Anyone Out There Owe Me Money?

If so, please remit promptly. I just about keeled over when I saw my credit card bills for this month after my 3 week road trip including a gun show, motels, gas, food stops, groceries, restaurants with my son and so on. I am going to be broke for months unless some of the guns I have up for sale actually get sold.

All the best,
GB 

I'd Been Searching Hard For It...

...and finally gave up figuring I must have sold it and forgotten about the sale.



Had this for many a year and wondered where it had gotten off to.

Then, when I was visiting my son in Arkansas earlier this month, I happened to mention it. He walked into his bedroom and came out with it in his hands. Guess he swiped it from me I had given it to him as a gift and forgot all about it. Anyway he gave it back to me and it is home with me now.

Now all I have to do is to remember to put it on my synthetic stocked 870.

All the best,
Glenn B

Each One Yells Bang...

...as it leaves the bore.
















All the best,
GB

Good Luvin

 

All the best,

GB

I Hope You Took The Time Today...

...to remember all of them and to honor all of them:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war

Look at the overview to get the full picture of to whom we owe our freedom.

God bless them. We must never forget them because we owe them everything we have since they made the ultimate sactifice for us!

All the best,
Glenn B

Just Wrong

All the best,
GB

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio...

...should be expunged from office and given a proverbial horse whipping and then ridden out of town on a rail while thoroughly tarred and feathered and that is probably too easy a punishment for him. As it stands now, and there will be no changing my mind on this even if he changes his mind, he is completely supporting Oscar López Rivera, someone I believe terrorist who conspired against the United States. Mayor de Blasio plans to march in his honor in the Puerto Rican Day Parade next month, that parade is set to honor him as a freedom fighter. More here.

I think that any politician who honors a piece of shit like that should be forced out of office and never be allowed to run again because if you keep them in office long enough, they will be emulating the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Obama (who commuted the sentence of Lopez Rivera in the first place).

All the best,
Glenn B

Worked All Week...

...and thus the lack of blog posts. Hope to make it up some this weekend and next week.

All the best,
GB

Ever Since I Was A Kid...

..I have paid attention to the ground or the floor as I walk. I don't know if that was due as much to me being accident prone or due to me having found money on the floor or ground many more times than once. I figure I used to watch my step not to fall over my own feet and then was lucky enough to find some dough and then started paying even more attention to where I was stepping. Of course, it may have had nothing to do with me being an accident prone klutz and could have just been due to me having stepped in a large pile of doggy doodoo. I simply do not recall the reason but to this day, I still look down fairly often when walking while at the same time keeping my eyes open for cash. Last time I found a considerable amount of cash was probably two or three years ago, it was a fifty dollar bill in a Home Depot parking lot. I was quite the happy guy.

 

Today, I hit up the same Home Depot to buy some grass seed, potted flowers and vegetables among other things. As I got out of my car, the memory came to me of finding that $50, I guess because it was right near where I parked my car today. Maybe 20 minutes later, while walking around the gardening department, I looked down and my usually slow pace went into immediate overdrive while at the same time I glanced around to see it anyone else was walking toward what had gotten my immediate interest. No one was walking toward that way and no one was walking away from the area either. Mine, mine mine! What soon became mine were two twenty dollar bills there on the floor. I almost could not believe my luck as I quickly bent over to scoop them up and put em in my pocket. Not to let lady luck leave too soon, I made sure to walk around the immediate area looking for more but alas she had already departed and left me with what I had scooped up. Yet. she had not left me disappointed since the two bills I had grabbed were indeed real. Not a bad deal at all. They substantially helped pay the $140 toward my purchases. 
 

I wish I had luck like this more often but I am not going to wish that too hard because I am afraid to piss off whatever power above laid that cash in my path. That does not mean though that I will stop looking down now and then when I walk.

 

All the best,

GB

I Want One - Hell I Want Two

I wish they were commercially available in the US of A at a decent price. Need I say more.

All the best,
Glenn B

Not Even A Hint Of A Connection To Terrorism...

...is mentioned in an article about two guys who reportedly were arrested after a passerby called police to report they had threatened him and told him they were armed with guns. All that after he merely asked them to clean up some trash they had thrown from their vehicle. The informer was smart enough to get their license number, before walking away, and he then called 911. What he did may have thwarted a terrorist attack in the making, maybe even an imminent one. Yet, neither the police nor Homeland Security are saying anything about a possible link terrorism relative to the reported arrests of Abdullah N. Alrifahe and  Majid Alrifahe. Hell, one of them has already been released according to the article. (Is Minneapolis a sanctuary city???) More here.

One would hope that the police and or DHS (or better yet the FBI) do enough of an investigation to obtain proper search warrants and go through those computers thoroughly. It is not every day you find a hand grenade during a vehicle stop.

All the best,
GB

Boy Gives Dog A Bone And Woman Pulls Her Pistol...

...and points it at him. As he runs away, she fires a warning shot. She gets arrested and treated like a criminal and I simply do not understand why on God's green earth she was charged and the kid will probably get off again.

Yes, there are some sarcastic puns in those previous sentences. Read the linked article and you will understand.

How I missed this news item, dated May 8th, while I was in AR is beyond me except maybe that while my son has a television he only has it hooked up to his computer to watch YouTube and Netflix; a subscription for cable was too expensive (welcome to the real world my son). I am sure he will get cable soon though now that he has a decent job. Anyway, I digress so let me just say again, read the linked article and be amazed and maybe disgusted. I think maybe, had it been another person instead of this particular woman, he might have been shot being it was the second time he gave the bone to the dog and giving the same bone twice to the same dog could be considered a shooting offense by some.

All the best,
Glenn B.

Sometimes Things Work Out Okay For Me

It is so nice when I find out I did not screw something up, like me having thought I forgot my Remington 870 folding stock in AR at my son's place.

How bad ass will that make my Remington 870 look! I have no clue but I do
know it will make it kick much harder, than it does already, with that metal butt.

I was going through my stuff today to pull out my dirty laundry from the trip and found it in one of the bags. That was a good thing indeed. Of course, washing my laundry was good too.

And yes, that does say "FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ONLY" on it but that is not a legal requirement anywhere or at least was not when I acquired it. I have had this folder for decades, since the early or mid 1980s, and there was no legal restriction on this when I got it and there is none now (at least if not in a commie hell hole like New York City where I am guessing it may be illegal or somehow restricted). That allegedly was put on there by Remington to make it more appealing to police departments and LE agencies, or so it was explained to me when I got it (and by the way I was a federal LE officer then). It probably commanded a higher price too merely because of those four words.

All the best,
GB

Happy Armed Forces Day

Happy Armed Forces Day to each and every loyal member of the United States Military. God bless you, Mother Nature watch over you, may the Fates never cut you short, and may The Force Be With You always and keep you safe.

Of course, I know you do your best to keep us and each other of you safe and thus my appreciation for you and what you do. You keep American free!

All the best,
Glenn  B

Damn, It's Vampire Hour & Where Is My Rem 870 Folding Stock

It is well past the hour when vampires would start coming out around my place already; although, in AR where my son lives (in that other time zone), it would still be fairly bright sunlight at this hour. Heck, he is only one time zone west of here!!! I may have to move back to AR just for the sunlight. Of course, I may have to at least visit again soon just to get my OEM Remington 870 folding stock that he brought with him, then gave back to me while I was there, but that I apparently forgot to take with me when I left. I checked my car and cannot find it, so I am assuming I forgot it but he cannot find it in his apartment either. Maybe a vampire grabbed it.

All the best,
GB

Home Again

I am happy to be home again but I must say that two days ago I did what made me just about the saddest I have ever been in my life. I left Brendan in Arkansas. Don't get me wrong, I am happy he is there and making it on his own and am quite proud of him for working to achieve the American dream. When he left NY, it was a bittersweet day for me; I was sad he was leaving but was also happy he was going out on his own and he happiness outweighed the sadness. I guess any parent who loved his children would feel likewise. There was something different though about visiting him in Arkansas and then leaving him behind. When I drove off of the Interstate highway, on the day I arrived, and got onto the local state highway a big smile broke on my face and I was exceedingly happy that I was about to see him. I cannot remember being that happy since my grandson was born. I had missed Brendan a lot after only less than 3 months so how could I not be happy.

The thing was though, when I left him on Thursday, I was sad, about as sad as I have ever been! Sure, I am still happy he is making it on his own, that he got a decent job and is working hard at it driving a big rig (and there I was thinking he was driving a box truck but he is driving 40 footers and larger), that he has a nice apartment, that he has made new friends and strengthened his bond with an old one, that he bought and own his first pistol and that we had a great time together (especially since I caught more fish than him for a change). What I am sad about is that I had to leave him. That feeling overwhelmed me when I got up to see him off to work at 330 on Thursday morning and again when I drove away from his apartment complex later that day. Still though, as I said, I am happy for him. That, and knowing I plan to visit him again, within a few months or so, makes the sadness over missing him somewhat bearable.

Oh well, enough of the emotional ranting. I will try to get in some blogging this weekend, then will be working all of next week. That is good because I need some way to pay for the trip, especially what I spent on guns and things at the firearms auction that I to which I detoured on the first weekend of my road trip. More on those guns in a later post.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Fishing Trip(s)

In anticipation of getting in some fishing, while visiting Brendan in Benton, AR, I went to Walmart and picked up a cheap rod and reel combo. I went out a few days ago with it to' the Saline River at a local park (really more of a boat launch than a park) and got in a few casts before the reel fell apart, a piece f it going into the river too deep for me to retrieve without taking a bath. Needless to say I did  not catch a fish. A few days later, I finally brought it back to Walmart and got a refund. Then I picked up another one, the same thing. I also wound up getting some basic tackle to add to Brendan's tackle box and had previously bought some lures for him at Bass Pro Shop,

We had planned on renting a canoe this weekend in Brenton to fish the Saline River but the one place there is only open Saturday and Sundays and was booked on Saturday for an annual canoe race. On Sunday, it being Mothers' Day, they were closed. So yesterday, we headed out west to Glenwood, AR and Caddo River Camping & Canoe Rental. We paid for a canoe and were soon being transported about 7 or 8 miles upstream to a launch site.

We picked our canoe and were soon on the river fishing very close to from where we launched. The river was teeming with fish at that point. We saw bass (either largemouth and or smallmouth and rock bass), suckers, alligator gar, other fish that resembled trout  (but we were told there are no trout in the Caddo River), sunfish & probably crappie and carp. We did not catch and after about 15 or 20 minutes of fishing we realized out canoe was leaking and headed back to the launch site to pick up another. The guy working for the canoe outfit was pretty surprised to see how much water we had taken on. We figured that if we spent another 5 60 6 hors on the water we would have sunk and that might have been a bad thing.

Once we got the new boat, we fished there a bit more but did not hook anything. The canoe guy had told us that spot has some of the wariest fish on the river as it is overfished (not as in too many taken to too many fishermen trying to catch them). So we moved on. We paddled on over some small rapids and fished soon again. We continued that for the next 5 or 5 1/2 hours.

The water was crystal clear in may places and we saw a lot of fish but never any as abundant next to where we had launched. Something tells me we should have fished them some more and tried a larger variety of lures or bait. We had meal worms, superworms, red wrigglers and night crawlers for live boat. We also had catfish bait pellets, and a few different trout baits (like salmon eggs). Brendan also had a good selection of lures.

Brendan caught one sunfish - the first fish of the day - on glitter strewn Power Bait. Then it was quite the while before we caught another, or should I say until I caught one. That one fish was it for Brendan, for fish anyway. He did catch a craw dad and a baby turtle with a net. At one stop, he got out on a gravel bank to stretch. He asked if I wanted some minnows for bait and grabbed out net. I spotted a craw dad and he netted it. Used it for bait at that spot but to no avail,


 As I was hooking up the crawdad, he scooped something else up and was beaming with satisfaction as he walked over to me and showed me a baby turtle. That was, I think the best catch of the day. As with all the fish we caught, we released the turtle in the same spot where he caught it. I wanted to keep it but Brendan wanted to let it go, so off it swam.

Shortly afterward, I changed over to using night crawlers. That was the ticket for me. I caught two sunfish, a smallmouth bass and what I think was a White Crappie. I have never know crappies to go for night crawlers but that is what the fish looked like. All went back into the water. I might have kept the crappie and the bass had they been bigger, the crappies was about 8" long and the bass was maybe an inch or two bit larger.

After that we fished some more but had to get paddling. We had only until 6PM to get back to base and had been fishing for a couple of hours and maybe went about 2 miles at most. So it was back to paddling. Of course we stopped now and again to fish. At one spot Brendan went for a swim. At another, he waded up to his waist to fish. As I said though, there were o more fish for him and I maxed out at the four I already mentioned. We stayed pretty dry for the whole trip, that is until maybe a couple hundred yards from base. There we hit some white water that cam up over the prow and soaked  most of me. I was smart enough to have brought a change of clothes in the car so I was dry again soon enough. Brendan had worn a swimsuit and despite using at least three applications of a 50 SPF  sunscreen, he got a very red and very sore set of canoe knees.

All in all we had a good time regardless of the pretty excruciating pain I had in my still aching tailbone (from a fall down the stairs in late January). Sit on a life jacket helped with that some but I will not be canoeing again in the foreseeable future until it heals completely.  My hips and back were also pretty bad and my shoulders and neck got quite sore not being used to all the paddling. Even Brendan, who is no stranger to physical labor, had aching joints and muscles both during and after the trip. I am certain he will be canoeing again and hopefully catching more fish the next time.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Gun Show - How Could I Have Forgotten?

So, I wrote the most recent previous post about what Brendan and I have done together son far here in AR and I said it had not amounted to much. Thing is I forgot to mention one thing we did last weekend - we went to a gun show in Hot Springs, AR (the boyhood home of Bill Clinton - or so the signs said). Since, in that last post, I wrote about how AR is not all that different than NY I do not know how I forgot to mention the show both because of how different it was in maybe two ways and how alike it was to NY gun shows in other ways.

First of all the differences:

1) They had a good number of so called assault weapons on display, ones that are forbidden in NY'istan, such as semi-auto AKs and ARs. Of course, you don't see that stuff in NYbecause of the NY SAFE Act and the tyrant of a governor there.

2) They had full auto guns for sale (some were real assault rifles).

3) They had suppressors for sale.
 

4) The place was just about empty of attendees and we got there around an hour after the door opened. I met the promoter and he told me since it was a Sunday, it would be their slow day and it had had a lot of attendees on Saturday. Maybe that is a Bible Belt thing but in NY the heathens, right along with the church goers, would have packed the place on Sunday too. In NY, any gun show I have been to within the last 10 to 15 years has packed in the customers like sardines in a can or worse yet like Japanese commuters on a train in the peak of rush hour.

Now the similarities:

1) Cost to get into the show - $10, the same as many NY shows.

2) Things for sale that should not be allowed for sale at guns shows, like non-firearms or ammo related items such as: jerky, jewelry, toys and even teddy bears and a whole table of scented lights and candles.

3) Prices on both guns and ammo were, for the most part outrageous just like in NY. In fact, I think they were probably higher than what you would have seen in a NY gun show for the most part. One perfect example was a Remington Model 141 in 35 Remington. It had an asking price of $750 and that regardless of the fact that there was extensive pitting on the metal that had obviously been reblued right over the pitting. The wood was fairly dinged and I think refinished as well as was the metal. I picked up one of these rifles in NY (at an auction) for $350 or was it $375. The metal on mine was in much better condition with no pitting at all and about 75 to 80% finish remaining and the stock had what looks like a factory repair (or one done by a very skilled woodworker). Also, the forestock may have a hairline crack, I'll have to look better with a magnifier to see if it is a crack or grain. It is a shooter and a good one from the 7 or 8 shots I fired through it while here in AR. Yes, I got it at the Hessney Auction on the first day of this road trip and it has been with me, so to speak, since then.

4) Some of the dealers were typical gun dealer gurus and others were very nice. Nicest guys I met were the promoter and another guy who was selling knives (and I think sharpening service).

I did not buy a thing. Meant to get a metal "Nuthouse" sign showing a family of three deranged squirrels and wanted to get a few confederate flags but wound up forgetting about them when it was time to leave. Brendan picked up some patches and other trinkets to send to friends back in NY and also gave me a couple. The guns and ammo were, as I said, just way to expensive to even consider buying. Regardless, it was fun as has been just about any gun show I ever have attended.
 
All the best,
GB

Arkansas - It Sure Ain't NY...

...but then again it is not all that different. Traffic sucks proportionately and yes there are plenty of out and out arsehats driving down here. Prices on many things are just about if not actually the same (except for a buy I just found tonight on Franziskaner Hefe Weizen Bier). People are nicer somewhat but there are obnoxious arsehats here just like anywhere, simply not as many per square inch as in Nuevo Yorkistan. One thing that seems lacking although I am told that they are everywhere is Mexican illegal aliens. I have seen maybe two so far but have not heard a single word of Spanish being spoken since  arrived here, nor any language excepting English (how nice).

Have not done a whole hell of a lot since I got here except hanging out with my son. We did go on a bit of a pub crawl on Sunday with Brendan's friend Walter and his mom and dad who were also visiting from NY. That was fun, they have some nice brew pubs with some excellent IPAs in Little Rock.

It is the damnedest thing, in Arkansas you can buy beer and booze in a bar or restaurant on Sunday but not in a store to take home. I guess going to hang out in dens of iniquity is A-Okay on the Lord's day in AR but just do not try to buy booze at a liquor store cause that might be a bad thing somehow. So, I bought an extra 6-pack of cider on Saturday night because I have had enough experience inside the bible belt to have known enough to ask at the supermarket if they could sell beer on Sunday and they said no. Regardless, I had a case of Hofbräu München hefe weizen bier with me from NY along with a 6 pack of McKenzies seasonal cider for Brendan, so with that extra 6-pack of cider I picked up at the supermarket we had plenty.

I stopped by Bass Pro Shop to pick up a fishing license and a box of 35 REM ammo. Went to Gander Mountain yesterday expecting to get a deal on it but they did not have it. They did have their going out of business sale ongoing but to tell the truth I foind most of their prices above their competitors even with the offered discount figured into the mix. Maybe more on them in a later post about the BS I went through trying to cancel an order I had placed for a scope while in West Palm Beach last week. With prices like theirs and customer service like I experienced, they need not wonder why they failed and were bought out is all I will say for now.

Tomorrow, while Brendan is working, I think I will head out to the post office to send some mothers' day cards by priority mail (from both he and I), and then after getting anything else done that needs be done, I am going fishing. Funny, the only other thing I can think of now that needs be done is making a reservation for  canoe for this coming Sunday or Monday so Brendan and I can go fishing on a local river on one of his days off.

We have wanted to go shooting but there is a lack of public indoor and outdoor ranges in the area around Benton. The one indoor range I found, that is open to the public, that allows rifle as well as pistol only allows rifles on Thursday and Friday - go figure - and that is in North Little Rock. I think there re less ranges in close vicinity to Brendan's place than there are to my home in NY and that my friends seems quite odd considering how pro-gun they are in AR and how anti-gun most folks are in NY. Most ranges here are accessible only through private membership and there are not many of them. There is a National Forest west of here that offers several free ranges and we may go to one of those (probably more like sand pits than rifle ranges but who cares).

Other than that, I went grocery shopping a couple of times and cooked fresh dinner for us twice. Used a Crock-Pot slow cooker for both means and I must say both came out excellent (and Brendan said so too). One was a rack of lamb in a sort of stew and the next was a beef stew both with a slight to medium flare of peppery heat in a beer or cider base. Delicious.

Wish me luck in  my fishing expedition tomorrow.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Road Trip So Far

My first day was only a 5.5 hour drive to Geneva, NY. I just felt compelled to attend the Hessney rod & gun auctuon last Saturday. So I drove up on Friday for the auction preview. After the preview, I checked into my motel and then headed to the Hotel Echange bar for dinner and a couple drinks. I spent most of the day on Saturday at the auction. I also spent most of the money for my trip there too plus cashed in 20 silver eagles to help pay for the guns, ammo and knife that I bought. Picked up a CZ 527 Thumbhole Varmint rifle in 223 REM and a Remington 141 Gamemaster in 35 REM.

I headed to West Palm Beach, FL as soon as I exited the auction house parking lot at 330 Saturday afternoon. I stopped at my storage locker in PA and picked up about 30 so called high capacity AR & AK mags (that I had stored there before the NY SAFE Act kicked in) to bring them to Brendan in AR. Only made a couple of other very quick stops for gas and in Winchester, VA at my motel at 1130OM.

Next day, I left the motel at about 1030AM. Late start but the day before had wiped me out getting up at 510AM and not hitting the hay until about 200 AM. What can I say, found a decent open bar in Winchester. On Sunday I planned to stop over in southern SC and visit Palmetto State Armory on Monday morning and then continue. Got a text in Sunday from a friend who had delayed vacation by a day just to see me on Monday so I kept driving until I got to Brunswick, GA. So, on Sunday, I drove about 685 miles with a stop for gas and one to eat. The stop to eat was breakfast in Elkin, NC. It was in the afternoon and was a long one, at least 2 1/2 hours of a 20 oz ribeye and two IPAs.

Departed Brunswick at about 945 AM on Monday.Got to WPB at at about 345 in the afternoon. Oh my achin tailbone was happy to be there at last. Other than visiting my uncle, I have not done a heck of a whole lot while here.hope to get some fishing in before I leave.

All the best,
GB