Central Planning & Clothing Supply

This weekend drill will be my fourth since getting back in the Guard. It will also be the fourth time I've worn the same set of now apparently unauthorized BDUs to drill. If it's like the last time, I'll have a number of lieutenants telling me that I'm not allowed to wear them anymore. And like last time, I'll have to tell that I haven't been issued any uniforms yet. Or any equipment of any sort. In four months. Because there isn't any money for issuing uniforms.

This is somewhat of a problem, as I will be sent off to Texas for nearly a month in January, and none of our drills after this one are at our armory. I foresee a call from supply the day before heading off to Texas, requesting that I drive down to the armory (three hours one way) to sign for my uniforms. Which wouldn't be a big deal, if I had a desk job. Unfortunately, acutely ill people show up when they need too at the hospital, and randomly requesting days off without notice doesn't gain you any love from the supervisors.

I'm going to look strange running around a medical clinic in the Sinai wearing a Ramones t-shirt, olive drab fatigue pants covered in paint splatter, and hiking boots when that one pair of BDUs finally wears out.

Sweet, Sweet Relief

Few things relieve stress as much 60+ rounds through the L1A1 at silhouettes. 200 yards will definitely let you know if the sights are on. In my case, they weren't, unless you're getting kickbacks from on ortho surgeon who does hip replacements. On the other hand, at least I'm consistent from shot to shot.

Next time around, I'll remember to take the spotting scope so I can actually see where I'm hitting before I'm out of ammo.

Ugly Gun Sunday

This is what happens when your marketing focus group is comprised of pimps, middle-eastern dictators, and Goldmember devotees.

Damn Old People

The Wife took Friday off to start her garage sale. As advertised, it would start at 0900. When I left to go to work before 0800, it looked like a Romero film around my driveway, if zombies were capable of operating cars. When I opened the garage door to take a cycle out of the garage, it started a wave of elderly flesh shuffling towards our property. Fortunately The Wife, who can switch into full Gunny Hartmann mode when necessary, repelled the geriatric bargain hunters before they could breach household perimeter, at least until 0900. Apparently the day went well, as I didn't see any blood stains when I came home from work.

Speaking of which, work has done it's best to kick my ass all week, so I'm hoping to get out and shoot for the first time in over a month tomorrow. I'm leaning towards loading up all the my rifles in 7.62 x 51 and consuming a large amount of ammo. I'd love to go just shoot some steel at 200 yards, but since that's "plinking" with non-paper targets, it's forbidden, bad, and evil. And some of our members wonder why it's hard to attract younger shooters. After all, everyone knows that what teenagers really want is to sit at a bench so they can fire five rounds over the course of an hour, then whip out the ol' micrometer to measure the group size. Or so I'm told. Shooting anything besides bullseye targets will just encourage immoral behavior and perverse thoughts, blah blah blah.

Someday, I'd like to buy a quarter acre right next to our range, and hang steel in rows from ten yards on out. Maybe when I win the lottery.

Weekend Carnival

The Wife has a garage sale coming up this weekend. Which to me, means a weekend of people tramping onto my property, scoping out what isn't nailed down, but is pawnable. On the upside, you do get to observe some interesting individuals that you'd usually have to pay an admission fee to see.

Found this tracking back some links to Gunboards (I think). This one's a little different in that the creator had a trashed Mosin, lots of plastic rifle accessories not in use, a fair bit of free time, and a burning desire to see how much of an ugly rifle he could create. I'd say he accomplished his objective. It's ugly.

Great Advertising.......

doesn't always precede a great film. The wife and I have a passion for horror films, and are always looking for the rare horror film with a decent budget, good acting, high production values, and an outstanding splatter factor. 30 Days of Night has all of that, but seemed rather slow after a promising start. It was worth the money and time, but I wouldn't feel I was losing out if I didn't see it again.

I believe there's a recently released DVD called "Black Sheep" about vicious, flesh-eating sheep that recently came out. Sound like my kind of film.

I'm A Bad Person

I've recently been subjected to a mandatory "cultural sensitivity" class. One of the highlights was a scale of "Diversity Appreciation" which caused a spike in my blood pressure. Spike one occurred when reading the highest rating: culturally enlightened. This was defined as being fluent in two languages, with deep respect and admiration for another culture. Spike two occurred on reading the lowest rating: culturally incompetent - not fluent in any other languages, suspicious of other cultures.

Man, that's subtle. I'd hate to be culturally incompetent, I mean, people might think I'm not nice or something.

Maybe that's why they gave us a paper to to fill in with our names and answers to the questions asked during the indoctrination presentation. Especially "Where do you fall on the scale?". It's amazing how hard it can be to read cursive after too much coffee. It looks a lot like a random scribble. Hell, I'm surrounded by doctors, it'll look normal in that environment.

I've been out in a couple of different cultures over the years. When I develop a deep respect and admiration for political repression, poverty, and corruption, I'll move. Until then, I'll stay a suspicious, nationalistic, gun-owning American.

Range Fire AAR

Last weekend's range fire was interesting for a few different reasons. First, it was one week after my optometrist told me I could now wear bifocals. Which would probably explain why the front sight was fuzzy pretty much the whole time I fired. Not good.

Secondly, I had a little time to kill, so I wandered over to what's apparently some kind of bone yard for old vehicles. Most of the following vehicles I've at least seen before, even if it was in a museum. But the only rocket launcher truck I've encountered before was a Chinese manufactured model at Camp Anaconda, parked in a unit motorpool destined for a display pad back in the States. And the tracked vehicles with soft covers I haven't seen anywhere else.

Last, an example of why commanders like to keep their troops busy: When you're waiting to have the barracks inspected for permission to leave the post, and you have a couple hours of down time, a platoons worth of bored young males and and a fully charged taser are a bad combination. And after a good twenty of them have voluntarily submitted to a demonstration, not be willing to do so will lower your standing in their eyes. So, I now know what a taser feels like. Twice.

If anyone would like to experience that sensation, but doesn't have access to the real thing, I'd suggest mounting a steak knife blade on a electric reciprocating saw set to high, and having it held firmly against the soft tissue of your choice. I managed to make it about two seconds, although two troops actually made it the full five seconds to the automatic shut off.

I hope like hell these guys don't get too bored during the Sinai deployment, or it could be a long, painful year.

I've Been Waiting A Long Time For This

My son had a varsity choir concert tonight, in conjunction with a number of other vocal groups from his high school. It's held at the local community college auditorium, which is very nice for a town our size. The fall concert is very well attended, with few seats available if you arrive close to the starting time.

Which should indicate to attendees that the event is important to those present, and demands a level of audience decorum higher than say, watching the local bar band playing out at the county fairgrounds. If your kids aren't old enough to walk on their own, don't bring them to a two hour choral concert where the rest of us can here them babbling and crying through all the performances. If you're a teenager there to watch your friends, and you don't want to stay through all the various groups, fine. But try leaving in between performances, not just after all the performers are ready to begin and focused on the conductor.

Which brings me to a behavior I admire: when the conductor stops what he's doing and watches the two shining examples of today's youth start to amble up the stairs. The ambling lasted about ten steps until people started laughing at them. Then they picked up the pace. Guess there's something about several hundred people staring at you and letting you know they think you're an idiot to get you moving.

Magical Thinking

Sadly, I personally know people who would completely miss the satire in that.

H/T to Free Market Fairy Tales.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Um......No. No No No No.

Long Guard Weekend

I have three days of range fire coming up, and it's a couple hours away from home, so no posting until late Sunday night.

A Tip Of The Hat...

To Xavier, for noting my unfortunate obsession with mutilated, abused, and just plain ugly firearms. You, sir, have a large number of readers. And a fine appreciation of the practical work of art that is the Smith & Wesson revolver.

Latest Addition To The Armory

A Hungarian Axe, manufactured by Arms & Armor of Minneapolis. These craftsmen specialize in replications of existing relics in museums to turn out historically accurate but affordable (and fun) hand weapons. I've purchased both my pieces at the Renaissance Fair in Minnesota, and haven't regretted either purchase. I love old military bolt rifles, but sometimes the old up close and personal weapons really draw me in. I'm looking forward to buying more of their excellent edged weapons in the future.

Sunday Ugly Gun Post

Granted, I've never thought of Carcanos as particularly handsome rifles to start with, but I don't have any idea what this person's reasoning was.

Peace, Love, and Understanding....

They're all about love for all, you know.

I Think I Just Threw Up In My Mouth A Little Bit.....

I was going to post some pictures of the new addition to the armory, but I started cruising the blogs, and look what I found at (NSFW) Zombietime's blog.

WTF??? I don't care what consenting adults do in private. What people do in public is another matter. There were kids present at this.

Pervs.

POSers

I'm not sure if this was some kind of stupid protest, or another fashion trend among the idiots. Walking through the gates into the renaissance Saturday, I see a guy in his twenties, wearing BDUs, with a soft cap. I've never seen anyone in uniform at the renfair, and it's a pretty unlikely place for someone to be authorized to do so. Getting closer, I see a chain for one of those trucker wallets hanging out of pocket; when he turns around, I see the whole Che Guevera beard. They both go very nicely with his rank of Major.

Then there was the E-1 Private, in his new ACUs. The only two patches he had were a name and "U.S. Army". The rest of the velcro on them looked like nothing had ever been attached to it, and his spiffy black tennis shoes really set of the uniform:

And then another young guy, running around in BDUs, no cover, and tennis shoes:

This kind of crap begs for judicious application of a large cluebat to the head. Jackasses.

On the bright side, most of what I saw was a lot of people having a good time:

Plus, as I had The Wife's approval, I picked up a new addition to the armory at the blacksmith's. Pictures of that later this week.