2/23/10

I'm not going to make any excuses for not talking yesterday. I just didn't get around to it. Hell, I barely made it in here today. In fact, I might get called away here in a bit and y'all will just be left with a partial rant. So, here’s what happened over the weekend. John texted me around 0830 h to say he’s running a little late. It was a good thing too because I was still asleep. He asked where I was and I took that to be fishing for an excuse to give the shop a miss. I'm not sure how I made that leap of logic, but there it is. I texted back and asked if he had anything better in mind. I finished up with, “*cough* Autorama *cough*.” He called. We discussed it and decided that I'd come pick him up and we’d go to Not Texas Market Hall for the Autorama. It was so not our crowd, not only the people, but the cars as well. In fact there were only two Datsuns and no other imports I can recall. Well, there was a Nash Metropolitan and a couple “Big Healeys,” now that I think about it. The two Datsuns only just barely get recognition too. One was a Z-car with a horrific A/C Cobra body kit and the other was a ZX with a smell-blecch Chevy. In fact, the only cars that piqued our interest were the dozen or so Rat Rods stuffed off in the corner under the balcony. OK, I will admit that there was a... I'm embarrassed to even admit to this... there was a mid seventies... I'm not sure I can even say it... OK, there was a mid seventies Corvette all done up that I really liked. It was so very black with gold ghost stripes. I don't remember what wheels it had though. Hmm, interesting. It had Trans-Am taillights so the ass was solid black with horizontal bars running the width. I remember it having a “whale tail” but I could be wrong. It had the ubiquitous recessed quad square headlights under smoked lenses too. I don't remember side pipes but I'm sure it had them. The engine was all chromed out and had the wackiest supercharger I'd ever seen. It was a chrome cylinder with the rear right over the carburetor inlet of the intake. The front sported a pair of chromed Weber DCOEs and what looked like the leather drive belt from a Judson supercharger. The belt was green! I don't know what it was about the car, but I liked it. Oh, there was also a really badass Mustang, all blacked out and super menacing looking. Other than the few Mopar offerings which always float my boat, the only “stock” vehicle I liked was the orange three-speed GTO Judge hard top. At least that was all I can remember liking. Once we’d seen all there was to see, we bailed out and returned to Texas. We had lunch then stopped off at Steve/John’s to see if he still had the Louisiana Purchase and if the price was still “come and get it.” He did and it is. Gregg wants it for spares for his 1200 race car effort. We’ll go get it one of these days. I dropped John off and went home. I turned down dinner with my mom and sister and opted for a nap. Around 1700 h, my buddy Robert pages me to say that he and Navajo are hanging out at his house and that I needed to get my ass over there. Navajo is an old college friend of ours who was in town for the weekend. I took a quick shower and headed over there. We sat around and talked about old times and drank a few beers and stuff. Around midnight I went home. Sunday, mom and I went to Outhouse Steaks for some dead cow. After I dropped her off at home, I went out with the Saiga. My plan was to take it by On Target to see if they’d let me shoost it, thinking they probably wouldn't. When I left the house it was about 70 degrees. As I was driving out I-20 I thought, “Hey, why don't you check out that trap and skeet place right there?” This I did. As I pulled up to park, it suddenly felt like the air conditioner came on. The vents began pouring cold air out. “That’s odd,” thought I, and shut the car off. When I got out I realized why the vent suddenly got so efficient. The outside temperature had dropped thirty degrees! It was friggin’ cold! I hung out and watched some folks shoot, spoke to one of them, and was told where the office was. I hopped back in the car and drove down there. I spoke to the former president of the club and was given the what’s what about the place. I kind of glazed over at the $300.00 membership fee and the $110.00 annual dues so I don't really remember what all the amenities were. I thanked him for his time and headed out again. I went to On Target and asked if I could shoost my new .410 Saiga. As I suspected, I could not. I shrugged it off and headed to the shop. I knew I wanted to do something gun related there so when I arrived I pulled the Saiga out of the trunk. I fingered out that the thread protector on the end of the muzzle is left-hand thread and removed it. Yep, looks much better on, I put it back. I had a look inside the firing mechanism and fingered it all out. I pulled the gas-port adjuster thingy out and fingered out how that worked, then put it back together. I ran a swab through the barrel a few times to remove the schmutz that was in there and then put the gun back in its bag. Oh, by the way, it just almost fits inside the Ruger 10/22 soft case I have, it should be fine with the TAPCO stock and pistol grip. Oh, did I mention I bought a TAPCO stock and pistol grip on e-Bay the other day? Well, I did. It might be at the house right now. Anyhoo, I loaded the gun back into the trunk of the car and left. About halfway home I remembered what it was I wanted to do at the shop. See, one of the other things I bought at the gun show was a holster for Kurt Corto. You don't remove it to shoot because it has finger holes and stuff. The problem is, the gun can ride up, especially under recoil. I wanted to put a zip-tie around the trigger guard to keep it in place. This, I totally forgot to do while at the shop. Oh well, I'll be there again sometime. After that, I pretty much did nothing. Yesterday I just didn't get around to talking to y'all so... suck it! And on that note...suck it!