There I was, finally doing some needed cleanup in my apartment today and I was almost happily pushing furniture out of the way to vacuum the floors. That was almost happy untiI I realized that the vacuum was blowing around the dog hair, human hair, lint, dust bunnies and whatever else was on the floor instead of sucking it up. So, I took off the roller brushes, cleaned them and started again. Still the problem persisted; so, I took off the main hose and the tube that it is attached too and took a look - all clear. Then a look down the extension of the tube, that is permanently attached to the body of the vacuum cleaner revealed what looked like a blockage. It was a pain in the neck getting it out. I tried pushing it out with some long skinny things to no avail; then I tried a cleaning rod with a shotgun bore brush attached to pull it out - also no go. Then another try with the cleaning rod this time attached to a 38 caliber bore brush which gave it enough room to slide past the side of the blockage. It all came out fairly easily over the course of fives or six twirling swipes. First I got a small piece of paper towel, then a few more larger pieces with dog hair & and dust, then what amounted to what could have been a full toupee's worth of hair for a bald guy but made up of dog hair, human hair, lint, dust bunnies and other filth. Damn, it was packed in there, in all it was about a time and a half larger than my fist. Now though, the vacuum, a 5 year old Shark brand, works just fine again.
I just mentioned the Beretta Serial Number Lookup in my blog-post immediately prior to this one but figured it important enough to allow for a separate post about it. Beretta now has, since at least June 2023, a serial number lookup feature on their website. it is located at this link:
That is a very good thing for Beretta owners; at least for certain of their Berettas. I said that last because the Beretta serial
number lookup feature is good for pistols imported to or made in
the USA and only after 1988. Here is what Beretta noted about it when I ran the number on an older gun made in Italy:
"Firearm Info
Your Serial Was Not Found, What Does That Mean?"
Our Serial Number Database is comprised of serial numbers imported or manufactured in the United States by Beretta from 1988 forward.
Prior to Beretta USA, some Italian manufactured guns were imported by other lines of distribution.
Please call 1-800-BERETTA for additional assistance."
I wish it was for all their guns no matter where made or when but it is still a help for those with guns that fit the criteria. I hope that is as helpful for fellow Beretta owners as it already has been for me.
Well, another month, another Saturday in that month and another Hessney.com firearms auction or as they now call them another Sportsman Auction this one was actually a Military & Sportsman Auction. Yes, of course, as is not always but usually is the case, I bought some guns.
Today's latest acquisitions (not in hand yet but I had the high bids and eagerly await delivery) are the following:
A Colt Model 1903 Hammerless in .32 Auto; this was made in 1907 as per the Colt website's serial number lookup feature. It will become the oldest firearm that I currently own. As per the folks at the auction house, of whom I inquire about almost all the firearms I bid on through them, this one is in 90% condition and is functioning properly.
I have a bit of a liking for 32 Autos, this will be the third in my current collection; although, I have had others before these. The other two currently are a Beretta Tomcat and an Ortgies pistol. I should point out that the Colt 1903 Hammerless was used by one of my favorite actors in at least a few to several films and I was willing to bid quite a bit more on this one because of that but got it at lower bid than I expected and that was a nice plus or should I say a nice minus. Back to the actor, that would be Humphrey Bogart who was in some of the best films noir ever. he surprisingly only was awarded an Oscar for two of his films and was nominated for another. He received one for Casablanca an excellent film noir but not his best which I think was The Maltese Falcon (he was robbed not getting and Oscar for that) and one for what was a comedic adventure film - The African Queen - one of his best movies and showed his wonderful adaptiveness to be able to play in a comedy). He was also nominated for his role in The Caine Mutiny another excellent film and wonderful bit pf character acting. He used this model Colt in Casablanca, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, and The Desperate Hours(more at the source). Many other actors and some actresses (what they were called back then and what I prefer) such a Lizabeth Scott, who used one in Dead Reckoning, used this same pistol in similar films noir back then in the 30s & 40s. In fact Colt 1903 Hammerless pistols have been used in films from 1918 all the way up to the current (as I write this) year 2024 (more at the source). They have also been used in television from at least 1961 through 2024, in video games and Anime (go figure).
I had the high bid on one other pistol from today's auction, I stopped bidding on the guns after that as I need to ease off a bit on how much I spend at auctions being they are usually monthly from this auction house and they have been putting a wider and wider hole in my pocket book out of which my gelt keeps flowing. That second high bid was for a Beretta U22 NEOS with a 7.5" barrel. It seems that the 7.5" barrel models are somewhat less frequently seen than are those with 6" & 4.5" barrels. I base that on me doing some checking to see if I could nail down the prices that they sold for on GunBroker.com but the 7.5" model did not show up as being sold even once through GunBroker over the course of the last year; although, those with shorter barrels were sold frequently. The one I had the high bid on today has a nice looking set of blue grips.
Me buying another Beretta should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows anything about my pistols; I have several of them going on many. I think this one will make it an even dozen. Before doing some research, I had not realized that the NEOS were discontinued by Beretta several years or so back and are now considered legacy Berettas (more at the source). Of course, at least a few of my other Berettas would also be considered legacy models such as the 950BS, 92Sb, 87 Target, 70S in 22 LR and 70S in .380 Auto. As for this one, I checked the Beretta serial number lookup feature (had not known they had this feature until writing this post when I read about it in a forum post from this past June). Well, I found out it is a deluxe model NEOS and that it was manufactured on June 02, 2004. So it is 20 years and most of 4 months old. It does not look to have been used much and the auction info indicated it is "as new". I think this one could become a very fun gun for plinking and maybe for getting the main ingredients for a Brunswick stew and by the main ingredients I mean the traditional ones in the USA - bushy tailed rats (aka: Gray Squirrels) and or rabbits although I'd prefer squirrel for the Brunswick Stew and rabbit for Hasenpfeffer.
I have only had squirrel, I think, twice and never in a stew as best I recall; it was yummy. Rabbit in stew and otherwise as in fried, I have eaten several, if not many, times. Squirrels are easy to clean but not always so easy to find & hunt; I will have to try my luck with them this season (with this pistol) if I can find a stand of productive mast trees (in which case I may not only find lots of squirrels but turkeys, hogs and deer among other critters of the forest. Honestly, when it comes to the squirrels, I figure four would make enough stew for me and my pooch for two or maybe three meals and yes she will get some - at least the meat anyway.
That
was dinner last night - a nice boneless choice rib eye steak with two
cans of mushrooms (steak & shrooms cooked in salted butter, same
pan, with some onion flakes, sea salt, black pepper & a bit of
garlic powder - somehow I had no fresh onions, I guess due to my
essentially bachelor type lifestyle or my aging little gray cells).
Added the shrooms & onions when steak was cooked about half way,
which was medium rare edging on medium (it came out a bit overcooked for
my preference but still excellent). Both I and Skye (my mongrel) loved
it. She got a few chunks of the steak (about 1/4 of
it, I ate about 1/2 of it) after her regular dinner of dry dog food; I wiped off the onion and shrooms from her portion. I also
had a Sam's Club Caesar salad kit (romaine lettuce, shredded cheese,
croutons and dressing) and I added a bounteous amount of Ken's Greek
dressing (not their Greek vinaigrette and a good amount of feta cheese
to it.
There is about 1/4 of the steak and the same fraction of mushrooms
remaining. So, my breakfast will have an extreme likelihood of being:
steak & shrooms, three eggs, two toasted & buttered slices of
Dave's Killer Bread - 21 Whole Grains & Seeds, a large mug of very
strong unsweetened black coffee, 5 ounces of OJ mixed in with black
cherry flavored carbonated water. Skye will get about 1/3 of the
remaining steak minus the shrooms and one or two scrambled egg(s)
microwaved in a bowl. I think she likes the eggs just as much, or at
least almost as much, as the steak.
Most of the add-ons:
This one:
Ken's Greek salad dressing is the only bottled salad dressing that I have bought over the course of the last 7 years or so.
Not this one (this one sucks in my opinion):
Will be added to and toasted for Breakfast:
It was delicious. Only one drawback, and it is a painful one; I cracked and chipped a tooth on what I am guessing was a bone artifact in my boneless rib eye. Hope to see a dentist today.
I ask that question in the title because I am listening to Johnny Cash singing Ghost Riders In The Sky and it just dawned on me, several decades after first hearing it, that the old cowboy must have been on one hell of psychedelic a trip.
So what do you think it was induced by, him chomping down on a cactus as in ingesting mescaline or was it fueled by him frying up some shrooms, as in psilocybin, to add to his chili? Whichever he definitely was flying high.
Heck, now I've got a hankering for a nice thick rib eye steak (which I just pulled out of the freezer) along with some mushrooms (of course, I mean the canned variety) sauteed in butter.
I am getting pretty fed up with the absolute bullshit one has to go through to sign onto their site. The latest pain in the neck, as of my third time logging into their site today (was not required the first two times so must be brand spanking new) is that they now require an access code that they send to the site user in an email so you can sign on. They also require you to attest that you are 18 or older - wake up Gunbroker, I have an account with you - you already know how old am I (and know likewise for the rest of your users I think) and I do not live in Commiefornia - so tell the state of California and Governor Newscum to shove that requirement where the sun does not shine when it comes to U.S. citizens outside of that shithole of a state. Then there is checking off the box as to whether or not one accepts cookies or not - damn it, just put a notice on your site that signing on means you agree to that like the notification that comes up on my blog if viewed in Europe.
Yeah, I know,it is like this on most websites. The thing is - it is long past time for those affected by these ridiculous rules to stand up against them. Companies owning websites can certainly come up with better security than requiring user verification codes. State laws should NEVER affect everyone in the nation - only state residents of the state enacting the law or people visiting those states but even ridiculous laws like CA's age verification for firearms related site should be obliterated as a violation of the first amendment. The cookie thing is totally ludicrous; who that owns or users a computer does not know that cookies are used nor how to get them off of you computer with applications like CCleaner??? What do sites like GunBroker do instead of fighting these ridiculous requirements, they bow down and kiss the governments arse. No wonder we are losing our liberties & rights left and right.
Now, I admit, I will keep using GunBroker because I know of no better website on which to sell guns but mind you, I will contact GunBroker and express my disappointment with the policies of theirs that I just mentioned. Hopefully so will others - enough of us to get rid some of this absolute BS.
...but I do believe in
freedom of religion and think mocking it as Harris did is possibly a violation of
our Constitution or at the very least something done in extremely bad taste as she is a government employee and she should be upholding that right to the fullest extent. So when I saw this
meme on X, I knew I had to share it:
I encourage all U.S. Citizens, and only citizens of the USA, to carry out your responsibility as a citizen by voting in this years election. Along the same lines of being a RESPONSIBLE citizen, I strongly urge you to vote for the presidential candidate who actually shows a love for this country and who has an established and strong record of doing what is best for this country when that candidate was in political office. When you look at the facts objectively, there is a clear choice of which candidate for president would benefit this country the most and that absolutely is not the one who: cannot give a direct answer to a tough or even an easy question, not the one whose interview had to be edited to give a different answer, not the one who said she was in agreement with every policy of the current evidently demented president and that she played a pivotal part in those decisions, not the one who has been 100% for allowing illegal aliens into our country - aliens whose first act on American soil was a crime, not the one who says a violation of statutory law is not a crime with specific reference to the illegal entry of aliens after proudly having having boasted that while she was a state prosecutor in CA she prosecuted many illegal aliens for exactly that crime, not the one who wants to fast track the illegal aliens on the road to citizenship so they can vote for her party members, not the one who apparently never considered allowing in all the aliens who had legally applied to immigrate into our country and who would have been properly vetted but instead chose to allow in the illiterate scum of the earth including mental patients, criminals of the worst sort such as convicted murderers, rapists and terrorists, not the one who allowed in tons of illegal narcotics along with the illegal aliens - including record amounts of fentanyl (in amounts that could wipe out the populations of entire states), not the one who along with Biden virtually lost a reported 320,000 alien children many of whom are now likely enslaved a sex workers, not the one willing to have babies ripped part and out of a woman's womb at the moment of birth, not the one who supported legislation that wound up destroying our economy and whose economic plan for our future would only further mutilate it and turn this nation into one of the weakest on the planet.
Wake up democrats, anti-Trump Republicans, and any independents who think she has done anything making her worthy of becoming our next president other than being a so called black person (she proclaimed to the world she was Asian now all of a sudden she is black but only when it suits her - she is as black as the white half of Obama as I see her), wake up to the fact that voting for her because you think she will actually support women's rights when in fact she supports so called transgender women going into women's sports (they were male when born and still are male - no doubt about it) and they are destroying women's rights and women's sports. Wake up and take a look at her vice presidential running mate, he destroyed his state during COVID, he prances like a yahoo and lies like a drunken sailor about his so called accomplishments while he let cities in his state be burned by ANTIFA and BLM.
Wake up and realize that when she says Trump is a threat to democracy (which by the way is definitely not our form of government - we live in a Constitutional Republic and while we vote it our form of government absolutely is not a democracy) that Trump did an excellent job for our country and our people the first time around (their were no Nazi death camps, no antisemitism spewed by Trump, no crime wave, no super high gas prices, no million and millions of illegal aliens invading our economy and burdening our economy, no failing economy, no wars in the world or at least no major ones as there are now in the world as there are in Middle East and in Ukraine/Russia, no drain on our economy caused by giving hundreds of billions of dollars to other countries to fight there wars, no shortage of FEMA funds to assist our own citizens and legal resident aliens whose homes were devastate by hurricanes (all as there are now and have been under the Biden/Harris administration), no super high prices at the gas pump making everything else go up in price, and the list goes on. The truth is that the great majority of things, if not all, that Harris has said negatively about Trump's presidency, her allegations about his lack of accomplishments are evidently blatantly false. Don't vote with your emotions - vote with your intelligence.
I urge you to vote. I urge you to vote for candidate Donald Trump for president - he most certainly will do his best to make the United States of America great again for every citizen and legal resident alien just as he did before. I also urge you to vote for Republican or conservative candidates for Congress.
By the way I am not affiliated with any politically party - I am registered as an independent voter and I know which party does the much better job for this nation and had done so for decades. Vote and please vote with your brain and logic for what is best for this country.
That was, I went to cast my vote for whom I hope will be our next president. If you have to ask for whom I voted or even have to wonder just a little, then I suppose you have not read many, if any, of my blog posts.
...I only got my first gun, a pistol, when on summer vacation at my Uncle's place in Las Vegas when I was 21; bought it for a cross country drive back to home. Anyhow, as I said, my mom felt much the same about what is said in this song. Of course, that was only until I was in the Border Patrol - then she thought it was grand that I carried one & knew how to shoot one.
Damn, it took me all of my 69 years before I ever heard this Johnny Cash song (as best I recall) and I've been a fan of his since at least the age of 16 or 17! First time was tonight just minutes ago on Pandora. I loved it.
So he thinks he can shoot better than all of those who criticized how poorly he handled a shotgun, dropping shells while trying to do so, and he says he has the trophies to prove it. Trophies don't mean squat especially in this world of participation trophies; so, I challenge that windbag politician to a duel of sorts to see who shoots better - him or one of his critics, that critic being me. If I win - he apologizes to "all 2nd amendment loving Americans" and admits he sucks at shooting or he can opt to drop out of the race for vice president. If he wins, I will buy him a new shotgun valued at up to $2,000.00 or I can opt to vote for Harris and him (too late for that optio now, I voted early on October 22).
Let's do this; let's each use all stock guns (no modifications at all, just as right out of the box): to shoot slow fire 25 rounds of 9mm pistol at 15 yards, slow fire 25 rounds of 38 caliber revolver at 15 yards, slow fire 20 rounds of 5.56X45mm rifle at 50 yards iron sights (or similar); then let's shoot 10 rounds of defensive 12 gauge shotgun, smooth bore barrel, with open iron rifle sights using rifled slugs at 25 yards (I'll be using a Remington 870 ypu can use the same or a similar pump gun) and 10 rounds of 12 gauge trap using your choice of shotgun for him (like the one you could not load properly) and I'll use a Remington 870. We can also shoot a 9mm pistol bowling pin match - all pins off the table first wins that part. I have only shot a bowling pin once before but somehow I won (sorry no trophy but maybe a video). You must load all of your weapons or weapon's magazines by yourself. We both use the same exact types of ammo (all commercial name bran stock no hand-loads). Eyes & ears required. All trap thrown by the same throwers (you shoot five shots from one thrower, I from another, then we switch positions and we each change throwers to the one just used by the other shooter). All sections of the match, except trap, using standard Law Enforcement type stationary targets, like one of these B27E targets:
I may suck big-time at trap and you might win in that round of fire but as it stands Mr. Walz - I am willing to bet (and in fact just did offer up my bet to you) that you probably are not about to beat me overall in this competition. Of course, you claimed you have trophies to prove you are a better shooter than your critics and you also previously claimed you had combat experience with weapons or at least carried them in combat; so, you Mr. Walz with all those trophies and claimed combat experience must be confident enough to take my bet and you should be able to beat me at all the rest besides just trap - don't ya think! For just once, I'd like to see a career politician actually support what he or she says about himself or herself by actually proving it.
In the infamous words of Ralph Kramden, all I can say to you proving that is:
Just substitute Mr. Walz for the name Alice and Glenn for the name Ralph in the rest of the dialogue in the video.
Lets go Mr. Walz, right to the range, make it a campaign issue. Have your crew of liberal lackeys contact me via my contact link on this blog to set it up. Bring the media but make sure to include OANN & Fox News. Lets do it a week or two before election day.
One other thing, loser pays any and all range fees and for the ammo.
Oh, by the way, I have 8.5 years on you in terms of age so you should be able to beat an old timer like me hands down or are you too chicken shit to try! Just think of me as your opportunity to prove your prowess to America by beating another Bobby Riggs. Think of the votes you will get if you beat me a d you cod prove your femininity as well.
All the best
Glenn B
PS: If anyone knows anyone inside the Trump campaign, let them know I threw down the gauntlet.
Can you imagine ever leaving your parents or grandpatents in an assisted living facility to face a hurricane. Well, 100 elderly residents of one such home in or near Tampa, FL had to be rescued by emergency service folks after Milton pounded the west coast of FL. Granted some may have no family but out of 100 some surely must.
"More than 100 residents were rescued from an assisted living facility
in Tampa, according to a social media post by the Hillsborough County
Sheriff's Office.
"The sheriff’s office and Hillsborough County Fire Rescue were out with
amphibious equipment and the marine unit rescuing residents, Sheriff
Chad Chronister said in the video.
It shows deputies in nearly waist-deep water outside the facility and residents with walkers being carried away on boats." (More at the source.)
How could any facility not have evacuated them, there was ample warning! More importantly, how could any adult child or grandchild be so heartless as to leave a
parent or grandparent in that situation! The fabric of American society
has deteriorated in to a moth eaten mess.
I am bored almost to tears. Spent all day yesterday manning two 8 foot tables and it was a very very slow show day which is unusual for a Saturday especially shortly before the hunting season opener.
Sundays are almost always slower than Saturdays at gun shows and so far today is no exception. It may pick up some soon, once most church services let out. I hope so since I just paid both my auto and renter's insurance for the year; gotta get some of that outlay back into savings.
...and no I am not talking about my favorite position for sex. If you read a couple of my recent posts, you know I will soon be 69, you will also know that a rifle I sent in for warranty repair was lost in shipment by UPS. It was miraculously found by a contractor from Maryland who had been doing work in my town in Arkansas - apparently delivered to the place he was doing work on and which he thought to be a box of left over parts. Well he opened it in MD, saw it was a rifle and called the manufacturer about it, their customer service had already been searching for it for me. Thing was I wanted it back badly because the serial number ended in 69 and I bought it as an early birthday gift for myself.
Well, 69 has been lucky for me again. I have been buying scratch off lottery tickets three or four time a week and the only two I have purchased, all at the same local shop, have been numbers 6 and 9 s they have them numbered in that shop. I hit for $40 on three tickets so won a whopping $10 above what I spent on them. Then yesterday, I bought number 6 and number 9 again. I started scratching off the stuff on one of them and saw a cash bag, that meant I had hit for $100.00, then as I kept scratching, I kept seeing more cash bags, there were five in all. All in all, that one ticket was a $500 winner. Yeeha, whoopee, hip hip hooray, happy birthday to me or whatever!
Either that money will go into my bank account being that I just paid off my next year of auto and renter's insurance (ouch, it was a lot more than $500.00) or a new gun may be on order soon. Then again a thousand rounds of 5.56x45mm or 7.62x39mm ammo may be coming my way.Of course, I may decide to go on a road trip to a casino and play some poker - who knows I may win more or lose it all. Decisions, decisions.
China very recently curtailed
exports of antimony and nitrocellulose to the United States. Antimony is
extremely important to ammunition manufacture and to the manufacture of other
national defense items. As per Fox News: "The little-known metal antimony
is used in ammunition, infrared missiles, nuclear weapons and night vision
goggles, as well as batteries and photovoltaic equipment. China produced nearly
half of the world’s antimony last year." China has been cutting back
on critical elements needed for our national defense since at least last
year.
Other things that China has reduced
exportation of are:
Gallium (used to produce micro-chips, semi-conductors and other
electronics, many used in military applications). In 2022, China produced about
98% of the world's gallium. "Disruptions in the gallium market could pose
significant challenges for U.S. and allied defense industries and cost hundreds
of billions of dollars in economic losses." More at the source.
Germanium
"Meanwhile, the demand for
germanium for fiber optic
communication networks, infrared night vision systems, and polymerizationcatalysts increased dramatically.[27] These end uses represented 85% of
worldwide germanium consumption in 2000.[30] The US government even designated
germanium as a strategic and critical material, calling for a 146 ton (132 tonne)
supply in the national defense stockpile in 1987."
Graphite "In 2018, the U.S. Government included graphite in its
first-ever list of 35 minerals or “mineral material[s] that [are] essential to
the economic and national security of the United States, that [have] a supply
chain vulnerable to disruption, and that [serve] an essential function in the
manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences
for the economy or national security.”" More at the source.
Please tell me that I cannot be the
only one who sees these cutbacks to exportation of essential minerals/chemicals from
China to the USA and other western nations as an extreme national security risk
and as a potential prelude to world war. Of course, the export limitations
could all have been put in place to exert pressure on governments to allow
certain exports from western nations into China. Such things as more
limitations of exporting computer chip technology to China were recently
effected by the US. Something tells me though that if we want peace we had best
prepare for war and to do so we had best be mining or producing these things
ourselves. Just taking antimony alone into consideration, it is a critical
element in the production of national defense hardware. Remaining dependent
upon China, which undoubtedly will be our enemy in any world conflict, is truly
ridiculous and U.S. politicians had better wake up soon over the shortages of
antimony that the Chinese export restrictions will create and thus also of the
national security weaknesses those restrictions will cause. "Antimony is a
necessary material for the U.S. defense industrial base and is therefore
critical to national security. However, the United States remains reliant on
Chinese imports to meet domestic demand for antimony. “More at the source.
Of course, there will be other
predictable fallout created by the export restrictions. One of them, close to
home, will be that the cost of commercial ammunition will rise drastically as
the supply of ammunition dwindles. So, those who are second amendment
advocates, preppers, survivalists and so forth may want to consider buying ammo
now before the prices go up even higher than the much inflated current prices.
Add ton that the fact that there is a threatened strike of dock workers looming
(more at the
source); the prices may skyrocket for ammo if foreign ammo supplies
are cut off due to a strike. Of course such a strike would affect many
different types of imported goods, not just ammo. Things may be getting a lot
more expensive in the near future, the union has threatened to strike as soon
as October 1, this coming Tuesday (as I type).
I for one recently bought a good
deal of ammunition, not having to do with any of these issues but rather with
the possibility of Kamala Harris winning the upcoming election. That would not
only affect prices of all commodities, most likely making them rise, but would
probably create a buying frenzy when it comes to guns & ammunition based
upon her anti 2nd amendment ideals. Now with the export restrictions upon us
and with a dock worker strike possibly imminent, I am thinking of purchasing
even more ammunition along with firearms maintenance supplies like gun oil, gun
cleaning solvents, cleaning patches & swabs and so on. I also recently
purchased some of that but that was because I was running short of those items.
Now, I may purchase more to have them in stock should it become tougher or
nearly impossible to get them.
I will probably also be buying more
supplies for the home, especially food products that remain edible for years such
as canned goods. I will also increase my medical supplies, and other things
needed for comfortable daily living in the home such as cleaning supplies,
toiletries and others. If gold and silver were not so darned high priced now,
I'd add more bullion to my meager stocks.
It may turn out that my fears are
unjustified but I lived through 36 years of the original 45 yearlong Cold War
and I was brought up to believe it was wise to have made survival preparations
back then and I know, without a doubt in my mind, that it is prudent to do
likewise today. If it turns out I do not need the items I have stocked up on, I
can eat the food and sell the ammo and whatever else I have purchased or just
save it all for another rainy day.
In my post immediately prior to this one, I described a couple of things that made me an unhappy camper so to speak. The big one was that a Henry U.S. Border Patrol commemorative rifle, that I had shipped via UPS, back to Henry for warranty repair had not been received by Henry. A second one, both of them having been shipped to Henry on August 30th, had already been returned to me. So, two days ago, I go in touch with the UPS store where I had dropped them off, the supervisor there told me it was shown as in Texarkana, AR and said it must be at the UPS Customer Center there. I asked him to call to verify that and he refused. I asked for the phone number there, he said they would not answer if I called! I also contacted Henry and the customer service rep there, with whom I had been dealing since July, confirmed it was never received by Henry and she would inquire of UPS.
Yesterday, the Henry customer service rep, called me. She told me the rifle had been found. Here is when, how and by whom it was found:
This is one of the weirdest stories I have heard in years. The customer
service lady from Henry called me up and am I very happy? In fact, you can safely bet yes I am. She told me that a man who lives in Maryland called Henry yesterday and it just
happened to be her who answered the phone. As I said, she is the same lady I have been
dealing with all along from customer service. The man's story was this: He is a
contractor who was doing work At the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Texarkana, Texas. When
the job was done the workers took all the remaining boxes of parts and signs and
whatever else they were using that was left over, loaded it all into his truck
and he drove back to Maryland. When he got there and opened the boxes, he found the
rifle. There was no UPS shipping label on the box. All that was written on the box was
"Texarkana, TX". He was shocked to say the least when he saw the box contained the gun. When he saw the Henry box inside the outer shipping box, he called Henry
and as I said, he got the same customer service lady with whom I have been dealing and who had been searching, since the 26th, for the rifle. He explained that all to her. She sent him a UPS label so he can
send it directly to Henry.
She told him the rifle was special to me because I had essentially bought it as an early birthday present for myself and that I will soon be 69 years old. She also told him the serial number coincidentally ended in 69 and that made it special for me. He told her there was no way that he could screw over someone who had
protected our borders once he saw it was a USBP commemorative and agreed to send it to Henry. When Henry gets
it, if not lost again, they will do the minor cosmetic warranty work and then return it to me overnight express. I can only hope it does not go astray again.
I have since been in touch with the gentleman. I sent him an email thanking him. I also sent him $50.00 Amazon gift card because he did the right thing and as I told him - one good turn deserves another. I would not have lost a penny had the rifle never been found because the Henry rep told me they would send me another to replace it, but it was sure nice they found the one of the two I had purchased that I wanted to keep being the serial number's last two digits matched my soon to be age. He said he had no clue how it wound up with the other items UPS had delivered for the renovation job he was handling at Cracker barrel. Regardless of how it happened, I am very happy he was the one who found it. I am also very happy he was not stopped for speeding, or anything else in MD, because if the car had been searched - how would he have explained the rifle in such an unfriendly anti-gun state. No cop would believe him when he told them he had no idea how it wound up among the other items from the renovation in his trunk. Sometimes things that go wrong eventually just work out fine and this has been one of them so far. Let's wait and see though if I ever actually see that rifle again😐.
It truly is nice to see there are some honest people in the world who are willing to do the right thing. Had some libturd found it, it may have wound up as seized property or thrown into the Atlantic ocean. Had a thug found it, it may have wound up being used to injure or kill an innocent person. Who knows what would have happened if some leftist psycho had found it - may have used it to try to assassinate President Trump the way things have been going as of late. As it is now, Henry plans to do the small cosmetic repairs it needs and the rep said she will have it shipped by way of overnight delivery to me.
It certainly was weird (almost Twilight Zone weird) but it also most assuredly made my day, heck it made my month, the way it has worked out so far.
