Month: October 2006

  • Gun Show Report

    Every
    year, the Alaska Gun Collectors Association holds two shows–spring and
    fall–at the state fair grounds. There is usually a big crowd, and
    since 1) I am taking Visa and MasterCard now, and 2) I carry
    switchblades, and 3) had a good selection of swords and battle-axes–I
    had high hopes–I actually thought I might gross over 2K. Reality came
    crashing through, and I only grossed half of that, and profits came to
    only half of THAT.

    And the food was lousy. First day, I paid
    $8 for lukewarm scrambled eggs and medicre biscuits and gravy–second
    day, I ate breakfast–cold cereal–at home before I left. And I paid
    $5.50 for a buffalo burger that had been made in advance and on a steam
    table so long that the tomato slice was partially cooked.

    Usually,
    I find a couple of cheap unregistered handguns to resell at a
    profit–this time, nada. There WAS a nine-shot H&R revolver for
    $150 which was mildly tempting, but the grips didn’t feel right to me,
    and a used Jensen .22 auto for $70–but last year, I got one new for
    $50. Also, someone had some SKS assault rifles tarted up with the
    Draganov-style stock for $199, but I didn’t have enough mad money to
    spring for one of them. One year, a guy had plain-Jane SKS’s for $100,
    but they were gone in a twinkling.

    On the plus side–my display
    looked better than ever, since I had purchased a glass-topped display
    case this summer. And a coin dealer who is an officer in AGCA had some
    tables there, and I got an 1858 seated liberty half dollar, an 1897
    Barber half, a 1909 Barber quarter and an almost-uncirculated 1921
    silver dollar–all for about $40.

    But the weekend took a big
    toll physically–from the exertion and being on my feet so much, the
    last two nights I woke up in pain, and it is hard for me to move around
    even today, what with stiffness and pain in my knees and hips.

  • An Odd Mishap

    WARNING: The following post contains references to nudity, surgical tape, a hernia truss, cats, and a pair of Swiss Army scissors–that is, scissors which also contain a screwdriver, three hex wrenches, wire strippers, a can opener and a bottle opener. The thing tends to come apart when you use it, however. But I digress–on with the anecdote.

    As I may have mentioned a few dozen times, I have a hernia and have worn a truss for about seven years. These things are supposed to be a temporary measure–wear one until you get an operation– but since I can’t afford an operation, I just wear one all the time. Thing is, my good one is so old, I have repaired it a few times with upholstery thread, and it getting sort of uncomfortable, since some of the cloth padding is wearing down to the plastic. So the last time I washed it, I kept wearing a newer, but cheaper and flimsier model. After a few days, I got real uncomfortable, checked out my neither regions and discovered the straps had worn off a bunch of skin–it looked like hamburger down there.

    So, I got a roll of surgical tape and applied it liberally to my crotchal area, hoping the skin would heal by the time the tape fell off. Since it didn’t cost me anything–I got the tape out of the dumpster–I used about three times as much as I really needed.

    A week or so later, I got a shower and figured the tape would just sort of fall off in the shower like a band-aid. The thing has adhesive like super-glue or something–the tape was soggy but still firmly attached after the shower, so I gingerly pulled it off, not realizing that the adhesive was still on my skin.

    A few hours later, I pulled my jeans down to take a leak in a handy gallon jug I keep in the cabin and discovered to my horror that my shorts were firmly attached to my ass, and I couldn’t get them down without pulling off some skin.

    So I’m standing there with my jeans at half-mast and skin peeling off, thinking “Well shit– now what do I do?” Then I noticed the scissors and decided to cut the shorts off. I couldn’t see what I was doing, and was afraid I’d either stab myself in the ass, castrate myself, put one of the cat’s eyes out, or something. (They were watching this whole operation with great interest, sometimes batting at whatever was dangling within reach. Cats do that.)

    Reluctantly, I cut the darn things off–I sort of hated to, since I had paid all of fifty cents for them at the local thrift shop–most of my shorts I got out of the dumpster. I finished taking off the jeans and put on another pair of shorts, the uneven square of cloth still attached to my butt, making this odd lump.

    The hunk of cloth came off by itself sometime during the night.

  • Another cat bites the dust

     
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    For a while, I was down to two cabin cats–Frankie, a female siamese and Koshari, a male black and white tabby. That was about right. Then some nitwit returned two kittens she talked me into letting her have in the first place, Argento and Blazer. A few weeks later, someone else dumped this cute little short-haired calico female on me–in both instances, without my knowledge or consent. I just returned home, and found extra cats. Then a really sweet and exotic long-haired calico female stray showed up and I just had to keep her.

    Plus there are Peachy and Hohner–two big toms who were born in the cabin, but just show up now and then for food, and a couple of strays I haven’t named.

    Blazer has been a problem. He gets underfoot, I kept stumbling over him and stepping on him and kicking him out of the way. I was genuinely concerned that I might really fall over him and break a bone–I have this genetic predisposition to osteoporosis. Plus he is the only cat who claws me–got me pretty good (drew blood) twice in one day. Plus he is bigger than the other cats and takes up more room on the bed–much of which is taken up by a glass-front display case I got to use at gun shows, so I have to sleep sort of diagonally.

    Then he got sick–lots of diarrhea, shit and vomit on the floor, started spending a lot of time under the bed and sleeping more than normal. So I finally put him down, and placed his body up on the hill behind my cabin for the scavengers and elements to take care of–which is what I would prefer to have done with my own corpse when I’m done with it, BTW. It was quick and painless, and far more humane than putting him in the local shelter, where he would have suffered a lot before they killed him–only one out of twenty cats gets adopted, and conditions there are so bad that twice in the last three years, ALL the dogs and cats got sick and they were ALL killed. But I digress.

    Got back into the cabin and lost it. Cried like my heart was broken, bawled and sobbed and wailed until tears and snot were running down my face, and my throat hurt and my stomach hurt.  Wiped my face, dried my eyes–and cried and cried some more.As a rule, I am a fairly cold-hearted old fart, but even though I have a soft spot for critters, I was surprised at all the waterworks. Thing is, I had been stressed out lately anyway–the weather has been lousy, I only earned $37 in the last two weeks, my 10×12 foot cabin has been seeming more cramped than usual lately, my eyesight and general health has been getting worse, some family issues had been coming to a head, some recent unpleasantness on a board I mod at took an emotional toll, yadda yadda yadda.

    Even so, I still almost put down Koshari while I was at it–he has been sick a lot lately, too, and getting more and more like his big brother, who I hardly ever see.But I flipped a coin, and he “won.” I was relieved. At least he won’t be having kittens. I’d have all the females spayed, but I can’t afford it, and will most likely give away all of Frankie’s next litter. And by the time they get old enough to give away, I will have bonded with them.

    Sigh.

    But that is life when you have critters, whether you are a pet owner or musher or farmer. Sometimes you have to make some tough decisions and live with them.

    Like my wife told me so many years ago, it’s a hard life–but it’s a good life.
     
    Just exactly as good as I decide to make it.

  • What’s New

     

    Since someone asked, in view of the paucity of posts lately–I’m fine, and every day is just as good as I choose to make it.  Businesss has been largely nonexistant lately due to the weather, and I have been feeling a bit of a pinch.  We have plenty of wiggle room on our credit cards, but the way I was brought up, it seems almost immoral to put groceries on a credit card.  Which I will be doing, soon after I leave the library.  Getting gas is different, since they has gas credit cards when I was a kid.  Speaking of which, I recall my dad was one of the inventors of the cash advance–he would pull into the Esso stattion and tell  attendant “give me $5 worth of regular, but don’t put it in the tank” with a wink.  The attendant would ring up the charge “sale,” hand my dad a fin, and dad had beer money for the day.  But I digress.

    The biggest gun show of the year comes up in a few weeks, and I have high hopes. since the PFD comes out a few days before the show, and I am now accepting Visa and MC on sales.   I just called in an order for a bunch of swords–probably enough to last me a year or so–and next week, I’ll be ordering a dozen crossbows.  This is one of the fun things about being an arms merchant–getting tons of neat stuff in the mail  Sadly, the CRKT Desert Cruiser–an awesome liner-lock tactical folder–is sold out.  Sigh.

    In other news briefly, I am dealing with a shitload of cats.  About a mointh ago, this nitwit returned two cats she had talked me into giving her in the first place–they were a tad too young to leave home, b ut I let her had them just to get her off my back–and she dumped them off on my porch when I was away, with a kid-written note of apology.   A bit after that, someone else dumped this lovely sweet little  short-haired calico female–now named Fancy– along with a bag of food, no note.  A week after that, a really neat calico female with awesome alien looks (triangular face, bushy tail that looks more like a fox tail than a cats) showed  up and stole my heart–so she got named Raffles.  CC has pretty much gone feral again, Freaky seems to be MIA, and Peachy shows up for  quick meal every few weeks.

    Lots of good trashy books out–lawrence Block has a new Keller book out, and Lee Child outdid himself with the latest Jack Reacher.  And soon, Thomas Harris will be coming out with a Hannibal prequel.  Hannibal–my hero!  (Sigh.)

    Th th th that’s all, folks!