Time-Warner Cable went on the fritz. No TV. No Internet. Nothing.
And with this level of reliability, they wonder why I keep turning them down for their Digital Phone service.
But lack of Internet was good this afternoon. It forced me to do some things that needed to be done, such as giving my Savage bolt-action rifle a long-overdue cleaning. As long as I was cleaning rifles, I spent a good deal of time detail cleaning the Bushmaster hunting AR. I repeat, I don’t like carbine-length gas systems and won’t buy one ever again.
Kids also had to deal with no TV and Internet. We had gone to Hobby Lobby last night and picked up some Sculpey clay. Neat stuff. They’ve been making all sorts of little things this afternoon. Neat stuff. I love watching my kids run with their imaginations.
Of course, now Internet is back, thus I did some work I had to do for my other job. But the kids? Still playing. 🙂
Shit. It’s 40Âş out. Damn weatherman said it’d be in the 50’s. Oh well. Doesn’t matter. I’m going anyway.
Don my coat, get the keys, and into the garage. A small feeling of guilt comes over me because I haven’t taken her out in months. Will she fire up? That Battery Tender, Jr. was a good investment. Open the petcock. Put in the key and turn her on. There goes the fuel pump, hungrily pumping gas into the carburetor bowls. Choke on full. Press the starter. Starts right up. Drop the choke to half and let her idle for a bit to warm up. While she warms up let’s check on things. Lights working. Brakes and brake lights working. Signals are fine. Shocks good. Visual once-over. Looking and sounding good. Kill the engine. Hrm…. tires need some air… pull the pump out of the saddlebags and let it run. Bike seems in good shape. I vow to never again let this much time pass between rides.
Go back in the house to suit up. Full leathers and some extra insulation. 40Âş air temps and 65 MPH winds make it feel like 20Âş or less. Where’s my helmet’s air damn? Ah… left it in the saddlebags. Go fetch. Install. That will keep the chill out of the helmet. Take off my XD. Slip the snub in the jacket pocket. Rearrange the wallet and iPhone for easier access. Kiss Wife and Kids good-bye.
Back to the garage. Climb on. Out of the garage and fire her up. Man, those Roadhouse Classic pipes sound great; I’m so happy I bought them and installed them myself. Make a gut check… it’s been too long since I’ve been on. Pull out of the driveway and it feels good to be on 2-wheels again. Damn cold air. Sure the Pinlocks are great for the helmet visor not fogging, but my damn glasses still fog up. *sigh* Crack the visor open until things even out.
Getting my legs back under me. On the way out of the subdivision practice a few emergency braking techniques. Remind myself it’s Super Bowl Sunday and there’s likely to be more people on the road on a Sunday morning due to the need to prep for parties. That also means they’re going to be distracted and not paying attention. Keep your guard up.
Get gas. Man, I’m so glad I use Seafoam as I’m sure that’s what kept the fuel in the tank happy.
OK, let’s head out to the highway.
Man, this feels good.
Hrm. Lots of scenery has changed since I last did this run. All that SH-130 construction I guess. Man, can’t wait until they finish that.
Wow, things really have changed. I wonder what this will look like once the highway is in. Yeah sure there’s still some fields and farms and cows and such to see, but all this construction and stripping of the earth will just be concrete eventually. Certainly not as pretty. But well… todays’ run is all business. It’s too cold to stay out for hours and take the backroads.
Sure enough, even with all my layers, the cold is creeping in. Dang. I should have put that balaclava on my neck. Fingers getting the worst of it as usual. Need to ask Larry about those deflectors again.
Ah, Lockhart. Black’s BBQ. They always treat me right. Let’s see… I’ll get the family pack, brisket of course but throw in a couple sausage links for Oldest. Mac & cheese (for Daughter), pinto beans (Wife), and potato salad. Oh heck… get a pint of banana pudding too.
“Can you guys wrap it all up in foil and plastic bags so it doesn’t get all in my saddle bags?”
“Yes sir, not a problem.”
Oh yeah… don’t forget to grab plasticware. It’s nice to just have the meal with zero cleanup.
BBQ into the saddlebags. Helmet and gloves back on. Let’s head back out. No more leisure riding, gotta get home before the meat gets cold.
Man… why is seeing all of this construction bothering me so? Loss of the pretty scenery I guess. Oh well, need to crank it home.
OK, onto the FM road to get over to I-35. This guy’s going too slow, dashed yellow line, open that throttle and pass. Man, I love opening the throttle. Getting pressed back into the backrest from all that torque is wonderful.
Settle into a groove, speed limit dropping as we come through this one area…. bank to the left… and holy shit this asshole is passing me on the curve! Double yellow lines, cars coming at him, and he’s passing me like this? Holy fucking shit you asshole! I don’t care if you Darwin yourself, but damnit don’t put my life in danger like that. But let it go. Don’t flip him off… does no good. Yeah he’s a asshole, but don’t let it ruin the ride. Just let it go.
Back to the highway… damn I hate being around 18-wheelers when I don’t have the protective cage around me. No matter. Just ride on.
Stop light. Damn. Didn’t realize how cold my toes had gotten. Fingers certainly stiff and cold now too. Light’s going to change soon so no chance to warm them by the heat of the engine. Almost home. Home… warm home.
Into the garage. Kill the engine. Sit there a moment and savor it.
God, I needed that.
Riding is my therapy. I need lots of therapy right now. V-twin therapy.
As soon as the local Cabela’s opened I was there, to take advantage of this weekend’s 10% off sale for NRA members.
Yes, so many things I wanted to buy, especially a new firearm. But I promised Wife I wouldn’t and I kept that promise.
In fact, I promised I’d only buy needed things. Things that I need to buy anyways but might as well buy now when I can get it a bit cheaper.
Bought lots more bullets for reloading. Bought a couple dry boxes. A couple more XD magazines. And just various and sundry things that I’d pick up normally. Thinking ahead towards future classes.
In terms of the store supply. Shelves were pretty full and in decent stock. I did notice 9mm bullets for reloading were fairly cleaned out, save for the Berry’s (which was fine with me). Most ammo supplies were pretty good. I was able to pick up a couple boxes of Federal P223S as well, which makes me happy. I’m going to settle on using that factory load and see where it gets me (and get back to figuring out my .223 handload at a later date).
Meantime, I need to get myself to the reloading bench, then to the range.
I passed the test, so I’m certified. Paperwork just has to be processed by HQ.
It’d be nice to obtain certification for their Personal Protection Outside the Home course, but it’s rather a cumbersome course to obtain certification in (number of hours required). It’s mostly a logistical matter, and hopefully they can be worked out.
Megadeth is headlining. 20th anniversary of “Rust In Peace” and they’ll be playing the whole album. Awesome. I must admit to not being the biggest Megadeth fan because far too often when Dave Mustaine opens his mouth it just makes me want to smack him… either because he’s saying something stupid or because his “singing” voice is rather whiney. Nevertheless, Megadeth’s place in metal history cannot be denied, they’ve got a lot of great songs, and I actually look forward to the show. “Rust In Peace” is a fantastic album. In fact, the new album, “United Abominations” is really good; that new guitarist is amazing.
I’d say if there was any band on the bill that I truly wanted to see, it’s Testament. I’ve seen then a couple times in recent years and they’ve been solid. I think I’ve become a bigger Testament fan these days than I ever have been before (since the “Practice” days). Just solid and bone-crushing thrash.
Exodus. Meh. I mean, I love “Fabulous Disaster” and some of their other stuff. No question they put out some good heavy thrash. But I’ve just never been into them. Don’t hate ’em, don’t love ’em, just indifferent. But I still expect they’ll crush for the 30 minutes or so they are on stage.
Should be on hell of a show. Why don’t you have your ticket yet?
I thought about just listing the top 10, but top 20 gives a better picture. What do I tend to write about? Well, lots of things actually, but guns are certainly my biggest category both in terms of what I write about and what brings people here. The self-defense angle is strong, and it shows people are very curious about that for whatever reason.
What I’ve wondered is, what is my writing going to look like this year? Most of those articles are from the early parts of the past year. We’ll see if I write anything as useful and good. Gun stuff is fairly steady and I expect it to remain as such. I’ve been sporadic with martial arts blogging, not sure why but I think it’s mostly topics. Politics… I wrote political stuff but have been quiet on it lately probably because there’s a bit of a political lull, but things are ramping up again so we’ll see how it goes. Other things? We’ll see. I know I have some categories and tags that haven’t been touched in a while. Also my regular Sunday Metal feature has been fun to do.
I made an effort to write every day. Even if all I could do because of circumstance was a “sorry, can’t write now” posting, at least I made the effort to never forget the blog. I’m pleased that I was able to keep it up and actually surprised that I was able to produce an average of almost 4 posts a day. People say I talk too much, this confirms it. 🙂
Yes I know my statistics aren’t much and really nothing to get too much into. I know there are sites that generate that much traffic in a day or an hour. But that I see a steadily increasing readership is kinda cool. I am curious how many (regular) readers I actually have. The statistics don’t really give that picture. I know I’m not writing in a vacuum, I know I have some regular readers, but I also know most of the readers are quiet and passively reading. I can’t help but wonder how many people regularly read.
Thank you for sticking around. I know some people blog purely for themselves, but and while I do write because I want to write, I cannot lie and say I don’t care what you think. If I wanted to write purely for myself I’d keep a diary. To blog means I want an audience, that I do want people to read and hear what I have to say. So I thank you for being out there and reading.
Thank you.
Plans for the future? I’ve been considering moving the blog from wordpress.com to my own domain. I’m not sure about doing it, mostly because of managing the old content. There’s so much already linked to, all the 1600+ posts linking back to other posts and causing breakage there. Many sites out there already linked up. The content being indexed as well as it is in search engines. It’s hard to want to let all that slip and go. But I figure I probably need to make the switch sooner rather than later.
And I plan to continue writing. I still want to write at least one post every day. What topics? We’ll see. Some things will continue to remain off-limits. Some things I’ll keep on with. Your input is always appreciated.
This coming weekend (Feb. 5-7, 2010) Cabela’s is having a special promotion for NRA Members: 10% off all purchases. If you don’t have a Cabela’s nearby, I believe you can use the same promotion via their website. (Correction: seems the only thing you get online is free shipping, not the 10% discount. Bummer). All you have to do is obtain the coupon in your latest issue of your official NRA magazine (whichever you get) and you’re good to go. Being an (Endowment) Life Member of the NRA, I figure this is a good weekend to finally get some things I’ve been needing… and perhaps wanting.
On the need side, I’m out of some reloading components, most notably .38 Special bullets. So might as well pick them up this weekend with the 10% discount.
If you’re a regular reader, you also know I’ve been throwing around the idea of getting a new folder knife. Last time I checked, Cabela’s didn’t have anything that tickled my interest, but no harm in looking again as I know my criteria has changed since I last looked in their knife case.
I’ve had a minor itch to get a Hi-Point Carbine, just because it’d be fun.
I’ve also been wanting to get a 1911-style handgun, but given I’m really leaning towards an STI and Cabela’s doesn’t sell them that’s unlikely to happen this weekend.
Ah who knows. Just dreaming right now… and thankful that I can dream.
I saw that commercial for the first time last night.
I’m Scotch-Korean (well, German Scots-Irish, and Korean). So apparently I don’t make a wee bit of sense. Or maybe since I’ve got some Irish and German in me too, I make even less sense?
I’m offended.
Yes, my feelings were hurt.
They’re making fun of me.
They’re making fun of my ethnicity.
They’re putting me down.
They’re equating me with candy.
I have no self-esteem.
I’m going to sue! Sue I tell you! That’s The American Way.™
Nah….. not really. I think it’s pretty funny. Yes I know, strange thing this “sense of humor” and “thick skin”, not very common these days.
Stuff From Hsoi 