September 12, 2005
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Friday was spent with me running around running some errands IÂ’ve been putting off. I finally picked up my new modem as well as a package from a shooting supply house. On Sept 2nd I had ordered 100 .710 caliber and 100 .730 caliber round ball for my musket. I have a shoot on September 23, 24 and 25th here in Rockford. When I picked up the package, it only had the .710 round ball in it to my annoyance. When I got home I quickly fired off an e-mail to the supply house inquiring as to where the .730 round ball is and if it is on back order, why didnÂ’t they bother to tell me that when I ordered it. IÂ’m still waiting on their response. Unfortunately, I have limited places to order that caliber of round ball from or I would have ordered from somewhere else.
Friday night I finished making my bullet bag. I cheated a little and used one of nature’s natural creations as the base of the bag, a bull scrotum. That’s right my ball bag is a “ball bag”. I hand sewed a drawstring leather cap onto it and it was ready for use. Maybe later I’ll post a picture of it for you all to see. I thought I did a fine job on it.
Saturday it was time to dismantle my black powder firearms and give them a thorough cleaning. The locks on both my Blunderbuss and Brown Bess (musket) where rather rusty due to the high humidity. My Brown Bess needed a good cleaning since I do most of my black powder shooting with it and there was a lot of black powder residue stick in the hard to get to parts. The lock came apart with relative ease, however I ran into a snag putting it back together.
Last week Clone, being his curious self, got his hands on my Bess and knocked it over. Initially when I inspected it, I didnÂ’t find anything wrong. While reattaching the frizzen spring it snapped. (For those of you that don't know, a Frizzen spring is what is used to hold the Frizzen closed on a flintlock. The Frizzen is the metal part that covers the pan that holds black powder in place. When the hammer comes forward, the flint strikes the frizzen causing a spark and flipping the frizzen open to ignite the powder.) Upon closer inspection, I could see this was not a stress fracture. When Clone knocked it over it must have landed just right and put a crack into it. ItÂ’s the only way to explain how it broke. Last October I had the main spring on my musket snap because of a weakness of the spring, the fractures look nothing alike. Stress fractures tend to be more smooth and straight where this one was jagged and crooked. That meant I had to order yet another part for my Bess. At least I know I will have the part by Friday at the latest.
Other then that incident everything went well. I was able to finish my cleaning with out a problem. Normally I do the cleaning the weekend or week before a re-enactment. Next weekend IÂ’m heading to Green Bay for the Packer/Browns game, so I did it a weekend early. This saved me from having to discover the broken spring too late to be able to get a replacement part.
Posted by: Contagion at
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September 11, 2005
This sucks. The penalties killed us. Unless Ahmad Carroll starts to show improvement, heÂ’s going to be the death of the Packers. HeÂ’s like Bawah Jue of the last couple of season. If he doesn't learn how to keep his hands out of recievers faces, he is going to bring enough penalties down on the Packers to cause even the Bears offense to look good.
At least itÂ’s only the first week. There are 16 weeks left, 15 games to go. One loss does not eliminate a team this early on.
Damn our defense!
Unfortunately my Green Bay support person had surgery this week. (I hope he is doing well, no one has responded to my messages inquiring on his status) So I have no one to vent to. Then again, maybe I should contact a Bear fan; they can sympathize with me.
Posted by: Contagion at
06:41 PM
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Packer hatÂ…. Check
WhiskyÂ…. Check
BeerÂ…. Check
Pop (aka Soda, aka Coke, but only if you are from the south because IÂ’m not drinking coke)Â…. Check
Hot WingsÂ…. Check
SnacksÂ…. Check
Printouts of every pool/Fantasy team IÂ’m inÂ…. Check
Clip Board with pens and highlighters to make notesÂ…. Check
Latest Packer Pro Shop and NFL Shop catalogsÂ…. Check
This can only mean one thing: FOOTBALL TIME! OH YEAH!
Today is the first Sunday in football season. Thursday nights game between the Pats and the Raiders was very entertaining and helped cool my football fever, but it wasnÂ’t enough to give me the fix that I needed. Mainly because neither team is in my division so the outcome of the game did not have a direct impact on my Packers.
Today is a different story; at noon CST my wife will become a football widow. This will last all the way until February. She doesnÂ’t mind, as a football fan herself, she just doesnÂ’t understand my deep love and infatuation of the game.
You will have to excuse me now while I go do my pre-game rituals.
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10:47 AM
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September 08, 2005
I can barely contain my excitment. If it wasn't for the fact that I have a position that requires a certain level of dress, I'd be coming to work wearing my Jersey and all my football gear. As it is I am wearing Packer sox and underwear... not that any of you wanted to know that.
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06:45 AM
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Also...
CalTechGirl of Not Exactly Rocket Science is requesting good luck wishes for an impending job interview today. As promised, I'm giving her both barrels of good luck... until kick off tonight, because I can't concentrate on anything except the game when football is on.
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06:37 AM
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September 07, 2005
Now my football season may be extended, much to the chagrin of my understanding wife. It seems that Rockford has picked up an Indoor Football League team called the Raptors. Today, with my wifeÂ’s permission, I looked into purchasing season tickets.
I know it’s only Indoor or “Arena” football… but once February hits I tend to get depressed and that is a long time from February to September. This would fill part of that gap. Plus indoor football is better then no football!
Now if I could only get my season tickets to the Packers! IÂ’m only 1051 away!
Posted by: Contagion at
06:28 PM
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One of the farmers stated that the quality of the corn isnÂ’t even good for silage and that he wasnÂ’t sure if it was worth harvesting it from the field, with the price of gas being as high as it is. I knew it was bad, but not that bad. I figured they could at least use the corn for feed. I tried to find a link to this story; unfortunately, I was not able to find one. For you folks out there that donÂ’t know what silage is, itÂ’s fodder from plants converted into feed for livestock through a fermentation process in a silo. The farmers use this to supplement their livestock feed, especially in the winter months.
When the local farmers feel that it might be better off for them to let the crop rot in the field because they would go further in to debt just to harvest it, you know itÂ’s got to be bad. They usually get some kind of return on it, but in the interview that I saw the farmer said in not so many words that harvesting this corn would be as smart as throwing money into a furnace. Even if they used the entire crop just as feed, at least they received something for it. Instead, they may have to purchase extra feed just to keep their livestock fed over the winter. Farmers make a living off their crops and livestock. If it isnÂ’t worth it for them to pull the crops out of the field, what will they do? How are they going to pay their bills or provide for their families?
If the drought broke today and we received a good steady rain for the rest of the year, it’s too late to save this year’s corn crop. Maybe it isn’t as bad as that one report made it out to be, but looking at the cornfields I can’t help but to think it is. Growing up in Illinois and spending times on farms, I know what good healthy corn looks like. The corn crop in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin cannot be described as “good or healthy”. Even the sweet corn you get at roadside stands and in stores are some of the sorriest I’ve seen in years.
Since I havenÂ’t seen a lot on this issue, maybe IÂ’m in the minority that is concerned about it. With harvest coming just around the corner I suspect we all will start to hear more regarding this issue, then again maybe not. It seems that unless something happens to a large urban area, the national media doesnÂ’t cover it. For now, IÂ’m just going to hope that the farmers in this part of the country fair better then I think they will.
Posted by: Contagion at
04:40 PM
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September 06, 2005
(... uh I mean comment ways, really I did... I wouldn't lie to you. Not you baby, I would never lie to you. *looking innocent*)
P.S. The firemen are already there ladies!
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05:33 PM
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Remember, you can't go wrong with girls and artillary... even if it is primitive artillary.
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05:25 PM
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We put up a child gate at his door, but that didnÂ’t help. He was like Spiderman climbing right over it. It may have slowed him down by a fraction of a second. Around midnight he finally laid down to go to sleep, only to get up at 5:30 in the morning! Neither my wife nor I was ready to wake up and deal with the day that early. Especially since, it was a holiday weekend. We did the only thing we could, and brought him to bed with us in hopes he would go back to sleep, which he did.
On Sunday, Ktreva replaced the crib with a toddler bed we have. At least that way he won’t break his neck trying to get out of it. She also picked up a new “Harder to climb” child gate. When naptime came, we learned a couple of things. At least with the crib he thought twice about climbing out. Now he just gets up anytime he wants. As for the new gate… “Harder to Climb”, Bullshite! He looked like a gymnast jumping over a pommel horse.
Sunday night was the same thing, even though he didnÂ’t really nap, he wouldnÂ’t go to bed. We knew he was tired, but he did not want to go to sleep. If we laid him down, he would get up and break out of his room. Nothing would make this tired little boy lie down and sleep. In fact, he would turn on the TV to watch it! Again, on Sunday night he went to bed around midnight and was up around 6:00 on Monday morning.
My wife and I were tired, we hadnÂ’t slept much because we kept waking up to make sure he didnÂ’t climb out of bed, over the gate and try to navigate his way downstairs to the living room to play with his toys. When he woke up, again he was brought into our bed to sleep. Clone may have the vast majority of his traits from me; however, he does have one that is uniquely from his mother. He tosses and turns in his sleep like a whirlwind of knees and elbows. After laying there for a couple of hours, I just couldnÂ’t take it anymore. Yes, I was tired, but I just could not sleep with that little Tasmanian devil in the bed.
Naptime comes and again a fight and not sleeping. Monday night bed time and again he is not sleeping! I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, when I came out of our room I could see a flickering light coming from his room. That little snot weasel had gotten up and turned the TV on again. He had attempted to make another break for it around 3:00 AM. Fortunately, my wife thwarted his attempt. We have yet another night of not sleeping.
This morning when the alarm went of at 5:30 AM, I was ready to kill the boy. IÂ’m exhausted, my body does not want to climb out of bed, and I canÂ’t even pretend to be in a decent mood. Of course, Clone is still sleepingÂ… Therefore, we woke him up. Apparently, he was tired and didnÂ’t want to. Go figure, and no we didnÂ’t care. Maybe tonight heÂ’ll sleep.
I donÂ’t know if I can take much more of this.
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12:50 PM
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September 02, 2005
First, we have an item that proves that computer geeks lack in neither imagination nor free time to be creative. This guy came up with his own animated video, using different formats, for Wang Chung’s “Everybody have fun tonight”. Go check out On The Cutting Room Floor of Oblivion. (You will have to click one of the two top links, depending on speed of internet access, to view the clip)
Next is for all of you job hunters out there. Over at Impact Lab, someone received one too many rejection letters. He came up with his a form rejection letter rejection letter. I know that sounds redundant, but if you read it, youÂ’ll understand.
Finally, for all of you potential evil super criminals out there, I found a treatise on How to Destroy the World. This is a lengthy read, but rather amusing.
Posted by: Contagion at
01:07 PM
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September 01, 2005
2. A DAY WITHOUT SUNSHINE IS LIKE, NIGHT.
3. ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU HAVE DIFFERENT FINGERS.
4. I JUST GOT LOST IN THOUGHT. IT WASN'T FAMILIAR TERRITORY.
5. 42.7 PERCENT OF ALL STATISTICS ARE MADE UP ON THE SPOT.
6. 99 PERCENT OF LAWYERS GIVE THE REST A BAD NAME.
7. I FEEL LIKE I'M DIAGONALLY PARKED IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE.
8. HONK IF YOU LOVE PEACE AND QUIET.
9 REMEMBER, HALF THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW ARE BELOW AVERAGE.
10. HE WHO LAUGHS LAST, THINKS SLOWEST.
11. DEPRESSION IS MERELY ANGER WITHOUT ENTHUSIASM.
12. THE EARLY BIRD MAY GET THE WORM, BUT THE SECOND MOUSE GETS THE CHEESE.
13. I DRIVE WAY TOO FAST TO WORRY ABOUT CHOLESTEROL.
14. SUPPORT BACTERIA. THEY'RE THE ONLY CULTURE SOME PEOPLE HAVE.
15. MONDAY IS AN AWFUL WAY TO SPEND 1/7 OF YOUR WEEK.
16. A CLEAR CONSCIENCE IS USUALLY THE SIGN OF A BAD MEMORY.
17. CHANGE IS INEVITABLE, EXCEPT FROM VENDING MACHINES
18. GET A NEW CAR FOR YOUR SPOUSE. IT'LL BE A GREAT TRADE!
19. PLAN TO BE SPONTANEOUS TOMORROW.
20. ALWAYS TRY TO BE MODEST, AND BE PROUD OF IT!
21. IF YOU THINK NOBODY CARES, TRY MISSING A COUPLE OF PAYMENTS.
22. HOW MANY OF YOU BELIEVE IN PSYCHO-KINESIS? RAISE MY HAND.
23. OK, SO WHAT'S THE SPEED OF DARK?
24. HOW DO YOU TELL WHEN YOU'RE OUT OF INVISIBLE INK?
25. IF EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE GOING WELL, YOU HAVE OBVIOUSLY OVERLOOKED SOMETHING.
26. WHEN EVERYTHING IS COMING YOUR WAY, YOU'RE IN THE WRONG LANE.
27. HARD WORK PAYS OFF IN THE FUTURE. LAZINESS PAYS OFF NOW.
28. EVERYONE HAS A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY. SOME JUST DO NOT HAVE FILM.
29. IF BARBIE IS SO POPULAR, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BUY HER FRIENDS?
30. HOW MUCH DEEPER WOULD THE OCEAN BE WITHOUT SPONGES?
31. EAGLES MAY SOAR, BUT WEASELS DO NOT GET SUCKED INTO JET ENGINES.
32. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU GET SCARED HALF TO DEATH TWICE?
33. I USED TO HAVE AN OPEN MIND BUT MY BRAINS KEPT FALLING OUT.
34. I COULDN'T REPAIR YOUR BRAKES, SO I MADE YOUR HORN LOUDER.
35. WHY DO PSYCHICS HAVE TO ASK YOU FOR YOUR NAME?
36. INSIDE EVERY OLDER PERSON IS A YOUNGER PERSON WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED
37. JUST REMEMBER - IF THE WORLD DID NOT SUCK, WE WOULD ALL FALL OFF.
38. LIGHT TRAVELS FASTER THAN SOUND, WHICH IS WHY SOME PEOPLE APPEAR BRIGHT UNTIL YOU HEAR THEM SPEAK.
Pilfered from an e-mail sent to me.
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07:59 PM
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I was putting Clone into his car seat in the truck. My cartful of items that I just purchased was right next to me. Just as I started belting Clone in, this old guy walks up and starts to take my cart. I grabbed it and the following conversation occurred.
Me, “Excuse me, that’s my cart. I’m not finished with it yet.”
Old guy, “This is my cart, you took it!”
Me, “ No, that is my cart. I just bought those items in the store.”
Old guy, “You took my cart! This is my stuff.”
Me, “If you look in the cart you will see it is definitely not your stuff, I’m not thinking that at your age you will be needing Children’s Tylenol.”
Old Guy, (not even looking in the cart) “I didn’t buy any Children’s Tylenol!”
As I could feel my temper starting to get the best of me, I was getting ready to whip out my wallet and show him the receipt for the items. Just then a young guy comes walking up. When I say younger, I mean younger then the old guy. Then again, from the looks of the old guy, he probably played with Jesus as a child, so just about anyone was younger then him. The new guy the came over was about my age. At first, I thought this guy was going to start giving me crap for, “stealing from an old man”. Then he says to the old guy, “Grandpa, this is not your cart. This cart belongs to this gentleman.”
He then turns to me and says, “I’m so sorry. My grandfather has senior dementia and gets confused easily. I was just putting our groceries in the car when he wandered off. He’s didn’t mean any harm. He just thought this was his cart.” The old guy apologized and looked confused.
Everything made sense at that point. I told the younger guy it was no problems and told the old guy there were no hard feelings. To help ease his ego I added an, “Don’t worry about it; it’s an easy mistake to make. I’m sure it happens all the time to everyone.”
My grandmother on my fatherÂ’s side had AlzheimerÂ’s and Senior Dementia. It wasnÂ’t difficult for me to understand the guyÂ’s predicament. Whom I really feel bad for is the grandson. ItÂ’s only going to get worse. I saw my grandmother for the last time when I was about 14. She didnÂ’t die until I was 22. She lived about 8 hours away where most of the rest of my FatherÂ’s family lived. We would go up there at least twice a year to visit my relatives, but I refused to go with to see grandma. ItÂ’s not that I didnÂ’t love her, it was because of what happened the last time I saw her.
She was in the nursing home and we walked into her room. As soon as she saw me, she started yelling and screaming about how I had left her there and why would I do that to her. It didn’t take long for everyone in the room (My parents, two aunts and uncles and my younger sister) to realize she thought I was my father. She started calling me by his name, even though he was standing right next to me. She said something like, “If you really cared about me, you wouldn’t have let your brother put me in here.”
It was a horrible visage of a woman that I always remembered as being kind and caring. After we left, I made my parents promise never to make me go visit her again. That was not how I wanted to remember my grandmother. Unfortunately that is the last, but not strongest, memory that I have of her.
I just hope something like that doesnÂ’t happen to this grandson.
Posted by: Contagion at
07:20 PM
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