a nice hour at the range this evening

first of all, i'm not a young pup with 20-20 vision and nerves of steel, steady of hand and of keen coordination. having said that, it just seems that 7 1/2 yards isn't very sporting.
click images for other sizes
this is my smith and wesson 617 10 shot 22 LR revolver. i love this gun. i can shoot for pennies, and still have the same grip frame, sites, and basic weight and trigger as my 686 and 686+ in .357. lots of practice, not a lot of coin

my springfield armory TRP is a 45 ACP semi-auto. it's not a target gun. but with the handloads i have, it shoots pretty damned well for a utility firearm.

run the targets out to 25 yards, low light conditions, and the whole game changes.
i like to practice my revolver skills shooting both single action, which gives me much better accuracy, and double action. i shot this target in double action, which has a much heavier trigger pull. nothing that would qualify me for shooting at Camp Perry, but i'm happy with the results. i have hit a running jack rabbit out to about 50 yards with this pistol. that's all that really counts.

and of course, the 45 at 25 yards off hand. there are three hits off the black. i'm going to have to work on thatnot a bad way to spend an hour.
man, i love shooting.

the latest carnival of cordite (#67 already. sheesh)

gully has Carnival of Cordite #67 up and running. check out the shotgun demo he linked. i've seen the video before, but it still amazes me.

thanks for the submarine related giggle

there's another old coot out there by the name of RM1(SS) that has just posted a great memory, with one of the funniest punchlines i've heard in a while. it goes along with an ensign telling you he knows your job better than you, or an Lt(jg) asking if he can help repair a piece of machinery.
check it out

seeing yourself through someone else's eyes

or, GOT DAMMN i am so glad the internet is around. you have all probably bumped up against a former shipmate a time or two. the internet gives me the chance to bump up against a bunch of them... there are a couple of shipmates that i get a chance to shoot the breeze with (albiet via this blog), but it's still a connection to those earlier days.
so i want to say Hiya HOP and Dave. you guys are why i started all of this in the first place. my sailing list (linked over on the right) keeps growing, and i get a chance to electronically converse with sailors that sailed the seawolf from new construction days in the 50's all the up to decomm in the late 80s. what a great gift ALGORE gave us with his invention of the internet.

in that light, i'd like to share bits of an email from one of the latest guys i've been connected with from the old days.

I was looking at your posted photos and saw a couple of you from Navy Days. I realized I remembered you and the nook quite well. I used to visit you in the nook to synchronize the nook chronometer. We engaged in droll conversation. I also remember watching the first episode of Saturday Night Live with you on a Duty night in the Crews Mess, Fall '76. We agreed that it was too good of a show to make it, nobody would "get it" and would be canceled soon.

(the nook he's talking about is the nucleonics lab where i hung out and worked when not standing watch in the engineering plant, or doing some scut work as punishment for some transgression... of which there were many, as i recall)
to continue:

how did you stay a Nuke so long? You were a very glib Son of a Bitch. I always thought you would make millions in Sales; cars, real estate, burial plots, something like that. Anyway, seems like you have a very nice life, as do I. Things have a way of working out. Dave

i found it pretty amusing to hear what he thought i might be when i grew up. burial plots. that's funny

anyway, the internet has given me a chance to stay in touch with guys i would never see or hear from again. very cool

you've heard the phrase "scream like a girl"?

well, watch a grown man get freaked by a prank. this is frikin hilarious

Ratboy

the things you get in email these days

submarine video: note to bad guys everywhere

holy crap batman. i just watched a submarine video of a practice launch of the D-5 missile. to our friends in lebanon and iran, please note that the missile capabilities far exceed 20 miles. and for that squatty body in north korea, please note that this missile did not explode on the launch pad.
just thought you should know.

having been a fast attack submariner, and an old fast attack at that, we didn't have all the safety procedures evident in this video. what we did have was the same type of communications, verbatim repeat backs and the like.

when we launched torpedoes, the procedures were way way simpler. we even hit ourselves once during torpedo trials in nanaimo bay when a practice fish did a 270 degree turn and punched us in the sail. repeatedly until it ran out of fuel.

scared the shit out of us. of course, we were using the equivalent of a WWII torpedo, and there were several cases where boats sank themselves with a bad run.

check out the video. it's inspiring, and frightening.

ayup, i picked a winner!

we moved to vacaville from Napa about a year and a half ago. it was a good move, although i do miss my buds and hangouts in napa. the tradeoff is i have a much better commute (like 30 minutes or more shorter) now. but the tradeoff came with a price.

according to the SF Chronicle today, the last 10 days of +100 degF weather showed that vacaville had the highest temperatures of all the bay area communities 6 of the 10 days, with one day cracking in at 114 degF. my poor A/C unit finally got a break last night. it was the first time in 10 days the compressor shut off. i slept with the window over the bed open, and it was GOOD.

JOIN! the legion of the dumb

ok, so while wandering around iowa hawk's corner, i read about this project a certain humvee driving dude has initiated.

so i followed the link, and found a ditty here and here and lately here for information on how we can help ease the unbearable drabness of an army humvee.

"As you can see, there is still a lot of surface area to enhance, especially since one or more of our wrongheaded spur wearing brethren have made off with my Curves and Nascar magnets. "

so won't you please help? check out the hawk's link and send those magnets on

new love poetry from the hezbozos

funny as hell. once again Iowa Hawk not only tickled my funny bone, he damned near broke it.
read, and follow links from with the post to get the full flavor.

remember those shoot the shits that lasted hours

somewhere onboard, usually a watchstation? and how the conversations got weirder and weirder the longer we were out to sea? as in, the boring and mundane had all the juice wrung out, and it was time to tread uncharted trails in search of humor, conversation, and an outlet for the creeping insanity that is an extended run underwater? if you don't, you probably were either a whackjob nutcase that was already waaaaaaay around the bend (we had a few), or you never went out to sea, away from the sun, and away from any semblance of land or ports in the near future.

here's an excerpt of a conversation i could very easily have partaken in. it comes from my newest bubblesphere blogger, a bubblehead off of the SSN-711 lazlong

Yes, that is right, photosynthetic, they will take in the sun's energy (hence the fiberoptics) and make food for themsleves, using water of course. A by-product of this will be the Oxygen that they breathe out (only when sleeping, of course, while they are awake, the breathe out CO2), which will maintain the ballance of the atmosphere in the colony.

seriously, if you've been off the boats for a while, you have probably forgotten these conversations.
reading the post brought memories of amines in the air and the hum of rotating machinery.
thanks dude.

how i spent my weekend

if you've read my blog for any length of time, you probably know that i like to shoot. that means, i like to reload, so that i CAN shoot, because shooting is not a cheap sport. i posted an entry about my reloading bench here, with a picture of the bench.

well, i've been pretty spoiled over the years. one of the things i really like about where i work is the bench tops. i know, seems pretty mundane, but it's true. i really like the workbenches. they are a pair of heavy duty drawer cabinets topped with a thick maple butcher block top. i have been looking for one of these tops to build a bench for years. but being the basic cheap charlie, i have resisted spending the big bucks required.
and then... craig's list had a post for 4 maple bench tops. COOL. i called, and they were still available. $10.00 each, and they were mine. on my way home, i stopped off at Grainger and picked up a set of 36 inch adjustable bench legs. time to make sawdust!

as always, click the pictures for more sizes

so i took the two best (they were all new, so that was really a stretch to determine the "best one"), and only trimmed off the bullnose rounded side on one side, and took both sides off the other two.
then i drilled each cut side for three 1/2 inch dowels

here they are, ready for gluing

once the whole thing was glued together and clamped, i measured and drilled the mounting holes

then, i mounted the top to the bench legs using the recessed holes i'd just drilled. that way, i could fill the holes with maple colored wood putty, and have a smooth surface.

then, i puttied the seams and mounting holes, and sanded the surface smooth for varnishing. notice the trim rails. i figured i might as well use the edges i cut off for something, and a nice neat edge rail will keep things from rolling off behind the bench once i put it into use.

i moved the table into the shop, and then varnished it with oil based varithane. i put on three coats, lightly sanding between each one. i have to say that it looks damned good. i'm pretty proud of the job.

once the varnish dried, i put an "x-brace" on the back of the legs with plumber's strapping, and bolted a board to the bottom of the back legs to keep it from wobbling when using the press.

so, the next thing was to move the press over to the new bench, and move some of the reloading stuff over too. i drilled and chamfered a hole behind the press to mount my magnifying light. that is one handy gizmo to have on a reloading bench. especially when your eyesite isn't as sharp as it once was. the red box is my primer and powder box i built out of 1 inch plywood, put together with small nails. that way, if it catches fire and detonates, the box just flies apart rather than hold the force and then explode like a very large hand grenade.

like any good reloader, i am an untiring range rat. and an accomplished scrounger. this tub has only 9mm cases. i'm guessing over 10000, but that is probably low. i also have similar tubs, filled about the same, for a number of other calibers that i reload for.
reloading: true conservation in the "use, reload, reuse" vein.

and in keeping with the fact that i was a submariner in a different life, i stuck one of my favorite submarine t-shirts up on the wall. we were "ordered" to not wear these when comsubpac found out about them.

just for comparison's sake, here's what my reloading bench looked like before i started tinkering

so, i started on friday evening, and put the final coat of varnish on sunday afternoon, and moved the press and all the junk today after work (monday), once the final coat had set.
so, whacha think?

poppas joy

poppas joy
Originally uploaded by bothenook.

this is what raising kids is all about. all of the "fun" times. yup, grandkids. spoiling them rotten, winding them up, then sending them home.
kids are way more fun when they are your grandkids.

beenieweenie

beenieweenie
Originally uploaded by bothenook.

i just have two words: beenie and weenie.
not just any beenie weenie, but bushes beans and miller's franks. pretty upscale, but damned good.
ultimate comfort food.

promise

promise
Originally uploaded by bothenook.

washington naval oranges. the promise of great things to come. i can hardly wait.

yayyyy... more submariner bloggers

here's the first. you know him if you visit the common trough.

yup, it's the old coot, but we all know him as RM1(SS). go on over and say howdy. oh, and have you noticed just how many of us ahem, older gentlemen, ahem, all use terms truthful AND descriptive? geezer, coot, old man, etc. yup, us bubbleheads are an honest bunch, as long as we don't start out with "now this is a no shitter". then all bets are off.

and then there is ramblinboy or reddog, as he's posted under. he was a fellow seawolf sailor. a cornergasket, as a matter of fact. he'll be joining the others of the left wing dark side. but don't hold that against him too much! hiya dave, welcome to the bubblesphere!

edit: and here's a third! welcome to a robert a. heinlein fan and former bubblehaid lazlong. welcome.

dang...

here it is, 9 o'clock in the evening, and the national weather service says it's still 102 degF outside.
sure glad i got my A/C working.

carnival of cordite link, and a random thought

the #66th issue of the Carnival of Cordite (that's gun related stuff, if you couldn't figure it out) is up at Mr. Completely. it's a small one this week, so it won't take 6 hours to read all of the entries.

and here's a random thought i just had....
what if, 1400 years from now, the Scientologists become a world wide "religion" like the followers of Hey Mo are now.(brrrrr) and what they splinter into different sects? and what if some group enters another scientologist sect's bakeries and force them to take down the posters of their saints, like saint tom croooze, or saint kirsty alleeey? it could happen

Militants on both sides have moved block by block through Baghdad’s neighborhoods, threatening, kidnapping and killing. To protect themselves, Shiite bakers have taken posters of their saints off their walls. Those who supply the Iraqi Army, which is predominantly Shiite, have arranged safer sales through middlemen.

from an article on the NYT
i know, i've linked to a couple of NYT articles, but MyWay has a portal into the site.

the neo-neocon is at it again

and she is doing a bangup job too.

And, of course, to defeat Hezbollah would require a response the International Red Cross already has already condemned as violating the principles of proportionality, since Hezbollah is well aware of the value of hiding behind civilians, and does so purposely and frequently. So, how in heaven's name would any international court ever get authority over Hezbollah, except to try them in absentia? And a fat lot of good that would do, except as meaningless theater.

this is only the latest in an excellent series of well thought out and presented opinion pieces regarding the middle east.
i'll let her do the talking. me, i'm still on the humor thing. it's helping. and no, it's not an ostrich thing. it's just there are more folks better capable than i already posting. almost any of my links to the right have great posts. i'd just be adding to the noise, and anyone really interested in reading about the current situation are doing so already.

i've never been described as a garden gnome

in an article about a prisoner using M&M's for paint in the (i'm sorry) NYT

Mr. Johnson, 46, has something of the middle-aged biker about him, with long slicked-back hair, unfortunate tattoos, a growing paunch and an unruly beard that puts one in mind of ZZ Top or a garden gnome.

it just struck me as funny. "unfortunate tattoos" and "garden gnome" leapt off the screen while reading the article. thought i'd share

just doing my part

too damned much hate/discontent/fear/anger out on the blogosphere right now. so, i'm with that crusty old cook, and am going to let those that have a much better understanding of the world, and better vocabulary to express their opinion to do so. me, i've been on a couple day humor break, just to get my guts out of the knot they've been in over current world events.
only snivel i am going to say anything about is WTF is george doing vetoing stem cell research? ok, having said that, here's the latest email humor, posted for your viewing pleasure.


Colonoscopies


Colonoscopies are no joke , but these comments during the exam were quite humorous..... A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his patients (predominately male) while he was performing their colonoscopies:

1. "Take it easy, Doc. You're boldly going where no man has gone before!
2. "Find Amelia Earhart yet?"
3. "Can you hear me NOW?"
4. "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"
5. "You know, in Arkansas, we're now legally married."
6. "Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?"
7. "You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out..."
8. "Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!"
9. "If your hand doesn't fit, you must quit!
10. "Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity."
11. "You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?"
12. "God, now I know why I am not gay."



And the best one of all...

13. "Could you write a note for my wife saying that my head is not up here?"

an amazing fact, and my second most favorite joke ever

first of all, Wm H over at amazing facts has a post about a new medical breakthrough that may very well help ease the rift between many in the two sexes. not all. but many.

and here's my second favorite joke of all time. it's old as dirt, but it still cracks me up 30 years after hearing it for the first time.

Two submarine sailors, joe from texas and bothenook from Oregon, go to texas to visit joe's family. the family lived on the typical texas ranch. while standing out front of the house, bothenook asked joe's dad how big the ranch was.
"well, if you get up early in the morning, get in the pickup truck, and follow the fenceline all around the place, you won't get back home until dark" was the reply.

bothenook thought about it for a moment, and said "you know, i had a pickup truck like that once."

follow the link if you didn't read my very favorite joke when i posted it.
or not.

cool. a trubalanche. the 100th Carnival of Recipes

for those of you folks visiting for the first time, you will soon figure out that i like to cook. well, i like to eat. a lot. i like to eat a lot. so i learned to cook to feed my eating habit. and i like posting my recipes on my blog. i have a link here. why is this in any way interesting?
well, it looks like a previous entry to the carnival of recipes has resurfaced. not only has it resurfaced as the lead recipe, but it has been responsible for almost all the traffic to my blog in the last two days. cool.
and if you like to bbq, and you like chicken, you owe it to yourself to try the huli-huli chicken recipe i went to great pains to obtain when i lived in hawaii. it is one of the best chicken bbq recipes i've ever eaten. and if you saw me, you'd understand that that would be a VERY LARGE quantity of bbq.

thanks for all the email warnings

this is another in a long line of emails i get that somehow say what i think before i think it.

not to be cryptic or anything, but since the email is pretty long, i posted it over at geezer's pix

a couple of my favorites:

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer have any sneakers -- but that will change once I receive my free replacement pair from Nike.

and more. go read, and see if you recognize any of the many email warnings floating out there!

it's seastory time again

eric over at the SubReport Blog posted an article about the USS Pennsylvania (SSBN 735) (Gold) crew returning from a patrol weighing in an amazing 861 pounds lighter. hell, we used to pack on the weight when out in the deep blue sea, punching holes to nowhere. an enforced inactive lifestyle, coupled with some of the best cooks in the entire military (i'm thinking Ron Payton, for you seawolf sailors of that era).
we had an engineer that had started life as an enlisted guy, had the navy pay his way to college, came back as a nuke officer, and went all the way to commanding his own FBM. but when he was an engineer (you met him in this post, he was, well, uhhh, FAT! as a matter of fact, when refering to him, it was always Fat Hal XXX in enlisted land.
so he decides to go on a diet. that was something, considering it was not unusual for him to eat a 12 (yup count 'em 12) egg omelette with half a loaf of bread and about a 5 pound bag's worth of spuds for breakfast in port. and at sea, he lived on salem 100's, coca-cola, and 3 musketeers bars.
the navy was getting a little antsy about the image its sailors were presenting to the world. in a nutshell, we were all a bunch of overweight pasty skinned sea creatures. so Fat Hal decided to lose weight by dieting on a spec-op. he was basically starving himself. seriously undernourished. probably why he made some poor decisions along the way. he was not helped by his stateroom mate. said individual perpetrated one of the classic head trips known in the military far and wide as the "shave the belt" trick.
as all the sailors know, we wore "web belts", which you clasped a buckle on, adjusted to have the metal tab align with the edge of the buckle, then you cut off the excess webbing. nice, neat, and very military in appearance.
i think it was the great bonzo bear (one of my favorite officers i ever sailed with). every couple of nights, he would disassemble the eng's belt, shave off just a sliver of its length, then rehook the buckle. and then, of course, he told all of us.
the eng had made a big deal about going on a diet as we left for a 3 or 4 month spec-op, stating he would be slim and trim on our return to the world.
so, what is a crew to do? "hey eng... i thought you were on a diet!" "hey eng, looks like you've been hitting those candy bars again". "hey eng, those cheeks are looking a little pudgier" (actually, he was growing an underway beard, and couldn't really see that he was becoming emaciated). this went on for over two months before the quack stepped in because he was worried about the eng's health. the dude lost something like 60 pounds in 60 days before he was told. he was PISSED. but then, if he had been paying attention to things like lightheadedness, faintness and other clues such as his poopie suit was hanging off of his ass, well, you know

edit pounds and days may vary. 30 years is a long time to remember the finer details!

lebanon and syria as seen from the middle east

i've used a couple of posts from a blogger in egypt before by the name of sandmonkey. i found him during the whole Hey Moe cartoon debacle. i've not been back since, and it's a my bad situation, because the blogger has some interesting things to say.
anyway, Mike at out on a limb, the newest bubbleblogger on my links list (even if he doesn't talk much about submarines hint hint) has an excellent post regarding the latest round of weapons exchanges in the israel - everyone else conflict. he quotes the hell out of sandmonkey. read Mike's post, you'll understand the cartoon.

an opportunity for some old guy, and WOW!

here's a tidbit from the gossip stuff that may be of interest to those of us that are at the half-century mark or so, and single (i only qualify for 1/2 of those pre-conditions). guess who's available, back on the market, foot loose and ring free? ayup, 52 year old Christie Brinkley. god, does that make me feel old.
it also amuses me, because this article was right near the top of the "top news" section of MyWay. i guess...

and the WOW.. found on reuters: an article about a man that is controlling a computer cursor and a robotic arm with a sensor in his brain
ok, so i don't usually accept anything reuters says regarding actual world news, but the technology section at reuters has some really cool stuff on occasion. i don't know their secret, but i've read things there oftentimes days before seeing it anywhere else.
think about it. with a chip implanted in the brain, paralyzed internet surfers can now access all the porn they want without having to ask someone to move the cursor and click!
technology, what a great equalizer!!

ha ha ho ho hee hee

ok, that was childish, but i absolutely cracked up over these two versions of the same yoga posture.
check them out at Amazing Facts. take some time to wander around the blog. you will be sending me thankyou cards when done.
i AM amused!

a very small repayment to the chechens

it looks like the russians popped the leader of the chechen rebels. you know, those homicidal maniacs that killed over 300 people, 170 some of them children in 2004 at an elementary school in russia. it looks like the russians tore a page out of the islamofukits playbook, and detonated a truck bomb next to him. of course, the brit newspaper had to make it look like a bad thing, heralding the long anticipated body temperature adjustment to room temperature as "a revenge killing", but what the hell. dead is dead.
seems this fanatic was planning some sort of disruption of the G8 conference being held next week, so the word must have been put out. you know the word. "take this son of a bitch out. find him. kill him. kill him dead. kill yourself if you can't find him and do a job on him." of course i'm just imagining the conversation in my head, but i doubt it was too far off.
no way this was coincidence. they may not have been able to find him for a long time, but given the coming conference, there must have been a number of very late night calls from the boss bubbas to the "special ops" bosses. good job rooskies. too bad basayev. i doubt there are 72 virgins waiting for your ass.

a quote from the article

“He was a jackal and died like a jackal, and his body was collected piece by piece,” Mr Kadyrov said. “I dreamt of strangling him with my own hands.”

another book quote

this one is from Until I Find You by John Irving. i love finding little snippets in books that indicate why the author is making money writing, and i'm not....

...had attracted the attention of a teacher - the one they called The Grey Ghost. Mrs. McQuat was a spectral presence. She'd mastered the art of the sudden appearance; no one ever saw her coming. In her previous life, she may have been a dead person. What else could explain the chill that accompanied her? Even her breath was cold.

like cockroaches, i tell ya!

a new find! here's out on a limb. a diesel boater, and gasp, lawyer. and it looks like he's an author to boot. check him out and tell him you found him HERE!