Water Tight

We start with finding the leak.

My gun and tank damaged ears pin-pointed it within a couple inches. At least as good at the $250 acoustic leak detector.

Let the destruction begin!

This is the leak:

Let the repairs begin!

And fill the hole...  I've elected to do the concrete myself.

Thanks to Friend's Plumbing for honest work in a timely manner.  It's sad you have to point that out.

Now... the battle to get credit from the county on the sewer charges on water that didn't go into the sewer!

Judging From The Plumber's Comments

I know who my builder was in 1969...

Ammination

This sort of stuff fascinates me.

I want to do more research on that turbine now, it seems like at the pressures and temperatures the steam would be wet at that point...  That's not good for turbines.

On Mint Juleps

How the heck is it that I have Akavit in this house but not a drop of bourbon?

Something unamerican about that.

And I can't make a mint-julep without bourbon.

Fortunate

While I complain about my water and sewer problems...

I must also reflect that I am extremely fortunate that I have the friends that I do.

We were short about $1,000 of what this is going to cost to fix and when we put out our call for help, help came!

Thank you to all!

Still Think It's About The Weather?

Never, EVER, forget it's InterGOVERNMENTAL Panel on Climate Change.

Read up.

All those links I got sent just backed the lie.

An obvious lie.

A lie they didn't even bother to conceal.

A lie you believed because it was simple and easy to find a thousand mainstream media articles repeating the lie.

This is what I meant when I said they were lying and in cahoots with one another.  It's the media's agenda too.

Being A Vegetarian Is Child Abuse!

Well, it makes your descendants less likely to survive anyways.

Never mind the trauma being denied bacon, look what that does to to Moslems.

This study puts paid to the idea that we evolved to be vegetarians.

Not that it was ever really taken seriously since our digestive system is clearly evolved for an omnivorous diet.

I Think I've Found It

You can hear the water running with your ear close to the washer shut-offs in the garage.

Looks like someone needs to break through some concrete and replace some copper.

I wonder if I can save some money by telling them to start ripping things apart without the acoustic leak detection step.

Under The Slab

The $700 spent today got the sewer fixed and the outside isolated from the inside.

The leak is under the slab, on the cold side of things.

$800 more for leak detection, demolition, repair and replacement.

Fuck.  Me.  Running.

Still Less Offensive

Watch this:



This is still less offensive to the original material than The Hobbit films.

That says something.

Loudly.

Why My Sewer Repair Isn't A Cheap Trip To Home Depot

Sendarus in comments made a reasonable observation.  I replied thus:

That there is orangeburg pipe. The only material that's harder to patch is clay.

There's a couple of reasons to bring in a pro.

First is the assholes at code enforcement. There's a lavish, daily, fine for dumping sewage outside the sanitary sewer system. When I am fixing it, I am liable. If the plumber is fixing it, it's "under repair" and thus no fine.

Second is that material really calls for the specialty knowledge of someone who does this for a living. It needs to be rebedded correctly or you're getting a collapse cascading from the repair.

If I had found iron or PVC under there I'd have risked the fine and done it myself!

Third, it appears that my sewer was never actually vetted by the county when my house and the adjacent house to the south were added to the county system. The neighbors pulled a DIY. Since I purchased the house in good faith, I am not liable for the fines of an out of spec system, but if I attempt to fix it myself I'm liable for bringing up to code. Hiring a plumber retains my grandfathering.

Bringing it to code means replacing the whole run.  When the house was built in 1969, it was on a septic tank.  That tank is in the middle of the back yard.

When the conspiracy of neighbors was given the option to connect to the county sanitary sewer system some time in the '70's they opted to do it themselves.

My drain runs from the middle of the back of the house, to the middle of the back yard, two 45˚ bends to run south, two 45˚ bends to get it lined up to run between the houses and out to the sewer.

In theory, I could dig it all up myself and put in new.  In practice, I have to have a plumber come out and sign off on the work and an inspection costs about the same as just having them do the work while I sit on the porch and sip a mint-julep.  That's not quite right.  An inspection is cheaper, by itself.  Me buying materials and tools plus an inspection ends up being more.  Never mind that it would take me days to it instead of hours.

Resistance

Willard left the revolver in this post here so I could take pics and make that post.

Today I demanded he take it home before I grew too attached to it and refused to let him have it back.

I made my Will roll.

Or failed my Will roll against Honesty.

Either way...

How Much Would You Pay

Though repairing this break is not wholly recommended by the plumber, they'd prefer to replace the entire line.

But wait!  There's more!

We STILL haven't begun the search for the water line that's leaking.

More Good News

I probed around a bit figuring that a leaky feed from the meter to the house would leave the ground good and soggy.

I found a small depression near the AC compressor and it seemed moister than the surrounding ground.

So I started digging.

As soon as I broke through the roots the dirt fell away.

Down into the empty chamber left from our sewer line having a 12" gap in it!

Well, but if it doesn't rain, it pours.

Joys of joys.

The Joys Of Home Ownership

Opened the water bill.

It's up from $65 to $107.

From 18 TGAL to 28 TGAL.

With everything off inside the house, the meter still spins.

With the cut-off at the house off, the meter still spins.

There's a leak between the meter and the house.

FUCK.

FUCK FUCK FUCK!

The tip jar would help a ton here.  I have no idea what this is going to cost.

Very Clever But...

There's an article saying the largest number you can represent with three digits is 9^9^9 which tallies up to:

196,627,050,475,553,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

or

1.96627050475553x10^77

Which is very clever, except...

The asshole is making an assumption, just like the teacher he's castigating.

The teacher's defense of the answer being 999 was that exponents had not yet been taught.

OK, Mr Clever.

Will your defense be that we haven't covered alternate bases?

Because in hexadecimal the largest number is f^f^f.

That's 4.17381588438865x10^264.  That's a lot bigger, isn't it?

In Octal the largest is 7^7^7.

That's  2.56923577521059x10^41.  That's a lot smaller, isn't it?

So really the largest number we can express in three digits is undefinable unless we either make assumptions or give definitions.

Hurray!  Everyone gets to be right, and wrong.

Guess what else you accomplished by forcing the answer to be 9^9^9 for all of those students who had not learned exponents and answered 999.  You've taught them it doesn't matter if they bother to learn because someone can come along later and edit their scores.

You're haven't taught them to question authority, they aren't old enough to understand what that means.  You've taught them that some asshole parent can come along later and fuck them.  You've taught them that doing well doesn't matter because you couldn't take that your special snowflake daughter wasn't paying attention to the lesson being taught and, like you, gave a too clever answer.

Part of learning is to determine the answer being called for, not just an answer that fits the criteria.  Your daughter had better enjoy being a spinster professor of math, because you've put her on the track to be VERY VERY alone and isolated.

Conetta M7

Marv's M7 is a Conetta.

Conetta did things a little different from everyone else...

I'm told that Conettas are among the harder to find variations of the M7.  I got this one for Marv as a gift (because he didn't have a bayonet at all) and got it from ebay for like $35 because it had a cracked scabbard (he's replaced the body as you can see here).  Intact M7 and M8A1 combinations were running about $75 so this seemed a good deal.  It turned out to be a great deal because the Conetta name was running $100 for just the M7 at the time.  There's one on GunBroker at the time of posting, no reserve, starting at $120 with a $225 buy-it-now.

And I gave it away...

Reformation

I've read a couple places that "Islam needs a reformation."

Sadly, I think what we're seeing is the reformation.

In the past, one had to go through the local Imam to find out about The Hadiths.

Now one can read them for oneself online.

The peaceful interpretations of decades of Imams is in conflict with the literal written words.

Check Your Calendar

There's always one idiot who ruins it for everyone. Check when you're scheduled to be that idiot.

Thanks to www.oglaf.com for that line!  (Absolutely and UTTERLY NOT safe for work!!!!)

Modern Sacrilige

If one were writing the story of Jesus' resurrection today you'd have to include a passage that distinguishes Him from a zombie.

Can you imagine?

Think God would make good his promise to destroy the earth with fire after we headshoot The Savior for being a zombie?

Of course the first thing a modern Jesus would say after rising from His tomb would be "Braaaaaaaaains!  Wait!  Just kidding, you guys should have seen your faces!"

Make The Day More Surreal

If someone asks you if you're a cop, just reply, "Not anymore; not after what I did to all those kids."

Then look around nervously and leave quickly.

Homophone

Spell checkers are great and all...

But they won't tell you that you've used a homophone incorrectly.

Weather and whether for example...

Sometimes they will "helpfully" correct your spelling to the wrong homophone though!

Akavit!

Even if Sound Spirits spells it like a Norwegian.

Do you like caraway?  Licorice?  Akavit is your drink!

Shown with an appropriately Nordic rifle.  The Finns like them some akavit too.

Give it a try!

Bay Nets

RBRD is the most debilitating form.

I was perfectly happy with my General Cutlery M7...

Then I discovered that it's not the correct era for my M16 (R604) clone!

So I got a Bayer Ord Company M7...

That's too tight a fit on the R604 and M16A2 clones.  It's a perfect, rattle free, fit on the others though.

So today I got a Columbus Milpar M7!

Rattle free fit on the R604, slightly loose on the others except the M16A2 clone.  It only seems to like the GenGut and the M9 bayonet I have.

L to R: Charlotte (Milpar M7), Tabitha (BOC M7), Alice (Buck M9), Kaylee (GenCut M7).

 I think I need me a USMC Ontario OKC-3S bayonet for Dottie.

Renew! Renew!

Carousel begins...

Got a shiny new Concealed Weapon or Firearm License from the "local" regional office of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services today.

If you go to the regional office, the photo and notarization are included in your renewal fee.  You lose travel time and gas instead.

I've had worse drives... ;)

It honestly felt strange getting my card the same day I wrote the check.

Admin

Two things on comments.

First, for some reason lots of comments are double-tapping.  I delete the second of the two when I find a double just to keep the comment area neat and tidy.  I like the contrast to my actual disorderly and sloppy posts.

If there's a double with more material in the second comment, I'll delete the earlier one instead.

Second, there IS a comment policy here and it's been in effect for years.  If you cannot figure out where your comment went, you broke that policy and I deleted it.  Repeat offenders get the spam trap.

Just Imagine

Sure enough if you look to be offended, everything will appear to be offensive.

I cannot but think that the time would be better spent on other things.  Nearly any other thing.

Zulu!

I love how he interposes scenes from Zulu Dawn in his run-up...

Honest Wear

Nothing wrong with this gun, right?

Well, when you carry, your pistol accumulates little scars.  It sets it apart from a safe queen.  Because I've transitioned to carrying an M&P 9, this gun is effectively retired from carry.  If a miracle would occur, and open carry is passed in Florida, this will be the gun I tote the first time to break the novelty of the situation.

A holster that would fully protect it from these little scrapes and dings would also be extremely cumbersome to draw from in a hurry.  Everything is a compromise.

First Aid And Your Battlesuit

Reading "The Martian" and pondering...

The reason he gets stranded is a metal rod penetrates his suit, him, and kills his biomedical monitoring stuff.

He's saved by the blind luck that the rod didn't hit anything really vital inside him and the seeping from the wound sealed the hole.  To get back into his habitat he had to remove that rod, then slap a patch on the suit, then walk it off.

But what if...

Science fiction games are a lot more dynamic than the opening scene of "The Martian" (and let's be honest, we're sick of saving private doctor mission specialist Maaaaaaaaatt DAYMON!).

So we'll stop talking about him.

Let's say it's Traveller and you're in your battlesuit and you take a torso hit that penetrates while in zero-G and vacuum.  This could really redefine the term "sucking chest wound".

What now?

Apply pressure to the wound?

Through a rigid chest plate that can stop a .50 BMG round (even AP) dead in its tracks.  It's even going to stop a single hit from a Vulcan cannon firing HE!!

Because of the environment, you cannot remove the victim from their suit.

What can you do?  Zeroth aid would be to apply a suit patch and hope they can hang on until you can get them to the air-side of an airlock.

We have to consider that it's not 2016 in your typical science fiction universe.  There's ideas that are just concepts to us, that are everyday and reliable tech to them.

First things first, a military battlesuit is going to have some form of self sealing in the event of a puncture.  We're only going to be applying external patches to large penetrations, and there might not be time considering the 1 bar differential between inside and outside that suit.

Let's assume that the suit's leak is sealed.  What if the suit itself can apply first aid?  What if there's a redundant array of bladders that can expand and put pressure where it's needed?  The computers at even (GURPS 4e) TL9 are sophisticated enough and Traveller is TL10+.  This same system of bladders can also become a tourniquet for a severed limb and "mouse trousers" to force blood to remain around the organs.

That takes care of the military...

Well, why wouldn't this stuff be part of any working suit?  The risk of puncture is at least as high in an industrial or mining situation.

What about recreational suits?

While skipping about on the moon is less dangerous than a firefight or trying to weld, hard vacuum is still pretty much the most hazardous environment we can picture exposing tourists to and unless The Third Imperium has radically different liability laws than the US and EU, there's going to be some criminal proceedings surrounding renting a stripped down pressure suit to someone without any relevant skills operating it.

However!  It's not going to be an actual pressure suit with 1bar of atmosphere in it, but will be a counterpressure garment.  For normal TL9+ needs, you can apply direct pressure to the wound once the hole is sealed up, just remember that pressure differential between inside the circulatory system and vacuum when you slap a patch on, bleeding is much faster.  According to GURPS 4e Ultratech p 179, these common, everyday suits already have the biomedical monitoring needed to do many first-aid functions, just needs a pack for the auto-injector.

It's something of a gamer cop-out, but First-Aid is a TL skill, so your character will know what to do even if YOU don't.

Repeated Phrase

Ever watch a YouTube review of a gun and start thinking if you took a shot every time they repeated a phrase you'd need your stomach pumped to survive it?

Go find just about any review of a pistol, for example, and count the number of times the presenter says "the handgun".  With rifles it tends to be "the weapon".

It's a bit of writing style I'd read a long time ago, so started noticing its use (and not).

If you've got to repeat yourself, paraphrase it by using synonyms.

In other words, buy a thesaurus, and use it, or risk sounding like a parrot in your delivery!

Vietnam Commemorative 1911

Looking through my newest copy of American Rifleman and I spy an ad for a Vietnam Commemorative 1911 **JUST!!** $2,195 (Just $100 a month for 20 months after your initial $195 deposit to reserve yours today!)  Don't forget the $149 display case!

Operators are, no doubt, standing by.

First of it's a new made Colt 1911.  That means a 1911A1 frame, long trigger and flat mainspring housing.  Not period features for Vietnam.

Secondly it's gaudy enough to be in .38 Super and tucked into the belt of a Mexican Drug Lord.

Frighteningly, it's not the gaudiest Vietnam Commemorative 1911...  that honor goes to This Abomination, at least it has an arched mainspring housing, huh?

We Need To Be Sympathetic

Let's be nice to poor Willard.

Marv and I roped him into making his own Freedom 15 plastic AR lower.

He vows revenge on us for making him have another AR lower.

In safety orange (10 drops orange, 4 drops yellow) because you NEED to be able to see a survival rifle on a glacier from a helicopter.

Now he needs a LPK, orange furniture and an upper (the price of which is the real reason he's mad at us).

Speaking Of Inflation...

Economists like to say that 3% annual inflation is good.

What that means is something that costs $1.00 today will cost $1.03 next year.

What most people don't notice is how fast that builds up.

Year 0: $1.00
Year 1: $1.03
Year 2: $1.06
Year 3: $1.09
Year 4: $1.13
Year 5: $1.16
Year 6: $1.19
Year 7: $1.23
Year 8: $1.27
Year 9: $1.30
Year 10: $1.34

So in ten years, things are 34.3916379% more expensive, or your dollar now has the buying power of 74.4¢ compared to where you started.

Let that 3% inflation run for 20 years...

Now it takes $1.81 to buy what used to cost a dollar.  Our buck is now worth 55.4¢.

30 years...

$2.43 to get what a buck used to get and 8 bits are now worth less than 4 bits (41.2¢).

$3.26 to buy a dollar's worth of goods 40 years on bringing the value of our greenback down to a mere 30.7¢.

Like Looking Through A Straw

While I am constantly on the hunt for less expensive things, Marv is positively cheap by comparison.

It took a lot of research and reading to get me OK with the idea that Primary Arms was worth risking some money on and "just" paying $350 for their scope and I paid the big bucks way back for an Aimpoint M4s ($740 at the time).

Marv has yet to spend more than $150 on any optic, and most of the time far less.

His most expensive one is a SIG CP1 prismatic three power.

Compared to the Primary Arms 3x I put on Harvey's rifle it's like looking through a soda straw and the eye relief?  There's ONE spot where you can see down the thing.  I've never seen a scope with such narrowly constrained focus.

His $50 Centerpoint Quick-Aim is also suffering from small-tube-syndrome.

I get used to being able to see with the larger tubes in my more expensive glass and I get so I can't stand shooting Marv's guns.  I also get to be snobby and claim it's his "thriftiness" that makes him a worse shot than me (rather than it being lack of practice).

I've also noticed it on FuzzyGeff's guns.  The new Vortex on his Weatherby has a MUCH better field of view and is easier to get your eye where you can see than the Nichols it used to wear.

The Vortex Crossfire II 4-12x44 was about $200.  In 1994 that Nichols Bullet 3-9x40 was $150; which is just over $240 in today's dollars.

To Those Out There Without Hope

I want to introduce you to two words.

Per Curiam.

Never give up!

Blueberry Muffin

Marv's Freedom 15 is coming along.

The receiver extension doesn't cover the buffer retainer, so there's no buffer at all in there yet.

He's planning on either cutting a section off an old commercial stock and making a collar to capture the detent, or drilling a hole across the back like on a CAV15.

Purple!

It's not just The Boy, I rather like purple too.

It IS An Old Pistol After All

OK, maybe it's not THAT old of a pistol...

Unconditional

Had another epiphany.

One side of the political divide does not care whom is doing something if they don't want it done.

The other side doesn't care if something is done as long as their guy is doing it.

I've also noticed that this is not dependent on the party.  Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of the "right person" problem.

The divide is between The People and the entrenched government more than it's between the two parties more often than not.

While we're on the "right person" topic...  If your political philosophy hinges on the "right person" being in charge, it's not just doomed, it's fucked.

Socialism, in all its forms, has not found that right person even once in over 100 years.  But it's a standing monument to the Hell that can be summoned if the wrong people get hold of the controls once the consolidation and centralization of power demanded by socialism is obtained.

By this same rationale, big L libertarianism fails.  For it to succeed, EVERYONE must be the right person.  I am not sure you have a viable gene pool left over after everyone who can't live under the Big L is eliminated somehow.

The trick, as always, is to make a government that's big enough to defend the liberties of the citizens from each other; yet small enough to not be a burden on those same liberties (then keep it that way).

I Feared This

When I started collecting .25's, part of the allure was that "all of them were cheap!"

It turns out that not all .25 ACP guns are cheap.  But until today, all have been within the reach of prudent scrimping.



Well, fudge.  And I thought a Walther Number 9 was going to be the expensive crown jewel of a .25 Collection.

Yet More Consensus

Not that he's still reading here...

Linky

I'll say it bluntly.

Using the IPCC's science on climate change is akin to using the scientific studies that proved that blacks should remain subjugated.

Maybe Pick Another Title

A reason that I am creeped out by some strains of Libertarianism is their frequent aspirations towards anarchism.

I remember that anarchists were a spur of socialism once upon a time.  Even as recently as when punk-rock was new.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

There's an anti-government, therefore anti-cop slant to this blog.

Cops are part of the government, so when I bitch about the aspect of government that's in their sphere, I am bitching about cops too.

Unlike a good many people who are anti-cop, I am not opposed to the idea of the police.

I like the idea of cops.  It's just that our governments, laws and regulations are so out of whack that it's easy to start blaming the police themselves for the shit sandwich we're all eating.

Last Tuesday, the Pasco and Pinellas County Sheriff's departments got to do good old fashioned peace officer, help someone in need work.

I imagine the kind of work that lots of officers, deputies and troopers crave:

While I was in Seattle, one of the staff from The Boy's school volunteered to hang with him after school until Harvey got home from work (that way she could save her paid time off).

On Tuesday, The Boy convinced the volunteer that since, "Mommy never more than ten minute late!" that it would be OK for the volunteer to leave at the normal time even though Harvey wasn't actually home yet.

He's OK to be alone for short periods, even a couple hours, so a theoretical ten minutes is machts nichts.

Mommy was twenty minutes late.

She got home and there's no Boy.  Front door was ajar.

The Boy has been known to take walks around the block, so she called him.

A call to his cell phone gets a connection and hang up.

A call back gets the someone-has-shut-off-the-phone-straight-to-voice-mail.

NOW she can panic!

Calls go out to everyone whom he might want to visit.  They station someone at that destination and send someone along a route to our house searching.

No sign.

911 call.

"At least 12 deputies," show up, ask their questions and begin their search.  Our proximity to the next county causes them to be called in as well.

The Boy turns up at a Wal Mart seven miles away.  Two of our friends work there, so he decided that he wanted to see them.

The people at Wal Mart got him to turn on his phone and one of our friend's daughters was serially dialing his phone hoping for a connection.  She got him on the phone and asked where he was, "Me at <friends> Wal Mart!"

This information is relayed to the deputies stationed at our house, then to the next county, then they hauled ass to the store to collect him.

Then they collected him and sped him home.

HUZZAH!

Ultimately, our social network actually found him, but credit is due to the departments not equivocating, stalling or delaying their search.  Too many retarded kids up and vanish because some department policy about missing people means there's a mandatory minimum time before they can start looking.

Double kudos to Pinellas County for telling the nice folks at Wal Mart to just hang out with him out front instead of attempting to confine him in the offices.  This "loose tether" approach is the appropriate way to treat people like The Boy.

Cower In Fear

Of the power of the Raven Arms MP-25.

The first thing we learn at the range is the sights are off.  It shoots 2-3" to the left at 5 yards.

We also learn that my glasses prescription is teh suxxor with this gun.  I'd have been better off using normal non-prescription safety glasses.

But it doesn't take a lot of effort to aim a little high and a little right.

If you should ever see a pig fly, shoot it in the eye.  My luck is as blind as this pig...

In the top row...  Three shots into the first two ducks, reload, second two.

It digested all 50 rounds of Winchester White Box 50gr ball without a single malfunction.  That actually surprised me.  A friend has an example of the very-closely-related Jennings J22 which has trouble going through two magazines without a stoppage of some kind; so expectations were low.

Once again, thanks to generous reader DoninSacto1!!!

Can You Read Hebrew?

We've this box of .38 S&W with this label taped onto it.

UPDATE

Danibal Smith over at the Jewish Marksmanship Facebook page replied:

"****For revolvers -- regular -- bullet cast -- series/batch ק 11-79. **** Given that these are .38 S&W cartridges, it seems the label is there to indicate lead-projectile revolver rounds...perhaps reloads, given the label says "regular" but the Remington box beneath says "high velocity". Hoping this helps!"

Bottlenecked

Did you know that .38 Special is a bottleneck cartridge?

No, not really.

.38 S&W on the left, fired .38 Special case in the center and an unfired .38 Special on the right.

How did this happen?

The gun that fired them started out life as a S&W Model 11 (although I don't think it was called a model 11 back then) chambered in .38 S&W. (Thanks Mr Watters)  Because .38 S&W was uncommon after WW2, quite a few were rechambered for .38 Special.

But the modifications didn't stop at the cylinder...

The barrel is reprofiled in addition to being shortened.  I think it was to eliminate the markings that would now read "H & WESSON".

Wait... shouldn't there be a logo here?

Are there any markings left?  Well, there's the serial number (of course).  "MADE IN USA" survived.

Under the barrel we have:

Under the frame there's:

Then there's the cylinder:

England apparently proofed each chamber individually since there's six crowns and "BNP" on it.

The serial number is 5761xx, no 'V' prefix.

It seems clear it's a Lend-Lease gun though.

I sometimes think that people tear into their guns without regards to the needs of future collectors!

Willard believes that this is a gunsmithing school project gun.  It could very well be.  At one time Model 10's (and 11's!) were so common and cheap that one could buy one just to mess around with without worrying too much about the loss of ruining one.

Guns in uncommon calibers that could be converted to more common calibers probably got more than their fair share of this kind of tinkering.

It's entirely possible that it started out as bad as The ElectrolySmith.