Look What Showed Up Today...

Timing is everything. 

Guess I can watch it and see if I did this right =)

USS Laffey (DD-724) Work Party!

From the USS Laffey Association:

"ALL HANDS:

We are booked on the Yorktown for our fall work party.

Arrival date: Sunday October 19. Compartment available after 0900.

Depart date: Saturday October 25.

Please let me know if you plan to attend so I can keep track of how many will be there.

Sonny Walker

soncher724@verizon.net"

 

 I don't know if work will allow this or not, but I'm going to try!

Any Home Decor Experts Here?

So after the visit and fantastic paint job of the bathrooms by Mr. Curmudgeon I'm at a loss. I had previously installed these dead bolts on the closet doors.

 














The color is called "hand rubbed bronze". Make a great name for a metal band or p0rn film in my opinion but whatever.

So after looking at the paint job and looking at the light switches I thought a free paint job of this magnitude deserved some new light switches, cover plates and new towel rods and such. 

So, I wander off to the yuppie Lowes home improvement store, not the one near stately manor. I found these switches. 

I threw this one in the room with the toilet in the master bathroom. I have never grounded a wall plate before, but its metal. The switch also has a little indicator light when off to show you where it is. 

That's not overpowering and I like it! 

So before I commit to all of this as well what say you?

Oh, why is this stuff SO expensive?! I brefily considered going to the supply house and getting some rigid conduit for towel rods and toilet paper holder. I know how that works! 

That's the adjustable leg on my reloading bench. About 2 bucks if I remember correctly. Unfortunately I do entertain occasionally and I still await someone more interested in whats in the safe than decor, but still. I do need to make it aesthetically pleasing in case I need to sell in the future!

The 80's Called

No not these 80's sigh....

 









Last year as a matter of fact. Remember this?

I am trying to give the 80's back the master bathroom. It has been a long progression. 

So today we go at the really crappy light fixture over the mirror. 

 








Then we find this:

 












Thanks contractors! The box is off center and the amazing thing was the fixture was NOT rated for a damp location! On top of that the ground wire was stuffed in the box. I had to grab some sandpaper to clean it up before I installed the new fixture. Sigh.. It's not exactly this old house and it was built in 86 but still..... 




 

A Visit to Statley Manor!

So Mr. and Mrs. Curmudgeon make a rare visit to stately manor today. They bring gifts:

.40 S&W because I love my S&W Model 4006 from a dear elderly Gentleman friend in the mountains of north west North Carolina and .38 Special because, .38 special. There is a gift bag here as well, and I don't know what's in it yet.

Back in the day Mr. Curmudgeon was a painter, Coating Application specialist field superintendent. He brought this:

Goal? Paint the popcorn ceilings in the bathrooms and start on the walls. The paint on the walls is pretty beat up, and in his opinion its because before I bought the house, the owners has everything sprayed then came back with a roller on really cut down paint. 

I trust his opinion. From Chicago doing lead abatement on the El train bridges, Kings Bay Submarine Base in Ga., to Coors in Bolder Co., to several Nuclear power plants and almost everything in between, he has BTDT. Plus I have this:

  











A camera that was inside the torus assembly below a reactor. If you can get 110 film now you need to watch out as the camera now develops its own film if you leave it in! =) 


In the meantime, Mrs. Curmudgeon is attacking the front porch with abandon. She left it in such good condition that the Virgin Mary would be proud to sit on it!

The bathroom? The ceilings came out great. Trial coat of "polished silver" on one wall. The color really did not come out on the pic. I think its because of the mirror. I think it looks great! 

They will be back in a day or two. Good to have them here even though I had to work. 

Irony. I haz it.

Waiting on me today in the mailbox was an envelope. I retrieved it after going to work to fix something else that went Tango Uniform. I have been running around that place since Memorial Day weekend plugging holes in the dike.

Inside the envelope was this:

Right on time too. 

 








Thanks President of chemical plant! 

Well we dodged it!

Unfortunately, my parents did not. Here is a awesome pic from my friend from RJR Drive of the storm there two hours travel north from here. 

It blocked both roads to my parents house with downed trees, no power, no landline telephone. 60K without power.  The landlines gone tell me that poles are down. 

Here? Well we came out ok, but time to pay attention to stuff.  Its that time of year. 

This is pretty much a pretty looking sealed lead acid battery that can charge phones and jump start cars. It was due for the 3 month maintenance charge. 

 





























Large old school Maglite. New batteries! And yes if you sent in enough coupons from Winston cigarette packs you could get one too! Me? Well I was handed one. 

 




















Charge the wall safe. Although not the primary goto thing in the event things go pear shaped here it does play an important role on where I go and grab what. I have defined lines of fire to assure that if I miss I will not put a hole in a neighbor. 

So on to this: 

 









Lantern and another MagLight. Change the batteries and charge the one for the lantern.

I hope everyone is OK.

Back In the Day

I met two woman the day before. I had to be at a training class at 0800 hours the next day for the new job. What do I do? Well travel oh an hour or so to meet them. Then it got to well, lets say I don't dance. I did to this though. At some bar.



I have two steps and I have them down pat! I Stayed uh somewhere that night. 

Oh crap! At o'dark thirty I had to leave them to well uh, go back to work! 

I get in the really crappy Mid 80's Mustang (4 banger, really) and driving straight for work. After 3 hours of sleep. The Stereo in the car plays this as I am wishing I could sleep! 



That pretty much sums it up. I used to be happy to shut the clubs down. I'm now happy if I can shut the Cracker Barrel down! 
  

The 60's Called...

They wanted their patio door back.

 












I hated the thing. By the time you moved the blinds and removed the two locking bars I forgot WHY I was trying to get to the deck! Never mind the huge security risk.


So today, some new French doors. 

There was a casualty I should have predicted before I started. The magnetic reed switch and 5.6K ohm EOL resistor for the alarm. 

   











Yeah, they pretty much self destruct after 10 plus years in a door. Right on time the monitoring company called for a trouble alarm. You just can't run out to the shack of radio anymore and get one of these. I ordered one and it will be here Monday. Bypass the zone and keep going. I'm not that worried about losing the door switch there are several other devices providing coverage for that area of humble abode. 

Meantime Spring seems to have arrived. 

I don't know what the purple thing is but the Butterflies love it! 


So wander off for a long overdue haircut. My barber Stylist of over two years asks "the usual?" I tell her she may indulge herself. A evil gleam comes into her eyes and I know I may have made a mistake. I end up with "product" in my hair. I have no idea what that means. 

 













I might use that for my new profile picture. Or maybe this one. 

  









In other news, Happy Birthday to Mrs. Curmudgeon! I hope to see her soon. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend. 




 

Well I DO live in the South!

I love the lady that comes and cleans my house.  Married and Mother of two young children and I hate to say it but one of such exuberance I can only tolerate it in small doses.
She's "perky" to the roof. 

Oh yeah, back to living in the South. If you come into humble abode there is nothing to scream "gunnie" in the common areas most guests of short acquaintance would note.

I have a "no live ammunition" rule for classroom instruction. This creates a problem for me as I am constantly getting ammo out of the range bag or stuffing it back in. So instead of sticking the ammo in a secure area like so:

I end up sticking it on a bedroom dresser of late. I also have to clear my carry handguns as well. 

Yes, that is stuffed "Nipper and Chipper" mascots for the RCA company well, back when they were RCA. 

Oh yeah, back to my point. When my cleaning lady is confronted with this kind of stuff she simply picks it up and dusts the dresser. I love it! 

So working on this...

I have removed most of the allergen media in the house.  

The carpet that came out of the living room and its backing looked like it should have had a hazmat team. 

 

Hideous green carpet replaced with cut up sawdust with a picture of what real wood looks like. 

So we note this. I don't know why but two holes in the drywall lower left. 

 





























Looks like some drywall repair.  These plates had old school brackets.  So I do some Interwebz research.  I found this. 





Well maybe! I doubt she will be here anytime soon to fix this. 

Weekend Update!

First up a shout out to my RSO's this weekend as we congratulate many new shooters and CCH class students. They rock on the line as I do the administrative stuff. 

So I have decided to stick the rear quarter window louvers  on the new ride. A precursor is to insure that you cannot see the unpainted side of them inside the car. OK. I'm on it. 

Before:

 










After:

Flat black window decal.  That is functional all by itself.  Less UV and heat inside. The best part? The bling will attach to them making it all that more easy to revert to stock later.

This was a cake walk.  

 

I'm Back!

Sorry for the delay I had to make a quick trip after classes this weekend.

No not really.  My company celebrated 25 years of partnership with our Japanese parent company today. So today I had a Yukata for wear. Great food and some amazing activities. 

Congrats to my new shooters and CCH graduates this weekend! 

konnichiwa!

 



 

Inverse HAL

So at the requisite time of '0 dark thirty last night instead of this:





I get the house alarm going off telling me that the garage door is open.  This is strange as this means that the motion detector is not going off nor the heat detector.  The door frame has been moved upward, not a panel kicked in, meaning the door has opened. 

So I break a rule and go to the area.  There is a steel door from the garage to the kitchen. No sounds heard from the kitchen or garage and the alarm monitoring company is now calling. 
  
Hmmm.....  look out into the garage and find...... nothing but an open door.  So I pull the remote batteries from the cars in the garage and the external keypad, lock HAL into "vacation mode" and go to bed. 

Tonight, I release vacation mode and wait.  My perverse version of at the very best a TTL version of HAL has gone rogue it seems.  It will open oh, just about anytime it feels like it.  Sigh.... The opener was here when I bought the house and it looks like I have a project for this Saturday. 

This version of HAL is getting so disconnected! I also doubt it will be singing "Daisy" when I do the deed. 

From the Bench...and Kitchen!

Sorry for the absence. After taking my day off after classes I seemed to have picked up a bug that forced me to the doctor last Wednesday.  I am still getting over it, but at least I heard this conversation. 

Radiologist: "Can you remove those". 

Patient: "Sure. I will require two shots of Tequila, some K-Y jelly and some pliers".

Radiologist: * blink, blink* "No, this will work".

From the Bench?  The proverbial "Bag 'O Gun". A friend brought it to me.  

  
   










I told him that the pain would be great to him because I did not get it this far and now I have to figure it out. 

A Springfield XD something.  I will let it sit here for now. I have other pressing matters. 


Contrary to popular belief, I'm just not fueled with coffee, Camels, and Hoppes #9.  Sometimes you have to do what might be loosely defined as cooking something.

An old comfort food recipe for Veggie beef soup.  You start here with boiling the stew beef. 

Insert British joke here. 

Then, just add this stuff.

Just like me, this soup is pedestrian, functional, and will fill the need but somewhat sorta bland (Sorry Ma!).

Enter my Blog friend Brigid that thoughtfully sent me some Penzey spice bliss some time ago.  

  


   







Just three of these peppers totally changed the recipe.  The smell in the house is wonderful and sampling all night has been wonderful. 

I cannot wait to try these on a traditional South Carolina low country dish, the chicken bog.  I always rely as others on Tabasco or Texas Pete to bring the heat to that dish.  These peppers are awesome!