We are in the mid-August heat wave. It hasn't rained in a couple of weeks and the sun is a constant tormentor. The grass is "crunchy", dry and coarse. In short, it is hot. Humidity is only at 36%, but the heat feels like a blanket.
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”
Cougars (catamount, panthers, whatever) are in lots of places where the Wildlife Weenies don't seem to want to admit that they have cougars. Like in Michigan for example. Good for Michigan for admitting what landowners and hunters have known for years.
When I lived in Natchitoches Parish in the early 80s, I had panthers on my property. i would hear then occasionally and saw them twice. Ours were dark brown, almost chocolate and would appear black in certain light conditions. The neighbors would talk about sightings, but the wildlife weenies would not admit that we had then in the area. okay, fine. In 2002 I wrote about it on Castbullet.
If you want to stir up some crap around a campfire, tell then that there is no such thing as a black panther. In certain low-light conditions a brown panther will look black. That is what people see and that is what they report. If you go back to the little video linked above, one of the photos looks black.
I'm just glad that they are out there.
On this 19th day of August we are officially in the dog days of summer. The local weather weenies tell us that our afternoon temps will flirt with triple digits, if not surpass it. As we approach the typical peak of the hurricane season, the tropics are unusually quiet. Thus far we have had only three named storms, and I had to verify that It is quiet.
The national weather weenies tell us that fall teps are just around the corner. That is well and good for the rest of you, but I am aware that I live in Deep South Louisiana and. We are two months away from taking out the flannel shirts.
This is the first day in a while that Belle and I have nothing scheduled. No appointments, no obligations. the only problem with doing nothing is that you are never sure when you have finished. As such, I pulled some fish from the freezer, and it is thawing in the sink. I'll make a run up to the Dollar Store in a bit to pick up some french fries.
I took my Honda to the dealer today to get it serviced. It's a 2020 Odyssey with ~60K miles. It needed an oil change and a tire rotation. when the dealer finished and we were settling up, she told me that my vehicle has two safety recalls. One for the rearview camera and one for an air bag. The only problem is that they don't have the parts for the recall.
For one of the recalls (I forget which) they will order the part and it will be in by next Tuesday, when we'll do the recall work. Thor the other, the dealer can only order one (1) per day, and they have thousands of customers on that list.
I recently realized that I had lost the appointment for my primary care doc. I called the office, but that was a no-go, so while I was in town today, I went to the doc's office to check. It's next month. While I was there, I registered a complaint on behalf of Belle's brother who is in the hospital. It seems that the coms lines between the hospital and the primary care doc are inop. No message traffic. One hand has no clue what the other is doing. That is the nature of medical practice today.
Back in the day when I got a daily newspaper, I enjoyed reading the editorial page.. I would get a cup of coffee and sit before the fireplace. Sometimes I would agree, sometimes I would disagree and other times I would throw the paper into the fireplace in disgust.
These days, my editorial is on the intertubes and one of the folks I like listening to is victor Davis Hanson. He has a podcast that I enjoy with wide-ranging topics. Sometimes history, other times current events. In the one embedded below, one of the topis is the rise of the Democratic Socialists in American politics. The whole podcast is over an hour, but if you skip forward to 25:30 you can get his take on them. Agree or disagree but he has studied the movement and I have not.
Back in the day of The Frugal Outdoorsman, Junior and I were playing with the old .30 WCF cartridge and I bought a Winchester 94 simply because I didn't have one and I saw one sitting forlornly in a used gun rack. Mine is nothing special. It was built in 1965, right after Winchester changed everything, and they called it the Antique Model. Purists said that this was Winchester's attempt at putting lipstick on a pig. I thought the price was right and bought it.
I immediately tapped out that execrable buckhorn sight and added a Williams peep. I added a saddle-ring to the left side of the receiver. I shot that rifle for several years as a test bed for castbullet.com, playing with cast bullet loads. I never made venison with it.
After Junior died, and my eyesight went to hell, that little rifle became a safe queen. I had changed shooting pursuits and didn't do much rifle work for about fifteen years. Last week, I was digging through the safe and found this little rifle and though how nice it would be to put an optic on it. The purists would howl, but it sure would make this a nice little rifle again.
If you know anything about gun restoration, you have heard of Turnbull Restoration. Turns out, they make an optics mount for the Winchester 94. If Turnbull is okay with it, the purists can kick rocks. This little mount uses the barrel dovetail to mount an optic. I ordered the mount pronto, then went over about bought a Burris FastFire4 optic. It has the Docter footprint that the Turnbull mount requires.
The sight has four reticles and I'll have to figure out which is more useful.
Installation was straight forward. Tiny screws and follow the directions.
I think it looks good. The purists may scoff, but that is their right.
Physics wins, every time.
A FRT (Forced Reset Trigger) seems like a lot of fun, and I'm sure that they are. An FRT simulates full-auto fire in a weapon that is perfectly legal to own and use. And it is dangerous, simply because automatic weapons require a different mind-set than semiauto weapons. Because physics wins, every time.
Colion breaks it down for you. The whole video is worth watching because physics does not often lend itself to simplistic explanations.
There was some talk at the club this weekend about the M14s the CMP is going to release. Talk is that the price is going to be sub-$2000 range, and no fun switch. I carried an M14 in training and it was an okay rifle. I don't hate it, but I'm not a fan, either. It is what it is.
I also heard today that CMP is going to get a supply of M1897 trench shotguns. That might be interesting.
For the first time in 21 years, the old Ford F150 failed to fire when I twisted the key. It cranked over fine, but it would not start. It started two weeks ago when I needed to move it to mow Today, it failed to fire. We will have to figure that out. I don't run ethanol in this truck because it us used so infrequently. It hasn't been filled with ethanol for five years.
I find it amusing that folks are freaking out about those Flock cameras because of security and privacy concerns. Those same folks carry a cell phone with them everywhere, and if you think those things aren't collecting data, your naivete is surpassed only by your lack of situational awareness. Apple, Samsung, Motorola AT&T and Verizon all collect data. Why do you think that meta is building data centers everywhere?
A couple of years ago, I bought a smart garage door opener. It's real convenient. If you think it is not collecting data, then wake up and smell the biscuits. Likewise, your vehicle. If it is not old enough to have an ashtray, it is collecting data. If you want to go dark on data, dump you cell phone in the nearest creek, along with your computer, and drive a car that has a carburetor. Disconnect the cable and internet and watch an old TV that uses an antennae.
You can do it, but you'll be the only one. Flock cameras are the least of your worries.
Moon came by today. He's an old friend that we used to shoot Cowboy Fast Draw with. He's retired from cowboy shooting due to health problems, but he stays active. He had some things he wanted to sell, stuff that the club could use, so we made a deal.
He was carrying an old Colt, a US Army 1911AA1 that was in very nice condition with matching numbers. It had the half-moon front sight. Very nice piece with matching numbers that is now his EDC.
More importantly, we got to visit with an old friend. He and his wife live on the Ouachita River, about 20 minutes south of Monroe, LA. He spends part of each day running trot lines in the river, where he harvests catfish and gar. Last week, he took 40 pounds of filet catfish to the church for a fish fry. Last year we wanted to do a fish fry for the club, so we called Moon and he brought 30 pounds for the club. All he wanted for his trouble was to sit and eat with us.
We did agree that getting old ain't for sissies.
I love cast iron, cook on it every day. We have probably eight or nine skillets.
Several years ago I was at an auction and bought three cast iron skillets, simply because no one was bidding on them. One was a BSR one was a Lodge, and the one on the bottom was unmarked. I gave $20 for the stack. Got them home and understood why. That bottom skillet was a disaster. Rusty, warped and pitted. It looked like it was used as a dog bowl in someone's back yard.
I cleaned it up and seasoned it. Began using it on those occasions where I would not normally use good cast iron. Highly acidic food with lots of seasoning, stiff like that. And, like all my good cast iron, I treat it right. Clean it after every use, dry it over moderate heat, then re-season with good oil. It still has its pits, it is still warped, but I noticed a week or so ago that Belle made corn bread in it. Today I used it to sauté highly seasoned shrimp in butter.
Then I realized that old pitted, warped dog skillet gets more use than my highly seasoned "good" skillets. When I'm doing something sketchy, it's the skillet I grab, because I can't hurt it. And Belle's apt to grab it to make cornbread.
There is a metaphor for life in that skillet, if I can just figure it out.
Termite sent me this, and I had to look it up. LARPing is "Live Action Role Play".
So, that explains that.
Which reminds me, I need to order something for arifle.
It's quiet in the tropics for the first week of August. So far, we have had only two named storms in the Atlantic basin August is normally the month when the Atlantic storms crank up, notably in 2005. That was a busy year. A little research tells us that the least active hurricane season on record was 1914 when only one known tropical storm was recorded.
We had a little dry cold front move through over the weekend. No rain and the temps are not notably lower, but the humidity is down, which is a good thing.
Belle mentioned that she would like a chimichanga for lunch, and I happen to have a recipe. I'll go to the grocers in a bit and see if I can find some tortillas.
