Month: April 2021

Disaster

Boomershoot, Crime, The Gun Thing

Yesterday I went over to our (still-being-rebuilt) apartment.  Not having any room in our tiny hotel room, on Wednesday I’d taken all the Boomershoot stuff and stored it in our (locked) garage, to be loaded into the rental SUV for the trip up to Idaho on Monday (tomorrow).

On Friday night, the garage was burgled and all the guns and related stuff stolen.

Rifle #1:  CZ 557 Varmint (.308 Win)
Scope #1:  Vortex Viper HS-T

Rifle #2:  CZ 550 American (6.5x55mm)
Scope #2:  Meopta Optika6 Illuminated (4.5-30x50mm)

Revolver:  Ruger Single Six (.22LR/.22Mag)

Also, a double-rifle hard case and two range bags.

And, of course, about a thousand rounds of .308 and 6.5x55mm ammo, all helpfully loaded into ammo cans, and a few dozen rounds of .45, .22 and 9mm (in the range bags).  Amazingly, a pair of expensive Steiner binoculars were tossed aside (!).

Total value of the stolen goods:  just under $6,000.

All our brand new replacement furniture, and electronics (TV, computer etc.) and all my tools (!) were untouched.  They were after the guns.  (Thank gawd I’d already moved all my other guns over to Doc Russia’s place, or else I’d be in even more trouble.)

According to the Plano PD (yeah, I have a case # and everything), there were no fingerprints left, which points to a pro job.  There is a pretty substantial group of suspects — this was not a case of a couple guys walking past and deciding that this looked like a likely place to burgle — but I’ll leave that to the cops to figure out.  They have the list.

What this means:

1.)  I’ve had to cancel Boomershoot this year — no point in going, no guns to shoot, no ammo, nada.  I’ve already canceled the rental SUV and hotel accommodation.  So we’re all clear on this:  I am spitting angry, but most of all I am embarrassed because many of you kind folks sent me money, not only for the drawing but to help with the costs of associated purchases for the trip — several items of which have already been bought.  Aaargh.  Nevertheless, if you are one of those people who specified that the money was for expenses, email me and I will refund you your money.  (Almost all the paper records I have were being kept — where else? in one of the missing range bags — so I have no clue what the total amount is;  but I’ll trust in your honesty.)

2.)  When the insurance company reimburses me for the guns (less my $500 co-pay of course), I’ll replace the CZ 557 and scope, and hold the lottery for that rig then.  I don’t know how long it will take for them to do this, most likely a few months.  Please be patient with me while I speak to the insurance company over the next few days.

3.)  I have no idea whether the guns will ever be recovered.

Fuck.

Kim’s Hell

Architecture, Modernism

This is what happens when I get curious about stuff and set out to explore.

Last week, I read that former Spain- and Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas (one of the best goalies ever, btw) has divorced his journototty wife Sara:

…and moved to a “Japanese-style” penthouse in La Finca.

Where dat?

Not being familiar with Spain, I eventually found out that it’s a swanky suburb of Madrid.  (I should also mention that I caught the giggles because I first read “Finca” as “Fica” — the Italian slang for “pussy” — but I recovered and went on.)

I should have stopped upon learning that La Finca was a Madrid suburb.  But noooo, I had to see what it looks like.  Casilla’s penthouse apartment (see here) should have given me a clue, but when I DuckDucked it, I saw stuff like this… endless examples of foul glass and concrete boxes modernity:

       

I could go on, but I think you get the drift.  (If you want to see bigger pictures — gawd help you — just DuckDuck “La Finca Madrid”.)

As a rule, I quite like traditional Spanish architecture — especially the Catalonian style:

 

…and as for apartments and public buildings:

 

Compared to those, La Finca Horrible doesn’t even come close:

I think I need to look at something beautiful, just to recover from that hideousness.  Here’s Paz Vega:

Now that’s some classic Spanish architecture for you.

Not Like Here

The Gun Thing

Via Insty, I see this little piece on people not falling for the Socialists’ gun panic pronouncements and concomitant bullshit anti-gun legislation:

Despite the overwhelming rhetoric machine that the anti-2A people have, a new poll shows that the American public’s taste for new and stricter laws has dropped a bit.

However, what caught my eye was the accompanying pic (from Oregon):

…AND it’s apparently a recent pic.

They must be having fewer gun purchases in Salem, OR — because here in Cuidad Tejas, a stockholding such as that would be cleared out in about 20 minutes on any given Saturday.

They probably have ammo too, the lucky bastards.

Itchy Feet

Travels

I have to tell y’all, I got me some itchy feet.  I don’t mean for local travel — I got three days up and three days back from Boomershoot in my near future — I’m talking about strange places where people don’t speak English as their home tongue.

So when I get emails from people with stuff like this enclosed:

…lemme tell ya, it makes me want to pack the old kitbag and get over to the airport.

This Covid nonsense has given me the world’s worst case of cabin fever.  And as for Frankfurt:

I’ve been on this street before, I think, and although I dunno about “Eros” over there on the left, there are some serious bars to be enjoyed Over There.

Besides, my German has become schrecklich  through disuse, and I need to remedy that.  “Educational” —  yeah, that’s the reason for me to book that cheap ticket.

No More A Refugee

Boomershoot, Disaster, Two-Minute Hate

Yesterday we got news that our apartment is nearly finished, having had to be rebuilt from the studs up following that burst water main during the Big Freeze back in February.

Yes, we’ve been living in a hotel room since then.  But now, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, and we’ll be able to move back into our place over the next week or so…

…which is when I’ll be at Boomershoot.

Think kind thoughts and say a few good words for New Wife, as she struggles to rebuild the nest without me.

But before anyone gets any strange ideas, you have to know this about her:  she lives for this kind of thing, and I don’t.  In fact, I am the worst possible person during a move:  I rage at stuff, I slam fingers in doors, I drop boxes, I kick stuff, I throw things into the pool out of frustration — all that, because of one of my life’s guiding principles:

I refuse to take any shit from inanimate objects.

She, however, is the complete opposite:  nothing makes her happier than organizing stuff.  So she’s going to be puttering around, re-packing kitchen cabinets, hanging clothes, singing happy songs and bossing the movers around — yes, I’ll be arranging for a moving company to move all the heavy stuff from the garage back into the apartment (a distance of a few feet only, but there are doors to wrangle the sofas and beds through — and when they don’t go, that’s precisely when I see red, descend into rage and start to break things).

Had I not invested so much into Boomershoot already, I’d have canceled it — but it’s too late for that at this point, so there it is.