20191129

Adventures in retail

SMDH:  a young woman in hospital scrubs visited Wednesday night while I was working my way back through paints, solvents, and abrasives.  She said her patient, an elderly gentleman, wanted some sandpaper to sharpen his teeth, and needed my recommendation of what grit. 

Though I asserted firmly that this recommendation comes best from a dentist, not a hardware store cowboy, she persisted.  We settled on 220 grit after she touched the 3000 grit Wetordry and thought that her patient would think it isn't real sandpaper. 

20191124

Transition

We have this year ceased to serve Uncle Sugar.  Said Uncle having quantified in dollars the future value of our past Service to him, and our decision to no longer serve him, we have taken the Summer of 2019 quite 'off.'

A trip or two on the side have been taken, namely to the Mecca of Brownell's and a return to the sweet, sweet humid Central Wisconsin of 2003 or thereabouts.

Now we have accepted a position in retail, serving a new Uncle who hosts big-box home improvement operations.  It appears to be, if not 'recession-proof,' at least 'recession-resistant,' and the new Uncle's Roth matching contributions are surprisingly generous.

What we would truly like to find are:

1) a skilled hand at surface-mount soldering, to repair a blown fuse in the battery charger circuit of our cherished Yaesu FT817 transceiver;

2) ranchers in the vicinity of Wheatland, Wyoming, who will host itinerant riflemen to cull their antelope.

3) parts kit to create an AR15 upper that will reliably chamber and fire 7.62.x25mm Tokarev ammunition, including handloads up to 150gr. The term in vogue is 'Moscow Match ammo.'  Gotta burn up those tracers

Strangely, (1) is the choice where we have no progress.

Come on, world.  You can do better.

USAF Airman Battle Uniforms do quite well in this terrain and vegetation for (2) given that one launders that uniform in some detergent and equipment that do not deposit UV dyes on it.  Though we admit that we see the world through eyes other than those of antelope or whitetail.  The whitetail were none the wiser.  

also:  re point (1):  a surface-mount fuse? are you fucking kidding me??? Ask me for an oxymoron, and this one is about 4th down the list, after Braille street signs.