Automotif CDXCIV...

The fourth generation of Ford's F-series pickup trucks were produced from the 1960 through the 1966 model years. The 1965 models, like the faded Light Turquoise F100 in the photo above, saw an entirely new frame slid under the existing body design, featuring a "Twin I-Beam" swing-axle front suspension in place of the previous solid axle. This basic chassis would remain in use through the '79 model year.

For '65, the F100 could be had with two flavors of inline six: a 150hp (SAE Gross) 240 cubic inch inline six, or a longer stroke 300cid version of the same motor rated at 170 horsepower. The V-8 badge on the hood indicates this one has the 208hp 352-cube "FE"-series big block V-8, which was the most powerful engine that had been offered in an F-series truck up to that time.

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Meme Dump...

So basically...

What happened was that pollen season got started with a bang and I was late noticing and starting prophylactic Claritin use. So both my sinuses and lungs began filling with fluids and then, unusually, I managed to pick up a low-grade upper respiratory tract infection and a flareup of bronchitis at the same time.

I'm finally on the mend, but it's been an unpleasant week

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Here comes the rain again...

And not a moment too soon, either. The amount of pollen in the air has been giving my sinuses fits, such that every time I blow my nose, the bones in my skull creak and groan like the hull of a u-boat changing depth.

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Tab Clearing...

• Wingo: The short-lived indoor shotgun wingshooting game.


• Training Terminology: Flash Sight Picture, Hammer, and Controlled Pair.


• Hipster Tactical reviews the Daewoo DP51.

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Automotif CDXCIII...

The owner had de-badged the decklid of this super-clean Cherry Red '87-'93 Saab 900. With the alloy wheels and spoiler it's probably a 900S or Turbo, but I'm not enough of a Saab nerd to pick up the subtler details.

...and back to Ouch.

Between torn external intercostal muscles from grappling with a very large dude while trying to shoot him with a sims gun, and strained internal intercostal muscles from a day of violently trying to cough my lungs clear of deep-seated nastiness, I gotta say that the former may hurt worse, but the latter is no picnic either.

Robitussin, take me away!

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Brr...

I somehow ended up out from under the covers last night, and just to make it worse, the legs on my pyjama bottoms had ridden up nearly to my knees. So I lay there, with my metabolism as low as it ever gets during the day, radiating heat into the chilly bedroom air until I woke up shivering with my teeth chattering.

I bundled myself into a fleece woobie and burrowed back under the covers but I still haven't recovered from that. I'm sore all over.

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Bad Info Drives Out Good

Greg Ellifritz put up an informative post on social media regarding the (in)efficacy of birdshot in a home defense role recently.

It was shared widely on the internet with predictable results, as the legions of shambling mouth-breathers tried to set Greg straight.

He's had about enough of that.

"I got my first shotgun instructor certification in 1999. I’ve been teaching shotgun skills longer than some of these commentators have been alive. I carried a shotgun every day in a 25-year police career and used those shotguns to convince some very bad men to submit to arrest. I’ve seen, treated, and investigated gunshot wounds from birdshot, buckshot, and slugs. I’ve killed lots of critters with shotguns in the hunting fields. I’ve attended countless shotgun ballistic gelatin shooting demonstrations and autopsies of victims killed with shotgun pellets. I’ve written 162 different articles on using the shotgun for self defense as well as producing the largest firearms stopping power research study in the last two decades.

I might know a thing or two about what shotgun pellets do to human bodies.

But when I try to share that knowledge with the general public, I get shit upon from the anonymous population of uneducated internet trolls who gain self esteem from insulting other people."

Bad info drives out good. I definitely know the feeling, as it's why I rarely discuss gun stuff in GenPop-accessible places myself these days.

Save the birdshot for birds.

Happy Perfect Date Day to all who celebrate!

I need to watch Miss Congeniality again. That is such a good movie.

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It's like a whole 'nother country over there.

Forgetting that you have a gun or ammo in your purse or briefcase at the local courthouse can be embarrassing.

Forgetting that you have a gun or ammo in your purse or briefcase at the TSA checkpoint at the airport can get you jammed up legally.

Forgetting that you have a gun or ammo in your purse or briefcase in Boston or NYC will almost certainly get you jammed up. You go through the checkpoint at Freedom Tower or the 9/11 Memorial or some other tourist attraction with your out-of-state toters permit, and it's gonna be a bad day.

And as for traveling overseas? That could be really bad.

"An Oklahoma man faces up to 12 years in prison on a Caribbean island after customs officials found ammunition in his luggage.

Ryan Watson traveled to Turks and Caicos with his wife, Valerie, to celebrate his 40th birthday on April 7. They went with two friends who had also turned 40.

The vacation came to an abrupt end when airport staff members found a zip-close bag containing bullets in the couple's carry-on luggage. Watson said it was hunting ammunition he had accidentally brought with him — but under a strict law in Turks and Caicos, a court may still impose a mandatory 12-year sentence.

"They were hunting ammunition rounds that I use for whitetail deer," Watson told NBC Boston in an interview conducted last week that aired after their first court appearance Tuesday."

There's a reason I keep the bags that I use for carry-ons at the airport "sterile". I don't take them to ranges if I can help it. If I have to while on the road, I keep them as far from the line as possible and painstakingly go through them in the hotel room that night.

People throw the phrase "responsible gun owner" around a lot. This is just part of that.

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