Of course my preoccupation with day-to-day life combined with my continuing dayshift schedule has meant that I have not made it out to the range in over three months. This was further complicated by the fact that my range was recently forced to implement a buddy system (no solo shooting) after a gummint inspection.
This pretty much kills off my favorite shooting. Just me, my firearms and a completely empty range at 10:00am on a weekday. No waiting around for cease-fires to do target changes, no yahoos explaining to their neophyte friends why an SKS can cut down trees, no distractions.
As a consequence I am now looking at acquiring a second range membership, hopefully this will give me the opportunity to do a little more shooting during “new” off-peak times.
Yes, between work, family and regular visits to the dentist I’ve been significantly absent from the blog. There are things I wanted to rail against, rant about and even mock, but time has been a constant enemy.
First the update. I’m still here, I’m still not smoking (6 months! Yay me!), I’ve gone through approximately $1500 in dental work in slightly more than a month (which anyone will tell you is really not that much when it comes to dentistry - in fact it covers two MAJOR fillings, one MINOR filling, one extraction and a cleaning bordering on industrial - The doc has told me I have the summer off, there is more work to be done, but all the evil issues have been dealt with, and the majority of the remaining work is cosmetic in nature).
While most that know me will undoubtedly point out that I’ve never been one to keep my mouth shut for any length of time, keeping it open for hours on end (two seperate 1 1/2 and 2 hour sessions) is exhausting in a very special way.
Now, before I joke about this I’d like to point out that my dentist is truly excellent, and a far cry from the doctor I had in Vancouver, a clip of which I’ve posted below.
I love stuff like this. Shaking up the “day to day” lives of people just a little bit, replacing the normal panorama of urban drudge with something that gives you a moments pause and snaps you out of that auto-pilot most of us spend so much time in.
Improv Everywhere, according to their webpage, causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. These stunts are harmless, but the reaction they provoke (both in the general public, and those in “authority” are fascinating).
My two favorite “stunts” are linked below, give them a perusal.
While more videos would not be unwelcomed I figured some sort of text providing an update is needed.
First and foremost I remain a non-smoker, just slightly over four months and no slips off the wagon at all. Cravings extremely sporadic and mainly consisting of me exclaiming in agitation “I need a smoke!“. Assorted other “healthy living” stuff going on like minor changes in diet, reductions in coffee intake (both for health and finances) and even some efforts to sort out my dental issues (resulting, so far, in one extraction and the fun is only just beginning!).
I’m still here, I’m just trying to work some overtime, inject some fiscal responsibility into my own spending habits (moderate success), improve my credit rating (significant success) and squeeze a few more dollars out of our budget (fair success).
In the meantime we’re still parents of a darling, determined and stubborn 3 1/2 year old who occupies a goodly amount of our time.
Have I missed anything? Oh yeah, I saw (most of) the new Indiana Jones movie and have mixed feelings on it, but I’ll welcome others input.
Last night as I sat on the couch playing Rainbow Six: Las Vegas II with Mike a large crash shook my humble little abode. I’ll admit that my first thought was that the house had been struck by a rather solid object. Peering out my window I noticed that a rather solid object had struck the concrete telephone pole at the end of my driveway instead.
A minivan had seemingly done it’s level best to absorb the telephone pole, a few citizens had already gathered around the minivan so I figured a call to 911 was probably going to be the extent of my involvement.
I spent a few minutes watching the crowd growing, but soon tired of things and went back inside, when Lisa pointed out that the impact may have been captured on our surveillance system. As I played back the events recorded I found she was right, and while the action takes place at the very edge of the image (obstructed by the time stamp) you can clearly see that the two pedestrians were luckier than they likely imagined when they started their walk.
In the end I flagged down one of the Constables and advised them that one of my cameras had captured the impact, offering them the footage should they need it. They collected the footage (burned onto a CD for them, now that’s service) just before I called it quits with Mike for the night.
Lesson learned? Motor vehicle accidents are no substitute for terrorist hunting mayhem.
(The officers advised me that the driver was ok, seems everyone involved was just lucky enough)
I’m starting to feel better. My throat has been bothering me for the past eight days (Yes, on day 6 I caved and went to see a doctor getting the predicted prescription for anti-biotics). Now two days later things seem to be clearing up nicely although I’m still not certain as to whether the problem was viral and if the antibiotics had any effect at all.
But I digress.
This morning I found myself sitting in a striped car watching a bank machine for the majority of my day. It’s not a new hobby, but rather standard procedure when there is the slightest inclination of the potential for a possible problem with the alarm system. So I sat, and sat, and depleted the lunch and snack supplies I typically keep in my work bag. Worse, with the weather warming I drank my entire bottle of water. Pretty soon my throat was starting that irritating dull throb thing, and the only thing I had to mix the neo-citran into was my newly arrived coffee.
Don’t ever even think that mixing cherry neo-citran with a medium double-double is a good idea. It’s slightly more disgusting than you would think, and can’t be choked down no matter how desperate the situation has become.
Some of you may have figured this was just common sense, but it’s for those of you that don’t know any better that I post this warning.
