Friday Prepping

 I have a bunch oof high school buddies coming over tomorrow, some I haven't seen in 20 years.

This morning, I got a call from a CFDA shooter.  He's in town, enroute to a big shoot and wants to see my range.  He and his lady will be over this afternoon. He's retired Army, an old cavalry scout.  When we get together, no telling what is likely to happen.

I'm prepping a big gumbo for tomorrow, and i intend to violate the Ten Commandments of Gumbo. I am going to add shrimp to chicken and sausage.  Bless me Father, for I have sinned.

I will spend this afternoon and tomorrow entertaining. There will be laughter, lies told, and whiskey consumed. I have two very amusing American Single Malt whiskeys for those who choose to consume. There may be cigars, We'll see.

Right now, the chicken is boiling for stock.  Belle has gone to the grocer for last minute stuff.

Y'all have a very pleasant weekend.

Niche Cartridges

I've always had a fondness for niche cartridges. My very first centerfire rifle was a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington.  I preferred the 200 grain Remington load, and I carried that rifle for two decades.  It was my go-to choice for whitetail deer in central Louisiana. That rifle wore a 2.5 scope and was hot medicine for deer in our piney woods and hardwood bottoms. I never had to shoot a deer twice with it.

Ron Spomer talks about another niche cartridge, the 338 Federal.  It's nothing more than a .308 Win necked up to 0.338.  It throws big bullets.  Not far, but hard. It's not in the same category as the .338 Win Mag, nor the .338 Lapua, but it is not meant to be.  It's a cartridge for inside 200 yards.  Truth be told, that is where most North American game are taken.

Before Junior Doughty died, he and I talked about the 338 Federal.  At that time it was a new cartridge.  We thought that a good 200+ grain cast bullet would be the bees knees in this thing.  With hard linotype metal and a gas check, you could push it to 1900fps and get plenty of thump on the other end. In a short action, light bolt gun with a low powered scope, it would take anything we might point it at.

I'm glad to see that Ron highlighted this cartridge.  It is not for everyone, but niche cartridges never are.

Gumbo

 We successfully dodged the bullet of the ice storm.  Awoke this morning to clear skies and cold temps.  Belle said that she wanted some kind of soup or stew for lunch, and I started diffing in the freezer.  I found two partial packs of good Gulf shrimp that we could cook, so I chopped some onions and bell peppers and decided to make a shrimp gumbo.

Seafood gumbo is not my forte.  I am much more comfortable with a chicken/sausage gumbo, but I gave it a shot anyway. Toward the latter part of the process, I knew it needed something, but my palate would not give me the clue.  I had Belle taste it and we decided that a bit of red pepper flakes would help it.

Wehn the rice is done, we will get a bowl.

Monday Morning

We seem to have dodged the arctic bullet that is the Great Ice Storm of 2026. We lost power for all of abot four minutes The pipes are okay, and the roads are relatively clear.

Not so for our neighbors to the north. I understand that Oxford, MS took a major hit, with substantial damage to the electrical grid. Those folks are in a bind.

Drinking coffee with Belle this morning, we were talking about being cold, and the lessons we have learned over the years.  Both Belle and I grew up in the '60s and '70s.  I remarked that back in those days, girls would sometimes wear clothes that exposed a bare midriff. I seem to recall a universal trait, that when I would touch an ice cube to an exposed belly button, the lady would object.  Sometimes violently.

Moving to another survivor of the '60s, we come to the Air Force fleet of aging bombers, the old B-52.  During the '80s I was assigned to a unit in the Army Reserve.  Our headquarters building was just off the north end of the runway at Barksdale AFB in Bossier City, LA.  Barksdale is a major hub for the B-52.  They were aging machines in those days, but it seems that the service life of those airframes may be 100 years.  The earliest of them were delivered in the 1950s and may still be flying in the 2050.  Incredible.

Ice

 We're getting a little ice, but the ground is not frozen, so it is not sticking.  The power is on, so we are warm and have light.  I've talked to all my kids and they are okay.  We are weathering the storm.

The weather radar has lots of pretty colors.

We're hanging in there.  This too will pass later today.

So It Begins

 We shot our January monthly match at the clubhouse today. Yes, there is a winter storm coming, but it ain't hare yet.  We decided to have some fun.

We had eleven (11) shooters this morning, not a bad turnout when you figure the weather.

The worst of it is supposed to roll in here later today, mainly in the form of ice and sleet, not so much snow. Many of the churches are closed tomorrow, and the news is saying that the state will close the Interstate (I-49) later today, mainly because so much of it is elevated across Alexandria.

Belle and I are hunkered down, with everything we need to ride this thing out.

Prepping Friday

The big news this weekend is the winter storm that is going to hit us over the weekend.  Yesterday there were lines at gas pumps and propane filling stations.   From all accounts, we are going to be on the southern edge of the storm, so how bad it may get is a matter of which weather app you are using.

The temps are all predicted to get into the mid-to-lower teens, so the temps will be there.  The question is how much precipitation we are going to get, and in what form. Snow, sleet, freezing rain are all in the mix.

I think we are ready, though one never really knows.  The gas cans are full, the generator is ready, the propane tanks are filled. Now it's just a matter of how closely the reality matches the forecast.

We will see.

Just Wednesday

 The big news is the Ice-mageddon we are going to get this weekend.  Lots of folk in panic mode.

For myself, younger son came by this morning and we went to Academy to look at scopes.  Picked out a nice Vortex Crossfire for the Winchester.  Mounted it, life is good.  We didn't go shoot simply because it rained all day, and I'm not ford of being in the rain.  When I was in the Army, the mantra was "If it ain't raining, we ain't training", but I'll wait for less precipitation.

The weather-weenies are prepping us for a huge ice storm this weekend.  I'm ready, but I am not yet convinced.  What concerns me is the insanely low temperatures they are talking about.  Louisiana does not need temps in the teens.  It ain't right.

Tomorrow, it is supposed to rain some more.  The menu in the shop tomorrow will be chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and cream gravy.  I may heat some english peas to go with that.  We'll see.

Optics

 My younger son came in for a visit today.  He'll be here for a week.  Belle and I picked him up at the airport and his brothers met us at the shop.

Stories were told, lies were explored.  At some point the conversation turned to optics.  I happened to have a rifle in the rack with an old Bushnell scope.  It will be upgraded tomorrow.  the boys took that scope off the rifle and began to disassemble it, exploring the mysteries of the internals of common optics.

That was interesting, and we concluded that young Philippine grills are better qualified to disassemble cheap scopes than middle aged rednecks from Louisiana.  They probably have specialty tools.  At one point, a pipe wrench was used in the disassembly, probably not something we would find in a technical manual. This was redneck gun-smiffing of the worst kind.  No alcohol was involved in this evolution.

For the record, the reticle was found in the second focal plane.

 We'll go get a new scope tomorrow and see how the rifle shoot.  It's a push-feed Winchester Model 70 in 257 Roberts.  More to follow.

Free Expression

 Just for giggles, let's take a look at the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That is fairly broad and well stated. 

Turns out, a bunch of Somali backers invaded a white church in Minnesota on Sunday, protesting and raising hell.  Nobody got hurt, but it disrupted the service.  Don Lemon, the disgraced CNN guy was there with a camera crew, supporting the disrupters.  So, what we have is a collision of free speech and free exercise of religion. It's a good question where the boundaries lie.

You can see Don interviewing the pastor here.

Interestingly though, there is this thing called the FACE Act, a Clinton-era law that makes it illegal to 

"intentionally injuring, intimidating, or interfering with, or attempting to injure, intimidate, or interfere, any person by force, threat of force, or physical obstruction exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship."

Oops.  Don and all those protesters may be in violation of federal law.  We note that journalism is also protected under the First Amendment, and this should further complicate an already complicated legal exercise.

A Fifth

 Those of us who grew up in the 20th century knew what a fifth of whiskey was.  One fifth of a US gallon.  A US gallon holds 128 ounces, so a fifth was 28.6 ounces. Nowadays we buy our hooch on the metric system, and a 750 ml bottle, we still call a fifth, but that holds only 25.36 ounces.

A jigger of whiskey was commonly known to be 1.5 ounces.  One of the legends ascribed to the game of golf was that the course standard of 18 holes was based on the fifth of whiskey.  If a gentleman limited himself to one jigger per hole, he could finish the course with fifth, retaining a wee bit to toast the course after the game.

Lately I have seen some of the online whiskey gurus saying that they didn't know why a 750 ml bottle is sometimes called a fifth.  Now, the education is complete.

You are welcome.

Greenland

 I haven't really been following it, but I have been noticing this whole Greenland kerfuffle.

President Trump seems to think that it is strategically important, Denmark owns it, and President Trump is making noise about buying it.

It seems that a NATO military contingent has gone to recon it.

LINKY

Thirty-seven (37) is barely an overstrength platoon.

Insurrection

 Should President Trump use the Insurrection Act to send federal troops into Minnesota?  I think not.

Better to use US Marshals.  The oldest civil law enforcement in the US, successfully used in many such cases, where the local authorities don't want to bend to federal law.  Like Lyndon Johnston used them to break Jim Crow.

The US Marshals are a better fit.  They are civil law enforcement, and you don't run into Posse Comitatus.

Record Breaking Tuna

 Oh, c'mon.  This is funny.

LINKY.

I bet that was a fine boat ride.

Fantasy

 I saw this meme earlier and didn't believe it.  It was too inane, too fantasy-driven, too problematic to be anywhere close to the truth.  Turns out, it is probably true.  As it turns out, the first words scrammed by the passenger in the vehicle of the woman shot by ICE, screamed, "Why did you have real bullets?"

Did she think that this was some play-action fantasy?

The problem with these folks is that they cannot differentiate between Instagram reels, TikTok shorts, and the real world.  In the fantasy of holding ICE accountable, everyone goes home safe.  In the fantasy of video gaming, there is a reset button.

This gal who was killed is not some "white chick George Floyd", as I've seen her described.  She is not a martyr to a cause.  She is just the latest example of a lethal force encounter going very bad, very quickly.

For my entire police career, as I was getting ready for my shift, I'd look in the mirror and ask myself if I were willing to take a human life that day.  We do a job in the real world with real consequences.  Thankfully, I never had to take a life.  I drew my weapon only four times in the line of duty.  I never had to fire.  For that I am thankful.

Today's "protestors" don't seem to understand lethal force. That is unfortunate, because the cops understand it very well. There is no reset button.  It is forever.

Justification

 I see that the news is awash with the tragic tale of a gal in Minnesota who was recently killed in an altercation with federal ICE officers in Minneapolis.

It's tragic.  The death of anyone is tragic.

In 37 years behind the badge, I was regularly trained on Use of Force during my yearly training.  It has become stenciled on my brain.  Louisiana law mirrors the law in much of the country.  Let's take a look at the law, shall we?  Louisiana Revised Statute 14:20 says in part:

A.  A homicide is justifiable:

(1)  When committed in self-defense by one who reasonably believes that he is in imminent danger of losing his life or receiving great bodily harm and that the killing is necessary to save himself from that danger.

There is nothing there that talks about the intent of the deceased. We cannot know what she was thinking, nor the state of her mind at the time of the incident.  All that is necessary is the perception of the officer that he was in danger of great bodily harm or death. 

Her death is tragic, no doubt. We will never know what might have happened if the officer did not use deadly force.  It is a question we need not ask. You might note that in Louisiana, at least, there is no difference in the law between a sworn officer and a common citizen.  The justification is there for anyone to use.

I'm just saying.

Upgrade

 When I built this shop back in the winter of 201-2018, one of the things I built of scrap lumber was a temporary table that we could use as a cook prep area and to use as a serving table. Built from scrap 2x4s and plywood, it was never meant to become a permanent fixture, but it is so damned useful that it keeps being used even today.

That old table has served us well, but lately, Belle has discovered warming mats that we can plug in to keep food warm while we entertain, and we wanted to upgrade the table.  I searched around and found a butcher block tabletop that would add a few inches to the table and give me some room to add a power strip underneath the table edge so that she could plug in those mats.

Today, elder son and I installed the new tabletop.

I think that looks a little more finished and gives me room to add the power strips. Belle comes home on Thursday.  Belle approved the upgrade before she left and when she gets back, the project should be compete.

Iran

 Have y'all been watching the crap going on in Iran over the past couple of days? It's hearting up and it looks like the people might overthrow the mullahs.

I'm sure that the violent spasms are not over yet, but it seems that the Iranian people might get their country back.

Let Freedom Ring

Road Trip

We went to Shreveport this morning to pick up Belle's daughter at the airport.  She's going with them on the cruise.  

We stopped in Natchitoches for a bit of history and a bite for lunch. Belle's favorite restaurant is closed this week for a thorough cleaning and remodeling.  We went around the corner to another restaurant and ate po'boys.

Front street in Natchitoches.  Momma's Restaurant. They make a passable shrimp po'boy. The girls will leave here tomorrow, heading for Galveston. They should have a lot of fun.

Full Proof

 Bourbon has a number of criteria that must be met before it can be called bourbon.  At least 51% corn, distilled in the US, aged in new oak barrels, barreled at no more than 125 proof. Straight bourbon is two years old.

Many of you know my fondness for Evan Willians Bottled in Bond.  It's my bouse whiskey, aged at least four years, bottled at 100 proof.  It's good hooch.

I also like Buffalo Trace.  One of the products of that distillery is Benchmark.  It's a bottom-shelf, straight bourbon whiskey.  Over the years, I have consumed my share.  I was in the liquor store today and found a bottle that they call Full Proof.  Bottled at 125 proof, this hooch is not watered down.

For $25 out the door, not a bad deal.  I brought a bottle home and we'll try it on in a little bit. If nothing else, it should be a good mixer for cocktails.

Nick Shirely Drops Another Video

If you've been watching Nick Shirley's expose of the corruption in MInnesota, it seems that it is just getting bigger.

The lesson here is that we have to keep an eye on welfare services, or the thieves will wreck the system.

I'm just trying to boost the signal.

Disaster Averted

 I walked out into the carport this morning and saw a little water on the floor near the carport door.  I wasn't really concerned, thinking it was condensation dripping from the humid weather and heavy dews we have had lately.  Looked closer and wasn't convinced, so I went inside and looked at the hot water heater. Found a drip, a very small drip, coming from the lie that brins hot water to the house.  Well, hell. Verdigris corrosion, that line was about to fail.

A trip to the lumber yard and an hour later, everything is fine.  Disaster averted.

Belle is prepping for a cruise.  She has an old friend, Sue, who recently won a cruise.  Sue's husband didn't want to go.  Belle knew Sue before she met me.  Old friends. So, Belle is going on the cruise with Sue.  Five days out of Galveston.  They'll drive to Galveston on Friday, spend the night in a motel, then meet the boat Saturday morning.  

I'm going to stay home and keep the dawg out of trouble.  I have no motivation to go on a cruise of any kind.

I don't even like to say the word "plumbing". Can't live without it, never learned to like it.  Maybe I'm done for this calendar year.  Hope springs eternal.

UN-Care

 Other than the usual Democrat handwringing about President Trump's flawless warrant sweep this weekend, the only thing that I see is that Tampon Tim is dropping out of the Minnesota governor's race.

Normally I would not care who the governor of Minnesota might be.  I just don't give a shit.  And now that I think about it, I really don't care.  It's just not something that gets on my radar. The only reason I know who Tampon Tim is, is because he ran a disastrous race with whatshername in 24.

Kudos to our folks in the Caribbean.  They did a bang-up  job this weekend.  No casualties in a very complicated evolution. Lots of aircraft moving around in hostile skies, and everyone came home safe.

Tweaker Geographic

 This guy makes tweaker shorts, funny as hell.

Like this one.

Or this one.

I like the accent.  

Hmmm

 It looks like President Trump gave the green light to capture Maduro last night. Kind of like when we captured Noreiga in 19889.

I bet that the politics in Caracas is interesting this morning.

UPDATE** Nick Freitas makes some good arguments on both sides of the question.

Cheeseburger

 What makes a great cheeseburger?  That's rather subjective, but people still try to rate them. For example, these guys think they have found the world's three best cheeseburgers.

I recall, in the latter years of the last century, there was a place in Derry, LA called Ruby's Cafe. Miss Ruby was a widow who ran a lunch place.  She served local, grass-fed beef that she had butchered to her specifications.  Her steaks were great, but her cheeseburgers were top notch as well.  She made something she called a Ranch Burger, and they were to die for.  I think she put a little ranch dressing powder in the burger mixture.

North of there about 15 miles was a place called the Rite Way Grocery. It was a convenience store with two gas pumps out front. Owned by John Gibson, he had a guy named Howard who did the sweeping and the stocking and anything else that needed doing.  Howard also manned the grill during the lunch rush. Howard made a magnificent cheeseburger.

Both Ruby's Cafe and the Rite Way Grocery have passed into the pantheon of places gone forever.

Today, if I'm looking for a great cheeseburger, I go to The Pelican in Pineville. It's right across the street from MacDonalds.  Run by a Korean family, they have an eclectic menu, but I'm convinced that their cheeseburger is the best in the parish..  And, it is less expensive than a Big Mac from across the street.

The search for the worlds greatest cheeseburger is never done.