Training

My ex-marine son called tonight and asked if I was interested in any 30 Cal carbine magazines. A friend of his has a box full and he's willing to part with some. Since I only had 2 magazines to start with, yes I'm interested because one got blown into pieces when the bolt failed to close properly.

OOps!! I forgot there's no such thing as an ex-marine.

During our conversation, he said he's getting geared up for a tactical shotgun training class. Several years ago he acquired a Spas 12, that he intends to use for the class. It's a bit heavy, but firing that many rounds could be problematic if using a lighter weight weapon.

For the last couple of years I've been wanting to attend TDI for some advanced defensive handgun training. Unfortunately time, money or my physical condition has gotten in the way. Maybe some day it'll happen. The place is less than 2 hours drive from home, so there's not much room for excuses.

Merry Christmas

I hope all had a great Christmas this year.

The youngsters seemed to have had a good time and I know the youngest were thrilled with their gifts. The Boss liked hers as well. She's now the proud owner of a 2008 Mercury Malon, loaded with options and only 13,000 miles. It's replacing her 2000 Taurus.

As a bonus we're expecting all new furniture (sofa, love seat, 2 chairs - all recliners) for the family room sometime this week.

With all the money spent you'd think we had a big surplus of cash flow, but that's not the case. Cash flow is terrible because of my absence from work this fall. Fortunately the checking account was very healthy due to past wages combined with poor investment opportunities.

Not So healthy Care

Once the Fed takes control of our health care we can expect nothing but misery. Once the pain in my hip got to the point where I needed to get it fixed, surgery was only 2 weeks away. And that included pre-operation tests.

To glimpse our future of government control all we need to do is look to our north, Canada.
Patients wait longest to undergo orthopedic surgery (35.6 weeks) That's a wait of almost nine months, spent in pain, and in my case popping Vicodin just to sleep. And all that drug did was reduce the edge.

Government has no business messing with any private industry, especially because government by it's very nature is incompetent.

Ass Bachwards

It appears that tax cuts for the rich is "morally troubling", according the VP Biden. So I assume that punishing the financially successful is morally the right thing to do.

He couldn't have it more ass backwards if he was a communist. No wonder the Dems are depicted by a jack ass.

Continuation Bill

So the big Momma passed a continuation of the existing spending bill, once again. And once again instead of doing their job, congress has been spending their time and our money on insignificant and/or issues that's not their business.

Without this continuation bill, the federal government would not have any funding and be forced to shut down. Why am I complaining? We might be better off if the government did shut down. Doing nothing is certainly better than the crap they've been up to lately.

House Gun

A freedom lover at work just acquired a coach gun for home defense. His reasoning is that it's short and would be great down the hallway. I can't argue much against his choice. He is a gun-nut and defense-nut, much more so than I am.

Personally I'd go for a pump or semi-auto because of magazine capacity. If I have to clear the house by myself I'm using a pistol. Shotguns are just too long for anything but barricade use or to be carried by a partner.

For a shotgun I also prefer the smaller 20 over the 12. I know the 12 carries a heavier load, but in my opinion not enough extra to offset the slower target re-acquisition time, especially in the home.

Employment Status

Being an open ended contract engineer (11 months to date) I thought my extended absence for hip replacement surgery was also the end of my employment. Apparently they liked my work and expertise/experience. Being up the learning curve probably didn't hurt either.

Instead they brought in a designer with less education and expertise to help fill the void. Initially he was to stay a few weeks past my return, and that was it. I haven't put in a full work week since returning to work due to physical therapy, and at first just because I didn't have the energy. That may be partly why he's still working, but not the whole story. I just learned he'll be staying at least through the end of February.

Frankly I'm glad he's still working because he has been doing the important grunt work that would bore me to death. Besides, there's enough work stacked up to bury me without the help, as far as I can see anyway.

I also hear that one of the past co-op students will be joining us in the middle of January. They're also looking for a new R&D Process Engineer.

It sure looks like the silicon semiconductor business is on the rise. We can't grow enough crystals, of the right type, to supply the demand and the projections are for an increase in demand. I'll be heavily involved in converting growers, and creating handling equipment, for production of different product and more efficient processing.

I think I'll be working there for a while, unless I stumble upon a direct hire position that I'll like.