Busy and Lazy

Man April was a busy month for me. I was at the house for all of one weekend that month. And once I was gone for 6 days straight. So what was I doing. I'll cover part of it in other posts. But for now I'll ramble about these.


The first weekend I went to Atlanta on Friday evening with some people from work. I was a late replacement for someone else. I work on Campus and they work off Campus, so we don't normally mix much. I think I fit in pretty well and might have just extended my friend pool. We went to see Jeff Dunham the comedian. Many of you have watched him. Let em tell you right now I haven't laughed that much since my Dad and I went to see Jeff Foxworthy. I suggest you watch Jeff Dunham on YouTube if you haven't seen his act. My back was sore the next day from laughing. It was his second show of the evening. He came out a little drunk, asked for some Jack D., and then had us rolling for almost 2 hours. I think he came up with some new material on stage, and If he was truthful he said it was one of the weirdest shows he'd done in a long time. I judge that to be a success.

I got home at 3:30 AM and got up at 7:45 so I could drive to see my family. Yeah I took a nap later that afternoon, but it was so worth it.

The next weekend I had accepted the invitation of a friend to come to a mountain cabin the father of a friend of his owned. Man that was a confusing sentence, and I knew what I was trying to say. Anyway here's a picture of it.


Actually my friend described it as a lodge rather than a cabin. I tell you what that is a nice place right there. Central heat and air, a wrap around porch, 5 or so bedrooms with real honest to God beds. It was wonderful. We got up there and we made pulled pork BBQ and fried chicken and hot dogs and hamburgers throughout the weekend. Mmmm Fried Chicken. I sat out on the porch, when it wasn't chilly, and read the Benjamin Franklin book I've been trying to finish. When it was chilly I sat inside and basked in the sun coming through the windows or glanced out at the mountains while I relaxed reading. I haven't had a chance to do that in such a lovely place in a long time. I included some pictures below of the view from the porch.

But that wasn't the best part. I also got to do something else. We went skeet shooting. That's the first time I've ever gone. I probably put a total of about 110 rounds through the old double barrel. I still don't have a name for it yet. I'll have to ask her again. Anyway, You know what. I 60+ year old 12 ga double barrel hurts when you shoot 100+ rounds. I imagine it tripled if not quadrupled the number of rounds I've put through it. Though I didn't think I did very well, 31% maybe, For a first time at skeet I had a hell of a lot of fun. Plus I think I was getting better near the end. But the things it did to my shoulder. My entire Pectoral was sore the next day. And later in the week the whole area was bruised. I took a picture for posterity, but I'm not posting hairy man-nipple here. Damn that was fun though. Maybe I can do it again sometime.

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I’m looking over

So this past weekend I had some friends up. We had a little frozen precipitation, but nothing stuck. So Saturday we went to the movies and watched “Cloverfield.” I had seen the trailers for it and had heard a few things. I was really anxious to see it, but I was also afraid that the camera movements would make me sick. I had a really had time with “The Blair Witch Project.” That movie had a shaky camera though the whole thing. I don’t know what possesses them to do that. Yeah it was realistic, but I had to close my eyes through about 1/3 of the movie due to a splitting motion sickness induced headache. Cloverfield had a similar camera effect, but it was easier to close my eyes during the high motion sections that didn’t really show anything. Anyway on with the review.

The movie follows a guy and his friends. The premise is someone is filming a sendoff party for one of the main characters. During the party the city is rocked by an “earthquake” and then explosion. Then it becomes obvious that it’s no mere accident. Something really big is in the city and it’s tearing up the place and killing people. The rest of the movie is about the people trying to get away.

It was pretty well done. There were some stupid parts. I always wonder if these characters have never watched a scary or a monster movie before. Here’s a tip. When stuff starts running one way you should probably follow it. And some others for people that might get trapped in a horror movie situation, when the scary things get scared it’s bad and don’t go to see what that noise is. Also, there is never too much ammunition. So in all I really liked the movie, even with the headache inducing camera motion. I’d like to watch it again, but I’ll wait for the smaller screen. I also really want to see a sequel. We talked about it at home and thought a parallel time line from the military point of view might be interesting, especially if it crosses the path of the same actors. They did a really good job making a unique monster, and driving suspense. It also leaves you with a lot of questions that never get answered. That’s for the next movie.

If you like scary monster movies then this is a must see, even at full price. If you have bad motion sickness, close your eyes when the camera is really bouncing around. At least it stops for some of the conversations.

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Boomstick of My Own

A few months before I started going to school at Clemson my Grandfather passed away. My Grandmother lived in the house for 10 or so more years, before her failing eyesight forced her to move. There is a bunch of stuff one can collect in a house over 50+ years. Piles and lists were made of what to keep, sell, give away, or throw away. One item was in the back of my Grandparent's closet. It had probably sat unused for around 30 years. My dad nor his brothers seemed all that interested in it, and so that's how I acquired my Grandfather's shotgun. I'll ramble a bit about it, with illustrations, after the link.


It's a Stevens 12 gauge, 2-3/4 " shell, double barrel model 5100. I've looked around, but this one seems to have been made before that started stamping a date code on them. That puts it at least before '49, which I would have guessed already. It's not a long gun. My Dad said Granddad used it to hunt rabbits I think. Anyway at the time I was renting a house with some friends. I kept the gun in the closet, and didn't bother with having it checked out or keeping any ammunition. I mean I was sharing a house I didn't own with other people. I didn't need liability.


Well After I bought my mortgage I started thinking about the gun more. In my yard I've seen opossums, squirrels, a wild dog of some kind, deer, and the previous owners had a black bear come by. You can understand why I was thinking about the gun. I'm only really worried about the four legged intruders. I decided to have the thing checked out. I wanted to have it cleaned in case 30 years of dust may have gotten in it. It looked in really good shape to me, but I'm not that familiar with guns. Besides, knowing Granddad, he kept it immaculate. I took it to Grady's in Anderson. I've been there before and a friend said they set him up with his handgun about getting ammo and cleaning supplies.


I got a case for the gun and brought it back the next day. The older gentleman behind the counter took a look at the gun and said that it was in excellent shape and didn't really have any dirt on it. He recommended spraying it down with some cleaner and letting it drain down the barrels, but other than that it was ready to go. I picked up a couple boxes of ammo, 00 Buck and a box of turkey load #4 for varments. Apparently Grady's had a big Christmas and were out of all kinds of ammo. So I went home an ordered 30 rounds of 3 different types of light load shells to see which ones I liked. I've got some friends coming up for MLK day, and we might make a journey to a gun range another friend uses. It would be my first time using powder. I'm probably going to have to write that one up too.

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