BAG Day approaches!

April 15- tax day for most of you, has also been celebrated for several years now as BAG Day- that's Buy A Gun Day for those of you so inclined. So assuming that I might be back to work before the holiday, it's possible that I could participate in the celebration too.

So, if I were to buy a new gun, what would it be? The Taurus Circuit Judge revolving cylinder carbine or a used Ruger 10/22 and that M-1 Carbine conversion? Maybe I could buy an AR-15 upper receiver and barrel to get my AR built.

I suppose it all depends on if I'm back to work and how badly I want to make trips to Flaming Gorge for fishing. We'll see what happens.

UPDATE: I heard from one of my brothers that his GF jumped ahead of BAG day and bought a North American Arms revolver for herself. Good for her.

Job interview update

I think it went well. I was on the phone with the interviewer for 40 minutes and answered 14 questions. I had experience with all the different AF computer systems he was interested in except 1 that was just being introduced when I was leaving the F-16 community. He asked me all about my experiences and skills and goals and he seemed to like my responses.

There's a pretty good chance I'll have an answer before the weekend. A little birdie told me that my name was at the top of the list for this job and that the interview was just a formality. How that birdie might have any insight is beyond me but stranger things have happened.

Score!

Today I bought a 2nd hand Happy Troller trolling plate for Fish Slayer's motor for just 30 bucks! Thar was too good of a deal to pass up even if I did have to drive 55 miles to go get it. Hey, the wind was blowing 35 mph outside so working on the boat was out of the question!

I also ordered the Scotty swivel mounts I need for my downriggers today. I finally decided the used Cannon mounts I bought last fall weren't going to work for me.

Cross your fingers...

Say a prayer, kiss a shamrock or rub your lucky rabbits foot for me because tomorrow, I have a job interview! It will just be a phone interview so I don't have to get dressed up fancy or even shave if I don't want to, but hopefully this will turn into a job. It's another contractor job, back in the building and the F-16 Program Office that I worked in some time ago, I'd actually be replacing a guy I know, so I'm pretty excited about the possibility.

On a related note- and I hope I don't jinx myself here, there may be a Civil Service position opening up for me in the last building I worked in. I'll take the first thing offered but jump ship in a second if a Civil Service position becomes available for me.

Charles Lindburgh and the Spirit of St. Louis

My dad sent me this link and if you have any interest in aviation history you really must watch the 4 individual videos at Airport & Aviation Appraisal's website. There is some really amazing film footage that probably has never been seen before and a tantalyzing tale of aviation bravery and skill. Despite all of Lindburgh's troubles and shortcomings in his later life, he was an amazing and trail-breaking aviator.

It seems that you have to close the page at the link and re-open it after each viewing to see the entire story but it is worth it to watch the entire story of this amazing effort from back in 1927. Get a fresh cup of coffee and sit back and be amazed at this interesting display of American engineering, aviation development and navigationg skills. It's worth it!

Well it's been a good day-

except for the blisters of course... I've given myself 2 blisters in the palm of my right hand from turning too hard on a screwdriver putting my floors back in Fish Slayer. I tore one of them so I have an open hole that's about dime sized. It's pretty miserable.

But Fish Slayer is going back together! The 3 seat bases are installed, both windshields are back in place and the first 2 pieces of the recovered panels have been put in place. Tonight I bought the hardwae needed to reinstall the steering wheel cover. So things are coming along and that makes me happy. Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be crap but if it gets nice enough, I'll be out there putting things back together.

No words back on any job offers yet but I had some pretty positive feedback from some of the folks I spoke to today so I'll see.

On another note, the BSU talked me into buying a weeping willow tree for the backyard. She won't admit that it is going to overpower every other tree out there in 10 years or so which it no doubt will. But she's been wanting another willow for a few years now and she caught me in a weak moment. I've already planted an apple tree beside the house earlier this week and tomorrow I suppose I'll be digging a big hole in the backyard for the willow. Doesn't she realize how difficult every new tree makes my mowing?

Busy morning on the job hunting front!

In spite of what seems pitiful few places to apply for work, today is turning out to be a red letter day and with any luck at all, something good- maybe several things good, could result. I'm energized by the swirling possibilities!

I spoke to a man in Oklahoma City about a job opening here in Utah as a support contractor this morning. I know the guy that is leaving the position, he heard recommendations from a couple people that know I am out of work and had already forwarded my name back to his boss in Oklahoma. Today I spoke to that boss and sent him my resume. I also attended a job fair for positions on the base that were supposed to be intern positions but the qualifications required a current or pending Masters degree. That was the bad news. The good news was that the fellow doing the interviews is a supervisor in the building where I worked last and we were able to close a connection concerning my availability that he was unaware of. He didn't know that I was a contractor in his building, thinking I was already Civil Service and also unaware that the assistance he was providing to one of his Flight Chiefs regarding bringing in an external hire was for my benefit. Once all those coincidences were ironed out it sounded like he would do all he could to get me hired back into his building at the first opportunity!

I also received my first ever email from the Utah Department of Workforce Services recommending that I apply for a particular position based upon my skills and so I did that just before coming here to write about it. It's a technical writing, and get this- a blogging position! Woot!

Now it's time for lunch and more work on Fish Slayer. I installed the new glovebox last night and I can begin to reinstall all the newly recovered panels.

I think I gotta get one of these!

It's a M1 Carbine tribute built on a Ruger 10/22 action. Pretty slick, not too expensive and I happen to know somebody with a Ruger for sale. Hmm.

I found this over at Xavier's place.

100,000 paper airplanes

No doubt sponsored by the Grand Rapids Chiropractors Association for the 20,000 people who showed up to watch. Check out the video.

I wonder if my sister and her family showed up to help with this intentional littering episode and the neccesary cleanup...

It's a cat fight!

This is what it looks like most evenings when I finally sit down to watch some television or surf the web-


The little one is Itty Bit our kitten who thinks he is the king of the house, which greatly offends Wasatch, our adult cat who knows she is the queen of the Wasted Electrons World Headquarters. These brawls take place on my lap sometime every evening when Itty Bit decides he is tired of napping and wants to show his stuff to the much sleepier Wasatch.

You can see all the kitten toys in the background and from all appearances our family room looks like we have a playland for cats going on, which I suppose we do. The BSU's feet also make an appearance, keeping warm next to the heater.

Anyway, it's a free for all on my lap!
As always, click the thumbnail to see the video that I shot with my iPhone.

No posting? Been busy I guess-

So what have I been doing? Not blogging obviously. I've been to the International Sportsmans Show with Kenny and Jim- we went on Thursday- before the weekend crowds arrived. I guess that's one nice thing about not working, I can go do things during the week that I couldn't if I had a job. But anyway, we had a really nice time checking out the exhibits, spending our money with Rocky Mountain Tackle, and ran into the guy we met last summer while we were staying at the Vacation Inn over at Flaming Gorge. It was a really nice day out.

I'm still working on Fish Slayer. Today I finally pulled out 1/2 of the floor and installed the first seat post base and got the floor back in and screwed down. Tomorrow I'll get the other side and then I can begin putting back in all the panels I've pulled out to recover. I put new black vinyl on both consoles, reinstalled the formerly missing horn, dropped the steering wheel key under the floor- I guess I'll get it back tomorrow, and fixed the light on the tachometer already. So reinstalling the trim boards is next and then the downriggers can be installed- the 2nd one arrived today- thanks Ebay! and then the boat will be ready for fishing. I'm getting pretty excited about getting on the lake!

What else... the BSU and I have been to the movies a couple times recently. She's Out of My League is a raunchy, funny romp that we both really liked. It's a "timid, nerdy boy meets hot, successful girl" love story and if you liked There's Something About Mary you'll probably get a kick out of this movie.

We also saw Bounty Hunter that stars Jenifer Anniston and Gerard Butler, he's a former cop turned bounty hunter, she's a succesful newspaper reporter on the trail of a story nobody else suspects and a bail jumper due to a missed court date. And they are both ex's, formerly married to each other and now distractedly divorced and still angry at each other. But she has a warrant out for her arrest and he is promised 5000 bucks for bringing her in and they spend the weekend handcuffed together, checking into the honeymoon bed & breakfast, running from bookie money collectors and generally misbehaving. If there were an Academy Award for the best boobs on display for the greatest portion of a movie, Bounty Hunter would be a contender because Jen's rack is generally on display for the entire time except for the time Gerard has her slung over her shoulder and her shapely butt is on display! Of course they end up falling back in love and solving the murder mystery by the time the weekend is over. We both liked this one- me particularly because of the previously mentioned cleavage bounty but it's fast paced and fun.

One thing did pissmeoff about this movie and it is high time Hollywood get this message- Get your boogerhook off the bang switch! Butler's character Milo has his index finger jammed into the trigger guard of his handgun every time, from the minute he pulls it out from wherever he's hiding it! I found this dumbass behavior more than annoying and it is time for it to stop!

Fish Slayer update-

For those of you that have seen or fished out of Fish Slayer, you won't recognize it pretty soon for the improvements I'm making in the interior. I've mentioned that I'm replacing the ratty old vinyl in the cockpit and installing new seats but I'm also removing the tatty, stick-on black contact vinyl from the consoles. I haven't used up the vinyl from the first purchase so I've removed a few more panels and will be covering them this week.

It's gonna look like a new boat inside real soon!

Well that was exciting!

So I was sitting here in my recliner, minding my own business, a cat on my lap and a fresh mug of coffee and milk sitting on the side table, which is just a wooden folding table, surfing the internet and waiting for an Ebay auction that I'm watching to end. Except that the dog, Sandy, tried to sneak through my table, got hung up in the laptop cable and simultaneously attacked by the kitten, which sent the dog jumping, the table tipping and the coffee spilling!

The coffee splashed the dog and the kitten scratched her nose! She ended up wet, bleeding and generally shook up while I cursed and mopped and the kitten sauntered off like he owns the place.

Oh yeah, I bought the 2nd Scotty downrigger- a mate to the first one, for $40 delivered! I'll have a matched pair soon and perhaps I'll have the boat ready for installation when the 2nd one arrives.

Time to make more changes to my blog template-

Seems that my Weather Pixie and it's supporting website has disappeared into the ethernet. I noticed it missing a couple days ago and and the website is dead and hasn't come back so I suspect the entire organization is kaput.

Say goodbye Weather Pixie!

Upgraded my cell phone today-

That wasn't my plan but tht's how it turned out... My iPhone has been acting up for a month now, suddenly trying to turn itself off, repeatedly trying to reboot itself and generally misbehaving. On 2 occasions I had to re-install the software at the Apple Expert's direction and each time it seemed to fix the problem, until it hapened for the 3rd time last night, just 1 week after the last reset.

I was pretty certain it wasn't a software problem so today I took it back to the Apple store where I had previously been told it could be sent in for repair. Well that turned out not to be true, the phone had to be replaced... Hooverdamm!

So now I have the latest version, a 3Gs and this afternoon I've managed to get it fixed up and looking like I am used to seeing and getting my music reinstalled. There's some new features- the video capability, that I just now figured out how to operate and more still to figure out.

But at least I'm back in operation.

Too cool not to share- another motorcycle video

I found this one by browsing the forums at ScootDawg tonight and I figured this one was nearly as wild as the one I posted a few days ago. Check this out-


Reading a little further, it appears it might be a trick. Doesn't matter, it's still cool.

WANT! Very much want!

Those of you that have been coming around here for a bit know that I have a major fetish for Stevens Favorite rifles. There is 1 particular Stevens out there someplace that I have been trying to locate for several years now, the one my dad gave me as a kid and that I foolishly sold years later. I already own one Savage replica that I really enjoy and I did have one original rifle that the BSU thoughtlessly disposed of some years back. But I keep searching for my old rifle and I frequently check out Gunbroker.com hoping to find it.

But just look at the Stevens Favorite I found last night-










You can see all the pictures and description of this beautiful rifle here.

What a lousy time to be out of work! If I was employed, I'd be buying this rifle in a minute!
As always, click the thumbnail pictures to see the full sized versions.

From my cold, dead hands-

Seems that Barry is sucking up even more of the "save the planet's helpless creatures" Kool-Aid and listening to some agencies determined to make certain no animal need feel threatened by the 2-legged animal at the top of the food chain. This time he is listening to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about restricting or prohibiting fishing- perhaps even recreational fishing, to save the planet. You can read all about it here. Some of the highlights:

Led by NOAA's Jane Lubchenco, the task force has shown no overt dislike of recreational angling, but its indifference to the economic, social and biological value of the sport has been deafening.

Additionally, Lubchenco and others in the administration have close ties to environmental groups who would like nothing better than to ban recreational angling. And evidence suggests that these organizations have been the engine behind the task force since before Obama issued a memo creating it last June.

As ESPN previously reported, WWF, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, Pew Environment Group and others produced a document entitled "Transition Green" shortly after Obama was elected in 2008. What has happened since suggests that the task force has been in lockstep with that position paper.

Then in late summer, just after he created the task force, these groups produced "Recommendations for the Adoption and Implementation of an Oceans, Coasts, and Great Lakes National Policy." This document makes repeated references to "overfishing," but doesn't once reference recreational angling, its importance, and its benefits, both to participants and the resource.

Additionally, some of these same organizations have revealed their anti-fishing bias by playing fast and loose with "facts," in attempts to ban tackle containing lead in the United States and Canada.

That same tunnel vision, in which recreational angling and commercial fishing are indiscriminately lumped together as harmful to the resource, has persisted with the task force, despite protests by the angling industry.

As always- read the whole thing.

And Barry- you can have my fishing poles when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers!

Harrison Ford, tell Wendy Buckley to pound sand!

You'll have to watch Bill Whittle on PJTV to learn the story behind that title but it's worth 11 minutes of your time to hear Bill's thoughts on choosing Freedom over a Nanny State. It's a terrific piece and you know I like Bill's opinions and attitude.

BTW, did you know you can watch most of the offerings at PJTV ust by signing up for a free account? There's lots of really thought provoking and insightful video to watch over there. Check it out.

Ya'll can stop looking now-

I found my watch... My wristwatch went AWOL a couple days ago and of course the blame went to the Itty Bit kitty that loves to knock things off tables just to see them fall and to play with shiny things. So I searched all his usual hidey places without success and I figured that it would show up sooner or later.

I found it this evening emptying the washing machine... Doh! Apparently it was in a pants pocket. It's really clean right now and seems to be ticking but I'll have to watch it a few days to make sure it keeps working.

Awesome fishing pictures!

Nothing I did- which you will see obviously when you click this link but some freaky fishing skills none the less.

According to the website- Miguel Lasa Photography, these are Ospreys fishing in Finland. The scenes of these birds with a fish in each talon are just awesome.

I cut a hole in my church today!

Really! I took a vibration saw and cut a hole in a wall at our church today! It was a really small hole, just large enough for a new wall switch, and that was after I cut a hole in a ceiling tile but somehow cutting a hole in a wall seemed like a big deal this afternoon.

Several members of our congregation built a large moasaic art piece over the past months and last week I helped get it installed on the wall in the entry way. Today I hung a decorative spotlight to highlight the mosaic. The finished project looks really nice.

The project did take one phone call to my dad in Florida- he does many more light installations than I do, and he gave me the right answers while I was standing on a ladder connecting wires and everything went together beautifully except that one of the sockets didn't work...

Hooverdamm! I tried switching bulbs around but that didn't have any effect so I'll have to go back and try and see if the socket needs repair or replacing. But for tomorrow, the moasaic is finished- framed and lit and I hope everyone likes it.

Fish Slayer is going to look so much better!

I've been working on recovering the interior boards this week with new tan vinyl. I've got just 1 board left to redo out in the shop and 1 more small one still installed in the boat. But it is going to look so much better inside the boat this year! I really should redo the floor covering too as it's an ugly orange color but it will have to stay for another year just due to the additional cost that isn't critical to going fishing.

But it's looking pretty nice so far!

I've also received the two old downriggers that I purchased off Ebay so my next step will be to begin building a side planer tower for the front of the boat.

I'm not certain I would even walk on this trail-

Yet these guys ride trail bikes on it. This is too scary for me!

Ouch!

This one will make you laugh- or hurt! A funny from Mostly Cajun. Give it a look.