Fidel Castro died the other day and I didn’t really have anything to say about it.
What’s to say? The guy played the US wonderfully when he overthrew Batista and got to die somewhat peacefully despite giving the Soviets the opportunity to put nuclear missles closer to the US than some people drive to CostCo. I suspect that Cuban relations will be very different in a year or so.
I should be getting my invite to the Alpha 66 celebratory barbecue any day now…….
Most interesting thing I’ve found so far – complate Magpul’s lower with stock for $150.
That’s worth picking up two or three if you have the coin. No one ever complained about having too many complete lower halves.
Before the election, I wanted to pick up some more Glock happysticks. They are moderately practical for pistol use, but at some point I plan on having a Glock-mag-compatible carbine and I’d like to have some mags on hand for when that day happens. Anyway, the Glock-branded mags are, of course, flawless. They are also, of course, expensive. Magpul is supposed to be coming out with their own version, and based on my experience with their 17-rd mags I have no reason to think they won’t be an excellent alternative to the Glock magazine. But….Magpul is taking their time getting the bloody things on the market. Alternatives are the Scherer (utter junk) brand mags and the Korean (hit-n-miss with an emphasis on ‘miss’) mags. But, nature (and the market) abhor a vacuum. One of my regular reads is Tam’s blog and in it I found this post. Tam shoot’s more in a month than many of us shoot in a year, and I’m not one of those gunnies who gets hung up on who has two x-chromosomes and who doesn’t, so I respect her opinion. If she’s having a good experience with them, that’s enough for me to try a few. So…Palmetto has a sale on the ETS happysticks and I ordered up a few. So…when they get here we’ll see how they run.
Well, sometimes it’s hard to find something to be hankful for, but if you think about, as craptacular as your life may be, it could always be worse.
So..there’s that.
Don’t forget, day after Thanksgiving:
Friday Of Color sales – save your pennies and go nuts on Friday. Now is the time to hedge your bets after a close election. Black Fridays Matter!
Turkey sales – Day after T-Day is the day to lay back a flock of turkeys if your freezer can handle it. Turkey is dang good anytime if the year. Who doesn’t love them some turkey sandwiches???
As I’ve mentioned a few times here, my local Albertson’s grocery (and many other groceries as well) have a little bin in the meat department where the put the stuff that is about to expire and mark it down for a quick sale. I call it ‘Remaindered Meat’. It’s perfectly good, you just have to either use it or freeze it within the next day or so. A few months back, I discovered what I have come to call The Meat Tray:
They take four trays of remaindered meat, bundle it together, and drop the price to a flat twenty bucks per. usually its steak, chicken, pork and then some other random meat. In the image above, the random meat is a package of precooked BBQ ribs. This is pretty much a weeks worth of dinner meat if you plan properly. I usually break the package in half – one half into vacuum sealed bags for the long cryo nap, and the other half goes in my kitchen freezer for immediate usage. Hey, for twenty bucks how can you go wrong?
Check your local grocery store next time youre there…chances are good they do something similar. You may find it all the way at the end of the display case, or you may find it mixed in with the ‘regular’ meats…but it’s worth the effort to find those remaindered meats.
When the apocalypse gets here, I am NOT eating TVP.
Being a survivalist, you tend to ‘go long’ on stuff…a hundred rolls of TP at a time, canned goods by the case, socks by the dozen, etc. On a long enough timeline, all this stuff will get used. Some sooner than others. For example, the canned goods will probably get used up within a year or two, but some things, like the #10 cans of freezedrieds, are meant to never be used. They are a ‘only in case of apocalypse’ sort of thing. Some other items, like the bulk AR mags I bought a few weeks ago, aren’t meant to be used but rather tucked away safely for, probably, at least a decade or two.
Items that are meant to be put into long, long, long-term storage are referred to around these parts as ‘Deep Sleepers’. They are items that are not intended to be used anytime within the foreseeable future. And, honestly, probably not even after that.
Case in point, the recent stash of Magpul AR mags. I have no intention of using them. I have enough mags on hand to handle my needs for quite some time. So, this recent batch of Magpuls are Deep Sleepers. They are there as a ward against a new ban, in case the next civil war breaks out, or some other Very Bad Thing happens.
First thing we do is stuff them away into a clean, solid, ammo can with good seals. They’re arranged carefully and sealed up in the ammo can. Once the can is closed up, I put a couple loops of poly strapping around it. This serves two purposes – first, it makes sure the lid stays closed. Second, it keeps me from sneaking a mag or two out of there when I think “Ah, I’ll just take a couple from the stash and put them back later.” (Trust me…you are your own worst looter.) Once that can is sealed up it gets marked up with the contents and quantity on it..preferably on each side and top so I can see at a glance whats in it. After that, I write the contents on a ‘key tag’ and wire it to the bail on the ammo can. After that, the can gets tucked way back in storage and…byebye, baby…see you in twenty years. Once that’s done, the records (I use Evernote and Excel) are updated. In Evernote, this is tagged as “magazines”,”Deep Sleeper”, “Storage”, “AR”, and “MagPul”. I also make a note that this is an item that does not need to be periodically inspected.
That’s it. Right now, as I think about it, Deep Sleepers include stashes of magazines, clothes, freezedrieds, and a few other things. But, most importantly, I know what I have, how much of it I have, where I have it, and how well it is stored. Peace of mind.
It’s mentioned a time or two in the past, but I thought it might be timely to post a reminder about Sparks31 blog. Pretty much everything you want to know about ‘grid down’ communications, and even some “What to buy if you don’t want a lecture on radio theory and just want a shopping list”. A guy who is on the same page as most of us in terms of mindset, and the technological experience and know-how to be an excellent resource. Go check him out.
And, in case he happens to check his logs to see where his referrals are coming from – Dude! Email me sometime and say hi.
Was playing with some old money today. Notice anything interesting (other than the obvious) about these?
Well, lets look a tad closer:
The $1000 bill was printed after Roosevelt’s little stunt. Notice that the newer bills says nothing about redeeming for gold..only ‘lawful money’. Oh, those crazy liberals!
Anyway, it was interesting to see that little reminder of some weird times. The Metals Pimp tells me that there are still plenty of customers who only buy their gold in ‘colectible’ form because they think that if this sort of thing happens again, Uncle Same will , for some strange reason, use the exact same wording of the orginal Act and exempt collector coins. Really? Does that make any sense at all? I didn’t think so.
Speaking of the Metals Pimp, he dropped off a nice shiny Silver Eagle that he said one of his customers asked him to pass on to me. So, generous benefactor, when the zombies are roaming and the apocalypse is nigh I will be purchasing my lapdances with silver and raise a toast of home-distilled brain-eraser to your generosity. Salut!
Check out this article from the NYT.
This seems, on its face, to be a pretty good example of why there is an electoral college. If the the places that voted for Clinton were geographically separated and condensed into one state, it would be the size of Alaska. So, think about this…49 states would have no say in government since they would all be overridden by one state.
Interesting map. And, yes, I’m in the Montana Archipelago… it’s a college town, whaddya expect.
