Monday, April 22, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
Breaking
NECN is reporting 'suspect #2' in the Boston Marathon bombing has been taken into custody. He is alive but wounded.
Today’s Weather
Today in and around eastern Massachusetts we can expect temperatures in the low 70’s, partly to mostly cloudy skys with a 20% chance of showers later in the day mixed with sporadic gunfire and the occasional hand grenade.
If you are in the Boston metro area, particularly in Boston, Brookline, Newton, Cambridge, Belmont, Waltham and especially Watertown:
You don’t want to accidentally take out one of the good guys. There are still a few out there, you know. Lawdog as a case in point (although he’s rather obviously not in the Boston metro area)…
Oh and a note to the local media: The FAA has issued a No Fly Zone over the area of interest. After all, we wouldn’t want there to be any independent video that might conflict with the “Official Account” of what went down, now would we?
Tinfoil hat? Naw! I find that a well-grounded stainless steel salad bowl works much better!
BTW: Does this vehicle look familiar to any of you?
If you are in the Boston metro area, particularly in Boston, Brookline, Newton, Cambridge, Belmont, Waltham and especially Watertown:
- Stay indoors
- Keep your head down
- And you AR aimed at the door
- And remember Rule 4: Know your target and what’s beyond your target
You don’t want to accidentally take out one of the good guys. There are still a few out there, you know. Lawdog as a case in point (although he’s rather obviously not in the Boston metro area)…
Oh and a note to the local media: The FAA has issued a No Fly Zone over the area of interest. After all, we wouldn’t want there to be any independent video that might conflict with the “Official Account” of what went down, now would we?
Tinfoil hat? Naw! I find that a well-grounded stainless steel salad bowl works much better!
BTW: Does this vehicle look familiar to any of you?
Image from Boston.com
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Pelham traffic stop yields weapons cache
Yeah, right…
From the minimal description provided in the article I would speculate that the likely make and model was one of these:
I don’t happen to have one of those myself. But they do look like a fun plinker. Basically the one I handled at WalMart seemed to be a along the lines of a Pumpmaster 760 dressed up in an AR-15 costume. If I was in my teens I’d probably be drooling all over the idea of getting one. And the stock really is adjustable, just like its metal cousin. Did I mention that these are almost completely made of plastic? Metal is used where needed but the entire outer frame is injection molded probably polystyrene.
The newspaper reports that the van was stolen as were the airguns. That got the driver arrested on felony charges for receiving stolen property. His passengers were arrested for not being able to convince officer OMG they got gunses! that the baggies in their pockets contained oregano for their home ec class later that afternoon.
UPDATE: It turns out that the "rifles" in question were not BB guns. They are much more realistic airsoft guns. I shouldn't expect the media to understand the difference, or even that there is a difference...
Adding drama to their investigation of the suspicious vehicle at about 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Officers Thistle and Barbato, while questioning the three suspects, "observed in plain view several semi-automatic firearms/weapons" in the rear section of the Toyota van, McCarthy said.
The BB guns' resemblance to actual firearms was so significant that the officers at first believed the air rifles were the real thing, McCarthy said. – emphasis added
From the minimal description provided in the article I would speculate that the likely make and model was one of these:
Crossman M4-177 -- Image via the manufacturer’s websight.
I don’t happen to have one of those myself. But they do look like a fun plinker. Basically the one I handled at WalMart seemed to be a along the lines of a Pumpmaster 760 dressed up in an AR-15 costume. If I was in my teens I’d probably be drooling all over the idea of getting one. And the stock really is adjustable, just like its metal cousin. Did I mention that these are almost completely made of plastic? Metal is used where needed but the entire outer frame is injection molded probably polystyrene.
The newspaper reports that the van was stolen as were the airguns. That got the driver arrested on felony charges for receiving stolen property. His passengers were arrested for not being able to convince officer OMG they got gunses! that the baggies in their pockets contained oregano for their home ec class later that afternoon.
UPDATE: It turns out that the "rifles" in question were not BB guns. They are much more realistic airsoft guns. I shouldn't expect the media to understand the difference, or even that there is a difference...
Lowell Sun photo
UPDATE II: I just thought I'd point out the nice job the local cat box liner did in cropping this photograph. Trim a little off the stock and you don't really loose anything. But if you trim an inch or so off the muzzle you can completely eliminate the ORANGE TIP that all airsoft toys are required by law to have. Suddenly it looks like a real AR-15. In terms of the oath administered to every witness in every court across this land that would be a failure to "tell the whole truth."
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Post Two, Take Two, and --- ACTION!
Over at Tam’s she tells the tale of her day. It involves gravity, a staircase and the sudden stop at the bottom. “Ow!” Indeed…
I’ve had a few “incidents” myself today.
Incident one and a half had me very thankful that I’d taken the time to go in the house and get my OSHA certified side-shield safety glasses. I was using my sawsall to trim away some now excess framing from around the water heater door frame that had been part of the hinge when the long since missing original hatch was installed thirty-five years ago. Well the one metal cutting blade I had on hand snapped. What’s more the busted off end decided it wanted to test the robustness of those very safety glasses. The ones about half an inch in front of mine own eyes! I am pleased to report that both the glasses and more importantly my eyes are undamaged. I was just annoyed that the blade snapped. I had to make due with a not very striate universal blade instead. It got the job done.
Incident one involved my not getting a good measurement for the width of the door. 20 ¼ will do very nicely I think. The plywood I had cut at my local ‘big boys toys ‘is’ us’ is a nice and neat 21 inches even. Well, at least I don’t need the lumber stretcher…
For now I reinstalled the old plywood that fits on the new hinges with the new hasp that has an integral lock. It’s much better than the old version with all the drywall screws holding it in place. I can now access the water heater with the turn of a key instead of needing a screw gun. I’ll trim the new weather resistant plywood and install that another time. I may even paint it!
As I was putting away the tools and stuff from the water heater door project I decided that now would be a dandy time to get that accursed vine out of the rhododendron out front.
You know, it’s annoying enough how much detangling you have to do to separate this kind of vine from the plant you are trying to save. But then when you start pulling with the intent of getting as much root as possible – my ghawd! The root structure on this damned thing is phenomenal! We could use napalm on it and this weed would be the first thing to grow back!
Well, I managed to get most of the vine out of the rhody and took a lot of root along with it. Then I was working on the last two strands that had wrapped themselves around each other like a cable. I had a good two fisted grip around its throat, er, well, vine, and I gave a mighty heave with all that I had to put into it, when, suddenly, it snapped.
Pulling that hard when you all of a sudden find yourself with no resistance whatsomever can lead to some ratherentertaining unpleasant things. I damn near did a back flip right there in the driveway. Or at least I landed in the driveway. On the pavement. On my right elbow and hand.
I do believe the air turned a wee might blue at that very moment…
So there I am lying face down in my driveway. I hear a car go by a few feet away in front of the house. They apparently must have been honor students in the local school system because they “didn’t get involved” with the obvious “man down” at the end of his driveway.
I did a self assessment lying there and decided that as much as things hurt nothing was apparently broken. OK, so now how do I move and brace so I can get up without doing any more damage, given that I wasn’t assured as of yet as to the accuracy of my initial assessment? Well, I managed, picked up my hat which had landed some distance away, and sat down on the back bumper of the flea van to catch my breath.
Apparently the initial assessment was fairly accurate. My hand is sore, but (rather obviously if you are reading this) I can still type while actually using both hands.
Then, a little while ago, as I was typing Take One of this very post, the Godiva Dark Chocolate Pearls tin that I had placed under the near edge of the potato chip bag intending to keep the chips from spilling out all over the keyboard fell off the counter, bounced off the back edge of the keyboard it was supposed to be protecting, hit the switch on the power box --- and shut off the computer.
I had not saved.
I blame it on the calendar. It may not be a Friday, but still…
So shortly after I’d written and posted the previous item with those unexpected musical gems I’m sitting here thinking quietly to myself “An out of shape fifty-three year old man taking a header like that ain’t the same as a twenty year old athlete doing the same thing” when all of a sudden Mum starts laughing her head off. She’s reading a Stephanie Plum novel. The timing couldn’t have been better if it had been choreographed!
Updated to add:
I’ve had a few “incidents” myself today.
Incident one and a half had me very thankful that I’d taken the time to go in the house and get my OSHA certified side-shield safety glasses. I was using my sawsall to trim away some now excess framing from around the water heater door frame that had been part of the hinge when the long since missing original hatch was installed thirty-five years ago. Well the one metal cutting blade I had on hand snapped. What’s more the busted off end decided it wanted to test the robustness of those very safety glasses. The ones about half an inch in front of mine own eyes! I am pleased to report that both the glasses and more importantly my eyes are undamaged. I was just annoyed that the blade snapped. I had to make due with a not very striate universal blade instead. It got the job done.
Incident one involved my not getting a good measurement for the width of the door. 20 ¼ will do very nicely I think. The plywood I had cut at my local ‘big boys toys ‘is’ us’ is a nice and neat 21 inches even. Well, at least I don’t need the lumber stretcher…
For now I reinstalled the old plywood that fits on the new hinges with the new hasp that has an integral lock. It’s much better than the old version with all the drywall screws holding it in place. I can now access the water heater with the turn of a key instead of needing a screw gun. I’ll trim the new weather resistant plywood and install that another time. I may even paint it!
As I was putting away the tools and stuff from the water heater door project I decided that now would be a dandy time to get that accursed vine out of the rhododendron out front.
You know, it’s annoying enough how much detangling you have to do to separate this kind of vine from the plant you are trying to save. But then when you start pulling with the intent of getting as much root as possible – my ghawd! The root structure on this damned thing is phenomenal! We could use napalm on it and this weed would be the first thing to grow back!
Well, I managed to get most of the vine out of the rhody and took a lot of root along with it. Then I was working on the last two strands that had wrapped themselves around each other like a cable. I had a good two fisted grip around its throat, er, well, vine, and I gave a mighty heave with all that I had to put into it, when, suddenly, it snapped.
Pulling that hard when you all of a sudden find yourself with no resistance whatsomever can lead to some rather
I do believe the air turned a wee might blue at that very moment…
So there I am lying face down in my driveway. I hear a car go by a few feet away in front of the house. They apparently must have been honor students in the local school system because they “didn’t get involved” with the obvious “man down” at the end of his driveway.
I did a self assessment lying there and decided that as much as things hurt nothing was apparently broken. OK, so now how do I move and brace so I can get up without doing any more damage, given that I wasn’t assured as of yet as to the accuracy of my initial assessment? Well, I managed, picked up my hat which had landed some distance away, and sat down on the back bumper of the flea van to catch my breath.
Apparently the initial assessment was fairly accurate. My hand is sore, but (rather obviously if you are reading this) I can still type while actually using both hands.
Then, a little while ago, as I was typing Take One of this very post, the Godiva Dark Chocolate Pearls tin that I had placed under the near edge of the potato chip bag intending to keep the chips from spilling out all over the keyboard fell off the counter, bounced off the back edge of the keyboard it was supposed to be protecting, hit the switch on the power box --- and shut off the computer.
I had not saved.
I blame it on the calendar. It may not be a Friday, but still…
So shortly after I’d written and posted the previous item with those unexpected musical gems I’m sitting here thinking quietly to myself “An out of shape fifty-three year old man taking a header like that ain’t the same as a twenty year old athlete doing the same thing” when all of a sudden Mum starts laughing her head off. She’s reading a Stephanie Plum novel. The timing couldn’t have been better if it had been choreographed!
Updated to add:
Road Rash is a BITCH!
The improved water heater hatch.
Once I get the new plywood in place what color should I paint it?
Back at ya…
Weer’d has been sharing some really cool bluegrass covers of favorite songs. Well, here’s one for you:
And while we’re on the subject of covers in very different style from the original recordings, allow me to present this:
And while we’re on the subject of covers in very different style from the original recordings, allow me to present this:
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