got caught! Ooops, my rosie red ass. They've known all along that they had to juggle the numbers to get the results that they've obtained.
Just like any fraud, the longer it's exposed to the light the worse for wear it looks. Some serious fraying showing these days. Follow the links in the story for some web pages that are of value for those of us who could use some ammo to debunk the climate-Kool-aid swillers.

Comfort food for winter

A lady named Brigid has a blog called Home on the Range that I discovered from links on the pages of some other bloggers. I've never met the lady but I like her style.
She's a woman of many parts - pilot, shooter, artist, writer and most importantly this morning, a chef. I could say that she's a cook, but that hardly captures the degree of skill she brings to the subject. The appellation 'chef' is more in keeping both with her expertise and her quality of presentation.
This morning it was cold and wet and windy in Kentucky, so I baked this as-yet-unnamed casserole for which she posted the recipe on her site.
It is really, really good!

(photo courtesy Brigid @ Home on the Range)

I can foresee that we'll be using variations on this one for some time to come. By substituting in mushrooms or other vegetables, different meats and different cheeses there would seem to be no end to the ways you could jigger this around and come up with something very nice each time.
Today we used half-n-half instead of the milk and 'country-style' bread stuffing instead of the cornbread type that she lists, but it was wonderful just the same. Delicious! Perfect for steeling you against this foul weather! The dogs and cats had mushed-up salmon in their dry food while I chowed down on the casserole and sipped coffee, and all of us are sated. Well, the dogs were paying attention while it baked and are still waiting for some of that casserole to fall off the plate onto the floor, so they're not completely sated!
The man who runs the grocery down the street from me started off as a meat cutter, and each week they make their own ground sausage right there in their store from the trimmings and cuts they've accumulated. It's so lean that you have to cook it in a little water in the skillet to keep from burning it. Next time we do this recipe, we'll try it with that sausage, some mushrooms and some onion to see what happens.
Brigid's page is full of beautiful work. Her writing and her photographs are masterful. At the risk of losing readers (all three of you), I urge you to do yourself a favor and cruise on over to her page. You might not come back to this plebeian blog again after seeing hers.
Great food! The 4th Street Irregulars give it 4 Paws up!

Kentucky in the fall

When I was a boy, I used to go out in the car with my Dad on the weekends to go groundhog hunting along the Old Frankfort Pike, the old road to Lexington. It's lined on both sides with old trees and rock walls that have been there for centuries.

On the other side of the walls you'll see great long fields rolling away in the distance. Beautiful, especially at this time of year -





There's a tree in a lot that's surrounded by a wrought iron fence not far from our house. The house on that lot burned down long since and the owners have left it wild, letting the trees and flowers grow in it. This tree has grown up twisted and strange and I love to look at it through the changing seasons.
I've been in a lot of countries and seen a lot of places, but the simple beauty of Kentucky always draws me back.

The K9 Krew

I may have told you that the dogs have their own car, with their own vanity plates. The front plate reads 'Dog Sled 1'.

I had this wagon and was going to sell it when I bought a new Suzuki Forenza wagon, but then I realized that as long as I had this one, the new one would stay clean. This one was paid off and cheap to insure - why not keep it?
They love to go riding out to the field along the river to run around, and they love just to ride around, hanging their heads out the windows.
The bumper stickers are mine. They let me put them on there in exchange for my driving for them. When they grow thumbs and Sunny gets her license, I'm out of luck! Well, until Sunny has her first wreck, anyway.

Happy Birthday, Marines!

On November 10, 1775 the United States Marine Corps was founded. Since that time they have been in the forefront of almost every action and conflict in which the United States has been engaged.

One of the first heroes of the Marines was Lt. Presley O'Bannon, who led them into action against the Tripoli pirates in the effort to break the pirate trade against the USA in that region. He's buried here in Frankfort, Kentucky and we visited his grave today to pay our respects to him.


He lies at the foot of the slope leading up to the memorial for Kentucky's war dead, which includes an obelisk on which the words of the poem "Bivouac of the Dead" are engraved. It was written to commemorate Kentucky's fallen soldiers from the Mexican-American war.

There's also a plaque that details his history and his exploits.

Happy birthday, Marines, from an ex-NCO in the US Army! Semper fidelis!