Desert Eagle

-I don't prescribe to the 'Home Defense' camp of gun ownership and gun rights.

-I do get a small amount of comfort knowing that I'll be all the more ready for any zombie apocalypse.

-I don't go hunting, but I used to, and may someday like to again.

-'Investment' is a word I've been known to say when referring to a firearm.

-I'm not a whacko, don't keep my guns loaded, keep them locked up, and generally only shoot them at fresh produce.

-In 1979 Israeli Military Industries (IMI) began design on a new large-framed handgun.

-It was to be one of the first gas-operated handguns where the pressure of the cartridge would be responsible for auto-loading, rendering the handgun semi-automatic.

-Production began in 1982.

-In 2012 I purchased one of these handguns.  It is one of only a handful of .50 caliber handguns.  .50 caliber is the largest caliber allowed to be designed and produced by U.S. law.  .50 caliber is very large.

-It is called the Desert Eagle.  And it is extremely bad ass.

Favorite

Today I'm going to my favorite store.

The Gun Store.

12:05 on a Thursday

Charcoal skies of a glowing moon,
Missoula rests its people down.

Late night cries of some drunken goon,
Missoula rests its people down.

DUIs are the evening tune,
Missoula rests its people down.

Redemption

When I was younger my parents bought me a fish tank as a birthday present.  10 gallons in size, this tank was nestled upon a beautiful wooden stand with all the regular tank fixings; neon gravel, little castle, bubble operated skeleton drinking a XXX jug, the works.  Stocked with a nice variety of tetras and plecostomi, it was the perfect little habitat for a weird little boy to play God.

Too bad I played Satan.

That tank was a torture chamber of disease and mistreatment for nearly the entire time it was in operation.  I dumped Mt Dew in there, I reached my hand in and grabbed the fish, I never took care of it, and when all the fish died and the water receded to about an inch I caught some toads and made it into a terrarium.  I don't even want to mention what happened to them.

Now Melissa and I own a new 10 gallon tank that was given to us by one of her friends moving back to Minnesota.

I feel more than obligated to redeem myself.

We currently have 3 black mystery snails, 2 bottom feeding catfish, 1 eel, 1 striped danio, and the most recent addition is 1 African dwarf frog.

It wasn't until getting the frog home that we dumbly realized it doesn't eat fish flakes.  So with a head cold (maybe a sinus infection - not gonna go to the doctor) and my car broken down, I set out on foot into the smoky Missoula afternoon to get across town and buy frozen bloodworms.

God damnit, this frog is gonna eat today...

Day Wu

I knew I was in trouble when I got to Tire-Rama at 8 in the morning and noticed on my appointment sheet that my car was spelled 'Day Wu.'  I drive a 2001 Daewoo Nubira.  The only other time I've seen the word 'Wu' is the 90s rap group the 'Wu Tang Clan.'

Also, even though I was scheduled at 8 in the morning, Tire Rama doesn't open until 9.

Good group of guys working on my stuff.

Little experiment in self-cheering

Head colds and nasal congestion are not pleasant.

Taking my first sick day in 2 years and playing extra video games while sipping OJ and Ginger Ale was pretty nice.

Coughing and sneezing for two days is not pleasant.

Melissa nursing me back to health and getting me soups and drinks and medicines was quite nice.

Having your car start to throttle and shake like a mechanical bull is not pleasant.

Watching a documentary on arm wrestling (a sport that I may be farthest from connected to) was extremely entertaining and even made my throat lump-up in sadness.

Missing 14 hours of work will not be pleasant when my next check comes.

Being able to see most, but not all, of the mountains out of my living room window means that the forest fire derived smoke, which is likely responsible for my condition, is starting to recede, that's nice.

Green masses of slime coming out of my lungs do not taste pleasant.

Green masses of slime coming out of my lungs means that they are no longer in my lungs, that's probably for the best.

Here I took five things that have really got me down and typed them out.  The positive lines were put in last, weaving them into the shitty ones.  Now off to work.

Tools

Found myself yesterday realizing that I shouldn't be jamming tweezers into the disc drive of our new computer to fetch an errant and unejectable cd.

Upon searching the internet's wealth of knowledge, that hunch was confirmed.

"Worst possible course of action," said the troubleshooting forums.

Tools can't fix everything, but they will break anything.

Man at Work

A photographer named Chris Autio came into Biga Pizza looking to take some black and white photos for a project he is working on.  The project is people working with their hands.  I think these turned out great.

Return to Return

The end of my delightful mini-vacation sees me back at home up to my usual tricks of figuring out how to get the day's 'To-Do-List' done next week.