Bad News

Several years ago I picked up an old Ishapore that had the barrel chopped to create a fake jungle carbine.  It's fun to shoot with Mil-Surp ammo.  For several years I've been thinking about having the barrel threaded for a flash hider that I could position to change the barrel harmonics, thus improving accuracy.  I've also thought about having a rail added in front of the receiver, turning it into sort of a scout rifle.

Today while running errands, I stopped at the local gun smith to have the modifications made.  There was a sign on the door telling me that he closed his business 3 weeks ago.  This guy did excellent work at a reasonable price.  Damn.  Now I gotta find someone else.

Just Crap

Our older and much larger home and lot has been on the market for about 2-1/2 years.  The list price started at a little higher than the taxed appraised value, and is now below.  In that time we've had just 1 offer.  That was recent and at $45K less than the list price.  After many counter offers, if accepted by the buyer, we'll be about $30K less than priced and #20K below what we paid for the place, ignoring the upgrades and addition we spent money on.  At this time we don't know if we have a deal, but we're as low as we will go on this.  Right now we still own 2 homes, but thankfully only 1 mortgage.

Yep, the economy is in good shape.  Standard government bull shit.

What a Tease

The temporary electrical wires were removed from the Boss this morning.  A few minutes ago I was requested to get her bottle of oxy . . something.  She went all last week without taking any pain pills.  This was a trial to see if the electrical stimulation reduces her pain, and it turned out to be a tease. 

The insurance approval was only for the temporary trial.  When she decides to go for the permanent implantation, the insurance requires another approval process and then scheduling of the surgery.  I'm guessing it'll be another 2 months before she can once again get off the pain medications.

If it Walks Like a Duck . . .

Does it feel to you like we're still in recession?  Here's evidence that we certainly are.

. . . means that real labor usage on net, taking into account hours worked, fell by the equivalent of 100,000 jobs since September.

Pain Test

Apparently the spine implanted electrodes do not quite mask all the pain.  Yesterday we put it to the test.  We spent about 7 hours shopping in a flea market and outlet mall.  She had to occasionally increase the power, but she made it.  In the recent past she would've been done in under 2 hours.

Tomorrow I'm taking her to out patient surgery again.  This time to remove the temporary electrodes.

I suspect she'll make arrangements to have the permanent system implanted, but I don't really know.

Interesting Situation

I read that 250 CT state LEOs signed an open letter stating they will not enforce the unconstitutional AWB and magazine capacity limit law of their state.  I hope there's a lot more that won't either, otherwise there is a possibility of a government vs citizen shooting war in the works.  At the same time the media is encouraging door to door confiscation.

Pain in The . . .

For decades the Boss has had back pain.  The pain has continuously escalated since about 1990.  A few years ago that pain progressed to shooting pain down her legs.  She had spine surgery to remove arthritis from several vertebrae.  That took care of the shooting pain, but the back pain has continued to get worse.  Her life has been miserable because of that, and doctors don't know why.

Yesterday she had 2 wires temporarily inserted into her spine near her spinal cord.  The wires lead out of her back to a power/control unit taped to her side.  A remote control is used to change magnitude and wave form of electrical stimulation.  The idea is to keep communication to her brain so busy that pain signals can't get through.  So far it's been working.  The pain is gone.

If the results continue to be positive she'll have a new set of wires and the power unit permanently implanted. That would be considerably better than living life in a drug induced haze.