No User Servicable Parts Inside!

Sigh... I have been invited to the Wells Fargo Golf thingy this weekend. I thought that rolling up in the '94 Mustang would decrease property values at the home I have been invited too. So I wander to the bunker up north to retrieve the ostentatious ride. I am greeted with this:

All the way home. OK, maybe it is but that is also where the odometer and trip stuff is. This overrides all of that. Get home and open the "Bonnet". Sigh. 

It is full. Sigh. According to specs, this holds 2.5 liters of fluid. There is much more here than you are led to believe. A far cry from one of these to be sure:

Used to be if you pulled the knob, pressed the foot switch and nothing came out, you sorta had a clue. Not so much any more! This is gonna hurt! I think I have to remove stuff to get to the connector to either leave it unplugged or jumper it! 

I love the Ford/Jag in so many ways but it vexes me. Hard. 

Oh, and golf? What a waste of a perfectly good rifle range! I would rather have someone hit a golf ball and then I try to shoot it! I slice more balls than a veterinarian on golf courses! I gave it up.  
 

Glocks....

Let's start this war on my little space. Laura over at "insert witty title here" has a wonderful post about Glocks. Not only about the Pistol itself, but rabid fans of it too. I laughed out loud!

I don't like them, but just as much as H&K, (fill in the blank of any other manufacturer here) the "Glockaholics" will come out of the woodwork to defend them as the pinnacle of firearm development. 

If you have one and like it, fine my me. There are enough flavors of Kool-Aid to go around for everyone.

Disclaimer: I am a certified factory Glock Armorer. I have shot plenty of them and taken them apart and put them back together. I stand by Laura's post. I hate them.  

NS Heritage Fleet

So in honor of the 30th anniversary of the merger of of the Southern Railroad with the *cough* other railroad, Norfolk Southern announced it will honor the occasion by painting 18 locomotives in original paint schemes of railroads that make up the present day company. Five of these will come from the Southern. 

How cool is this?

The locomotive is in SR "Green Tuxedo" paint! The others are the Savanna & Atlanta, original Norfolk Southern, Interstate, and Central of Georgia.

It looks great! Not a steam locomotive though.  


I am a fan of the SR and love to visit my home museum. Just in case you doubt my motivation here is a shot from the garage:

Uh, yeah, still working on the garage, but you get the idea! 

Photo credit for 8099 from the Southern Railway Historical Association, Inc. I'm a member. Who would have thunk it? 

Kool-Aid Problems.... Sigh.

First congratulations to my new shooters in basic pistol class and the same to my CCH students this weekend!  

So, the new spare Smith and Wesson Military and Police VTAC 9mm Pistol  9mm bullet hose threw up its front fiber optic after 300 rounds. I check the older one and well, the results were less than pleasing:

It started to remove itself after some range time as well. The new pistol? The slide was shipped to S&W on their dime. It arrived today back at the factory. We shall see what the turnaround is. VTAC sells these sights aftermarket for 240 bucks. American. I find this failure rate totally unacceptable. And of course, I am scheduled to be in a "tactical pistol" class this Friday. I think I will attempt some Cyanoacrylate-fu on this one. I have nothing to loose. Anyone have any other suggestions to get this optic back in the front sight? 

Sigh.... I will of course now take an old friend with me for backup:

On the other hand, I did go to the secure FedEx facility today and pick this up:

500 rounds of M1 Carbine food for my curmudgeon, 200 rounds of M1 Garand food for my M1. 

I hope everyone has a great week! 

The Bench is Backing up!

I normally like to have one Firearm at a time on the bench, but some range rentals needed some love before the weekend.

The Bersa Thunder had a broken Safety lever and a firing pin that was about gone. The galling on the right hand side of the slide is from when the magazine disconnect stuff was sorta floating free until repairs.

The S&W Bodyguard has a problem as well. Guess what it is? Yep...Dead Laser! Again a range rental. The other stuff laying around are parts from the Enfield. 

Looks like both Basic Pistol and CCH classes are going to be at or near capacity this weekend!  

Anna's Clue Tank: Army pilots, man your planes!

Remember today! An excellent write up below at the link from one of my favorite Blogs. God bless the gallantry and sacrifice these brave flight crews showed so that we could remain a free Nation.    

Anna's Clue Tank: Army pilots, man your planes!

FedEx! Like I don't have anything else to do!

Here is the sad tale of a shipment of ammo from CMP to stately manor. Take a look at this:

I received a phone call on Sunday notifying me of the shipment and signature required. OK, I jumped online and requested a hold at FexEx location. Life is good right? Wrong! Cryptically I see the status above "unable to hold" and call them. Blah, blah, blah. They actually tell me that I can pick it up at a FedEx location about a 40 min. trip one way from here in another State! Uh, no! So I tell them to send to my wonderful neighbor. They say OK and tell me they will deliver in the afternoon today. I let my neighbor know and she says she is going to lunch today but will back by 12. Cool. NOT! 

Check the status of the package. 11 o'clock they tried to deliver today with predictable results.

I asked why they could not hold at a FedEx Office location for pickup. Here is the line... wait for it.... "Sir, this package is labeled hazardous materials and cannot be held there." OK, just because something has an ORM-D sticker on it, you will throw it on a truck and blast down the Interstate with it but won't let it sit in a locked cage in a franchise because it has a OMG  ORM-D sticker on it?  Really?!?!

Sigh... UPS routinely drops oh, 16 lbs. of powder and 10K of primers on my front porch. I know they do it because the shipper did not request a signature, but this should be simpler than this!  

On the upside maybe FedEx Delores will drop by!