Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year everyone.

Three and a half hours to go yet, but this is the end of 2008.
Been a heck of a year, I think 2009 will be better but we shall see.
Take Care, drive safe, and don't let the Drunk Drivers get ya.

MagiK

Monday, December 29, 2008

Surviving Christmas

We managed to get through the most hectic time of the year, our Dog had a shattered limb that had to be pieced together and plated in place, with a large cast. He's doing pretty well now, and We have relaxed again to try and make the most of this most restful part of our year.

Coming up is Fleiz Navidad, My Birthday January 6th, and it brings me one step closer to that big 50....funny, I dont feel any older. Though I will admit that the old joints do ached a bit more.

Well I wish to reach out to two friends of mine who I have not heard from in a while,

Machine Head, hope you and your daughters are well.
Atty, get well soon!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Best Christmas Wishes to you all

Merry Christmas to you all and to all a good night!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Tragedy Strikes when you least expect it

Our oldest dog, an American Eskimo slipped down the steps on his way out to do his business last night about 3am. He is 16 and can hardly hear, or see but still he has managed those steps fairly well over the years (it is a spiral set down from our deck to the back yard, about 15 feet long)
The other two dogs run up and down these stairs in all weather with nary a problem, but they are much closer to the ground and if they slip its like a sled rids down a hill for them.

Kodiak however is taller and somehow managed to shatter his front right leg, radius and ulna both. It is a really nasty looking X-Ray.

Where I grew up and with pretty much everyone I was raised with, this would mean putting the dog down. (I mean he is 16, and suffering from a number of dog ailments and on more pills than my grandma).

But here in the city C. will be with him during the surgery tomorrow and will have to nurse him back to health for what will be a protracted period. The Surgeons fee alone is about $3k plus a weekend in the ER plus a day or two for recovering in the Animal Hospital plus the cost of X-Rays and the emergency room 3am arrival and the pain meds and other assorted shots...all told this will hit $6k easy. Fun fun fun. Just in time for Jingle Bells. The real pain is that now someone will have to put him on a leash and walk him out front several times a day (the meds he is on means he urinates like a firehose all day long).

Long story short, if Algore would get off his ass and get that global warming here, we wouldn't have had icy steps!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

100 Things I have Done or may do....or not

Saw this over at Roberta X's blog and thought I'd put up mine:

100 Things

THINGS I'VE DONE (in bold):

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars. .
3. Played in a Band. (I cannot carry a tune and have no msical talent).
4. Visited Hawaii. (Only for Refueling stops in a P3).
5. Watched a meteor shower. (Many Times)
6. Given more than you can afford to charity. (once by accident, once on purpose)
7. Been to Disneyland. And Disney World.
8. Climbed a mountain. (Mounts Moffit and Adagdak on Adak Island)
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo. (during a disasterous attempt to join the choral group)
11. Bungee jumped. (Are you friggin nuts?)
12. Visited Paris. (I'll stick with photographs. France holds no interest for me.).
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea. (From the shore)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch. if cooking is an art.
15. Adopted a child. (Grew two of my own though)
16. Had food poisoning. (ohh would that it werent true)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables. (grew up on a farm)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France. (See 12)
20. Slept on an overnight train. Yes in a sleeper car, from Seatle to Pittsburgh
21. Had a pillow fight. Yeah but it lead to lots more :)
22. Hitch hiked. Only a few times.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill. (of course. Mental Health days are important)
24. Built a snow fort. (We made some huge forts in my day)
25. Held a Lamb. (no but did help deliver and hold a new born foal)
26. Gone skinny dipping. (too many times to count, when you live in the Carribian...)
27. Run a Marathon. (10k's were my longest)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice. (See 12)
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run.
32. Been on a cruise. (Not yet, may still do one, want to do the Alaska coast and maybe a med cruise)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person. (Absolutely awe inspiring)
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors. (Might do it, some day...Germany and Poland and Ireland)
35. Seen an Amish community. (Sister married a mennonite and they live in Amish country)
36. Taught yourself a new language. (Failed french two years running)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied. It happens occasionally with varying degrees of frequency.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person. (See 12)
39. Gone rock climbing. (so many many times)
40. Seen Michelangelo's David. (See 12)
41. Sung karaoke. (only if I was drunk and I dont recall it.)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt. (All of Yellowstone is on my todo list, if the libs dont lock it down first)
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant. (Not out side of an arranged business deal and I dont count dates)
44. Visited Africa. (No, thank you. Nothing of any interest to me on that continent.).
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight. Many many times. Alone and together.
46. Been transported in an ambulance. (More than once :( )
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person. (See 12)
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (See 12,).
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling. (Snorkling: This, I'd love to do again!)
52. Kissed in the rain. (and made love)
53. Played in the mud. (and tried to make love ;) )
54. Gone to a drive-in theater.
55. Been in a movie. (Extra in Stephen King's Pet Semetary)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China. (Nothing in this region of the world interests me)
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class. (Yes in Puerto Rico Kim po tai, I believeit was called)
59. Visited Russia. (Not allowed there due to secret squirrell work in my past)
60. Served at a soup kitchen. (Not a soup kitchen per se, but a Feed the Homeless thing for the Catholic Church)
61. Sold Boy Scout Cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Got flowers for no reason. (I have received other gifts spontaneously)
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma. (Used to do it regularly when it was more convenient, now they make it more dificult)
65. Gone sky diving. (Are you crazy?)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp. (Historically fascinating, emotionally to devastating)
67. Bounced a check. (Yes my paycheck bounced so consequently my checks bounced, it was a hoot....not)
68. Flown in a helicopter. (As an Emergency Medical Case....kinda fun except for the blood)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy. (Dad believed in tossing things out if they were not functional or practical)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial. (Many times, and all the other memorials in Down Town DC)
71. Eaten Caviar. (Once...ugh bait!)
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square. (I try to avoid NY)
74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job. (Once, it was a learning experience)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London. (Maybe some day if the brits get it together again.).
77. Broken a bone. (several)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle. (a few times, riding and driving)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person. (not yet)
80. Published a book. (Had a short story published in my home town news paper though)
81. Visited the Vatican. (Lovely place, maybe some day)
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem. (Nothing of any real interest there for me to warrent the risks.).
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible. (During Navy Basic Training...aka Boot Camp)).
86. Visited the White House. (Also saw President Reagan laying in State at the Capitol).
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating. (Deer, Squirrel, Rabbit and Grouse)
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury. (Murder Case in SanDiego, convicted the guy then learned that the principle Cop involved with the case was sleeping iwth the wife and had as much motive and opportunity, Hope the guy got an appeal. We learned the truth after the fact))
91. Met someone famous. (Several).
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Had a baby. (Well not myself no...but I planted two of them)
95. Seen the Alamo in person. (I really should.).
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake. (not too into swimming in most landlocked waters, the crystal clear carribean has spoiled me)
97. Been involved in a law suit.
98. Owned a cell phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.
100. Read an entire book in one day.

101. Traveled the world and been to places 99% of the rest of the world will never see. Yeah got that one checked off, and I still prefer home.

Hooray hooray the range is open again.

Our local indoor range has been closed for months for renovation, but is now open again.
Mysti will have the chance to try out her new Walther now.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Post Turkey Day thoughts: Network Television

Watching Boston Legal last night and they hit on something that has had me mystified lately.
With the large number of boomers over 50, with the amount of disposable income they have available, why do the networks not Put programming on for them? Why is it that the only demographic they pitch to are the pubescent and young 20 somethings? Nearly all the shows I have liked have been pitched to small demographic groups, shows like Firefly, Buffy, Angel, Farscape, Treks, and the Stargates all of which had seriously diehard fans, all of which had story lines people of all ages could follow and all of which got less than 1/10 the promotional network backing they should have had.

Will the networks realize their untapped audience before Television peters out and no one bothers to watch at all? They are moaning about low viewership, and yet seem to be ingnoring the largest group of potential watchers. I just do not get it.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Friends, Family, Home and Food. Beyond that I don't really care today for those are the most important things of all. (No necessarily in that order) :)


Have a good day everyone.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Where are the planes?

Just realized I haven't changed my plane picture in ages, which reminds me...Im waiting for some pics of aircraft from a friend of mine :) Maybe for Christmas MH? ;)

Chantilly Gun Show

Was huge, the Expo center is one of the largest in this area, and the lot was packed, no one got parking by the time I got there at 9am until someone else left.

When I got into the Show at about 10 (yes an hour to get a parking space) I went directly to the Ammo booths..... by 10 AM (they opened for business at 9) they were out of .357, .38 and 9mm bulk ammo and only had the really expensive .22 ammo left ($52 a brick) I did manage to find one small dealer who had 500 rounds of .22 for $25 so got those for Mysti and I snagged 1500 rounds of 5.56 ammo for the AR....by 2pm the ammo dealers were out of all the bulk ammo. I saw more people buying what was left of the black guns...and there weren't many to be had. I did hear several dealers mention that they were on back order from 3 to 6 month waiting list. I did manage to snag 3x20 round mags and 2x30 round mags for the AR as well and some ammo cans for storage of my bulk ammo. Today I've got to run out to get some dessicant packets to put in the cans with the ammo.

Total cost for 1500 rounds of 5.56, 500 rounds of .22, 4 mags for the AR and 4 Ammo Cans just shy of $500 prices are insane. Sure hope O is too busy to mess with guns for a while.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Tomorrow I Celebrate a Belated National Ammo Day

Headed to Chantilly Va. first thing in the morning to by some 5.56, 9mm, .357 or .38, Ammo Cans, Maybe a second upper for my AR, and some desicant packs.....on the way home have to buy a turkey :)

Friday, November 14, 2008

Black Rifles, now scarce. No Surprise.

Well now, I am really really glad I bought my XM15 last month, the price and availability of these things are ridiculous now that the election is over. My buddy Jeff at "Just Guns" in Baltimore is out of stock now and the waiting list is crazy.

I need to get out this weekend and get ammo, before it too is scarce.

Update: oops too late, everyone is sold out. Every dealer I called suggsted next weekends gun show at Chantilly Virginia...its quite a drive but I guess I will have to get there.

If your Vista looses it's DVD/CD Drives

Then you can try this solution: **** WARNING MESSING WITH YOUR REGISTRY CAN BE DANGEROUS **** SO do this at your own risk. It worked for me.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11­CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Apparently it seems that this is an age old fix for even XP systems. If you venture to the registry key above by doing the following steps:

  1. Click on the start menu.
  2. If this is a Vista machine in the search box type in “regedit” without the quotation marks.
  3. Maximize the HKLM and then go ahead and browse until you reach the key listed above.
  4. In the right panel you’ll see something along the lines of “UpperFilter” and “LowerFilter” you want to click on each “filter” key and hit delete. Click yes when it asks to confirm if you wish to delete the key.
  5. Restart Windows.
** Note it is not uncommon for one of the entries to already be missing, (Upper or lower) just delete the ones listed that are actually there.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

AAArrrrgggggghhhhh

No that was not me being a pirate! At some point over the evening my Vista64 Ultimate Operating System has decided to quit talking to all 3 of my DVD drives. 1 internal SATA and 2 External USB. They work fine when I boot into XP so it has to be a Vista thing.

Im at a losss, tried removing the drivers and reloading and multiple reboots and variations on the theme....no luck, Im left resorting ot The Geek Squad

Just shoot me now. :P

Monday, November 10, 2008

I blame Obama


Mysti's brand spankin new Walther P22 broke while she was working the slide getting used to the feel of the gun. She has been sitting with it in her hand while watching TV (With Snap Caps loaded in the clip) so she could work the action and pick off bad guys to get used to the feel of the trigger. At one point she racked the slide and out popped a 1/2 inch flat piece of metal which for the life of me I cannot figure out where it came from. Walther/Smith & Wesson are being very good about getting the warrenty work done, but holy smoke! I was surprised.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Horror and tragedy.

The Socialist Libs took control and it was due to the Majority of American voters.
The Dems have the House, Senate and White house. Shortly with the Democrats appointing the judges they will effectively control all three branches of the government.

The democrats will have what they have wanted for years, and while they are not filibuster proof, its pretty damn close. They will be able to claim all the praise for any good over the next 4 years and will be unable to blame the Conservative Republicans or Independent politicians for any failures. Glad I bought my gun when I did, hope I can some day buy another....or even keep the ones I already have.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween

Mysti did up the house and I'll have a few pictures to post once I resize them.
We also took some video but it really was too dark to see too much. When she started
this craze of hers, we would have over 250 kids come by, each year the number dwindles
and this year we didn't even hit 75. I guess at some point she is going to realize it
just isn't worth the hassel. But for now she gets a real kick out of the kids being scared witless.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Waiting:

We have to wait till mid November to join the right Gun club to access the range where we can try out our new long gun....ugh a new toy and I can't play with it for the first month of ownership! Our indoor pistol range should be back on line next weekend.....so....we play the waiting game.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Where are they now?

Mysti and I stayed in this past weekend, the weather was cold and very verywet with fairly high winds. Our usual indoor shooting range is down for renovation for another week or so...so it has been all about staying in, cutting hardebaker board for shower repairs. Mysti really gets into this home repair thing, reminds me of Brigid, or vise versa.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Yesterday was Buy a gun day

Drove out to Essex for Mysti to pick up her Walther P22 (pictured previously) and on the way home we stopped at our friends Gun Store and I picked up a Bushmaster XM15 E2S, it is a base config but I intend to customize it later.


It's an M3 model (heavier barrel than the M4) which means It is not classifed in Maryland as an "Assault Weapon". Maryland Laws state it has to have at least a 16" barrel that is not cut to reduce the weight in any way,However I am permitted to purchase any upper for it that I see fit for it after the initial purchase. So now I can mod it all I want and put any optics I want, heck I can even get it made full auto with a silencer....just not allowed to put a flash supressor on it....This state is weird...just freakin weird. It took me 20 minutes to make this purchase (because we were shooting the breeze) and I walked out of the store with it....it took Mysti 13 days to be able to get her P22 pistol....simply because it was a pistol. Did I mention weird gun laws?