Range Report 19 January 2008

Yes, Virginia, it was a cold one. I arrived at Lee Kay around 0915 to find that there were already twenty or thirty cars in the lot. It turned out that Hunter Education students would be shooting their qualification exams all day long.

Last Tuesday I had commitments from four folks to show up and shoot. I couldn't confirm anyone last night and ended up shooting solo this morning. Mrs. Tmj Does Not Do Teh Cold and the goddesses have been spooling up for THE BIG DANCE all week. One of my coworkers called me at 1130 to let me know he'd slept through his alarm, but I was almost packed up by then. Coaching strangers is all well and good but once in a while it does no harm to confirm the friends' and neighbors' suspicions....

I ended up breaking in the two newest Mosins: Model 91/59 built on a 1937 Izhvesk and the 1943 retired Tula PU sniper.

Temperature at 0930 was 24f, light overcast, with light wind coming mostly from behind, or blowing west, since the firing line runs generally north - south. I decided to shoot for zero at 25 yards using a fore stock rest from a seated position. I had intended to move over to the hundred/two hundred yard ranges if things looked promising but I ended up coaching some kids practicing for their Hunter Safety shoot.

If you don't have a headspace gage or access to a smith who does, it is necessary to treat "new" milsurps gingerly. Since both these weapons are new (to me) I opened the ball for each by loading one round of my crappiest old combloc ammo (Russian/Barnul brass case light ball, 1951 production) then bracing the wrist of the stock between two sandbags. I then fired a blind round while crouched beneath the table. It's clunky and looks funny, but then again so does walking around with an improperly - fit bolt sticking out of your forehead. In the field I'd normally just lash the rifle to a spare tire and fire it with a string.

This is the final target for the 91/59:



I was mighty pleased with this one. The ammunition used here was Albanian light ball, and I've been happy with it in all my Russkis. The trigger has reasonable travel and breaks very clean and light for a Mosin.

The Tula retired PU doesn't have a great trigger, but then this is RUSSIAN rifle. GOOD is just fine:



I had a case failure the second round after the "sandbag proof" round. Nothing spectacular - just some gas venting back around the bolt. Most of the ammo I shoot in these is from the nineteen fifties so some slop is going to happen. I puttered around on one target to warm the barrel, then shot the final target (shown above) using eighties manufacture Czech light ball (silver tip). The wind had come up a bit but at twenty five yards it would really have to howl to make a huge difference. It was cold...



... but that's when Mosins are at their best. That's four groups of three on the target: The dime group was aimed at six o'clock on the orange dot with rear sight set for 500 yards. The quarter group was aimed at the same point with 100 yards set on the rear sight. The other two groups were shot offhand and kind of hung out a bit wider and more right.

I am saving pennies for a repro PU mount/scope combo. The PU is going into the gunsmith next week for a formal headspace check and I am getting the bolts turned down on both rifles. The 91/59 will move into my pickup as soon as the bolt is done.

Not a bad day. Got home just before noon, cleaned up and put away, and here I am. I hope yours was good, too.

Range Date

Heading out to Lee Kay tomorrow at 9 a.m. for a few hours of shooting.

I'll have two Mosin variants, a Bushmaster carbine, and some miscelleneous pistols to work on. I always bring extra ammo for guests.

Stop by and say hi if you are in the area. I'll be the stumpy individual with the four-wheeled shooting cart on the seventy yard range.

It's going to be true well digger weather. Perfect for shooting Mosins!

Quickly, Now...

Christmas was in Maryland this year, at Mrs.Tmj's sister's new house. Sweetest line of the morning, upon my oldest goddess' entrance to the room wearing her new azure blue cowl neck sweater:

(from Uncle Lee)"Set phasers for stunning!"

Mrs. Tmj joined Weight Watchers at her work and has so far achieved ten percent of her weight loss goal as of this past Friday. That's a significant number all by itself but when measured by the fact she did it through both the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasting seasons it's downright amazing. When our extended family gets together, we cook like Al Capone sold hooch. She got a four-sensor scale for Christmas.

The goddesses are both as tall as I am now... depending on what shoes they happen to be wearing and whether or not I'm in boots. They got - well hell, they got everything they asked for EXCEPT a car. What part of "goddess" don't you understand?

I am in pain. The thyroid meds, however, so seem to have positively effected the mental aspect of the problem. I still feel half a step back and the pain sucks. And if I get any bigger I will have to buy my next belt buckle at the commercial plate window at the DMV.

Silly high point of the year so far:

Thursday last I found a true retired sniper Mosin-Nagant 91/30 on the rack at the Big5 right here in Orem. CH stamp on the receiver, all matching numbers*, two filled holes below the wood line on the left side of the receiver where the scope mount used to be bolted, and a dark but clean bore with a 30 degree counterbore at the muzzle. The stock has some intriguing cartouches buried under the gunky red arsenal shellac.

I am going to shoot it for groups at fifty and a hundred yards this weekend. If I can get under three inches at a hundred yards (using Czech light ball ammo of eighties manufacture)I will proceed to clean it up and hang a reproduction PU mount and scope on it.

Politics? Well, there are no fit candidates on the Left side. It is entertaining in a sick and twisted way to watch the Dems feeding on each other, though.

I could vote for Giuliani, Romney, or Thompson with a mostly clear conscience. Leaning toward Thompson but really don't have a dog in the race yet.

If John McCain or Huckabee should end up being the Republican candidate or even on the ticket I will not cast a vote for president in the 2008 general election. If it even looks like that situation may arise I will execute our plan to convert the bulk of our retirement from funds to commodities or physical assets.

Our country used to be stinking rich. Rich enough to afford excesses like campus communists, Democrat majorities in Washington, and creatures as simply bad as the Clintons or as feckless as the current Republicans. No more. Not nearly; what with Dubai bailing out CitiBank and our other leading financial institutions reaping the harvest of thirty years of unsolicited credit card debt and stupid mortgage loans, we are getting ready for some bumpy times.

Oh, and then there's the eighth century boys slavering over the possibilities presented by our candidate choices... feh.

I've never been more grateful to be living in Utah. There's no state in the Union better prepared to survive a shitstorm than here... even if our current political leadership is casting dangerously nanny-ish at the moment.


* There are three distinct sets of numbers on the receiver ring. The earliest markings are so faint as to be illegible but the size of the script resembles what I've seen on barrels from the 1920's. The second set of marks are the Tula numbers dated 1943. The last set is composed of two Cyrillic letters followed by three digits and is common (stamped, not electro penciled) to all the metal parts on the rifle.

OY!

In the face of a mountain of very necessary chores... I elect instead to head up to Lee Kay and break in the latest Mosin - a 91/59.

I can Christmas shop on the way back.

Here are two recent comments in other places: Belmont Club and Protein Wisdom.

Not Sure If I Agree

with this:

"To the perverse jihadis who constitute large numbers of Muslims, the existence of the female sex is threatening, hence women are treated as little more than cattle, with fewer rights than some lower animals. Why do Western feminists keep their mouths shut? Because many are themselves leftist utopian perverts, who also cannot tolerate the existence of two sexes and secretly long to submit to the appealing sadism of the jihadis."

But the article is interesting and worth a read.

(hat tip:Castle Arrgghhh!)

What It Comes Down To.

I've been kicking around ideas for an essay on what I am looking for from the next election cycle.

What are the issues that must be addressed, in my opinion, by the next gaggle of elected office holders?

Sovereignty.

Solvency.

Security.

Sovereignty covers but is not limited to our relationship with multinational organizations (for instance, the Hudson Mafia), our various trade agreements, and immigration.

I think that education belongs under "sovereignty", too, since we need to rectify the choice of covering U.S. History as an indictment rather than a celebration.

Solvency covers un- or underfunded benefits and mandates with Social Security at the top of the list. Attention to sane tax policy with explicit acknowledgement that Keynesian tax systems are well and truly dead, and ending estate taxes.

Security... well, crap, the best I can come up with off the cuff is that we should shoot Islamist terrorists in the head when we find them and that it wouldn't be a bad thing if elected democrats stopped aiding the enemy from the floors of the house and senate.

I realize this missive is short on nuance. But the three issues stand for what I'm concerned about.

Gift Opportunity

If you lived in central Utah, you could head over to the American Fork Big 5 and check out the two nicest Mosin Nagant 91/30's I've ever seen. Perhaps you know somebody who is of good moral character; someone manly and disgustingly free of vice or human failings Why don't you get him hooked on old Russian rifles?

The world can always use another Cruffler!

About the rifles: The first is a pre-war assembled Tula with all matching numbers, a straight, very clean stock with pronounced figuring for birch. The cartouches indicate it may have finished service in Bulgaria. The crown appears to be original and not rearsenalled.

The bore is... perfect. Not "clean with service wear" but absolutely crisp, bright, and clean.

The second rifle has just as clean a bore and it, too, appears to have its original crown. It is a 1943 manufacture featuring the round, low wall receiver and was produced at Izhvesk. The serial is six numbers, vice the more usual two Cyrillic characters followed by four numbers. The wartime production stock has two repairs - one on the left side of the receiver with the second at the forward edge of the magazine well. IMO the first repair suggests that the stock, at least, was once a part of a sniper rig. The wood is clean and well figured, and remarkable free of dings. The stock repairs are so well executed as to almost disappear under the arsenal shellac treatment.

And here's the kicker: the second rifle's bolt and trigger are about what my Remington 700BDL was like before I slicked it up. If you have spent much time around Mosins, you would know that the bolts are kind of hit and miss at best.

Hmmmm. I already own four 91/30's. As I type this we are waiting for the rain to turn to snow. The met boys say six to eight inches by tomorrow and the streets of Utah County are filled with Christmas shopping zombies.

Oy. The OTL doesn't know rifle beyond "Bang OUCH"... but she knows art when she sees it.

Wish me luck.

Not Quite, Pilgrim...

Geeze. Let us start at the beginning:

"Sen. Hillary Clinton has a trust problem. Polls in Iowa and New Hampshire show that voters give her very low marks for being trustworthy and honest. The media and her opponents have built and reinforced the charge."

I never supported the Hope grifters, but I didn't become an opponent until after they proved themselves inveterate liars. They aren't just liars, they are both pathological liars. Hillary "Everest" Clinton, I did not inhale, billing records, the Sixty Minutes CYA (that was the incident that cemented Bill's commitment to Hill's presidential ambitions, IMO), and the totality of the eight year long shameless manipulation of the Executive branch of government into a codependency enabling tool for two very, very flawed people and their posse...

"It's not that voters and her opponents think Clinton's experienced and competent, and they don't like or trust her. It's that they think she's experienced and competent and that's why they don't like or trust her."


The bar is pretty low here. Being her husband's pimp and the backdoor connection for political corruption in the Arkansas governor's office are about the only two things she's ever done that actually showed initiative or commitment on her part. She failed to socialize healthcare.

The Republicans pushed through welfare reform, and sizable chunks of the Contract with America.

"Is there evidence proving that Hillary Clinton can't be trusted? To quote one of the great presidential debate responses: "No."".

Huh?

You must read the entire article. Paragraph by paragraph it is a paean to Madam Hillary, Smartest Feminist To Ever Stride The Earth. I kept on looking for "It was my sophmore summer at a small midwestern college, and I had never been so lonely..."

"What's a woman running for president to do? Pull the gender card out of the deck and hold it up high. Most people are unaware of their bias or don't want to recognize or acknowledge it. "

Hillary, you go ahead and lay that one down. I've got bad news: Edwards already has you beat on that front.

The only woman you remind most men of is their first wife.

I'm Not Cynical - It's Clinical!

Early last week I had blood drawn for a scad of "geeze, that bastards getting older" tests, as a part of a general physical exam.

The doc told me at the time that he strongly doubted any issues of clinical depression but he didn't want to venture any further opinion with some labs. Turns out he was right on the depression side, and his eyeball/handson diagnosis that he declined to share was pretty good, too.

I've got a thyroid issue. Probably hereditary, but easily identified and easily treated through a one - a - day medication.

I wasn't able to pick up the scrip but the OTL did. Whenever we start a new pharm we always get feedback from our pharmacist. When she asked about this stuff, that gentleman warned her to warn me that I should brace myself for change:

Within a week, my weight should stabilize and begin to decrease.

Within a week, my sleep patterns will begin to return to something more normal than they are now.

Within a week I should notice a decrease in lethargy and perhaps improvement in mental acuity.



Wow. Each of those boons would be cool by themselves. I am praying most for release from the lethargy, with winter coming on and all.

What a fine day this is. I hope that yours is going well, too.

Snapshot

I need to fill in a few blanks opened up by the " Lassitude" post.

I didn't do much of anything that I'd planned. I never in my life had such an incidence of depression as that what began on my first big day off last Friday morning and then intensified through the weekend. I would never, ever wish the state I descended to on anybody else, ever.

I managed to get out on Saturday with the my wife and oldest daughter to the Gem Show. I did go gold panning for a few hours on Sunday, with the results of just a few colors for about six or eight pans. Didn't work on the rifles at all. Didn't go shooting. Monday I barely managed to get out of bed, and was back in it before eight p.m.. I had to leave work early Tuesday and Wednesday. Saw my Orthodontist on Thursday and was diagnosed with a return of the upper jaw bone infection that the surgery of July was supposed to have addressed. Once I had a few days of the antibiotics behind me the lethargy and ill ease cleared up (mostly) and I am now pretty much back up to normal cruising speed. I went ahead and touched base with my GP on Monday and had some bloodwork done to backstop the Ortho's diagnosis. Little chance that my funk was clinical in any classical sense. Doc thinks it was probably the infection since the depression came on like gangbusters then went away just as quick once I started the antis. The blood work package is what any relatively healthy middle aged guy would get with a physical, plus a Lyme disease panel since I work in the mountains.

Silver linings:

The One True Love and I haven't smoked in over eleven weeks. If you know a smoker who is trying to quit, by all means tell him or her about Chantix. No adverse side affects here but for a few vivid dreams. Okay, and I've picked up a wee bit of weight (that I expected to and accepted in advance) that makes me a tidal hazard in this solar system.

Happy Birthday, Chesty, Wherever You Are

November 10, 1775. A bar in Boston. A recruiter.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

The United States Marine Corps has survived courts-martialed Commandants, misguided presidents, offended functionaries, and questionable priorities...

... and still, after 232 years, continues to triumph over any adversity and all enemies .

Happy Birthday, Gents, and have a pink gin on me.

Lassitude of Necessity

I am taking four consecutive days off from the Great Work. The paving is done for the year, the contractor is tying up loose ends and we have taken care of the client's marketing - related monumentation and story-poling.

This is not a planned event. Even though there is a cannon party scheduled for this weekend I have no clue as to how many of the Californios will be able to make it in light of the fires near the coast. It's too cold to go gold panning up above American Fork (see pages 20-22) and I just don't have it in me to spend the time around the house.

I need to get out. Do something a little different than I have been doing... for the last three years. Mom and the Goddesses all agree on this point. So...

There are some cool things happening around the central Utah area, though:

1. The Wasatch Gem Society rock show is going on up at the State Fair Park in Salt Lake.

2. UDOT is replacing the bridge spanning I-215 East at 4500 South using some truly bleeding edge technology .

3. And there's always Lee Kay, where I intend to spend a fair chunk of tomorrow beginning at nine a.m. sharp.

I might just stop by there this afternoon on my way to the gem show. There is no plan.

Since I don't update but once every other geologic epoch, any readers who stumble in here will most certainly see this post as history. However, anyone interested in rec shooting or even informal instruction in the central Utah area is welcome to contact me at tmjutah@hotmail.com.

I need to broaden my horizons beyond work and chores. I've been smoke free for almost two months. I go to bed before ten most nights. I've uninstalled all the computer games from my pc. The swamp cooler is winterized, I'm half way through refinishing the stock on my K31 and hope it works out even half as well as did my effort with Ludmilla, the now - blond Mosin.

One thing I'm NOT going to invest in politics, either as a participant or activist, for the foreseeable future. I hope that Chris Cannon fails of reelection, and that Hatch and Bennett apologize for there failures to perform and resign their offices... none of which will probably happen.

Don't even get me started on national politics. If the Democrats weren't so damned dangerous their mendacity, incompetence and lunacy could only manifest as a sitcom, maybe tucked in between Sci-Fi Channel's other sterling Friday night offerings.

Color me Romney for now, as far as choices between the Republicans go. But don't think I'm overjoyed about any of them.

Y'all have a great weekend. There may be pictures come Tuesday, after I get back.

What's The Word...?

"Never did we think that this letter would bring money of this nature. And, for the cause, Madam President, it is extremely good. Now, everyone knows that Rush Limbaugh and I don't agree on everything in life and maybe that is kind of an understatement. But without qualification, Mark May [sic] -- the owner of the network that has Rush Limbaugh -- and Rush Limbaugh should know that this letter that they're auctioning is going to be something that raises money for a worthwhile cause."

We've given the communists a majority. That they are breathtakingly incompetent on top of the whole anti-American EVERYTHING thing stings mightily; more embarrassing than terrifying, if you get my drift.

There are three deep cover ex-KGB guys hanging out in an assisted living clubhouse down in Florida watching CSpan, and they are just shaking their heads over their tea and vodka.

"We won! Twenty years late, but WE WON!"

Comment

The following was posted in response to NRSC Live Blog With John Ensign over at Captain's Quarters:



I haven't missed a presidential election since 1980 but I may well sit 2008 out. Reagan twice, Bush 1, Perot (MGFM), Dole, and Bush 2 twice.

Is it stupid to do so? Probably. Beyond stupid, how about unpatriotic? Un-American? Yep, probably. But maybe I want to feel like a congressman...

Both parties have abandoned their oaths to support and defend the constitution and the security of the country.

I heard Orrin Hatch defend SCHIP today.

Sometimes you just have to let the wheels come off. I don't think the Republicans have a clue what is about to happen to them. Or what harm is about to befall the citizens they swore to represent as a result of their cowardly, yet strangely cheerful abandonment of any pretense of principle or statesmanship.

And I've got more news for the Republicans:

When the next mass-casualty attack by al Q or whatever nutjob Islamist happens, it's going to happen because our border security SUCKS because both parties are afraid of offending potential pander targets OR fundraising sources, to include foreign governments.

But it was the Republican majorities and chief executive that had the conn on 9/11 and for six years after.

When our friends or families are killed, we won't be looking to burn the neighborhood Saudi-funded mosque.

Not first, anyway.

Democrats are expected to f*ck up national security, race relations, and the economy. It's a feature, not a bug. It's just that this time the bodies aren't going to be back in a Cambodian jungle and the only power that will have the economic clout to ease an economic crisis here is RED CHINA.(They've dumped maybe six or seven mill into the political mix - that we can sorta/kinda track - over the last two decades and now they OWN our debt AND the leading socialist candidate. Now THAT'S wise investing!).

Thus far the Reid and Pelosi Show has demonstrated a level of delusion normally seen only on a DU thread about the VP's links to Satan, or maybe in the words of RNC strategists who peddle tripe like what you cited in your post. The Dems didn't win anything. The Republicans gave it away.

The worst of it all: the Republicans show no sign that they are aware in the least - none, zero, zilch, nada - that they still have a few floors left before the sidewalk.

What a sad way to start a century. The last remaining hope for Western Civ melting down in a kindergarten squabble over who can be more socialist before the eighth century barbarians or the New Communist Empires strike.

Pathetic.

I Agree

This is what I've always understood the Iraq part of the Long War to be about.

Though I will admit to wondering why we haven't gone to Iran yet.

Time fills.

Important

Hie thee hence to Protein Wisdom, and read the words of Karl.

Yea, lo, verily - it will be good!

Briefly

I called the Provo office of Rep. Chris Cannon on Saturday morning intending to inform him (or his staff) that they wouldn't have to call me, send me post cards or emails, or go through any of that political courting bullshit since I will not be attending the June nominating convention.

The staffer I spoke to sounded harried. Good, I thought, maybe they are getting traffic even at the local level in the aftermath of the announcement of surrender on immigration.

The gentleman on the other end of the line started to spiel about Rep. Cannon's history of "strong positions" on immigration... and I cut him off with a profanity.

Chris Cannon has been in Washington longer than the Republican's had majorities in both houses. The first words Chris Cannon ever said to me about illegal immigration were "We can't deport twelve million people".

Do we have permanent tax cuts? No.

Do we have social security reform? No.

Do we have a sane and workable energy policy? One that ensures the continued growth of our economy without a choke chain in the hands of terror - supporting nations?

Hell no.

After five years of the GWOT do we have border security better than, say, Mexico's southern border?

FUCK NO.

I tried to explain to the staffer that my number one gripe about illegal immigration has never been anything akin to racist in any way shape or form; I object to the overt acquiescence of our government in providing a safety valve/economic boon to the rulers of Mexico at the cost of creating a third-tier demographic of unrepresented persons who are liable to exploitation and who suffer injustice at every turn.

This crime of government is bought and paid for in the eyes of the left by another victim group to prey on, and on the part of the Republicans (who aren't right or left or conservative; just hack bastards any more)as markers in a fundraising game with businesses that want cheap labor.

But as I tried to gather my thoughts through the pain meds, it struck me that I was suddenly one with the peons.

I don't have anyone in Washington anymore, either... if I ever did at all. Certainly nobody there is interested in safeguarding our borders if it means pissing off ADM or La Raza.

I am too angry to put into words what these past few days have meant to me.



This bill must not pass. It must not.


This administration has been an unmitigated disaster; our government across the board is filled with timeservers and hacks, and only the congress has performed worse than the executive. We've ended up with some judges that don't appear on their face to be absolute failures... but time always fills.

No, It's NOT Safe To Swim In the Pool...

Not until they get the water in. Not for a while yet. But I've always been forward thinking and enthusiastic. And clumsy.

I was doing some check measurements to make sure my pool slide layout was going to work for the contractor...


***

I just deleted three rambling paragraphs explaining how I came to fall into the basin of the swimming pool and how my right thigh took a shot on the edge and my left shoulder broke my fall on the bottom, six feet later.

I think I'll leave out the ambulance ride. But the volunteers from the Kamas FD remembered me from February.

Nothing is broken. I'm to monitor my bathroom trips for blood in my byproducts and am off work until at least Monday. I feel like it's the morning after I've played a whole season of football in one day. LorTab is on the menu for the next few days.

Which is why I deleted the aforementioned paragraphs.

I know I screwed up. I know better than to dance on the edge and I'm too old to do the body bounce thing. I won't make the same mistake again.

Why can't Republican senators figure out the same thing?

I am going to speak with my precinct chair here in Orem 48. I am done with the Republican party.

Upon Reflection

Here's some required reading:

"In short, progressives habitually turn an existential defect into a virtue, since politics is their religion, 24/7/365. To “remember” the sabbath would mean forgetting about the revolution, and that would be a political sin. They cannot separate church and state because the state is their church."

One of those "things" that people know about me - like I whistle "Girl From Epanema" under my breath when thinking through a problem, or merely waiting for the next thing to happen - is that I tend to spout "we live in wondrous times" whenever the mood strikes. Usually right after checking email on my laptop in the middle of a forest, or maybe flushing a toilet. Going to work and coming home from a job eighty miles a way, daily, is right up there, too.

Make time for your Sabbath. However you should choose. Just make the time.

(Via American Digest)

Another One For The Books

I am forty and six years old, plus a day or so.

Yesterday while I was shaving I noticed some dry brown patches up around my hairline.

My THICK, DARK, and FULL hairline, even though I keep it cut short.

I showed the wife and she kindly informed me about "liver spots" and such...

She's always there for me when I stumble or am unsure. A hayhook under the short ribs will get anybody up on their feet toot sweet.

Today the Team is heading up to Lee Kay to punch some paper.

I hope you have a fine day, too.

Monday update:

I won't be reaching for my SMLE if the midden hits the windmill. Horrible vertical string at one hundred yards and just couldn't get comfortable behind that stock at all. Yes, yes, vertical means breathing. The ammo was modern Serbian manufacture hunting rounds so I don't think it was velocity variance.

I just don't like that one as much as I had hoped.

I've developed a tremor originating in my left elbow. It only manifests when shooting offhand/weak hand with pistol. Which used to be my favorite cap to a range day.

BUT... Mrs. Tmj and the Goddesses shot until they were tired and we all had a fine time.

Mr. Steyn

If only...

"I mean, Iran surprises us all the time. It seizes sailors, it takes out hit contracts on British subjects like Salman Rushdie, it blows up community centers in Argentina, it seizes the U.S. Embassy. Iran doesn’t threaten to do that, it just gets on with it and does it. And maybe there’s a case to be said for well, maybe we should just do something against Iran. Maybe we should just take out that refinery, and they can wake up to it, and see it smoking when it happens, and then they’ll realize we’re serious."

Can You Hear It?

That rumbling in the distance...is it muffled laughter from deep within caves in Pakistan? More likely from the executive suite at what passes for a Hilton in Tehran, of course...

Nope.

We are having our last hurrah of winter but in my front yard the strawberries are surging up through the mulch and already showing blossoms.

Happy spring, everybody.

Whoa...

Over a month since last I put something in here. Where to start?

1. I've gone from two-plus packs of smokes to two or four cigarettes a day. And lots of chewing gum. Yes, I'll be Jabba the Hutt by summer but I'll be able to breathe.

2. The season is definitely changing. Up on the site the methane ice sheets are almost melted. We've hired two more crews which means I may finally be able to commute from Utah county to Summit County via Provo Canyon instead of having to go to West Valley City every morning.

3. In politics the Democrats are one vital step closer to realizing their most cherished dreams regarding the war for civilization. Getting what they want will kill their party, but hey, we all make choices. Nancy Pelosi has negatively exceeded even my ridiculously low expectations as speaker.

4. On the war front Iran has gone back to 1979 for another bucket of hostage stew. I don't think the Brits are going to do a thing. Maggie is dead and Tony's military probably couldn't beat Argentina this time around.

The enemy remains unnamed. We are still killing and being killed in a rehearsal for the real conflict.

Such is the way of the world.

A Letter To A Bank

To Whom It May Concern:

B of A's decision to exploit the illegal alien market is possible only because the amortized risk will redound to LEGAL American customers.

You may be pursuing a fair chance of profit; the legal risk is probably minimal. It's obvious the federal and state governments responsible for dealing with illegal immigration aren't doing their jobs and show no sign of doing so in any near future - so, why not you?

Maybe... because your actions will directly and negatively influence how many illegals come to this country? How many instant invisible serfs you will create? You pay welfare mothers to have kids... and they have more kids. You extend credit to business and business expands (hopefully). You extend credit to someone in this country illegally, and you make it easier for them to remain here. Illegally.

Illegal aliens figure in over half the felony crimes committed in California, your home state. Illegal aliens overwhelmingly use public hospital Emergency Rooms as their family practice/GP clinics, driving any chance of profit malpractice lawyers may have left right out the window.

But...you won't see those costs directly, right? Not until the wheels fall completely off and it's too expensive for anyone to do any business in your state... right?

You, gentlemen, are scoundrels and will never count myself, nor anyone I can educate as to your short-sighted avarice and cynicism but especially the undeniable downstream costs of your "pilot program" that will actually accrue to legal residents of this country.

I am interested to see what kind of second quarter you have. I have already instructed my FP to analyze my portfolio and shift funds that may be associated with your business.

A.R. Jones
Orem, Utah

Place Holder Post

Well, I didn't deliver on the range report. Not even a picture.

Nor did I blog about the clearing and warming of the weather here, and more importantly, up at Devil's Island where I work.

I didn't even get a note in about yesterday's range visit and the, if I may say so myself, excellent results with all the different weapons: M44, M91/30 Moisins, and the freshly re-sprung (Wolff Service Pack) M1 Garand.

And another thing that didn't get talked about was the ambulance ride Last Monday. Or morphine, for that matter, either.

Things are o.k.; just another week in the life of a surveyor gone in the books.

Hope your life is less full than mine.

Random

Progressive: You bring your own whetstone to your decapitation.

Who?

I am: Hal Clement (Harry C. Stubbs) A quiet and underrated master of "hard science" fiction who, among other things, foresaw integrated circuits back in the 1940s.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Never heard of him. And I thought I was into "hard science" fiction. More books to find...

(via Flares Into Darkness)

Sunday Sunday

I went to the Lee Kay range today and broke in Pytor Bangovich, my recently acquired Mosin Nagant M91/30. Money WELL spent! Even with the famous Mosin trigger, my groups were pleasantly tight at both twenty five and fifty yards. I highly recommend Albanian Light Ball (brass case) cartidges. They can be had here in Orem for less than fifty dollars for a spam can of four hundred forty rounds.

The holosight I purchased at last week's gunshow for my Bushmaster turned out to be not that great a deal at all. The LED isn't bright enough to be seen in full daylight; that's why it only cost seventy five bucks, where a real tactical sight usually costs upwards of three hundred. I was able to zero it at the max brightness setting but acquiring the red dot on any background other than dead black was impossible.

I might be able to use it to pop coyotes on cloudy days. Maybe not. I'm glad I figured this out at a range and not someplace where it mattered.

The pics of the Mosin groups will be up early next week.

If you are looking for scintillating (or at least lengthy) political discourse, you might try here. Watch out, though - some of those commenters do go on and on and on...

I hope you had a great weekend.

Paperwork

I signed this.

I am a delegate for my Republican precinct caucus here in Orem. I haven't sent a dime to the RNC since about six months before last election, including member dues.

I've explained (at length) why not in numerous letters and email messages to my state and the national Republican powers - that - be.

They will get my money for doing things that remotely support, oh, I don't know, the party platform or maybe get serious about Illegal immigration.

Social security reform would have been nice. Of course, it would have been a lot easier to sell back in the mists of time (say, two or three years back right after the Republicans gained seats in the midterms...). Have you taken a look at the markets lately? (that's a live link and will change with time - today's DOW is another record at 12621.77). Go here to look at employment numbers. WE ARE AT FULL EMPLOYMENT nationally, with some regional outliers in areas dependent on auto manufacturing or trapped at the top of housing/real estate bubbles. Amazing economy, isn't it? Just what did the nominally Republican majority government do to make these things happen?

It began to fight back in the Long War. It cut taxes in ways that most benefited those people who make jobs happen for other people. No sweeping government babysitting programs. No "investments" in nannystatism (well, o.k., there's TSA... and the Medicare Prescription benefit, even though the latter may actually be more efficient than first thought). But all that was before America decided that Republicans weren't governing as conservatives. That's Republicans from the President all the way down.

My last five trips to the Emergency room, either as a patient or taking somebody in, I waited behind illegal immigrants. Granted, once I admitted that my chest MIGHT hurt that one time I shot right into treatment. I don't expect to see more than pennies on any of my of Social Security dollars, if that - the math is patently unworkable that the system can be maintained as it is run now.

But boy you can buy a lot of votes selling bridges to old folks, if you are in to that kind of thing. Alaska isn't the only place they build bridges to nowhere.

The Republicans in particular and conservatives in general are in the grasp of a leadership crisis.

We need new blood to bring back the old ideals - Reagan's ideals - to the leading edge of American political thought.

The GOP got lazy and got righteously thumped. The stakes are too high to merely allow the Democrats the next two years to embarass themselves; the country cannot afford a seventies flashback. Not with a nuclear Iran and still with a chance to end Islamic fascism without having to irradiate a quarter of the world's surface.

GOP - if you want me on your donor rolls, get back to being Republican. If that is too much to ask, just don't bother calling.

(via Instapundit )

My Office

Note the absence of secretaries. Or comfy chairs.

But I don't have a desk. And not many corner offices could compete with the view.

Tomorrow's high temperature: 12F.

The above picture was snapped this last Friday around four in the afternoon. The temp then was 10F. I had just stripped off the top two layers for the drive home.

Revelation.

(Disclaimer: I just spent yet another day working in blowing wet snow, dealing with uncharacteristically troublesome subcontractors, wrestling with vexing plan conflicts, and a total commute time of five hours plus the five actually billable to the job. Then there's the looming symptoms of this year's bought of bronchitis, too...)



February will mark the beginning of my third year up at Devil's Island, the large construction project that lives at the halfway point of my daily two hundred miles. My family life has taken a hit, but the money has helped offset some of that particular stress. Of all the life changes associated with my work up there the one that really ticks me off is the fact that lately I find I can't write a coherent thought to save my life. (SEE? What kind of sentence is THAT?)

I just spent a half hour Googling back through some of my past posts and comments. There are quite a few pieces that I can't believe I actually authored. I mean that they are actually enjoyable to read. They make sense.

I can't write like that any more.

Back during the period I was at home most of the time I let slide getting chores done because I was reading, posting, or commenting. There was also some writing of story ideas plus doing scads of research.

For the last year or so I haven't done much more than rear up from the virtual table in the back of the virtual bar to shout at the virtual TV. And I haven't even had a drink since 2000.

I never intended to pursue a lot of traffic with TRB (got that wish in spades - lol). My main reason for starting my own blog was to have the ability to expand on ideas I had encountered in other places. Yes, Virginia, I do like the sound of my own voice, but what I am trying to say is that back at the beginning of TRB I was finding my urge to argue was outstripping my ability to research. I ended up arguing the same points ad infinitum across multiple forums without the benefit of learning anything new. Or maybe I wanted to start debates instead of participating in them. Could be a little bit of both I guess.

Anyway, back to basics. Here's some "givens" that I operate on:

1. Without my family (the Mrs and the Goddesses. And the cats.) I am less than nothing.

2. I am personally committed to the pursuit of the ideals upon which the American style of representative democracy is based upon.

3. I base my opinions on a lifetime spent reading history, leavened with military service, and influenced by working in a trade that demands tangible results for capital expenditure.

4. I thought that the fall of the Wall ended the period of "Interesting Times" for my generation, until about half way through the Clinton years.

5. I believe that Lincoln was right when he declared that it would never be a foreign enemy that would threaten our liberty, but it would instead be the failure of our own citizenry to preserve it. I believe that Lincoln would instantly recognise our contemporary domestic political situation as evidence of his declaration.

*Sigh*

It sure would be nice to write something (again) based upon those givens that would be worth someone else's time to read...

In the coming year I will endeavor to rise to that goal.


Criminy. That is all.

Jumble

Christmas in Ohio was wonderful. Mild weather, fantastic relatives, and at least two episodes of laugh - so - hard - we - got - out - the - chair - protectors.

Air travel out and back was seamless. American Airlines's flight attendants couldn't make it as comedians like most of Southwest's... but the legroom made up for the missing comedy.

I found Mrs. TmjUtah the Perfect Gift. Not diamonds, but Portuguese flannel jammies and a matching robe. In return, she put one right through the uprights: after a year of shaking her head at my growing addiction to military surplus rifles she dropped a Big 5 gift card in my stocking, which has already morphed into a M91/30 Mosin Nagant rifle. It has matching receiver, barrel, bottom metal, and buttplate numbers... and the reciever itself is a finely executed hexagonal version that was machined for the Tsar in 1896. At least that's what the stamp beneath the tang says.

Lessee...Saddam got the short sharp drop. Good.

Gerald Ford passed into history. I found it hard to watch the media coverage after the Woodward interview was made public; instantly the late president was suddenly up on a pedestal with FDR or Jesus. ( That would be the unitarian, non-religious iconoclastic Jesus, not to be confused with any Christianist historical figure of note.) All the time I was going through adolescence the media treated Ford like an idiot in need of training wheels. At the same time they failed to mention that we were reneging on our treaty commitments to those pesky South Vietnamese folks. Priorities.

Politics in general: I watched a few minutes of coverage on the Democrats' ascension to power. Ascension to power, not responsibility. Can't be having anything like that.

I can take a joke as well as the next guy... but Pelosi? Reid? It must be popcorn and champagne time in select caves in the Tribal Areas, and in the nicer salons in Tehran.

Well, we've got two years to figure out what to do. Maybe the Reps will clean a little house and get us some statesmen. At least the right still has a bench to go to. I figure Bush will just warm up the veto pen and sign a lot of hunting licenses.

As far as work goes during the Worst Economy Since Haliburton Killed The Last Dodo , I missed Friday due to something akin to the flu. Same place, same stuff, just a wee bit cool the next slice of forever. Still feel like crap but I'll be back out there Monday.

I hope you have a happy and prosperous 2007.

Mount Up!

The Team rides!

Well, flies, actually. We leave tomorrow at Omigoodness thirty from Salt Lake International bound for Ohio and Mrs. Tmj's sister's house.

We'll be on the road until the thirtieth.

Here's wishing you and yours a joyous Christmas and happy, successful New Year.

And to all our servicemen and women, wherever you are, thank you and God bless you for the sacrifice you are making and the duty you are so admirably executing.

Here I Am

The lady in Maine gets it:

"Any proposed solution to the current conflict with Islamic totalitarianism that fails to take into account its worldwide scope, relentless nature, and willingness to fight very dirty, is going to be a half-baked effort. In order to mount a "successful" campaign with an effective plan, we not only need creativity and intelligence, we need commitment, focus, and an understanding that this will be a long hard fight."

The following is a comment I posted to "The definition of "success" in war: Part II (colonialism and occupation)", over at neo-neocon:

Bravo, Neo.

I agree with Kurt's sentiments here:

"I've been a supporter of the war from the beginning, and yet, I think you've overstated the case of the unknowns about the costs involved with this war from the beginning. Before the war, one of the arguments against it was simply that we had an insufficient plan for what would happen after Saddam was toppled."

Iraq is a front in a larger war. Creating a democratic Iraq, whole cloth as in something that a majority of Americans would instantly recognize, is simply not going to happen as long as the prime movers of Islamic fascism are in business.

The same is true for the Long War.

Whether or not Iraq becomes a functioning democracy in X number of years is secondary to what remains to be done if we are serious about ending Islamic fascism. State support makes possible the exporting of murder to worldwide targets. Decapitating the states that are behind that industry is the first logical step that must be taken but won't happen until some pivotal event, or confluence of events, occurs to make what's left of the West act in earnest.

We don't have enough troops or contractors or money to WalMart every shithole like Afghanistan or Iraq. I believe that Democratization as a plan was the bravest, most liberal foreign policy initiative put forth by any U.S. president since the Marshall Plan. But Democratization relied on unity of effort and a willingness to name the enemy... neither of which has been very much in evidence.

But we've got more than enough offensive capability to totally destroy any number of nations' ability to function as a nation state. We can project force on a point anywhere on the planet. And the nature of our most lethal, overt adversaries - Iran, the Royal's Wahabbist cancer in KSA, the Assad regime - dictatorships all - means that cutting the head off means an opportunity for different leadership to rise up.

I reject the Powell Doctrine where Arab/muslim countries that host Islamist terror are concerned. By attacking them, we aren't breaking anything that wasn't already lethally broken already, at least where the possibility that we could ever peacefully coexist with them is concerned.

Decapitate the regimes. Maintain training and readiness to deal with the opportunists (China and Russia) who will surely seek leverage in the disarray to follow.

We can always offer help to genuine reform movements. We do charity better than anyone. But the people that want to kill us... we must take them at their word sooner rather than later and take the fight to them first. They celebrate every pointless murder as victory. Let us return some very pointed killing and show them what debt their martyrs are incurring.

There is too much money in the hands of too many barbarians chasing way, way too many flavors of lethal weapons around the world. It is only time that waits to be filled before those who aren't interested in war find out how true it is that war is, indeed, interested in them.

Disclaimer: I believe that the western Left and legacy media killed Democratization out of fear that its success would favor George Bush, and by extension the United States. I also believe that history's judgement will come pretty close to acknowledging it, too.

Range Reports

I shot the M44 twice last weekend.

On Friday afternoon I was able to paper a two inch group three inches left of my aiming point at fifty yards with the bayonet folded. After extending it, the group moved right almost nuts on to my point of aim, so the lore that it was designed to be shot with the blade extended seems to be supported.

I went back Saturday morning with some friends to zero their .270 and to try the M44 and my SMLE on the hundred yard range.

Details would only be embarassing. Just know that there would have been no dead Nazis in front of my fighting hole that day. I had brought the horrible Pakistani manufacture .303 ammo in order to just get rid of it, and it lived up to my worst expectations with hangfires on every round that actually worked, and there were darned few of those. As for the M44, all I can say is that I expected a three or four inch group somewhat left of center and ended up off the paper. Off the paper continuously, about forty rounds worth with only two hits. Gaaaah.

In the past I've made it a point to not shoot on consecutive days. Especially after having a good one. Last weekend's experience will be on my mind whenever I shoot matches again. If you are going to have a bad day, make it in the middle of the week BEFORE scoring day...

Today I went up to Lee Kay to get some pistol-only time in. Last night I reloaded a bunch of .45 230gr ball with 5.9gr of Winchester 231. My old load was for 5.7gr and shot almost five inches lower (at 25 yards) than my carry rounds, which are +P 185gr Golden Sabres. My Springer is near stock, but I have installed a ceramic 18.5lb action spring, overtravel adjustable trigger, and Bomar grips. I had experienced some FTF's due to short stroking with the plink loads before I upped the charge; no problems at all on that front today. Action was crisp, feeding flawless, and point of impact was less than two inches lower than that of the carry rounds.

I also shot fifty rounds of 9mm parabellum through our Ruger P89DC. This is the wife's semi, and she doesn't like it much beyond the fact that it's ours and it's a hi-cap. And that she shoots very well with it, at paper. It's too big for her to carry and neither of us like the safety/decocker, which functions reversed from the "sweep down and shoot" on the 1911.

There is a later version of this pistol that has a "decock only" safety. On this model you rack a round into the chamber, which cocks the hammer back, and then sweep down the decocker lever which lowers the hammer, and then the lever returns to its "up" position leaving the pistol ready to fire in double-action mode. I wish there was a way to retrofit ours but I don't think there is. On the bright side, Rugers have never been thought of as slick or sexy as most other pistols, so they generally are pretty economical buys when used. Maybe not slick, nor sexy, but I'll settle for rock solid reliable and delightfully accurate any day.

We will be getting a Glock or possibly a KelTec in nine at some future date.

Today I picked up an app to be a volunteer at the range. It's only eight hours a month, and they always have problems getting Sundays covered. We'll see what develops.

Gratuitous advice: If you bring a bunch of kids (under age twelve) to the range, make sure you have one adult for every firing point you intend to use. And clean the rifles first, especially if they are semiautos. Nothing loses a kid's interest like watching Dad or Uncle wrestle a stovepiped round out of the rifle every third shot.

Other than that, let 'em shoot until they get tired. Don't buy the turkey or squirrel targets with the tiny bullseyes. A big black bullseye like the NRA 25 yard pistol target is a better aiming point, and their hits will show clearly. Sneak in advice without being bossy. Get the safety habit ingrained first. Keep coming back to the range and they'll be shooting in fine form before you know it.

Winter

No jack frost nipping at red noses. No spirit of the season. No appreciation for the delicate patterns on the bedroom window in the morning.

Everything takes longer. And everything hurts.

Happy winter from the land of construction survey, to all.

Acquisition

Friday morning I’m picking up my 1945 manufacture M44 from Big5. Ninety dollars or so after tax - it’s a sale week!

Matching numbers on the stock, bolt, and receiver. There’s a stock repair on the lower edge of the butt, but it looks to be an arsenal fix. The bore is sharp and clean, exterior metal is evenly worn with very little pitting and the wood to metal fit is surprisingly good.

I stopped in on my way home from work just to check their inventory. I do this often on Fridays when the traffic is bad. I thought the Yugos were the only sale running this week and was surprised to see the Russki up there with a pink tag on it. The clerk handed me two paper towels before handing over the rifle. It’s nasty with cosmo. They won’t take off the trigger locks unless you are actually buying the weapon so I wasn’t able to pull the bolt out. Turning the bolt and running it back was kind of disgusting - slime oozing out coming and going.

But damn, it felt a LOT more solid than any other Moisin action I’d handled before…

Wiped off the worst of the gunk and went through a few more cycles. Damn. Like my Remington 700. Almost as slick as my Lee Enfield, but with even less play. In and out a few times more. Very good… look down the bore (somebody else has to have been in there - the bore was mostly clean) and see nice sharp lands and grooves.

Picked a spot on the far wall and shouldered it for a look over the sights.

Then I handed it back to the clerk, thanked him for his time, and headed for home.

And mom said yes about ten minutes ago, so if it’s still there at nine on Friday morning, it’s mine. If it’s gone, I probably won’t buy another one. The one I handled tonight is the one.

Yeah, that’s why I collect these things. Millions of them were made. But some of them were made just for me.

Sunday Reading

Frome "The Bold and Magnificent Dream", by Bruce and William B. Catton:

They deliberately meant, in other words, to speak for all humanity in that preamble. When they wrote it, there were large numbers of Americans who could claim little or no share in the rights being enunciated. But the door was being left ajar for them, and for voicless, faceless legions of their kind the world over, and for millions yet unborn. It was being left open consciously, because all-inclusiveness- a better life and a stake in society for everyone (author's italics), regardless of race or sex or creed or previous condition- was what the American dream at its highest had already come to mean.

***

Here lay the basis of a faith that could move mountains. The course of human events had reached one of its decisive turning points, and a great deal of human history for the next two centuries (and beyond) was going to be different because the men of 1776 had first enunciated the dream, in phrases that still contain fire- libery, equality, pursuit of happiness, unalienable human rights- and had then proceeded to show that it just might work. Whoever chose that tune for Lord Cornwallis' military bands at Yorktown had known what he was about.

The tune mentioned above was, of course, "The World Turned Upside Down", and was played as the Redcoats grounded their arms and colors between the ranks of American Continentals and French Regulars after the victory at Yorktown.

The new nation that went forward from that day has never been perfect, and has never claimed to be. But the hopes, dreams, and intentions of the founders have stood the tests of the last couple of centuries better than any other representative governement, anywhere, by any measure. I guess that in an age of instant gratification and almost universal historical illiteracy, that's just not good enough.

But when did half of America decide that we are the enemy?

Where will we find the Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lincolns, and Reagans we so desperately need today?

I worry for my family and my nation. This is not a fear of the senseless violence sure to come as a result of our inability to correctly address today's Islamofascists, or whatever tomorrow's superpower conflicts turn out to be. No foreign power will deprive us our liberty. If that day ever comes it will be our own sloth and shortsightedness manipulated by C-team politicians, intelligentsia, and media that destroy this grand experiment.

Today the magninicent dream continues. For how long, though... for how long?

The Vote Thing

It could be worse.

My family could have been Iraqi or Afghani instead of Americans, safe in Utah. For now.

Or a U.S. service member. Sorry, guys; the Republicans didn't get beat, they gave it away.

The Long War continues.

The Word From Devil's Island

Over there in my "About Me" I told you I was a land surveyor.

I began my current gig as project/site surveyor for a high-value golf course resort subdivision project located in the mountains east of Park City, Utah almost two years ago. To give you an idea of the scale here, consider that the developer has pledged $200,000,000 for county infrastructure improvements above and beyond the golf course(s) and housing. That's all roads, water tanks and mains, wastewater plants, power transmission and distribution, and storm water systems.

My daily commute to the site is eighty miles one way, in the company truck, and I get to do Parley's Canyon ten times a week in all weathers. Base elevation at the club house is right around 6900 feet and some of the lots are above 7400. I can look directly west at the ski runs in Park City.

There's been some stress. And I'm a little old for the production staking role - you can only get so good at knocking hubs and then you are just beating yourself up. With the coming of winter it's usually just my second man and myself on the site; during the summer we may run as many as three or four crews. The most important professional decision I've made in the last year has been to admit that I probably can't run my second men or the other crews into the ground any more - but I can train them to be as accurate and fast as I ever was. Even better than I ever was.

That's kept me going so far. My family life has suffered. My kids need more of my time than they've been getting, and my wife, well, just know that she only asks for my I.D. sometimes when I show up at the door covered with mud around eight or nine on a rainy night...

Just this past summer my crew, along with others, oversaw construction of several miles of roads, thousands of linear feet of curb, sewer, water, and storm drain, laid out a score of million-dollar houses and staked literally hundreds of building lots. I've mapped miles of terrain for new plats and worked with the golf course architect to tweak the existing course so "Tiger likes the look". Yeah, he's got a lot up here, too.

Meanwhile, here at the house I've got ten square feet of sink surround in my bathroom that's needed tile since spring. My neighbor (another surveyor, by the way) and I share a fence line that needs about four new posts set before the ground freezes. That's been the case since spring's windstorms and neither of us has had time to make it happen. Did I mention the drywall finishing around the new kitchen light? Nope. And there's still more.

I have power tools in my garage that are still in last Christmas' boxes.

Today's dance card had sewer staking in one phase, mapping in another, and I had promised to stake the temporary parking lot and the second swimming pool/jacuzzi in the main common area. One thing led to another (four things, actually - just a normal day) and I ended up running almost two hours behind in getting to the pool.

We parked on the top of an embankment overlooking the area where our structures were supposed to go. The normal activity level in this part of the site makes the construction of the pyramids look like a kid's refrigerator box fort on a rainy afternoon. It's busy with the dirt guys working right against the buildings where the carpenters, plumbers, ironworkers, electricians, and fire suppression troops are busy fighting for turf.

I shouted down to the foreman that we were on the way down, and would he please see about moving the roofers' manlift and that damned huge crane and that bunk of copper sheathing that wasn't there this morning, and we'd get his stakes in the ground.

A minute to assemble the staff that carries my GPS rover, one last look at the paper plan with my second man and some quick directions to him on what stakes and paint to pack down the hill, and off I went in my baggy khakis bouncing on the blue suspenders under the grubby orange vest and scarred hardhat, over the edge, with the trademark "LET'S GOOoooooo!".... and almost ran down a dozen suits and a couple of skirts (heels on a construction site! They never learn.), all wearing their spotless shiny hardhats and pristine orange vests.

One of the banes of a high-value site is the certainty that mid-level client reps will show up to Contribute. They have Blackberries but really want a company car or gold membership in the going club, and to get that they have to Contribute. One or two at a time they are usually manageable. When you get a whole herd they invariably come up with at the very least (best case) a Keen Insight like directing a change to trim color on an existing building. That only screws up a few days' production for the finish carpenters. The other end of the rainbow comes when they look out at the featureless expanse where the new ten thousand foot activity building is going to be and Chet the second assistant VP for countertops, who is visiting from the LA office suggests (brightly! - he's Contributing!) it be moved/rotated/lifted/lowered. Then you have to explain, with tact and diplomacy, that doing that would mean that all the utilities under the featureless expanse would have to be moved and shifting the building would ultimately mean that the club dressing rooms would end up halfway into the eighth fairway.

But I left you halfway through the herd of suits.

I didn't recognize any of them. I kept moving - my second guy knows that his place is on my heels and sure enough he came sailing down right behind me.

I heard one of the ladies ask "Who is that???" One of the Dockers boys said "I've never met him, but that must be "(Tmj) with (my company)"".

Heh. Fame. Minor, but still kind of cool. Cool enough to get me back in the saddle come Monday.

Have a great weekend.

Tomorrow.

When you go to the polls tomorrow remember that you are executing a power denied to the vast majority of your fellow humans.

You are not voicing an opinion when you vote. You are determining the course, and perhaps the fate, of our nation.

Choose carefully.

We are long past the false "end of history" and the next chapter is going to be pretty dark no matter which course we choose.

Surrender is not an option. But it is a possibility, none the less.

They Wish

A whole lotta anticipation in evidence out there:

"Analysts said the timing of the scandal, a month before the November 7 elections, could be trouble for Republicans who already have been feeling heat from voters over the
Iraq war."

also

"He said this campaign season "is starting to feel like 1974" when the Watergate scandal costs Republicans a lot of seats."

Here's some free clues:

However reprehensible Rep. Foley's behaviour was, I still don't see any statute criminal behaviour out there - yet, of course. The emphasis of that story is rapidly shifting away from the alleged acivities of the congressman in favor of just who knew what when

I've been less than impressed by Dennis Hastert (and Bill Frist, while I'm at it) for years, and thought he should have resigned after whining about the FBI search warrant served on Rep. William Jefferson 's office. The guy with the high-end lasagna - remember?

Remember reforming social security? Border security and meaningful immigration reform? Judicial appointments? Permament repeal of the death tax, and making permament other existing tax cuts? Allowing and in some cases championing the grant of Article III protections to captured terrorists who are already de facto illegal combatants by any honest interpetation under Conventions. Pretty weak show for the majority party in both houses, I think.

The current Republican majority has proven itself feckless where domestic politics is concerned and all but absent of anything resembling adult supervision. Or worse. At any other time in history (were that it was say, 1992, again...) I'd make plans to be fishing or shooting come this election day, and have steeled myself for two years of unrestrained moonbattery to motivate a new class of conservatives to come forward to fix the damage.

That's not an option this time. We can't survive a Pelosi/Reid tag team at this stage of the Long War; we just can't. I could sit back on savings for two or three years while Dems destroy construction spending (we ALWAYS know first when the economy is in trouble) via overregulation, taxes, and spiralling interest rates. Many, many people wouldn't have the same means I do, and it would be terrible for them.

But cutting back on vacations and toys is not the same as consciously participating in surrender to an enemy on a battlefield, and that's exactly what a Dem majority in the house or senate means. And I've never seen myself in that roll, nor will I ever.

I chose "I Wish" for the title of this post because I think that this latest brouhaha is just that - much incoherent noise about not much at all. I think the real entertainment value in all this is just beginning to manifest. I believe the blogosphere will distill "who knew what when" and the "timing" of this little exercise down to levels understandable to just about anybody on the street. Then we'll know "why", not just "what".

But we'll just have to wait and see.

Belated Range And Incident Report

It's Sunday here in Utah. So far today the Team has been doing the chores that fell through the cracks over the last week.

The Goddesses have collectively mowed the back forty, spent a half hour or more on their rooms, and have done all their normal chores. They are making a snack now and getting ready to punch out homework. After that we (the parental units) have been warned that they wish to Entertain Guests at dinner...

More Nice Young Men. Feh. Good thing it's spaghetti night - and good that I have to complete the third cleaning of the rifles I was shooting this day last Sunday.

I spent the morning finishing the refinishing of our living room coffee table. It had a leg fall victim to youthful exuberance a few weeks ago and I took the opportunity to refinish it while repairing the leg. I also mowed the front lawn, washed up the sink dishes, have two loads of laundry downrange, and washed my truck.

Mrs. Utah fixed our main desktop computer this morning - reinstalled the video driver that continuously tries to wander off. Good thing we have another PC and two laptops to fall back on. She's off doing the shopping at this time. We have decided to augment our water storage with flats of bottled drinking water instead of buying more barrels.

Where's the Range & Incident Report, you are wondering? Here it is:

I kiboshed my responsibilities last Sunday in order to run up to the Lee Kay Center for some quality time with my MilSurp rifles. I took Carl G. the Swede, Karl the Kar98, Tommy Savage the American made Lee Enfield Mk4No.II, and as an afterthought my Remington 700 ADL in .30-'06 with the game-friendly Burris 3X9 power scope.

The hundred yard range was full up with (mostly) muzzle loader shooters sighting in for the blackpowder hunts, so I found a spot on the fifty yard range and got ready to get to work. There were two kids to my right (well, o.k., a twenty-something and his fifteenish year old brother shooting a couple of milsurps. After taking a closer look, I realized that they were shooting one of these. Their grandpa brought it back from Europe after World War II. Their other rifle was a Kar98, same origin, with all matching numbers plus SS markings. They didn't know much about the tech of either rifle (showed them how to pull the bolt out of the Kar98) but at least they were shooting modern factory 8mm ammo, so corrosive primer damage to the gas system of the G43 wasn't an issue; collectors pay upwards from a thousand dollars for those.

How did I do? You want to know how I shot?

I had a clinic day. Offhand or bench, I got consistent, very acceptable groups from each weapon. Effortlessly. The scoped Remington shoots Winchester XP3 180gr softips through a hole the size of a quarter at fifty yards, from the bench. The offhand group came in smaller. Go figure that.

Shooting offhand with a hasty sling and a glove at fifty yards I was able to group five rounds under three inches with the Kar (I really think the ammo is too hot in this case) and near two inches (ragged holes w/ one or two tight flyers) with the Swede and the Lee Enfield. I was well pleased. I didn't use an eyepatch; maybe my eyes are getting better than they were the last few years.

I picked up a bandolier of FN 56 - headstamped ammo in five-round strippers when we went through Winnemucca a few weeks ago. If you own a .303 I cannot recommend it strongly enough. If I'd known how consistent and reliable the stuff was, I would have bought at least two or three more bandoliers. I assume it's still corrosive (it is Berdan primed) and clean up still begins with boiling water.

The incident: I was just packing up to go when there was a loud(er than normal) BOOM from the other end of the firing line. Looking right, down the line, I saw a large man hitting the concrete rightside first, his back to me, in a cloud of smoke. The coaches immediately called cease fire/step away from the line. The injured shooter had been shooting a sidelock CVA .54 muzzleloader. It failed at the breech as he was firing from the standing position, blowing the sideplate, lockwork, breechplug, and tang completely apart. I walked down to the action to offer assistance if needed, but the injured shooter was already taken under care by the shooter from his right. It turned out that that shooter was a state-certified Hunter Ed instructor and had just finished his Red Cross recertification the day before. The line safety officers basically kept out of his way, called 911, set about collecting the scattered parts, and went up and down the line ensuring all shooters' weapons were complete safe weapons. It was ten minutes to five at that time, so there weren't any hard feelings about missing range time (/sarcasm).

The injured shooter had burns to his face EXCEPT for where his safety glasses covered his eyes and the bridge of his nose. A portion of the tang (the metal strap that affixes to the top of the stock to anchor the barrel) was briefly embedded in his forehead just over his right eye but he knocked that out before he hit the concrete.

Listen up: I have until now been content to wear my street glasses alone when I shoot. Yes, they are ballistic polycarbonate - but they are styled for wear on the street. There is a gap over the bridge of my nose and they only cover from just under my eyebrows to just under my eyes. The safety glasses worn by the injured shooter were burned black - black like two coats of flat black primer on a Dodge quarterpanel. (The same was true of his forehead and cheeks.)The right lens had a deformation just above and right of center but it did not fail - this deformation was likely from a corner of the tang striking the lens at the moment the breechplug failed. If he had been wearing glasses like mine, burning powder would undoubtedly have shot into both his eyes and the right lens most certainly would have been knocked inward, out of its oval frame, and into his eye. Blinded, without a doubt.

I went down to a local welders' supply on Tuesday and picked up two pairs of optic-clear polycarbonate safety glasses. They fit over all but the largest glasses or work just fine by themselves. ANSI single piece lenses at eight bucks and change is cheap insurance for your eyes. I wish I'd had a camera; a couple thousand words will have to do.

Two more points:

1. The range did not have FIRST AID KITS in place. None. The samaritan staunched the blood with a wad of dampened paper towels until EMS responded - which was almost fifteen minutes after the accident.

2. I have the equivalent of a trauma-response first aid pack that lives in my truck. Gloves, pressure dressings, abdominal pads, burn dressings, tape, betadine solution and swabs, some in- case- of- femoral- bleeding- size hemostats and a GI field surgery kit, along with bandaids, triple antibiotic ointment, burn gel, and right on top a good first aid guide with a very good "do this first!" checklist on the back cover. There is also included other such miscellenous stuff all clumsy people who camp or shoot or just travel should never be without. This collection lives in an O.D. nylon toolbag marked with red crosses. I also carry a random Tijuana cotton blanket as a part of the kit. It's always good to keep the victim off the ground, and you never know when you'll need a furniture pad.

Forgot about it completely. Didn't think of it at all until the rescue squad was actually rolling into the parking lot. Duh.

I had intended to write this post sooner, but I tossed my back out Tuesday and just haven't had the will to get much done until this weekend.

All else is well here in the home of TmjUtah. I hope the same is true whereever you are.

Still Here

Just not making much noise.

No prob with the mole. "Benign" is surely one of the most beautiful words one can hear in a medical setting. Wife and I took the Labor Day weekend on the road - four days in all, all the way to Sacramento by way of Tahoe. Lovely.

We had our first snow Saturday.

I hate the winter. Everything hurts. Problem is I already hurt all through this summer. Old age may be catching up with me.

No. Caught me, kicked me in the fork, and is winding up for a few more good ones...

I can't find any energy for war or politics. They are not seperate issues, of course. The democrats just want to surrender and get back to power until they destroy our economy or the until the next mass casualty attack (there ought to be a pool on that), the republicans (for the most part) don't want to lose but are too busy doing a performance art project called "gormless" and nobody wants to speak of how the fight will really be decided, anyway. This is not entirely the rep's fault in that the media, pop culture, and academia of the west are monolithically against standing up for silly old democracy, even if it is the basis for their decadence first and riches second.

We Are LEAVING....!

Yesterday was Mom and Pa Utah's 19th anniversary and Mom's XXth birthday.

Dinner at Tucano's Brazillian Grill last night, and today we are just getting the hell out of dodge (in the Dodge, oddly enough) until sometime tomorrow. We are thinking Moab and then back up through central Utah on blue highways - Cedar Breaks, Panquitch, whatever.

We didn't have time to get presents, no cake. Between work and end of summer socializing for the Goddesses, we have been way too busy.

So, we go. Then, we come back.

Hope the war doesn't start while we are on the road. Trying to wait it out or predict with any certainty is futile, though, so, WE GO!



I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Corpsman Up

I grew up in West Texas and have worked outside exclusively since leaving home. Over the years I have had regular visits to my GP for sessions with the liquid nitrogen bottle. The docs have never found anything to freeze but patches of actinic keratosis until today.

This afternoon the Physicians Assistant zorched about twenty patches on my arms, face, and back. He pushed his fingertip between my shoulderblades for a moment then asked if my family had any history of melanoma. I'm adopted, but my father (adopted) was taken by the diesease in '91. Five months from diagonosis to death.

Seems I had a mole back there. Now that's not surprising - my wife has mentioned it to me before, and it's been seen by my doctor before, too. Today it was both irregular and varicolored, and about eight millimeters across. It's gone now. He made two passes with the sharp pointy implements in order to remove all traces of the growth and then closed with two stitches.

I get the biopsy results back in a week or ten days.


How 'bout that U.N. ceasefire, eh?


More news later, if necessary.

Read It

From the Sandmonkey:

"I think the problem is that those people don't have any dignity, or at least have the wrong definition of dignity. Don't be hard on them, god knows I was one of them before I saw the light. I always thought the definition of dignity was that you have a good job, a decent house, could afford your kids a decent living in a peacefull country with a future. What american zionist propaganda. Dignity is getting attacked due to the actions of your leader, to the point of losing everything, and still refusing to hold that leader
accountable."



Via: Little Green Footballs.

Coming Soon

244 Marines.

Chunks hanging from a bridge.

A retired Jewish guy in a wheelchair.

Various diplomats, journalists, people flying to grandma's house, and miscelleneous stockbrokers, DoD civilian and military folks, NYPD/NYFD.

Multiple embassies.

Rangers in Somalia.

A Navy diver on leave.

A Navy ship making a port visit.

Air Force in Saudi Arabia.



You know, I started to put links to all the germaine backstories connected to the subjects of the above fragments but then I though "why bother?". If you read blogs, chances are you know history and know what my random recollections have in common.

The list was easily twice what you see above - but I threw out Sbarro's, Munich, and the like. Or kaytushas. And mentally deficient Palestinian teenagers. Honor killings in Holland, dead movie directors, and burning cars in Paris suburbs, and decapitated Thai Bhuddists, and dead Aussies carpeting dance floors in Bali.

And so on, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. What does it take, when you get right down to it, to ignore (as a culture) a threat as real as a knife against your own throat?

History runs in cycles. I don't have all the answers, but even I can recognise the pattern so clearly unrolling before us. The enemy has not only published his intentions, but has provided communiques and graphic video on practicaly a daily basis for literally generations in case we miss the point.

I'm with Mr. Batchelor:


"There is a strange parallel right now to the first days of December 1941, before the Japanese sneak attack. America was still not in the war in Asia and Europe, but it was busy getting ready for a momentous calamity and was filled with the presentiment of doom."


The U.N. is Sudetenland; we allowed the enemy to occupy that particular (un)real estate because all it seemed to cost us in the short term was money. But the next step in the cycle we see repeating - serving up real estate populated by real people in order to feed the wolf - is where things are breaking down. Israel is no Czechoslovakia. They have teeth and will not go quietly again into the ditches - not for france or stability or good press from the Beeb.

Given any thought as to where you will be on August 22d? The day after?

Flash

Michael Totten is back, and from northern Iraq this time around.

Mr. Totten is one of four bloggers I've ever supported financially.

Worth much, MUCH more than I paid, every time.

Nobody Knows

What the world will look like in two weeks.

I feel a change on the wind.

Don't know what it could be, though. Not a clue.

I'm refreshing our water stores tonight, and we are laying in more canned stuff.

Chester Thinks...

... about a lot of different options playing out in Lebanon:

"Hence the Israeli dilemma: Hezbollah cannot be destroyed unless its facilities, camps and logistics dumps in the Beka'a are destroyed. To create a buffer zone in south Lebanon is only to cause Hezbollah to seek longer-range rockets or missiles in the future. But, a ground assault to destroy that logistics infrastructure requires that the risk of Syrian interference be mitigated somehow. There are many ways to do so."

It's a damned good post, and the comments make for a very intriguing read. My opinion is down near the bottom of the thread.

Required Reading

From Grim's Hall:

"Such a complete failure to understand America is not reasonable. No culture on earth has such a complete hatred of the idea of failure. Indeed, if there is any common culture that can be called American at all, it would have to be the culture of success -- the notion that a man should take care of himself, and that his failure to do so was a moral as well as a practical failure."

Read the rest here.

I haven't commented much on the current situation. History says that irreconciable differences between neighbors are always resolved by war. We are here, and war is now.

I think that events have come to the point I've been looking for for decades. Reality has finally narrowed down the options available to us regarding confronting fundamentalist Islam threat - despite the best efforts of lotus eaters across the west to try to frame this situation as some sort of disagreement between equals.

If good v. evil is too utopic, or just isn't acceptable, try light v. dark. We are here, and war is now.

(via Argghhh!)

Odds and Ends on Saturday

Performance evaluation on Friday morning:

It went quite well this time. The scoring system has been drastically refined in that the numerical rankings don't blindside people like me who are more used to seeing percentile rankings. In the world of my current employer, fifty percent is average.

I did comfortably better than that. We'll see about pay the next check.

Oh, and after the pleasurable interview I had a mas aggravating day up on the site. I had FOUR crews with specific jobs all lined out, and that schedule was scrapped before we even got the base set up. Just goes to show that there are never really any laurels to rest on in this world. We adjusted and overcame, and today...

Saturday Drive:

I was up before seven with Mrs. Tmj and we decided to take a drive in the mountains. There was an airshow up in Heber and she's never even seen my company's office(s), much less my project site. The weather was perfect for the airshow. Wispy high clouds provided great contrast to pick out the different aerobats doing their thing and we took a few good photos. I spoke with a man who trained B 25 bomber pilots during the war, and the pilot of a restored Mig 15 that is actually based in Heber.

We strolled on up between Kamas and Park City via the rural back way through Francis and spent almost an hour driving around my project. The Mrs. noted the prolific presence of survey stakes, and how they are adorned with flagging all the colors of the rainbow. Roads, buildings, utilities, oh my...

She doesn't think I'm nuts anymore. She KNOWS I'm nuts.

We looped down Parley's Canyon to Salt Lake City after visiting the project. Coming through Salt Lake valley always prompts a few shopping sidetrips and today was pretty productive. I've gotten into old military surplus rifles in a modest way over the last couple of years. Big 5 has a relationship with SAMCO international and they run sales every month or so on different flavors of old military rifles. I have already checked out the stock in their Utah county stores for the special they are running on U.S. marked Lee Enfield rifles, but had found out that their Sandy stores were showing four in stock. The ones in Utah county were in pretty ropy condition, but then again that's to be expected for the price.

Mrs. Tmj approved the stop since I "just wanted to look". Oh my goodness...

The weapon they had on the display was dinged, dark, and had some pretty serious corrosion issues. The clerk confirmed he had two more left, in boxes, and brought 'em out. Remember "just wanted to look", now. The first rifle out of the box was mostly cosmoline-free. Wood clean and tight, one nickel-sized ding on the rightside forestock. U.S. ordnance markings on the receiver, top of the barrel, and stamped on the bolt. Beautiful - and I mean the best I've seen on any war production Enfield - bright bore and clean crown, two groove rifling with no discernible pitting and a chamber showing nothing in the way of "Enfield throat", which is a common problem because of the wide use of corrosive ammo in Brit weapons. Nice clean stamps for "U.S. Property" and "SMLE Mk..." .

And the bolt serial number matched the one stamped on the receiver. A truly nice specimen.

*****AND MRS. TMJ HAS JUST READ THIS OVER MY SHOULDER AND DIRECTED, "OH, JUST PUT THE DAMNED THING ON LAYAWAY! BUT ONLY AFTER WE GO WATCH "PIRATES" TOGETHER TOMORROW MORNING."******

Oy. Am I a lucky guy, or what?

I cooked sausages on the grill for supper. I think the rest of the evening is going to be spent finding one more pair of brass hooks to fit on the MilSurp rack down in the gun room.

Right after I clean up the kitchen, take out the trash, and kiss the wife.

Goodnight, all.

Aftermath

Yesterday's barbeque was another great day with friends. Beautiful, just beautiful.

Please check out Mrs. Tmj's account here.

Ribs were great. Weather was semi-clement but didn't interfere beyond moving some socializing (and eating) inside for a short while.

Cannon shooting was GREAT! (Again, see above link).

I did performance art yesterday - "Dominant Male Lion After Eating Wildebeast". I think I slept in my lawn chair for an hour or two. This through the hubbub of twenty kids, a dozen adults, and the nonstop pyro happening in the culdesac. I'm told I conducted a spirited discourse on the history of the Declaration, but shucks if I can remember.

My daughters and their friends were OUT IN FRONT of all the "hide from the weather" and "clean up the trash" stuff. I am getting old, I am Iam....

I have my annual employee review tomorrow at 0615. I'm intrigued as to how the company is going to approach this, this time around. Back in December they used a system that graded me at ...well, hell, it's too embarassing to say. They were attempting to grade with an eye to "encourage improvement"*. The best I can say is that when I read the numerical score (1-100 scale) I wondered why I was employed there. The value was about two orders of magnitude lower than anything I thought would have been accurate.

But they couldn't identify where I should improve. Funny, that.

More on this later.


* or discourage discussions about compensation.

Happy Birthday, America

This one day every year I extend a public prayer:

God bless our nation, and keep our people and leaders safe and wise. We are just men, but given time and opportunity to rise above our weaknesses we have wrought the most free nation on the earth. We owe more than any one of us can pay for this blessing.

God bless our Soldiers, Sailors, Coasties, Airmen, and Marines, and keep them safe and victorious.

God keep and bless you all. Amen.



And now I'm off to cook ribs - about six hours of mesquite smoke. Dutch oven cherry cobbler w/whipped cream for desert. Cannon shooting at five in Cherry Hill Park. Do stop by and say hi if you are in the area.

That is all.

Saturday Pre Fourth of July

Not much to blog about these days; just too damned busy getting ready for important stuff like celebrating our independence from England.

Israel? I think they have decided that victory is the answer to their problems. Hope the Jordanians and Egyptians have a lot of spare hotel rooms.

What about "return to flight" for the space shuttle? I hope everything works, but we are a long time past needing a replacement system. I've got NASA TV running live now - just an hour and change to go, barring weather.



Anyway, here we are getting ready for our Independence Day celebration: a culdesac barbeque we've held since around 1992 or 93. I have yet to clean the garage and the ribs are still in the cold case down at Sam's Club. We plan to start socializing around two, eat at three, and shoot cannon in Cherry Hill Park (the south end), after five.

If you are in the area, please stop by to say hi and enjoy a rib or two. Email for directions to the house, please.