Wit, Wisdom & Wonder

Josh and 2nd husband have been gone all day, helping a fellow sailor move on the Peninsula. All that was likely an excuse to work a trade, as it turns out; he's traded the little hay pickup for a GMC 2500 4x4. Oy vey. Picy goodness to come, I'm sure.

I'm having trouble staying in place with my foot propped up, as the house could really use a good clean up. I've been sneaking back and forth to the kitchen to load the dishwasher and keeping the laundry going. There's a delicate line between stuff he can prove I did and stuff he never notices I do in the first place.

Libby and Spike have taken turns hanging out in the living room with the dogs, which includes Boo since Kevin is staying with us for the weekend. Meanwhile, I am trying very hard not to check up on the job they are doing of taking care of the farm critters, control freak that I am.

Folks have been calling all day to poke fun, so I've been entertained. Now, if I could only get a few more papers written for next week. :)

Kevin, Josh and I headed out early yesterday for the Gun & Knife Show in Mt. Vernon. I've been looking for a 357 revolver, preferably with rubberized grip, for myself. Josh just wanted something to plink with to hang out with me up at the handgun portion of the gun club, as he only owned long guns. Somehow, all three of us ended up with 22 LRs. I with an old fashioned, double action H&R Sportsman (with tactical holster, go figure), Josh with a Remington semi-auto and Kevin with a bolt action (no magazine) rifle (aka "The One Hit Wonder"). Obviously, we're not going to kill anything with these, but we'll irritate them a whole lot.

And we went straight to the range to play with them, which frankly was somewhat stupid. Though we'd broken down the guns to check them out, we hadn't thoroughly cleaned them. The Sportsman, in particular, hadn't been shot for awhile and she spewed gun powder so bad the first shot I've got some embedded in my left hand. The guys finally asked me to move down a few more stalls as they were getting shot with it, as well. She's what my grandfather would have called a "smutty gun". That said, the guys had a ball shooting her. Sailors, whatcha gonna do?

I like the Sportsman, even though she pulls high and left. The wood grip is a nice solid handful and the reach is long, which I need with my larger hands. The Sportsman is light enough to wear comfortably at my waist, but dear Gods, don't ever carry her fully loaded! This model has no safety and she's twitchy as all get out. Gently lowering the hammer after loading will indeed make her shoot. Load her with eight and have her rest on an empty chamber. Nasty surprise, that. Glad I checked it, though it really goosed the guys who weren't expecting it. Josh loves that it's a Western style belt gun, I would have preferred a more modern gun. Shooting 9 is fun, especially as the rounds come in a plastic container five across, so I'd pull out two rows and hand the 10th to Kevin with great ceremony.

Moral of this story is obvious: Never go to a Gun & Knife Show with cash.