Yesterday. Developed a crushing migraine during the commute, the few stops on the way home were painful, arriving home I sought to become one with the elusive cold spot on the couch cushions. In the midst of my burrowing my sweetie observes that I was supposed to head to the polls and vote.
Crap!
Two advil, boots and coat and off I go to voice my opinion not only on the local MPP, but to answer the referendum question about electoral reform (should we stick with a “first past the post” system or go with the new, improved, shiny “mixed member proportional” system which happens to include adding 20 some odd new MPPs to the provincial parliament – something those that know me would immediately recognize as a thing I’d immediately support).
I went. I did my part. I returned home and resumed my suffering.
[Mixed member proportional was, it seems, soundly thrashed in the referendum, finger pointing and accusations by it's supporters to follow.]
I’ve long said that security work is a trap, if you do it for too long you’re not suited for anything else. The reasoning here is that you (dependant on the assignment) get used to running your posterior off when it’s busy, slacking off when it’s slow and hoping that the great big effort ledger balances somewhere down the line (the balance almost always rests well into the “slacking” side, but there’s no shortage of shifts where you have to remind yourself of this as you’re eating your lunch out of your lap while responding to yet another alarm and secretly hoping the place got broken into just so you can use their washroom and sit still for an hour or so).
Yesterday, however, was a little odd in the distribution of the type of work I wound up doing. I arrived for my shift just before 08:00, went over the night shifts paperwork and entered the parking tickets and patrol and alarm reports into the database I’ve been building for the branch (nothing special, its MS Access), spent a half hour fixing the computer after the power went out during the backup of the DB and then received an alarm call (a building down the street that had been affected by the same blackout). Sat for 40 minutes in front of the building waiting for clearance from dispatch to leave, then raced to a site where I was supposed to fill in for 6 hours. 6 hours spent walking around a mall and warning teenagers to behave, and then back in the car and off to rewire the emergency lights on one of the other company patrol cars in a driveway for almost two hours.
It really wasn’t that busy, but it certainly didn’t add any “slacking” to the effort ledger, hopefully my next shift will balance the books.
Tish over at The Kat House has posted an interesting meme where you display an screencap of your desktop. I haven’t been tagged, but thought it was a good idea so here we go.
I’m sure a few of you recognize the image from the Fallout game series. I played the ever loving hell out of Fallout and Fallout 2, never really even trying Fallout Tactics (and I’ve lost track of the newest entry in the series which was due out “already” or “soon”, I forget which.)
I’ve used this image as my desktop for about the last 6 years, and have never really tired of it.
Activity has been light here of late, as I’ve been taking a few OT shifts to help pay down a few bills and maybe even squirrel a few dollars away into the “hail mary” slush fund. I worked an extra 14 hour night shift last weekend, and have an extra 12 hour day shift this weekend (above and beyond my normally scheduled 40 hours)
Honestly I’d prefer the days off, but the allure of overtime has always been that I’m getting paid closer to what I feel I deserve.
As my email inbox and blog comments fill with spam advertising this sort of thing I thought I’d post a clip from This Hour has 22 Minutes for entertainment value.
Finally a few minutes in which to shoot the match mentioned here, for added value I dragged both the Mossberg 500 and the Remington 870 out, along with the Smith and Wesson Model 14. Cool temperatures, occasional sun and no one else in evidence around the range.
Perfect.
In accordance with the course of fire set out originally I set up three targets at 50 meters, load the 870 with four 1oz slugs, and shouldered the shotgun. Aiming down the sites I take aim, pull the trigger and COMPLETELY FORGET THE AMOUNT OF RECOIL INVOLVED! Wow. No time for reflection, first shot was a direct hit, two more headshots follow with the only threat to my safety being the sore shoulder I’m rapidly developing.
Am almost done writing up the results (for me anyway) of Postal Match #4 – Scattergun Mayhem and my initial impressions are that I would not be in a hurry to designate either of my shotguns as a primary anti-zombie weapon.
You see, Piet and I had decided on shotguns for this match as it’s almost universally assumed that a shotgun makes a fine anti-zombie weapon. I had always assumed that a shotgun was a good “close-in” weapon for the zombocalypse, but that to gain even a moderate reach (50+ yards) one would have to use slugs.
I had entirely forgotten what the felt recoil is like when you fling a few of these bad boys downrange, and I can state without reservation that I’d take a shotgun and slugs if nothing else was available, I’d prefer a carbine (as would my shoulder) if some variety is possible. The results on the targets were impressive but that came at the price of a throbbing pain in my right shoulder.
Any shotgun fans out there want to offer some advice on this? Recoil reduction tips and tricks?
