Ol' Betsy is Broken

The Ballad of Davey Crockett was the number one song on the Hit Parade for a long time. I don't remember exactly how long, but it broke the record.

I read a book about Dan'l Boone once, and he didn't exactly have a boring life. He was captured by the Indians several times and they adopted him into their tribe at least once. He was with them or so long that, after he finally escaped and made it back to the settlement, he was charged with desertion and treason. He beat the charge, but some people never did trust him after that. He made a fortune in real estate, but pissed it away and eventually died broke.

My Grandmother used to make her own soap out of lard. She gave me a bar of it once, I took a shower with it, and I smelled like bacon for days afterward.

I smoked a pipe and cigars before I ever smoked cigarettes. I never did like the smell of secondary cigarette smoke, but I did like the smell of pipes and cigars when other people were smoking them. Cherry Blend was my favorite, and I really tried to get used to it, but it made my mouth feel like somebody had cleaned it out with sandpaper. If I smoked it more than once or twice a day, I couldn't taste my food for a day or two afterwards. I finally settled down with menthol cigarettes. I still don't like the smell of secondary cigarette smoke, but I decided that I would rather smoke something that tastes good to me and doesn't burn the lining out of my mouth.

The muzzle loader season opened today, but I couldn't get out today. My plan was to practice yesterday and go out tomorrow. My first shot went off the mark, and the breech became hard to open after that. Come to find out that Ol' Betsy had developed a crack in her stock, which made the other parts not line up right. I jiggled things around a little and everything popped back into place, the crack in the stock closed up so that you can't hardly see it. I had to shoot the gun one more time because that's the only feasible way to unload a muzzle loader, but I'm not going to shoot it anymore until I can assess the damage and see if I can fix it. I didn't want to get into it until I have the time to do it properly. The stock will have to be removed and the parts that interface with it will have to be checked out. If everything still works, I should be able to duck tape the stock together and keep the crack from re-opening. Then I have to re-zero the scope, which means to make sure that the gun is shooting where I aim it. They don't always, you know. Any little thing can throw a scope out of adjustment. What you do is shoot at the target several times, and then adjust the scope to aim where the bullets are actually hitting. If you can't get two or three bullets to hit within an inch or two of each other, then you have some other problem that will need to be addressed before you can do anything with the scope adjustments. Best case scenario is that I can get out hunting on Sunday, worst case scenario is that I'm all done for this season. If parts need to be ordered, or the gun needs professional attention, The season will likely be over before I can make that happen.

The reason I mentioned The Plan is that you seemed to imply that God, or whoever is in charge of such things, was remiss in allowing our rabbit population to crash like it did. The thing is, nothing in nature stays the same forever. The Creationists believe that it does, but they're just not paying attention. Truth be known, I don't know for certain that there is a Plan but, if there is, it's not put there for our convenience. If there is no Plan, then we still have to adapt to whatever happens, it's not going to adapt to us.

I understand that our Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw delivered a load of Christmas trees to you guys today. Did you hear about that? They have been doing this for years, and there is quite a story behind the tradition. They were supposed to dock at Navy Pier this morning and unload the trees tomorrow. There will be a brass band and other assorted hoopla. Can you see Navy Pier from your balcony?