Conspiracy Theory?

Anyone else think the reason the Commie environazis want to ban gas stoves is because there is no way for them to control when and how much they are used like they might with an electric one? That is especially true if it runs on propane instead of natural gas.

Trips To Cabelas For Upgrades

I made two trips to Cabelas in East Hartford in the past few days and dropped just under $500 in leftover Christmas gift cards I had been sitting on for a few years. It was a combination of VISA gift cards, a Cabelas gift card, and some mad money cash. Why the two trips? I will explain.

I went after work on Thursday February 16th. I get out at 6 PM, have to go home to take care of animals and then needed to stop and get a bite to eat. I got to the store just past 7:30 and the sign on the door says they are operating under winter hours and closing at 8PM. Well I knew what I was originally after, a pair of Walker electronic muff and Hogdgon HS-6 powder. At the East Hartford store, all the gun stuff is on the second floor, so I hoofed it up there. It took several minutes of looking to find the version of Walker muff I was after, but I got it, Walker's "EXCEL". I thought about a carrying case but time was short. I went looking for gun powder, specifically a 1 pound container of Hogdgon HS-6. There were two on the shelf so I grabbed one. They had exactly ZERO primers, but I am all set with those... for now. They keep announcing that the store is closing to head for the register but I took a quick peek in the optics showcase. They sell laser range finders, but I don't have time to shop, so I went downstairs, cashed out and left.

I also grabbed another plastic cartridge case to put a hundred .38 Special rounds in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never had a set of electronic muffs, so I couldn't wait to try them out. I put my empty .38 brass in the cartridge case, stowed the powder in my ammo cabinet, and since the muffs came with a set of Duracell AAA batteries, I chucked them and installed a pair of Energizer AAA batteries. I turned them on and was able to hear the TV audio just fine. It has four audio modes, but I couldn't tell much difference using the TV. What was neat was trying to clap my hands. I felt them smack together but heard nothing. It was weird to say the least. When the wife got home, I tried them with her and live conversation. They work best for me with my hearing loss on the "Clear Voice" setting.

On Saturday the 18th I had a work party at the sportsman's club that I thought would go until at least noon. Nope, we were done by 10, so I ran home, loaded the truck for the dump, and with little poodle boy headed out. He loves going to stores where dogs are allowed and behaves himself very well. After the dump it was back to Cabelas and a much more leisurely shopping trip. Up the stairs to the gun area and the Walkers display. I found a case that said it fit my muffs, but how the hell do they actually fit? The case is pretty small. Ah... ingenious design grasshopper. I'm glad I brought my muffs with me to try them out in the case.

 

 

The muffs in the case and a pocket for the instruction shett

 

The ear cups fold in and up to tuck under headband. Then the muffs sit in the case vertically. An instruction sheet would have been nice, but as usual I am able to figure shit out.

I then went over to the optics counter. Range finders run $99 for a cheap Bushnell model, up to $1249 for a top end Leica unit. For the features I wanted, the ranges it worked at, and the price I ended up with a Sig-Sauer KILO2200BDX 6x22 for $249.97. I set it up and messed with it at work today and it was easy to set up and use. It will do everything I need it to do.

The last thing I bought was a brand new Lee Pro Auto Disk Powder Measure. My original one still worked, but I always believed I was on borrowed time with it. The jackass that previously owned my equipment got too heavy handed with the screws that hold the powder hopper onto the dispenser and the plastic was all split and breaking. I was always gentle with it, but I could envision it one day letting go in the middle of a production run, dumping powder everywhere. It is also modernized, with the ability to turn off the powder without having to remove it from the press until the hopper needed to be emptied.

Already mounted and ready for use for the 9mm run

I mentioned the modernization. The original only had a spring operated return to fill the disk for the next charge. This uses either the spring return or a small ball chain attached to the shell plate carrier to pull the disk back for another refill on the up stroke of the operating lever. It is supposed to operate more positively in positioning the powder disk for filling and dumping. We shall see. I can always put the return spring and arm on the unit if I have difficulty with the new set up. The other nice thing is the improved way the hopper attaches, using machine screws and knurled knobs instead of sheet metal screws into plastic. I will keep the old unit as a spare.

Poodle boy enjoyed his visit to the store and everyone just loves him. Lots of little kids wanted to pet him and he just loves the attention. And his string cheese treats.

 

Mostly the treats.

New Data Infrastructure - Don't Care

First a little history lesson of traditional telephone service in Kommiecticut:

Southern New England Telephone Co. (SNETCO): Started as District Telephone Company of New Haven in 1878. It was the very first telephone exchange and first printed telephone book. It became the only phone company in Kommiecticut under the old Bell System. With the breakup of Ma Bell in 1984, SNETCO became a "Baby Bell" with AT&T having a minority share in the company. In 1996 they offered their DSL internet service. I was one of their early customers. Wow! 784kb download and 384kb upload. No more 56k dialup modems. They were a really good company. In the early `90's when I worked for Nortel, I was assigned to Northeast Utilities (now Eversource) as the lead on-site technician. How good was SNET? We had a monthly meeting with the SNET team assigned to N.U. to discuss any service issues or upcoming projects. The SNETCO representatives would bend over backwards to keep N.U. happy. Whenever I had a line trouble, I would call SNET Business Repair and open a ticket. As soon as I had my ticket number, I would call the staff at the central office where the line trouble originated or passed through. The C.O. guys (older experienced techs too old to go up on poles any more marking time to retirement) would ALWAYS answer the phone, take the ticket and circuit number, and get right on it. When the trouble was resolved, they would call right back and ensure the trouble was fixed to my satisfaction. They remained a great company until 1998, when sold to SBC Global.

SBC Global: SNET was purchased for $4.4 billion in 1998 by SBC Communications, which subsequently purchased the old AT&T, taking its name as the "new" AT&T. Under AT&T, SNET was known as AT&T Connecticut. 

In August of 1998, I was no longer working for the company that serviced N.U., so I can't speak to how N.U. was treated going forward. Minor system upgrades brought DSL speeds up to 1 MB download, with promises of major system upgrades and speed increases. 

AT&T: In 2006, AT&T merged the operations of SNET into AT&T Teleholdings, formerly Ameritech, making it a subsidiary of the latter. 

AT&T rolled out it's high speed internet and U-Verse TV on an all fiber network. But the fiber roll out was not on every mile of their footprint. It was only available in urban and suburban areas, and very limited in rural areas like along state roads. It was not available down my back country road, I was stuck with DSL. My speeds were limited because I was at the farthest distance from the remote fiber control box to still get service.

Frontier Communications: On October 24, 2014, Frontier Communications completed its purchase of AT&T's Connecticut operations, including Southern New England Telephone and SNET America, for $2 billion. The company began doing business as Frontier Communications of Connecticut. It is the second former unit of the Bell System to be acquired by Frontier, the first being Frontier West Virginia (originally C&P Telephone of West Virginia) which was purchased from Verizon in 2010. Frontier is still the main "telephone company" in the state today. Since then, there were basically no upgrades of anything, and they can barely keep things in working order. I have witnessed first hand how bad they are having worked 35 years in the industry in another life. Their wires and cables hang too low after tree damage and remain in physical disrepair. Under SNETCo, that would have NEVER been allowed to be. When a pole is replaced after an accident or weather event, the 2-3 foot long piece of the old pole where their cables are attached remains suspended in the air by ropes. and it sometimes takes over a year to have the cables moved onto the new pole. All the other utilities are on site for the pole replacement and move their cables to the new pole. The DSL was upgraded to "up to 3 MB" download speeds at some point, but I never even got 2 MB, and near the end of my time with them it was constantly down. I got fed up with their customer service Guptas in India telling me to reboot my computer AGAIN, and moved to cable internet only with Charter. They offered 100 MB download for a 2 year introductory rate of $49.99 per month. By dropping my landline and all services from Frontier I was actually saving money. My wife and I moved all our telephone service to our cell phones since we only used the landline to order pizza. Until recently, I never speed tested below 115 MB download and 12 MB upload. Now it tests to 200 MB download. I watch streaming services and videos with no buffering. Since the 2 year promotion ended long ago, my current price is $74.99 per month. But... since my wife and I watch so much streaming content, it is definitely worth it.

In recent years, state utility regulators have been coming down hard on Frontier for their legacy of not upgrading or repairing their infrastructure and networks. Everywhere in my area every day, there are multiple contractor cable crews out stringing brand new fiber optic cabling until after dark, and at night are the vans parked on the side of the road splicing the fiber strands. Right now they are going great guns along the major state roads, and they are now going down some of the side roads. I will be interested to see whether they actually come down my rural side road at some point.

As the title says, "New Data Infrastructure - Don't Care" because as far as I am concerned, that ship has sailed long ago. I am very happy with my service and speed, and don't need to pay $155 a month for 5 GB of speed. My wife and I are not gamers and only have our two devices and a home computer, Even if we had a house full of guests our present speed would be plenty of bandwidth.

I believe Frontier is going to experience a poor ROI on this big fiber roll out. Customers like myself were promised upgrades for years, only to see nothing happen and receive piss poor service for what was available are not going back. The only ones that will want this is the gamer types living in their parent's basement eating Hot Pockets that don't pay for a fucking thing anyway, and will convince Mommy and Daddy to get it.

Space Stuff

I got to see the latest 55 Starlink satellites traverse the sky right over my house tonight. I happened to be outside locking up the chicken coop when I remembered the news story from earlier, and noticed the time was near. I ran into the house and killed all the lights, came back out and started scanning the skies. Woo Hoo! there they were going southwest to northeast almost straight up overhead. It only took a couple of minutes until they passed into the Earth's shadow and winked out one at a time. I didn't expect that, I figured they would fly past where I could see them.

The only other space type thing I ever saw was the ISS passing overhead one time.

Years ago on a Florida vacation we all went to Cocoa Beach on the day of a shuttle launch to watch it go up. Unfortunately, a mechanical issue scrubbed the launch until well after we returned home to Kommiecticut. So tonight was pretty exciting.

Not Shocked - Another Shooting In A GFDZ

Active shooter incident at Michigan State University.

 

Call for more gun control. Hearts and prayers. Lower the flags for the murder victims, blah blah blah blah BLAH!

How about we eliminate every single *GFDZ!!??

No more Run-Hide-Fight....

we go full on "CONFRONT-SHOOT AND KILL-STOP"

*GFDZ = Gun Free Death Zone