Forty Rod SASS 3935

I have a friend left over from my Marine days, a Lieutenant JG, who worked at Mare Island as a civilian and retired after they shut the place down and did the HAZMAT clean up that was required.

My tirade of two days ago, continued on a bit yesterday. The only place for miles around that sells sarsaparilla ran out, a place that is a charitable thrift shop turned out to be closed on Monday, and at 10:am traffic was stalled in every direction. As I left the thrift shop there is a narrow two lane road that goes less than a block to Arizona Route 69. One car as ahead of me turning right (west) like I was,. No east-bound traffic. The west-bound traffic was moderately light, but this woosie jackass in front of me would NOT turn if there was a car coming from the east inside a half mile. Finally he turned right and across to the left hand lane. I followed him and he drifted back to the right lane and I braked, turned over behind him and blew around him a punched it up to 75 mph....in a 50 mph zone. It didn't gain me anything because a mile further the traffic in both my lanes was stopped at a light that is always very slow. I worked over to the shoulder to turn right at that intersection, just as the cop behind me turned on his lights. I crept up the the intersection, turned right and right again onto a very wide dirt street and pulled over. His bull horn told me....called me "sir"....to turn left and across to a drive through place that has been closed for a month or so and to park under the roof of the driveway. I did, pulled to a stop, shut off the engine, opened both front windows and took out my license and CCW card. My hands were on the wheel. He explained "I had you pull over here out of the sun because it's way to hot to be standing out there in the sun." He took the cards and asked why I had shown my CCW card and I told him I didn't want any surprises. He asked if I had any guns in the car and told him "three". and where they were. He gave me back the CCW and asked if he could let him sit in the passenger seat and I unlocked the door. He asked where my registration and insurance cards were and took them out of the glove box....from under a loaded 10 shot 9mm pistol and four fully loaded spare magazines....and got out of the car. He asked my to get out and stand at the rear of my car "just as precaution because of the guns aboard". I did. He walked back to his car to call in this and that and came back. Never took his eyes off me for more than a second and never turned his gun side to me nor held anything in his right hand. He wrote me a ticket, explained all I needed to know, and told me I had no previous tickets in Arizona. I told him the last ticket I got was when I lived in California twenty-seven years ago. He got back in his car and left while I put everything away. I'll go pay the fine ($138.00) in another hour. Am I angry? NO, not really. I'm a bit aggravated at myself for losing control. Honestly, I got off pretty easy and I HAD IT COMING! I let my temper take over....which I very seldom ever do. The officer was very professional and respectful, almost friendly, and managed it while being in the hot sun with a confirmed armed man. I lived in California for almost 40 years and dealt with a lot of LEOs and only met a handful who I could truly respect and even fewer I could have liked. I met many who should have never been allowed to wear a badge, much less a gun, and a few who should have been in jail. All of my experiences with LEOs here.....not as common as they were in California because I don't work nor hang out in gun shops any more..... have been friendly, or at least professional. Not a "badge heavy cop" in the state so far. Damn, I love living in north-central Arizona. Okay. It's almost over and I'm back to being my usual well behaved, pleasant, almost lovable self.

Same here. Replica Sharps carbine. Two point muley buck, range about 45 yards. Hit at the base of the neck almost exactly where I was aiming (3" forward of that point). Jumped a bit and landed on his chin. Took me longer to clean the gun than it did the deer... but he tasted great.

One of the very, very few things I miss about California: our 1/8 acre lot in Ontario was loaded with lantana bushes and roses. I miss sitting on the covered patio (AKA the Taj Mahal) and listening to the humming birds humming all over the place, great big lollygagging bumble bees floating around with their humming providing harmony, and some song birds quietly carrying the tune. Very little traffic in our neighborhood and the neighbors get home every day about the time the birds and bees are turning in for the evening. I built six large bat houses and we had almost no bugs of any kind, except for the lady bugs and preying mantises (manti?) that I bought a few time every spring and summer.....and the bats pooped on the plants! The whole thing was calming even though it wasn't loud at all. I'm working on getting my current place done that way. I'll be less irritable and sleep better.

Who holds the patent on that?

Is that a challenge?

I thought so, too....until this clust mess. I have never liked Walmart but never had a problem until they screwed this up. Kohl's has a great return policy, too.

Yeah, they do get involved in local stuff like packaged food for senior centers and such. Not enough to win me back, though. Not enough!

I saw a lot of them in Utah and Idaho when I was a kid. I'm amazed at the numbers that are still there and the great shape some of them still are.

Hiya, Al. I love one of his quotes. This isn't exact but he essentially said "I never memorize anything I can look up." I've pretty much followed his model for most of my life. Of course there are some things you had better memorize, like family birthdays, your wedding anniversary, your home address, where your guns and ammo are, things like than. Do in self defense. ;D

I used to like some of the BIG box stores, then Sam's Club closed their local store and went down to Phoenix. K-Mart and Albertsons closed. A bunch of local places vanished and we are left with Fry's / Kroger, Safeway (best of the lot but still not great), Walmart, Costco (a shock to my soul, over-crowded, and seldom selling anything in packages smaller than for a family of ten +), Sprouts (some good stuff there and customer oriented, but pricey), Trader Joe's (see previous entry), and a bevy of little places trying desperately to hang on. Many of them are customer friendly and trying to keep their prices down, but they are being starved by the big guys. There are few weekend farmers' markets where you can find some wonderful products in reasonably sized packages, but, while some are also reasonably priced, be prepared to have a jolt when you see what they cost. Also. they tend to have at least two or three tents with people paying the loudest, most inappropriate "music" (AKA horrible noisy) anywhere. You'll also find herds of uncontrolled "miniature people" (kids up tp thirty years old without any adults in charge). Some people think they are cute. I feel like they should all have been drowned in the womb.

Thanks for the laugh. I need that once in awhile.

Okay, here goes. First let me tell you that I will go to WalMart for one product only. They are the only place in the whole free world that carries the brand of duck jerky that my dog likes in the huge size. I may see if Amazon carries it next time around. Yesterday morning my DVD player froze up. I bought it about three years ago for a song...at WalMart. I don't like WalMart for many reasons but it's only three blocks away so I went there. I couldn't find one like the old one so I went to the counter where three people were "working" but actually BSing. I finally got one guy to ask "are you looking for something?" I bit my tongue instead of telling him "No Jackass. I'm waiting for a bus." He didn't act like he would have cared unless I got physical. I told him what I was looking for and he found a box and handed it to me. I picked up some duck jerky on the way out and checked out. I got home, unpacked the machine and followed the instructions. I fired it up and put in a DVD. It sucked it right up but it wouldn't play so I tried to eject the disc (which belongs to the local library) but it wouldn't open up. I went back to the instructions and found that I had missed a word right under the super dooper Blue Ray label: ONLY in tiny letters. I repacked it and went back to the store where only one kid was working at the service (totally mis-named) desk in a mid-afternoon Saturday. I lucked out (I thought) because there was no one ahead of me but one girl. The kid was BSing with her, obviously horny and hoping, for ten minutes. A line was forming behind me and a man behind me finally hollered out "Hey, will you get going up there?" The kid slowly walked over to a microphone and called for help. Five more minutes before a girl showed up and at least was pleasant, but she had to ask her supervisor what to do about the disc still in the machine. That took five or six more minutes because the supervisor couldn't be found. She came back (I never laid eyes on the supervisor) and said I'd have to contact the manufacturer. At that point I started to get nasty. I demanded to talk to the supervisor...another five minutes and a supervisor showed up and started by telling me I was causing a problem by taking up so much time. I told her to shut up and listen to me. They finally opened up another register and the line began to move slowly. I told her I wanted to talk to the store manager. I was told he would meet me at the electronics desk. Another ten minutes when a tiny little girl showed up, apologized, freed my disc, and took the machine and put it in a cart. She went and got me a new machine. Finally someone whose IQ was larger than their hat size. She played her computer like a classic violinist and walked me and my new player back to the service desk, took me to the front at the next space, to the girl who ticked me off. The girl gave me the difference in cost ($112.00) in cash (I had paid with a credit card), and said "Thank you for shopping at WalMart and please come again", but there was no sincerity in her voice of actions. I muttered "That will be a long time coming" and as worked my way through the line to leave some snotty old woman said "Well I hope you're satisfied. You sure....." I got right in her face and said loudly enough so everyone could hear, "You don't really want to pi-- me off any further. I'm NOT in the mood to take any more crap from anydamnone today, so just shut the hell up and get out of my way." You know what? I finally got to talk to a store manager. He turned up as I crowded that old bat out of my way. I told him that the little girl who finally sorted out my problem wasn't being paid enough. He told me that "That is none of your affair and you'll have to leave or I'll call the police." "Get the hell out of my way or I'll knock you on your ass" I told him as I shouldered him out of my way. Elapsed time from when I went into the store the first time about three and a half or four hours. It shouldn't have taken over twenty five or thirty minutes even on a Saturday. I'll deal with setting up the player after lunch. I know the temper I have and generally keep it on a short leash. I was very near to breaking things and hurting people. By the time I got home I had calmed back to me wonderfully mild self. The last time I lost it was 1982. I put one guy in a hospital, hurt two others and broke my right ring finger and had my nose broken (That guy was FAST, but luckily not very strong) and added a couple of scars to my collection. Looks like it's time for breakfast. Deja Vu and Jittery Jim are coming by later for lunch.

The Chaplain of the local Marine Corps League goes to one almost in my back yard for his daily exercise. I think he does eight laps to get five miles (?) in right after breakfast.

What notion would that be? I have had lot of notions, but I've managed to suppress most of them for the safety of idiots.

There used to be large (100 yards or more) concrete arrows in the deserts east of LA pointing at LA. Not many landmarks or water towers out there and few railroads at that time. Not even a lot of highways, either. Strangely there were quite a lot of "airports" all over the place, but there were not a lot of marked ones, and a huge percentage were grass or dirt strips near a farm or ranch. I understand they were put there because of the contract mail planes. Can't have your Ladies Home Journal, Time magazines, or grandma's birthday card getting lost.

Like new Gary Larson The Complete Far Side, boxed set of three volumes. $75.00 shipped, $60.00 if you pick them up.

HE never flew the kite that was struck by lightning. His son did. He was a championship swimmer, too. I took an OLLI class all about Ben at Yavapai College a few years back, . He was deceptive in many ways and just plain outside the mainstream in other areas. A very interesting and intelligent man.

Remember pop bottle baking soda divers and bath tub submarines?

It ain't free,. It cost me almost three hours and whole roll of TUMS!

That should have been a mess to clean up. Idiots shouldn't be allowed to have pets...or children.

An 03A3? Good choice Babe.

I helped a Chaplain buy and learn to use a Browning High Power at the Army PX. He had orders for 'Nam and said his Lord had directed him to love, teach, and protect his flock. I later heard that he died protecting a field aid station. It was said that he had sent a few VC to their maker, too.

Sheep herd disease.