How Many Days Are Left For Christmas Shopping Or Will It Be How Many Minutes Until The Stores Close

 As I type this, there are 26 days, 6 hours and 16 minutes and some seconds until Christmas and guess what! I have almost all of my Christmas shopping over and done with. I only need to think of what to get for my grandson and then shop for it. I'll probably do that online but since my daughter told me "who knows haha" in a text she sent to me, that may take a while.

 

Now, if you read that carefully, you may have noticed I said "I only need to think of what to get for my grandson". As usual I plan to keep on shopping even after I pick out and purchase my grandson's presents. It's not that I need shop for more gifts for family or anyone else but that I plan to buy at least a couple more things for some folks. As usual, I will keep a long standing tradition of mine going as have done ever since I was a youngster still in Catholic grammar school under the tutelage of those vicious tyrannical attack penguins known as nuns of the Dominican order. At first, I'd go Christmas shopping with my brother, 5 years my elder. Then once I hit 9 or 10 years of age, I was allowed to cross the local side streets and by 11 or 12 was allowed to cross busier avenues and off I went on my own to shop on Christmas eve. As best I can recall, I have done that each and every year since then with the possible exception of Christmas 2011, a bit more than a month or so after my final cancer treatment. Those treatments were brutally debilitating so maybe I did not do it that year,  then again maybe I did. If I had to bet on whether I did or not, I'd figure it at least 60/40 in favor of me having done so and I'd bet that I did.

 

The bottom line is once again, I will go shopping on Christmas Eve, at least barring any unforeseen circumstances that prevent me from doing so and any of them would have to be virtually insurmountable. I absolutely love the madness of shopping then, and let me assure you if you are going shopping in NYC on Christmas Eve, as I did for many, many years way back in my youth, the stores are madhouses, each and every one. Yet, I love it, its like a mini adventure.  

 

Where I live now, I have not experienced that hyper type shopping. It is the type shopping that gives you a super adrenaline rush at the precise gotta grab now moment within a millisecond of seeing IT before THEY beat you to it. The they being 7 or 8 lunatic fringe hardcore shoppers, almost always lunatic married women, who saw the it, the same wanted by all item as you did, at the same exact moment as you saw it, when some 300 pound walrus of a half drunken slob husband moved something on the countertop, shelf or clothes rack and exposed exactly what you and all those psycho housewives had been searching for. 

 

If you have never experienced the moment that you leap and dive into the middle of the discount counter at the same time as the claws of those zombie-like women are grabbing for the same thing - you have no idea of what a true super charged adrenaline rush does to you. The thing is, if you grabbed it first - good for you - but if you missed it and one of those wacko housewives got it first, then search begins anew. As luck or lack of luck will have it - you go through that process again and again in each store you visit, sometimes several times in the same store before you get what you wanted to buy or wind up so burnout from all those repeated adrenaline rushes with only a few minutes before the store closes that you settle for getting something, anything as that simply becomes, by lack of luck, the gift you need. 

 

While they may not have planned it that way, I think the Rolling Stones may have sung a song about shopping on Christmas Eve, or at least some of the lines fit right in with shopping on Christmas Eve and perfectly describe the madness you go through trying to find that perfect last minute gift. It gets even crazier when you hear the voice coming out over the loudspeaker saying: Attention Christmas shoppers, the store closes in 5 minutes, please bring your items to the cashier right now and you haven't found it yet! Just grab something, anything, miraculously more times than night you will get exactly what you need; and remember, those workers want to spend Christmas Eve at home as much as you do. 

 

Yes, shopping on Christmas Eve in that madhouse rush, at the last minute, is an amazing adventure indeed; or at least it can be depending on whether or not you got what you wanted or settled on something you needed. I can't wait, the anticipation is killing me, it's almost as bad as the actual shopping.

 

 

 The video, according to the info at YouTube, is from a live recording in London back in 1968 when I was thirteen and was doing my Christmas Eve shopping in the early years. Hell, Mick Jagger and the Stones were all in their younger years as well. I wonder if they ever shopped on Christmas Eve.

 

All the best,

Glenn B 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all. This is truly a holiday that can be celebrated by all. A time to be thankful for what we have in our lives and to share it with others. Things like your faith, lack of faith, nationality, race, political stance are of importance but today something is just as important, if not more so - that is being thankful for life and what is your lot in it. Who or what you thank is up to you, that you are thankful is the key.

This is probably my second favorite holiday and is right behind my favorite which is Groundhog Day.

 

All the best,

Glenn B 

Rootin-Tootin, I Went Shootin

 I went to the range on Sunday, last week, or was it the week before. Cannot remember which but wrote this up shortly thereafter and then forgot to post it. Procrastinating once again as usual. Yet, as if to confuse my self image as THE Great Procrastinator, I went to the range again the day after as well! I sighted in the scope on my Savage Axis at an indoor range. Granted only at 30 yards but I can figure out how to set it to 100 yards when afield. Thing is, any shots I take are likely to be 50 yds. or less so having it okay at 30 yards is not far off. No bait, no tree or tripod stand, just still hunting or a ground stand.

The order of shots by the numbers was 3, 5, 4 and 1. I figured 1 was good enough and stopped twiddling with the scope.

Then I shot my Ruger Redhawk at 15 & 25 yds., 6 rds. at each distance each.

The rds circled were at 25 yds. I was happy even with the flyer in the 7 ring. I did not get the moniker of Ballseye for nothing!such a nice memory for me, not for the other guy.

Fired my Beretta 92FS as well - 6 shots each at 25 & 15 yds, then 15 rds. at 10 yds.

I will likely shoot a 92FS for my upcoming annual LEOSA qualification. I shoot better with my five 92 series Beretta pistols than any other handgun. Heck, I shot better with one on this range trip than I did with the rifles! 

 Last was my Marlin 336, iron sights at 30 yards.

No clue as to why that image reversed when the others did not. Figured group that was okay and ran out my paid for hour at that point. Maybe not great but none too shabby for an old man's blurry vision is how I see it. Then again shooting the 92FS was sweet and the 44 MAG was a blast.

 All the best,

Glenn B 

The Latest Boomers...

 ...that I have added to to my arsenal collection of firearms are three revolvers. They are all blued steel, two with wood grips (real man's guns) and one with plastic grips. I got them from Hessney.com, my favorite auction house. It is always a bit of a gamble when bidding for any items in an online auction, especially when the terms state the items are "as is - where is". Yet, there have only been a very few times, as compared to the total number I have gotten from them, when I have been sorely disappointed with the guns I have purchased from Hessney.

 

This time around the three I had the high bids on were: 

 

Charter Arms "Under Cover" .38 Spl. D.A. Revolver, with 2" barrel, and I must say it looks better when in my hands than it did in the auction photos. In the pictures, it appears that the bluing on the cylinder is faded as compared to the rest of the piece. The truth is, that must have had to do with the lighting when they took the photograph because it just is not so when viewed directly. It is a really nice revolver and I got it for a decent price considering that is looks "as new".

 

 

 

 

There is very little noticeable wear on this one and it seems to function properly; although I have not yet taken it to the range. I am hoping to get in a range trip with all three of the latest acquisitions later this week. Yes, I know, I am THE great Procrastinator but lately I have been going out shooting more frequently; so, I may actually get it done this week. I was hoping to get away with paying only $150.00 plus the buyer's premium of 13% but was bid up by someone to $200 plus the premium. Not a bad price for this one in its current condition. I was especially attracted to this revolver because the first revolver I ever owned was the exact same model back in the early 1980's, when I was in the Border Patrol. It made for a nice sized pocket back-up gun; shame on me as back-up guns were verboten but it certainly packed more punch than the Beretta 950BS in .25 AUTO that I also used for that purpose after I sold that Undercover model. I sold the first one because of a flaw in its construction, when doing combat reloads and ejecting the spent casings the cylinder started to ride up over the cylinder stop. That absolutely was unacceptable, for a carry piece, and I am hopeful this one will not do likewise. There is no evidence of this already having happened with this one, but then as I said, it looks 'as new' and to have been fired very few times if ever at all. This Charter Arms Undercover is now the fourth Charter Arms revolver in my collection of firearms. I also have a Pathfinder in .22 LR, an Undercover with a 3" barrel also in 38 SPL., and a Bulldog in .44 Magnum (the 'Son of Sam' gun, though mine if a different version of the same model). They were all manufactured by the original Charter Arms company.

 

Next up is a Harrington & Richardson (H&R), double action, model 929 in .22 LR with a 6" barrel. It also looks as new. I fact I do not think it was ever fired before I got it, with the possible exception of it having been fired in the factory for testing. It too, while not being fired by me yet, seems to function properly. I picked it up for $125.00; I think a very good price for it. It lists at $235.00 in 100% condition and if there is any noticeable wear on this one it is at least in 98%+ condition. One at 98% lists for $205. I base those price estimates on the Blue Book of Gun Values. Those of the same model and version, with a 6" barrel, have sold, within the last year, on GunBroker.com, for more than I paid. They include one listed with pitting selling for $171.00 and another in much poorer shape than mine selling for $310.00. Go figure as its listing said it had finish wear, freckling and was missing the crane screw that kept the cylinder in place when it was swung out; it noted that the cylinder would fall off of the revolver if swung out without that screw being in place! Hard to believe that some folks would bid that high on what used to be a very inexpensive handgun, especially when offered in that poor a shape but evidently that is exactly what one person did - there was only a single bid on it earlier this month. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am thinking the H&R 929 will prove itself to be a fun range gun and maybe even a good squirrel hunting handgun or just a fun plinker.

 

Finally, there is the Harrington & Richardson Model 999 Sportsman in .22 LR with a 6" vent rib barrel, adjustable rear sight, walnut grips, that was listed as unfired in the box. The box also included the manual and other papers. While the revolver appears to be in new condition and seems to be in working order, the box has not made it through the time since manufacture in the same condition; it is rather dingy, yet in is in decent structural shape. This model does not have a swing out cylinder but is a break-top model, I figure everyone who is into revolvers should own at least one top-break model. 

 

It is a gun that I have wanted for a few decades now and I finally coughed up the cash to get one. They used to sell for around $99.00 as best I can recall but once manufacture was ceased in 1986, the price on them went up considerably back then and has kept going up. I paid $375.00 plus the premium for this one. Of course, one also needs to add shipping and the FFL fee for each of these three to arrive at the final, in my hands, cost for each. Did I pay too much? Maybe, I did, but as I said I really wanted one and figured they are becoming scarcer and scarcer, especially in like new, unfired condition, so I jumped on it at that price. Considering that the Blu Book of Gun Values lists ones in 100% condition at over $500.00, maybe I did okay. Also, there is one currently (as I type) up for auction on GunBroker, it has a high bid of $449.44 and has seven days remaining until the auction ends. It is said to have light handling marks, evidently does not come with its original box nor with the manual and other papers. Yep, I did okay, or so I think.

 

  

 

 

 

 

It too should make an excellent range and plinking gun and a good squirrel slayer if I ever again decide to hunt bushy tailed rats. I must admit, it looks almost too nice to shoot; yet, I am 99.9% positive this will not be a safe queen and I have a good amount of .22 LR ammo, over 5K rounds, that needs at least to mostly, if not all, be used up before my time on this earth comes to an end. 

Safe shooting.

 

All the best,

Glenn B

Sometimes Trump Should Just Keep His Mouth Shut Or At Least Tone Down His Arrogance

 Let's face it, President Trump's ego is huge. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that so long as it is kept somewhat in check and used to  good effect. The thing is, the ego all too often leaks out to the world through a blabbermouth and to bad effect. There is no doubt, President Trump most definitely can be a blabbermouth. That can be okay, in fact it can be an excellent asset when the right words come out and President Trump very often,if not usually, says the right things, something most politicians are afraid to do. Then again, it can be a terrible disadvantage to just blurt out things, especially nasty and arrogant ones. Take for instance his latest verbal tirade, against one of his most loyal supporters, in which he called Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA a traitor. (More at the source.) They may have had a falling out over politics (according to her over the Epstein file) but my best guess is that she is not a traitor, neither to the president nor to the USA, not by a long shot. I tend to agree with her that him spewing out such vindictive balderdash could lead to acts of violence against her by wackos; although, I must admit, I think that would be more likely if she was a Democrat and a Democrat like Schumer had said that about her. 

 

Regardless, President Trump having said so shows his weakness and that weakness is his inability, at times, to control his mouth by keeping it shut or at least by thinking seriously about what he is about to say and then saying it without anger fueling his speech. Right now, all I think he has succeeded in is letting the world know that he has a totally disrespectful and mean-hearted attitude toward her; lest anyone forget he called Kim Jong Un, the leader of our enemy North Korea, a nice guy or something to that effect. Whether or not his attitude toward Greene is justified is of no to very little concern as to how he expressed it to the world. He could have just said he is dissatisfied with her, he no longer trusts her and given his reasons in a much calmer manner - you know, in a respectable manner if only because that would be the conservative way to handle the situation. 

 

In the end, doing it that way would have the same effect - she'd be out of his circle of allies. Now though, he has added something more to that - a potential risk to her safety and making himself look like a tyrannical prick, that being at least, in my opinion, is what others will think of him because of how he is handling the situation. It also will be further fuel for those on the left to claim he is a hateful man bent on destroying the USA and thus TDS will only be enhanced causing more of a potential risk to all conservatives.

 

Of course, the other thing he may accomplish by being so nasty is that other in hi administration will come to think that if they do not constantly kiss his arse and always agree with him, then he may treat them just the same. In effect that may well cause them to keep their ideas to themselves and all he will gain is a cadre of lackeys while potentially losing any good ideas that those in his administration may come up with. 

 

All the best,

Glenn B 

Happy Veterans' Day

 To all who served in the military armed force of the USA, I hope your holiday is a happy one. Many thanks for your service.

 

All the best,

Glenn B 

Happy Anniversary to Me

 I retired 14 years ago , after just over 32 years of federal law enforcement service, on this day in 2011. It also was, as best I recall, my last day of radiation treatments for cancer. My last day of chemo was November 8th.

 

How time has flown at least when you look back on it.

 

All the best,

Glenn B