1/12/09

Well, Ms. Clio’s license plates arrived the other day. They’re wrong. Instead of “UN HU HU,” or even the acceptable but not preferred “UNHUHU,” they came as “U-NHU HU.” What the fuck, over! I was pissed. Needless to say, I didn’t install them. I decided that I'd take them back to the courthouse and see what they’d do for me to rectal-fy the situation. But that part of the story comes later. Saturday morning I get a text from John saying he has a fever and won’t be coming to the shop. It was butt-assed butt-butt cold anyway so I didn’t mind missing out. I decided I'd go see my sister and her husband and we’d talk guns. I called and got the visit approved. Mom asked if she could tag along but I said I'd be meeting Pat at the shop first then going from there, which was the original plan. Pat and I hung out for a bit looking at his storage place and thinking about the situation. Finally we parted and I went to the gas station. I filled up and paid for a car wash but when putting the gas cap back on the little leash pissed me off. When I went to rip it off of the thing it broke the gas cap in half. Crap! Now I didn’t want to risk filling the tank with water in the car wash so I took my code and headed for the Nissan dealer. On the way there, my sister called to check on me. I told her the story and suggested I go pick mom up since I was on that side of town again. I did and we headed to Granbury. As soon as we walked in the door, my sister starts dragging out guns for me to look at. Lester, my brother-in-law, comes in and we start talking about them all. I go out to the car and get my stash to show them off. Linda, my sister, has mom in the kitchen so I show my stuff to Lester. I put my guns away and we all go to lunch. After lunch, mom and Linda take naps while Lester and I go running around town to gun stores and Pawn shops. I bought fifty rounds of .45 Colt Cowboy Action lead ball ammo for the Judge at one of the stops. Back at their house mom wakes up and we head back to Fort Worth. On the way home she asks about the gun Linda showed me. I told her that Lester had bought it for her and she wanted to show it to me. I also told her that I'm taking the CHL class in two weeks with… well, I'm not sure if they want y'all to know so I won’t say with whom I'm taking the class. Mom asks why I'm getting a Concealed Handgun License and I tell her, “To be ready for the upcoming Obacalypse.” About two miles later she finally asks, “So, do you currently have a handgun?” I tell her I do. I don’t tell her I have three and a carbine. I drop her at the house and go back out with the plan being, I'd go to the range, then to the shop to clean the guns, and then to the car wash I'd forgone earlier. I made it to the range where I did a practice run of the Concealed Handgun License test with each pistol. The Hebrew Hammer tore a nice big ragged hole with the twenty rounds at three yards. In fact, I could have missed the target altogether with half those rounds the pattern was so tight. The twenty rounds at seven yards had a bit more spread and the ten rounds at fifteen yards were all a bit high. They all scored in the “8” ring but I overcompensated for bullet drop. Oh well. I pulled that target and loaded up another. This time I shot Slick Willie. The paper looked more like a shotgun blast than fifty rounds of accurate fire, but all shots were on target and most scored in the “8” ring. I stowed that target and put up one for the Judge. It shot a pattern somewhere in between the other two, slightly less accurate than the Hebrew Hammer but way more accurate than Slick Willie. I parked that target and put up a fourth. I popped off thirty rounds through the Space Gun at fifteen yards and was happy with the pattern. I wiped everything down and put stuff away. I took the three targets to the counter to see if I'd “passed” my test. He approved of all three so I'm at least accurate enough to get a CHL with any of my handguns. I left the range and totally forgot to go to the shop or the car wash. Sunday morning I waited around for mom and we went to lunch. After that I took the guns to the shop and did a thorough cleaning of all of them. Every time I go to buy ammo for the Judge I think, “Lead ball ammo isn't all that bad.” But every time I go to clean it I think, “I'm never shooting anything but jacketed ammo again!” The barrel was gunked up pretty severely! I took an hour or so cleaning that gun and it still isn't perfect. The rest cleaned up nicely so I'm generally happy. I played with the holster for Slick Willie and looked at some possible carry locations in Ms. Clio. I found one I kind of like but I don’t think I'm going to commit to carrying it all the time. Then again, I might. Juan never knows so… keep that in mind if you want to car-jack a black Nissan in west Fort Worth. You might get ventilated. Anyhoo, I finally left the shop and went to the car wash. It was closed. I gave up and went home. I didn’t even try to sneak the guns into the house this time. It was a relief. Today I went to the courthouse to see what they’d do about the screwed up license plates. My friend from church saw me in line and took me to the back where she sorted it out, or so I thought at the time. I left all happy with another temporary plate. I just got a call from the court saying that they cannot remake the plates because that was how it showed up on the receipt when I “picked them up.” I told her I didn’t “pick them up” they were mailed to me. She said it was on the receipt from when I ordered them. I'm certain the receipt has the letters all mushed together because Shari and I looked at it this morning at the courthouse. I'm going to cut out of here and go back down again to see what’s what. And there you have it. I'll have yet another report tomorrow I'm sure.