Saturday Cleaning

I spent the morning standing at the workbench cleaning the guns we shot the past few weeks. There are worse ways to spend a rainy Saturday morning I suppose. (There are better ways too, like shooting them.) I had planned to clean just one. Then I grabbed another. Then another... Before you know it I was wrist deep in dirty cleaning patches and the aroma of solvent filled the air. It's quite satisfying actually.

Now they are clean, which only means they need to be made dirty again. The smell of Hoppe's #9 will linger on my hands all day. That's okay, it has been rated as one of the top 15 manly smells.

Really, who needs one of these when you have the real thing?

Seasonal Chores, Gun Range, and Craft Beer

Yea, pretty much a typical weekend.

Our weekend was focused on getting the Christmas lights hung. But first, I needed to trim some of the shrubbery in front of the house — there always seems to be a "pre-chore" to the chores. That led to blowing leaves out of the beds, which led to blowing leaves out of the rest of the yard.

Finally, it was time actually get to the lights. Hmm, that string doesn't light. Wait, this one only lights halfway. I have to wonder, how do Christmas light strings go bad between packing them up in January and unpacking them in December? So, it's off to the hardware store for more lights in order to finish the task. I must say, it looks good once we're finally done so it was worth all the extra work.

After Mass on Sunday, Colleen asked "Are you going to the range?" I hesitate and she tells me she's going to do more decorating. "So you should go," she says. Who am I to argue?

I packed up the little Walther .380 that I'm considering shooting in IDPA BUG matches next year. I've not shot it in a few years, so figure it'll be fun. Anticipating the sting, I jerked the first shot, but the next 11 from 7 yards were right on.

I ended up putting 50 rounds through the little gun, shooting from 7-15 yards. I was pretty pleased, even if I did walk away with a bit of blood on the web of my hand. The tang on the handle digs in a bit. It's not too bad, but 50 rounds was enough "fun" with that gun. A bit more shooting with the SIG P226 rounded out the quick trip.

Returning home, it was time to sort through more extension cords and finish the window candles. That task completed, we decided to head over to Harry's Alehouse for a snack, and a beer or two. Having this place so close to home is going to be detrimental to my wallet, and my waistline. We opted for a couple appetizers; Pulled Pork Tostadas and Grilled Texas Wings. Either appetizer would make a full meal, and the tostadas were especially tasty.

Founders Nitro Oatmeal Stout &
Stone Enjoy By 12.25.16 Unfiltered IPA (Virginia Prototype)

Standing outside admiring the lights on the house Sunday evening, it truly seemed like winter. It felt cooler than the 37° shown on the wall thermometer, and is but a preview of the weather to come. The trips to the range may be less frequent, but at least it's always warm at the pub.

Doing The Work Twice

Converted this...

to this.

Which overnight became this...

so we did it again.

At least I can laugh about it now.

A Mental Health Day

Sometimes you just need to do it. I was reviewing my leave status on Wednesday and realized I had a whole bunch of leave banked up. And some of that was in the "use or lose" column, so I decided I was going to partake in some "ballistic therapy" on Thursday, as well as get some chores done around the house.

I got up at my normal time Thursday and after breakfast did a bit of office work that needed handling. After that, I did nothing work related — though I did see that my inbox was filling — and cheerfully ignored it. I spent the morning drinking coffee and doing some cleaning and straightening of my "personal space" in the house.

Checkered Flag showed up at the house late morning, as his day off is Thursday — though he too has to work a bit before the "day off" actually starts. We prepped the car for a trip to the range, loading lots of targets, ammo and guns. The ranges were all unoccupied when we arrived, and we broke from tradition and started on the pistol range. It was a leisurely couple of hours, just plinking. We spent a lot of time trying precision shooting at tiny targets. It was an interesting exercise when even from close range the target is smaller than the sites. (And remind me not to challenge Colleen to a strong hand only shot at a paster square at 7 yards.)

After couple hundred rounds each, and some 600 pieces of brass to police, we headed over to the long gun side of the park. The rifle range was now being used so we set up the clay target stands on the shotgun field. We each only took a couple of turns since were all getting very hungry, and Colleen had already mentioned the panini she was preparing for lunch. Our timing was spot on as it started raining right after we had arrived home and unloaded the car.

As promised, the panini grill was warmed up and a delicious lunch was enjoyed. Since it was a fun day, I grabbed some adult beverages from the beer fridge as well. By the time we finished eating, the rain had about stopped. It seemed timing was working out just right on this day.

Last week we had stone block delivered for a fire pit we're building, so after lunch Checkered Flag and I went to work moving the block and digging the foundation trench. There's no free lunch around here! (Seriously though, I appreciated the help!) It was getting dark as we finished up, but the project is ready for the gravel and block placement this weekend.

Food being one of the major themes of the day, I soon had the grilled fired up and loaded with lamb chops. While I watched the grill, Colleen fried up some falafel and we soon had a fitting feast to enjoy. We enjoyed the rest of the evening just being lazy, while bemoaning our aching muscles. I went to bed with memories of a fun day, and also having gotten some much-needed chores done. I congratulated myself on having actually ignored my work email for the day too!

Another nice thing about taking a day off on Thursday is as I drove to work this morning, I realized IT'S FRIDAY! I think I'll take a few more of these days. In fact, according to the company leave policy, I'm required to.