[wookness]

I'm thinking that all I'd really like just now is some pan fish dredged in seasoned corn meal and cooked in a black iron skillet w/some lard. Need to B catchin' somma dem thangs as we don't have any left in the freezers' vac packs. That's a darn shame.

Bride is fixin' some whacked/deboned yard bird thighs to B served w/some sort of flavored risotto or 'roni', as yet unrevealed. Got three items scratched off my list today, and it's been a loverly day... if ya discount the pollen. Activating the wipers w/o any washer fluid saw yeller dust swept off the windshield, quite a lot ofvit, as a matter o' fact. Just whot it is/was. RH got down to a nose bleed 33% this afternoon and temps topped out at 74°. Rt. eye stayed 'fuzzy' in its focus & teared some as well. Wasn't shootin', so it dent really matter. Wanna B doin' some RF paper punching in the worst way but the winds have said otherwise. No choice but to roll with it and stick to the clay target stuff... for the time being. Consummated whot should prove to B a deal on enough components to see me to my end, God willing to allow me such license and have some shootin' buds who shall also benefit from this latest windfall, so it's playing extra Kool... in that respect. 🙂 💥 Happy is where ya make it.

I B tryin'.

 

[wookness]

57°, RH 69%, wind E 7 under partly cloudy skies. Will warm to near 80 this afternoon. More chores this morning, but it's play day for the afternoon and sporty clays league blastinating late. Sinuses are better this AM, so that's a big plus. Can't really tell about the eyes yet but they don't feel as irritated this morning. Drinking the last cup of yesterday's dregs while waiting for the new pot of coffee to make and plotting my day's schedule. Bride was w/me much/most of the day yesterday and i wuz mother hen'd a good bit more that I needed or required. Hopping that particular need was satiated, at least for a while. Gracious!

Or izzit, "Good Greif(!), Charle Brown!" Wimmin. Most appreciative that she wasn't in horse mode.
--

Where is pans? Anyone spoken w/him lately? I need to give him a shout and see how he is rolling. Just added that to my list. Coffee is ready. Think I'll get a cup. Y'all have a great day!

 

[wookness]

Good news, hearing your black sheep 10/22 is going in for some group therapy. Lets hope it takes. 🧐
--

Gosh, Alum, whot's to say?
Rain, rain,
go away,
come again,
another day!

Hope ya get a break soon and some sunshine too!
--

Have gathered another two bags of yard trash & weeds this morning and done a lot of general cleaning, again. I can almost breath again but some sinus constriction(s) remain. Gonna say that the air is cleaner but there is plenty of yeller pollen on darn near everything. Was going to Czech the latest NOAA/NWS numbers but their site is down just now. Must B the weasel lunch hour.

 

[wookness]

All of my squad was there to shoot yesterday tho we were late in getting started w/one flying back in during the late afternoon and another caught in a huge accident-related traffic snarl. At 4 P the weather and conditions were about perfect w/just a few high elevation clouds and mild breeze. The squads that started shooting then posted some impressive scores. Time we got started it was close to 6 and a front had moved in and shut off all the light w/a total overcast and the winds picked up to SE 14 G 21 and then switched to S 13 G 24 and time we were done we successfully shot our way from 1st to 4th place. I shot better than the previous week but only 'covered' on the first box w/my handicap. One of the guys ran the first box and got two boxes of 12 ga target loads as an award for that accomplishment. Another shot one of the higher scores posted and was awarded a box of shells for that. Our loss of place was due to the second box or last five stations we shot where the lack of light and winds were a decided factor on presentations that were set tough to begin with. It wasn't that we shot badly, rather it was that other squad we were matched against shot much better and so did two others that shot early. All of us posted lower scores on the last box... and we were punished accordingly. 😖 History now. We need to do much better next week. We all had a good time and it was nice that we could all shoot together. Next week will see at least two of the guys out of town on bidness so they will either have to pre-shoot this weekend or use their first week's score as a 'bank'. Doing the latter would prove detrimental, but so will posting a poor score. Heated battle... in the slow lane, these leagues.

Noticed some crazy price jumps on the gas pumps between going out and returning w/diesel going way up. Regular swirl is back up to $4 or a bit better! Not good and not sure what that's about unless it's the markets realizing that crude is likely to stay around or above a hunnert a barrel for some time, so the gougers are taking advantage again but nuthin looks good to me, short term. Add the too little, too Whot I see is a very expensive mess is about to play out... whether we like it or not. It falls under that Physic that says once an object is set in motion, it can be hard to stop. There's stuff coming down hill fast... and it's snowballing.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please fasten yer seatbelts. There could be some turbulence ahead."

 

[wookness]

Where to start?

Great lookin' triad of huggable young wimmins, Lon. Doubt you'll have any trouble trafficking the last one. Their markings R remarkable. I'd say something about yer nail polish, excepting my dim bulb received a voltage spike... and now I've gone and embarrassed myself for ever harboring that thot.

 

[wookness]

Received 4k more 209 shotshell primers yesterday that I'd had to really werk hard/finesse to get. Was trying to get a sleeve's worth [5K] out of shipment that recently finally made it into the country a month later than it was originally anticipated. These are packaged 10K to a case and 1K to a tray for use in Italian made industrial 'shinnery used in manufacturing loaded shot shells, so they have to be transferred into saved empty hunnert primer trays to use them in the loaders that I have. I do know their product number, brisance level and have access to some pressure data within SAMMI specs, for some specific loads, so that I may use them safely. I've already used 10K of them in the last coupla years and never had any issues.

I do have one O/U that will 'light strike' a cartridge in one bbl. from time to time. It needs a new spring fitted/fabricated to fully remedy that, as it will sometimes do the same thing w/factory fresh ammo. It isn't the primers at all. Sometimes folks make the wrong assumptions, and a product will receive a wrongful conviction. I've not seen that done w/these particular primers but have seen it done to others. Hey(!), it's the internet!! Reader beware... and all that... but there is also excellent information and accurate data in many places if one reads w/a modicum of discretion and has some knowledge about a given subject to begin with. Anyway, I've managed to acquire a total of 6K from this latest shipment, so my cushion is back to a more comfortable level. Did the same w/some specific wads, while I had access to a supply and got some more high-quality hard lead shot at $50 per bag [ouch!], before it gets even more stupid in price or becomes unobtanium... and I've seen both, recently.

Have also helped some friends and friends of friends obtain some powder that has been unobtanium for the longest that I was most fortunate to stumble into as much by chance as anything else, but I consider it almost a Devine intervention in the singularity of that event... in the moment. Components at any price are hard to come by.
--

Knew a gentleman no longer w/us that was a heck of a noted flyer shooter who said he would resort to shooting a few rounds of golf when his shotgun game went south. He had some dlong kinda sense of humor and was a lot of fun to be around because of that, tho he was from the deep south that survived the war of northern aggression and never found it necessary to werk at anything... aside from improving his game.
--

Shot the better part of a flat at sporty clays yesterday afternoon in good company and in continued windy [gusts over 30] conditions on part of the green and all of the orange course. Was using some 7/8 oz reloads of reclaimed shot that came off the Ft. Benning Army range from some years ago. It has a lot of hard copper plated shot in it from the Federal paper bunker rounds they were shooting at the time. We weren't counting but fair certain that I was hitting over 80%, a decided improvement over yesterday's 72% performance in poor light.

Returned to the clubhouse to have a 97 y/o friend who wasn't shooting lament that the 'press' had not said a single werd about Texas declaring its independence on March 2nd, 1836, nor having won the battle of San Jacinto on April 21, the same year, that put the matter to bed once & for all. We decided that facts are no longer taught in our sorry school systems and that certain parties always claim that they can fix any and everything... if they just had more of our money. They do mention sinko de mayo, 'far ants' [when they are bitten], recently made-up holidays that have come to the fore, some old traditions like Juneteenth w/decent BBQ [read 'Smokestack Lightening'; it covers the old festivals held in Mexia, TX] and always have coverage of nonsensical trendy silly stuff. Gad!
--

Today marks arguably the last day of fresh oyster season; it is the last month so far this year w/an 'r' innit. I don't/won't eat fresh ones until the next month w/an 'r' comes around. That will happen in Sept. Knowing that, I may need to act on it before the day is out but it poses more than just a dichotomy of oysters.

 

[wookness]

That 'House of Blues' looks to be getting a little crowded, Brent. Easy to see why they might take up playing 'king of the hill' shortly. Glad to hear the new meds are providing some relief for you!
--

I seem to recall the Evil Administration Lady mentioning taking an annual sabbatical to visit her mom that isn't. Dunno if that's where she is but it's possible. OTOH, it could B that we are behaving well enough.
--

It is 'National Hairball Awareness Day', today. Always the last Friday in April. It was founded by a Veterinarian in KS who may or may not have had a lick of hair himself. I didn't research that part of it, feeling that it wasn't germane.

 

[wookness]

Nope. Scampi are animals - langoustines. If they called it Shrimp a la Scampi, it would be accurate.

Classic Shrimp Scampi Recipe

Scampi are tiny, lobster-like crustaceans with pale pink shells (also called langoustines) Italian cooks in the United States swapped shrimp for scampi, but kept both names Thus the dish was born, along with inevitable variations

cooking.nytimes.com

Duley noted but consider it an excellent dish regardless of the 'pacific' crustacean utilized... as long as it isn't Vulcanized. Funny about a lot of seafood dishes... where fresh is best, and simple too. Many dishes simply cannot be duplicated at their best when any distance is involved from the source, be it the dock or a nearby fish market. Stay away from bats, rats and monkey parts, should they have any. Them Langoose's are tough guy Atlantic cuz's of Gulf shrimp. Get half way and ya got's rock lobsters in Florida, in some places. It's near impossible to duplicate dishes made w/fresh caught never frozen seafood purchased dock side or caught yerself and properly cared for, and that goes for fresh water too, where the water is good.
--

Great pic of you & the grandkids, BW! B a secret Santa and treat them to some Christmas in July! All kids know that the real deal is plenty slow in getting here, and after the 4th it's mostly the dog days of summer. Gurls look forward to school starting again whilst most boys would prefer to keep kicking a can down the road, never having given a thot to kissing a toad but perhaps doing some more frog gigging when the bulls make their announcements in the late afternoons and evenings. They do that in the dusk and dark, luring the females by sounding like Sam Elliot in frog, and in the dark. I'm not a biologist but I can digit.

 

[wookness]

Have been up since 4 A. Sour stomach or feeling a tad wonky might be a good descriptor, nuthin' too evil and finally starting to feel like a regular geezer once more, after this last cup o' joe. Not in a hurry to do anything this overcast 74° morning. Winds just switched from major breezy to Vrbl. 7 RH is 79% and we are going to get some more showers starting tomorrow thru most of the coming week according to the general consensus of those claiming to know about such matters.

Thinking to drive over to the other side of Ft. Worth in a bit and worry some skeet targets. I've some powder to pick up that was dropped off for me during the week. Will take a leisurely drive over as not under any duress whatsoever.

Have a full-blown physical scheduled for early Monday morning. Will prolly stick my head in the Academy and the Bass Pro out that way afterwards. I'm fortunate to have a really fine internist as my primary Doc. He is a good friend, young, does a lot of good stuff with children [gratis, one day a week], stays on top of stuff medically speaking and is a shooter. Matter o' fact, he is shooting in the State NSCA Championship matches this week. They started on Thursday and will end tomorrow. Lots of dif. events are being held. I've been monitoring the scores posted online. There are over 900 entries w/multiple countries represented! It's a fair BIG shoot w/plenty of 'big dogs' present and some former world champs participating. I'm more into crowd avoidance, thank you.
--

Hope the new range proves a viable alternative for ya, Don. How long is the drive time? It takes me an hour to get to the club the other side of Ft. Worth, when I can time it correctly but expands to 1.5+ when traffic is high-speed bumper cars playing hurry up and wait.

Good luck on your selected event(s), TD!

Wonderful accomplishment, your daughter's graduation, Lon. Good your being there for her, even if you are wearing waders. The bow tie should help.

 

[wookness]

Long day yesterday, after a lazy start. Got over to the club the other side of Ft. Wort around noon in light and friendly traffic. It was seriously breezy the entire way. Temp was 81 under fair skies, RH was down to a nosebleed 24%, wind N 20 G 32. Shot four boxes at skeets while there w/a Beretta 686 'Essential' that was no side ribs and an auto-saftey that is on my list to get disconnected. Had two 'Comp-n-Choke' .005 constriction chokes fitted and was shooting 7/8 & 1 oz reloads of reclaimed shot. Kept forgetting [5 times!] to take the safety off and since the fields are set to run on members' Erad's [electric voice pulls w/number of targets purchased pre-loaded], I just called those targets 'lost' and kept on moving. Got an 18 on that first box. Followed that up w/a 20, 23 & 22 for 83% and was not unhappy, given my own stupidity w/the safety and the winds that were making the targets right spritely.

Was getting an appetite, time I finished shooting and decided to drive over to Defender and see what the place looked like since I knew they would have food trucks present to support the State NSCA shoot and my curiosity was piqued as well. I'd been sent detailed pre-shoot information by Travis Mears, the facility's owner and know a number of people who shoot there but had never been there myself. The layout was extensive and very well organized. I had no issues parking, but did get a quarter mile walk to the clubhouse and food truck pavilion. Ordered some Cajun-Asian Jambalaya spring rolls off of one of the food trucks for lunch just because it was different. They were surprisingly tasty! Hung around a while and visited w/some folks I knew who were getting some food. Then watched some 'Make a Break' being shot from near the clubhouse off of an elevated covered 5-stand platform. It was one of the several 'side games' made available to the shooters. Tickets were $13/round. Shooter had to buy two w/the money from one going into a daily 'pot' that was all returned to the shooter(s) 100% to the top score if less than ten shooting, or 60/40 for up to twenty or 50/30/20 for more w/ties dividing. Dunno how many played, but I watched a half dozen folks shoot it. The targets were very challenging and none that I watched got them all. The shooters were using two positions and had to switch halfway thru the round. It's a good 'pot' game. I could see the much of the grounds but not all as it's hilly and spread out around a large electrical transformer installation. Think in terms of a 96-hole golf course. You would have needed a cart or several hours to walk it all. That clay target shooting ranch is open to the public but also has various membership 'packages' available that can provide some savings if you are going to be shooting there a lot. I will probably go over there again and shoot their courses. A lot of what is there just this minute is extra to support the state shoot. There is a similar public w/some membership 'packages' place here, Elm Fork, where I sometimes shoot. That one also has rifle & pistol ranges. Their sporty clays and Super Sporting courses are generally good fun.

Took the long way home in moderately heavy traffic, stopping to top up the tank at $3.959/gal for '87' corn swill and then picked up an Rx and more grub for the larder. Station near the house was $3.869. Wouldn't ya just know it! We played some dominos, ate lite and retired early. Bride had been werking hard doing stuff, all day long.
--

This morning, I've realized that I got a lot more sun than I'd realized. No burn but an awareness and am already past pinking up but not tanned yet either. I've been monitoring the scores posted online. Have stuff to do around the house today. May or may not go to the club, later.

It's May already! Are all you pole dancers ready?!

 

[wookness]

Enjoyed those pics, 92!

Good shooting, 57, for the first time out of the gate, this year!

My condolences, David. Can't express it any better than others have. Good to see you back!

That pair of remaining Blues looked about right for the nest size, Brent... if mom & dad slept on the porch.

Nice looking range, Roscoe. Good that you can shoot a hunnert w/o worry. Do you get any mourning dove around that tank coming in to water?

Am sure that I've left some responses out; no slight is intended.
--

Yesterday saw it warm & breezy. 3 A this morning it was 68°, 93% RH, wind N21 G31 and we got about an inch of rain. 84° now, RH 57%, wind S21 G 38 w/heat index of 87! Sun is out for the moment but there's more rain coming. Was at the docs @ 9 A for an overdue physical.

Stopped afterwards to Czech out an Academy out that way. They had a fair amount of ammo, inclusive of multiple brands of .22's, some 17HMR @ $19/50 and a lot of popular calibre rifle & pistol and even shotshell target ammo! Store limit of 4 per/day/customer. Prices were the 'new norms', I guess. Noticed that the lacquered steel-cased ammo they had being sold under their 'Monarch' brand was made in Russia and the brass-cased same chamberings was made in Serbia. All of that ammo was going for 50¢/rd. & up. A brick of tunder durds was $49.99(!), CCI std's $5 something a box, Mini-Mags $11, Norma Tac-22 $9.95/bx, &c. They had some WW AA 28ga skeet loads for $13.99/bx. You get the ID but it shure [as in Remington Shure-Shot] beat seeing the shelves empty. I didn't buy any ofvit, having no real or justifiable need. Did attempt to buy two of their nice Magellan™ fishing shirts that were very clearly marked as being on sale for 50% off or two for one. No one was at the registers, so the customer service gal motioned me to come over & she would ring me up. They rang up at the regular price. I told that was wrong. She picks up the phones, calls someone then redoes the transaction and it's still wrong! a 'team' gal comes over and says I have to buy one at the regular price & then get half off on the second. That's not what their signs said! Neither of them was willing to go and look at their own signs. I wasn't in the mood for stupid or dealing with folks who were mean-spirited or sullen. Politely told them that I wasn't playing their game and strongly suggested they go and look at the signs they had predominately displayed by the shirts! I'd wasted ten minutes w/that pair of incompetents, wasn't gonna waste any more. I have a number of those shirts that I am fond of but not those two. Academy is a better store than that. I was honestly saddened that they did not have better help but was encouraged seeing some ammo on the shelves again. Whot's to say!? The times, they R a changin'? I still value mine, even if i'm just sittin' by the dock on the bay. Yano whot I mean, Vern?

Got home & peeled & cooked the remaining shrimp for cocktails for lunch. They ate great! Got a nap in, then made a run for critter food & pricey eggs 'n' bitters and then got my ears lowered afterwards. Whew! I'm glad it's after 5... and I'm taking full advantage ofvit, too.

 

[wookness]

G'morning, y'all. It's been raining much of the wee hours, another 58 points w/most ofvit coming down between 3 & 4 A. It's 62° now under overcast skies, RH 93%, wind NW 14.

I dreamt of catching a stringer of dinner plate sized bream the other day... and when I awoke, I was near wore out... from having so much fun. 🥴

Got a nap in yesterday afternoon. Had to fix a midnight martini to re-retire. Aside from the strong southerly winds, it wasn't unpleasant sitting out back where it was 79° at the time and mostly clear. And any mosquito's intending to bite Jack or I were quickly blown N of the Red River... into Sooner Land. Well, into Denton County anyway.

Noticed a grand emergence of June bugs at the Ft. Worth club, on Saturday last. Haven't noticed any here yet. They might could have some 'Sooner' in them; I dunno. They don't show up in any of the bride's grave digging on Ancestor dotcom.

Could get rained out on tomorrow's shooting. Thursday will be another day of wet for sure. Friday will be sunny as will the weekend and the weasels R saying it will be in the 90's! Time for me to stick a new filter in the central air & heat filter box that's located underneath the squirrel cage. Used to be able to buy an aerosol spray that improved the filter's ability to grab stuff and had a wintergreen scent. Sadly, it's no longer made. It was always nice when I'd install a new filter that had been given a spritz of that stuff; it provided effective aroma therapy for the whole house. Can't say that I'm excited about turning on the A/C, but temps in the 90's will necessitate it... at least until they go back down. Sticky hot is not conducive to good sleep, for either of us. Nope.

Bride is going over to give one of her GF's a hand this morning with some things. She was doing the same for another with some flower planting yesterday afternoon. We are Blessed that she can do that kind of thing and remains physically active & healthy w/her own challenges under control. Several of her friends are not as fortunate.

I'll get some inside stuff done this morning, inclusive of some gun cleaning and more reloading, then go to the bank and run some other errands after she returns. Life on Frontage Rd.; it must be the longest road in the country; seems like I've been on and off it for years. The darn thing goes everywhere, playing Tonto to the freeways. Sabe? 😉

 

[wookness]

It's been an interesting day here; instead of it warming, it just got colder. Went from 62 early to 55 and stayed there, or a bit lower. This latest norther has been a hard pusher but it's also brought some much needed moisture, so I'll not complain. Did get t' speak w/another member here for a bit, for the very first time, and was reminded of the fine quality of folks who visit and contribute to this site. It really is amazing, when ya stop & think on it. I say that, having watched what has and does happen on some other sites where things have gone down paths better/best not taken.

Got some stuff done, reflected some, decided that it was more productive for me to continue to focus on shooting, eating well from stuff we've in the larder and moving on down the road we call life. Skip a rock when ya can; play it back and visually count the times it bounced or skittered but ya need a really fast shutter speed to accomplish the latter... and that's when ya shift to SWAG, which isn't very scientific atall but it meets some arbitrary standards well enough.

'How many bounces do ya need, Boss?'

'Dunno, Vern but that last one skittered purdy good.'

It went from 55 at dusk w/RH of 90% & wind N 10 G 25 back up to 62 now @ 9 P w/RH of 80% w/wind E 8. Chances of getting rained out are 50%+ for tomorrow afternoon's sporty clays shooting. I'll just have to take them and see whot happens. Not smart enough to run a drone umbrella if I had one and shoot too.

'Ya wanna come and tag along, Vern? I've a new and really nice large umbrella big enough to keep both of us dry, should it rain.'

Ha! One might wish. Alas, I've no Huckleberry and the way it's going it costs more to feed a gun than a horse or hire an umbrella man to stay the course... that you'd prolly have to feed as well. My thots R getting fuzzy, but it could just be the hairs on the mold that has beset them. It's algae season as well. Galea is its anagram.

Ponder that! 🙀

 

[wookness]

Ran up to Walmart and the pharmacy this morning and gave them all some money. Carried Mom to the doctor this afternoon to get blood drawn for the 6 month recheck on the benign monoclonal gammopathy test. Go back in a week to see the doctor for a results consult. Then over to the optometrist to pick up her new glasses. They must have gotten the prescription very close as she could read down to the 20/25 line and read up close very well. She was happy with them. At the same distance I could read down to the 20/13 line so I know my lens prescription is perfect! Got home and fired up the older lawn mower and mowed grass until it got too dark to see well enough to go any further. That older Craftsman mower has a single cylinder 20 HP Kohler engine on it and gets better fuel economy than the newer mower of mine with the B&S V twin 24 horse engine. Used up all the gas that I had on hand anyways, so I had to go to the store and spend some more money. Four bucks a gallon this year is going to eat some dollars up to keep everything mowed.

Mom had a broken ballcock on a toilet last month and didn't know about it for a while; I replaced it for her but a lot of water had already gotten gone. Got the water bill: $180.00! Our water bills are usually the minimum of $21.41. We got a letter from the water department, rates going up 11%.

Phil, If you will send the Water Dept. a note regarding your mom's condition/circumstances along w/a copy of the receipt for the causative culprit, they will likely make a substantive adjustment in her favor.

 

[wookness]

It's been fog & mist all night and remains so. Up to 71°, RH down from a hunnert percent near dawn to 87% now, wind SE 10. More rain is in the forecast. Will go to the club later anyway and take my chances, hoping to shoot. 🤞 Tomorrow is forecast to be a severe tunder dorm washout, all day long.
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That's amazing, seeing how quickly nature filled that vacuum, Brent but glad that she has. I'd not realized that Equal Opportunity Housing was that easily accommodated. It's apparently a darn site quicker w/o the red tape. 🎬 The next act should provide new film opportunities.
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Caught up w/pans. He's in Idaho taking care of bidness. Said the Mayor's passing hit him pretty hard, they were good friends, then the change was awkward and he'd been locked out of RFC for a while, as I & others were. He's been doing some online ketchup as time permits but not totally there yet & asked me to say 'Hi' to the gang w/his best regards. I expect that he'll get 'round to posting at a later date when he has the time and inclination. Know that he had acquired some fun & hard to come by small bore guns to shoot prior to all that but he didn't mention whether or not he's had the time to do so w/all of the non-stop travels that his werk demands. Many o' them fellers from KY, TN, VA & the Carolina's remain crack shots and squirrel barkers of note; not to mention being really smart in the best gifted sense and intelligent. Pans is one o' them, tho he don't talk about it much.

Possibility that he may get thru here in the next few weeks and he'll give me a shout, should it pan out. I'm hoping that it will and that we might squeak in some time together as we did when he was here last.
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The sun just broke thru! Dunno how long it will stick around but I'm always glad to see it... even when it's doing a bit of burlesque. One of the things that fizzix, quantum or otherwise, has yet to prove is the presence of smiles in UV's. It don't mean they aren't there.

 

[wookness]

Yesterday's sporty clays were some real doozies. Heavy overcast skies, 81°, RH a pregnant 82%, winds SE 17 G 29. We [4 of us] started shooting just after 5 P and the promised rainstorm held off and let us finish and get back to the clubhouse w/o being poured on, tho it did arrive a few minutes later dumping fast moving sheets of water. We successfully shot our way from 4th to dead last, but had a good time doing it There were two stations [one on each box] that were really nasty. I got a zero on one of them and a '1' on the other. I ended up shooting two 17's that left me w/a handicap score just shy of 24 on each, so didn't quite 'cover'. All of us were troubled by those two stations and our performance was basically torpedoed right there. Oh well. I was shooting a box stock 12 ga. Remington 1100 fitted with a 25" VR fixed choke IC bbl. and 1 oz reloads of reclaimed shot. Could have, IMHO, benefitted from more choke and 32 gram factory trap or sporty clays ammo on those tough guys. OTOH, they beat most commers, many of whom were using tighter chokes and said factory ammo. Bottom line is that we didn't shoot well enough to redeem our slip from 1st to 4th last week and now find ourselves in that awkward position of only being able to look up. The way that this league is structured and handicapped, it is very close, so 'hiccups & bobbles' are quite costly.

Drove home in the rain, mentally licking my wounds, but very glad that nature had allowed us to shoot at all. The club got more of those rains than we did at the house, tho we received some too. It's forecast to be nasty-wet here all day but isn't raining at the moment. I need to get the wheeled trash bin to the street & some more joe down my gullet. Will return later. Have some gun cleaning to do this morning as well. And need a few minutes to privately grumble about the guaranteed price increases on darn near everything that the present diesel fuel costs will bring with them. Have to leave it there.
--

Dismantling loaded CF ammo is less tedious than doing the same w/shot shells, Don. I've done my share, and more than once, when not realizing the powder bottle was empty!

Years back, I knew a guy that had been contracted to dismantle quite a few thousands of rounds of bismuth that couldn't be sold because of it being loaded incorrectly. It kept him busy for a very long time and he ended up filling several 55 gal. barrels w/shot that went back to the factory for reuse. Fork-lift werk, that [moving those barrels] and only one to a stout pallet! I forget the said weight of one of those things, but it was a lot.

 

[wookness]

We've been getting on & off rain all day long, some heavy. Temp has slowly dropped to 70, wind NW 17 at present giving ya that 'swamp cooler' effect. Not at all unpleasant. Weekend promises to be a HOT one, w/temps in the mid 90's. Have accomplished a few things, inclusive of loading more throw-away 12 ga target rounds to shoot over the coming three days.

Ka-POW! Bang! Take that(!), ya lousy target.

Some of yesterday's paid no mind. ☹

I be fixin' to learn 'em.

 

[wookness]

It had cooled off to a nice 67° near 11 P, RH a reasonable 66%, wind N 3 under clear skies. Low got into the high 50's at dawn. Today will be sunny w/a forecast high of 86, then 94 tomorrow and get up to 97 for Mother's Day! We are under an Air Quality Warning [moderate level] from now thru tonight. And also, severe weather warnings and warnings of potential banks of dense fog in many places as the ground steams its wet gift back into the air. We've mosquitos now, that have joined the crane fly's and other emergent critters and crawlers and 'spotters' too. That's a southern enunciation for 'spiders', in some places. Many spiders seem to thrive here year 'round, but some don't survive the cold and leave egg sacks w/hunnerts of their tiny offspring, that come spring, emerge and then they are everywhere. I prefer to avoid them but don't go out of my way to kill them when encountered in the yard or fields. They come and go. I disliked walking into cotton spider's webs, when afield as a boy with gun, a lot. Shot a few of them in those days. Just move around them these days. Find one of any variety inside & it gets stomped or swatted w/prejudice, regardless of species, sex or number of eyes it had. Have yet to encounter one inside the house or cabin large enough to need shooting. Pray it remains so but am prepared... should it prove otherwise. I/we has old-time irons at both places, the non-electric kind that needed to be heated on the stove for use. Need I say more?

I picked up a spent WW/AA 12 ga hull last week that had a spider living in it. It had obviously been there a while, the hull, perhaps the spider too. I was just going to toss it in the trash and did. The spider survived but had to seek new shelter.

'Twas gifted a quantity of scarce and hard to come by 16 ga hulls several years back that had been stored in heavy waxed 'chicken boxes' like they use to move/transport cleaned whole chickens to market in w/their drop on lids not sealed nor tightly secured. They were stored in an enclosed outside shed/barn. Many of them had housed spiders at an earlier time and some were frozen inside behind their seals that had been intended to protect them. It had not, for those unfortunates. Some of those hulls cleaned up well enough with a brush on an electric drill and got utilized, others had to be discarded because the 'seal' in some of them was like a limestone-based cement and it stuck like a barnacle to the hull's inner periphery and wasn't removable. It's just nature's abhorrence for vacuums.

It's rumored, mostly to do w/obscure and kept from the public, werks written in a formerly unintelligible language known as 'Spider Byte' on the inside, AKA, the gubment's 'skunk works', that makes refs to an outer galactic planet ruled and run by large harry beings with mandibles, multiple eyes, eight arms [or izzit legs?] and eight fangers at the end of each w/the outer one's being opposed, sorta like our thumbs, that among other things, are said to be very fast typists and feast on human beans and also have a penchant for certain cow organs. I dunno if they have it all fully ironed out, but I'd not wanna meet one, if true. I'm a 🙀 where 👽 are concerned. "Moma(!), get the Real Kill!"

 

[wookness]

Fine accomplishment, Mike! Glad ya got it pulled off.

I have an acquaintance who says, 'life's a team sport.' We are not always on the same team, but we've accomplished some things werkin' together.

 

[wookness]

So, my birthday is next month. I found something I really want to do for it. But I am to cheap tp spend the money. If it was for anyone but me I wouldn't think twice about spending the money. What is my problem?

Let the guy in the mirror spend the money and then when yer B'day rolls around, enjoy whateveritis you can't bring yerself to do for yourself. Problem solved.

This place is crawling with enablers that will help a feller to spend his money; not all a bad thing, that... and the occasional thread killer that just won't stay between the lines of agreed to behavior(s). Good the former much outweighs the latter.

Watching things here is a lot more fun than some other things presently taking place. Leaving the markets, conflicts, mysterious black cubes and wars w/o comment, I've noticed that my wholesale cost of quality lead shot has gone up US$ 2.50/25#'s in the past week. Eek! Glad to have scored a few more bags recently and prior to these latest hikes. Yikes!

All the more reason to act now, AZ. Odds ofvit being lower next month are not favorable. Better to give yerself a gift... as opposed to 'the finger'.

It's a loverly day here.