July 11, 2011

Well, another weekend is behind us. Friday evening I ask mom to transfer the money so I can look at that van and make an offer. She reluctantly agrees. We try to transfer it but there is no provision in the automated phone teller system to transfer money between accounts anymore. We used to be able to do it, but we sure as hell can't now. I found a menu option to “withdraw” funds so I fingered that must be it. I went through the machinations but before it asked where to deposit the withdrawn funds, it gave me a confirmation number and asked for another transaction. “Where the hell did that money go?” I asked. Of course mom was the only one there and she had no idea. I knew I had to go to the credit onion in the morning and sort it out. I told John and he counter offered that we go to the shop first and work on stuff then go at lunch. We met at the shop and messed with our bikes... sort of. I messed with mine but he could only remotely mess with his as it was still at his house. He built some mirrors for his and recharged his battery while I installed my new battery and put all the stuff back on we’d taken off last week. We also made a pair of carbon fiber inspection sticker plates for the two bikes. Mine is a tapered thing for just a sticker while his is rectangular for additional decal placement. I began to get antsy about the credit onion closing and bailed out on him at 1130 h. He hung out and waited for the epoxy to set up a little better on his mirrors and then met me at the CU. I found out what happens when Juan withdraws funds over the phone: they send you a check for the amount. Well, that wasn't going to get me cash then and there so I had them cancel that and withdrew $1,500.00 to make the offer. John and I head for his house but he calls right before we get on the freeway to ask if I'd be willing to run back to the shop to get the battery he’d left on the charger. I did. I met him at his house and had a look at the bike. That is a big sum-bitch! I'm kinda glad I didn't buy one now. No, I'm really glad I didn't buy one. Did I mention that it is a big sum-bitch? Well, it is. We hopped in Ms. Clio and headed to Denton. We found the dude’s place and had a look at the van. It was OK. The exterior was fine, I'd have to paint it to totally get rid of all the signage, but it was decent enough. The interior was rough but I really shouldn't expect more from an old work van. It fired right up but the air did not blow cold. It didn't even blow cool. It blew ambient, AKA hot, air. OK, not a deal breaker, let’s drive it. It backed out of the place and got up onto 377 well enough. It tracked well and drove fine. I parked it and said John and I would grab some lunch and discuss it. OK, first off, it had a major strike against it going in being a Chevy, right? It was going to have to really impress me to make it over that hurdle. I tried to convince myself that it would be OK, but subconsciously, we all know that was there. Second, when I got in the thing I thought, “Could I put mom in that passenger seat and drive her across town?” The answer there was, “Not in this condition.” Sure, it could have been cleaned up and made presentable, but it wasn't “82 year-old grandmother friendly” as is. Now the third thing that put the final kibosh on the deal was the fact that I'd already sort of talked myself down from the “Van Ledge” two weeks ago when I bought the bike at the swamp meet. “Well then why the hell did you go look at it?” you may be asking. I went because I thought I was helping out a friend of a friend and I had half-assed convinced myself I wanted one again. Turns out, the friend of the friend was more of an acquaintance of a friend so that’s cool, and I hadn't really talked myself into it after all. We went to a motorcycle shop there in Denton and John bought a helmet. From there we had lunch and headed back to his place. I swung by the railroad to see how much progress they were making on moving the two train cars from the main drive area. They were done! The things were gone and looked like they’d never even been there. It was weird. I went home and began thinking about the gun show. I decided on the two guns I was going to look for, you may remember this from last Friday. It was a tossup between the “Sporterized” Mosin Nagant and the bullpup AK-47. I did a little math and decided that for about the same money, I could have the Mosin, and forty stripper clips full of 200 rounds of ammo. And we’re not talking about the cheap Russian surplus ammo either. So, I went in to the gun show with Larry looking for the guys with the tricked out Mosin Nagant. They were on the very first row. They didn't bring the tricked out Mosin Nagant this time. “Ok,” I said to Larry, “I guess I'll be buying a bullpup AK.” We walked the rows. I never saw the bullpup AK. What I did keep seeing was a $385.00-$389.00 Parkerized Rock Island 1911-A1. I'd said that I was going to buy another 1911 sometime this year, it being the 100^th anniversary of that weapon being introduced, and 1911s are friggin’ cool as hell. I went back to the table where I'd seen the $385.00 gun and bought it. I stopped at my ammo guy and bought fifty rounds of .45 ACP and fifty rounds of .45 Colt. Larry and I ate at Benito’s then he dropped me at Ms. Clio in the credit onion parking lot. At the house, I entered the new gun into my spreadsheet, and tried to load the ammo I'd bought. It won't fit in the magazine. The dummy rounds I had will fit but these hollow points will not. I guess I'll just plan to run ball ammo in this gun since it is just a plinker and not a primary defense weapon. I field stripped it a few times and oiled it up. I like it. But I've always liked 1911s. OK, now I I have to go into another story to explain the name, which I haven’t told y'all yet. The name for this gun is Hedley LaMarr. But wait, I think I'm going to hold off on the reason until tomorrow just to see if you can finger it out on your own. Shoot me an e-mail or comment below if you think you know... or even if you can just place THAT reference, never mind how it relates to this gun.