The Z Is Nowhere Near The R...

 ...on any keyboard I have ever seen as far as I recall. So when a police officer allegedly ran an Arkansas tag as an Arizona tag, I figure it must be because he never paid attention in 4th or 5th grade geography class or is maybe just an ignoramus or had a terrible brain fart.

Now, I can understand a person of a bit less than, or even of, average intelligence thinking that AR stands for Arizona being a and r are its first two letters but how anyone would think AZ stands for Arkansas is beyond me. I note, in my 32 years of law enforcement experience, it was always the two letter code used for running a license plate.

So, when an officer in TX, reportedly ran an Arkansas plate as an Arizona plate, resulting in guns drawn on an innocent family, I believe that officer requires lots of basic retraining in not only geography but spelling of state abbreviations as well. The family, I think, is also owed more than a mere lame apolpgy. More at the source.

All the best,

Glenn B

It's All Ready To Go But I Seem Cursed As THE Great Procrastinator

Yes, I have said it many times before - I am THE Great Procrastinator. For instance, I have bought guns that from day one I have intended to shoot and then a year or even years later, I come to realize I have not yet shot. Right now, I have an AK-47, that I traded with my son for cash and a Argentine 1911 knockoff (officially licensed by Colt). We did the trade probably at least 3/4 of a year ago if not a year or more ago. I have not fired it yet.

 

Me procrastinating is not always the case though. For example, I picked up three new pistols this week. On Sunday, I purchased a new Glock 26 GEN3. Then on Monday or Tuesday, I picked up two new Rock Island Armory (Armscor) Full Size, Tactical A1 1911 pistols from the FFL to whom they had to be delivered; I ordered them over a week ago from Palmetto Sate Armory. I decided, at least with the Glock 26, I did not want to wait, stall, put off, delay, or in any possible way procrastinate before shooting it. So, I got everything ready for a range trip to one of the semi-local indoor ranges - all of them are on the TX side of the border, there are no indoor ranges on the AR side near where I live as far as I know. I did that two nights ago and was going to hit the range yesterday. 

Well, that plan fell flat, there was just too much crap stuff I had to get done & out of the way before going to the range - like sleeping for about 4 hours yesterday afternoon as I had very little sleep the night before. I needed the sleep and figured that's okay because I would definitely make it to the range today. Yes, you guessed it - more stuff to do was piled up today because I slept through most of yesterday afternoon. Amazingly, I got what I had to get done today finished today; how is that for not procrastinating! Among other things, I had a doctor's appointment to keep, shopping that I needed to do, gassing up the car, dog care chores, watering the potted outdoor plants (man they are suffering in the heat around here), taking care of my tortoises, cleaning chores, administrative things to get done regarding personal issues, and so on.

So, there my range bag sat & still sits. It is waiting, along with an ammo can chock full of 9mm, .380 AUTO, .44 S&W Special, 45 ACP and 22 LR, to take a trip to the range with me. I was planning on shooting a few different pistols & revolvers and wanted all I needed ready to go. Then last night, I threw in some 45 ammo thinking I'd take the two new 1911s along as well. Well as far as those 1911s go, I never got around to cleaning them. They definitely need cleaning before shooting as they have a coating of what seems a lot like a new age cosmoline (yeah, the link is to a commercial page but it gives the history and uses of it) or maybe it is the real McCoy. The 1911 pistols can wait though to be cleaned or shot; it is the Glock 26 I need to shoot. I bought it to replace my aged Glock 26 that I bought many years ago and through which I have fired lots of ammo. That older Glock 26 is my every day carry gun or should I call it what fits it better: it is my main almost every moment carry gun but it will soon be replaced by the new one, that is if all functions well.

Now, I am hopeful that I will have the time to get to the range tomorrow and that I will have gotten a good night's sleep tonight, good enough to feel up to going to the range tomorrow without taking an afternoon nap. I still have not cleaned the 45s but that is okay, they can become my main objects of procrastination after my AK-47 that I have not yet shot. As a matter of fact, I may shoot only one of them and hang onto the other unfired to maybe sell or trade or not - time & whether or not it becomes procrastination will tell on that one. Since there are times when I can be quite spur of the moment (as in spontaneous) though, who knows, I may shoot them sooner than expected. The Glock though - that is another story and I not only want to get it done but really need to shoot a few hundred rounds or so through it soon to assure it functions properly and is suitable to bet my life on should things ever get nasty.

All the best,

Glenn B

I Woke Up This Morning And Had Myself a Beer...

 ...because the future's uncertain and the end is always near. Jim Morrison was right about that. 

 

So, I actually did that just now - I had myself a good German bier shortly after waking up - but only after shedding some tears. I did it in memory of a dear friend who passed early this morning after a long battle with cancer. To paraphrase some lines from one the longest stories I have ever read - The Lord of The Rings: May his road go ever on.

 

“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say” 

 

All the best,

Glenn B

The Glock Collector - Added A New Blog To The Link List Today

 Well, truth be told the blog is not not new, it is just new to my list under the header:

TAKE A SHOT WITH THESE SHOOTIST BLOGGERS, NOT AT THEM

 

The newly added blog is The Glock Collector. Now, some of you who are more attentive than me may immediately notice that said blog seems to have died three years ago in March 2020; that is the date of the last post. I only noticed after adding it to the link list and despite there being no new posts to it in over three years, I am going to keep it on the list because there seems to be lots of good info about Glocks within its pages. For instance, I was trying to determine how to tell if a Glock has been factory refurbished or rebuilt. The Glock Collector made it straightforward and pretty simple at these two pages:

https://glockcollector.info/2019/01/11/product-number-breakdown/

https://glockcollector.info/2019/11/21/case-label-colors-what-do-they-mean/

 Now that I am aware of that info, I may stop at Hot Springs, on my journey back to Texarkana from my sons place, to pick up a Glock 26 at the Lion's Club gun show. We stopped there yesterday and I would have bought it had I sold any of the guns I had brought with me. Later, after leaving the show, I found out that dealers at gun shows often sell rebuilt/refurbished Glocks as new - that was news to me. Because of the price this particular one had on it, it would be worth it to me to go back and check on it. If not rebuilt or refurbished and if still up for sale, I may own a new Glock 26 before I get back to my apartment.

All the best,

Glenn B

Damn Shipping Costs May Be Going Up Again...

...at least if unionized workers at UPS go on strike or such is my guess. The current contract for many UPS employees expires at midnight July 31. UPS says it cannot give them more pay & benefits. The thing is, a strike will also have a potential to harm the U.S. economy. If they strike for only ten days, the estimated hit to the U.S. economy would be 7.1 billion bucks! That according to an article at CNN. More at that source.  

 

Now I am not one who puts much trust in the reporting at what I consider to be the MSM (mud slinging media) outlets like CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS and so on. Then again, my favored news outlet, Fox News does not even have a current article on the subject, at least not a very recent one that I could find on their site. So, I also checked One America News and they too had an article, albeit a much briefer one than the one at CNN, but it said much the same thing about the potential economic loss being that bad, 7  billion dollar was their figure. More at OAN. Their source appears to have been Reuters.

 

Not only would a UPS strike screw the economy but it is going to hurt an awful lot of folks businesses who depend on UPS to move parcels. It is also going to screw over those awaiting packages and larger shipments. Necessities like prescription medicines, food stuffs, baby formula, business supplies and whatever else one absolutely needs could be delayed or even ruined in the summertime heat while stalled & waiting to be delivered. 

 

If you need something that your supplier ships via UPS, you had better order it pronto and hope it can delivered before a strike deadline if indeed the do strike. Of course, the USPS, FedEx and other shippers will step up to handle some of what UPS fails to move but it is very doubtful, at least to me, that such will be very effective in handling all the shipping that UPS drops and any added load on those other shippers may delay shipments they already would have been delivering in their normal course of business.

 

A bit of good news in all of this is that UPS evidently believes it still can reach an amenable agreement with the union. As a precaution though, UPS has reportedly begun training non-union employees to take up some of the operations that would be affected by a strike according to the CNN piece. If UPS does give their employees more, guess who is going to be paying for it. Yep, that would be us and us would be their customers on the shipping and thus also on the receiving ends.

 

So, good luck to you if you need anything shipped. As for myself, I am lucky that two 1911 pistols I ordered are scheduled of delivery on Tuesday July 25, six days before the strike deadline. I shudder to think though that if they do strike and I need to order something that usually is shipped via UPS - it may wind up being shipped by FedEx. At least in my personal experience, FedEx damages packages more often than UPS. Luckily the damage usually only has been to the shipping box. My local FedEx delivery folks also rarely ring my bell or knock on my door when delivering to me but instead just leave the item on my doorstep; luckily I don't recall anything going missing (as in being stolen) when they've done that. On the other hand, UPS delivery personnel almost always knock on my door and or ring the bell, it is a rare delivery when they do not.  

 

The UPS lady who normally delivers my parcels has even called me on my cell phone on at least one or maybe two occasions when I have not been home. She did that to see if I can get home quick enough to have her wait or otherwise to check if she should just leave it or drop it off at the UPS Customer Center for me to pick up later (she is one heck of an excellent & different delivery person for any shipping company). 

 

With FedEx, I often either unexpectedly stumble across a package left on my doorstep by FedEx when I am going out or I am often alerted to the fact that they just made a delivery by my super sophisticated high tech & almost failure proof WADAS (woofing alert delivery alarm system). She alerts me not only to FedEx package deliveries but also to those made by the USPS and UPS:

 

No she is not on strike, she is just doing her favorite thing other than going absolutely ga-ga when her dog sitter/walker shows up once or twice a week. She sure loves snoozing and sure loves her sitter.

All the best,

Glenn B

Ballseye's Gun Collection About To Increase By Two

Well, I am hopeful that is about to happen because I ordered two pistols on Saturday the 15th in this year of the gun 2023. I had some problems with the distributor, Palmetto State Armory, recently and thought I'd not buy from them again. I readily admit though that when I see a price that cannot be beat on a product I know to be a good one - I take the opportunity to buy it and it does not matter if I think the retailer has screwed up before so long as the screw-up was fairly minor and had nothing to do with: shoving wokeism down the customers' throats, denying American citizens their rights - especially the right to keep & bear arms in the case of gun sales and so forth.

The retailer in question is Palmetto State Armory who gave me a $20.00 in house credit after I had ordered a new AR upper and they sent one to me that was very obviously blemished back in November of last year. When they offered a $20.00 credit they said nothing about it being an in house credit only. First off it should have been more as far as I was concerned. Secondly, I should have called American Express and had the entire charge cancelled for what I think was outright fraud. What I did was asked for a credit to my AMEX card and PSA refused. So, I stopped buying ammo, guns and parts from them for several months because I was pissed off. Being pissed off though is no excuse to be an idiot.

So, when I found out they were selling Rock Island Armory, Rock Standard Full Size Tactical 45 ACP, 5", 8 rd., Parkerized Pistols, manufacturer number: 51431for only $319.99 - I ordered two of them. My son did the same for himself, he truly is a chip off the old block, so to speak.

 

 

 

Even with shipping and an FFL fee tagged on locally, I will be paying less than I paid for the same pistol back in 2016 when I paid $379.98 shipped with a $40.00 FFL fee (I lived in NY at the time and yes the FFL fees were crazy). So back then, it worked out to a total of $419.98 plus whatever I had to pay to the county to have it added to my pistol license, either $5 or $10 as I recall. The cost this time around per pistol was $392.64 including the tax, shipping and the local FFL fee of $20.00. That is a pretty good deal although I think they have a cheaper finish now as I seem to recall my older one being blued not Parkerized; don't quote me on that because I do not have it readily accessible to check its finish. It is stashed away safe and secure elsewhere awaiting the zombie apocalypse. Anyway that is $32.34 each less than they would have cost me back in 2016 and at least $40.00 less than any others of the same pistol that I saw for sale this past Saturday (and that was before shipping, tax and FFL for those other ones I saw for sale). That seemed purdy good to me, so as I said, I ordered two. So I figured, 'Hey Ballseye, why let being pissed off allow you to miss a great deal on a great gun'! Now when it comes to Budwiper Light, well that is for me a very different story, never drank it in the first place and likely never will drink any of it and cannot stand their trying to shove woke down the customers' throats.

My former bitching issue with PSA brings me to the other thing about them, that I have read, which was some folks complaining about their orders with PSA taking what seemed like a very long time to be shipped. I ordered these four days ago and the order is still processing. That may seem longish to some but in reality, that was less than two full business days ago, so I will be patient. If not shipped by the end of the week, I will be concerned maybe they did not have as many in stock as they claimed to have. I note that today though, they are still shown in stock but at a bit of a higher price, $10 more (plus any additional tax) per pistol. Still that is a good deal, at least $30.00 less expensive than any others that I saw on Ammoseek.com, on Saturday. Oh yeah, what made the deal a bit sweeter for me was that they honored the $20.00 credit that I had essentially told them to shove where the sun does not shine back when I was upset.

Well, I would have sworn that 5 minutes or so ago they were offered at ten dollars more each but I just looked again and it shows as out of stock. So much for a great deal, deals like that disappear quickly. Damn, I just refreshed the page an it is again showing them for sale at $329.99, ready to be added to your shopping cart (yes yours, not mine - my order of two more will be enough)!

Anyway, once I get them I probably will do a review on their condition without firing them, at least at first. One is a keeper, the other I may or may not sell. I know already that the one I got previously (it was actually the 2nd one as I am about to explain) was just fine when it came to shots fired; although, the original one had to go back due to a problem and Armscor, the parent company of RIA, sent me a new one because either the slide or frame of mine was not to specs. Anyway the replacement was just fine and they got me a new one fairly quickly. There have not been any issues at all with it. So, I imagine these will be the same - good to go - and I hope so. I will shoot them, or the one I keep if I sell the other, eventually but will be in no hurry as long as I do it well before the warranty expires.  

 If you want to check the specs, go to the site at this link: https://www.armscor.com/firearms-list/m1911-a1-fs-tacrock-standard-fs-45acp-8rd. y

If you want to make a purchase, go here before they run out again: https://palmettostatearmory.com/rock-island-1911-rock-standard-fs-45-acp-pistol-51431.html

All the best, 

Glenn B

Ballseye's Musings: Would It Be Too Far Fetched To Think...

 ...that President Joe Biden will die within the next 6 months to a year of natural causes but if he does not pass away naturally, by the end a year, he will be assassinated with it made to appear as if he died of natural causes?

 

Of course that means Vice President Harris would become president. Then, I wonder, would it be likely she would be assassinated only weeks before the elections in 2024 in the hope that her assassination would be believed to have been orchestrated by the right thus giving the democrat candidate for the presidency a massive sympathy vote leading to another four years of psycho-woke lunacy running our country! Of course, I also then would wonder if it would have all been planned and carried out by whackadoo leftists maybe of the likes of Schumer, Pelosi' (she is not totally out of the picture), Schif or others of their ilk? Just wondering not saying they'd actually do it but maybe...

 

Can you see something that crazy happening or is it just me? Now I am not saying I want to see it happen (nor anything even remotely close to it). I also am not advocating for anyone to commit acts of criminal violence. What I am saying though is I can see it as being possible. I believe stuff like that could very well happen with the way the left has been acting for the past few years. I can see it happening because I do not think it any crazier than those things leftists have devolved to doing. I mean let's face facts: Many, many, many folks on the left are accepting of things just as or even crazier than those I just mentioned as mere possibilities. Really, is anything I mentioned above crazier than accepting female-impersonators as real women/female, as crazy male-impersonators being accepted as real men/male, as crazy as many of those on the left who believe a male-impersonator (or even a real biological male) can impregnate a female-impersonator and that the female impersonator would then be able to give birth to a child. That child would or at least might then become a child who would, while still a child too young to fully understand future ramifications, be given hormones and possibly surgery to do a so called gender change. 

 

Let's face it, those on the left who hold those or similar beliefs are at least very weird, if not truly psychotic, or st least I think so. I believe their is lots more evidence for my hypothesis about their mental health being deranged and that is pretty much for the whole lot of them to one extent or another.

 

Just some musings as I sit at my laptop desk ripping the 82 or so CDs I have onto the laptop's hard-drive. I probably used to have well over 200 music CDs but when I returned from a work detail - of a few months in Phoenix, AZ back in 2010 - I found that most of my collection had vanished. My wife denied tossing them in the trash when I asked her what happened to them but a very reliable source told me it was exactly what she had done. What remained were the ones I had brought to AZ with me for that detail, probably about 25 or 30 of them as best I recall. I replaced quite a few but never anywhere near all of them as CDs became harder and harder to find, at least those of good quality. I just put the last one in the optical drive: 'Janis Joplin 18 Essential Songs'. Think I will listen to it and stop wondering about just how crazy the left will get before the 2024 elections. Even if I do not listen to all of the songs, I will most assuredly listen to Summertime - an example of one of her best vocal efforts - or so I think.

All the best,

Glenn B

A Few Versions Of The Same Music Played By...

 ...the same artist - Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. These are, by my estimation some of the most excellent versions of one of the most excellent pieces of music ever - Bouree (original by Johann Sebastian Bach). Enjoy listening:

 

  

  

  

 

All the best, 

Glenn B

How Bud Light...

 ...ever became the best selling beer in the United States of America is absolutely beyond my comprehension because to me it is what I imagine chilled piss flavored water in a can would taste like. Yes, that is my opinion of Budlight and many other so called light beers - chilled piss flavored water in a can. In fact, I do not understand how any light beer could ever become the number one selling beer anywhere - they lack everything I think a good bier or ale should have such as a desirable and truly enjoyable tasty flavor, a flavor that is not only tasty but is hardy as well, and of course has at least a somewhat higher alcohol content.

Now they are reporting that it has fallen below the top ten beers in America to number 14; more at the source. To me this is quite understandable and I think it is not solely related to Bud Light deciding to praise an apparent female impersonator's first year of so called girlhood! So what else could be the cause for the continued downward plunge of the king of beers - well let's face it there are probably scores and scores of better tasting beers that folks have been discovering since they dropped Bud Light due to its, in my estimation, perverted advertising campaign instead of celebrating something like normality and or morality as opposed to celebrating the scientifically impossible perversion of nature as I think is gender change.

 

Let's face it folks, have you ever seen a huge corporation like Anheuser-Busch favor normality as a regular thing in their advertising? Now how could they have done that - well not by one of their latest commercials, as I understand it, showing a group of grunting supposed real men drinking it. Is that what they think of the customer base that they lost - that they are akin to what seems like a group of Neanderthal like grunting blockheads? Something a bit better might have been them running an ad campaign that celebrated heterosexuality, marriage, loving & normal parenthood (in other words not praising parents who want to lop off their children's' sexual organs), unity, patriotism, love of the United States of America, and maybe some commercials that praised hard honest work that granted promotions based upon skill as opposed to liberal ideals of equity for those who don't deserve it.

 

Let's face it, the mentality shown in Bud Light ads as of late should be obliterated - at least that is what I think about it. Had they just shown a gay guy or three enjoying it, that probably would have ruffled very few feathers but to have celebrated a year of so called girlhood for what is apparently is a biological male pretending to be a female - in the midst of all this insanity in which the left is willing to push for gender identity changes of our children - well they had to have known, had they used any common sense, that their ad campaign was going to be a big mistake. Therefor, it is pretty, pretty certain - at least as I see it - that those who run Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch are not in touch with their customer base nor are they in touch with reality of how the majority of folks in this country think nor are they in touch with the values of most Americans. Yet, they evidently keep screwing up as if unable to admit or even see the error of their ways. 

 

Thus it would not surprise me if they don't fall further and if they will never be able to make a comeback to regain their throne at the top even if they drastically improved the taste of their product; and that I believe would serve them right. In fact, it would come as no surprise at all to me if they went out of business altogether before a year or two passes. They are, in my opinion, woke plain and simple but what they did not get is that woke is a fad for leftist loons. Instead of going woke - maybe they just should have woken up.

 

All the best,

Glenn B