Category: Friends and Family

Now Is The Time

Bad News, Crime, Friends and Family

I have a (very) Longtime Reader whom I’ll call Mary, with whom I’ve had multiple friendly communications over the years.  Indeed, when there was that gun shortage last year, I helped her get her grandson his first .22 rifle for Christmas.

What follows is a tale of outrage.

A long time ago, Mary married a man I’ll just call Evil Bastard, had kids with him and later divorced.  He ended up buying a house in Texas, and when he was diagnosed with cancer, his (and Mary’s) daughter Kristine and her family looked after him, moving into his house, helping with the household expenses and even filing as HOH in their tax returns.  They did this for a number of years, during which time their own kids grew up in Evil Bastard’s house.

Evil Bastard responded by allegedly sexually molesting Kristine’s daughter (Mary’s granddaughter) over a period of years, until age 13.  When Kristie and her husband discovered this, they called the cops on Evil Bastard;  the cops found the allegation plausible, and Evil Bastard was charged in court.

Here’s where it gets even worse.

Upon bonding out of court, Evil Bastard filed suit to have his daughter’s family evicted from his house.

So they’re appealing that filing — it is, after all, as much the family’s home as it is his — but they need help with legal costs.

The hearing takes place next Wednesday June 29th.

Please, please help this family out by going to their GoFundMe page and donating.  This is not a stranger’s family;  this is the family of one of this website’s Loyal Readers needing help, and I hope that we can rally around.  I’ve met Kris, and she’s one of the world’s decent people.  She does NOT deserve what’s happened to her, and of course her daughter doubly so.

As for Evil Bastard… well, the less said, the better.

I know that times are tough, and money’s tight.  If you can, spread the news outside this website to friends and family, your own private mailing lists and so on, so as many people can help as possible, spreading the load, so to speak.

Community

Friends and Family

When I first started blogging back in early 2001, I didn’t enable comments on my website because its original purpose was to showcase my writing, such as it was back then.  This is why there were a lot of essays and such — lengthy pieces wherein I explored the world, my world and the world around me — and I have to admit, it was hard work.

Then one day I threw up a pic of a gun that I liked, completely out of left field and quite gratuitous.  That became a weekly fixture, and then inevitably, as I started reading more and more about guns, I got dragged into the politics of guns, and thereafter into politics in general.  And the rest you know.

But in all that time, I felt as though I was just shouting into the void, not knowing whether anyone heard me or cared.

Then Connie suggested I open the site to comments, and I resisted fiercely for about a couple of weeks because I’d seen how other websites had been overrun by trolls and other such pond scum, and I just did not have the patience to deal with that.  So she suggested that I ban anonymous comments, requiring people to register their email addresses first, and reluctantly I agreed.

Now I can’t function without comments, or to be more specific, not only my Readers’ feedback and arguments, but the several friendships which have arisen from this contact.  So the past week or so, where I’ve just been shouting into the void again, made it unbelievably difficult to summon up the motivation to post anything at all, and I have to tell you, I found it difficult to write about anything.

So if the past Time Of Silence sucked, content-wise, please forgive me.  I’ll Try To Do Better — but already I’ve noticed that it’s easier to do so.

Welcome back, y’all — and that comes straight from the heart.

All that said, over the next week, Tech Support and I (mostly Tech Support) will be rebuilding this website completely:  new dedicated server, fuck off Hosting Matters, etc.

The format should remain the same, and it should happen more or less seamlessly; but if you hit that shortcut / bookmark and you get this:

…for an hour or so, please be patient.  Just know that I will be chafing and biting my lip as much or more than you are.  TS has promised to keep me, and you degenerates informed as much as possible (his word, not mine; as though a fixation with seditious ramblings, guns, cars and boobs is degenerate).

Other Fine Guns

Friends and Family, Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

Comment by Reader Velocette about our little TDSA excursion:

“That Winchester High Wall is the class act of the lot, unless you were enjoying an 1873 Colt or a P 35 Hi Power”

Not quite an 1873 Colt, but we did have a 1980 Colt Python 6″ (.357 Mag), not mine, alas for I own one not:

…and yes, a Browning High Power:

…and sundry 1911 variants, of course:

  

…as well as several .22 pistols and revolvers, and a few other .357 Mag/.38 Spec revolvers.

Also on hand, a Winchester 1894 lever rifle (.30-30):

…a Taurus (Winchester copy) Model 63 ( .22 LR):

…the aforementioned Browning High Wall (.45-70 Gov):

…and lastly, my M1 Carbine (which Doc Russia managed to break;  Mr. FM’s comment:  “It survived WWII and Korea, but not one range session with Doc”):

There were other guns, most of them high-tech / gadget-loaded 9mm and .223 EVIL BLACK RIFLES WITH SILENCERRRRRRRS, but of them we will not speak.

I can’t believe that we blew through so much ammo, but considering that firing commenced at about 10:30am and the guns finally fell silent at 3:30pm, perhaps it’s not all that surprising.

In conclusion, I cannot say enough good things about TDSA and its owner Len Baxley.  If you haven’t ever been there, you should.  Mr. FM has been there twice (two separate trips Over Here), and says it’s the most fun he’s ever had, on both occasions.  If you want to try the place out, let me know and I’ll give you advice on what to take and not take so you can have a great time.

Celebrations And Such

Friends and Family

I will be spending most of today at the range with Doc Russia and some Guests To Be Named Later, so tomorrow’s postings may be few — but will probably contain an extensive range report covering a multitude of guns.

I know you guys hate that kind of stuff, but there ya go.

The background to all this is that Doc is getting married on Saturday and during the week, various family and friends will be converging on this area of North Texas from all over the place, and it is therefore incumbent on Doc and me to entertain them with activities of interest:  shopping for the lady folk, and gun time for the men.  (Unlike most people in government, we have absolutely no problem in identifying women and what pleases them.)  That doesn’t mean that the men will not be shopping (e.g. for shooting gear / guns), and various of the ladies may well want to join us at one of the several shooting events planned for the upcoming week.  We don’t care, as long as everyone has a good time.

And on that topic, Doc’s bachelor party is to take place on Thursday night, so the following day may also reveal a paucity of bloggy material, depending on the number of post-debauchery hobgoblins who will take up residence in my skull in the hours that follow.

It’s going to be a tough week.  Bear with me, please.

Unforeseen Hardship

Friends and Family

I have sometimes, I think, referred to my “adopted” daughter — the quotes because she isn’t legally adopted, but I treat her as my second daughter for all sorts of reasons:  difficult parents, occasional bad health and so on.

It all started when she went on our last great overseas adventure, the “Great Catholic Trip” wherein we visited several of Europe’s great cathedrals, basically as an excuse to go to Vienna (Stephansdom), Rome (Vatican) and Paris (Notre Dame v.1).  Here are a couple of pictures of the family in those cities — Lily is the short redhead:

Heidelberg (our start-off city)

Paris

Rome

Paris

Since then (over a dozen years ago), Lily has been as close as a daughter can be without actually being one.  She found the guy of her dreams (a mechanical engineer, gawd help us), and they set about building their lives together:  working hard, building careers, saving money, buying a little house and so on.

Let me say that in the past three months, all that has come crashing down, leaving her and David in a deep pit.

Read all about it here, and please help her if you can.  Her needs are modest, but critical.

I would regard it as a personal favor from my Loyal Readers.