A Man's Stay-cation

Last week, I was supposed to join my wife, adult daughter, and several of my daughter's friends on  her 40th birthday celebration in Florida at the house of the mouse. The two main reasons I chose NOT to go are; #1) I am on a self-imposed commercial "NO FLY LIST" meaning I refuse to fly commercial anywhere. This way I avoid having to be disarmed, the TSA Kabuki theater bullshit, and any of the "wild animals" acting out in airports or on airplanes. I have seen Europe twice and don't care to go back, and anywhere I desire to go here in the states I will drive to. The single exception is if my father-in-law passes and I need to go to Florida with my wife and her family. #2) I refuse to give one red cent to that woke mess called Disney. I made all this abundantly clear to my wife and daughter months before they went and they felt it was my loss. Oh how wrong they were. Until that corporation returns to its non-woke, family oriented content and environment I will never return. I cashed in two 24 hour PTO days from last year to pay for my time off and still have 12 hours left over. My last shift ended at 06:00 AM on April 11th, and today is my first day back. Nine glorious days off, including not attending two training sessions which I will probably hear about, but TPTB are not going to like my response to. It's called a fucking vacation and that means you don't see me until I come back to work!

On the 11th I helped my wife get ready and did stuff around the house. My daughter stayed over at our place so we could leave early. We left at 06:15 AM to drive to Logan Airport Saturday morning the 12th. What an absolute shitshow ride that was. Cold temperatures, heavy snow, and no roads treated or plowed. We thought the MA Turnpike would be better, but oh no, it was far worse. And the heavy wet snow was accumulating on the asphalt and freezing. Not until we got to about Framingham did conditions improve, and luckily any of the accidents we passed were minor spin outs. By the time we got to Boston it was as if the bad weather behind us was nonexistent. I got them to the airport on time and quickly got the hell out of there. The ride home was easy-peasy, because by that time roads were clear and wet and the snow was gone. Time to start my stay-cation! I had to take care of my normal weekend chores except laundry which got done the day before.

The next few days were me doing some of my favorite things and eating meals I like. Sunday I went to the range. I usually only go during the week when I have the place to myself. A couple of guys came over after Trap to each fire a few handgun rounds and then left. I was now by myself for testing some subsonic .22LR ammo I bought from an estate sale. I tried some in a semi-auto rifle and pistol. It would not cycle in either one so I ran it manually. Accuracy was fine so it should be good for pesky chipmunks out of my bolt action .22 rifle. I then put a few cylinders through my 1935 vintage S&W K-22 Outdoorsman. Of course it functioned just fine and I repeatedly dinged the hanging steel plates at 25 yards. Next up, my US Patriot 1775 home built sniper rifle. Originally a 1939 Soviet Mosin-Nagant 91/30 from the Izhevsk Armory, this reformed Commie now serves to support and defend The United States and The Constitution against ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. Targets of opportunity from a far away hidey hole, don'cha know.

This rifle fires my precision measured and loaded ammunition with PPU 7.62x45r fire formed brass to this rifle's chamber that is neck sized only. The bullet is a 174 gr Sierra Matchking BTHP in .311" diameter. Some rifles are .308" but most of the Russian ones are .311" I slugged mine to find out. Accuracy with .308 factory ammo is less then satisfactory for obvious reasons. The powder is 45 grains of Hogdgon Varget. The primer is Winchester Large Rifle. I measured the chamber length and have the bullet seated 0.005" off the lands. Chronographed muzzle velocity is 2580 fps. Accuracy is better than I can make it shoot. More practice would definitely help for sure. That and a trip to the eye doctor for some new glasses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking downrange to 200 yards

 

200 yard backstop circled in yellow

17" spatter target with added 2" bullseye

 

A closer view. I'll try again after a visit to the eye doctor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started by verifying zero at 100 yards and it was dead on. Next out to the range maximum of 200 yards. After some windage adjustment, controlling my breathing, and waiting for my heart rate to slow so I could time my shot between beats, shot #5 was as close as I was probably gonna get. Definitely close enough for my purposes. I then proceeded to hit the 12" gong and then the smaller 6" gong I had stood up on its side on some timbers on the ground. It makes a really loud "THOK!" sound when hit. After 3 shots at the smaller gong it fell over. I decided to see if I could hit it lying on the side.

On its side with 3 fresh shiny shot marks

 

 

Exactly where I was aiming. Perfect!

 

I went down range to pickup my targets and then back to the firing line to pack up for home. I headed home to secure all my firearms and ammo, and have some lunch. The plan was to go fishing early evening to dark so I got my fishing gear in shape. Later, I headed to my club pond a little before 6 PM and was met by my neighbor and his 9 year old grandson. The grandson was pretty rambunctious splashing a stick in the water and then hooking my rod when he tried to cast. No biggie, I caught a nice largemouth bass anyway and then I moved to the left of them near the pond outlet and deeper water where I promptly caught another smaller largemouth. Every evening except Wednesday (too cold and windy) I returned to the club pond and had great success with both bass and trout, landing a decent 14" Rainbow Trout on Thursday. Since all my tackle has the barbs crimped, catch and release is easy and not hard on the fish. They all swam away quickly. I went home at dark to feed the dogs and watch a streaming movie (I don't remember what I watched) but it was definitely something my wife would not care for.

Monday was supposed to be the warmest day of the week with highs in the 70's, so late morning I headed out on The Beast for the Kommiecticut shoreline, specifically Niantic and Skipper's Seafood on RT. 156. It was more crowded than usual since the kids were out of school for spring break. But since I had nothing but time I had no problem waiting to order, then waiting for my food. $22.54 for a fish sandwich with onion rings and a bottle of soda was a little expensive, but man was it good and screaming hot. Their onion rings are lightly battered and sliced very thin like shoestring french fries. I thought I might stop for ice cream on the way home but I was too full. I got home and decided to play some guitar before heading out for an evening of fishing. The 1946 vintage case is in pretty good shape, but the old leather handle was falling apart and I really didn't want it to break making me drop it. I found a Gibson style excellent replacement handle on eBay and ordered it for $29 plus tax. The new handle arrived on Thursday and fit my old case perfectly.

What's left of the original handle. It went in the trash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new handle installed on the original hardware. Nicely made

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other than fishing on Tuesday evening, I don't recall what I did all of Tuesday and Wednesday during the day. I do know Tuesday afternoon I took my little poodle girl for a walk around the town park and then along the river on the linear trail. We had the place to ourselves and she got to have some quality alone time with Daddy. 

 

Wednesday was in the 40's and very windy. I am surprised I didn't lose power. Thursday I rotated out my snow removal equipment for my lawn upkeep equipment. The lawnmower and weed whacker got fueled up and started on the first couple of pulls as usual. The snowblower got a fresh oil change and then the fuel tank drained after I drove it down to the barn. I pulled all of my wicker porch furniture from the back of the barn. The snowblower then went to the back of the barn with the snow shovels. I had backed my truck and trailer down to the barn to load all the furniture to bring up to the front porch in one shot. I was outside all day and then back out in the evening for fishing until dark. The fishing action every night has been great. Friday morning after breakfast I took a trip to BJ's for a restock in anticipation of my wife's return. I am also in the process of rotating out all of my generator gas storage from last spring, so I picked up 25 gallons in my Jerry cans and then topped off my truck. That leaves five more Jerry cans to dump in our vehicles to burn up and then refill. This gives me a total of 70 gallons of gas on hand which this time of year could have my generator run about 10 days at full power. 20 days if I was to run conservatively and even longer if I siphon some out of my vehicles. I would only do this if I was unable to buy gas because of a regional outage due to large scale system damage. Luckily that has never happened. After going to BJ's I came home and put everything away and made some lunch. After lunch it was out for another cruise on The Beast. I only went about 50 miles, but 50 miles of wind therapy will do anyone some good. I went home, had some supper, and then out fishing for the evening until dark.

Saturday evening I was to return to Logan to get the wife, so I wanted to make sure I managed my time during the day properly. A week earlier we went to Boston in snow. Saturday the 19th it was predicted to be 85. My club had our big spring cleanup work party in anticipation for our two big fishing events and our big summertime fundraiser event. I worked from 08:00 to about 11:00 on the pond detail. I figured since I have been doing so much fishing I would concentrate my efforts there. After that the weekly trip to the dump, home for lunch, and then some guitar time sitting out on my front porch entertaining the birds and squirrels. My wife and I had dinner plans for on the way home, so I needed to shower and put on some clean duds. Her flight was due to land at 6:06 PM, so I left at 4:00 PM in case of unexpected traffic to Boston.

I decided that since I would have to sit in a cell phone lot for an unknown amount of time and then have to hit a rest area on the way home, I would have to play my game of "Felon-Not A Felon" by carrying my EDC into the Republik of Massachusetts without their "permission slip." As I cross the imaginary line at the state border where I magically transform into a felon and then back again, I call out "Felon-Not A Felon!" Because of the warm weather I was wearing cargo shorts and carrying my S&W 45 Shield in a DeSantis pocket holster in my right thigh pocket, a spare mag in my left thigh pocket, and as usual my SOG Instinct blade horizontally at 11 o'clock. Traffic was non existent and I arrived at the cell phone lot at Logan Airport at 5:15 PM. There is a sign in the lot with all the "rules"... no unattended vehicles, no idling over 5 minutes, 30 minute maximum wait time. Wait, WHAT? It's over 80 miles to Logan from my house, how the fuck am I supposed to know what traffic will be or if her flight is on time? Well, I decided to see just how that gets enforced. If necessary I would just circle the airport and then return to the lot if I got kicked out. Certainly don't want any trouble with "authorities" while carrying. It turns out, no one enforced anything, so I sat and waited listening to streaming music. The flight was on time and my wife called me saying that she and my daughter would be waiting curbside for pickup. Aw man... my daughter was supposed to have a friend pick her up. There goes a nice dinner with my wife because going out to dinner with my daughter (the vegan freak) is beyond tedious, so I normally avoid it. I got to their location in just a few minutes, loaded their luggage, and headed for the airport exit and the Mass Pike. After drinking a bottle of water and sitting for so long in the cell lot, I needed to hit the first rest area in Framingham heading westbound. We arrived at the rest area and all went in because my wife and daughter wanted drinks, I went straight to the Men's room. While at the urinal doing my part to recycle, in walks a MA State Trooper and goes to the urinal more than the appropriate anti-gay distance away. I watch him out of the corner of my eye, but he pays me no mind as he has probably been on the road for a couple of hours and just wants to relieve himself. I finished first and walked behind him to get to the sink to wash my hands. He heads for the sink as I am exiting the restroom. As I am walking across the main concourse of the rest area I see him come out and then head into the convenience store. Never saw him again, but man if he only knew. The advantage of concealed carry. The girls got their drinks and we got back on the road.

The rest of the ride home was uneventful. We hit a heavy rainstorm west of Worcester and down I -84 which was good because it washed most of the salt off my wife's car from the previous ride to Boston. When we hit the Kommiecticut state line I said quietly "Felon-Not A Felon" and my wife asked "what did you just say?" to which I replied nothing, just mumbling to myself. When we got closer to home we came out of the rain and as we came down the home stretch on the main road everything was completely dry.

My wife and daughter and her friends had a great time. Not the kind of fun I would care for. And they got to see The Old Man (my wife's father) while they were there. He will be up for the summer next month and we hang out on my days off.