12/3/14

Well, so much has happened since we last “spoke” that I’m not sure where to start.  I guess I will pick up, kind of, where I left off.  On Friday after Thanksgiving, I went to Gander Mountain and bought the Tapco “tacticool” stock for the 10/22 Takedown rifle.  I installed it that afternoon and am quite happy with it.  I had to rearrange the two gun cabinets to make everything fit but it is all in there.  I can also access all of the defensive guns without having to move anything out of the way.  See, before the Mosin Nagant was in front of everything in the black cabinet and had to be moved out to get to anything on the shelf.  Now I have it, the Mosin Nagant, in the green cabinet and… well, it all fits and the only guns blocked by other guns are “second string” players… so to speak.  Anyhoo, with the guns taken care of, for the time being, I started thinking about cars.  I realized that last Friday was officially fifty weeks until I turn fifty.  It was time to get to work on the Chickenhawk.  Saturday morning John and I backed Scooby Two out and rolled the Chickenhawk in to the shop.  Off came the hood and then I got to work removing the windshield.  John tucked in to removing the door glass.  With the windshield out, I got to work on the back glass.  I had to stop and take out the side glass to be able to push out the back.  With all the glass out, John attacked the removal of the fenders while I began unwiring.  I removed the seats and dash while John took out the taillights.  The car is just about stripped to a bare shell.  I’m both pleased and anxious.  There is a lot of work to do but we have made a righteous start at it.  I plan to go to a couple automotive paint suppliers to get some paint chips so we can make a final decision on the color.  Mom and John are for solid purple, which I am not against, but I still like the Chickenhawk motif with yellow on top and purple on the sides.  I’m going to vocally keep that thought alive, but I’m pretty sure we’re going to wind up all purple.  We’ll see.  While working on the tear-down, I got a call from Gregg.  He is in a financial scrape and wants to sell his Saiga 12.  I have agreed to buy it simply because I want it and so I can say, “Oh yeah, I’ve got one of those.”  I also had on hand many of the parts necessary to convert it from a Monte Carlo stock to an AK style pistol grip setup.  When I agreed to buy it, I went online and bought the rest of the bits I’d need.  So, there’s THAT going on.  Sunday I noticed a bunch of cars across the street at the Andrijeski’s and Danny was outside.  As I was walking across the street, he went in to get his “little sister” Tina so she could fill out the paperwork for the replacement title.  He came back out with this middle-aged woman!  “Oh, right.” I thought, “Danny and I are almost fifty which makes Tina forty seven or forty eight.  Oops, my bad.”  She filled out the form and I thanked her.  It wasn’t until I started to mail it in that I realized they want a copy of the owner’s driver’s license as well.  I shot her a text and she’s going to get that to me some time.  Hopefully the weather will hold off until I get the title in hand and can drive the car.  We’ll see.  Well, tomorrow is my last day before I go on vacation for two weeks so I’m not sure how many more posts y’all will get this year.  I’m sure I will be pretty bored 12/22, 12/23, 12/26, 12/29, and 12/30 when I come back to work so I suppose a rant or two is possible.