My Shop

Is currently a low-budget version of the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark: lots of boxes in need of opening. Machine tools, hand tools, a collection of fasteners to make most hardware stores feel inadequate, telescopes, mounts, telescope accessories, amateur telescope making parts.

I suspect the previous owners never used it except as storage for the solar pool cover.  I bug bombed it a couple days go. That there are no fresh spiderweb tells me that no one survived and no one got in. Spiders are amazingly fast at rebuilding here. My daughter removes them in room corners one day and finds replacements in  couple of days.

I have vacuumed up the webs, spider eggs sacs, sawdust, and dirt. I started wiping all the interior window frames this evening with Simple Green. Once this is done, I will wipe all horizontal surfaces; move boxes out of the way and mop the floor with Simple Green.

Things Very Southern

You knock down spiderweb one day. The next day, they are back.

Wolfettes Beserk

 The wolfettes went mad, barking. I looked out the front window and there was a majestic doe on the front lawn. Lillie was saying, "Please let me out! You won't need to feed me for a week!"

Why Was Our Dog So Desperate to Get in Front Yard?

Rhonda saw a buck in velvet as she descended the driveway and Lillie is definitely more wolfette than Canis familiaris.

Home Warranty, Air Conditioning

At our Caldwell house, we had purchased a home warranty plan from American Home Shield. We were not impressed. When the dishwasher failed, it was not a crisis so several days for them to get a technician out was okay. The replacement went okay.

The second incident disappointed us muchly. The well pump failed and we could not seem to impress upon the Third World support team that this was a serious matter. For all we knew, they may have assumed we could just go to the village well. (Okay, I am being sarcastic; more likely, what they pay third parties to take a look left them with few vendors.) 

After several days of flushing toilets with irrigation canal water and using bottled water for drinking, cooking and washing dishes, they agreed to let us hire our own well company. We had already made the appointment. Then we discovered that well pumps were limited to $1500. That will get you a very dedicated illegal with a long straw.

It was only $5000 to replace the well pump. The technician from Burgess Pump & Well (who I can highly recommend), explained that it was too small a pump for the motor, which they ran at too high a voltage to overcome this. While it let them come in below responsible well drillers, it meant less than three years of life. American Home Shield sent us a $1400 check ($1500-deductible).

For this house we picked the well-rated First American Home Warranty. The HVAC technician found frost at the compressor, which usually indicates a Freon leak in the system. As this unfreezes, the system starts working again. This explains why it started working again many hours later. 

She also explained the repair process. First American has them check for a Freon leak. If that solves it, great. Only afterwards will they look at replacing the compressor. She indicated previous owners may have suffered this same problem and an HVAC tech told them the compressor needed replacing. They would, of course, have not spent that much money.

The New House

Subtropical climate means too hot to spend much time outside. My son-in-law describes it as only tolerable on a body of water or with a cold drink in your hand or preferably both. I added with a cold drink in a body of water.

The plus side is quiet it is. Cicadas and tree frogs are the only noise at night. 

Forest Primeval

Copperhead in Shop

Exterminator Time

When We First Moved to Northern California

We stayed in a hotel in San Rafael. The clouds around the hills were magical. This area is similar.

Downtown Kingsport

Went Swimming At Our Daughter's House

We Have Arrived

Kentucky is Much Like Tennessee

Green forests and lots of open land. If developers find out, 1000 home subdivisions will sprout.

When Your State Government Puts Up These Signs

Two road signs in Missouri:

When raining, road is wet

When raining, turn on wipers, turn on lights 

Home Stretch

 We will be in Kingsport tomorrow.  New house closes on the 12th. Movers unload on the 13th.

This was faster than we expected so we will be in a hotel a couple days in Kingsport. 

Paducah Kentucky Dog Park

Yet another small town with a lovely dog park. Somehow, I lost the picture, but shady with a hose for watering down the logs.

My g-g-g-grandfather invaded Paducah (along with several other regiments) in 1862. A Southern woman (emphatically not a lady in his view) made some disparaging remarks about the Union. A general heard her and announced that her house would make a fine hospital and requisitioned it for that purpose. 

Car Transportation

Picked up Tuesday morning in Caldwell; delivered to my son-in-law this evening. 

Eastern Nebraska and Iowa Are Beautiful

Luxuriant green and foothills.  One corn field we passed had rows aligned north south.

The Walther PPK

As we finished loading our car for our trip, I suddenly realized that I had unloaded all the guns to conform to FOPA (1986); and i will be crossing one state that does allow constitutional carry or recognize my Idaho or Oregon carry licenses: Illinois. I could not immediately find the PPK/S's loaded magazine. I had forgotten to unload my wife's American Arms PX-22 (a licensed PPK clone):

It has one substantial advantage over the PPK/S: it fits silently into my front trousers pocket. No printing, no more drag than my usual cluster of keys and food. The genuine Walther is definitely more accurate but at typical armed robbery or "mass murderer comes to you next" range, it is good enough.

So does anyone still make the PPK in America? No.S&W have made it. Walther made them until 2015. The European-made ones are hideously priced.

UPDATE: Of course, my longstanding criticism of pocket carry applies: do not carry with a round chambered. Even with the safety on, it seems unwise to risk something else in your pocket taking it off safe and something else pulling the trigger. Not likely that both could happen but there was that incident shortly after Idaho legalized concealed carry where an ISU chemistry shot himself in the leg during class.

You are unlikely going to need to draw and fire within fractions of a second. There are usually enough indications that you are at risk to draw and it is time to rack the slide. Also, the PPK DA trigger is monstrously heavy; you do not want to fire DA if you can avoid it. 

The PPK is also so tiny that an aggressor may not see it in your hand in the dark until too late. Unlike the Browning Hi-Power, racking the PPK takes little muscle strength.

Of course,  .22LR is not a .45 or 9mm; it is not even a .380. If used defensively, you need to focus on hitting a vital part rather than relying hydrodynamic shock as it passes near a vital organ. At 6-7 feet it should be hard to miss the head or heart. As with many defensive incidents, the simple drawing of a gun may cause an aggressor to remember an urgent appointment elsewhere.

CRAMER'S RULE: The underpowered pistol you have with you is more effective than the pistol whose weight and bulk caused you to not carry it.

UPDATE 2: It turns Illinois law allows nonresidents with licenses from their home state to carry concealed within their car. Just do not leave your car with the gun concealed, and if leaving the car, the gun must be locked up. This is not ideal, but when passing through, it means you do not need to unload and be completely defenseless.

A reader tells me the Bersa Thunder is pretty much a PPK clone. Available in .380 as well.

We Stayed at the Hilton in Ogden

 Very quiet, very comfortable room. (It is a Hilton; it better be.) There is an indoor skydiving business across the street; if we had more time, I would go over there. I have always wanted to experience skydiving without the adrenaline rush of jumping out of a perfectly functional plane while wondering if my parachute is going to work.

They are so spoiled.