I still get a kick out of this place…
My neighbors D&L have formed the habit of going to the Palace of Food in the biggish town about 35 miles away on the first Wednesday of the month, that being when this particular store flashes a substantial senior discount.
And I tag along when money permits, and it still makes me stop for a moment upon entering the store so I can close my mouth and stop gaping like I’d just dropped in from some village in Chad. America – Land of glorious excess.
Of course there’s a possibility that the excess may be coming to an end, as even a desert hermit can’t help noticing that dollars buy less and less lately. So stocking up on packaged meat seems like a smart thing to do while it’s still practical.
I take my meat straight to Ian’s Cave, where there’s a freezer. I have a stash of packaging material there…
And then I have a fat couple of months worth of luxury safely stored. Don’t have to worry about the grid power going down and ruining my bounty.
I did forget to bring a proper trimming knife, for cutting the fat away from my cheap cuts of chicken, so…
…I was happy I had kept a useful edge on my folding knife, which only comes out of the drawer on the rare occasions when I take all the usual shit off my belt and dress for town. But when I got back to the cabin, I was reminded that…
…my taste in tools really hasn’t changed that much. I bought that Benchmade folder during a brief prosperous period shortly after the turn of the century and carried it for several years until I learned that folders really don’t deal that well with the desert dirt. I put it away and started carrying a solid belt knife sometime in 2008. Year before last I got my current everyday knife, and it’s not that different from a good folder except that it doesn’t have any gadgets and crevices for dirt to settle into.
In the place where I live, people don’t get worked up over the sight of a not-very-concealed pistol so normally I just throw a shirt over the .44. But still, going to a bigger town I sometimes get self-conscious about it. This morning I dragged out my one IWB holster and my old Mak…
…mostly because this coming weekend I’m going to do something that’s really off my beaten path – I’m going to the big city for the first time in two years. And that means taking the time to think about what needs packing between now and then. I spend so much time all by myself, pretty much doing the same things every day, that suddenly doing something that far removed from my routine is kind of stressful and preparing for it needs plenty of advance thought.
This coming weekend is likely the next big adventure.
Has neighbor D recovered well from his episode some months ago, if it is OK to ask?
D is doing fairly well in the sense of a new normal. It has become clear he’s not going to entirely recover.
Is the issue with pocketknives and desert dirt one of the standard 3-in-1/CLP/gun oil attracting the dirt? Have you tried the paraffin-based “dry” bicycle lubricant like the White Lightning brand Easy Lube? Supposedly the old desert rats would take their bicycle chains, completely degrease them, then dunk them in liquid paraffin, and work the links loose once it cooled and reinstall them on the bike, which then wouldn’t collect the grit like plain oils would.
Mattexian, I can’t say that I’ve researched it. There’s no advantage to using a folder for everyday use if you don’t need to keep it discreet. I use mine several times a day, most days, for poking and prying as much as for cutting, and getting rid of the folding mechanism is just the obvious thing to do. The only new problem is that then a good sheath is as important as a good knife.
“…and it still makes me stop for a moment upon entering the store so I can close my mouth and stop gaping.”
Several years ago we had some house guests from Germany. One of them was born and grew up in a small village in the former communist East Germany. On the first night, I was sounding them out as to what they wanted to see and do when our East German friend said he wanted to pick up some fishing stuff. The next morning we all piled into our SUV and a little later I introduced them to Bass Pro. Our friend from the DDR had the same reaction that you do when entering the palace of food, only worse. Talk about a little kid in a candy shop, oh my.
BTW, if you want to upgrade your go-to town EDC knife to a fixed blade you may want to look at the Pee-wee by Michael Morris. I have one that rides inside my front right pocket out of sight but quickly available. It is held verticle in the pocket with a Nite Ize SqueezeRing Key Clip.
http://www.michaelmorrisknives.com/shop/fixed-blades/peewee/
Get to know your Makarov . My neighbor runs a small ammo store in his part time . He reloads my Mak brass with a magnum load and hand cast fat bois bullets . Chrono said they are coming out at 2400 . They make a mess of coons . Got a problem with coons around here . Study this for the Mak . https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2020/8/13/the-east-german-makarov-a-cold-war-collectible/