2/25/15

Well, I would have gone to the shop to install the voltage regulator on Scooby Two Saturday but it wouldn’t start.  I could have jumped it off but for some reason just didn’t.  With winter weather forecast for Sunday I decided that I would do it after lunch.  Yeah, it was raining after lunch so I didn’t.  That was either a big mistake or just a, “Meh, whatayagonnado?”  Monday morning it was icy… like “Hmm, I can’t get out of the driveway today,” icy.  I gave passing thought to trying to jump-start Scooby Two but blew it off and hopped in Fiona.  I tried to go to work but I literally could not get Fiona up the hill in front of the house.  Hell, it was all I could do to get it back up the driveway to re-park!  In fact, the car sat half the day all catty-whompus in the middle of the drive.  Eventually, when I gave it one more attempt to go to work around 1100h, I got the car parked properly… after not being able to get up the hill again.  By 1500h I decided that I wasn’t going anywhere and changed into comfy clothes and settled in for some marathon “How It’s Made” on the Science Channel.  Oh, and I napped a lot.  Tuesday morning wasn’t too bad.  I got up early again and was able to get out of the neighborhood finally.  The roads were not bad but I didn’t take any chances.  I ran both stop signs at Chapin road but got stopped by the traffic light at Hwy 80… or what the hell ever they are calling that fucking road today.  I mean seriously, they change the name of that fucking spur of asphalt more often than I change my mind on Datsun stuff!  But I digress.  Once up onto the freeway it was smooth sail… WHOA!  TANK SLAPPER!  I was doing about 40 in 4^th gear, keeping it nice and smooth, running true when the ass-end started to step out.  A few degrees of counter-steer and the car shifted into the center lane.  Fortunately no one was next to me.  The tires bit on clear pavement and straightened out… for about a quarter mile when it stepped out again.  More counter-steer and it caught again.  After those two sphincter-flexers, I kept it at 40 but went up to 5^th gear to reduce the torque at the wheels.  The rest of the drive was uneventful.  Going home was pretty normal.  This morning I was expecting snow on the ground… it was raining.  As soon as I walked out the front door however, it started to sleet.  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I yelled at the sky.  I got no reply except for more sleet.  By the time I got to work the sleet turned into snow.  Now, I hesitate to call those things “flakes” because they were more like… well, I don’t know exactly what they were like.  All I know is they were so big that I could feel them hitting me through the leather jacket!  We got a little accumulation but by 1030h the sun was out and it was looking like nothing had ever happened.  So, the whole reason for me having Scooby Two, besides it being given to me, was to spare Fiona from wintry weather driving… and it failed that task miserably.  (Slow clap) Way to go Scooby Two, way to go.  So, there’s THAT going on.  Oh, I just remembered why I didn’t work on Scooby Two Saturday afternoon.  I decided to take the Saiga 12 to the range to burn up some ammo and make sure it was reliable.  I waited in line for a bit and was finally allowed into the range.  I loaded up all four 5-round magazines and the 8-round mag.  I sent a target out and racked one into the chamber.  Line up the sights, squeeze the trigger and… nothing.  Damn that safety!  I flicked off the safety and tried again.  BOOM!  Flutter, flutter (that’s the target by the way).  “Nice,” I thought, and lined up the sights for another shot.  Squeeze the trigger and… nothing.  “Ok,” I said to myself, “it ain’t the safety this time!”  I dropped the magazine and racked the action.  Sure enough, it hadn’t even tried to eject the spent shell.  I was just about to get pissed off when I remembered that I have an adjustable gas plug and that it was set on the absolute minimum level.  I adjusted it out one click and reloaded.  BOOM!  Flutter, flutter.  I smiled and went for a third shot.  Ok, I’m not going to go for the drama this time.  It didn’t cycle again.  I opened the gas system up one more click and tried again.  BOOM!  Flutter, flutter.  BOOM!  Flutter flutter.  “AW HELLS YEAH!” I said to myself.  I emptied the rest of the magazines and decided that I’d had enough.  I’m happy with the way the gun runs buckshot.  I stopped at Academy and bought fifty rounds of ammo to replace the 28 I’d shot and then went home to clean the gun.  Then, in a monumental case of dumbassery, I started looking at accessories for the Tavor online.  I found a neat little rail system for it and was just about to not buy it when I watched a video about it.  Apparently with this rail system, you don’t need to remove it or the optics to remove the barrel from the gun.  I’d really like to be able to clean this thing better so I was sold.  I ordered it… and the little tool for removing the barrel… and four more 40-round magazines for it.  The magazines are for… well, you see it’s like this… I have a compulsion to fill empty pockets.  There are five magazine pockets on the outside of the range bag for the Tavor.  I couldn’t let them sit empty.  I filled the pockets on the Saiga 12’s bag with magazines, I must fill this bag’s pockets.  I must… seriously, I MUST!  Anyhoo, I had a look at the one 40-round magazine I already had and it fits perfectly… so I bought four more.  Bah!  Like I need to ‘splain myself to you!  Well, now the folks at work are asking me to do… work, so I guess I’ll go do that.  Have a day.