11/10/14

Well, I almost became a Miata driver over the weekend.  Friday afternoon, just as I was about to leave campus, Gregg Gary called to say he has to sell some shit for medical bills.  He’s got bone cancer and stuff.  The first thing I asked about was the Saiga 12 but he’s not ready to sell that.  We talked for a while and his Miata came up.  I thought, “Hey, I wouldn’t mind having a Miata.” so I told him, “Hey, I wouldn’t mind having a Miata.  How much?”  I was told a number I thought was reasonable and said I would let him know.  I went home intending to broach the subject with mom, not sure how I was going to sell buying a Miata as an extra extra car.  Before talking to her, I went on Kelly Blue Book to see what Fiona was worth.  Turns out it is worth $15,300.00 to $16,300.00 whereas I owe $13,300.00 on it.  This gave me more ammo to convince mom.  I figured if I could sell Fiona for enough to pay it off, plus the money needed to buy the Miata, I’d be out from under $450.00 a month in car payment plus whatever I’m paying in full coverage insurance.  This was how it went with mom… Me: “Blah, blah, blah, no car payment, lower insurance, blah, blah, blah.”  Mom: “Meh, whatever.  I’m not against it.”  So I asked John’s opinion Saturday and was not talked down from that limb.  The deciding factor was going to be “How much will Car Max offer me for Fiona?”  So, after we piddled with Scooby Two and John’s car for a bit, and rolled the Chickenhawk around front, and whatever else we did at the shop, and went to lunch, I went to Car Max.  I blew about an hour waiting for them to appraise the car and when she came back with an offer of $11,000.00 I walked away.  I called Gregg and told him I was not comfortable asking mom for the money to buy the Miata and then sitting on Fiona until it sells.  He put the car up for sale I believe.  On the way home from Car Max, after stopping at Blood Bath & Beyond for a 7.62x39 Saiga magazine and forty rounds of 7.62x39 ammo, I realized what a mistake getting rid of Fiona would have been.  The skinny pedal on the far right, the “Asshole Pedal” if you will, is something I don’t want to give up after all.  That car in sixth gear rolls into the power and just GOES from 60 through 100 like a stroll in the park.  Yeah, the shifter is klunky and the 5-6 shift is awkward, but… whew!  It is quite a car.  Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that it kinda, sorta, if you squint just right, looks similar to an Aston Martin.  Not to toot my own horn, mainly because it was some little Korean stylist who designed it, but it is a pretty sweet looking ride.  So, with dreams of being a Miata guy quashed, I settled in for the hoon home.  There I loaded the new 7.62x39 magazine with ammo and stuck it in the magazine well of the Saiga.  So at that point both the Saiga and the Tavor were par-loaded waiting for the actions to be cycled to charge the weapons.  Sunday I decided to have a look at the SKS’s trigger again.  After messing with it the other day, it consistently required two trigger pulls to make the hammer fall.  I decided to try shortening the pull-rod from the trigger.  This did the trick.  The thing acts just like it did originally when I installed the SGW bullpup stock.  I was quite the pleased.  Next I decided to do something kind of stupid.  I took two stripper clips of 7.62x39 ammo and charged the magazine.  Next came the stupid part, with the safety ON I tried to manually cycle the ammo through the gun.  No, I didn’t have a negligent discharge, that is not where this story is going.  Where it is going is that the Chinese twenty-round magazine doesn’t work.  It would cycle about four or five rounds and then… nothing.  The rounds wouldn’t feed and were actually loose in the magazine.  Eventually I fingered out what was going on.  If a round was too far back in the magazine, it would hang on the internal portion of the magazine leaving the rounds above it flopping about.  I ciphered and figgered on it for a while and finally said, “Fuck it!” and swapped the factory ten-round magazine back in.  That fed all the rounds perfectly.  I’m not too upset about it because the twenty-round magazine DID interfere with my grip and rubbed on my wrist.  It probably would have been uncomfortable after a while of shooting it that way.  So, once I was happy with the gun, I loaded up the ten rounds of new 7.62x39 ammo left over from loading the 7.62x39 Saiga and locked the gun away with the others.  Now, all of my “Assault Weapons” are par-loaded ready to be racked and brought to bear on home invaders, zombies, or whatever may attempt to get at me… when I’m at home.  Sort of thing.