Whew!

Well, a lot has happened in the last few days. I mentioned that we had found a property that we were interested in buying, and we've been moving towards that. We're going to write up an offer on Wednesday and we'll be listing our house either today or tomorrow. We have a LOT of work to do in order to make our place presentable... I foresee light blogging ahead, because if I'm not working, sleeping or coaching, I'll be cleaning , repairing and painting. Our realtor wanted us to put it on the market on Sunday, but we weren't ready. We're still not ready, in our minds. We rented a storage unit and are removing the clutter in our pad as fast as we can, but damn. There's a LOT to do.

This is already turning out to be a gut-churning experience. Everything is contingent on us selling our pad, and to be honest, I'm not that optimistic right now. Well, we'll see...

This is the view from the new place. You can see right down the valley to the west, towards LA and the coast. Perfect place to watch sunsets, which is a favorite pastime of my wife's.

So, this is the goal. We'll work towards it, and if it's meant to be, it'll work out.

Haze

Yes, a crappy cell phone pic, but the layer of smoke hanging over the valley and filtering the sunlight is distinctive nonetheless...

Today's patriotic picture

Poached from a buddy at work... love the backdrop...

Buffoonery

“One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday, stressing the need to pass the Democrats’ comprehensive energy package.

Wow. 1600 structures up in smoke, 1 MILLION people forced to evacuate and this bastard wants to score political points right now, with a theory that has so many holes in it you could drive a semi through?
Well, I would say the carbon output of these fires has pretty much eclipsed car emissions for the Southland for quite a while, so we should see a dramatic increase in Global Warming now, right? A positive feedback loop?
Every time Reid opens his mouth, he sprays stupid.
I wonder exactly how the "Democrats' comprehensive energy package" would have prevented this...

Found at Drudge...

Brief round-up

Things have been very hectic of late here at the Kingdom, which would explain the lack of posting lately. Looking at that property has made my wife and I re-examine our situation and make some choices about what we need to do to sell our current hovel in today's crappy housing market. We should know more this week - how much we're prequalified for, how much we can sell our place for, that kind of stuff. Not very interesting, but there it is.
Coaching flag football has been a blast for me. I've really taken to it and I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy it. Man, I live and die by these kids. If we win a game, I'm on a high all weekend. Conversely, if we lose, I'm in a funk for just as long. We're 2 and 2 right now, these kids are playing their hearts out and I'm very proud of them.
Work has been interesting. We've got some new stuff coming down the pike; namely UCMR2 that we have to get ready for come the new year, and part of that is my needing to learn a new analysis on new equipment, which I enjoy doing...
Anyway, that's where I'm at and why I haven't been posting much of late. Hopefully I'll be able to post more this week...

Looked at a house today...

...Over on the other side of the valley, nestled up against the "M" mountain. The house itself is no big thing - built in 1984, no bigger than the one we have right now - but its sitting on 2/3 of an acre, with a great view towards the West, and access to the mountain right out of the back yard. It also has plenty of driveway space, so we could have our trailer on the property, and as well as the attached 2 car garage, there is a separate air-conditioned 2+ car garage in the back of the property. I'm really digging that. It's significantly pricier than what we're currently occupying, however...
So. We're giving it some thought. The market's pretty much in the toilet right now, and it looks like this property has been out there for a while (the date stamp on the photos on the realtor's website show June), so I don't think we have to jump right away... besides, we'd have to sell our current domicile, and I'm really not looking forward to all the hassle that goes with that.
We were lucky in that we bought in 1999, right before the housing market went completely insane here in the Southland, so even in these depressed times I think we can set a fairly low price and still walk away with equity, but still... still a hassle.
We'll have to see... see how much we can qualify for, see how desperate the seller is to get out (he wants to get his retirement in Havasu started already), see how much we can sell our place for, see how much BS we have to put up with to make this all work...

**Forgot to mention...
I was talking with the homeowner, who was present when we went to look at the house. He seemed like a real nice older guy, had a lot of toys (two Harleys, a Corvette, an off-road Jeep and a couple of old hot rods) and we got to talking about common interests. I was developing what I thought to be a good rapport with the guy, right up until the moment Number One Son bounced his mini football off the back of the poor dude's head. Yeah. He's gonna be real flexible on the price now... Gotta love kids, man.

Let's play a game...

Ways to defeat microstamping…
- 5 minutes with a file
- Take your new handgun to the range and put enough rounds through it to wear out the microstamp. Shoot, check your brass – repeat as necessary until it’s gone
- Steal someone elses gun
- Pick up someone elses brass at the range to drop at the crime scene
- Use a revolver to commit the crime
- Use a rifle to commit the crime
- Use a shotgun to commit the crime
- Pick up your own brass at the scene
- When performing the drive-by, shoot from inside the car, so the brass is not left at the scene
- Buy a new firing pin from out of state
- Buy your semi auto handgun out of state
- Use the handgun you acquired prior to the passing of this bill

This wee list took me about five minutes... can you think of any more?

Well, he did it...

Arnold "The Manchurian Candidate" Schwarzenegger signed into law HR1471, the microstamping bill.
I am so disgusted, I don't know what to say, except that this "REPUBLICAN" has done more harm to our gun rights than the last DEMOCRAT in office.
Arnold, you are a pandering, sellout FOOL. You will win no loyalty from the left for this, and you've alienated your own party.
I like Sebastian's take - all handgun manufacturers should stop sales of handguns in California to civilians AND police immediately.
I need out of this state.

Had to blog it...

Overheard at the kitchen table this morning...
"I would prefer if you guys wouldn't try to lick everything! It's very bad manners!"

--- Priceless life lessons we learn in childhood...

Well, I guess you had to be there...

Putting glass on my SKS

Right after I bought my SKS, I decided to mount a scope on it.
My first attempt was with the $50 SKS package that comes with a 4X scope, the mount and 10 stripper clips. I didn't like it at all - the mount replaced the stock bolt cover in the back, so every time you have to clean it, the mount cover has to come off and you have to rezero.
Witness my second attempt:




A little research on the web led me to these guys and I ordered the mount for the SKS... $60 plus change w/shipping, and I got it today! So, I got right to work...

First off, I removed the original rear sight, by pushing down on the front and pulling it toward the rear. There's a leaf spring underneath providing tension, and this needs to stay in place.

Installing the new sight base: almost the reverse of the removal above, but there's a pin to push in on the side - flat spot up, so the tightening screw will depress enough to get out of the way of the notch that runs the length of the base. This notch can serve as a rear sight in a pinch... a feature that I like, so I have both options immediately available.
Next step, push in the rail and fasten in place by way of four screws...
Add a red-dot sight, adjust to ensure the ammo can load correctly, and you're done! 10-15 minutes tops, no drilling, no tapping, no gunsmithery... If I can do this, anyone can. Now, I'll have to get it to the range and sight it in. Oh darn; more shooting...

WooHoo!

I made the tribe!

Damn, that picture's grainy. I need a new camera.

Well, there you have it...

Al Gore won the peace prize. Leftist politics trumps all at the institute, I suppose. He joins some august company, most notably Yasser Arafat. He's lagging a little in the body count, though... I'm sure he can make that up if he gets enough of his policies pushed through here and in Europe, however...

Field Trip

Went on a field trip with Number One Son's class today, to the local art museum...
Right off the bat, the museum's children's curator just flat out rubbed me wrong. I really don't think she's a good fit for that particular position, given her attitude and impatience towards the kids, an attitude that seemed to have also worn off on her "junior docents", who were helping out.
The theme of the museum right now is prints - various styles and techniques were on display...
The curator informed us that "The first known print was made in India around 3,000 years Before the Common Era".
Excuse me? The "common era"? Common to what, exactly? And at what point does the count for this "common era" start? Around, oh, I don't know... AD 1? The birth of Christ?
What the hell is wrong with BC? Are there really people out there who just cannot handle knowing that our measurements of time originate from the date of this individuals birth? People that cannot even stand to say the guy's name without soiling themselves? Is it truly oppressive to acknowledge this, whether you accept his divinity or not? Is that so unreasonable?
A little while later, we were in another room and the curator asked all the kids to gather round and sit down on the floor. Some of the kids started to sit on a bench nearby, which was apparently not on. The curator checked that right away with, "No, no, everyone must sit on the ground. That way it's more egalitarian". I shit you not. Che Guevara, reincarnated as a dumpy, bespectacled middle aged white chick just panting to fill the kids' heads with the dialectic.
Maybe I'm overreacting, but this lady just got right on my tits today. Maybe what I'm hearing about the public school system lately isn't an exaggeration...
Crap, all I wanted to do was wander around and look at some nice pictures.

I love it!

Save the planet - eat a kangaroo!
Wow, Greenpeace seems quite uninterested in the fact that the kangaroo population has halved in the last five years... now what kind of self-respecting environmental organization would disregard that? I suppose one species tossed upon the altar of Global Warming is a small price to pay to save Our Mother... just so long as it isn't whales, m'kay?
I wonder what roo tastes like, anyway?
I think I'll have to try to find out...

Link found at Drudge.

You have got to be kidding me...

Al Gore is the front-runner for the Nobel peace prize? Exactly WHAT has he done for peace?
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. An organization that will hand out peace prizes to the likes of Yasser Arafat has obviously lost its way, as well as any credibility to the sane among us.

Well, I'm back...

And have been for a couple of days. Things have been a bit hectic around here, so I haven't had much of a chance to post. I had a great time up in the forest, but I struck out this year - in fact our whole deer camp struck out. Bucks are very thin on the ground in these parts, or we just suck at hunting. Probably a combination of both.
I'm so pissed at myself. I got up there, a 12 hour drive, got all set up, got out into the boonies and whipped out my camera to take some shots of some absolutely breathtaking scenery. No fucking memory card! Unbelievable! I brought up something like 5 sets of batteries because its a juice hog, but I left the goddamn card plugged into my computer! Gah!
Fortunately, some of the other guys had their cameras, so I'll beg some pictures from them... we'll see how successful that is - after all, one of them still has shots of my kill last season that I haven't managed to get a hold of...
More about my trip later, hopefully accompanied by some pictures that I did not take...

Massacre in Wisconsin...

...perpetrated by an off-duty sheriff's deputy. How to deal with this one? Shall we now ban guns in the hands of cops? Of course not.
Unfortunately, no amount of psychological screening or invasive "flashlight-up-the-butt" questioning can guarantee this won't happen. I'm sure the Wisconsin deputy passed all of these with flying colors; otherwise he wouldn't have been on the force.
Cops are human, just like the rest of us; most are good, some are bad. We have a tendency to put cops, firefighters and other such public servants on a pedestal because of the difficult and dangerous jobs they have chosen to do, but at the end of the day they are just as fallible as the rest of us. Because they ARE us.
Sometimes the sheepdogs we charge with our protection turn out to be wolves. Thankfully that's a very rare occurrence.