Mea Culpa, life happens, life changes

WOW! I cannot believe its been this long since I have posted anything! Mea Culpa my lazy ass. 

Really now, things have been happening in my life. The first is the major change in my life is in the form a 5 foot tall work of God. Yep, this self avowed bachelor has fallen hard.  She fills my mind all the time, puts a smile on my face and drives  me crazy!

Next up, I had all I could take of working at Home Depot other than that's where I met Sweet Thang.  Really the pay has not kept up with the rising cost of groceries, gasoline, utilities or healthcare. I'm tired of figuring out what to sell every month to make ends meet. I have been treating looking for a job like a job and it finally paid off. I got a very good job with excellent pay (north of 20 buck an hour) AND I get to buy their product once a month! So...... This coming Monday I get a day of orientation and start work the next day. This place has 12 hour shifts and I do not yet know what my schedule will be. I shocked a manager at Home Depot when I told her I was getting a 32 thousand dollar raise!  I will be working a shift I don't like, overnights, but hey, the pay is good, the benefits are excellent and I get work on machines making my favorite thing....ammo!

Back to Home Depot....I was invited to a store town hall. I went prepared.
When the Store Manager got around to talking about the cost of doing business, I brought up the billions they allow, nationwide, to walk, unpaid for, out the front door. Then asked if HD could tolerate that loss why could they not pay their employees a decent wage. I mean home owners and pro's come to us for information, knowledge and expertise. And we don't make as much as their helpers do. When he then went to lecture me on how to manage my budget, ( after telling me he could not make it on the immense wage he makes) that I needed to balance my wants and needs! I stood up and told him I did not need anyone like him lecturing me, who has managed budgets up to 10 million dollars  and then I walked out of the town hall. AND I did not get fired! Two days later I got the offer (after some tests) from my new employer. I started using up my person time and on the last day I took off, went in and handed in my notice, effective immediately.

Recovery... I had my pseudo knee replacement surgery (pseudo as they dont really replace the knee joint now), and I have had many issues with this damn thing. A year and 5 months later it just starting to feel like it's my knee. Starting to. It still clicks a bit, still has some residual pain, yeah I know it's never going to stop hurting, I still get swelling and occasionally fluid on that knee. I took up walking on a local trail but that aggravated the "new" knee so that had to end. I'll never be able run again or kneel on the surgical knee. Still, it's better than what I had by a large margin. AND I do not take any pain pills any more. I was taking large amounts of prescription pain pills, then the government reduced the maximum dosage so ended up using more just to get by.

New type knee surgery only installs new bearing surfaces in the same old worn out joint. So, you are left with arthritic bone, now with screws in it. The old style replacement actually replaced the entire joint. They basically cut your leg off, installed and upper and lower joint and put it all back together, now they use a jig and trim up the chondriles and then glue and screw some plates on them and then put a hockey puck with a stem on it between the plates to act as cartilage

With the new job, I will be able to buy guns again, buy ammo again, resume prepping, AND get out of this crappy neighborhood!

Oh, did I mention there's a woman in my life?

I'll be back regularly, I promise.

Kalifornia Ammo Regulations or Arnold screwed the pooch

I don't know, maybe I've had it to easy here in the Midwest. Just walk in to any outlet that sells ammunition, make my selection, pay for it and carry it home. So simple and so easy. To bad the Californians aren't going to have it that easy now that Ahnold has signed a bill that will require fingerprints to purchase ammo. And they can forget about ordering over the internet and getting home delivery. Those orders have to be delivered to an FFL holder and then picked up by the original sucker, I mean customer. Oh, don't forget to leave your fingerprints when picking up that "internet" order. The good folks of Kalifornia wish to thank the Austrian ruler. Come to think of it, didn't some other overbearing, pretentious asshole come from Austria? You remember, that Hitler guy. People, vote with your feet. If you move away from that sunny cesspool you'll find the prices are cheaper, the people are nicer and soon you'll forget about the Mexican Annex called Kalifornia.
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Working on this little roof job is bring back some diminished skills. Like they say..use it or lose it. If you think about it, that goes for any skill. Hunting, shooting, cooking, sewing, you name it. You have to keep up on any skill you have. Practice, practice, practise.
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Now, I'm sore and tired so...see ya!