Trigger Time

Qualifications are coming up, and I've carried this pistol for a year and I've been remiss in my practice, so today I carried it to the range to make sure the grease hasn't hardenend and frozen the slide shut. So, I set up a target at 10 yards and loaded some magazines with range ammo.

That's 35 rounds total. 32 of them gouged the 10-ring out. 3 flyers in the nine-ring. That'll do.

Then, I got out the Remington 760. I wrote about it earlier. I've mounted a Simmons red dot sight on it. You can see the first three shots on the 10-yard target in the upper right quadrant.

After getting the sight roughly aligned at 10 yards, I went out to 25 yards and fired three shots, adjusted again, then moved the target out to 50 yards.



That's three groups at 50 yards. The top one was the sighter group, the middle one is the adjustment group, the bottom one is five shots, offhand, as fast as I could recover.

First impressions - If you've ever loved a pump shotgun, you'll love a pump rifle, and there are very few examples available. The Remington 760 is a fine rifle for hunting or patrol and it should be extremely accurate. The barrel is floated from the chamber all the way out to the muzzle. It comes in serious calibers. Mine is the ancient and honored .30-06. Yet a good number of calibers are available in some fairly serious chamberings.

The load functioned just like I wanted it to. I used the Lyman 311041 bullet in a standard Remington case over 2.2 cc's of my surplus 4895. I didn't put it over a chrony, but I estimate that it is moving somewhere about 1600 fps. If those figures are accurate, then sighted dead-on at 50 yards, it'll be down 3" at 100 yards. That gives it a Taylor KO of 12, which should be good deer medicine out to 100 yards. It's virtually recoil free, inexpensive, and fun to shoot. It'll make a good qualification load, and a good kids load.

The Simmons red dot sight worked just as advertised. The 42 mm tube was like looking through a barrel and the red dot just hung out over the end of he muzzle, pointing the way for the bullet. The dot was sufficiently bright that I didn't feel the need to use the highest settings, even in the bright Louisiana sunlight. The simple 4 MOA dot wasn't obtrusive in the sight picture, but was plainly visible. Adjusting the point of aim to the point of impact was simply done. It adjusts just like any other scope. Click detents were easily felt and counted. I need a couple more of these sights. I can see having one on a .22 pistol and I can see having one on a .22 rifle. It'll help in teaching the grandkids.

So, now a slide-action rifle is about to become qualified as a patrol rifle. I think it'll make a good one. The only hesitation about the rifle I have is the lack of magazine capacity. The normal capacity is 4+1, even for Remington's newest, sleekest cop rifle, the Model 7600 in a law enforcement variety, but the magazine capacity is limited. I've gotta admit that five rounds of .30 caliber goodness should be plenty, it'd be comforting to have a couple of 10 round magazines at hand. Remington made one rifle, the 7615 to take M16 magazines. It would be nice if the 7600 series took BAR magazines. Or M14 magazines, or some other magazine that had additional capacity.

Still, this will make a fine patrol rifle.

Non-Story

There's a story in the Daily Wipe today about a student at Jena High School. It seems that a couple of weeks ago, some students got in a fight. Some black students and some white students. I don't know all the particulars, but there were repercussions and some black students got arrested. They're considered innocent until proven guilty and the usual suspects are coming out on either side of the controversy. It's a heck of a mess, but this morning, we get a story about a gun.

It seems the victim of the latest crime came to school and had a gun in his vehicle. The police were called, yada, yada, yada. Except that having a gun in your car in Louisiana isn't a problem. It certainly isn't against the law, and if the reporters, or the cops who responded, or the administrators of the school would bother to actually read the law, they'd learn it isn't a problem.

Here, for your edification, is the law in question.

§95.2. Carrying a firearm, or dangerous weapon, by a student or nonstudent on school property, at school-sponsored functions or firearm-free zone

Quite a title, isn't it? Yet it seems to be the law that would apply. Carrying a firearm or dangerous weapon on school property, etc, etc, etc. The law is quite explicit, that bringing a gun on a school property without proper authorization is a felony. A five-year felony. Certainly something to be avoided. Carrying a gun on a school property is bad juju.

Except for the exceptions. In Louisiana there are always exceptions. And sure enough, there in subsection C, we find:

C. The provisions of this Section shall not apply to: .. (5) Any constitutionally protected activity which cannot be regulated by the state, such as a firearm contained entirely within a motor vehicle.

So, in the exceptions, we find that any constitutionally protected activity is exempt, and they give the example of a gun contained entirely within a vehicle. It ain't against the law in Louisiana to carry a gun in your car. And you can drive that car anywhere in the state with that gun inside and it isn't against the law. In fact, it is a constitutionaly protected activity.

I shouldn't have to tell anyone this. Not the reporters, not the administrators, certainly not the police who responded.

Bozos!

Concrete

While I'm not an expert, or even a master at the trade, I certainly have journeyman status around concrete. Were I younger, I'd make a good helper to a concrete mason and I'd quickly have enough knowledge to bid jobs myself.

All that to say that I have spread a bit of concrete. I've poured the odd driveway, or the slab to an outbuilding, or helped with a patio or two. Generally at the knee of my father or grandfather.

I called home at noon today and learned that no one was in my backyard pouring concrete around the pool. I called the contractor, who told me they would have loved to pour concrete this morning, but that the plant was at capacity and couldn't deliver any this morning. Evidently, there is a large concrete order being filled, because he didn't know if he could get any tomorrow, either. He said that he'd keep trying and he wanted to be completed on this job by Monday.

Concrete is a basic building block of civilization, going back to the Roman times. It's made of cement, gravel and water, and once mixed immediately begins to set. Concrete waits for no man, but there are certain criteria that are nice to have that slow the setting of concrete. High humidity slows concrete, as does cloudiness. Concrete masons know that there are some days when concrete doesn't seem to set at all, where it just lays there in it's semisolid state, defying the natural order.

One doesn't want to pour concrete in rain. One doesn't want to pour concrete on a wet form. One wants dry weather when pouring concrete.

Dry weather is not a given in Louisiana. We live in a semi-tropical state and we are entering our summer weather pattern. The basic weather forecast for north Louisiana for June, July and August is as follows.

Partly cloudy with a breeze out of the south (or northwest) with the chance of an afternoon thunder shower.

That's it. The rain chances increase from 20% to 80% on a given day and the temps fluctuate somewhere over 90, but that's basically our weather forecast till Autumn. Which is to say, the chance of rain is every day and if you're pouring concrete, you take the day He gives you.

They pissed away a remarkable opportunity today.

Movement

They're putting form around the pool today, preparing to pour the deck. The guys doing the work seem to know their business and they're working hard at it.



Maybe in another couple of days, I can count this portion of the project completed.

Then comes landscaping and pavers and making everything pretty. The value of the property is certainly increased. The grandkids will enjoy the pool. I'll enjoy the pool.

Work's been busy, too. We recently installed a security camera system and the boss is using it whenever he gets bored. I'm going to have to figure out a way to bell that cat.

And the School Board has a new program that blocks blogs. Whenever a user tries to access any blog, whether it be Instapundit, or the Kos, or PawPaw's house, the green violation screen pops up.

And that's a double-edged sword. If the kids can't get to their MySpace pages, or the Xanga site, then they can't access them during school hours.

However, I and a select few teachers tried to keep up with what was happening online and we'd surreptiously check the student sites to keep a pulse on their web presence. I won't be doing that any more. If the Board doesn't want me watching those sites at work, I won't watch them at home, either.

About 12 more school days, and we'll be out for the summer. I'm looking forward to this one.

LDWF Woodworth Range

I went out to the LDWF range today near Woodworth, LA.

It was closed.

Par for the damned course.

State bureaucrats say the range is open (see the webpage above), but it isn't.

Pittman-Robertson money was used to build that range. A bunch of nobody hunters and fishermen like me pay an 11% excize tax on firearms, ammo, and archery equipment and we pay a 10% excize tax on handguns. Plus, we pay license fees, all that money going to the LDWF. Then, when we want to do a little shooting, the range paid for by our money is closed.

That's fair.

Delays!

Some of you may have noticed a couple of days go by without posting. Sorry about that. Life has been busy around here. The rain that came the day before yesterday has turned the construction zone in my backyard into a Sea of Mud. Sandy, sticky, nasty mud.

The back yard was basically clay, and a lot of sand was used in installing the pool. Now, it's a damned mess. You can click on the picture for a more detailed view.



The astute observer will notice pools of water where pools of water should not be. The mud toward the exterior of the yard is only unpleasant. It is ankle deep and has the consistency of toothpaste. It sticks to everything. The mud closer to the edge of the pool is nastier, with greater quanties of sand. It abrades as it sticks to the skin. The mud closest to the pool is actually quicksand. I sank up to mid-thigh out there yesterday, the only thing that saved me was my considerable bulk slamming down on the edge of the pool. The fact that I managed that feat three additional times speaks to my ability to learn unpleasant tasks.

I need sunshine, and the National Weather Service is not cooperating. This is May, by God, and April showers should have been over long ago.

Tomorrow is church and I shall pray for drought.

On the bench

I was piddling around on the computer this morning, and found this page, from the Hodgdon site, which talks about youth loads.

Imagine my surprise when they talked about Hodgdon 4895 as an ideal powder for youth or reduced loads. IMR 4895 was originally designed for the .30-06 rifle. After WWII, Bruce Hodgdon went into the reloading components business and some of the first surplus powder he bought was IMR 4985, which he repackaged and sold to the shooting public. IMR 4895 was designed and sold as a powder for the .30-06 Springfield cartridge.

Readers here know my fondness for 4895, in whatever guise it appears. I think it is probably the most versatile powder currently manufactured. The two companies that make it are now both owned by Bruce Hodgdon. You'll find small differences in the loading tables, but basically 4895 is generally the same, regardless of manufacture. Cautious reloaders know that powder changes with each lot manufactured, and the powder made in 1955 isn't the same powder made in 1995. They're different and safe loading practices take care of those differences.

As I use the cartridge more, I'm becoming more fond of the venerable .30-06 Springfield. I once asked a veteran reloader what load I should use for the .30-06 and was told: "50 grains of 4895 and anybody's 150 bullet will do you just fine." I've found that he was right. My basic hunting load for the cartridge is 51 grains of my surplus 4895 with one of Mr. Hornady's 150 grain bullets. It's an accurate, dependable load.

However, I have a qualification coming up and I want to shoot my Remington 760 at the qualification. It's a .30-06 and the thought of pumping out 40 rounds of my hunting load just didn't appeal to me. So, after I read Hodgdon's page on youth loads, I got a piece of .30-06 brass and seated a cast 311041 bullet in it. The dummy cartridge chambered just fine in my 760.

So, I looked at the dipper chart for 4895 and saw that the 2.2cc dipper would give me 30.2 grains of 4895. So, I weighed a couple of dippers and with my technique, my dippers and my 4895, that 2.2 dipper weighed the powder at 29.7 grains. Still, that is awfully close to the 60 percent rule that Hodgdon recommends for his 4895 powder in youth and reduced loads.

By taking the maximum charges listed in our Annual Manual with any given cartridge and multiplying it by 60%, the shooter can create a 1500 to 2100 fps load, depending on the bullet weight shown. This works only where H4895 is listed. Do not use H4895 in a cartridge where it has not been shown.

Hey, Hey. I've got powder and a bullet.



That picture shows the Lyman 311041 bullet loaded in the case over 29.7 grains of my S4895. They're getting the Lee Factory Crimp before being stored. I'll get out one day this week and see how they shoot.

Friday

PawPaw is off this morning, to attend a graduation. My daughter-in-law, Melissa, has completed the degree requirements for a Masters Degree in something called Heritage Resources. This noon she graduates and I have been tasked with making Dirty Rice for the party afterwards.

Dirty Rice:
3 lbs ground breakfast sausage
3 cups chopped onion
3 cups chopped bell pepper
3 cups dry rice.
Salt, pepper.

Brown your sausage, then add the onions and peppers. Sautee till clear, then drain the excess grease. Add rice and stir. Cover with water and bake at 350 until the water is absorbed. Or, alternatively, the way I do it is to put a top on the dutch oven, reduce the heat to a bare simmer, and let it cook on the top of the stove until the rice is cooked. Either way works. I prefer to cook it on top the stove.

This is my Momma's basic recipe. It'll fill a medium Dutch oven. Early on, I noticed a definite mathematical consistency to the recipe. It's hard to make with just one of everything, because... hell, I don't know, it just doesn't turn out quite right. With two of everthing, it does pretty good. I guess you could get 30 of everthing and feed a regiment, but you'd need a big pot.

Time to get cooking.

Double Pole, Single Throw, GE Type, 20A GFI breaker

That's what I need. A circuit breaker. A particular circuit breaker, and there are none to be had in Alexandria or Pineville.

Actually, I bought the last one today and I need another one so we can get the pool pumps hooked to electricity. It should be in tomorrow morning.

My back yard is still a disaster area.


A swimming pool surrounded by a sea of mud. The contractor doesn't want to do anything else until the electricity is hooked up, so he told me to holler at him when the electrician was finished and he'd be back to start the pumps, vacuum the pool, clean it all up and pour the deck.

Did I mention that those breakers cost about $100.00 apiece and that copper prices have climbed dramatically over the past year? 10/3 UF Romex is about a dollar a foot. 12/2 UF Romex is about 44 cents a foot. Wiring prices are as high as I've ever seen them. Copper, of course, is a major component of brass. Brass is in high demand worldwide.

You should see the volume of sand that Milady is sweeping out of her kitchen every day. It's impressive.

Matthew and I hooked up the light today. Matt had the good sense to ask Milady where she wanted the switch, for her convenience. I have to admit they placed it most appropriately.

I'll be glad when the deck is poured and the contractors are gone, gone, gone.

Grass Roots

Those of us who watch such things have been watching Chicago, IL, wherein Mayor Daley is beginning to confiscate lawfully owned firearms from otherwise law-abiding citizens.

I am told that the Illinois Legislature is considering such a bill to make the bans statewide.

Then, along cones Pike County (scroll down), who says:

"Now, Therefore, It Be And Is Hereby Resolved, that the people of Pike County, Illinois, do oppose the enactment of any legislation that would infringe upon the Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms, and deem such laws to be Unconstitutional and beyond lawful Legislative Authority."

That doesn't mince any words, does it? The county co-sponsors say:

One of the two Pike County Board Members who sponsored the Resolution, Robert Kanady, says he hopes the measure would "be the spark that lights a cannon heard all across the United States."

The other goes farther:

"The issue here is not politics, the issue is freedom. Freedom began in this nation more than 200 years ago, when small groups of people like us, in towns even smaller than ours, gathered together to tell the King who tried to rule them from a huge city an ocean away, 'Enough is enough!' Freedom will only survive today if we have the courage to do the same."

In closing, he offered: "In this room tonight we are not conservatives; we are not liberals. In this room tonight we are not Democrats; we are not Republicans. In this room tonight we are Americans."

Hooray! for Pike County.

Monday Morning

I see in the Town Talk that the Legislature has convened.

Lots of stuff to talk about, lots of stuff to deliberate. This is an odd-numbered year, so this session of depravity is supposed to focus on budget and financial issues. We voted on that a while back, but legislators have no will power. They can't help themselves. They have to do what they think best.

Every-other-year fiscal sessions were created so lawmakers could take an in-depth look at revenue and expenditure matters without the disruption of the myriad issues that are introduced in regular sessions. But because most lawmakers are not on the committees that handle tax-and-spend issues, revisions have been made to allow an unlimited number of local bills, and each of the 144 lawmakers can introduce five bills of a general nature.

See what I mean? We voted to limit them, then they go ahead and ignore it.

When the House and Senate convene at noon today for the 60-day session, they likely will face more general issue bills as they will fiscal ones. The number of bills pre-filed -- 897 in the House and 322 in the Senate -- is well below the number filed in 90-day sessions, but many of the issues ould be hot.

It's depressing, isn't it?

But, the biggest fight is going to be over the money. Surprisingly, Louisiana has a surplus, so we should be happy to get our money back, right?

On one side are Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Democrats who support her budget proposals to meet many of the state's serious needs, especially education and highways, and on the other are Republicans and conservative Democrats who want to give money back to the people and businesses that paid it to the state.

Y'all grab your pocketbook. It's gonna be a wild ride.

Total Wreck

The pool installation continues. My yard is a total wreck. You can, of course, click on the picture for a bigger view.


That pile of bags and boxes in the top left is all the chemical and pumps and accessories we ordered.

The pool is about half-full of water. They're slowly filling the pool with water, and backfilling the hole with wet sand. Every so often, they'll stop and check for level. The contactor ran out of sand late Saturday afternoon and called a halt till Monday morning.

Tomorrow, the electrican comes out to hook up all the wires. I'm pretty good with electricity, but I'm paying a guy to hook this up correctly. The contractor tells me that he'll be ready with the pumps and plumbing when the electrician gets here.

So far, I'm impressed with this contractor. We're using Pleasure Pools out of Natchitoches, LA. No website that I can find, but the guy is in the Yellow Pages. He installs Viking Pools. So far, I have been really impressed with his knowledge, leadership of his crew, and willingness to to the job right. He's been on-time for every stage of the installation and has kept me up to date with problems. This guy is a professional and it is a pleasure to work with him.

Disarming America

The Toledo Blade put up an op-ed column about how the gun banners would go about disarming America. Reading it is like reading a manifesto of overthrow. By this time the Constitution is in the toilet, the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendments are no longer in effect.

What amazes me is not that some people think like this. What amazes me is that they printed it. From all accounts, the writer some kind of madman, but read a paragraph of his column.

Hunters would be able to deposit their hunting weapons in a centrally located arsenal, heavily guarded, from which they would be able to withdraw them each hunting season upon presentation of a valid hunting license. The weapons would be required to be redeposited at the end of the season on pain of arrest. When hunters submit a request for their weapons, federal, state, and local checks would be made to establish that they had not been convicted of a violent crime since the last time they withdrew their weapons. In the process, arsenal staff would take at least a quick look at each hunter to try to affirm that he was not obviously unhinged.

That's just the hunters. Wait till you see how he treats the rest of us.

The disarmament process would begin after the initial three-month amnesty. Special squads of police would be formed and trained to carry out the work. Then, on a random basis to permit no advance warning, city blocks and stretches of suburban and rural areas would be cordoned off and searches carried out in every business, dwelling, and empty building. All firearms would be seized. The owners of weapons found in the searches would be prosecuted: $1,000 and one year in prison for each firearm.

Isn't that charming? His words; random, cordon, search, seized, prosecuted. Doesn't that sound like a lovely place to live? Sounds rather Nazi-ish doesn't it?

He goes further:

Clearly, since such sweeps could not take place all across the country at the same time. But fairly quickly there would begin to be gun-swept, gun-free areas where there should be no firearms. If there were, those carrying them would be subject to quick confiscation and prosecution. On the streets it would be a question of stop-and-search of anyone, even grandma with her walker, with the same penalties for "carrying."

That sounds fairly benign, doesn't it?

This is his plan, and the plan, I'm sure, of most of the gun-banning left. I'm glad they published it here, so we could all see it. He missed a step, though, when the cordon and search operations are ambushed, when the America that I know rises up and refreshes the tree of liberty.

I swore an oath years ago, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I have not forgotten that oath. In some forums, some pundits discuss the "tipping point", or that set of circumstances that would compel a free people to throw off the yoke of oppression. I am certain that the scenarios described above would be well past that tipping point.

Once that point is reached, all bets are off. The gun-banners may not like the America they've created.

Pool - Day 2

The pool came in today, on a truck. I came home to watch them set it in the hole. Fiberglass pools come all in one piece.



Tomorrow morning I have to get busy stringing electrical wire.

Wood vs. Metal

This article over at The Town Talk gets my interest running.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Metal bats will be banned in high school baseball starting this September in the nation's largest school system after the City Council on Monday overrode a mayoral veto of the bill. The measure outlaws metal bats under the theory that they produce harder and faster hits, risking injury to young players who have less time to react. Opponents, who include Little League Baseball and sporting goods makers, say there is no evidence metal bats are more dangerous.

In all my youth, baseball was a constant. Whether we were playing a dirt lot pickup game that ran to dozens of innings with no one keeping score, or whether we put on uniforms and played in an organized league, or whether we lay awake at night, listening on a transistor radio to a faraway voice calling the play-by-play, baseball was a contant.

For many years, before I was allowed to own my own guns, my favored possessions were my catchers mitt and my baseball bat. The catchers mitt was modified by my Dad. He took it apart and stuffed it with insulation till it resembled nothing so much as an overstuffed pizza pan. You couldn't catch a ball one-handed, but you had enough padding there to stop a freight train.

The bat. A wooden Louisville Slugger, marked 30 on the butt. It was an official Dixie Youth model. It finally went away several years ago when one of my sons was swinging away during a game and broke it. Yeah, he got on base, but the bat never made it back to the rack. There is nothing like the CRACK of a wooden bat that makes me turn and look.

I've watched a lot of baseball these last few years, and the metal bats just don't do it for me. The PING of the bat loses something. I understand that baseball is dangerous and wooden bats shatter. I've seen lots of bats break and scatter across and infield. Mostly, when they had been modified in some way that made them illegal for use.

Now, New York is citing a study that says metal bats are more dangerous, give the ball too much speed and don't give the infielders enough reaction time.

We've all seen it. The pitcher winds up and delivers his fastball. The batter swings and a line drive launches back at the pitcher. The pitcher has two choices, but generally reflex throws the gloved hand at the ball and more often than not, the pitcher catches the ball. The crowd cheers or moans, depending on their loyalty, but tears well in the eyes of the pitcher.

Not because he has made a magnificent catch, but because it hurts like hell. His hand is on fire and the bones have been pulverized, clenched in an unshakeable death grip around the ball. It's a touching scene, but one we'll draw the curtain on.

I, personally, have always preferred a wooden bat. What think you?

Digging Day

This morning at work, I got a call from Milady. She was quite excited. It seems there were men in the back yard preparing to dig a hole for the swimming pool. When I got home, this is what I found.



I wasn't expecting them for another week. This increases the slope on my craziness curve, because there are a few things I wanted to get done before they started digging. Too late.

Oh, well! We've wanted a pool for a lot of years. In another week, I'll have one.

BAG Day Gun

I was a little late for my BAG day gun, for a variety of very good reasons. Most of those dealt with a dearth of cash. However, the last couple of days I have been looking at a Remington Model 760, in the very satisfying .30-06. I'm thinking of qualifying with it in June, just to give the range officers fits. I can claim with some authority that my rifle is the dressed-up version of the police rifle.



My version has a serial number from the first block of numbers (1,000 to 541,000) and mine is the BDL variety, with the basketweave stock. The Remington page puts my rifle manufactured sometime during 1966 or 1967.

As it sat in the pawn shop, it sported a Simmons 3X9 scope and someone had taken the iron sights off of it. The barrel was dirty but the rifling looked good all the way out to the muzzle. The counterman and I rummaged around in a box behind the counter and he found an Eagle brand 10-round magazine for the rifle. He threw it in as part of the purchase.

The price? $350.00 out the door.

Spring Squirrel Season

I see that Louisiana is going to have a limited spring squirrel season.

It ain't the wide-open season that we get in October. It's limited to private lands and selected WMA's. Go to the LDWF website for particular information. I note that the bag limit is three and possession limit is six.

They don't have to worry about PawPaw being in the woods for this season. I don't like swatting mosquitos, which is why I never got hooked on turkey hunting. Swatting mosquitos is bad enough in November. I've camped with the Boy Scouts in the summer and while I love camping in general, and love the Boy Scouts particularly, the mosquitos put a damper on my enthusiasm for being in the woods during the spring and summer.

Junior is going in for a cat scan today, and I'm worried about my buddy. I don't know what they're looking for, but I've said my prayers and if any of you could help by saying yours, I'd appreciate it.

Tell Me it ain't So!

This isn't news. It's titilating, for sure, and it is probably judicial misconduct. And I suppose the locals should cover it, before they send copies of the story to whatever Judiciary Board exists in the mountains.

I'm recalled of a particular judge in a small county court who would routinely fix traffic tickets for young, attractive college coeds who appeared before him. The secret, it seems, to such preferential treatment consisted of showing up before court, going into chambers in a short skirt, and pleading the case in alone. Behind closed doors. Hizzoner was even known to recess court if a particularly stunning young lady appeared in court with a ticket.

I don't agree with it, y'all. Before you clog up the comment box with vile invective, know that I don't approve, I just report.

Then there was the time that the DA's wife came to the office late one night and caught her husband, the local DA, in flagrante delicto with his secretary. She sent them both to the hospital by firing one round at his butt with .22 ratshot.

Both of these types of story can probably be attributed to urban legend. The reason legends come into existence is because there is a shred of truth to them. The shreds of these truths are known to those persons who lived in Chinquapin county during the late '70s. It's said that power corrupts. There are few people more powerful in a small town than the local Judge, DA, and Sheriff. If you live in a small town, you've probably heard stories like this. In one version or another, they're probably true.

Today was time for a Judge story and a DA story. Maybe sometime soon I'll tell you a Sheriff story.

Monday

What a weekend. After the posting last Thursday, I got into Friday, then Saturday and Sunday turned into a free-for-all of honey-do lists and grandkids.

We got a lot done. The pool house is functionally complete. By that, I mean that the sheetrock is installed, floated, and painted. The moulding trim is installed. The air-conditioner is installed and working, as is the sink, toilet, and lighting. All the electrical work is complete.

We still need to do some cleaning and decorating, but the pool house is basically done. JUst in time for the swimming pool crew, which should start work in the next week or so.

I see I missed a few things over the weekend. The Blue Angels lost a pilot.

I'm looking for a carbine in .223 or similar caliber that I can use as a patrol rifle. It's a search I make from time to time, but and when I find the particular rifle I'm looking for, I'll get it.

I called one shop this morning, and when the gun guy got on the phone, I asked him. "I'm looking for an evil black assault rifle with high capacity magazines that shoots dum-dum bullets."

"We don't have anything like that." he said.

"What do you have?"

"We've got a couple of ARs, a .30 cal carbine, and a Mini-30 on the shelf."

I told him I'd be in later this week.