Auld Lang Syne

Yes, it can be a depressing song. I don't care. I remember moments in time and look forward to more of them. A repost. Back in the day the person running the spot blaster or scraping crap off the undercarriage looked like this occasionally on New Years Eve. 

   






















I miss her but I know it has been almost 20 years since we have been together. I always get a bit choked up on New Years Eve

I hope you and yours have a great New Year!

Coolant Leak!

Not quite as dramatic as this:



Troubling just the same. The '94 Mustang beater is reporting "Low Coolant" on an idiot light. Bad on me for not catching it sooner. There is a reason they call them "idiot lights". Sigh.  Luckily, the "No Coolant" light is not on yet =). Looks like the thermostat housing. On it tomorrow, it's supposed to get cold here Friday.  

From the Bench!

Its been a while but its worth it! 

This one gave me some grief. I could not find it in the Standard Catalog. I asked for help. The amazing walking encyclopedia of all things that go bang gave me the heads up! Thanks! 

This is a .32 Military & Police! They did not make a lot of them either on the K Frame. I'll clean it up and shoot it this weekend! 




 

Sheesh!

Does anyone have a screwdriver? I need one to get to mine =)




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Retro Christmas!

So Mr. Curmudgeon is sorta out of whack after spending 4 hours on the operating table yesterday. For the first time ever I'm sitting here in stately manor on Christmas Eve. I always go see them and celebrate with them on this day. Don't get that statement as a pity party for me. I have a lot to be thankful for, I talked to Mr Curmudgeon and he is up to his usual *ahem* cheer =).  I still find the Holiday Sprint lurking around. 

Merry Christmas to you and yours! 

 

UPDATE! Well wishes asked for!

Mr. Curmudgeon is resting well after 4 hours in surgery. Thanks so much for your well wishes and prayers!


Mr. Curmudgeon is going to have some "minor" surgery tomorrow. Any prayers and/or good thoughts would be greatly appreciated. In his mid seventies I'm thinking there is no such thing as "minor" surgery when you go under. I can't be there but Mrs. Curmudgeon will be with him.  

I have to do this!

The Showboat. BB-55. Yeah lets lurk for a bit!

 

Tech Update!

Well I got this about 30 minutes ago from the brown truck of happiness. 

I'm in the tech biz but I had to back up for a moment and be stunned. One day delivery from an Internet order. A 1 TERABYTE hard drive for my computer?!?!

Lets put this into perspective. 

The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Module had a computer that had 2K of memory. I have for under 80 bucks a TeraByte harddrive. The numbers look like this:

 

















I continue to be amazed.Take a look at this old school pilot fly his craft even when the computer is telling him that it can't handle it.1202 Alarm.

Abby....Somthing.....

So I'm at a loss as to what caused the PC here to take a really big dump on the floor yesterday. Either the NVIDIA video card or the 19" CRT monitor had a failure and took each other out, or the software video drivers got corrupted.

Sigh.... 

Run out and get a happy shiny new LCD monitor. Remove the video card and go back to the integrated video hardware. HELLO ACER! Your manual sucks and if I had to go to Google to figure out where THE POWER SWITCH is on the monitor? You are doing it wrong! 

Go find the Intel motherboard drivers for the video. Yes, Intel is getting out of the MB biz and I get that. I will say this though. I was able to get the drivers from the Intel site for a Model DG31PR board. They did try to take care of the customers. 

SO, Abby something indeed. This thing is a old desktop PC. Some are saying the desktop is over. We shall see, but I think corporate drones are not going to give up on them anytime soon. 

PC blew up!

In a spectacular fashion I might add. Be back later!


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Peter Sent Me Down the Rabbit Hole Today!

And it was a good thing. In his post over at Bayou Renaissance Man he commented on ammunition developments since the 1986 FBI shootout. I wandered off after reading his links and downloaded this book:

Very eye opening. I read it twice. If you get it be aware that it has actual autopsy photos and ex-rays of the two perpetrators of evil. The human body is a wondrous machine for both good and evil.

Here is the FBI training video that came out of the grievous loss of two Special Agents life's with three more with critical injuries and two more injured. 

 

Thanks Peter! Sobering material to be sure. 

Savage Model 29B!

I will take this rifle to the range tomorrow. Not worth much to collectors and to be honest in really rough shape cosmetically. As long as I put stuff on it and then came back the next day with 0000 steel wool the rust would come off. The internals however were in outstanding condition (sorta). Quick bath with the ultrasonic cleaner and a soaking. 

Then cleaning! 

Wish me luck. I LOVE bringing old stuff back to life. 

From the Bench

A Springfield Repeater, Savage Model 29B .22 S, L, LR pump action rifle. It's in rough shape. We shall see how it goes. 

Wish me luck! This rifle is not worth a great deal monetarily but to a friend of mine and his Father it does mean much. 

Shotgun!

So it seems a Blogger meme has started. Brigid posted a thoughtful well researched review on an American classic. The Remington Wingmaster Model 870. Others took it up and posted about the 870's they might *ahem* have lying about. 

Murphy's Law shows two variants on this venerable tool that has put meat on the table and protected home and hearth.

Me? A rather pedestrian one here, but very special. It belonged to a friend of Mr. Curmudgeons that passed away over 18 years ago. 

I am honored to have it in my safe.  I have a "disposable" Winchester pump to carry the duty of defense. This one is a safe queen.Not so much because what it is but rather where its been.

For my friends waiting on packages....

I'm working on it! You know who you are! I offer the standard apology. 



Soon! 

Shotgun!.... Stuff

So Mrs. Curmudgeon runs across this during an estate sale.

I'm smart enough to figure out is was for a front stuffer something and little more than that. The horn holds the powder, the wood on the right measures it and the piece of wood on the front in it's own holster measures the shot.

The gourd holds the shot. I took it to my friends home in tidewater VA. I got an expert opinion real quick! It was made out of a tire. I should have seen that! Then on to other matters.

Here is the wadding for a powder shotgun! Newspaper! In the bottom of the pouch. 

Love it! Then here is the thing. I'm more scared of these than anything I have in the house. 

Including these!

So glad to have this piece of history here! 

Anyone have a blackpowder shotgun? I have the stuff for it! 
 

Oh Santa!

This would be awesome!

Dr. Who, the new series seasons 1-7 with a universal remote! 

A review here.

Now a moment of silence for the solid axle

So the 2015 Mustang has been unveiled. WITH independent rear suspension. OK, I'll reserve judgement until I drive one, but in the meantime a moment of silence for the 49 years of solid axle. Here have some 1964, 65 Mustang commercials. 

Guess I need on of these!

A whole house DSL filter!

Just waiting on the Amazon drone now!

This Should be Fun!

So having become thoroughly fed up with my VOIP and Internet provider recently, I have chosen to kick those that shall not be named *CoughTimeWarnerCable,Cough*, to the curb. I opted for GTE, Verizon, Frontier to provide POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service), high speed interwebz, and long distance service to stately manor. 

There is a problem though. I was too clever by half when wiring the casa in 2006. I now need to find my notes to move back from a cable based service to CAT 5e distribution. 

I still need to provide service to the old phones, backup to the alarm, and well, still make phone calls to annoy my friends occasionally (friends, you have been warned).

I accept the challenge because loosing over half the cable bill monthly is worth it!