Then turning to a half inch of ice.

Then some more rain.

Then snow, to make the load on the trees and powerlines greater as it sticks to the wet ice.

Now wind. Ice is falling from the trees, along with small branches.

Oughta be interestin’ later.
I pity the power line guys. (never yet seen a girl lineman)
I think they’re gonna be busy this afternoon and evening.

Y’know, I don’t see any of these folks reducing their lifestyle, living at the Poverty level, giving all of their hard earned money and possessions away,….not one. They all take their pay, their income, and live well. Make no mistake, I don’t begrudge them the fruits of their success, be it from hard work or from inheritance (which is the hard work and success of other before them). Sometimes, a level of success comes from simply not making bad choices…from an eye to the future, from impulse control. From making GOOD choices.

But failure to realize that their money came from SOMEONE’s hard work, luck, or skill is stupidity….

And if they AREN’T living at the level of those they claim to want to help, those that they wish to take from other successful people to “level the playing field” then they are hypocrites.

And we should call ’em out for their hypocrisy.

“For the Students”.
“For Better Education”.

Sure.

One interviewed teacher:
“I have a Masters degree, and I never expected to be at this position at this point in my life…I deserve more”.
Then get a different job, dearie. A Masters degree to teach elementary school? High school?

The inevitable Glock vs 1911 came up (no surprise there!) during one of the breaks. (For the record, I carry 1911 style pistols. Don’t like GLOCK, but they are good pistols that do what they are supposed to do:..go “Bang” when the Bang Switch is squeezed and hit where they aim. I don’t like the Safe Action trigger….my choice. Doesn’t mean GLOCK are bad firearms, just not my preference.)

“You can take a dozen GLOCK pistols and field strip them and put all the parts in a pile and then stir them up and reassemble a dozen GLOCK pistols from random parts in the pile and end up with a dozen working GLOCKs.”

True.

“you can’t do that with 1911’s, they have to be hand fitted”.

I asked if they really thought that, say, Springfield Armory hand-fitted their production 1911 pistols at a an MSRP of $900 or so? Seriously?

No, they assemble them from bins of parts…..then test fire them and put them in a box with a manual, just like GLOCK.

I also pointed out that when GI 1911’s are rearsenaled, the same process happens. Stripped into parts, inspected, and then reassembled from bins and racks of parts. And, if the parts are in Spec, then the pistols work as designed.

One cannot take parts from different specifications of firearms and do this. You can’t mix Gen 1, Gen 2 and Gen 3 and 4 GLOCK parts and reassemble them randomly into working pistols, same way one cannot take parts from 1911 pistols from different manufacturers (and therefore slightly different dimensions) and end up with working pistols.  1911 describes a TYPE of action in a pistol, not pistols made to the same specifications by different manufacturers (Wartime military production notwithstanding). Different brands have different dimensions, just as different series of GLOCK pistols have different dimensions.

But the same brand and same model of production 1911 style pistols? Yes, yes you can.

(ETA: Please, this was not meant to start a “1911 vs Glock” fight in the comments.)

But I are now an NRA certified Range Safety Officer. (Or I will be once the paperwork and NRA fees are paid)

This way, the range has more than one NRA trained RSO.

It was an interesting class. I knew most of it, but details matter, and I learned a bit that was good. 

But the weather wasn’t cooperating. Clouds, low ceiling, ice, snow. T he forecast changed hourly, it seemed, and trying to get the plane to the shop for the appointment was gonna be difficult due to weather.
But Friday was supposed to be clear.
It was.
With winds out of the west at 25 gusting 38. ceilings broken at 3000. Fun.
So, at the end of the day, when winds were down to 18 gusting 30, I preflighted and took off for the 35 mile flight to the airport where the avionics shop is located.

Nice. At 3500 feet the winds were 50+ knots. at first it was not too turbulent, so I enjoyed ground speeds of 170 knots. But shortly I had to reduce to Va (and then to less than that for a while) to prevent damage due to turbulence.
Approach vectored me to the base entry and then final was…..fun.
Turbulence on the descent and lots of side vector. Winds were 18 gusting 28 10 degrees off the runway centerline. I did a faster approach with only 10 degrees of flaps.Dancing on the rudder all the way down. Smooth touchdown and then I had to get progressive taxi instructions from Ground to find my way.
Was fun taxiing too, what with the gusty (and high) winds. But the plane is in the shop in time for it’s appointment.

So I’m not flying for about a week while they tear into the panel and install an ADS-B transponder.

Toady I am at an NRA Range Officer course.

Last week: -25F to plus 28F in less than 24 hours.

Today, +50F to +4F in 12 hours.

One would think that concrete and stucco and brick would just spall and crumble.

Rather, I am discussing the DNC response to the SOTU by Stacy Abrams.

Nice set of talking points, somewhat divorced from reality and pretty much not a rebuttal, just a bunch of illogical responses and statements containing half truths and slogans. Failed to address much, really.

Sad, it was. Very sad. Almost as if it had been written by N. Pelosi in one of her less-lucid moments….

I would have welcomed a decent response.
But there was none. 

The case, that is, of Jussie Smollett.

So, to recap, Jussie claims he was assaulted by a person who knew he was a gay actor…..at 2 AM when, on a whim, he chose to go out on the coldest (to date) night of the year to get a sandwich and this person who assaulted him knew he was black despite being bundled up head to toe against the cold…Said person or persons attacked him and beat him and put a “noose” around his neck and then poured “a chemical” on him all while telling him that “This is MAGA Country” (which is a term not used by folks that wear “Make America Great Again” hats, but rather by liberals, Hollywood types and journalists (but I repeat myself) who have never met anyone who supports Trump’s agenda). 

But there MAY be a break in the case. It appears that the latest Hollywood news is that actor Liam Neeson had , because of a crime committed against a “friend” of his by a black man, decided to take revenge against all black people and especially against a black man…..

And so here we have it….Hollywood, again, eating it’s own. 

There, I solved the case.

(No, despite rumors, the attack wasn’t really a GRINDR date gone bad and we are sure of that because Jussie won’t let anyone check his phone or cooperate in any fact finding by the police)