The Ultimate Answer to Kings

Somebody asked for more details about the camera shutter remote control that came with that lens kit my brother sent me a couple of weeks ago.

When you turn it on, it activates something you have to go into the Settings menu on the phone and enable. But after that it’s quite reliable at a range at least across a room. I doubt you could use it a lot farther than that, but haven’t tried. I gather it will also work with an Android.

Wish I could tell you the name of the thing, but unfortunately it’s some no-name kit from China. You could probably find it searching Amazon. Don’t honestly know how much use I’m going to get from the lenses, but the button actually solves an occasional problem I’ve had any time I tried to use the iPhone camera one-handed.

WASHINGTON STATE TOUGHENS GUN LAWS, BANS ‘GHOST GUNS’

“Piece by piece, they’re chopping away,”

Or so they choose to believe.

…looking for my keys. They weren’t in any of the places they should have been. They weren’t in any of the places they shouldn’t have been.

This time of year I leave the pistol, knife and key ring on the space heater in the bedroom overnight. If I take the belt right off my pants, which I didn’t last night, all the belt kibble goes there. That way I know right where they are. This morning the gun was there, the knife was there, the key ring was nowhere to be found.

I could do my morning chores without that key ring, because the Jeep key is elsewhere. But I couldn’t get into Ian’s, I couldn’t lock the Lair, I couldn’t do a lot of things. The worst thing I could think of: Before Wednesday I really needed to move the good ladder to the Lair – and it’s locked up at Ian’s! WHERE ARE THOSE KEYS?

Occurred to me: I did have them last night! I went up to Ian’s place just before dark to get my second loaf of bread out of his fridge. I must have left them at his door! So I went up there – no keys. No keys on the ground between the Cave and the Lair. No keys on the table, securely locked inside his place. AUGH!

It bugged me all morning. I couldn’t get it out of my head. Just a few minutes ago, devoid of anywhere else to look, I started walking back up the ridge with my eyes glued to the ground – they couldn’t have just vanished! Let’s see: If I had them on my belt last night, without the gun or knife, they could have fallen off onto the bedroom floor. But I looked there! If they didn’t fall off…oh, you’re kidding me…

I put my hand on my holster, slid the hand to the rear…

Gettin’ old ain’t for sissies. The one place I never thought to look was “already on your belt, stupid.”

I’m too much a creature of habit. I always load that side of the belt gun/knife/keys. But last night I stepped out just for a moment to grab a loaf of bread. Put the keys on my belt without bothering with the other stuff, because I just grabbed my rifle. Then never put the keys back with the holster and sheath. This morning I slid the holster on my belt, then the sheath, then freaked out because I couldn’t find the key ring.

…until you’ve driven it wet and dry. I’d have testified that I was quite familiar with the roads on the other side of the plateau before this morning, but since I’d never driven them during/after a good soaky rain I didn’t know where the clay and ash deposits were. I waited to go up there this morning till there was a lull in the rain – which lasted until I was about 2/3 of the way there – and still spent a lot of time unexpectedly sideways.

On a day like this it’s a relief to get back to a place where I can drive in the wash. As long as it doesn’t flood, the nice deep sand of the wash is much easier to drive on than the slick snot that currently is the ‘road.’

But I got up and back down the mesa undamaged, so if all goes well that should be the last time. No point watering the gardens, of course, but there was still the greenhouse and the potted plants under the overhang of their lovely wraparound porch. And the cats were feeling pretty neglected. So it took a little while to do. Jeep windows steamed up, but at least the defroster works when I can remember how to use it – weather this humid isn’t all that common.

It rained all night.

The road’s going to be a mess. I have to go all the way up the mesa to take care of cats this morning, and water the greenhouse plants. But unless there’s a real weather anomaly I won’t have to water anything else…

The Chassepot to FAMAS kickstarter has settled down to a merely extraordinary first week.

I rolled out of bed at 5:30 this morning, about the regular time. A few minutes later I got a text from Landlady. Now, Landlady and Ian were due to come up together this weekend, and we were all going to work on installing better roofing material on his cave’s porch roof since quite a lot of what’s there got torn up in the winter and spring wind. But the weather forecast promises lots of rain through the weekend. Ian is a busy man these days: His business has taken off, he’s literally a bona fide Youtube celebrity, he has a new book out, he routinely travels the world to elbow Trump Jr. out of the way so he can make videos at the great gun collections of shady Russian oligarchs* or shoot exotic weapons at well-attended 2-gun matches in faraway places, and basically getting him out here to the nothin’ is quite a trick these days. But the weather has gone to hell and there’s nothing we can do about that. So the day began with a conversation about that, the conclusion being we’d better go to Plan B because if he comes out here and gets rained out we’ll never manage it again. Continue reading →

Aren’t the Dems supposed to be fielding people who would be an improvement?

STOP MAKING TRUMP LOOK GOOD.

Not one little bit.

The sun came out! Very briefly. I jumped up from where I’d spent most of the morning sitting and hooked up Torso Boy for a walkie. Then I started laying out metallic targets to determine how long to cut their new chains…

…and within minutes it was not only torrentially raining, it was hailing. And so I’m back inside.

Sit!
Sit!
Sit!
Sit!

Yesterday it did just what was promised: Unseasonably cool with wandering storm cells in the afternoon. Hardly like the town-stomping downpours I’ve heard the Midwest got, hardly worth mentioning. I rushed my trip up the plateau yesterday afternoon when things got blustery because I didn’t want to get caught in another downpour without windshield wipers. But it didn’t do much more than drip a few times, then it cleared up nice.

Woke up half an hour ago to find it all grey and raining like crazy. Bother. On the other hand, enter silver lining: If it’s like this on the mesa I won’t have to haul as much water for the gardens.

They sure blend into the background once the paint fades. Didn’t come out half bad, though…

That’s the hard part, because I had to do it on the ladder. Dulled two of Mark’s nice 3/8″ drill bits getting that much done. Tomorrow I’ll finish up the bottom three targets, then hit’em with some orange paint. Maybe if I impress Ian enough with his nice target range he’ll shoot one or two of his videos out here like he used to years ago.

Bread came out nice this morning. 🙂

I have a few days’ lag time between now and Friday, when we’re working on the porch of Ian’s cave. I have all the tools and materials I need to do something I’ve been thinking about for quite a long time…

I built the new target racks this time last year, but never really properly mounted the metallic targets. Set the way they are, they’re easy to repair but don’t really stand square to the shooter. I’ve intended for a long time to mount them right, but I don’t really shoot all that much because I can’t afford ammo, it’s going to take a lot of effort and fasteners I never seem to have, and other excuses I can’t think of right now. I never got around to it.

But last year I accidentally scored a bunch of threaded stock so the cost of fasteners dropped to some nuts and washers and the effort of cutting allthread. I have the saw blades, I have a bunch of sharp 3/8″ bits care of Mark Matis, and I have the time and inclination. So carry on, Joel!

This morning I wanted to do the central target to see what the problems were going to be, how long the chain segments should be, and whether I’d be able to drill the needed holes with my cordless drill.

Answer: Yes, and also practically no. The B&D is handy as hell but really too slow for cutting metal in anything like a reasonable time. I got these drilled but the upper row will require 3 times as many holes while standing on a ladder. So I need to bring the corded drill and the generator out to the range. Have I mentioned lately how many things a good portable generator makes easier or even possible?

Of course I had to test the target, so the neighbors may have heard some gunshots. Can’t risk a defective target.

I dismounted the upper tier of targets and brought them home. I’ll cut new chains for them, then this afternoon I’ll go out and drill holes and mount them on the rack.

…and so rather busy. The bread is in the oven and the moment it comes out I have to jump in the Jeep and go do chores at Landlady’s and up the plateau. I’m cogitating a longer blog post concerning Peter Grant’s recent joyous post about getting his U.S. citizenship but that’s going to take some time to write.

So just so I can say I posted something this morning, here are some funny pictures that have been piling up.

I’ve got that gig going up and down the plateau this week, so I had to fill my gas cans. Plus two water bottles and one from Ian’s place, a sack of hen pellets, four of D&L’s water bottles…

Having loaded the Jeep from D&L’s truck, I drove to Landlady’s place to unload the pellets. Happened to look down the slope to the wash and saw a big splash of red…

Yeah, I had to work for this one, too. About halfway down it occurred to me a rope might have been a good idea. Continue reading →

That’s the good news. The bad news is the article was written three days ago. The evil rightwing MSM, tools of the fascist Trump regime, have kept this truth from you until it’s almost too late.

Earlier this year, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–NY) warned us that we have only 12 years to address the harm that human beings are doing to the planet. Last week, Beto O’Rourke amended that, suggesting we have only 10 years. Now, I don’t want to scare anyone, but according to my calculations that I arrived at by reading science, both Beto and Ocasio-Cortez are looking at this problem through rose-colored glasses. In fact, the world has precisely three and a half days to change its ways or it will basically be destroyed.

As I write this, it is 1:45 pm on Friday May 3rd. By sometime in the midmorning on Tuesday, if we don’t take action, Miami will be underwater, Toledo will be on fire, a swarm of locusts will descend upon Houston, and Brooklyn … well, actually Brooklyn will be fine, but that’s not the point. The point is that we have just over 72 hours to change everything we do and hand the entire economy over to the state or else we will witness an apocalypse that will make Revelations look like Sesame Street.

Dammit! And I’m not done fixing the porch. At least I have lots of Spam.

h/t

And I was trying to get some photos of him when there was one of those fluttering thuds that says somebody picked a fight. And when I looked up, the resident black chin was back. This guy, or one just like him, was the first arrival and considers the feeder personal property.

It’s turning into a lovely May. I wanted to work on the metallic target rack but need some fasteners I can’t get till tomorrow. So I’ve mostly sat around getting over the dehydration and sunburn of the past couple of days, but then this afternoon I took a little trip up the ridge with the camera stuff BB sent me to look in on the cactus flowers.

…and so I’ll be going up there twice a day for the next week.

They’ve been doing that twice a year for a couple of years now, and never before that. I like to think I’m making life easier for them.

And now I have a lot of cleaning up and putting of things away to do before I can collapse in a chair.

ETA: The plywood having been replaced with 2X6s, Laddie wishes it to be known that he does not entirely approve of how much higher that last step has gotten.

Less than half finished with the porch floor…

But I’m out of steam and my back hurts. Shouldn’t feel too bad about it, I guess. I’ve been working since around 6:30.

Hope I can hitch a ride to town tomorrow morning, if I can’t I’m going to have to canvas the neighbors to find somebody I can bum some screws from. Definitely don’t have enough to finish the floor.