New Boots

I've been needing some new hiking boots, as my old ones are 6 years old, have started leaking, and shrank the last time I wore them on a big hike because they got submerged in a stream when I slipped off a wet log (fun times). Went into REI yesterday, and they would have gotten my hard-earned cash except no one there seemed particularly enthused with selling me anything, so I wasn't enthused to buy. Funny how that works. Anyway, this morning I went down town to the little old shoe store that's been in business since 1910 or something, was greeted by a cheerful sales lady who made me try on all sorts and sizes till I settled on some Merrel Chameleon mid-height boots.  Amazing what a helpful staff will accomplish over an apathetic one.

All leather upper, nice sticky Vibram soles (hopefully to prevent the falling off a log incident from repeating), and a solid, stiff construction.  Very comfortable, especially as I also bought some green superfeet insoles to go with them (I have narrow feet with high arches--the superfeet keep me from wallowing around in my shoes, and will hopefully keep me from following in my mother's footsteps (heh) of large, bothersome foot surgeries).

Looking forward to getting out on some more hikes, now!

Hot Springs

I'm taking the day off (Monday was a holiday, then worked yesterday, then today off? SLACKER!) and we're going to venture out into the mountains go go to the Ouray Hot Springs, one of my favorite places on Earth. Hopefully it won't snow us out like it did last Christmastime--though it is always fun to sit in the pool with the snow coming down around your ears.

So you all have a nice day, too, I'll be back this evening if all goes according to plan!

Slip Slidin' Your Life Away

So yeah, it snowed last night, enough to to stick, and I had to choose between driving to work on the interstate, which involved higher velocities than through town, or the town way, which was slower but would have more traffic, stopping and going, and potential for sliding into others. Chose interstate, and got here ok, despite the best efforts of all those people who just don't get what black ice is. Saw several people on the side of the road, backwards and/or bent, looking perplexed at their vehicles, as if to say "What, you mean my mother was WRONG when she told me that I was a good, rational human being?"

Here's some hints: If you can see the reflection of the headlights on the road though the skiffs of snow, that means THERE IS ICE. If you can feel your car shimmy and shake a little bit, not only is there ice, but YOU ARE GOING TOO FAST. And for the love of all that is good and holy in this world, please, PLEASE turn on your headlights. Believe me, not only is your life, as idiotic as it is, worth the $10 to replace a headlight bulb if you are worried about burning one out, but MY LIFE IS WORTH IT TOO. I know I've said it before, but here it is again: "I don't care if your goal in life is to die screaming in a fire, as long as you don't take me with you."

Bushmaster ORC Brief Range Report

So made it out to the range yesterday with my rifle (pt1 of my escapades here, pt2 here). We got off 40 rounds before the dark and the cold drove us home, which was enough to get the red dot sighted in and to get a feel for the rifle. We started at the 50 yard berm and then tried a few at the 100 yard--which is about as far as we could go with the red dot, anyway.

100 yards, 3 shots from me and 3 from my friend, can't remember which ones are whose

I am happy with that, considering that I have been mostly a pistol shooter--and all those holes are within the "dot" of the scope. I could see a person going out further with a red dot if they knew what they were doing, but...

As for the gun, I was pleasantly surprised at how little recoil it had--while it was of course more than my 10/22, it was less than my dad's .222. More of a "push" than a "jerk". That's a semi auto vs a bolt for you. While the 30 some odd rounds I shot might not be enough for a real test, I had no discomfort whatsoever. And again, 40 rounds isn't enough for a real test, but so far no problems functionality-wise. I love those P-mags, too. So much nicer than the metal one that came with it.  The only complaint I might have about it right now is that with the generic stock on it pulls hairs off your face at times. 

I hope that I can get out there some more sometime soon. As they say, shooting is converting money into smoke and noise, but it also converts money into experience and skill. Probably ought to spring for a range membership so I don't have to work around my friend's schedule.

Oh, and the obligatory shot of the gun (notice the redneck shooting rest!):

It's a good thing that no one else was there, we spread out over three shooting benches!

As always, fun was had by all.

Like a kid in a candy store

So through my church (and most churches, I think) there is a program with the Salvation Army where kids who may not be having a great Christmastime get their name put on a tag on a tree in the lobby, and members can pick a kid to buy a present for.  Being that I am a bit of a geek, I made sure to pick a kid who wanted LEGOs.  And being a bit of a geek, I used this as an excuse to go into the LEGO store that opened in town while I was away at college. 

Oh man. 

It's a good thing that this place wasn't around when I was 12--that probably couple thousand dollars I've got sunk into little plastic bricks from years worth of allowances would probably have been doubled.  Seriously, BEST STORE EVER.

I walked out with a nice yellow steam roller set for the kid from the tree (slightly crumpled box, about 30% off), and a graduate minifigure and giant raptor for my friend (the one who sends me all the links I use pointing to cool LEGO things) who is graduating from School of Mines next week.  Because my order was over $50, I got a free LEGO Star Wars mini set, too!  Gotta love it.

If this whole "engineering" thing doesn't work out, I know what door my shadow is going to be in, begging for work...

Owie

And the price of gas isn't even all that bad. And isn't it a little scary that I can say something like "$3.29" isn't bad?

Doing Things...

...all sorts of things.  Word of warning, I am going to be talking about quite a bit of stuff here, none of which is terribly organized, though I hope it all comes together in the end, and I hope there's enough random interesting stuff to keep you entertained as I wander, if not aimlessly, at least, slightly crookedly, down the paths of my recent experiences.

Yesterday I was at work and my mother called up, saying that her cousin and cousin's husband from Idaho (who are in the area for Thanksgiving) were coming up to town for the day, and "Do you want to have lunch with us?" Being that my boss was ok with me skipping out for the afternoon, and not being one to turn down a meal when offered, and being that said meal was to take place at my favorite microbrewpub, and being that said cousin and her husband are really cool folks, I happily accepted.

After lunch we split up, my mother and her cousin hitting the second hand stores, and me and mother's cousin's husband (hereby referred to as "Mr. R") hit the town. He had never spent much time in Happy Valley, so I decided to start off by showing him the recently revamped downtown. A hopping place, especially considering it was a Tuesday Afternoon (crap, now that song is going to be stuck in my head--curse you Moody Blues!) I admit, the main reason I like downtown is not because of the art on the corner, the nice landscaping, or the myriad of bike shops: I like it because of the homebrew store and Gelato Junction. It turns out, that's a big reason why Mr. R liked it too.

Soon enough the time on my parking meter ran out, and it was time to move on. But that isn't where this blog post ends.

Now, for a little background on Mr. R: he is a long time competition shooter, reloader, firearms instructor, a nearly professional guitarist, and super nice guy, as well as being a former Marine and Army Sargent, starting out in Vietnam and ending only recently with Iraq Try #2. Very interesting man, with a wide and varied body of experience, and very generous of his time, materials, and advice. Oh, and he has a very impressive beard, reaching nearly down to his belly button. It is funny to watch other people interact with him, as you can always see them start out thinking "What kind of crazy bum is this?" before they figure him out. I count myself very lucky to know him, and even luckier to be marginally related to him so I don't feel bad cornering him to talk.

Now back to my rambling.

Last weekend my mother and I went down to visit my Grandma and Grandpa (and pick out a cat). We've been going down there pretty often, every other weekend or so, as my Grandma is in the nursing home these days. While there, I like to go out to the back 40 and do a little plinking. This time I had that CCI CB .22 LR ammo that I bought for National Ammo Day, and I had my 10/22 to see if I could fulfill Butch's request for a function test, and since Mr. R was in the neighborhood (they were staying with my Uncle the mechanic, who lives practically next door to my grandparents--are you following all of this? Don't worry, I'm sure I'll stop soon), I asked him if he wanted to come back with me. Asking me if I wanted any instruction on shooting (what an offer! A few hours with someone who could be charging $100/hour, offering to teach me 1-on-1!) I readily agreed, and figuratively killed two birds with one stone by trying out the CB ammo at the same time.  By the end of the afternoon I had a nice 1" group at 25 yds, which made me happy.

Oh, and Butch, to answer your question, the CB ammo is quite amazing.  It doesn't have enough oomph to cycle my 10/22, relegating it effectively to bolt action territory (shoot, cycle action, repeat), but it is very accurate, and by golly it is quiet.  You hear a **pop!** when you pull the trigger and a **thwack!** as the bullet hits the target--no hearing protection needed (though I should add that I have a polymer buffer, which probably helps the noise as well).  Sounds quieter than someone hammering nails.   Enough power to go through a half inch piece of plywood at 25 yards, so fine for hunting wabbits, I'd say. Even Mr. R (who owns a brace of NAA Mini Revolvers for dispatching snakes, varmints, and deep concealment) was impressed, and put it on his shopping list.  In a lever action or revolver, I wouldn't even have the minimal complaint of the non-cycling semi-auto.

Now, back to yesterday.  So then, since we were done downtowning, we started to head for home, and happened to run into the local "real gun store" (as in, not a big box multi-use sporting good store, not a hardware store with a couple of shotguns, and not a pawnshop) and decided to stop in since we were there.  Luckily we did, for Mr. R found a shotgun he's been looking for for his wife (who remember, is my mom's cousin), a 12 gauge 8-rd magazine Maverick 88.  She is a big 12 gauge fan, but the only shotguns she has are really nice ones that don't get taken with them when they travel.  Oh, and don't tell anyone I said this, as the shotgun is going to be a surprise Christmas present.  As we were doing all this I learned today that you can legally buy long guns if you are out of state, in general, as long as the store policy says so, and in some areas you can buy handguns as well.  While we waited for the paperwork to go through, Mr. R had me check out the Ruger Single Six that was under the glass.  Very nice gun, and now I have yet ANOTHER gun to put on my ever growing list of things I want.  He also told me that his preferred .308 semi-auto is also the M1A. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a fine rifle, but it just don't click with me, and if I am going to spend over a thousand dollars on something, then by Grabthar's hammer it had better click!

But I digress. As we were shooting the breeze with the gun shop guys, the conversation turned to Mr. R's military days, and being a patriotic American small business, when we finally walked out of the shop it was with the shotgun, a free box of 12 gauge ammo and a free hat with the company's logo on it. I'd like to see an anti-gun shop do anything like that!

Whew, huh? I think I've spit out everything I've had bottled up inside, now. I'll see Mr. R again on Thanksgiving, though I'm not sure if we'll get in any more gun time. I know sometimes after the festivities there is a big trap shoot, but at last count there were 43 people planning on attending our big shindig, so we may be preoccupied with getting in all the awesome food--I know there will be turkey, ham, and probably prime rib, and the one guy who is a Louisiana transplant is bringing his famous stuffing, and my mother is making two different kinds of pumpkin pie... if you don't leave on a stretcher in a food-gorged coma, then it's your own dagblummed fault.

And, now... wait for it...

Fin

Flattery

I was complimented by the guy at the liquor store on my good taste; he said "You are a good drinker." Apparently I picked out his new favorite type of rum, Ron Abuelo Anejo, which he raved about for a minute while I fished out my wallet, and a bottle of Jameson Whiskey (with an "e").

They say flattery will get you nowhere, but it at least made him $45...

Home.

You wouldn't think sitting on a house boat watching the light on the water for a few days would tire you out so much...

Photodump: Museum Gun Collection

While my friend from Montana was here, we decided to visit the local Museum of Western Colorado (though actually I think they renamed it recently to something more self important and pretentious). It's not a huge museum, but they have a pretty darn good gun collection.

Everything from old muzzle loaders to lever actions to sawed off contraptions used by outlaws such as Butch Cassidy.

One of the more interesting guns is a Smith and Wesson lever action pistol.  If I understand correctly, this is what S&W, while still called Volcanic Repeating Arms, got started on.

And one of the most "historical" guns is this revolver, which was owned by Alfred Packer (see the AP carved into the front of the grip?)  In case you didn't know, ol' Al was Colorado's own (alleged) cannibal, and who those wacky hippies at University of Colorado in Boulder named the school cafeteria after.

This display, though, was my favorite, showing the guns used by every Mesa County Sheriff--from single action revolvers all the way up to Glocks.  Most interesting to me were the two guys in the middle who used a couple variants of the proto-1911.  Unfortunately my memory and the photo are too blurry to tell what the museum says the exact models were, but I think the one was a Colt Model 1890[something] and the second was a Colt Model 1900[something].  Anyone out there who thinks they can tell, please comment!

They usually have the Gatling Gun that was at Ft. Crawford, but apparently it was out the day we visited.  Despite that, it was a very enjoyable way to spend a morning.

Car Camping

This picture should tell you all you need to know why the eating is better car camping than backpacking:

That's bacon and a tomato and kale from the garden on some of that cheese-jalapeno bread. At a campsite with this view:

I know this is wrong

To be blogging while in the mountains, but I've got three bars and I just have to let you know that we're pretty sure a mountain lion was trying to sneak up behind us while we were sitting at the campfire just now. At least, it was some sort of large critter with a white face and forward facing eyes... so between me and my friend else we've got three guns, an axe, and a big D-cell mag light... but we were in tents...

Photodump for yesterday: Grand Mesa

We had real good timing with this, last weekend was "Color Sunday," where everyone goes up on top of the Grand Mesa to look at the changing colors. Being just a few days behind was probably even better.

The top of the Mesa is above 10,000 feet; it was kinda freaking out my Montana friend that we were higher than the tallest peaks in Glacier NP but didn't feel like we were on top of a mountain (until you get to the edge and look down).

Today we're planning on hitting up the local museum in the morning and then hitting the road down to Ouray to go camping for a couple nights. So, just so I don't wind up like that moron from North Carolina who followed Aaron Ralston's lead, we're going to Ouray, and if you don't hear back from from me by, say, Monday, then it's time to start the search parties.

Photodump for yesterday: Colorado National Monument

Ute Canyon

The Coke Ovens

Kissing Couple

Independence Monument

Pretty neat place, a big hit with my Montana friend. My pass will work for a week so we may go back and hike some of the canyons.

I'm Back and I'm Going Again

Had a pretty good time in Denver over the weekend, despite it being Denver.  The traffic was atrocious and there were "medical" marijuana stores on every block, there were jillions of people everywhere, and I still don't understand the appeal.  However, my friends and I, being the wild and crazy guys that we are, visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the Downtown Aquarium (I hope to get a few of my pictures up eventually), saw Captain America at the $2 theater, and watched half a season of Futurama.  What a birthday for my friend! 

But now I've got another friend coming down from Montana today, so I've got to get a good day of work in before I go and goof off for another week.  We're hoping to get a few good hikes in and maybe a few days of camping.  Posting may be light, but then again, it may not.  We'll see what happens.

Into the belly of the beast

Today is my friend's birthday, so me and my friend the history major are going to go and visit him over the weekend.  The problem:  he lives in Denver, so that is where we must go.  A more wretched hive of scum and villainy has not been seen this far west until you hit Sunny CA, or this far east until Chicago. Seriously, it's the only place in CO with any semblance of a traditional gun ban.

Wish me luck. (And to keep up with the Star Wars references) "You're gonna need it."

Oh, and they have already had to close I-70 a bit because of accidents caused by ice (with which, I remind you, I have a proven history), so wish me luck there, as well.

Mainstream Gadsden

Seen at local Big Box Store O' Doom in the auto section:

Civic Duty Fulfilled

It was a criminal trial, with a jury of 12. I didn't get selected; I didn't even get to go up to be questioned.  Out of 70-some-odd people, only about 14 of us didn't get to go up--they were burning through their options! It seemed like most of the people up there were intelligent, informed Americans, from all sorts of backgrounds, and it made me happy to hear, even though I still had to sit around all day and listen to everything.  I found the whole experience very interesting--even if for just being able to see a lawyer in the wild (they seemed to be as advertised by thousands of jokes).  And I got through half of my book.

It still seemed wrong that I had to be completely englandized (stripped of guns, knives, and tools) to participate in something that I am obligated to do as a civic duty.  As Quizikle said in the comments yesterday:  "Criminals have rights.  You don't."

What I did yesterday

Went for a Sunday drive up in the mountains. The rivers are already high, but there's still quite a bit of snow up top. Most of the lakes are still frozen on top, or at least still have ice in them.

While up there we stopped at one of the little resort/lodges on one of the lakes and had lunch. They make a mean cinnamon roll.

Gettin my hippie on

The city "Farmer's Market" (in parentheses because it's more like a weekly street festival, actually not a whole lot in the way of farmers there) is starting up tonight, and I think we're going to go down.  It's fun to walk around main street--especially since they just finished doing a big refurbishment project--it's fun to get a snow cone, and it's fun to giggle at the old hippies in the drum circle!