Another Morning

     I was a little down last night.  Feeling kind of trapped -- I want to write more, but I'm coming home from work just exhausted. 

     Clearly, I need to take more vitamin B or something.

Poached Eggs Plus!

     Week before last, I bought a couple of clever egg poachers made of silicone rubber at Agrarian.  (Like this, though better via the "Stuff you need" link at Tam's)

     They work like nobody's business when it comes to poaching eggs -- and even better at one of my favorite tricks: take thin slice of ham, salami or the like and line the poaching cup with it (sometimes you have to make some radial cuts in the meat), then break an egg into it.  This morning I tried it with some paper-thin Jamon Serrano, Spanish "mountain-cured ham," which is a rare and wonderful treat.  I put a little Colby Jack on the eggs in the last couple of minutes and the combination was remarkably tasty.

     The result looks fancy, too, despite being about as close to zero-effort as cooking gets.  The eggs pop right out of the poachers; a quick swipe of paper towel and the poachers are ready for the dishwasher.

      Relatedly: sliced brioche looks like bread but is tricky to toast.  It's so rich it tends to burn.  Worth the effort, though.  This is the stuff Marie Antoinette was talking about when she said, of peasants rioting over the lack of bread, "...then let them eat cake."  Pretty sure they would'a if they could, Queenie.

Saturday, Shootyday

     I took my H&R Model 999 to the range at Indy Arms Company, with the just-installed new rear sight the Data Viking had located on eBay, and shot a scary ghost face in the target at 21 feet:

     This is about a hundred rounds of .22, and "dialing in" the sights consisted of me working out if they were set for point of aim atop the front sight or covered by it.  I set the rear sight at home by lining it up with the barrel.  I don't know about long guns, but if your pistol sights aren't lined up with the point of impact when centered on the barrel or slide, it may be time to reevaluate your shooting technique; the manufacturers do go to great lengths to align the bore with the gun.

     Here's what I brung:

     L-R, Sistema Colt, H&R 999, Astra "Constable" (thank you, MK!) and an Iver Johnson TP-22. (On the latter two, "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to use a .22 clone.")  Alas, the little Iver Johnson wasn't happy, but the rest of them ran fine.  My .45 ACP shooting is not so good, with six or seven rounds out of fifty in the 9-ring at 21 feet.  They're all supposed to go in the center!  The gun does hammer-bite a little and that's not helping -- I don't want to put a modern beavertail on this nice old gun, so it is what it is.

"Shut This Off. Shut All Of These Off."

     Ever notice that when there is a "government shutdown" in the United States, Congress and the Internal Revenue Service appear to be exempt? And somehow there's always plenty of money to pay the people who fence off the various monuments and memorials, and padlock the National Parks....

No Good Deed Goes Unthreatened?

     Indianapolis has a violence problem.  Oh, Chicago has a murder rate well ahead of ours, but the city's record is far from admirable; about the best you can say is that the past couple of years have not been worse than the previous worst year.

     Most of the killing seems to be drug/gang related; true in the 1920s, still true today, and for much the same reason, laws that create a lucrative underground market.*  A few years ago, group of local ministers and concerned citizens decided to step up and do something by forming the Ten Point Coalition.  Both proactive and reactive, Ten Point members patrol high-profile events like the Indiana Black Expo/Summer Celebration and this weekend's Circle City Classic and show up at crime scenes, talking with young people, trying to head off trouble before it starts and generally being visible and involved.  I don't know how you'd measure results, but violence at public events does seem to be down since they started making their rounds.  At least they're trying something.

     It may have some bad guys bothered, though the evidence is far from reassuring: Friday night, Coalition members showed up at a murder scene IMPD was working and were threatened by some angry young men.  It appears to have been a credible threat, not idle talk.

     ...And Saturday, Ten Point Coalition members, in their distinctive bright-yellow safety vests bearing the group's name, were walking among the crowds downtown for the Circle City Classic.  Undaunted.

     I rail about "do-gooders" from time to time but I make an exception for people who contribute sweat equity, who put that hands and backs where their words are.  The Ten Point Coalition has way more of that than most groups.  I suspect we'd disagree on many fine points of religion and politics but I agree with them on the general goal of making this city a better place.

     Want to do good?  Then be good.  Even in the face of threats.
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* Don't like the killing?  Then don't buy drugs.  Not even pot.  Sheesh, you can take a bus to states where that stuff is as legal as church on the Sabbath if you choose to indulge.  Yes, I'm an anarcho-capitalist and I think whatever you wanna put in your body is your choice, but actions do have consequences.  When you do business with criminals, you're underwriting their crimes, malum in se as well as malum prohibitum.  Moral behavior requires a road trip, gardening skills and/or home chemistry.†
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     † As a chronic pain sufferer, let me remind readers that spinning a really convincing tale of woe to an M.D. does not count as moral behavior, and just makes it more difficult for people who actually need painkillers to get them.

A Hole In The Sky

     There was a hole in the sky yesterday.

     I don't know why.  This kind of phenomenon is, of course, characteristic of the smallish "bell" or "bowler hat" Far Edge starships, but if one of them had Jumped there would have been quite a boom, which surely would have been noticed.  Also, it's a violation of the Agreement of 1989 to do so over an inhabited area.

     Skies were just a bit odd yesterday.

     Very pretty, though.

Musical Interlude

     ....Mr. Artie Shaw and the band:

     I knew the tune but not the title or artist.  Shaw, who was a complicated guy (and that's a drastic simplification!)  crafted his own epitaph: "He did the best he could with the material at hand."  While speaking to a college music class, one of the students mentioned having read this and the elderly Shaw replied, "...I've been thinking it over and I've decided it ought to be shorter, to make it more elegant." And after a brief pause, "I've cut it down to two words: 'Go away.'"

Vibration Dampers From Outer Space?

     They're used on guy wires and long support cables.  They prevent or reduce "aeolian vibration," which is to say, they keep the wind from playin' 'em like a harp.  Literally.  It's lovely when it's an instrument designed for the purpose but it can destroy large structures.

      So we damp it out.  Modern computer analysis has replaced the traditional hollow bell-type damper with a kind of dumbbell, effective over a wider range of frequencies and without the water-retaining properties of the older type.

     But they sure do look freaky.

Seen At The Hardware Store

    The big Ace Hardware in a neighborhood between Broad Ripple and the Skunk Works North Campus has a lot of fasteners and small findings of all types.  All types:

Gun screws!

     Have I mentioned recently how much I love this town?

Report From The Front

     The following has been slightly modified, to protect the guilty:

Dear REMF:

     Troops arrived promptly on schedule; ammunition and supplies, scheduled to be available here not later than Friday last, instead arrived four hours later.  Ammunition was mostly in the wrong caliber; after considerable delay, a small amount was matched to one (1) gun.  I'm told the big shells may not be here for quite some time.  Your office expressed somewhat whimsical mild dismay when I made inquiries.

     No communication equipment of any kind was sent.  When asked, your office replied that it was "hardwired into a box we don't usually send for squad-level jobs," and asked if perhaps I had something I could lend.

     After an entire day of what could, with charity, be described as slight progress, I was informed that one-third of the men you sent were for that day only, and will be transported elsewhere starting this morning.

     The enemy was not contacted.  This is just as well, for with support like yours, all they really need to do is keep their boots polished and their teeth brushed until we have defeated ourselves.

     Very sincerely,
     Lt. R. J. Ecks

Oh, Dark Thirty

     And is it ever.  I'm up ahead of the roosters to get ready to meet a tower crew at the North Campus.  So far, this project has proceeded, as Tam says, "grabastically," no word from the contractor for a couple of months, then a huge flurry of waste motion on short notice.

     I stayed close to home on Friday (a day off), as they supposedly had a truckload of supplies arriving. (This after a lot of back-and-forth Thursday on paying for the supplies in advance between my employer and the engineering firm who hired the tower crew.)  The crew boss called me at noon to advise they were still waiting and would call me as soon as they heard from the driver.  Never happened and when I called at 6:30 p.m., the crew boss sheepishly told me the truck had "had some kind of trouble," wouldn't be in town until Monday, and "I, unh, forgot to call you." 

     Not a good sign.  Tower crews tend to be "salt of the earth" types, willing to work long hours applying uncommon skills to dangerous tasks, but the crews are extremely tight-knit, quick to take offense and stubborn as the day is long.  I'm hoping their noses aren't much out of joint but if they stubborn up on me, oh well; I get paid by the hour and I'm happy to spend part of the day e-mailing up and down through my bosses and theirs until the work gets properly done.

Targets From Friday

     I don't want to brag -- really, I don't.  So I'm not. I think the guy in the bay to my left was working on weak-hand drills.  Even if not, his target is a cut above the usual "Swiss cheese."

     Still, it's undeniably gratifying.  Seven yards, as usual.