8/28/12

I mentioned John and me loading the 60” TV in the back of Fifi before going to the shop, right?  Well, George was supposed to get in touch with me Saturday afternoon/evening so we could deliver it to his son’s ex-wife for the kids to use with their X-Station to play video games.  Well, he never called.  I finally called him and was told we could do it Sunday afternoon/evening after the gun show.  So the TV sat in the back of Fifi all day… in a spitting rain.  Meh, soon to be someone else’s problem.  So Sunday morning I begin rounding up all the stuff I want to take with me to the gun show.  I've decided to try and sell Woody since I'm quite certain I could never shoot a deer with it unless it was strictly for food after the fit hits the shan.  I'd still feel like shit about doing even that though.  So, I make a sign and pack up stuff.  Larry calls to say he’s on his way and I head to the credit onion to meet him.  I remember the magazine adapter for the stripper clips as I'm about to turn onto the road to the credit onion.  I'm pulling out the phone to call Larry to ask him to bring his if he hadn’t left yet.  He was pulling into the parking lot.  Damn.  I parked and transferred the stuff to his truck.  We went to the show.  This is the first time I've ever seen the Will Rogers complex use both the big hall and the theater hall across the… um, hall for the gun show.  T’was a big ‘un.  We walked the thing and I had lots of “Looky Lous” ask about the gun.  No one made an offer but a few said that if they saw me again at the end of the show, they’d probably buy it.  I didn’t really see anything I “needed” while carrying the gun, which was fortunate since I didn’t have any money for anything unless I sold it.  At about 1230 h we broke for lunch.  We sat at a table in the middle hall, one of us going for food and the other watching stuff then vice versa.  We ate and rested for a while then went back in.  Just inside the door I was accosted by what I thought was to be another “Looky Lou.”  Ok, I had gone in thinking, “I’ll ask $550.00 but be willing to take $450.00.”  However, as more and more people gawked at the gun, the more I wanted to stick to my advertised price.  In that vein, I was a little “annoyed” with myself for accepting his $475.00 offer.  “So why did you do it?” I hear someone asking.  Because… uh, shut up.  So, with five Franklins burning a hole in my wallet, we continued to walk the last third of the show.  Now I was in shopping mode.  Like a dumbass, I found something.  Ok, a little history.  Back in the ‘80s, Mossberg made a version of their ubiquitous Model 500 pump shotgun in what is called a “Bullpup” configuration.  A “Bullpup” is a full length firearm where the action is in the butt stock behind the trigger ratherthan in front of it.  Imagine if you will a pistol grip shotgun where the grip is the furthest back part of the gun.  Now imagine if the pistol grip were moved forward about 10” and the pump extended out to the end of the barrel.  You would have a “Bullpup” shotgun.  Is it the best looking gun ever?  Not even close to being anywhere near the neighborhood of that!  In fact, it is kinda ugly.  But they only made them for a few years so they are kinda rare.  The price was close to what I had on me.  I walked away.  We walked the last few aisles, with me saying, “I want that shotgun,” and then went into our usual “return to things of interest” mode.  I walked straight to the “Bullpup.”  As we approached, Larry suggested I see if he’d take $500.00 for it.  Nope.  He was asking $600.00 so I followed up with a $550.00 offer.  This he went for.  I borrowed $50.00 from Larry and sealed the deal.  A few rows later someone asked about it and I said, “Hmm, I'd take $600.00 for it.”  He did not bail me out of my stupidity.  So, I'm now the 12 gauge guy with five of them in my safe: my grandfather’s Auto 5, the Saiga 12, the Terminator lever action, the Boomstick single shot, and now Mossy the Bullpup.  I suppose if I wanted to be a dick, I could repossess the other Mossberg pump shotgun I gave to John and have six of the bastards… but I'm not ready to pursue that option.  If John doesn’t want the Mossberg and was to give it back, which is NOT what I'm suggesting in any way, I'd gladly take it… but I'm not looking to get it back… sort of thing.  Anyhoo, from the gun show we went back to the credit onion and I went home.  I called George to see what the plan was to be and he told me he was still stuck in Not Texas somewhere.  He asked if there was a big rush to move the thing.  I told him that it was sitting in the back of the truck and would get rained on if it rained… which, of course, it looked to all the world like it might do at any second.  We decided that it could sit another day and that we’d talk about it again Monday after work.  So now we’ll jump to Monday after work.  I called him as I was about to leave the railroad to see if I needed to come pick him up for this delivery.  He was in Richardson… the other side of Not Texas… I did not go get him.  He said he’d call me in an hour with a plan.  I went home and told mother that if I didn’t hear from him, as I fully expected not to, she and I would make the trek to the B&G Club retail store in Granbury Tuesday to deliver the thing.  He DID call back.  His ex-daughter-in-law was at home and had helpers to unload the thing if I wanted to head over to her house in Beenbroke.  This I did.  She remembered me from AUTOCOMP days but I don’t remember her or the kids at all.  Sorry.  We set the thing in their living room and I took off.  I did ‘splain what happened to it and why it didn’t tune in TV any more.  She said she had a guy who might take a look at it.  I hauled ass.  So, there’s the story of the gun show and the disposal of the 60” TV.  I hope you… no wait, I couldn’t care less if you enjoyed them to be honest.  So there.