If you're looking for something for a lady for Christmas, or any other occasion,

Lawdog has something that might be useful.  Especially if she works in a place that discourages means of self-defense.

Yes, someone actually broke into a vault using a 20mm

A Lahti AT rifle.

A bit more of history from the end of the article:
Beginning in the mid-1950s, the Lahti AT rifles began to be advertised by American surplus arms dealers. For several years the Lahti L-39 was priced at $99 in its transit case and with a full complement of accessories. The Lahti was originally available without restriction, but since it is larger than .50 caliber (12.7 mm), it was labeled a “destructive device” and subject to NFA regulations by the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, and the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Ah, such a toy to have, assuming you have the space to put it in.

Holy crap...

The weekend, then a mission to Sam's yesterday.  This morning PT.  And I want to go to sleep.

This is gonna take a while longer.

Once again, 'The subject was known to the authorities'

A year and a half before he was arrested in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting that left five people dead, Anderson Lee Aldrich allegedly threatened his mother with a homemade bomb, forcing neighbors in surrounding homes to evacuate while the bomb squad and crisis negotiators talked him into surrendering.

Yet despite that scare, there’s no public record that prosecutors moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich, or that police or relatives tried to trigger Colorado’s “red flag” law that would have allowed authorities to seize the weapons and ammo the man’s mother says he had with him.
Doesn't all this sound familiar?  Like this does:
Colorado Springs police would not comment officially on whether the suspected shooter was the same individual charged with multiple counts of kidnapping and felony menacing after the bomb-threat incident in southeastern Colorado Springs on June 18, 2021. But the man taken into custody at that time had the same name and age as the Club Q shooter. A federal law-enforcement official on Sunday confirmed that the Club Q gunman’s birth date matched that of the bomb-threat suspect.

The Colorado Springs district attorney’s office ultimately declined to bring formal charges in the wake of the 2021 bomb-threat incident, and the court records for the case were placed under seal, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

Again.  But "We need more gun laws!" they cry...

I think a little clearing might be in order

"Y'know, I think if I'm careful I could-

screw it, I'm not trying."
Frankly, the idea of repair surgery because "Why did you do that?" scares the crap out of me.

Saw something really interesting over the weekend

Guy had a rifle that'd just been finished last week, he sighted it at 30 yards for a start and next day, just because he could, sat under a tree with it and had a buck walk past about 30 yards away and get placed in the freezer.

The rifle is an original Remington rolling block receiver with a new Green Mountain 30" heavy barrel, chambered in .45-120.  Yeah, I believe that would cleanly take a deer.

Beautiful work, though after trying it with the original buttstock, he got a replacement and put a recoil pad on it.  Even with the weight, "That steel buttplate had to go."

I'll see if can get a decent picture of it in the future.

I am officially ready to collapse.

Finished the weekend, but my back aches and my legs and the rest of me are so tired...

And when I checked the social media crap, sure enough, there's the "Winter will be AWFUL!" crap.  I have no energy left and too many other things to worry about, so screw it.

After two almost-full days back at work,

I am tired.  REALLY tired.  I remember from last time, it's still a matter of "It's going to take a while to get back up to speed.  In multiple ways."

 And, just like last time, as the fluids from all the swelling are working out of the tissues, I'm having to pee multiple times per night.  It's not 'I can't pee very much at a time', it's 'By this time I've pissed out enough that my whole damn body should be smaller!'

Be it noted that the hearing aids really help.  When there's a lot of background  noise there's still a problem, but less than used to be, and as a guy put it "I can tell they help, I'm not having to yell at you."

So we'll keep going on and see how it all shakes out.

Let us proceed to the seventh evening activities,

which are waiting down below

It being one of those select evenings, and too damn cold outside

to not be inside, we shall now adjourn to the study materials

Why, it's like Hollywood is run by rapists and groomers

Fraser spoke with an independent investigator after going public with his claims. Soon after, he says the HFPA asked him to sign a joint statement. That statement, Fraser told GQ, said, "Although it was concluded that Mr. Berk inappropriately touched Mr. Fraser, the evidence supports that it was intended to be taken as a joke and not as a sexual advance."

Fraser refused to sign the release. Berk later told GQ he remained a member of the organization and received no disciplinary action.
Makes you wonder how many total have been either raped or had their career damaged or destroyed for saying no.

The torturers have an interesting device

It's a leg-long inflatable sock that they zip over your leg, adding a heating pad or ice pack where/if appropriate before zipping.  It's hooked to a compressor and controller that inflates and deflates it in sections to work different parts of your leg in sequence.

Interesting thing.  Except when you have three minutes to go and things suddenly get real uncomfortable.
"Remember, we can stop it at any time if it gets uncomfortable."
Yeah, either you will or I will.

Still, it does help work things out a bit.  Long session today, and I'm needing to lay down and put the leg up.

First time in a while, did some loading last night

Which isn't striking, it's getting the leg into a position where it doesn't start aching while doing such.

Yes, I'm doing the PT stuff.  And have a session with the torturers later today.  It's improving.  I think some of the ache is due to the cold; I really wish I'd been able to get this done at the original date, the healing would be a lot further along.

And, once again, I'm peeing enough at night to be a pain; I was told the first time that it's the body getting rid of the fluids involved in the bruising.  Since there are stairs to deal with to the bathroom, a large bottle by the bed is very helpful.  You can get the urinal bottles like hospitals use, but the volume a lot of nights would require two of them, and I already had the bottle.

One of the nice things about Oklahoma is Braum's.  Ice cream, butter, milk, and food, including some very good biscuits and gravy.  On a morning when I have to eat something before some of the meds and I can't/don't want to cook, it's a good cheap breakfast, and there's one close.

I shall now do my prep for heading to the torture chamber.  May be more later if I survive.

It still amazes me how, if you have the 'right' politics, celebrity asshats

will practically fight each other to absolve you of your racist words and actions.  Especially if you attacked Jews.
Now, with the help of Robert De Niro’s Tribeca film festival, legendary director Spike Lee and California-based Jewish filmmaker Josh Alexander, have joined forces to cleanse the antisemitic riot leader of those embarrassing blood stains, with ample help from The Associated Press. Because Alexander’s film, based on interviews with Sharpton and titled “Loudmouth,” which ended the Tribeca festival Saturday night, celebrates Sharpton’s legacy as “an extension of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rep. John Lewis.”
...
It appears no one today recalls Sharpton’s role in the attack on Crown Height’s Jews and the killing of Yankel Rosenbaum. According to the sworn testimony of then-Crown Heights resident Efraim Lipkind, Sharpton showed up before the riots. “Then we had a famous man, Al Sharpton, who came down, and he said Tuesday night, kill the Jews, two times. I heard him, and he started to lead a charge across the street to Utica,” Lipkind testified
And the nasty asshole has done more since.

Wonder if any of the Social Justice types will have any qualms about this shit, or- being leftists- will they just cheer this garbage on?

At some point a bunch of doctors and couselors

are going to be called to task for their whole-hearted embrace of the trans movement, just about 'at any cost', and it's going to be nasty.  

We have this currently from the NYeffingTimes noting 'there may be problems with giving kids these drugs, especially when there haven't been enough questions asked/actual counselling of these kids.'
Now go back to last year when two of the top doctors on the subject were saying "This needs to be slowed down", and
Anderson said that she had submitted an op ed to The New York Times warning about the risks of treatments, and the paper turned it down because the story was 'outside our coverage priorities right now.'

Short version: the possible consequences of puberty blockers on kids are not well known, some can be/are really bad, and this often isn't discussed with parents and the kid.  Which can lead to serious long-term/lifelong problems.

Now throw in the activists who, if you don't fall into line and wholeheartedly support them, you're transphobic or a terf or whatever the current insult is.

A lot of kids are paying for this crap.

Note: Bari Weiss had a big piece on her Substack site about this.

Another movie watched while recovering

In 1978 Death on the Nile was made, with Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot.  In 2022 they remade it with Kenneth Branagh playing Poirot.  Original had Lois Chiles as a head character/murder victim, in the new one Gal Gadot played the part.

Good: overall Branagh pulled the character off well.  Gadot did the same with Linnet Ridgeway.

Bad: can you say 'Woke worked into everything'?

They changed a bunch of characters(have to have a proper mix of races), threw in two lesbian lovers, an interracial romance, a bunch of crew members on the riverboat being both female and dressed as they would not have been in Egypt in the nineteen-teens or -twenties.  And they really screwed the ending around.

The new version isn't terrible, but if you've seen the earlier the differences and Woke will really slap you in the face.

This I have to make note of, People who have no damned idea what barbeque means

A North Carolina restaurant said a customer called 911 after her barbecue was pink, not understanding how the cooking process works.
...
As the story goes, restaurant employees explained to the woman that when meat is smoked, it turns pink. They even Googled the fact but the woman was not satisfied.

"Lady continues to say ‘It's not done' and 'well you can cook it some more,'" the Facebook post continued.

Hearing aids

I'd decided "I have to do something" a while back, my hearing is so bad.  Got the tests done, recommendations on machinery, and was finally able to get them about a week ago.

Holy crap.

The difference is incredible.  I can hear someone's voice in a noisy room and actually know what they're saying.  They're very small and light, and they bluetooth to the phone so I'm hearing that direct to the aids.  Music I can understand, and I'm not bitching that the PC has no more volume.

Few months back Mom had mentioned Dad's sister finally got some, and she was sort of unhappy: "Every little noise I used to not hear is annoying me."  I understand, but overall I don't agree.  When I can get back to work, this is going to make a huge difference when talking to people.  Especially those who speak softly when looking down or to one side, they should be much less of a pain to deal with.

Would've been nice starting  quite a while back, but one damn thing at a time.

The knee is improving, (an addition)

and start outpatient PT tomorrow.  One of the bad parts of all this is not being able to sit for long, either the knee or back of the thigh starts aching and you have to move around, trying to find a comfortable position.  Which can be almost impossible.

Supposed to snow today, we'll see how much.

And, of course, doctor's appointments.  I can drive, but it hurts a bit.  And I wouldn't try going very far, which makes the offices being fairly close a better thing than usual.

I haven't been able to shoot, or go out and do anything, and I've been largely ignoring most news, so not a whole lot to write about, "I finished pt and I effing hurt" isn't exactly interesting.  So we'll see if anything worth saying comes about.

Added: this weather is why I wish the surgery had been on the original date: I'd be two months post-surgery and I think this cold wouldn't be bothering me so damn much.  Getting to that appointment later is going to suck.