Away From & Back Home Again

The Elantra Touring Wagon got us there and back again without problem, it is one nifty little car. Though, I must admit the trip to Hamburg took about 30 minutes longer than expected and the return trip was about 45 minutes longer than expected. Neither delay was due to the Hyundai but because of molasses like traffic in NYC on the way out due to streets being closed for some sort of street race, then bad traffic in NJ and NYC on the way back due to overall crappy traffic conditions like lanes being closed and volume. The car and its riders took it all in stride.

We got to the Field House in Hamburg late this morning and were greeted by a person at the door collecting an $8 a head admission fee. Once that was paid up, we entered the hall and all I can say is that my first impression was 'egad - it is packed'. I headed off to the far right side to start to make my way around the 200 or so tables that were there, all loaded with reptiles, amphibians, feeder rodents (including mice, rats, hamsters and guinea pigs), feeder rabbits, feeder, chickens and insects (mealworms, superworms, crickets, waxworms and fruit flies) care and natural history books, tanks and other accessories, and supplies almost all geared toward the keeping of herps.

It was difficult making my way down the first aisle because of the crowd but I managed. I did not see anything that caught my eye and that meant I had missed something. I headed over to the next aisle, looking at this and that - the Gila Monsters and beaded Lizards one vendor had for sale really caught my eye but were way above my budget at a cost of about $1,200 apiece. So I moved on and admired Thayeri, Gray Banded Kings, Gopher Snakes, Gaboon Vipers, Cobras, Cotton Mouths, Copperheads, other assorted vipers and pit-vipers, poison dart frogs, many species of turtles and tortoises, geckos, agamids, pythons, boas and others. There was certainly a wide variety of animals for sale.

What I did not see were salamanders and newts. I was a bit concerned that Mike S. had not shown up. Suddenly, just as I was thinking that, Brendan walked up and asked me if I had seen the salamanders in the first aisle. He told me that the he had seen the exact salamanders I had wanted. When I asked where he said 'in the first aisle, over there'. I had missed them while squeezing my way through the throng when navigating down that row of displays, had walked right passed them. I headed back over and there, and on one table were 3 of what I wanted - Anderson's Salamanders along with other newts and salamanders. Mike, the dealer, was absent though and a friend of his was watching the table until his return, so I waited for him. Brendan stopped by the table and took a look at the 3 Andersoni that were displayed. Once Mike S was back at his table, he and I chatted a it, and he then pulled out about another half dozen or so Andersoni for me to look over. Brendan and I gave them the once over and then Brendan moved on as I made my selection. I picked out 2 I liked, I figured I could not buy another 3 as I had recently. Those earlier 3 died when a filter in their tank malfunctioned - probably allowing rapid build-up of nitrites and nitrates and amonia - and that was all she wrote. I looked over the available ones with a keen eye and picked out the 2 that appeared to have been the best eaters, those with the most rounded bellies and biggest overall size. All of the available ones seemed to be in great shape. I paid for 2 and was walking away then made a u-turn and then asked Mike if he could do me a deal on a third. He offered a discount and it was a satisfactory deal, so I got a third. More chances of winding up with a sexual pair that way. We chatted a bit more and that was it, time to move on and go round one more time.

As I was leaving Mike's table, I ran into Brendan again, he was across the same aisle buying some Fire Belly Toads. I gave him some advice; he basically told me to get out of there. I walked on to look at other animals. Harry met up with me and we walked around a bit. I pointed out, to Harry, a dealer's table on which there were some containers that held highly venomous snakes and that were not secured in any way except to have the lid snapped on. Should one of em have been knocked off the table, well - all I can say is I would not want to be standing nearby, those lids come off way to easily. Heck, I have seen snakes pop the tops off by pushing with their snouts from inside. At least other vendors had secured such tops with tape and one had the containers with his venomous offerings inside of an acrylic display case which meant at least his were safe and secure. I commended him and when he realized why, he also said he would not want to be anywhere near some of the other vendors' tables who were selling 'hots' because of how poorly they were secured and because he figured they would easily get out if knocked over or mishandled. As for me, I don't mind seeing venomous for sale so long as they are being displayed and sold under safe and secure conditions. Some of the conditions at this show were way too risk laden.

Soon enough we were met by Brendan who showed me the nine (as in the number 9) Fire Belly Toads he had just bought. I hope he takes care of em cause I sure do not want to do it. After we admired them, or should I say after I pointed out that some looked nice while some seemed skinny and needed fattening up. Brendan thought I was being a pain in his behind, and I know I can really be too picky but in this case I was just stating fact. Brendan will learn after this time because by the time we got home it was obvious at least one was near death, probably parasitized and had to be euthanized. I will treat the others for parasites and help him make sure they get nice and healthy, or maybe I will just tell him how to do it and let him get it accomplished. I am sure he will be able to do that and then to take good care of them in the long run but it is always best to start with healthy animals in the first place. The others may or may not be ill but we will take no chances and make sure to treat them all since they share a communal tank and probably did likewise at the dealers establishment.

After a bit of jaw-boning, we decided to get back on the road and head over to Cabela's, and after that to get something to eat. Once at Cabela's we were soon split up, and I went over to view the animal displays for a bit, took a few snapshots, then went to the firearms section. I picked up some CCI ammo in .22LR standard velocity. Other than that, most things they had were just too high priced for me; I knew I could get much better deals elsewhere and held off on any other purchases except for some candy on the way out. Before leaving though, we took a look at the large aquarium displays and viewed some impressive native North American fish. They had bowfin, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, rock bass, crappies, sunfish, muskies, pike, walleye, catfish and others. It was feeding time too and we got to see some of them gobble down some nightcrawlers and mealworms. Even though lots of shiners were also dumped into the tanks they were pretty much unmolested by the larger fish which almost all seemed to be too well fed.

After that we were off to a Cracker Barrel just across the road. We all had decent sized meals that were all pretty delicious judging by how they disappeared with some haste. Just lip smacking good as usual at Cracker Barrel. The fact that we had a great waitress, I think Jan was her name, made the meal even more enjoyable. Once we were through, I went to pay the bill and also bought my darling back at home a box of Moon Pies (one of her favorites). Thanks Harry for reminding me to grab a box of them. Then we were on the road again. It took awhile to get home, too long of awhile, but we were all in good company with one another and the trip was a nice one. Hopefully, Harry, who was late to take his wife out to dinner because of the traffic we hit, did not get put in the dog house once he reached home.

All the best,
Glenn B

Road Trip (mini version) Today

Up early and soon to start getting ready for a mini one day road trip today. Brendan, myself and a friend harry F will be off to Hamburg, PA today to attend the Northwestern Berks Reptile Show. It has been several years since I have been to this one. This show is a bit of a twist from those held in NY that I attend in that they allow venomous species to be sold. So if I want to buy one, I could pick up a rattler today or maybe a nice Cobra or Puff Adder. Me being the klutz I can be, you can safely bet I will be staying on the safe side - no 'hots' are coming home to my house.

I don't think I will even consider buying any reptiles at all, although I am thinking of expanding my amphibian collection. I recently had a filter fail in on of my tanks and it caused the demise of three of my favorite aquatic salamanders. So I will most likely be looking to replace them.

Now, being the gun guy I am, and being that Brendan likes em too and that Harry is a retired LEO, I guess we will just have to make an additional stop while in Hamburg today. That will most likely mean spending some cash at Cabela's which is only a short distance from the Hamburg Fieldhouse where the herp show is to be held. I mean if we drive the 145 miles or so to the reptile show, we might as well go the extra 2 1/2 miles for Cabela's. Shouldn't we?

So the trip will be just around 300 miles total, like I said above - a mini road trip. It will be the longest trip the new Hyundai has taken so far. I am very confident will will make the trip with no car problems while getting the chance to see how comfortable the little Elantra wagon is on a longer haul.

Now, I have to go to prepare for the trip. Later for you...

All the best,
Glenn B

A Shot, a Beer and a Bogart Film...

...are all in order so don't pester me tonight. I got home from work at about 9:15 and by 9:25 I had eaten dinner, cracked open a cold one and poured myself a wee dram of Kirschwasser. I also saw that Casablanca was about to begin om TMC. It is not the best Bogart movie, though it comes close to the best - The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre but does not quite reach the heights of either. Nor is it near the best performance given by him, he was far better in The Caine Mutiny (even though he had throat cancer at the time and was gravely ill from it), The Maltese Falcon (the first teaming up of Bogart, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet), The African Queen (a stellar performance) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (possibly his best character portrayal ever) and I consider the two latter two as a toss up for his best performances. Yet Casablanca is an undisputed classic and the favorite of many and it is one of the greatest films of all time even though Ingrid Bergman thought it just a regular movie and one she hoped would never again be shown after her death. It is a movie that is just fun to watch over and over again. Even though both Bogart and Bergman tried to quit the film both saying it was unbelievable, it certainly is the best love story he was ever in. Yes, as a love story, I suppose it was even better than The African Queen which was most definitely a love story in that he gave up the ship, the African Queen, for a woman. It had, by far, the best musical score of any of his films. And besides being a great thriller and suspense film it showed the absolutely right anti-tyranny message throughout.

Maybe it was its unbelievable fantasy like quality, right in the face of the Nazi takeover of much of the world in 1942, that made it such a wonderful film - one that planted the seed of hope in all who saw it, one that reminded us of the magic of love, the power of righteousness and the unfailing ability of right to triumph over wrong even when the odds were overwhelmingly against it so as to make it hopefully believable. Or maybe it was that there were so many bit actors wo played big forceful roles - the little people made a difference in this film so why not in the world too. Watch the roles of Lorre, of Greenstreet, of Henreid, of Raines, of Veldt of Sakall, that of smaller seemigly insignifcant roles that really made an impression. Those waiters and bar tenders, waitresses and even the customers singing together in force in opposition to the Germans, the parts of all the regular people were stunning and heartwrenching. Maybe that is what made this film so great, so hopeful, so believable. Maybe both Bogart and Bergman should have believed in it just a little bit because surely enough of the rest of the world has done just that since its debut.

It is only too bad that the Victor Lorre part was so, shall I say, short lived in this one. He played a great squirmy little villain.

Now that I have written that, I am going to watch the rest of it - hopefully undisturbed even by my own penchant for blogging.

All the best,
Glenn

Hunting Site Sought

I as seeking permission to hunt on private land during the upcoming squirrel, turkey, deer and bear seasons. Anyone out there have a decent hunting spot available in NY state, southern zone, preferably Broome, Delaware or Chenango Counties? We are willing to try the Finger lakes area and some others also.

Willing to pay a reasonable fee per day/week of hunting for my son and I. We are responsible, law abiding, hunters, do not leave messes, observe your rules, are respectful of landowners and other hunters and so forth. We are serious about firearms' safety too.

I used to hunt my uncle's property near Windsor, NY but he sold out about 7 years ago and we have hunted state without much luck. I am trying to get away from the crowds on state land to a safer and quieter hunting area.

All the best,
Glenn B

"Our Own Government Has Become Our Enemy"

"Our Own Government Has Become Our Enemy" are the words Pinal County, AZ Sheriff Paul Babeu. He is supposedly upset with, angered with, disgusted with the federal government. Does he have the right, does he have just cause, should he be feeling that way. In my personal opinion, I think so. I think we all should feel likewise but again that is my own personal opinion.

When you look at the bailouts, when you look at Fannie Mae, when you look at the seemingly egregious spending of our as of yet uncollected tax dollars regardless of those already spent, when you look at the current national debt and how it is skyrocketing, when you look at all the jobs lost, at the unemployment rates going up or simply remaining the worst they have been in years, when you consider the federal government not only considering mandatory socialized medicine for all Americans for the first time in our history but forcing you to buy it while the politicians have exempted themselves, when you see the left still trying to blame it all or most of it on George W. Bush (just heard it this morning coming out of the mouth of a lib on Fox News) instead of taking any blame for anything, when you look at our foreign policy with regard to China, North Korea, Iran and others, when you see us disrespecting and almost forsaking our ally Israel, when you realize that the war in Afghanistan is going worse than it has in all the years it has been waged and our president goes on golf outings and has gala parties held at the White House with invited ultra leftists like Paul McCartney who mock and insult us as our soldiers die in foreign wars, when you hear of the suicide rate in our own military is out of control, when you consider that our government refuses to call a terrorist infiltrator an Islamic terrorist (or even call him a terrorist at all) after he killed and wounded our men and woman on an army base within our borders and praised his god while doing so, when you realize that soon a Muslim cultural center/mosque will be erected within the shadow of what was the World Trade Center, when you see our leaders saying this mosque will be erected because of freedom of religion even though to many intelligent people Islam is not a true religion but a type of state that masquerades as a religion or at least hides behind one, when you see our president bowing to the rulers of other nations and bowing very low at that, when you hear him apologizing for America all across the globe, when you see - feel - and smell the oil that has polluted our shorelines and seas and wildlife including the seafood we eat - thanks not only to an oil company that our government is still going out of its way to appease but to ineffectual activity by the government itself for months, when you speculate that within a month or two at most - BP and the federal government will say it has all been cleaned up (just in time for the elections), when you see senators and congress people more corrupt than ever despite this administrations promise to clean up the swamp, when you realize that our current government is operating more behind the scenes than any previous one in recent memory, when you observe that our government has virtually handcuffed law enforcement from stopping illegal entry of aliens into our country or throwing out those illegal aliens already here, when you read the draft memo stating that CIS should in essence do all it can do to allow illegals to remain in this country and to get legal status, when you see the federal government suing a state for what it has begged states to do in the past - specifically to assist federal law enforcement by helping enforce federal law, when you wonder what will happen if states stop enforcing federal laws as assistance to the government, when you realize that the federal courts have allowed a foreign country - one that spews illegal aliens and narcotics and probably terrorists into our country - to sue one of our states, when you see the federal government actually closinga long stretch of our border to American Citizens and legal resident aliens and looking the other way as smugglers and illegals flood across it, when you hear the ultra-left is not satisfied that our president is leftist enough even though he has done more than anyone since Franklin D. Roosevelt to socialize our economy - when you see our president trying to save his own image on The View instead of honoring the Boy Scouts of America by attending their 100th Anniversary celebration, isn't it all more than enough for you to realize that those words, "Our Own Government Has Become Our Enemy", just maybe are quite possibly true?

Heaven help us for it has become apparent at least to me that we cannot, or are unwilling to, take the necessary steps to help ourselves. What have we become, what else will we become? It is up to us, We The People, to determine the course of our nation and just as the man promised change in the last presidential election - I think we all need to demand it in the next!

All the best,
Glenn B

Calvary vs. Cavalry...

...you would think someone claiming to be an expert in firearms, among other things, would know the difference betwixt the two. Then again, you would be wrong if you though so about the expert I just saw on the show Pawn Stars. While examining a Civil War era carbine, unless my ears are a lot worse than I thought, he repeatedly said it was used by the "Calvary". I would have sworn, that at Calvary (in its most notable historical sense) the weapons of the day were swords, spears and the nails used during the Crucifixion of Christ.

Even the folks who contribute to Wikipedia know the difference. If you search for Calvary on Wikipedia you get to the page at this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvary.

If you look, you will see, the very first sentence, before they even begin to talk about Calvary, is this:

"Not to be confused with cavalry (horse or armoured troops)."

If you want to read about horse mounted soldiers, or Cavalry, go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalry

I would not normally dedicate a blog rant to such a thing but being I was blogging about Wild Bill Hickok and other shootists of his time, while I heard the expert say this, it just got to me. It got deep down inside since when I was a kid, who was adoring of the heroes in the previous post, I was often admonished for getting these two words confused and sometimes admonished hard. That was either when I talked about the Cavalry in the Old West or when we went to visit Calvary Cemetery and I just got em mixed up over and over again until I was well into my teens. So, hearing this so called expert get it wrong just ate away at the pit of my gut like a nasty cemetery worm and I just had to spit it out and let the steeds trample it.

All the best,
Glenn B

Today In History - Aces & Eights (all black)...

...were the last hand ever dealt to James Butler Hickok (a hand later to become known as "Dead Man's Hand'). On August 2, 1876, he was shot in the back of the head, while holding that hand in a game at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon No. 10 in Deadwood, Dakota Territories. Jack McCall had come into the saloon from behind Hickok (who was quite unusually sitting with his back to the door) walked up to him, drew a pistol and said "Take that" while firing into the back of Hickok's head.

While he died at the hands of a coward and paid assassin (it was later brought out in McCall's second murder trial that he had been paid by other gamblers to kill Hickok) it was Hickok's shootout, on July 21, 1865, with Davis Tutt that made him famous. It is also one of the few such gunfights, and was the very first recorded gunfight, in the old west where two assailants faced off against one another and drew from the holster as is typically seen in movies. It most assuredly was not the usual method of gunfighting in that day; the shot fired by McCall that killed Hickok was ore the norm.

During his short life, he died at 39, he was a hunter, frontiersman, shootist, army scout, army wagon master, possible northern spy against the south, womanizer, gambler and lawman. Of all the legends of the Old West, Wild Bill was one of my favorites, if not the favorite, when I was a youngster. He was truly a man among some of my favorite men such a Buffalo Bill Cody, George A. Custer, Daniel Boone, and Calamity Jane (Yep, I know she was a she but have you ever seen her in pictures? Hickok reportedly had little to no use for her, maybe because she looked like a man and bragged and lied like one too. As a prank, his friends buried her next to him and this is well recorded. It was also reported to be one of Calamity Jane's last wishes. I guess both could be true.)

For more about Wild Bill Hickok, visit the sites at these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/hickok.htm

http://www.digitaldeadwood.com/historylink/people/hickok.html

http://www.historynet.com/wild-bill-hickok-pistoleer-peace-officer-and-folk-hero.htm

All the best,
Glenn B

Speaking of Fems Fatale and Zombies and Guns and Kick Arse Movies...

...have you heard that Resident Evil: Afterlife, starring Milla Jovovich (loved her ever since The Fifth Element, which is on Sci-Fi right now and yes I am watching it) is to be released September 10, 2010. All of the other Resident Evil movies have been great, and I did not think they would be making another, so I am pretty happy about it. I am eagerly awaiting its release even though this one will be in 3D and I am not a big 3-D fan but then again, I have not seen a 3-D movie in several years and I hear they have improved a lot. This translates to I almost cannot wait to see this one.

All the best,
GB

Zombieland...

...is a place where I hope never to find myself and if I do I just hope I am heavily armed and in shape because apparently zombies can overtake you quickly (both the alcoholic beverage type and the creepy type but I am talking creepy type here and remind you do not mix alcoholic beverage type zombies with firearms - not ever). Started out, way back when in some Bob Hope movie I saw, that zombies were slow moving and tenacious with an appetite for human flesh, living human flesh. Well not all has changed but one important thing has, they are now seen as some sort of speed demons. Take for example the zombies in the 2009 movie Zombieland starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenburg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin.

Of course, this movie is a sort of sci-fi comedy but man can those zombies move fast. I don't remember in what movie that speed stuff started for the zombie crowd but it has been showing up in most of the zombie movies of recent years (as in at least 10 or 15 years) as far as those I have seen. If it ever comes to be that zombies, or something like them, become an actuality there is some good advice for you to follow in this movie as seen in the rules that Columbus has for his survival. His rules about limbering up before taking action, use of seat belts, using the restroom, getting and staying in good cardio shape all are bound to make this movie a goofball cult-classic. The prodigious use of firearms (click for the list used in the movie) will not unsettle true zombie-cult movie lovers, nor will Columbus' rule about using them, the rule called - The Double Tap. In fact it might make happy firearms buffs and zombie buffs alike (and aren't they often one and the same).

As for Tallahassee, the character portrayed by Woody H., all I can say is he is a man after my own heart with his affinity for Twinkies and firearms. neither one of the guys, it should be pointed out, seem to have done all that good with the ladies throughout their live and thus the reason that the two fems fatale in this flick are able to get over on the guys as easily and as often as they do. Of course it was nice to see, for an old timer like me, that it turns out that the hero is a.... Watch the movie to find out.

If you have not seen it, I recommend watching it if you are a zombie movie fan. Don't expect academy award winning acting in this one but do expect to see a fair to decent zombie flick, in which the zombies sure could have been better although the belch is great, with lots of guns and a good chance for you to get a couple of laughs along the way.

All the best,
Glenn B

That's Why They Call It Fishing - Not Catching

Sometimes you go fishing and you just don't catch a thing; it happens to the best of us. And that is the way it was on Saturday night for me and everyone else aboard the Captain Al out of Point lookout, NY. I did not catch a thing, I had only one sure bite and never even came close to hooking whatever stole my bait that time. What a sad excuse for a fishing trip but as the guy, from Wisconsin said, "that's why they call it fishing and not catching". Can you imagine how disappointed he must have been, in NY for the first time, gets to go out fishing and to be on the ocean for the first time in his life, and to not catch a thing. he had the right attitude because when the guy from Brooklyn said I was a nice boat ride anyway, we three all agreed. The seas were so calm as to make one almost believe we were on a lake, a calm lake at that. Early on we were treated to a gorgeous sunset. later on we got to watch fireworks in the distance near the shore. We also got to see some squid and some small elongated fish which at first I thought were eels but the guy from Brooklyn told me they were not eels though he could not think of their names. Could have been a small, maybe 10-12 inch, gar like fish.

This guy told me this, that guy told me that, man oh man I wish I was better at remembering names I have forgotten already and only last heard their names about 45 minutes ago! Oh well. There were also two long time US resident aboard who were originally from Russia, I had a nice time talking to the young lady of the pair, who was standing off my right shoulder. We also had a guy who brought along a boom box type of radio and we got to listen to the Yankee game, I only half listened every now and then, I am not much of a fan of athletic sports. All in all everyone of the other fares I spoke to was very nice and that is not always the case on a party fishing boat.

The crew was okay too although, the mates were pretty good and friendly. I was pretty disappointed though that the captain who took us out tonight (the younger of the two I have met for this boat) did not stay out longer as used to almost always be the case, on this boat, if the fishing was poor. Kind of makes me think another old time good thing has gone down the toilet. An extra half hour or hour would have been a nice and welcome touch. Even if it did not accomplish putting any fish on the deck, it would have made the customers happier knowing that they crew had given it their all to try to bring some type of fish up from the deep. I guess it was just not happening on this trip. Oh well, next time - hopefully.

All the best,
Glenn B

Neighbors are...

...a good thing to have fairly nearby but sometimes can be a real pain in the neck or maybe just be someone who you see now and then and give a wave to at most. That view about neighbors came into my head after reading a blog post, Oh Won't You Be My Neighbor by Melody Byrne, over at The Anarchangel. She was talking about her family's recent move to Idaho from Scottsdale, AZ and how their new neighbors in ID differed from those in AZ when she said this:

Sure we had neighbors in Scottsdale, the kind that came with high fences and nods. We even knew a few names but we weren't really, well, friendly. Everybody had their own lives and not much in common and the entire neighborhood was transitory.

Lucky for me, for my family in fact, that we have neighbors too where we live in NY. Even luckier for us is the fact that some of our neighbors, those who live close to us in this pretty congested area, come in a wider variety than just those separated from us by fences, who are not really friendly, with not much in common, who live their own lives...

Well, when you think about it, sure all of your neighbors live their own lives, so I guess I should be rephrasing that to say: Even luckier for us is that some of our neighbors, even though having some pretty different interests than those of my family, still have some interests in common, and those interests include me and my family and they are willing to knock down the fences so to speak, as are we, to come together and enjoy one anothers' company now and again. Some of pour neighbors go even beyond that and we or they have developed some similar interests because of one another. We visit one another now and then to see how the others are doing, we invite one another over for a BBQ or dinner now and then, we chew the fat (gab about gossip - or current events - more or less), watch each others dogs sometimes if need be, collect each others' mail when one family is away on vacation, shovel snow for one another or just for those too old to do it, loan a tool or even the lawn mower now and again, babysit (though that is now a thing of the past) for one another, call the police if we see someone messing with a neighbors' home and so on. Some of our neighbors have even become our true friends - though I will admit they are few, but they are dear to us nonetheless. Some of those who are more than just run of the mill neighbors (as in people who live close by) and yet not true friends are friendly. There are some not all that friendly but we tolerate them as they tolerate us. There is even one who is becoming a real pain in the ass neck lately but we put up with that one too.

The way it works out is that my wife is more friendly with all of our neighbors than am I. I am away more since she works closer to home and gets home earlier than me, therefore sees more of the neighbors. My daughter is likewise. My son not as much so as the ladies, he is more like me. I am grumpier than my wife would ever be and I guess it can be seen by the neighbors, except for how grumpy she can be with me, and that makes it easier for her to get along with the neighbors than it is for me to do so. Still though we get along fairly well with some of them, better than I would have expected when I first moved here.

An example of getting along okay can be seen from just today. One of my neighbors and I were talking about our gardens, asking about each others' families, me finding out she was now a grandma, and so on. Next thing you know she was handing me a huge Zucchini Squash over that very same good fence that some would say makes for good neighbors. I guess on the the good things about fences is that they are not so high as to completely cut you off from your neighbors so you can reach across them with a handshake, an offering of vegetables or just with some kind words now and again. My neighbors, I am pretty lucky to have the ones I have. As for Mel and Chris Byrne and their girls, well they have moved to a place where they basically have only one set of neighbors who are close by. They are lucky too because it seems they have found some goods ones.

All the best,
Glenn B

Making Up For Lack Of Blogging Over The Past Couple Of Days...

...by posting 4 other posts besides this one today has taken a big bite out of my day. So now I am going to get back out into the garden, take care of the tortoises, do some other chores, and then get ready to go fishing tonight.

later for you,
GB

Ballseye's Gun Shots 80 - Safety Violations On The Firing Line - What To Do

Although I am not about to give all the details of this story, such as the name of the range, when I was there, or a better description of the shooters or of the range, and despite the fact that I changed some of the details so the range and the shooters (other than me) cannot be identified, let me assure you the substance of this story and almost all the details given below (except for those I changed as just mentioned) are true. In other words, maybe I changed it to make it appear it was an indoor range instead of an outdoor range, maybe I changed it so that there were only 3 range officers working instead of 5, maybe I changed it so all the range officer were male instead of some or all being female, maybe I changed sexes of all the shooters or some of them, maybe I changed it to a semi-auto rifle when it fact it had been a bolt action, and maybe I didn't change those things but did change others - but I did not change the substance of what happened even one tiny bit.

I found myself at a rifle/pistol range sometime with the past few months; which one it was -and exactly when it was - doesn't matter all that much. It could have been any range at anytime. I was shooting, mindful of what I was doing, concentrating on getting my shots in as good a group as I could, while shooting at a good rate of fire, doing it safely, and I was doing pretty good at it too. I had 5 or 6 magazines fully loaded, two 10 round mags and three 15 round mags. Once I had fired all 65 rounds, I placed my pistol down on the bench and I started to reload the magazines.

As I was reloading, I noticed a young lad of about12 to 14 years of age standing just two points away from me. he was holding what looked to me like a .22 rifle. He had it in his right hand and was holding it muzzle up. I looked back at what I was doing, a few second later I looked up again and saw the young allowing the rifle to slip downward in the direction it was pointing and realized it had just covered me for a moment and had also covered several other folks on the firing line. He tried to hold it muzzle up again, using only his right hand and arm and surer that smelly stuff rolls downhill he was again pointing it at me and others. I gave him a quick upward movement of both of my hands, he immediately made an awkward face but got the idea and moved the muzzle up and then held it with two hands. I went back to reloading but moved away from the direction he was facing just in case he let that muzzle come down again.

As I was reloading, I realized he was alone, at least for the moment. There was no adult with him, no one to supervise him. He was standing just behind the firing line with a weapon in his hands and had just pointed that weapon at others a couple of times that I saw and who knows how many times when no one was watching him. Almost as soon as I had thought that, an adult walks in from the outer portion of the range, where you can buy ammo and targets and stuff like that, and walks over to a point 2 away from me. He fiddles for a few seconds and call the boy over to him and tells him to start shooting. He did not ask the boy if he had his ear protection in place (he did, I could see it after looking hard to see if he was wearing ear plugs), he did not give him any instruction except to say something like 'okay come on over and start shooting', he did not tell the boy to load the weapon, he did not tell him to check the safety, he did not tell him anything else. The kid raises the rifle to his shoulder, aims, tries to take a shot and squeezes the trigger several times to no avail. Okay, it is not loaded I thought but that is when I noticed the magazine was already in the rifle. I had not noticed before but was paying more attention to the muzzle than anything else when it had pointed at me. The adult then says, and I quote: "Take it off safest".

The boy then fiddles with the rifle, apparently looking for the safety or trying to remember where it is. He finds it, switches it into the off or fire position, looks at the adult who tells him to shoot, and then aims in and starts shooting. The light bulb comes on in my head. This kid was walking around, just behind the firing line, without adult supervision, pointing a loaded weapon at other shooters. Yikes! I immediately decide to finish up the rounds I have just loaded into my mags and then to get the hell out of Dodge.

I shoot up the 65 rounds I have just loaded pretty quickly. My group opens up a bit from the others I had just shot. I suppose my stress level is up a bit what with these jokers next to me, the pucker factor always has a way of opening group size. Still, it is a respectable group and I would be happy to get one that size under real stress. Once I finished shooting up my rounds, I start to police up my point and those around me to my right where my shell casings have landed. Lucky for me the 2 guys in question are to my left. I take a better look at them. One a somewhat pudgy kid, the other a pretty fit looking adult of about 35 years or so with a sort of muscle man shirt worn for the effect, no doubt, of showing off his tattoos of which he has many. One in particular is a word in large fairly bold fancy print, it is across his forehead, of all places. Ah, I think, that word explains it all. I will not write out the word but will spell out the meaning:

a state of utter confusion or disorder or a total lack of organization

No sooner had I seen that, the young fellow had a misfire. The adult says nothing, the kid starts to turn around, rifle in hands still at his shoulder, and the rifle starts to point diagonally across the range, it almost comes to a 90 degree angle away from the target and straight down the firing line at other points and shooters. He looks at the man, then looks at the rifle, then the man takes the rifle and fiddles with it clearing the unfired round and hands it back to the child. While he took the rifle, he was standing just behind the youngster's right shoulder so the rifle, with round in chamber, is now behind the line but he still has it pointed down range basically over the kids shoulder. He hands it back to the boy who finishes shooting what was in the magazine. The boy then heads outside the shooting range, to the other room, leaving the rifle on the bench pointed downrange but with the action closed and the magazine still in place. The adult never told him to unload it and to make it safe.

At that point the adult picks up the rifle, removes the magazine, does not clear the chamber, and reloads the rifle. I think the chamber was empty when he started this but how he could have been sure, without checking, is beyond me. Could have been another misfired round in there for all he knew. Then, another younger shooter comes in and takes the boy's place. This one is at least an older teen, maybe even in her twenties. The adult has her take up a position in the firing point, tells her to pick up the rifle and tells him to shoot. The gal picks it up and tries to shoot. The adult tells her to "...take it off safest". The youth does not know what the adult is talking about or at least does not know where the safety is located. I guess she must have forgotten what this adult most assuredly must have told her when he went over gun safety and how to operate this particular rifle with the youth before ever letting her handle it. What do you think?

Well, the adult points out the safety and says something about how to take it off of safe and place it into the fire mode. The youth then raises the rifle to her shoulder and starts to fire. She fires a full magazine, I think 10 rounds, then the adult brings the target back. There is a group of about 12 inches at its widest point with about 2 or 3 flyers far from the rest of the group with no particular grouping of their own. The adult asked: "didn't you use the scope". The young gal says 'not for the first few shots, then I started to use it'. She did not even know enough to use the scope, probably did not know how to set up her eye in relation to it, yet here she was blazing away with a semi-automatic rifle. The adult says she did just great. Once again, the rifle was put back on the bench with the action closed and the magazine remaining in it. This time though the adult took the rifle from the young shooter and placed it on the bench like that himself. Then he took out the magazine, with the action still closed and started to reload the mag. Me, I walked out the door.

Are you wondering where were the range personnel while all this was going on? I was wondering just that. One was seated in the other room with a thousand yard stare on his face, cup of coffee in his hands, another was flitting around doing this, that and everything but keeping an eye on the shooters, and I think yet another was on the range talking to a curvy female shooter. He seemingly had eyes pretty much only for her. I was about to say something to the guy who was flitting around and when I started to he just flitted right by without paying attention to me. So, I walked over to the other guy with the stare out into heaven knows where and talked to him a bit to see if he was with us. He wasn't interested in anything I had to say, so I decided to get out of there pronto before I could wind up either shot or as a witness to an accidental shooting caused by negligence.

Shame on me for not being more forceful with getting the attention of either of the range guys. I guess the reason was that I was in a hurry. Yep, that is a piss poor reason for not letting them know about what was going on safety violation wise on their range; not an excuse at all. I wonder though if either of them had even a piss poor excuse for not paying attention. If I ever shoot at this place again, I will be sure to be respectful when I advise the shooter, or in the case of a child shooter then his/her adult supervisor, or when I speak to the range personnel, about what most assuredly could have easily tuned into pandemonium and I will be sure to do it. That is usually what I do - I speak up - but I suppose I was off my mark that day. I have no excuse, none at all. I am happy to report I did not hear of any accidental shooting(s) in the area that day, so I guess things turned out okay despite the lack of firearms safety on the part of those shooters.

My biggest point, in this whole rant was not just that you need to be mindful of what you are doing nor that you also have to be mindful of what others are doing while at the range but you really have to be ready to point out safety violations because your life, or another shooter's, may depend on the safety violation being brought to light. So, the most important point I could make about the whole incident I just recounted above is that I should have made sure to say something to someone about the safety violations I saw taking place. Shame on me for not making sure I got that done. I usually do it, but just like with gun safety usually is not good enough, it is an every time kind of a thing. So if you see (a) blatant safety violation(s), you should let a range officer know immediately, that is once you have made your own firearm safe and you can safely tell them. You also can tell the shooter too but beware - sometimes the other shooter will just react as if some asshole pushy person just tried to tell him, the expert of experts, how to shoot properly. Sometimes that gets the other shooter pretty mad and remember - he has a gun with him so be tactful if you do speak to the shooter himself. Maybe even wait for a cease fire, if they are called at the range where you are shooting, so he is not holding or near a loaded gun when you tell him. (If you are going to talk to a shooter and let him know about a potential safety violation or give any type of shooting hint, I do not recommend talking to young shooters directly, instead I would talk to the adult who should be supervising them.)

Again, for me not to have told the range officers, or the adult supervising these kids, about what I saw as safety violations, was inexcusable under the circumstances. I will not let it happen again, neither should you let it happen if you see a safety violation at the range.

All the best,
Glenn B

OBAMOPOLY - You Can Only Win By Voting Right

I got this in an email today with no credit given. I see though there is a website shown on the right of the center portion of the board and if you go to that site or just click below, you can see the original post about this piece of very fine political satire:

http://atrueobamanation.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-game-in-town.html

I guess I now have yet another blog to which I absolutely must supply a link. You have got to visit the site and be amazed at some of the stuff there. Great political satire and a great political message for those of us who still love America and the principles upon which this country was founded. I did not think of it, I did not design it, I just enjoyed it and got a big laugh out of it when I saw it and am now sharing it with you. Sometimes the things that seem closest to the truth can give you a good belly laugh even though that apparent truth is scary. Hopefully, when you click on the image, it will enlarge enough for you to be able to read everything on the game board.

The only thing missing, as far as I see it, is that Park Place and Boardwalk maybe should have been something to the effect of: November 2010 elections Move To The Right November 2012 Election Republican Landslide. That way at least someone who is on the right could have had a chance when playing it but of course if it stays the way it is in the game as in real life, I think we all lose. Bear in mind that in real life, the only way America will have a chance is if we beat the tar out of the libs this fall and in 2012. As for the game board, I suppose it is funny/truthful just as it appears and it certainly is one fine piece of work at that!

All the best,
Glenn B

New Blog Added To Blog Roll

I added a new blog to my blog roll, under Other Bloggers of Note, to the right. This is great political stuff/satire. It should make you laugh no matter what side you are on when it comes to politics, that is if you have a sense of humor.

The blog is: America Es Un Obamanation

The address is: http://atrueobamanation.blogspot.com/

All the best,
GB

Goin' Fishing Again...

...or so I can only hope. The plan, made with the one and only male heir, was to go out this afternoon on a half day boat out of Point Lookout. Of course, plans change and I suppose that hangovers (or maybe just very late nights) will have something to do with messing up the best of plans. As it turned out, I was sound asleep at about 0315 this morning when the side door opened and awakened me. It was my son, who upon entering the house said 'oh shit' and proceeded inside. Don't know what the expletive was all about but that and the hour of his arrival at the old homestead kind of made me think he would not be getting up early enough to go fishing this afternoon. Sure as clockwork, when I knocked on his door at about 10 this morning and asked if he still wanted to go fishing, he said "I'm still sleeping'. I left it at that.

There is a night boat going out, the Captain Al, at 7 tonight. I will most likely be on it as I was last weekend. As for Brendan being on it, well maybe and maybe not. He will probably want to hang out with friends tonight but I am going to do my best into getting him to tag along with me on the fishing trip. If all else fails, I'll try to shame him into it because he slept through our planned trip this afternoon. Yes it is just afternoon as I type, and he is sound asleep! A little humility will do him good, the fishing trip will do him better and a good fishing buddy going along with me will be the best of all. Hopefully we will actually catch some bluefish as opposed to last weekend when all I caught was just about everything but a blue.

Wish me luck, not only with fishing, but with having my best buddy of a fishing partner come along for the trip.

All the best,
Glenn B

Ballseye's Gun Shots 79 - Long Island Shooting Center

On Sunday, I stopped by the Long Island Shooting Center, a place I had not been to probably in a couple to a few years. The LI SC is split into two sections, one being a gun store and the other a range. Only the range was open when I arrived and it would close in about an hour. More than enough time to send some lead downrange and have some fun while getting in some practice. The man behind the counter greeted me pleasantly, checked my ID, asked what I was shooting, then really checked my ID because I had replied "pistol", then told me it would be $11.00 for an hour. I paid up told him I did not need targets or ammo when he asked and then headed to the firing line after he told me to take any open point. I donned my earmuffs and walked into the firing range.

Once on the actual range, I picked a spot and started to set up. It was then I decided to go back out and grab some life sized targets. I had smaller targets and with this ranges fairly high target holders I thought I might put one or three into the ceiling. I realized the cables all had good sized bellies, so to speak, and my target would have been much lower half the distance out, but still at close range they would have been pretty high so the longer targets were the better bet. Then back inside and I was soon blazing away with my Glock 26. (I will admit I goofed when I also grabbed 2 of my Berettas at home but forgot to grab the key set for their cable locks, so it was just what was on my hip for shooting that day.)

When you first enter the range side of the LISC, you may think you walked into a restaurant. It has a counter with several swivel stools and apparently used to be a restaurant of some sorts. behind the counter, today though, you will find a wide assortment of targets, ammunition, and firearms accessories and supplies. The LISC range has several points, I am going to guess 15 to 20. Each has electronically operated target carriers and the range is 50 feet long. About 5 or so of the points had what looked like a pile of railroad ties stacked up down range. I am guessing this is how this range allows something larger than pistol calibers or 22long rifle ammo on some points. While there is usually not much point to shooting large caliber rifles at that close a distance, sometimes you have no to little choice of open ranges in the area, after all this is New York, and you have to shoot where you can. Each point also has lighting within each booth, supposedly one the shooter could dim, but all I could do was turn mine on and off. The downrange portion of the range is fairly well lit. The target carrier control worked well and amounted to a toggle switch for sending the target downrange or bringing it back to the shooter. The range was clean and seemingly well ventilated.

I shot about 250 rounds of various types of 9mm ammo through the Glock. I did well but was having some problems in that the Glock repeatedly failed to feed after about the first 100 rounds. Out of 250 rounds, I would estimate, there were at least 10 failures to feed in the last 150 rounds. A good cleaning is in order and so is a check of the magazines. Shame on me if it was just due to a dirty pistol but that usually is the likely culprit in such cases. I would have sworn I cleaned it right after shooting it last but I may have forgotten to do so. Last time out I shot many more rounds through it than this time, I think around 400 to 500. So with another 100, where the problem started this time, that would have made for one dirty gun and could explain the failures to feed. Never had the problem before. So I will clean it, shoot it, see if it happens again. If not - problem solved. If yes - back to trouble shooting until it is problem solved.

Regardless of the problem with failures to feed, I had a good time. The range personnel were pleasant, the range was clean, it was not to expensive for this area, and it is convenient for me to go to whenever I visit my mom who lives about 10 minutes from the range. I think a few near future return trips are called for and hopefully I will make it there when the gun store half is also open.

All the best,
Glenn B

A Tasty Fish...

...was that American Eel when cooked on my BBQ grill under the silvery light of the full moon shining through the cloud cover. I just cooked it right after posting my previous post. It took me the better part of 45 minutes, maybe a bit longer at medium heat, to get it to where it was just starting to become fairly tender. It started to become white and somewhat flaky as cooked white colored fish should by that time, probably could have cooked a couple of minutes more but I was anxious to taste it. It actually had turned white within about 5 to 10 minutes but took much longer until it was tender/flaky enough to consider done and was just much too chewy before 45 minutes. I don't know if that is just because it was an eel or because it was as old as it must have been, to be as big as it was, but that was one slow cooking fish. It was worth the wait and I enjoyed the company of 2 St. Pauli Girls along the way. By the way, nothing like smoked eel at all as far as I remember but still quite delicious.

Maybe it was the anticipation of tasting it, maybe it was the 2 St. Pauli Girls, or maybe it was because I cooked it under the glow of a full moon but I have to say that was one fine tasting fish when grilled. Of course, it should have been tasty since I caught, cleaned (taking care to remove the red oily meat near the spine) and took my time grilling it.

All the best,
Glenn B

Gone Fishing...

...at long last. This weekend, I finally made my first trip of the year out to sea to be bathed in the briny spray and glow of the almost full moon as the bow of our small but worthy fishing boat slammed hard against the waves. We party boat fishermen (and woman and kids) were probably only moving at about 25 knots but, for me at least, it was exhilarating if for no other reason than I should would be dropping a line, complete with baited hook and small sinker, and would be fishing for monster bluefish. Within about an hour of getting under way, The Captain Al, of Point Lookout, NY, had set its anchors and the 29 fares aboard eagerly wet their lines for the first time that night. Then each of us waited with great anticipation for the words: "Fish on!" but those words were long in coming at least true to their meaning. One joker, after about 5 minutes of fishing spoke them loudly and had mate come running, armed with gaff hook and net only to be disappointed because he had only been explaining to his girlfriend what she should say if she hooked one.

Not long afterward, as fate would have, the bigmouth was the first one to catch a fish. He made it look as if he was pulling in a monster bluefish, at least a 10 pounder anyhow, but when fish and surface finally met, all who were watching readily saw it was nothing more than a skate that at best weighed a pound. He was rigged for bottom fishing and I was rigged for drift fish with just a light split shot sinker so as to let the current drift my bait. The other fares aboard our boat were split about 50/50 for bottom or drift fishing; this was done to see where the blues would be biting. After a short while longer, the boats horn tooted, the captain yelled reel em in, and the anchors were hauled in. Then we moved onto another spot.

We fished at the second spot, again with no blues biting. The only fish coming up were small skates, small dogfish, and a small fluke or two. We fished on, or I should say most of us did. The others who had stopped fishing had done so not out of boredom or loss of hope but rather because they couldn't take the sideways rocking of the boat. We were anchored so that the waves were coming at the side of the boat and that made for some uncomfortable rocking side to side even though the waves were probably only 3 feet at most. I fished. After about another half hour or so, I hooked what I thought was a good sized fish but was pretty sure it was not a bluefish. It was pulling hard but not running and fought more like a shark than a bluefish because it went straight down when it did gain some line. Every now and again it shook violently and pulled straight down hard, once or twice gaining some line but never really running fast and long. Nope not a blue, I was convinced. I lifted the rod tip, reeled in, and lowered it still reeling. Repeated over and over, sometimes gaining not an inch of line because, even though it was not running, it was as if reeling accomplished nothing because the drag was allowing out as much line as I was reeling in over the long haul. The captain yelled at me to slow it down and let it tire itself out, he too thought it was a good sized fish. This went on for a good 5 to 7 minutes maybe more. I thought I had a good sized dogfish. Then, after a bit more fighting it, there it was and guys along the rail were yelling out "doormat fluke". I was guessing it had not been a fluke but a doormat fluke, I thought "GREAT"! It wasn't a fluke although I wished it had been one, then again maybe it was a fluke of sorts if you consider a fluke being an oddball. When it was up just under the surface, I saw what it was and so did the captain who had been coaching me from the upper deck. It was another skate, or as Captain Al called this one - "...a barn door skate". For a skate in these parts it was huge; my guess is that it weighed in at about 4 to 5 pounds, it was approximately 20-22 inches long (snout to tail tip) and at least 3/4 as wide from fin tip to fin tip and it was one fat fish for a skate. In fact it was so fat as to have at first made me think it was a female that was gravid but this one had the long clasper fins of a male. I have never seen one that big before and I probably have discovered why at this website about the Little Skate:

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/gallery/Descript/LittleSkate/LittleSkate.html

As per the information found therein, you can see that the maximum size of the Little Skate, is about 21 inches long and mine was maybe an inch longer. I am good at guesstimating length when fishing and in addition there was black tape on the rails to measure fluke. It was darned close to the measurement between those pieces of black tape which was the minimum length for a fluke - 22 inches. Now, after seeing the maximum size of about 21 inches, I wish I had measured it with a tape measure and not just held it up close to the black pieces of tape on the rail. I also wish I had taken a picture of it. Who knows, it may have been the record Little Skate for NY State waters! The fish went back into the deep but not before leaving its mark on me. I knew enough not to grasp its tail to pick it up, they have nasty short spines all along the tail, so I tried lifting it by grasping it near the head across the back. Ouch, I was stuck by a few of those same spines there along the back. I bled freely out of those tiny puncture wounds for about 15 minutes. Not much but it just kept bleeding. A mate tried getting it overboard for me and he too was jabbed. I suggested grabbing it with a rag in his hand, surprised he had not tried that once he saw me get poked, and he then did just that. He was surprised by the skates heft and commented on it saying it was the biggest one he had ever seen. As for the fish, it was back where it belonged, in the deep. I kind of had thought it a garbage fish, though fun to catch because they do put up a fight and always seem larger while reeling them in than they are when in hand. This one was a surprise in that it was pretty big after all. Well, it will live to swim another day and maybe will be caught by some young kid who will then feel like a great fisherman should with his monster fish on the deck at his feet. Hopefully his dad, or even he, will know enough to throw it back for another day's catch.

Finally I was again back in tune with what was going on for the rest of the fares. Not much had been coming up. We fished on, no one catching a bluefish and not many catching anything but a small skate or dogfish now and again. Time ticked on and the boat's horn again tooted - we all reeled in and headed to another spot. As we got ton the next spot, the mate rigged me for some bottom fishing. He said all I was likely to get was an eel or a skate or dogfish; I was hoping for some Ling - a great tasting fish that sort of resembles a codfish but is smaller. Again we fished and fished, and the waves rolled and so did the boat. A young fellow of about 20 came over to my left side and I thought he was about to drop a line but he was set on dropping something else. Over the side went what looked like a bucket full of chum but this was not made up of fish heads and gut from out cut mackerel bait. This was whatever it had been that the young man had last eaten. Again and again the boat heaved port to starboard and again and again he heaved over the rail. I don't know why the captain insisted anchoring the boat so the waves came at us from the side but that is what he did and those with a less than forgiving sense of balance paid for it.

We must have been at that spot for a good 45 minutes when, after the young lad had laid out a good chum slick of sorts for me, I hooked what again felt like a big fish. This was a lot different from the skate I had hooked earlier but again I did not think it a bluefish though this one's fight was somewhat more similar by nature to that of a blue than to that of a skate. It took some line in a few short runs, it was powerful and thrashed then ran again. It bent the rod over and I was using a fairly strong rod - one good for those heavy monster blues. This one though came up a bit quicker than did the skate, probably due to its body shape not creating as much drag in the water as does a skate's when a skate cups itself against the resistance of the water when being reeled up toward the surface. When it was near the top it was easy to tell what was this one, it was an American Eel. Again I had gotten a big one. The average length of the American Eel is about 2 to 3 feet. Mine was right about 4 feet long. That is pretty big though females can reach 5 feet in length. Again, we did not measure it and my camera was in my tackle box in a plastic bag but this one I brought home for the table. I cut it up and have it in my fridge. The widest piece of that eel, cut up, is as big around as my mid-forearm at just about 9 - 10 inches around. If the fish still was intact, with its guts inside of it, it would probably have been around 11 - 12 inches around at the widest point of its girth. The world record for the American Eel is said to be about 9.25 pounds. Mine was not near that, I am guessing though it weighed in at about 5 to 7 pounds. Not the biggest eel I have ever caught, I caught some eels off of San Felipe in the Gulf of Cortez, about 28 years ago, that were between 6 and 7 feet long and that had huge teeth. I suppose they were some type of Moray Eels but this was, by far, the largest American Eel that I ever caught. American Eels are actually fresh water fish. They live in rivers and lakes with river outlets that flow to the sea. They come into the Atlantic Ocean and migrate to the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda to breed, I think in October or there about. Some also remain in coastal areas in brackish waters. While it is reported that American Eels die right after breeding, my guess is this one lived through several breeding seasons to have attained its size. I can only guess how much heavier it would have been had it been full of eggs, it was obviously a female judging by its innards when I gutted it. Ovaries look like ovaries in all of the fish in which I have seen them. The ones in this eel were just longer than most, sort of like a snakes in proportion. It was nice fish and I am hopeful one that big will be tasty to my liking. I have not eaten eel for probably over 30 years and am looking forward to cooking this one on the grill.

After that, we continued fishing at the same spot and more eels and dogfish came aboard. I soon hooked a small dogfish myself. Dogfish are members of the shark family but they have tiny teeth not the type which you need to be afraid of taking a big sized chunk out of your hide although I would not stick my finger in ones mouth. Soon after that we moved on again. At the last spot we fished and fished and not one bluefish came aboard. I hooked one last fish, this one nibbling then taking the bait hard. It did not run, did not feel heavy and did not put up too much of a fight. When I got it up tom the top I saw it was a fluke, about 18 inches long and too small to keep legally. I lifted its head out of the water and brought the fish over the rail, all the time expecting it to spit out the hook as they usually do once their heads are above the surface. That is why you usually keep their heads under water and have the mates net them for you when they are of keeper size. I was hoping this one would spit the hook and save me the trouble of getting the hook out but it was not to be. This one had swallowed the hook. The mate got it out for me and over the rail went the fluke to be caught another day. We fished a bit more and all too soon the boats horn tooted 4 or 5 times signaling the end of the night as far as fishing went. Soon after, we were headed back tot he dock in Point lookout - not one bluefish aboard and therefore the mates getting to keep any money that was in the pool for the biggest fish. good for them because with absolutely no fish being gutted, cleaned and filleted they would not be getting much in the way of tips. As we got off the boat, I gave a tip to the mate who had helped me out, regardless of me not having caught one bluefish. I can tell you, going bluefish fishing on this boat and getting skunked is a rarity. Hopefully next trip out will be better but I had fun on this one and have a few pounds of cleaned eel to cook up.

All the best,
Glenn B

Reference:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/nearshorefish.pdf

MSM Premium Customer Service

2 weeks ago, I sent MSN Premium customer service an email because I kept getting a message that my account had been deleted and with it all of my emails. I also wound up making several phone calls to both Verizon who is my service provider and with whose service the MSN Premium was packaged and to MSN directly. I got the problem fixed but it took most of a day and sometime into the next day.

Today I received the first reply to my email about the problem, the email I sent to MSN 2 weeks and 2 days ago. Can you imagine that, having a problem with your email account and your service provider taking 2 weeks and 3 days to reply to you. Maybe MSN Premium should be renamed, maybe something like MSN Sucks would be more apropos.

All the best,
GB

Ballseye's Gun Shots 78 - "Now, You Don't Jerk The Trigger..."

"...you just squeeze it a little might."

That my friends is some pretty good advice because in essence it tells you all about trigger control and if you really pay attention to it you won't make some of the common mistakes associated with getting a shot off.

If you know anything about shooting such as what finger you use to operate the trigger - and even a novice shooter usually realizes that it is the index finger that operates the trigger - that statement will have you well on your way to becoming a good shot. One of the common mistakes among new and even some seasoned shooters is that they think that squeezing the trigger means that they are supposed to use their whole hand to squeeze it. In other words, they think they are supposed to be squeezing not only the trigger but also the whole grip, sort of like squeezing a lemon to get some juice out of it or like squeezing some one's hand when you shake it and want them to realize you have a strong grip. First of all, that statement tells you that all you are squeezing is the trigger. So, while you should have a firm grasp of the pistol grip, the only motion that you consciously, or try to, carry out to operate the trigger should be the pulling back or squeezing of the trigger with your index finger on you strong side or shooting hand, the other hand being used for support if 2 handed shooting or not used at all (to support the gun) if shooting with one hand.

There is another thing, in that sentence, that is also very important. It tells you not to jerk the trigger, but that "...you just squeeze it little might". In other words, its not like you are trying to crush a beer can in your grip as a show of strength, gouge out someone's eyeball, nor trying to pull your dog back on its leash if it lunges at someone, or to pull open a stuck door with all your might. What it is, is just a smooth continuous squeeze of the trigger, with your trigger finger, until the pistol goes off. (Of course this can also apply to rifle shooting which is the context in which the quoted sentence was originally used.)

Some will tell you that trigger squeeze is a bad term because it makes people think of doing something like squeezing a lemon. They prefer to use the term pull, but as I showed above that could be misconstrued as well. Then again, so too could just about any term that you use. What needs to be taught and what needs to be learned it what is meant by the term trigger squeeze. For an instructor to tell a student shooter that you squeeze the trigger, with giving an explanation of what is meant by 'squeezing the trigger' simply has too much a a chance to wind up with the shooter misunderstanding what s required for good trigger control.

One person, Robert Osborne, described trigger squeeze as this:

"Trigger squeeze is the independent rearward movement of the trigger finger without disturbance of the sight alignment until the weapon fires."

(http://www.firearmsprimer.com/marks/marks_5.htm)

I agree with almost everything he said except that trigger squeeze is not an independent movement but I do not fault Mr. Osborne for saying it. That he meant what I meant above is obvious to me. While Mr. Osborne was trying to convey what I just described above regarding the whole thing about consciously only squeezing the trigger with the index finger and not squeezing like you are juicing a lemon or shaking a hand, the truth is, that when you squeeze back with your index finger as I have just described there is also movement of all of the other fingers on your hand - a reaction to the movement of the muscles and tendons and ligaments required to move the index finger. Albeit that movement is basically involuntary and slight, it happens because of the movement of your index finger. It would probably take years to overcome that movement if possible at all to completely overcome it; it is simply a natural effect of curling back your index finger. The important thing though is not to squeeze with all of your fingers and the rest of the hand - you are making a conscious effort to squeeze back using only the index finger while maintaining a firm steady hold of the grip. When you make that effort you will get it right and, for all practical purposes, all you will be doing is squeezing back with your index or trigger finger while maintaining a firm hold of the grip - the involuntary movement of the other fingers and rest of the hand will be, at most, nominal in effect.

In essence, everything I wrote above was said in that one simple sentence. I heard it while watching an old western - Return of the Bad Men. It was uttered by the character played by George 'Gabby' Hayes, who was giving a brief shooting lesson to a young man under his tutelage. That movie and the quote were made in 1948. It was good sense back then and good sense today. By the way, the above pic is one of Gabby Hayes and Roy Rogers. There are better pics of Gabby Hayes but maybe none that look so much as if he may be perplexed while trying to teach someone trigger control - and that someone being Roy Rogers makes that shot priceless.

All the best,

Glenn B

Victory or Death - I Would Vote For Newt For President

The below video is from last November, but it is still well worth the watch.



All the best,
GB

Another Dinosaur Goes Extinct...

...or should I just say another of my co-workers, Pete P. is retiring. He will be gone in early August and he will be missed. Nice guy, one of the nicer ones I have worked with, always a gentleman and all that.

Seeing other dinosaurs people going one after another sure has me wondering (has a lot of people wondering) why it is that I have not become extinct retired yet. I became eligible in the Fall of 2005. Wow, it's been almost 5 years already - hard to believe that I have hung on so long. Why hard to believe? I guess because the job and I are not both what we once were years ago. I, of course, was younger, had more energy, and liked what I was doing. The job was a good one, law enforcement of laws that I believed mattered and still do, it had its rewards for good work, and I had a lot of exciting and oft times adventurous work to do. Since 9/11 things changed big-time. Customs and Immigration were taken out of Treasury and DOJ respectively, combined and put under Homeland Security and that was it, in my personal opinion, for an interesting job as far as things went for me and most of the people with whom I work. The feeling of doing something worthwhile is not there, at least for me and apparently for quite a few others. The agency seems, as I see it, to have little to no direction but exudes a lot of hot air like rhetoric about its accomplishments. Yeah, some good is done, but much of the job is so muddled by ludicrous politics as to make it impossible to enforce, with effectiveness, virtually any of the immigration laws and some of the customs laws. I still like to work but not at pointless paperwork or mindless repetitive things or at things for which I have virtually no training and there has been a lot of that type of work over the past 7 plus years. I guess that is why, when I have the opportunity, I often volunteer for temporary assignments lasting up to a few months. They get me out of the daily grind in my office, out into the field on investigative work, and remind me of better days. That is true eve when the assignment is not the best. The daily routine in my home office, for me, is almost enough to make me walk out the door right now. I do not do it though because there is something about the job, law enforcement and service to the people, and upholding our Constitution that runs deep through my soul that even overrides the desire to quit when faced with having to do work that I find somewhat less than what I had hoped it would be at this point in my career. Still though I do the job to the best of my ability and find it hard to leave. It seems to be the hardest thing I have ever done or have attempted to do is to make a decision about when to retire. Sometime, relatively soon though, is when I will leave it all behind. I have to go by the Fall of 2012 and will probably go by next summer or December 2011 at the latest. Until then, I will make the best of my current duties and will do my job to the best of my ability - I mean what else could I do. I will stick around and do my job just like others have stuck around and have done theirs despite the fact they or I could have left sooner. I guess it has something to do with indecisiveness and also something to do with loyalty and not wanting to give up what we believe is service to our country and her people, and I am sure that is what Pete P. has been thinking as have countless of other loyal American civil servants. I would hope so for the other guys but I know it is true for Pete P. He is a good man! He will be missed and work will be a harder place to tolerate with him gone.

All the best,
GB

Is A Democrat Undercover Mole Destroying The Republican National Committee and Republican Party Too?

Read the article, RNC Treasurer Accuses Steele of Hiding GOP's $7 Million Debt, then think about other allegations made against Michael Steele lately along with his own recent statements and then you tell me what you think. Me, I think he is an undercover Democrat working to destroy the Republican Party and that he is doing one heck of a good job at it. Of course, he is gettying plenty of help from other Republican National Committee and Republican Party members because he has not been fired yet.

All the best,
Glenn B

I Write Like

I write like
Ernest Hemingway

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Four different authors based on four different things about which I wrote, over the course of the past week, but the Cory guy came up for a few of my other pieces too. What does it all mean, probably little to nothing. I hope that is really does mean nothing because I also input the signature line I use in my emails and on many forums, this is what came up:

I write like
Oscar Wilde

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

He may have been a great writer but I, for one, do not care to emulate him for traits of his other than his writing style

All the best,
GB