RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - MAY 2005

So on Friday I arrange with the seller of my Corolla to be at his place at 10am this morning to get the new driveaxle installed. Then I call him Sunday evening, per his request, to remind him I'm coming over at 10am this morning. And I go over there at 10am this morning and no one's there. And I go to a pay phone and call and he says "come at noon."

Sigh.

Back over at noon - not there. Back to the pay phone - something about a truck being impounded, try again noon tomorrow.

SIGH.

820 - Tuesday, 3 May 2005: Chills & fever last night, recovering this morning. Phlegm.

Phoning ahead about the car - voicemail.

...:-\

Third try, got through - something about babies being born, try again noon tomorrow. Whichever god has taken over my case file, I'd like to challenge it to a duel.

821 - Wednesday, 4 May 2005: Phone ahead - "How about this afternoon about four?" :-/ Process some rifle brass while waiting. Go over at 4 - work is started. Old driveaxle out, new driveaxle... is the wrong part. Over to the parts store that sold it - two other possible versions, not in stock of course. But, being transferred from another store "in an hour and a half." Now it's six o'clock. Meanwhile, my Corolla is in pieces and my half-dead hatchback is fifty blocks away - loaner car, back to the hovel, wait for parts store to phone me. The plan is for me to get the parts sorted out, using the loaner car, then go back over and they'll finish the Corolla tonight.

Emoticons fail me. At least this guy and his sons actually work.

7:45 and I haven't heard from the parts store. Call them - "Duh, I think I dialed your number wrong, duh. Yeah, the parts are here." Out to get them, back to the seller - now it's 8:30. Good thing I brought a book. (Bright New Universe by Jack Williamson, 1967 - very Sixties, like it might have been written at a sit-in somewhere. Sigh.)

An hour later the Corolla is back together and I drive it back to the hovel, fine.

Except now I've lost all my parking lights, including the license plate lights, and most of my instrument lights, all of which were working earlier.

>:-O

At least I still have headlights, turn signals and hazards, brake lights, and back-up lights. I'll work on it tomorrow. Cars, phooey.

But I still wouldn't be without one.

822 - Thursday, 5 May 2005: Fuses. Replaced burned 15A, parking lights back! For a while.... Replace with 25A, parking lights back! For a while.... Replace with 30A. This is not right. Sigh. Something to do with the radio I pulled from the other car? No, that's on switched power, it doesn't do anything unless the key is turned. Hm. Can't tell about instrument lights. Fortunately it's the long-daylight time of year so I can just drive without lights (contrary to my inclination).

DMV - done. Finally. $55, have to sell something soon. Storage rent, car insurance, and utilities all coming due (utilities already overdue).

More data: Corolla has factory LED clock in dashboard, goes way dim when parking lights switched on. Radio cuts out completely. Duh, short? Possibly one of the stray wires from when I was working on the radio is touching the chassis. Out with the electrical tape - no, that's not it. Remove radio entirely, tape ends of all wires - no, that's not it. :-/ Headlights, i.e. flash-to-pass, appear to have no effect, likewise rear window defogger. Gauge & other instrument (i.e. vent/AC control) lights not working, but dashboard turn indicators and warning lights (i.e. BRAKE, OIL) are. Parking lights make the clock dim, but not the BRAKE or OIL lights. Dome light dims very slightly. Studying schematics, snarling about industrial protectionism.

Later, out to library for Sloan's Brotherhood of Heroes, then Bi-Mart for more car fuses. Back at the hovel, under the overcast, I discover the gauge and panel lights work after all, hmm.

823 - Friday, 6 May 2005: Late this morning I walked over to the convenience store/gas station to get a couple lottery tickets, and there was a pickup with a couple people in it loitering in the cul-de-sac. On the way back, I very obviously stopped and wrote down their plate number.

They drove away a minute later. Meanwhile a derelict old van has appeared, since last night according to my neighbor. Meanwhile meanwhile, that neighbor calls from work at the cable company (she works swing shift) and asks about the van, then relates that she thinks someone tried to break in to her place a couple nights ago.

Now, me, I've been keeping the Mossberg and .357 loaded since I've had them, the double since I developed low-pressure loads for it, and the P35 since I got it to run reliably. She's... less prepared. Discussing "tooling" options with her.

Ex-con neighbors officially evicted, were seen hurling junk into their truck over the last couple days, probably gone. These others are probably just... others.

Storage rent, $34, due on the 13th. Car insurance, $75.71, on the 18th. Phone, $56.something (two months), on the 15th. Electricity, $97.something (two months), past due on the 29th. Savings, $165.0something, checking about $15, wallet... $13, one Oregon MegaBucks, and one Powerball.

:(

Will probably pay storage rent and car insurance presently, I think I can slide on the utilities for one more month. Need to sell the old Escort and possibly the Marlin. The reader who has dibs on the Marlin has car troubles of his own and makes clear I shouldn't turn down ready cash. If I can liquidate the car for three/four hundred-something I can blow out the utilities and still eat for the rest of the month, and if I can do the Marlin after that (maybe at Barberton) I might make June rent. Matches and practice would be out though.

:( :(

824 - Saturday, 7 May 2005: Storage rent paid in cash.

Car insurance paid online.

Savings gone again.

825 - Sunday, 8 May 2005: Randomness: in both my .357 and my 9mm, I use Winchester USA brand jacketed hollowpoint ammunition, the 110gr in .357 and the 115gr in 9x19mm, both often found in Bi-Mart coupon books. I note that muzzle values for the .357 load are listed at 1,295fps and 410ft/lbs, and for the 9mm, 1,225fps and 383ft/lbs. So much for 9mm being underpowered. Win/USA also offers a 147gr JHP, but it's actually weaker, 990fps and 320ft/lbs. (I suppose subsonic might be desirable for some people.) The vastly more expensive Silvertip 9mm loads are listed with identical ballistics in 115gr and very slightly hotter than the white-box in 147gr.

826 - Monday, 9 May 2005: Three temp services - nothing. Visiting cable company website - the job I applied for is no longer listed. Will visit daily and apply for any position I think I can do.

Radio news - in wake of election, New York Times to increase coverage of "flyover" country and religion. Yeah, I can see the new sections now: "Redneck Report" and "Eye on Jesusland."

Getting ready to post the old Escort on craigslist. My first car....

About halfway through Sloan's Brotherhood of Heroes. Good read, and recommended, but not getting as much out of it as I did from Given Up for Dead. Maybe I'm just depressed about the car(s) and money and all.

Half-heartedly processing rifle brass.

Needle and carpet thread, taking the slack out of the cheap Uncle Mike's Size 5 IWB holster, fits the P35 more snugly. Wearing it regularly now. Still can't find exactly the holster I want for it (nor afford it if I did of course...): Kydex or similar to eliminate the need for a retention strap, all synthetic for low maintenance, paddle for easier donning and doffing, adjustable for crossdraw for driving.

Police shooting in Los Angeles on talk radio and the gunfolk lists, but for different reasons: radio waiting for Community Activists^TM to start screeching because the suspect was black, gunfolk critiquing the shooting itself as the blueshirts had the suspect vehicle in a crossfire and one blue (er, green? Sheriff's deputies) shirt was in fact hit by "friendly" fire. Furthermore one of the King's Men was waving a cameraman out of the way - using a weapon as a pointer, which he continued to wave around and sweep nearly everybody with. Waiting for someone to post a link to the video. I myself generally don't view all these videos people post because of my old computer and dialup connection, but I'll pass the link along.

Thumbing through in supermarket yesterday, article in Popular Science accusing Crichton of Bellesiles-esque data-diddling with State of Fear. "And it's a lousy story too." Hey, I personally was very entertained by how the Martin Sheen character ended up. So what, does PS have a token tree-hugging Kerry-kultist on staff?

827 - Tuesday, 10 May 2005: Here's a link, from the LA Times, to the literally-bloody incompetence of the LA County Sheriff's Department. No link to video yet. I am ambivalent on such stories: King's Men vs. street scum, no one to root for really. Driving around for four hours with the stereo going? I get enough of that living next to a convenience store, I might've shot the antisocial piece of *^#! myself... but far too many in law enforcement barely know which end the hot stuff comes from, they're the ones who shouldn't be allowed to have guns. 120 rounds? In a residential neighborhood? Hello? Rule #4?!? Oh, but only the poliiiiice should have guns, they have all that traaaiiining, right? >:-[

Meanwhile, WorldNetDaily reports that children's network Nickelodeon is revising the history of the Alamo, and there are links in the article to earlier WND stories about Disney doing much the same thing.

Guns Magazine, celebrating their 50th Anniversary, has made their May 1955 issue available for download as a ~28Mb .PDF. I found it to be well worth the bandwidth. Very interesting article on NATO battle rifle trials, featuring the T48 (FAL) and T44 (M14) prototypes. And the ancient advertisements, sigh - GI surplus M1911A1 pistols for under $40. I mean, even in 1955 dollars, SIGH. And this was before GCA'68 and the mail-order ban. SIGH.

Sister coming to visit this weekend!

828 - Thursday, 12 May 2005: A job! Only $9/hour, driving forklifts and doing warehouse work, sigh, but a job. Plumbing place (ironically), shuffling pipe - heh, might run into Plumber. Start tomorrow 7am, supposed to last "a couple months." This from the third temp service, the only one I've been getting anything from since this latest bout of unemployment began. The first has never given me anything and the second keeps saying "we've got positions" but they never produce any.

So, with the payroll lag, I'll get a tiny check on or about the 20th and maybe an almost-useful amount of money on the 27th. Food and fuel ‘til then will be... challenging.

No bites on the Escort yet, except one that just screams "SCAMBOT." Probably taking the Marlin to Barberton this weekend.

Sister visiting, have to clean the hovel again....

Finished Brotherhood of Heroes - kind of a downer, as the whole Peleliu/Palau Islands campaign may have been strategically unnecessary and a lot of good Marines' lives may have been wasted. OTOH, the tactical lessons learned in that bloodbath mitigated the next one, on Okinawa. Anyway, good read (aside from technical nitpicks, i.e. "Browning carbine", a 37mm cannon on a Sherman tank, reference to a .50 machinegun crew in World War One) and a valuable history lesson about a largely forgotten Pacific battle. Reinforces the feeling that today's America is not worthy of yesterday's Americans.

Eight Medals of Honor on Peleliu. Five were posthumous. Also, black Marines, still segregated at that time, Proven in Combat - for which they volunteered after they were done with their assigned ammo-heaving.

Diving into John Stossel's Give Me a Break, an atypical non-leftist appearance on the New Books shelf. An Horowitz-esque intellectual odyssey, from Crusading Establishment Consumer Reporter^TM to libertarian iconoclast.

New Dillon Blue Press, article on a big 3-Gun match in Arizona that looks like too much fun. Pics show one shooter using an M1A, another a Kalashnikov (presumably in 5.45mm judging by the red plastic magazine).

829 - Friday, 13 May 2005: Ugh. Never touched a forklift, never did anything warehouse-related, just pushed a broom and bent and stooped to pick up garbage all day long.

Survived, but, back to hovel and call temp service for something else. Still not the technical kind of work I'd like, but now I'll be working at a place that prints on cardboard boxes for next week.

That done, into the shower. Dust boogers, ick. Caked dust and grime all over. Change clothes. Bleah, I have my pride and that is not the kind of work I want.

Good Gods! Someone donated $100 through my PayPal button! (For someone in my position that's a lot of money!) Processing fees, 2.9% + $0.30, no more than I expected, so I get $96.80! I can eat something other than Ramen and drive my car to work and pay the phone bill! Well, in "3-4 business days," fine.

WHEW!

Now, am I still trying to sell the Marlin at Barberton tomorrow? And if I try and fail, will I take it to the OAC show on the 22nd? Still not getting any real pay ‘til the 27th. Hmm.

Slacking a bit on email.

Later, new Shotgun News - full page FN ad, "Who relies on FNH USA? The FBI." That's... not exactly a ringing endorsement to a lot of the people who read SGN. And furthermore the ad is for a sniper rifle (see image). Then, feature article by David Fortier on "FBI Sniper: The H-S Precision HTR." Uhhh, who is SGN's readership again? Hmm, excerpt from Suprynowicz's latest, The Black Arrow. Somehow I doubt the local lefty library will get it (they have nothing by him)... but the presence of the excerpt in this publication kinda makes my point. Okay, reading the excerpt (an action sequence)... not bad. Maybe a whiff of formula (Vin's new to novels), but hard to tell from just a couple pages.

Gawd, I can still smell the propane exhaust from the forklifts that everyone else was driving. It's a lot of what I was sweeping up in fact.

830 - Saturday, 14 May 2005: Unnnhh.... Sore and achy from the stooping and bending yesterday, but dragged self out of bed to crash-clean the hovel for my sister's visit. And she's early! Well, I was a little more than half done. Off to breakfast, off to Bi-Mart for some sale ammo, off to Barberton!

No bites, though a few nibbles on the Marlin. "Is it a .45?" Three times. First in the parking lot. The usual stuff there, left tupperware for Cruffler's surplus protein.

Off to Clark Rifles, where sis did very respectably with .22 rifle practice, then even more respectably in her first ever highpower rifle experience, with the Mosin 91/30 and Albanian FMJ. On the ~7MOA Michigan Militia target from Fred's Guide, she got eight hits of ten shots - her two misses were, like, #3 and #5, demonstrating that she was not flinching even though most mortals would by the tenth round having never fired anything at the Mosin's level before. I gotta get this woman into highpower competition, she'll get stuff to hang on her wall. (I gotta develop a Mosin load. She has Big 5 stores up in Everett, too.) Meanwhile, another shooter was trying the new Olympic Whitney Wolverine, which she is now desiring. This specimen was #11xx, and wasn't running too well - give it a few months for the bugs to work out maybe, or as the owner postulated, put a few hundred rounds through it. No bolt-lock is my gripe (but I'd have to take that up with the original designer, 50-odd years ago), and there's my polymer prejudice of course, but when the other company gets their production running on the original jigs, Oly's will probably be half the price (~$260 sez owner).

To the handgun range, some .357 practice, some P35 data-gathering: runs good, but now inaccurate. Possible slide-to-frame fit problem. Want decent sights on it anyway. Shooting high at present I think, latest front sight a bit short. (So that's why I couldn't hit the plates with what I thought were good sight pictures, I was going right over the top of them! Maybe. More practice.)

Afternoon, stop by Cruffler's place for the protein, swung by Brightwater Ventures (who donated the Hornady Mauser dies I won in the 2nd ‘04 Foul Weather match) and browsed. Back to hovel, cleaned corrosive Albanian residue from Mosin, then out to dinner.

On the way back, cut through snobby neighborhood to gawk at architecture. Then, after waiting for cross traffic, we crossed a thoroughfare street - and coming the other way was... well... an immigrant. Coming out of the Asian market at the corner in a minivan. And not signaling for the left turn she abruptly made into the nose of my sister's Cadillac. "I didn't see you!" says the minivan driver. Like bloody hell. Sis' big silver Caddy was sitting at that stop sign before the minivan came out of the parking lot. And that minivan did not signal for the turn while the Caddy was going straight. Two guys working on a motorhome just down the street also saw the whole thing. So now I've wrassled the hatchback over to make room so the mangled Caddy can be parked off-street. Tomorrow sis will call the insurance company (closed by the time we got to a phone - uhhh, what's that about 24-hour service...?) and so on, then I either take her to the bus or train station or she gets a rental for the trip back north. (No injuries, no airbag deployment, many malicious thoughts.)

It appears to be a family curse where long or recreational trips are concerned; see July-August 2003 for my Bogus Oregon Coast Misadventure.

831 - Sunday, 15 May 2005: Download Oregon accident form from DMV site, print, fill out. Call insurance company - back up the street (the incident was within rifle range of the hovel) to get the witness' contact information, he was cool about it. No provision for a rental car with sis' current policy. I have custody of the Caddy and the insurance folks will call me to make arrangements to have it moved to and fixed at a local shop. Buy Greyhound ticket online.

Reading, chatting, a couple hours to kill - sis is a professional seamstress, visit honkin' huge fabric store across the street from Big 5 (91/30 Mosin, $80 this week). Local leather store closed Sundays, on the itinerary for a future visit. Saw her safely to the bus depot - two rent-a-blueshirts lurking over the turnstyle to the gate area, complete with The Wand, though they didn't give her the treatment. (Never ever giving up the car.) And ugh! Icky Downtown People!

Catching up on email! Michigan points out that the "BB" I mentioned (#798) when bullet shopping means Bevel Base. Sis' friend up north sends this link to a story in one of their area papers about the Compton shooting, fascinatingly semantically slanted to endow the SUV with powers of choice and self-direction, as though the Chevy Tahoe and not the antisocial stereo-playing #%&! inside were threatening to run over the greenshirts. Limbaugh was commenting on just that, on a separate story a few days before the shooting as I recall.

Back out again for groceries and something to read - library computer says I have three things "in transit" for the last two days but nothing's come through yet. Grabbed Stephen Coonts' Liberty, in his Jake Grafton series (which I haven't read), written right after 9/11. Islamic Nuke Plot.

Stossel's Give Me a Break was tasty, very free-markety, giving graphic and easily-documentable examples of how government does nearly everything vastly worse than private enterprise. Also High Candor Content from the author, disclosing how he himself played the Nanny State system and robbed us his readers of our tax money. And, some thoughtful commentary on our legal system, particularly on litigation. RKBA mentioned only in passing, he's not gunfolk, but last year (#391) he made distinctly friendly noises in our direction.

Finally a call on the Escort! Some young guy whose dad gave him my number and said "call." ...And, the guy didn't actually read the ad, all he had was my number, so I had to repeat most of the information I posted, but he says he'll talk it over with his dad and call back. Got the impression the guy already knows stuff about Escorts.

Sister emails, arrived safe but not necessarily sane:

When you travel, you are just cattle, I guess. They had some kind of a fiasco in Seattle and were herding us back and forth because they hadn't sorted out which bus the passengers for Everett should get on. At one point a driver was shouting at a lady next to me who just wanted to make sure she didn't miss her bus. Got to see some drug dealing up-close at the "bus station" in Centralia which was really the back end of a Chevron mini-mart. An absolutely obnoxious young black girl who talked non-stop on some other passengers cell phone for the entire distance to Tacoma (groan). But I had nice conversations with a truck driver who loves to shoot, and a young and beautiful intelligent and articulate athletic black girl. So it wasn't total misery, unless you count the urine-saturated bathroom on the bus itself....

You'll get my car key when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.

832 - Monday, 16 May 2005: Prospective buyer never called back.

Ugh, work. But this job sure beats the last one. Packaging, mainly. Several coworkers making Dilbert-esque comments. Another temp from the same service has been there three months - I was told my job would last a week.

Oh, the inexpressible joy of commuting on the Portland freeways. :-6 Rainy today - Corolla's rear defogger works, needs some touch-up; fuel gauge is apparently in shock at having been filled (sis paid - I let her do that, but refused more cash, she's propped me up quite enough and now I'm off my butt and working again) and just sorta slowly wanders around the "E". Maybe it'll stabilize and start reading right when it gets down around half a tank again, I dunno. Both reserve cans refilled too, so I'm not completely screwed if I blindly run it out. At least one wheel needs balancing, but only noticeable at freeway speed.

It sure would be nice to have a car on which everything works. But then I'd probably get T-boned by an immigrant in a minivan.

The leftist betrayals and obscenties keep coming: George Lucas Bashes Bush. (Hey, I bash Bush, but my reasons are different. Like, I'd rather have Condi in the White House - you know, a conservative, for a change, someone with balls.) I was going to see Episode III in the theater.... Well, what could I have expected from someone who pals around with the likes of Harrison Ford and Stephen Spielberg?

Appraisal service calls, re-motorization process for sis is underway, an appraiser will swing by and inspect the Caddy tomorrow while I'm at work.

Uh-oh - Kim du Toit Reports that the rumored and awaited Kahr .45 is on the way! 6-shot single-column, should fit Most Hands. I've fired a Lady K9 and was quite pleased with it's controllability. I also like the very simple controls and the double-action-only (as opposed to Walther/Beretta-style DA/SA) trigger. The picture is of polymer, I wonder if they'll make a steel-frame model? Ooo, how about a T45, like the T9? Hmm.

833 - Tuesday, 17 May 2005: Another call on the Escort. Wrestling it out of the driveway and coaxing it to a meeting place.

And it dies several times per block, then the battery dies from cranking after two blocks and it's sitting in a parking space at a gas station until rush hour dies down and a neighbor will give me a jump start and I'll drag the thing back here. Gods. Disliking. Call prospective buyer - thinks maybe he can get it running, he'll call me again tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile, the PayPal donation has come through at the bank and I can pay the phone bill - done.

Out to hardware store for a tow strap, ten bucks, ten feet, 3,500lbs, snap-retainers on steel hooks - now I have one to carry in the Corolla. Forget jump-starting, tow the sucker. Once around the corner (the same intersection where sis' Caddy was crunched), coast downhill, roll-start - managed to get it back into it's hovel slot, next to the Caddy, under its own power and without incident. On the charger overnight.

If the current sale falls through, and if I can make rent and electricity unassisted (which I should, with weekly pay, if this assignment continues or the temp service comes up with something else quickly) I may stop listing the Escort for sale, at least for a while, and again try to fix it myself. I was so depressed and frustrated about the thing I just wanted it gone, but now summer's coming and I'm working again.

Meanwhile, sis phones, good news! The minivan driver's insurance company accepts liability, so she pays nothing. Local body shop suggested by that company, will sniff it over tomorrow, give it a vibe test.

Corolla's fuel needle now reading about 1/4. I couldn't have burned up three quarters of a tank in just two days commuting, could I? Well, if it runs out I still have the two 5-liter reserves.

First season of 24 came through at library, watched first disk, first four episodes, last night - so far so good. Portrayal of actual "I Am Da Law" blueshirtedness, hm.

834 - Wednesday, 18 May 2005: 25 years ago today, Mt. St. Helens erupted. I was laying on a couch in the living room of the ancestral hovel outside Everett and it seemed to me that the bottom of the house suddenly moved a couple millimeters north, followed by the rest of the house. Some time later the sound bounced off the Cascade range.

Swung by the body shop on the way back from work - classy, high-end place. And I step inside with a printout of the crummy Polaroid from #830 above - and they're expecting me! (Sis must have called them after I emailed the shop's contact info from a web search last night - later, check email, yup.) Made arrangements to tow the Caddy - could have driven it there but what the heck, sis isn't paying for it and maybe the higher premiums will encourage the minivan driver to look both ways and use turn signals. Minutes later I'm back at the hovel, and minutes after that the tow truck arrives and I back the Caddy out and position it for the truck. Never drove a Cadillac before, that's a biiiiig car! Off it goes.

Prospective buyer from yesterday doesn't call.

Yipe! Heavy Oregon spring rain. "Normal" rain all week but deluging this afternoon. Eh, happens every year.

Corolla fuel needle starting to stabilize around half a tank, okay.

835 - Thursday, 19 May 2005: So Episode III opened at midnight. Due to Lucas' commiemouth (#832 above), I'm boycotting the film in the theater. I'll get it through the library eventually. I hate theater crowds anyway.

836 - Friday, 20 May 2005: Heaving boxes, today. Shades of the shampoo warehouse. Even the taping machine was similar. Lots of boxes, and pallets, etc. I'll feel that tomorrow.

Returned to hovel, paycheck from last Friday's bending-and-stooping waiting, $59.77, that's gas and food. (Also ten bucks laboriously collected via points from online surveys.) (Corolla seems to have decent milage, and a bigger tank. Needle behaving normally below 1/2.) (Portland ARCO now $2.29! Down from $2.37 about a week ago.) Phoned temp service - I'm going back Monday but that should be my last day regardless (I was told the job would last a week), and nothing else waiting at present. The next check will be enough for the electric bill, but rent will probably require selling the Marlin.

Meanwhile, I've suggested to sis that she take up highpower competition, at the PIG match on 30 July. I figure she can use the Mosin, for which I still have over 200 rounds of Albanian and 120 rounds of copper-washed steel-case stuff, and I can try the FR8 with Portuguese surplus. I still need to work with the FR, but I know the Mosin + Albanian gives good results and I want sis to have a realistic chance of winning a medal. If she does the match she'll be in the Military Bolt-Action (Pre-1946) category that I've won the last two years, and if I use the FR (1956) I'll be in some other category so she won't be competing directly against me. Probably won't make the plate match this month - eh, the P35 still needs work and I don't have anything but Business ammunition for either it or the GP100. I think I'll wait on rifle practice for the PIG until sis comes back down to recover her Caddy.

Anyway after being, as usual, one of the few to actually break a sweat in the entire workplace, I'm wasted. Vegging out, finishing up the first season of 24 (hmm - a bit of soap-opera-ness, but some interesting subplots and Social Commentary - also a Defensive Gun Use), and now I have from the library the first five episodes of Cowboy Bebop. I saw some of the latter on Cartoon Network a couple years ago when I still had cable but I missed some episodes. Also I have Branded to Kill, some weird 1967 Japanese film whose jacket blurb praises it to the spirits of the ancestors. I've never heard of it.

837 - Saturday, 21 May 2005: Zzzz(ow)zzz(groan)zzzz....

Going back through this journal, I discover that, though I have the MojoMosin zeroed at 25/100 yards, I've never generated MicroClick sight settings for 200 and 300. If I'm not working Wednesday I think I'll go up and do something about that, so there'll be less work for sis if she decides to train for the PIG - and if she declines, I'll use the 91/30 in the PIG ‘cause I think I've proven it's a Good Rifle. (Probably win the MBA category again, heh.) Have to be careful with ammo conservation, though. Hopefully the steel-case stuff will have about the same POI as the Albanian, so I can use up the former to get approximate settings, then use a smaller amount of the latter for fine-tuning and still have enough left for sis in both practice and match. As long as I'm there, I'll also work with the FR, gobbling up the Portuguese NATO and seeing if the rear sight disk will work as designed at the different distances. Never did get that CETME front sight tool, but an old tweezer and the B-Square screwdriver set I keep in the range bag will handle it. This will be with the prone mat, not from the bench. (See The Art of the Rifle, Chapter 8.)

It's good to be a fully-paid member of a decent gun club with nice facilities. Just load up the car and go. Hm, will have to take a few bucks - for sighting-in, I think I want the full-size SR1 target sheets, which they usually sell at the clubhouse for 50˘, with a teeny black spot in a big buff square; therefore I should be able to see .30-ish holes even at 300 yards through my cheap 45x Tasco. Using the larger practice centers (i.e. SR42, MR63) that I bought a year or so ago, a hit in the black tends to disappear at that distance in that cheap scope; using a smaller black I can better track my progress while adjusting the sights, picking out black holes in the buff sheet. At 100 and even 200 yards I can generally pick out holes in the black, depending on light conditions; sometimes, if I'm having a good eye day, I can see .30 holes at 100 yards without a scope.

What I really need is a shorter tripod (the one the Tasco came with is cheap, broken, and not easily, if even practically, repairable (trying with JB Weld anyway); I'm using a much taller photographic tripod, which is too tall for prone use even with the legs collapsed) and a different scope with an angled eyepiece. And one of those tall poles the more experienced highpower shooters use, so they can slide the scope up for use in offhand. $omeday.

Looking at the box o' targets again - yipe. A 7 on the SR1 (used at 100 yards in the '04 Allies vs. Axis match) is a miss on the MR31 (used at 100 in the '03 PIG). Well, that's why I bought the things, to do a full dress rehearsal of the match. Meanwhile I've emailed the director of activities asking for the course of fire so I can start preparing.

838 - Sunday, 22 May 2005: Zzzz.... No plate match today.

Slugged FR8's bore - somewhere between .308 and .309, okay.

Cheap Tasco tripod fixed, maybe. Still not proper for prone use, but better than the other tripod.

Ten-place cartridge carrier tugged onto the MojoMosin's butt, for use in offhand match stages. FR already has one.

Okay, Mojo says the MicroClick is about 3/4MOA per click. (28 clicks available.) I'll be shooting at known distances of 200 and 300 yards, having already zeroed the 91/30 at 100. Look up ballistics - aha, exactly what I need, or at least enough to extrapolate from. Trajectory graphs even, in both .JPG and .PDF. And I'm pretty sure the copper/steel-case stuff I have, which I just now noticed is yellow-tip, is Hungarian 182gr "heavy ball."

(Huh - I also just noticed that the Portuguese 7.62x51mm has a magnetic projectile. Australian does not. Is the Portuguese steel-core or steel-jacket? Do I want to risk bore damage in the FR? I have more of the Portuguese - do I have enough Australian for both practice and match? Hmm. Both Hungarian and Albanian 7.62x54R are magnetic, hm.)

So, I'll guesstimate a drop of, say, 3" from 100 to 200 yards - four clicks on the Mojo. Then another, oh, nine inches from 200 to 300, thus an estimated 12 clicks from 200 to 300, or 16 clicks from 100 to 300. Guess I'll find out, and dab a little paint on the adjustment disk. (Am I reading it wrong? I would have expected a Mosin long rifle to shoot flatter than that....) Somehow the 182gr Hungarian has an almost identical trajectory to the 148gr Albanian, out to 300 at least - hm. Doesn't mean it'll shoot to the same Point of Impact from the same rifle. Guess I'll find that out too.

Oh, finally Mojo offers an SMLE model. Hopefully it will fit the Ishapore, if I ever get it out of hock with Cruffler, then I can try working that rifle up again. Longer and heavier than the FR, and I'm still not sure which stripper clip it's designed for (i.e. FAL vs. M14), but an even faster action than the Mauser, and a 12-round magazine, in NATO caliber. For a while there were "#7" carbine models being chopped by Navy Arms or some other importer - I might consider chopping mine.

Or maybe I'll just built a 10-round fixed box for the FR, or look for more large-ring '98 parts and try converting it to, say, FAL detachable magazines. After all, the FR's muzzle is already formed as a 22mm NATO-standard grenade launcher.

If things go that far.

Coonts' Liberty is decent, in the Tom Clancy genre, but after watching 24 episodes of 24 the anti-terrorist plot is cross-linking my files. References to other books in the series, which I'll probably have to look up. This is apparently the same Jake Grafton from Flight of the Intruder. Previously I learned that Coonts also flew A6s in Vietnam, BTDT. Oh! Page 353 (Wheeler large-print edition):

...Fortunately the FBI had recovered his keys and wallet and returned them to him, although they never mentioned his pistol and he didn't ask. The pistol would have been no big deal in most of the United States, but owning and possessing one in the District of Columbia was illegal. Like every other law on the books, this one was also ignored by crooks, dope dealers, and gang-bangers who continued to use guns as they preyed on the unarmed and each other. Presumably the knowledge that most of their constituents were unarmed made the local politicians feel more secure.

Yay, Coonts. One wonders how he feels about whitey-hating anti-American Danny Glover starring in a film based on a book based on Coonts' personal experience. (I understand Clancy has been thoroughly ticked at Paramount for years now.) Heh, pg. 373:

"I want a pistol," Carmellini announced. ..."Something like an old Browning Hi-Power, nine-millimeter. Not one of those plastic jobs...."

839 - Monday, 23 May 2005: Yecchh, freeway traffic. Tailgaters. Dueling should never have been outlawed.

Last day at this assignment - more box-heaving. Phone temp service - nothing of course. Phone other two temp services - again nothing. Cable company website - ditto. :-/

Elder reports that this February, overseas editions of Newsweek ran a story titled "America, Dream On," utterly bashing the USA, the American Dream is dead, nobody wants to live like Americans, etc. (Of course no hint of this story appeared in the American edition. Bloggers found it.) ...Looky, if we suck so bad, how in the nine billion names of Gawd do you explain illegal immigration? Sure, America's a long way from perfect - but compared to us, everywhere else is the Third World. -In the second hour Elder himself makes that connection. Meanwhile Savage interviews rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-AZ, pointing out that diseases like tuberculosis and leprosy (!), long eradicated here, are being brought back by illegals.

Was it Churchill who said something like "The great vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of prosperity; the great virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery"? Living in a shack and only partly employed, I'm still better off than at least 95% of the rest of the world. I mean, I have a car, TV and radio, electricity, indoor plumbing, internet access, weapons, supermarkets almost within walking distance (well within walking distance in most other countries)... no one can match the American standard of living. We Are the Best.

840 - Tuesday, 24 May 2005: Zzzz....

Performing semi-ritual First Oil Change on Corolla. Last night, discovered dashboard FUEL warning light, cool. Portland ARCO still $2.29; one station a bit further out $2.25, mobbed, got five bucks. Planning on full fill in Vancouver tomorrow on the way back from the range.

Talk radio - Washington governor's race still being fought over. Allegations that Democrat party workers actually took absentee ballots home with them. For comparison, mention of some ballot boxes found floating in San Francisco Bay.

Wrapped up Coonts' Liberty - actually I'm not sure I liked it, due to the Big Brother angle of tapping into every security camera in the country. Suggestion that privacy must be sacrificed in the war against terrorism, rather chilling. Grabbed a couple Saberhagen Berserker books from the library.

Got The Incredibles on DVD, very entertaining - but then I made the mistake of seeing who did the voices: Craig T. Nelson of the blatantly anti-gun The District, Holly Hunter, the usual commiewood gang. Well, that's why I got it through the library, that many fewer dollars to the DNC.

Snarl! At 3 this afternoon I was walking walking down my driveway to drop the Incredibles DVD in my neighbor's mailbox when by chance two Multnomah County Sheriff deputies, Burton and Swail, were coming up the driveway to check on an eviction notice for another neighbor. At the time I was armed with my Browning Hi-Power pistol in an IWB holster. Since I was in my own driveway, off a cul-de-sac, and all but invisible from the street, I did not think it necessary to throw on a shirt on this nice warm day to conceal my weapon, nor did I think it necessary to take my wallet with me since I was only going to be out of the apartment for less than a minute. (Obviously I won't again make the mistake of thinking I still have an uninfringed right to bear arms in Multnomah County. Or many other rights for that matter.)

Naturally one of the deputies noticed my weapon and, in my opinion, "I Am The Law" ensued. I ended up directing deputy Swail into my apartment to find my wallet while Burton watched over me, with my hands on my car, while Swail found my wallet containing my CHL. When Swail came out he was asking permission to examine the weapons on my wall rack "to determine if any are full-auto." The weapons on the rack are the MojoMosin, the MojoMauser, the FR, the double, and the Mossberg M590; on hooks beside the rack are three of my percussion revolvers, the functional flintlock pistol, and the percussion derringer. I demanded they get a warrant, "signed by a judge and specifically describing" what they expect to find in my crummy cheap apartment.

I didn't entirely keep my temper during all this, but I was not cited for anything. They recorded the information on my CHL and did not (so far as I know; deputy Swail was out of my sight for a couple minutes while he was searching for my wallet) seize anything.

I'm still simmering over this. I mean, I've probably passed more background checks than both these guys put together and I flatter myself that I'm a better shot, too. (FYI, Clark Rifles has banned Portland police due to safety violations, according to the interim president of the club about half a year ago.) OH, I'm ticked. Emailed OFF for advice.

The greenshirt wanted to check 1890s bolt-actions to see if they were full-auto? I'm beyond having no respect for law enforcement and am now openly contemptuous.

Barely a half-hour after I email, Kevin Starrett of OFF responds. I'd've loved to post his reply here but when I asked permission he requested otherwise. Anyway what he said calmed me down quite a bit, if only by making me see I'm not alone in this, and now the incident is on record with the pit-bulls of gun rights in Oregon. Click on the logo at right and SEND THEM MONEY NOW.

Urgh, munching a few antacid tablets. Snarl.

841 - Wednesday, 25 May 2005: Zzzz(grumble)zzz(snarl)zzzz....

Snrk. 8am, just when I'm getting a good zzz on (Cosby had a routine about that...), temp service calls: and when I get out of the shower (awake...) 20 minutes later and return the call, the position is filled. But, it was yet more warehouse work, a "grocery distributor" putting away "cigarette cartons." (No moral objection there, the anti-smoking PSAs on TV remind me of Third Reich anti-Semitic propaganda films, and the whole campaign is yet another spew of venom from The Left - but I am sick of warehouses and box-heaving. And I have rifles to tune today.)

Later, after rush hour, off to Clark Rifles. Where Portland police are banned. First, out to ATM for cash - and a flagpole bracket, time to get the Gadsden out of storage. Back to hovel, load car. 11am, head out - and there's a greenshirt cruiser in the cul-de-sac with a couple different greenshirts leaning against it. Holy Crap! Drove right past them - circled around to a gas station, got change, phoned neighbor (the one who suffered an attempted burglary a couple weeks ago - I loaned her my .357 that night - she was getting ready to leave for swing shift), asked her to ask the greenshirts what's going on. 10 minutes later, phone her back - apparently they're just there for the eviction of the ex-cons who disappeared about a month ago. 11:30, finally off to the range - and the cruiser is gone as I drive by the other side of the cul-de-sac.

Shudder. Now I know how former Soviets felt.

On the way up, Laura Ingraham interviewing Mr. Radosh, author of Red Star Over Hollywood - like I didn't know that, but the book should contain useful sources and documentation. Later, if I heard right, she quoted Tom Hanks (!) as saying he wanted to make a good anti-communist (!!) film!

Arrive about noon. Hot and clear, but strong wind, mostly straight uprange. Work party fixing target holders blown off their stands. R/O says the power was out for a while. Flags at 200 and 300 going every which way. Sheetmetal lifting from the firing-line roof. Argh! Pointless. The only reason I came up here today was to get long-range practice and tune the rifles for the upcoming match. Left about a quarter past noon. At least I got out of the hovel. Eh, probably too shook from seeing those greenshirts camped outside the driveway to do well anyway. On the way back, radio says gusts up to 40mph. Stop for cheap(er) gas (Vancouver ARCO $2.19, got $20, definitely a bigger tank on the Corolla; Portland now $2.25 generally), another state's lottery tickets, back to the hovel. Returned about 1pm without incident, greenshirts gone. (Shudder.)

Might try again Friday. Bench rest match on the 300-yard line both days this weekend, range open Monday for Memorial day.

No news on sis' Caddy. Forecast 90 degrees F tomorrow. Corolla's AC probably needs to be recharged, eh, I'll live.

842 - Thursday, 26 May 2005: Phoned shop, sis' Caddy might be financially totalled, minivan driver's insurance will decide. :( She likes that car. ($3,400 to repair a fender and a couple lights? Again with the industrial protectionism.)

Spoke with second temp service about the Japanese place - "Those positions are filled." Nice of them to call me when they had some. :-/

Cable-company - aha, one cable-installer position, applied. All my information (resumé, etc.) saved in an account online from my last application, cool.

Still seething, by the way.

Windy again today, and hotter. Range bag still packed, looking forward to long-range precision highpower rifle practice. "...A citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized." Reach Out and Touch, baby. And the stuff I shoot would punch right through, for example, a Blue Helmet. Maybe tomorrow (though others might be crowding the line to practice for the benchrest match), maybe Monday - will phone ahead and ask about conditions before burning gas.

Hannity interviews Ted Koppel, who runs the names of our servicepeople killed in action, with questionable motives; rather too friendly with his old ABC buddy for my taste. But later in the show, goes off on a Stossell-esque anti-government tirade, even citing Stossell, and pushing home-schooling, bashing public. Then, "Man in the Street" segment, asking random people things like "Who's the Vice-President" - and there's what's wrong with the government schools, eewww. Geography and spelling bees reportedly being swept, locally and nationally, by the home-schooled.

Crime rates rising in Portland, not least due to methamphetamine. Deputy Swail may have stolen some nasal decongestant - which little red pills didn't contain the ingredient in question, BTW, I got them at Dollar Tree - from my fanny pack while he was rummaging for my wallet, I'm not sure. I've gotta get out of the urban jungle before Something Even Worse Happens, or I Really Lose My Temper. Meanwhile, I yearn for a camcorder and/or a good digital-still camera - such are to blue- and greenshirts as sunlight is to vampires. (See Ross' Unintended Consequences. Everyone who loves Liberty should have one.)

Pay tomorrow. It should cover either the rent and nothing else, or the electric bill and some food and maybe a partial rent payment. Depending what the government allows me to keep, I might let Cruffler haggle on the Marlin to make up the difference. Both checking and savings depleted, suddenly realized I was overdrawn by a couple bucks from the flagpole bracket last night (after the Incident my temper just had to get that Rattlesnake flying), scrambled up the street to the ATM to juggle what was left, hope I avoided a fee. Another $59.77 expected on the 4th, from Monday's box-heaving.

Want taller flagpole, 20-odd feet or more, so I can run up the Betsy Ross over the Gadsden and everyone can see it. Can't afford it of course. Might build one, everything should be available in town or even at the hardware store.

Still seething. Only two kinds of people in the badgemen's world, perps and suspects. Those totalitarian #&%*! I could tell they enjoyed Proving their Authority over the lowly peasant. By extension, this is just the kind of behavior that got us the Third Amendment. $%^&* *&^% &@#!!!

Surfing - requested National Treasure through the county library's site. Over to Baen - oh! Tom Kratman, author of A State of Disobedience (back to the library site - requested) has coauthored, with John Ringo, Watch on the Rhine, another in the Alldenata (Posleen) series. Went back and requested that too. And Vin Suprynowicz' The Black Arrow while I'm at it, and The Ballad of Carl Drega. Someone got them to order a couple copies of UC some time ago... or maybe just donated them.

England's gun ban has worked so well that Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange is becoming a documentary. And now they want to ban kitchen knives. I'm not making this up.

843 - Friday, 27 May 2005: WorldNetDaily also has an article on the English Kitchen Knife Ban. The world makes me sick.

Bleah, headache. (I wonder what caused that...?) Might wimp out on the range today. (Besides I want to grab that paycheck as soon as it arrives in the mail - or has direct deposit kicked in by now? -No, and now I've lost another $27 in fees. Rough calculations, based on 35% taxation, suggest I'll net just over $200 from last week's box-heaving, and $123.28 goes to electricity. At least I can eat before being late with the rent....) Monday might be better since they'll be open and most other stuff will be closed for the holiday. And there's something symbolic about practicing riflery on Memorial Day. (Too bad I don't have a Garand.)

Cruffler sends (this has been around for some time, but still):

1. And the 1911 was THE pistol, and it was good. And behold the Lord said, thou shalt not muck with my disciple John's design for it is good and it worketh. For John made the 1911, and lo all of his weapons, from the designs which I, the Lord, gave him upon the mountain.

Or in other words:

I really must get one of those. Too bad I missed the Argentine 1927s, they're mostly out of circulation now. Made under Colt license to pre-WWII Colt standards.

Hannity also mentions the Kitchen Knife Ban. And, The Freedom Alliance, a private charity raising funds for scholarships for all the children of fallen servicepeople. Taking donations through Monday.

Going back through the journal, I'm reminded of this KABA article, and this paragraph in particular:

Gun owners live with the daily, grinding, oppressive fear that they will be caught violating some unconstitutional gun control edict, or some foolish paperwork technicality, and will find themselves at the mercy of a black-suited SWAT team, or a swarm of traitorous police officers with drawn guns, and will have their homes, businesses, families destroyed - or worse, that they will be shot to death in an "accident" or for "resisting arrest".

And there's still this Clayton Cramer essay (.PDF, right-click to download). And this anonymous bit from the net. (This essay says 800 yards for effective rifle engagement - my rifles will probably do it but I can't reach much past 300 yet. Still, even 300 is pretty far by today's standards. And I still use metallic sights.)

Record high temperature today, over 90F. One of the little heater-fans I use in the winter also has a no-heat setting, and there's a big box fan I can dig out of storage.

Okay, paycheck: $263.45, more than I expected, 26.8% taxation. Deposit - transfer a little slack to savings, cash for groceries, summer haircut, buy groceries, blow out electric bill.

Processing more rifle brass, particularly 7.92x57mm since the case trimmer is still set up for it and I might whip up some of the old 150gr/A2230 load for the MojoVZ, since that combination actually shot 3 points better than the MojoMosin in the Allies vs. Axis match - and it's a much smoother action than the Mosin too, that'd help sis in the PIG's rapid-fire stages.

Ack! All this time the Bill of Rights on this site has been without the very important preamble, describing the "declaratory and restrictive Clauses"! Fixed it.

844 - Saturday, 28 May 2005: Zzzz....

(...snarl....)

Reading Eric Flint's The Rivers of War, "An Alternate History of the American Frontier" - specifically the War of 1812. The departure point is, at the Battle of the Horseshoe Bend, Mississippi Territory (what is now central eastern Alabama), 27 March 1814, Sam Houston clambers over a Creek Indian fortification... and his foot slips. Thus, the arrow that near-crippled him in our timeline and laid him low for months in recovery, is a much less serious wound, and he goes on to Significantly Interact with all sorts of Influential Historical Figures during Cusp Moments. About halfway through, and he's rallied a regiment's worth of odds-and-ends troops to himself (at age 21, with only a brevet rank of Captain) to defend the US Capitol against the redcoat raid which originally burned most of D.C. to the ground (24 August 1814). Flint's editor's desire for the book was to find some way to prevent the Cherokee Trail of Tears. In the afterword, Flint says he couldn't - but he could change it, by tweaking Houston's life, who was an adopted Cherokee. Anyway, interesting, and good action.

Speaking of redcoats, even Dan Rather reported on the soaring crime rates in Great Britain since their sweeping bans on private firearm ownership in the late 1990s. And British subjects are getting fed up with it.

845 - Sunday, 29 May 2005: Took attempted-burgled neighbor to Clark Rifles for low-power shotgun practice. Two-day benchrest match still underway - at least one big camper trailer on site, didn't catch the plate, but I've seen plates from Idaho and Montana for the Cast Bullet matches. Planning on going back tomorrow for long-range rifle practice.

Oh look, even more Clockwork Orange stuff in England. And in Australia, "We don't want a situation where civilians are as well armed or better armed than the police force." (Yeah, well, neither did these folks. Do the %*@# math.) If you're a vile sociopathic rapist/murderer, move to England or Australia, you'll probably get a government subsidy. I recommend the Second Amendment News Digest for keeping up with this sort of thing. And there are several very active Yahoo lists, like this and this and this.

Fuji's been getting old, barely able to heave himself into my lap, when he used to take running leaps that could knock me from my chair if they weren't delivered with feline grace. But now, he just made another such! Maybe it's the warmer weather alleviating his kitty-thritis. Maybe he ate a spider and got high on the venom. Gave him scootchies and a crabcake treat.

Then dumped him on the floor again when he clawed me. Very sharp claws he has, spending so much time inside instead of blunting them somewhere in the Big Litter Box.

846 - Monday, Memorial Day, 30 May 2005: Take a moment. And know that this country is not worthy of those who defend it. The men and women of the military of the United States are better than the rest of us deserve.

Finished Flint's The Rivers of War last night - methinks the author is a small-"r" republican. As opposed to the current crop of RINOs and pseudocons. (In the 1632 saga, the protagonists' mine workers' union is described as "that crotchety old Republican union." Flint's "About" blurb mentions he's "a longtime labor union activist", which makes my knee jerk, but he sure don't write like a commie. And besides he's in Baen's stable, which publisher, and at least the most voluminous of those authors, have proven their non-commie credentials IMO by the commentary every author since Homer has slipped into his or her work.) Recommended, for the action alone. Also intriguing social commentary. Even in the antebellum South slavery was never "black and white." Flint also makes at least oblique reference to something I'd heard before, that some of the biggest slaveholders on record were in fact blacks and even former slaves. So Jackson and Sharpton can just shove it already.

Rifle practice. Much cooler today, overcast even.

Arrive noon. Argh! Forgot Big Box o' Targets! Bought four SR21 at clubhouse, set two each at 200 and 300 yards. Not too crowded, only one other on the lower line and he was working with a chronograph - left soon anyway.

When setting targets, chose a lane with a leftover SR1 at 100 that had been patched - good as new for my purposes. Starting with FR8, Portuguese NATO, prone, bayonet.

And the first string, I have no idea where it went. Remove bayonet, try another charger - five hits in the black. Okay, the FR is zeroed for 100 yards without the bayonet and I can go back to 25 yards with a big target sheet to see where it shoots with.

But it's not that simple. When I built up the FR's rear sight disk's original inappropriate V-notch into an aperture (#580-583), the little piece of brass tubing I used was just a little too big, thus the aperture is a little higher than it should be, thus the front sight post, where all the fine adjustments are made, is also higher than it should be. So when I click the disk over to the second, presumably 200-meter, setting, will it shoot low? And the answer is... nope. High and left, actually. (Another thing: boresighting the FR, snugging it into sandbags on a bench with the sights on the target then removing the bolt and looking through the bore, the bore centerline is like a dozen MOA low and right from the sight picture. Huh?) Anyway, surprised myself with a respectable group of four, one high flyer which was one of my first two rounds.

Fiddle with front sight - already much higher than it should be, can't move it much higher and still anchor it with the set screw. Flash hider staying put at least. Another string - and now I can't group. Tired already after just four strings, not used to prone position. Every time I get into it the lower left corner of my rib cage is pressed rather painfully. And this is on a relatively thick camping mat. I'm out of practice. (Nor was the overly-solicitous R/O today helping matters by breaking my concentration.) Another string at 200 - I dunno. Out of curiosity, one at 300 - hm, wind picking up, clearing and warming, heat waves in the spotting scope - at least I hit the paper but I doubt those holes would be worth anything in a match. Not a good day for me.

Well, at least try with the Mosin. Again, check zero at 100 - good enough. Up four clicks on the Mojo - I'm not grouping, but the pattern suggests the elevation is about right.

Now, my research suggested I should go up 12 clicks from 200, 16 total from zero, for 300 yards, and that just seems way too much. Up just another four clicks, eight total, and let fly at 300 - hitting the paper at least, and even the intended piece of paper, but I'm having a bad day. During all this, I got rimlock with the Mosin's cartridges and ended up with one round jammed into the magazine body, with its rim jammed into the narrow part of the magazine and very difficult to get out. (And while I was working on it the R/O Wouldn't. Go. Away.) Broke my favorite pen trying to get it out. (Fortunately I already had a spare in the car.) Tired and frustrated, left about 2:30pm. But at least I have some idea where to pick up from next session - a Mosin 91/30 with Albanian surplus FMJ and a Mojo MicroClick sight zeroed at 100 yards, up four clicks for 200, and up another four for 300.

Later - so some acquaintance of a friend of an acquaintance got some Revenge of the Sith tix through some promotion or something and I saw it. (Theater crowds, ick.)

And... it kinda sucked. Plot, story, dialogue & acting particularly (Palpatine looked and acted like something from a Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell flick (not that there's anything wrong with that, in its proper context, which this ain't), Padme has devolved from the ass-kicking amazonlet of the first two episodes to a whiny helpless girl), tempo, what my writing instructor (in one of the few not-wasted moments in college) described as flow - Episode III is in my opinion the lamest chapter of the entire saga. Many of the effects were simply gratuitous and some weren't even convincing. Then there were the blatant anti-Bush bits ("Only a Sith deals in absolutes." Oh yeah? How about "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for", "evil", "corrupt" and "brain-dead"?), anti-War bits, the confusion of a republic with "democracy", and one blatant anti-gun bit too. No subtlety anymore, no class, just a zillion bucks of CGI rammed down the audience's throat, seasoned with leftie indoctrination. Phooey. Nuke Hollywood, and Cannes while yer at it.

847 - Tuesday, 31 May 2005: Cable company website - the Jobs page is down. Three temp services - nothing. Rumor of a "manufacturing" job on the west side, no details yet.

Rent is a Problem.

Sick of Ramen, ate an MRE, Wornick tan-bag production, #5, Grilled Chicken Breast - that slab of genuine Meat really hit the spot. The Minestrone Stew wasn't bad either. The infamous crackers have been replaced with Wheat Snack Bread, an improvement.

Laundromat, ick.

Gas prices: observed Vancouver ARCO at $2.15 yesterday, Portland $2.25; radio news today reports Troutdale, at the far eastern end of the sprawl (huge truck stops there, before I84 continues east along the Columbia River), as low as $2.13.

Radio news says a new Live Aid concert is planned to fight poverty, with the usual leftie show biz crowd. So they'll raise a zillion bucks and half will go to the Celebrities and their Agents and the other half will go to assorted third-world despots and maybe one Potemkin village in Ethiopia will get on carefully-edited TV for a couple minutes. Stossell, in Give Me a Break, describes, and presents examples of, how capitalism and free markets are the only real solutions to poverty.

Sis phones - insurance company says her Cadillac is totaled, now she has to seek settlement and/or replacement. She is Not Happy.

Reading Saberhagen's Berserker Death, a Baen omnibus containing what appear to be the first Berserker stories, copyright dates going back to 1967, engrossing.

You know, Hayden Christensen was a crappy actor in Episode II, too.

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