Indy 1500, Part Two

Saturday I went to the legendary Indianapolis 1500 gun show with Roberta X and Tam. 

 Huck The Miniature Broadripple Biting Tiger had to stay home; he was not happy.

I was looking for a Sauer 38h, a nice little German pre-war 32-ACP pistol, and I think I got the nicest one at the show. 

And there was even enough left over for an Astra 600 in 9mm Parabellum. With two of their rather eccentric magazines, yet!

So Sunday we were at the Eagle Creek range bright and early. The Astra was tested first. I checked the safety, loaded a full mag (mistake!), pointed downrange and released the slide.

"Budda-Budda-Budda!"

It loosed off three rounds then stopped. With the safety ON.

With Roberta and Tam watching carefully, I loaded a single round into the magazine, checked that the safety was ON and released the slide.

"Bang!"

We tried one more test to catch and examine the ejected casing: it had a nice symmetrical primer strike, and no signs of out-of-battery fire. 

After the blogmeet Roberta disassembled the Astra. She inspected and cleaned the firing pin, spring, and follower. All appeared undamaged and in good order. She reassembled the gun and we used snap-caps with a little "dot" of "shoot'n'see" paper on the base, where the primer would be. We released the slide on this snap-cap and got a firm firing pin impression in the paper. We did it again with the same results.

So it's off to the gunsmith tomorrow.

The Sauer is a model of Teutonic order by comparison and shoots well. The single-action trigger pull feels a little light for my taste. Roberta X remarked on it, too. It feels like only about five pounds or so. But it has a stripped grip screw, so it's going to the garage, too.

Catch As Cat Can

She's a professional cat catcher.

Obituaries

I make obituaries for TV now and then, so when a particularly good one comes along, I take notice. I hope that you will not think me too morbid if I admit to a small collection of my favorites.

The death of Christopher Hitchens on Thursday brought this to mind. A famous (or infamous) atheist, he was once asked if, as he breathed his last, we might expect a deathbed conversion.

I sympathize afresh with the mighty Voltaire, who, when badgered on his deathbed and urged to renounce the devil, murmured that this was no time to be making enemies.

And on Tuesday, the advertising executive Edie Stevenson passed away. She wrote the well-remembered TV commercial for Quaker cereal, "Three Brothers" in which the older boys conspire to use the youngest brother as a guinea pig when their mother serves a new breakfast cereal. “Let’s get Mikey. He won’t eat it. He hates everything.” Then the best line, "He likes it! Hey, Mikey!"

And from Ms. Stevenson's obit in the NYT:

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by her longtime partner, Gordon H. Price; two sisters, Daphne Stevenson Penttinen and Adelita Stevenson Moore; three sons, Steven, David and Donald Mann; and five grandchildren.

She also leaves a cat, Mikey.

But my favorite obit of all is Madeleine Pelner Cosman, a medieval studies expert and professor who passed away on March 2, 2006. From her obit in the NYT:

Ms. Cosman's husband, Bard, a plastic surgeon whom she married in 1958, died in 1983. Survivors include a daughter, Marin, of Scarsdale, N.Y.; a son, Bard, of La Jolla, Calif.; and four grandchildren. Information on other survivors could not be confirmed.

Ms. Cosman also leaves behind a vast library of illuminated manuscripts and a large collection of handguns.

Poor Kitty!

The Cats Of War.

via Say Uncle.

Top Ten Bookstore Cats

This is #6, Asimov. He lives at Seek Books in West Roxbury, Mass. The store specializes in science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Mentalfloss via Neatorama.

Catz

Roseholme Cottage has a new cat and this started me thinking about our long-departed Maine Coon named Zoom. Look at those ear-tufts! His tail was nearly the same diameter as the rest of him.

Dayton Ham Convention

Every year, in mid-May, the city of Dayton, Ohio becomes the geek capitol of the world.

There is a 20-acre flea-market extraordinaire, with such rarities as a cadaver tank...

...and an F-16 simulator.

But most visitors are there for the world's largest display of amateur radio gear, new and vintage.

This is an original Morse code embosser: the dots and dashes were embossed on the paper tape for reading later.

This is a beautiful homebrew kilowatt linear amplifier. Absolutely impeccable design and construction. A work of art!

Inside AND out! We "ooohed" and "ahhhed" over this for some time.

Analog test equipment was abundant.


Need a vacuum tube? There are millions of them here, mostly unused, in original boxes.


If you have vacuum tubes, you'll need a tube tester. Remember those? Every drugstore had one. This one is pre-WWII.

It's really amazing how well some of this very old equipment has been kept (or restored); it looks brand new.


Over at the Begali booth, a tiny Sterling engine was on display. The base plate is about 4" by 8".

A collector of rare keys was selling his collection. You could probably buy a pretty nice house for the price of these keys. I believe I overheard him selling one key to another collector for over $4,000.

I really wanted to own this Narco Omnigator Mark II.


We arrived at 8:45 AM and finished at 5:45PM, with only a quick break for a cheeseburger. We were tired and dehydrated and sunburned, but we had a wonderful time.


Back at Roseholme Cottage, Tommy and Slinky dozed peacefully. They had seen their mistress disappear like this on the same day each year for nearly two decades, and they took her absence in stride, knowing she would return.

100 Kilometers

Thursday was another brilliant, warm fall day, so out the door I scrambled, returning home nearly seven hours later, having covered just over 62 miles.


Saw some cool stuff, including two of these:
Just sunning themselves on the road.

And this guy, who was determined to cross the trail and somehow avoid the speeding bicycles:

A sharp-tailed hawk flew down right in front of me and seized a tiny vole, or some such creature, then flew away, so close that I could have reached up and grabbed his talons.

Sheba the Queen of Milepost 13 was also holding Court, and receiving affection from her minions.

Another 3,000 calories burned.

Great Ride

Today was a perfect biking day. High 69 degrees, winds calm, clear sky. I rode out to milepost 26 and back, a round trip of 60 miles. Took six hours, plus an hour for lunch. I probably burned close to 3,000 calories.


As usual, Sheba the Queen of Milepost 13 was on patrol.


A happy cat and a warm spot of sunlight.

Ahhhhhh!

All Hail Sheba, Queen Of The Jungle!

Each and every time I pass through Falls Church on the W&OD bike path, there is this black cat who is patiently patrolling a 100-yard-long area to keep it free of field mice and other vermin. She deigned to pose for this portrait:

Here's a brief kinetoscope of life on the trail:

How Cats Control Humans

From LiveScience.com.

Bugging The Wimmin's Room

Labrat links to the most amazing essay and discussion about why feminists loathe Sarah Palin. Over four hundred comments. You won't be disappointed. As a man, this sort of bare-knuckles brawl rarely reaches my radar screen.

Preach, Sistah!

OK, OK, here's a little appetizer. Commenter "pm317":

I too am childless by choice and went after a career. The grand prize I went after (my tenure) was denied mostly because of the shenanigans of a few (bad) women who thought my success would diminish theirs, what with their A-list school credentials.

Same thing with Palin. Imagine a hillbilly like her (which is what they think of her) running away with the grand prize. They conveniently forget how they shot themselves in the foot last election. Or may be that adds to their resentment.

Edit: wait, wait, wait! I've gotta put this in. Referring to a feminist website called Jezebel, commenter "Sonia" says:

“murk that c—” means “fuck that bitch” in gangster slang. she’s saying she wants to punish Palin with her…hm. cock? which is clearly a feminist statement. Jezebel is wack, yo.

God only knows what kind of ads Google is going to link to me tomorrow morning. I apologize in advance.

Signs II

This used to be a Chrysler dealership. Now it's an animal shelter.

Bookstore Cat

This (very large) cat guards a bookstore in Indianapolis.

"You gonna pay for that or what? This ain't no library."

"Next register, please."

If Cats Taught Philosophy ....

h/t Trailer Park Paradise.

Kittens! Eeeeeek!

Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest

Excellent new blog.

Now with 25% more cats!

Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please!

Photo-homages to classic Farside cartoons. This is my favorite.

Thanks to Say Uncle.

Thanksgiving

The boys and I were all invited to spend Thanksgiving with close friends at their second home in the mountains, near Skyline Drive. As it happened, only my mother and I could make it but we had a splendid time. I was inducted into the Ancient Order of the Gin & Tonic Club (the only male member).

Before The Meal I went on a long hike to burn off some calories. I encountered this little waterfall.

The cats had been hauled up to the country house, too. This is Lila.


Lila is a bit of a ham; here she is trying to retrieve a green toy mouse from the tree.


The tabby is Tiger, age 21.


And the big orange tabby is Percival.


My contribution was to bring six cheeses from Planet Fromage:
1) Gorgonzola Dolce
2) Mirabou (brie with walnuts)
3) Stilton with cranberries
4) Stilton with mangos and ginger (tasted a lot like cheesecake)
5) d'Amboise (brie with a sweet rind)
6) elderberry

The cheese selection was a gigantic hit, as there were many other cheese-lovers, and Wednesday night's dinner consisted mostly of cheese.

Cheese Shop Sketch

This afternoon I walked down the road a bit to the new Cheesetique and had a look around. I saw a cheese called Brigid's Abbey and another called Mt. Tam by the Cowgirl Creamery. I took home half a pound of Stilton with cranberries. Stopped by the grocery to get some pears but couldn't find any really ripe ones, no surprise there. So I got a couple of nice ripe peaches. The Stilton and a sliced peach will be my dessert tonight, along with a glass of red wine.

On my walk home a large fluffy gray tabby cat flowed through the pickets of the fence around her yard and blocked the sidewalk. She refused to let me pass until I had given her a few pats.

But back to the Stilton with cranberries: it is fantastic.

Oh, and unlike the Monty Python cheese shop, this shop had everything.

Now, the thing to do, apparently, is to alternate: peach, cheese, wine. Repeat as necessary. Om-nom-nom.