Headcount please…

Posted on by April 29, 2018

For those that are planning on coming to NRA, we’re looking at dinner on Friday night at 1915 at Texas de Brazil, 2727 Cedar Springs Rd in Dallas. It will probably run $55-60 bucks with tip, but it is SO worth it…

It’s a Brazilian style churrascaria, in other words a carnivore’s “paradise”, guaranteed to induce a meat coma… LOL Link, HERE.

Please let me know in comments if you can make it and how many. I’m trying to get reservations in early, before everybody else jumps on it and we end up having dinner at McDonalds… Just sayin…

What if???

Posted on by April 28, 2018

You know all those folks that bought Yeti coolers? The ones with the NRA logo on them?

Like this…

If it wasn’t bad enough that YETI dropped The NRA Foundation as a client, now they’re calling us liars because we informed our members and friends of their actions.

<snip>

For many years we have purchased coolers from YETI for our auctions. We have auctioned off many thousands of YETI coolers each year. YETI recently dropped The NRA Foundation as a client.  Not only would they not take our orders for more coolers, they forced us to cancel orders already in the system that they said they would not fill.

Full article, HERE from the NRA-ILA.

What if everyone who bought/won one did this??? And publicized it on FB and other media???

(A buddy of mine in NOVA actually has done this, and this is his ‘letter’ to Yeti.

I own a Yeti Tundra 65 with a “Friends of NRA” logo on the top. I’d like to know if you have a buy back program.  I am a Veteran, Life member of the NRA & a Patriot. I love America & will not denounce my Country by advertising for Yeti and I’m quite sure you wouldn’t want anyone to see your cooler with the NRA affiliation.  

Please let me know where to turn it in or ship it, and how much I can expect you to pay me for it.  It is in brand new condition & I also have 10 lbs of Yeti Ice. (two 4# & one 2#) I look forward to a quick reply.

Just a thought…

Wow!!!

Posted on by April 25, 2018

Three days with old friends at the MPA Symposium at NAS JAX, and I’m still amazed by the speech given by retired LCDR Clyde Barber. He has some pretty serious credentials… WWII, Korea, Vietnam veteran in the PBY, P-2, P-3 community. He was one of the original group of sailors that ‘reconstituted’ VP-11 after Pearl Harbor, in PBY-1s. As soon as they were up to speed, they flew search missions looking for the Japanese, then after Midway, forward deployed to  Espirtu Santos to support the landings on Guadalcanal (day flights in a big, slow, unarmored airplane), with only 2 50cal and 2 30cal guns for defense. The squadron got credit for one sub sunk, and after 10 months, were brought back stateside for a 30 day leave. Reconstituted in April 1943, they were back in the Western Pacific in May of 1943, flying from Port Moresby, with black P-5 Catalinas, all equipped with ASE radar (these were the ORIGINAL Black Cats). They claimed over 100,000 tons of hostile shipping during the next 20 months of operations (talk about a LONG deployment)… But the best story was “Where do you store 200 cases of beer?”

VP-11 had lost an airplane and another was found about 6 hours away. AM1 Barber, along with two pilots and two other mechs were sent to get it…

Turns out that island was also a newly set up R&R location! So they pooled thier money ($48 among the five of them), and the officers went off to buy beer. Next morning the pilots show up with a truck with 200 cases of beer! The math doesn’t work, so don’t go there, and no, he never found out ‘how’ they got the 200 cases for $48, either.  So Barber’s job was to load the 200 cases… He put up a graphic of a cutaway PBY-5, and pointed out how they stacked it front to rear on the catwalk that runs from the cockpit to the aft bulkhead…

The pilots were a ‘bit’ surprised they had to climb over beer to get to the cockpit, but they did. Barber was a ‘tad’ concerned about gross weight and CG, but the pilot said they had a long enough ‘runway’ it wasn’t an issue…

So off they go, finally staggering into the air and headed back to Port Morsbey.  It was all good for about 2 hours, until Barber noticed issues with the starboard engine. No oil pressure, etc; but no leaks were seen, so they kept on trucking.  Until the engine quit!

Barber rather drolly said, “Normally, not an issue to get rid of 2500 pounds, we just jettisoned the bombs.  But beer…” THAT was another story. Since the Bismarck Sea was calm, they decided to land on the water. And succeeded! They threw a raft out and tied it off to the starboard blister, and Barber and the other mech took a look at the engine, while the pilots talked to a Destroyer that was in the area. An hour or so later, he said they were under tow, back toward Port Moresby. Hours later, a crash boat from thier base showed up, picked up the tow, and the next morning they were pushed up on the beach. The CO was apparently ‘very’ understanding of thier delay… And the squadron and Seabees throughly enjoyed the beer!!! And Clyde Barber made Chief in 4 years.

LCDR Barber was accompanied by his wife of 73 years! Remember that 30 day leave in 1942? They met, courted and got married in 30 days, and they are still together!

And a couple of last car museum pics…

Posted on by April 23, 2018

Two barn finds, and an oddity…

A 1950 Ford business coupe, fully restored.

1938 Ford Woody. ALL ORIGINAL!!! The only ‘modification’ is apparently putting what they call a banjo steering wheel in it. The only option was the bumper guards!

And this is the oddity… 1957 Bel Air 210 convertible. Sold with every available option! Bumper guards, spot lights. chrome wheel covers…

Dual radio antennas, Continental kit, and tonneau cover for the convertible top.

The oddity??? This car was ordered with a 292 six… Best guess there were only a VERY small number ordered in this configuration. The 283 was the engine of choice for most of the Bel Airs…

Now back to your regularly scheduled blogging…

More car museum pics…

Posted on by April 23, 2018

Not one, not two, but THREE 1914-1915 Ford Speedsters!

He said he never intended to collect three of them, but he got a ‘deal’… One wonders what a dealer considers a ‘deal’???

Anyhoo…

These were Ford’s pride and joy, and according to the historical notes, Henry Ford personally came down and supervised construction of these cars. He did say one of them had been clocked at 97mph not too long ago.

All of 40 horsepower… The 1914 model…

At least the 1915 models had windshields (such as it was), mounted on the steering column.

And this one… 1915 again…

Three speeds, if you count reverse as a speed… And that lever that looks like an emergency brake? That’s the low to high gear lever…

Since it rained last weekend…

Posted on by April 23, 2018

I went and looked at cars…LOL

And since I’m on the road myself, this kinda makes sense…

One of our local dealers opened his personal ‘museum’ to the public, no charge, just donations to a local christian school, or a veterans wellness center. And it was both interesting and eclectic, to put it mildly!!!

There were newish cars, hot rods, trucks, collector cars, old trucks, a Rolls hearse, a horse drawn fire truck (from Germany no less, how the hell it go here, nobody knows), and farm tractors…

This old Cutlass is rather interesting. He said he sold it new, when he was just a car salesman, then it was traded in at his dealership years later. He ‘sold’ it to one of the secretaries, then bought it back again a few years ago. It’s a survivor car, basically unrestored!!!

And this is a 1922 Caterpillar… Not too many of these floating around!

A rumble seat Chrysler from the 1930s, completely restored…

A 1928 Ford roadster pickup…

And quite a few more… I’ll continue the pics tomorrow and Friday.

Dancing in the blood…

Posted on by April 22, 2018

Its already begun in the Nashville Waffle House shooting…

“We need comprehensive gun reform to address mass shootings, domestic shootings, accidental shootings and homicides,” Briley said at news conference where Metro police, FBI and other law enforcement provided updates on the shooting and search for the suspect, 29-year-old shooter, who was still at-large Sunday evening.

I removed his name, I WILL NOT give him any publicity…

“If we can all just come together for the greater good, we can take these weapons of war off the streets of our country,” Briley said.

Full article, HERE at the Tennessean.

Nothing about the fact that the shooter had the guns illegally, had mental problems, zip, nada… Just straight to gun control.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those who died, and those who have been injured in these shootings, and I thank God for people like Mr. Shaw, who stepped up. If more people did that, and the media stopped giving these turds face time, I’m betting we would see a lot less of this crap. AND if we could actually get the laws on the books enforced, that would help even more.

Mr. Shaw IS a hero for taking the gun away and pushing the shooter out of the Waffle House, and he deserves all the kudos that he will get. Once again, he proved that ACTION can stop a shooter, rather than cowering and waiting to be shot.

I can’t help but think all these ‘recent’ shootings are almost a false flag operation, in that all of a sudden EVERY ONE of them has ‘featured’ an AR… It’s either that, or all these turds are looking for the media love… Because that is sure as hell what they are going to get.

I saw a meme the other day that said let’s stop drunk drivers killing people by taking cars away from sober drivers. One of the responses was something to the effect that “It didn’t make any sense.”

Well, it makes about as much sense as what the left wants to do with ARs and other semi-auto pistols and rifles. Depending on which estimate you believe, there are between 2.5 million, 15 million, or possibly 45 million ARs in private hands in the US. Figuring an average of three magazines for each, you’re talking 7.5 million, 45 million, or 125 million 30 round magazines out there.

And we know empirically from the CT and NY bans/registrations there are a large percentage, maybe as high as 50% that are scofflaws. And we know, again empirically, that criminals don’t obey laws, so what is the left really trying to accomplish?

Same thing with the “hi-cap” magazine bans. Did you know that also includes a number of .22 rifles, including Marlin Model 39s, and others? Or that favorite pistol the BHP? They only make “hi-cap” magazines for it… Sigh…

Kicking the broken down soap box back in the corner… Sigh…

 

Huh, didn’t know that…

Posted on by April 21, 2018

For years people have been trying to discredit Dr. Kleck’s research on defensive gun use for years…

BUT…

Dr. Kleck apparently stumbled across more real data, from of all people, the CDC!

Abstract

In 1996, 1997, and 1998, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted large-scale national surveys asking about defensive gun use (DGU). They never released the findings, or even acknowledged they had studied the topic. I obtained the unpublished raw data and computed the prevalence of DGU. CDC’s findings indicated that an average of 2.46 million U.S. adults used a gun for self-defense in each of the years from 1996 through 1998 – almost exactly confirming the estimate for 1992 of Kleck and Gertz (1995). Possible reasons for CDC’s suppression of these findings are discussed.

Link HERE, to the actual paper. It’s only 12 pages, and fairly understandable.

Interestingly, what the CDC reports from the three years they asked defensive gun use questions closely mimics the data Kleck et al collected during the same time period! The gun banners are NOT going to like this…

Not at all!

Alpha and Beta Readers…

Posted on by April 20, 2018

One of the most important things, at least to me as a writer, are GOOD alpha and beta readers. And I’m thankful for those who help me out…

As a writer, I’m too close to the ‘product’, if you will. I am not good enough to catch my own errors, but I have two groups of folks that do an amazing job! And no, I’m not related to any of them! 🙂

Seriously, good alpha readers are the first group to get the book after I write it and ‘attempt’ to do a check for spelling and basic grammatical errors (and usually miss a bunch of them). I send out a .docx file to the ten alpha readers, both male and female, and they go through it at their own speed, noting errors that can range from the/them/they, her/here, and other ‘minor’ things to continuity errors, to wrong names, sequencing of chapters, etc.  Interestingly, each of them tends to catch different things, in addition to their ‘specialties’ if you will. Some are doctors, some are shooters, some are LEOs, and their varied backgrounds make a major contribution to the final work. And they have absolutely NO problem telling me I f’ed it up… Usually multiple times!!!

Once I’ve made all those corrections, I send it off to the beta readers, who basically do the same things. And again, all of them tend to catch different things that the alpha readers, didn’t catch, or that I screwed up while correcting the previous errors. And they are even more critical, picking things apart in even more detail. (like a three week argument over the sniper shot in Payback). That usually takes another two weeks or so.

I’ll then go in and make MORE corrections, based on their feedback, and let it ‘rest’ for a couple of weeks. Then I’ll sit down and read it from beginning to end, hoping I catch a few more problems that I may have (actually usually have created), then it’s off to the editor. She and I usually go back and forth for a couple of weeks, and then the fun starts…

Formatting… What a PITA!!! And all the errors that get through everybody is on me, nobody else!

So it’s not a quick thing to do the alpha/beta/editing, that usually eats up about three months in the bigger scheme of things, which is one of the reasons that I don’t put a lot of books out every year. And I also alpha and beta read for other authors too. I figure it’s the least I can do, to help others out as I’ve been helped out.

On another note, I usually have at least two books going at the same time, that way if I get ‘stuck’ on one (e.g. the muse takes its toys and goes away), I can usually flip to a different book and get something productive done.

One last note- NEVER EVER throw anything away. You never know where it might work in a different book!!! Something I wrote (the SASS chapters) in 2016 finally made it into a book in TGM- Twilight, two years later. I keep a file of ‘spare’ chapters, snippets of texts, ideas, etc. in separate folders, and sometimes it pays off.

So a big THANK YOU to those alpha and beta readers who keep bailing me out. You know who you are!!!