Thank you for the prayers and kind thoughts and sarcastic observations!! I loved 'em all.

Honestly, I don't remember any sarcastic comments. Other places I got questions why an 80 year old guy was driving a fast go kart, like that was something weird. The best though was the Doctor when I was in Rehab. He was interested in my life so we talked about traveling around the world, living in foreign countries. When I checked out of Rehab he said, "I probably shouldn't say this but I hope when I am your age I do something similar."

https://m.youtube.com/@tenkaraangler/videos

Meanwhile I have the requisite "shovels and rakes and other implements of destruction" needed to catch tiny fishes at the ready.....

Yes .. I would like to go to Africa again.

The harder bullet will always show up. Before a got a lead hardness tester I tested my cast bullets this way.

As they tried to figure it out, a game warden came along to check their hunting licenses. After hearing their dilemma, he offered to settle the matter. He carefully examined the deer and then said, “One of you guys is a preacher, right?” Sure enough, one of them was.

“Well, preacher,” the game warden said, “your shot is the one that got the buck.”

The other two men were amazed. “How did you know one of us was a preacher? And how did you know that the preacher’s shot was the one that hit the deer?”

“Simple,” the game warden replied. “It went in one ear and out the other.”

As they tried to figure it out, a game warden came along to check their hunting licenses. After hearing their dilemma, he offered to settle the matter. He carefully examined the deer and then said, “One of you guys is a preacher, right?” Sure enough, one of them was.

“Well, preacher,” the game warden said, “your shot is the one that got the buck.”

The other two men were amazed. “How did you know one of us was a preacher? And how did you know that the preacher’s shot was the one that hit the deer?”

“Simple,” the game warden replied. “It went in one ear and out the other.”

If any of you are interested in receiving our mission updates/prayer requests, we just started a new system last month. https://sacm1987.substack.com/ is where you can join if interested. There is NO paid subscription, that'd be asinine, but Substack insists on offering such a thing. Just ignore that part of the sign up process. We appreciate all who take time to pray with/for us as we serve the population here in Coffee Country.

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TK CUSTOM is also on AMAZON if you want to order through them. They are also on EBAY.

It seems that we southrons consider the words "pen" and "pin" as homophones and northerners get a good laugh at that. When you get a northerner to explain the differences they invariably, at least to my ears, treat "pen" and "pan" as homophones. They insist that there is a very subtle difference but, with my gunfire damaged hearing I cannot discern it.

The vast difference between southrons and northerners re. this subject is that we do not quite make fun at you all as heartily or as often for saying "pen" and "pan" the same like you all do us for pronouncing "pen" and "pin" alike. It is a subject of what the linguists refer to as schwa. I don't claim to understand it all at all but what I understand the professors to be saying is that vowels ain't always pronounced the way you'd think they should.

The "shift" part of all this apparently is the indefinite geographic zone delineating the different iterations. Now i know some of you learned folk opine that the term "iteration" is incorrect in the previous sentence but I took the time to look it up. According to the online dictionary, iteration is a synonym for verbiage and one of the definitions of verbiage is...."the way in which something is expressed; wording or diction.". Where was I ?

Oh, the so-called "shift". In the slightly east of the center of our great nation it is the ohio river that bounds the schwaery of pin/pan on the north shore and pen/pin on its southern shore. Cincinnati folk schwaing it one way and across the bridge Covington folk schwaing it another is but one (or is that two ?) example(s).

I bring up Cincinnati/Covington because it was there that this whole schwaery issue just about got me in trouble. I was there for a conference/convention in my line of work and my employer had graciously financed the whole trip. The whole trip was boring and uneventful with the exception of the following.....

One evening supper time found me in a steakhouse and the waitress was quite the looker. The red name tag on her blue apron advised she was Brenda. No, not beautiful in the classic covergirl sense and certainly on the wrong side of thirty with many miles on the odometer in the social sense, but she sure had the appeal and knew how to use it. She was one of those gals who could easily rake in $80 to $100 in tips even on a slow night just with smile and a sideways look with arched eyebrows and an easy swivel of her moneymaker.

I had just chosen my cut of cow and doneness thereof and type of spud when she asked in a sultry purr, "you want any vag with that ?" .....pronouncing it vahgzs in such seductive marilyn monroeish breathless delivery that I had little doubt that I was being propositioned for an after-work assignation.

I was struck momentarily speechless and had a brief memory lapse of inconsequential things such as marriage vows and sunday school lessons and fire/brimstone sermons. The.latent hound dog in me was waking and stretching and yawning. As stupid and unreasonable as it sounds, thoughts of letting this wench have her way with me was actually foremost in my thoughts. I said in an juvenile, optimistic voice that did not even sound like myself, "Yes ! I think I will indeed have some vag with that after all." I had no sooner got that out when an electric gong of sorts sounded..... much like the doink-doink you often hear on the telly on certain criminal investigation episodes..

"My shift's over." said Brenda. "You keep thinking about that vag and Jennifer will be here in just a sec. to finish taking your order." and she left with not even a phone number or address scribbled on a napkin.

"But wait ! " I protested to the empty space that she had just occupied. I was definitely let down and I think I actually cussed out loud when in wadled Jennifer, an obese whopper in the same styled blue wait-livery that Brenda had worn......there was just a whole lot more of Jennifer than there had been of Brenda.

"Okay, I've got an iced tea and flatiron, medium-well with fries." said Jennifer. "Have you decided on which veggie you want with that ?"

Sourdough Pancake by Simply Rugged. It was nice of Rob to include a Most Versatile Ammo Pouch (Small) ... it fits on your belt and will hide under a shirt nicely. And a 6 round speed strip fits it nicely.

They now call 32 caliber bullets .303. When you click on "caliber" .303 is the only option for 32 calibers. When you click on pistol bullets and then click on cartridge, they only show about 15 different calibers and not the first 32 of any kind is in the list. Plus, the new website constantly freezes up, and you have to start over.

Why couldn't they leave well enough alone is beyond me. It is like they either used the
3-stooges to design the new place or A.I.

Rant over.

At least the humidity is low .... for here ....

Once upon a time there was a plan to install as many as four state run "rest areas" on a busy four-lane east/west non-interstate highway and the funds (billions) were allocated. But that governor's administration self-destucted in fits of much publicized hanky-panky . The leaked audio recordings sound much like don knotts in character as "bernard fife" lewdly pitching woo to betty lynn in character as "thelma lou". The old lady lieutenant-governor who stepped-in nixed the rest area deal opining, "if you need to pee, there is a Jack's every 15 minutes on that highway !"

Jack's biscuits are much celebrated for flavour and texture but they have dramatically shrank in size over the decades. They (biscuits) are an estimated a third to half the size of the competition's. Recently I was complaining in a good-natured banter with one of the relatively "wholesome" much tattooed and pierced drive-thru window wenches when I said, "if those biscuits get any thinner you'll be able to read a newspaper through one of them !"

To which she queried, "what's that ?" The young "lady" did not know what a newspaper is/was !

https://www.eatatjacks.com/pages/our-story/

Arizona Fish and Game had authorized the .22 Magnum in a rifle for Javelina and that was what I needed. Looking around I had an old Stevens Marksman .22 rifle. It is the break open single shot that Stevens had made.

The barrel on the one I had was no good, but, the Marksman is a take-down! And I had a perfectly fine Mossberg barrel in .22 Long Rifle. All I had to do was rechamber the Mossberg barrel to .22 Magnum and turn it down to where it would fit the Stevens. The action was plenty strong for the .22 Magnum.

I worked on it and got it done. I did not have a .22 Magnum chambering reamer but I improvised. I used a drill bit a few thousands smaller than the .22 Magnum cartridge. Then, using a fired .22 Magnum cartridge on a home-made shaft, I polished out the chamber with my electric drill, valve grinding compound on the cartridge. It was slow but it worked very nicely. I fitted the barrel to the Stevens, got the sights lined up and sighted it in. Then my daughter started practicing with it.

Opening day found us out in the canyons near Oracle, Arizona. I knew where the different herds of Javelina were and we headed towards one that I thought promising. Coming down a hill towards a wash in the bottom, suddenly we both spotted Javelina on the opposite hillside, maybe 40 yards distant. My daughter said, "Look Dad!" and I said, "Shoot one!" She raised the rifle, cocked the hammer and fired. At the shot a pig rolled down the hill toward us. It raised its head and I told her to shoot it in the head, which she did.

We found that her first shot was high but had taken out nearly 2" of its spine above the shoulders. I was more excited than she was I think.

Those were good days and I am happy to have the memories.