All things bright and beautiful

Shorter Half is one of those types who does better on massive amounts of caffeine – or other stimulant. They calm him down, slow his speech to an understandable degree, and usually limit the number of conversations he will try to carry on with you simultaneously to a reasonable number, like 2. I’m sure most of you know the type.

Well, today Sweet Daughter and I returned home after her swim class to find him opening the mail. He’d ordered a strobe-type flashlight for my pistol and was busy taking the thing out of the blister pack, putting the batteries in, and muttering some sort of stream-of-consciousness monologue about the lack of quality instructions, or lack of quality equipment, as it wasn’t working properly, when viola! A bright flashy light appeared in my peripheral vision, reflected in the hall mirror from where he was pointing it down the stairs.

He then said something like “Hey! When it gets dark out, why don’t we turn off the lights, and I’ll go to the top of the stairs and you go to the end of the hall by the front door, and I’ll turn this on, and you can tell me how annoying it is!” I declined, possibly even telling him he was out of his mind. It was bloody maddening just seeing it out of the corner of my eye in full daylight.

Moments later I turned around to see him completely mesmerized, staring into the flashing light.

Truer words were never spoken.

Women and Shotguns

She came up with the size of the typical women shooter, and more importantly their unique differences from men. Women have longer necks, different chests, smaller hands and other distinctions that clearly indicated a need for a women’s shotgun.

So Marty created a shotgun with a shortened stock and length of pull so women could reach the trigger easier. The stock took on a Monte Carlo configuration to accommodate women’s longer necks. She also made the stock toe out, providing a better fit for the female shape. Marty then added a palm swell for smaller hands. In the end, you could argue that her Valmet 512 SC of fall 2004 was the first shotgun designed by a woman for women.

Except for the smaller hands, shortened stock, and length of pull thing (I'm 74" inches across, fingertip to fingertip), I think she's got some good ideas. *grin*. Go read the whole thing.

Like I don't have enough projects to do

So, in the comments of my Charities post, Linda in TX suggested that I check out Quilts of Valor. I used to quilt – that’s how I learned to sew by hand. Miles, and miles by hand… *grin*.


I sort of tucked it away in the back of my mind until I got home from work today and I found a minute to start paging through my quilting books. I wanted to do something patriotic that wasn’t cliché. Not that there’s anything wrong with cliché, I just wanted to come up with something original and a little low-key. I found a block that triggered an idea, and I think I’m good to go. Now, I just have to wait for the math side of my brain to kick in so I can calculate the size of the blocks and how much fabric I’m going to need.

I want to include a rather long quote that will run across the horizontal strips between the blocks. Other than embroidering it by hand, anybody got any ideas on the best way to do this? Fabric marker? (Not my first choice, I have crappy handwriting.) I’d like to do it in 18th century-style script but I don’t know what my options are. I’m pretty good with 18th century sewing technology, but I don’t even know what’s out there for the 21st century.

UPDATE: Ooooh! Thanks to Bob S. in comments, I poked around a bit and found I can allegedly use an inkjet printer. I'll check in to this ....

Another one

For the blog roll. Double Trouble, who has me seriously considering becoming a contender for the "who traveled the farthest for the next NE Blogershoot" prize. I wonder if he even remembers offering to let me fire his gun? I haven't forgotten. *grin*

Charities?

You’ve probably noticed that Sweet Daughter has been thinking about “Camouflage People” a lot this summer. On the way in to daycare this morning, I told her that CP’s have a pretty crummy job – some have to live far away from home and their friends and families, and some are in a place that’s even hotter than it is here (99 degrees today), and they live in tents, and it’s really dusty, and it's dangerous, and they do it all for not very much money. Tonight at dinner she asked me if she could send some of her allowance to them so they could feel better.

So, what are your favorite charities that benefit service members?

About to depart on her first airplane trip (that she remembers, anyway), SD is distracted from mugging for the camera just as the shutter clicks. She has spied a CP, and he must be addressed. "Thanks for keeping us safe!" she calls, while waving to get his attention.

Can't argue with that!

As I may have mentioned before, Sweet Daughter loves cats. Shorter Half is allergic to them (so a pet cat is out of the question), but SD includes cats in her life when she can. There are two cats at daycare. She talks about teaching “cat school (I have no idea. I just smile and make encouraging noises.) She often meows at me when she wants something. When asked her name, she responds with Firstname Middlenname Lastname-Cat. She thinks that Breda, who shoots, works in a library, and HAS CATS (trifecta!) is someone whom mere mortals can only dream about emulating.

So, back at the age of 3 1/2, she drew this picture of a cat. She very carefully pointed out everything she included when she showed it to me.

Yes, that is one scary-a$$ cat. She ought to sic THAT on the Big Bad Wolf. Click for big.

She carefully pointed out the ears, eyes, nose, whiskers, mouth, teeth, tummy and two legs.

When I asked here where the other two legs were (I mean with such exacting attention to detail, what was up with only two legs??), she sighed, barely suppressed an eye-roll and explained slowly, as though I were a backwards child needing extra time to comprehend a new and difficult concept, while flipping the paper over:

Shotgun fun

We took the Mossberg over to The-Friends-with-75-Acres house today to see how it shot, and so I could lose my shotgun virginity. Shorter Half measured the maximum distance in our house between the end of the hall by the bedrooms and the entry near the front hall, and paced off the distance when we got the range. At that distance (a little over 30 feet, if I remember correctly) without sights, the Mossberg shot a little high. Like maybe a hand-span. Not enough to worry about, I don't think. I did notice more decided kick than I'm used to (yes, compared to my Brown Bess …), so I think a recoil pad is in order. Oddly enough, my shoulder isn’t bothering me tonight, but the right side of my jaw is.

I also got to shoot a Remington 12 gauge. That was a slick little gun, but I like the controls on the Mossberg better.

We also did a reactive target demo for Sweet Daughter to show her what happens if you shoot something filled with a liquid … like the Big Bad Wolf.

First the soda can.

Then the gallon jug of water.

Then the TFW75A’s son shot another jug. Sorry that I moved, but you can see the water just starting to spray out.