Random thoughts from flyover country

Thursday, December 24

The Christmas Rifle and the Christmas Blizzard of 2009 - Update

My lovely wife bought me a Christmas Rifle, a Ruger Mini 14 in .223 Rem/5.56x45mm NATO, at Walmart when she was picking up Christmas presents for the grandchildren and groceries. Then, today around 1:00 pm the rain turned to sleet, making good on the Winter Storm Warning. However, it didn't stop there; the weatherguessers then changed the Winter Storm Warning to a Blizzard Warning. The wind kicked up to a steady 35 kts, the sleet accumulated and turned into snow. I had to pick my wife up from work, leaving her car there, and stop numerous times to clear the windshield wipers of an accumulation of ice. My younger daughter swore she could get home, but I ended up serving as her GPS over her cell phone to get her to my mom's house.

So, here we are, home alone and exhausted. My older daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren are home since they couldn't get here. My younger daughter is at grandma's. We're all supposed to go to grandma's for Christmas tomorrow, and we will if the roads get plowed in time. So here I am with a nifty Christmas Rifle, and, unless the weather moderates, nobody will get to see it.

It seems to me that someone should have warned us that Algore was going to be in the state this week. Next person tells me "Global Warming" is real is gonna get punched. (Exaggeration for effect.)

Update: We all got to my Mom's house after a few shuttle runs, and we had a wonderful Christmas dinner. There were 19 of us including my younger niece's brand new baby boy. The weather is still cold, cold enough that we still have the snow and ice. I have to go back to work this afternoon, so it will be at least two weeks before I can get to the range. For some reason, my wife doesn't want to spend part of our 36th Wedding Anniversary weekend shooting. Go figure.

ECS