The Shooting And The Camping

Friday, brought a bunch of books to Grandma's. Had to go. Apparently her answering machine was full. She kept asking if she needed to buy a new tape. It was digital, of course, and had far more buttons than any answering machine has any business having. Had to explain to Mom that I can't tell her how to do it, because I don't know how, and I'd be figuring it out as I went.

She had unplugged it to use a different phone. I don't know why. Being unplugged for a few days had successfully wiped all the messages, so after plugging it in and recording a message on it, I was done, with seven hours ahead of me to fill. Finished 'The Good Old Days: They Were Terrible' All about...er...the good old days. Victorian-ish. Late eighteen hundreds mostly. Little House On The Prairie, etc. All the reasons people idealize it and all the horrible things about it. 'Twas actually a pretty sucky time to live, if I may say so. Sorry Laura. Was a pretty cool book, but only because I'm slightly interested in government, and because it added lots of arguments for me to use on people who are in love with horses.

Replaced the radio in my truck. Something was wrong with it, don't know what, but we keep a pile of Chrysler spare radios because they generally don't last, so now I can play all my favorite cassettes when I'm driving...My favorite is the one with a cord coming out of it. The cord that plugs into my MP3 player.

Saturday we went to a sweet new junkyard Dad's been hearing about. All cars up on blocks organized in rows by make. Just find a car similar to yours with the part you want and pull it off. They charge virtually nothing for the parts. It's kinda neat to see some of the cars, and work out why they were scrapped. Usually it's pretty easy. They've been rolled, or set on fire, or rammed or whatever. Saw a Porsche and a coupla BMWs, but no American sports cars. Boatloads of Chrysler Minivans. We were looking for hubcaps and speakers for the convertible. Ended up with seventeen hubcaps. (Yeah. That's an odd number, in case no one noticed. Dad collects them and hangs them in the barn still. Speaking of which, I need to get new pictures of the hub cap wall.) Something like ten speakers from various cars. Spent a lot of time peaking under the trunk of each car to see if they had aftermarket speakers. (aftermarket being anything but the standard ones) Also ended up with two more spare radios. It was pretty fun. Lots of people climbing around the wrecked cars taking parts off of them. The place must've covered six acres or more.

Shot the .22s. Had a bunch of old ammunition that Dad got from Grandpa. They're older than Dad. Just a tiny bit corroded. They sound different, they smell different, they're very individualistic when it comes to deciding which direction they go in after they leave the barrel. Translation: "I hit the paper again! Sweet!" They also jam a lot. Only in the semi-automatic rifles of course. Translation: (sister) "Kenny has to pull that lever after every shot? That's weird...Dad, my gun won't shoot again." Bolt-actions don't jam, boys and girls. Semi-automatics jam a lot. It was mostly the old ammo, but still. With practice I can shoot almost as fast anyway. Then we oiled them all, 'cause being stored in the basement, mine rusts fast.

Getting up at a different time than I did over the summer for school has had a rather interesting side effect. Since I always go to bed at nearly the same time, every morning I wake up during the part of the sleeping cycle where I'm dreaming, so my brain is a total mess as to what has actually happened this week and what hasn't happened. No real nightmares, but there have been a disturbing one or two. Gonna have to get up later I think, 'cause I end up being tired and confused all day.

Other events just add to the swirl of 'did that really happen?' thoughts. :D

What I've done is taken to wearing a rubber band on my arm. That way when I start wondering what's happened and what hasn't, I can snap myself. As a bonus, I get to toy with it constantly. I've already lost one and broken another, but hey.

Camped out on Saturday. Had beef hot dogs for once instead of turkey. The turkey ones are cheaper and healthier, but they generally taste pretty nasty. We didn't play 'spoons'. We always play spoons when we camp, but this time they skipped it.

Made pancakes in the morning. Had the griddle too hot, had to toss the first few. Lovely burnt shell on the outside, nice, gooey pancake batter in the middle. Also made a small batch without an egg. They looked and tasted pretty uncool. Always put an egg in the pancake mix, if for no other reason that coloring. I broke it with one hand without even thinking about it on the main batch though. :)

Took a really long bike ride with Dad this morning. The poor guy is a bit out of shape I think. Less than halfway there and he was telling me how his legs were rubber. Went all around the lake, even up a new road I haven't been on, but definitely need to take pictures on.

Then had an extreme superfast drum session toward noon. It was sweet.

SOTD: The Calling - Wherever You Will Go

FTTDOTD: Grin manically for any reason you can think of.