Bogieblog

Time Spent with WS's Family

Thanksgiving day WS and his brother set up a target so his brother D could use his Glock 17 for the first time (he’s had it several years). After we loaded the magazines, D offered the handgun to WS, who declined. D didn’t want to shoot first, so I was happy to do so. I shot a good grouping with the first 8 shots, then I offered it to D. H immediately got slide bit. I apologized to him as I has assumed that he had at least shot a handgun before and knew how to hold it so as not to get hit by the slide. I then showed him the technique that I use and he had a much better time.

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Friday we went for a drive and visited some people that wouldn’t be at the family event on Saturday. We were taken on the “scenic” route – in this case the scenery was of the windmill farms. Was told that there are somewhere around 500 windmills along the corridor that we visited. It was kind of cool to see. The pictures will give lie to the fact that everyone thinks that Kansas is totally flat. It was so un-flat that I could rarely get more than 3 or 4 windmills in a picture. We did top a bluff and I was able to get a good shot of dozens of the machines though.

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Saturday: A family get together (WS’s family) was held at a church function room. It was a pot luck lunch and there was lots of good food present (the Santa Fe Soup was one of the offerings). We also did family pictures, using personal digital cameras. A lot of the family that I have only met once (or never) was present as well as the immediate family that we always visit with.

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Sunday, WS’s sister and her boyfriend came over for more shooting fun. They brought with them a Hi-Point 995 rifle (an older model – not the newer type that has rails and all kinds of crap on it), a Ruger .22 and a BB. They were supposed to bring an LCP also (which we had gotten ammo for), but they somehow forgot it. Oh well, we all had fun with what was brought along with D’s Glock 17. We also had a new shooter, WD’s grandnephew, who is about 8 years old. He shot well, but needed reminding about safety rules a couple of times. He couldn’t handle the long stock of the Hi-Point (although as you can see by the picture, he tried), but there were enough other firearms there to keep him busy. It was a cold afternoon (lower 40’s, cloudy and windy), so after 90 minutes or so, everyone was ready to come in and get warm.

Early Monday morning we left for Kansas City, to return to our regular lives.

Time Spent With Bogie's Family

Sunday: We were taking family photos and one of the shots was of just me and Dudette. Chew piped up and said that it should be called “Moments in Menopause”. God will get him for that!

Here are pics of NG1 and NG2, not taken at the picture taking event, but later during the visit:

And as you can tell, the younger generation is ignored by everyone - LOL.

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Monday: Went to workout facility that Cop Car uses. It is affiliated with a large company, so has a huge selection of machines. I love getting to use it when there. Cop Car and Dudette used the swimming pool while I tried out various machines. I also used fee weights and it was definitely the best workout I got while on vacation.

After the workout, Cop car dropped me back at the hotel, where I picked up WS and we headed to Casa Cop Car. On the way, we stopped at a Dillon’s (like Shaw’s here in the NorthEast) to pick up a few items. As we were checking out, the cashier asked if my name was “Bogie”. I looked at him, puzzled how he would know my name. Then I looked at him closer, looked at the name tag, which only had the letter “D” on it, and looked at him again. I suddenly realized it was someone I had worked with back in 1981-82 at a fast food joint.

We gabbed for a few moments; he is married with 4 children, several grandchildren, his mother has passed, where he lives etc. There were people in line, so the conversation only lasted a couple of minutes. I was happy to see that D was doing fine and still the cheerful person that I had known way back when.

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Wednesday: Our day to leave and head to the Salina area of the state to see WS’s family. We stopped at Gander Mountain, which we don’t have here in New Hampshire, because I wanted to check it out. While there, we bought ammo, targets and ear plugs for use with WS’s family. As an aside, I have never seen so many signs against CCW holders in my life. In fact, I haven't even seen any such signs in Massachusettes (not that I spend a lot of time in Mass, but I don't spend a lot of time in Kansas either).

We stopped to see Dudette and dropped off our recyclables (plastic and glass bottles from juice, water and beer), and to see the new range. We chatted for a bit then left to visit the Wichita Harley shop. It was a really nice day (low 60’s and sunny) and we wished we had time to rent a bike and go for a ride. Instead, we looked at bikes and bought a couple of T-shirts, then headed on our way to Salina.

I Went on Vacation to go Shopping

The night before leaving on vacation, we were packing when I notice that Fuzzy seemed to be keeping an eye on things. I am unsure if it made him nervouse, he thought he was supervising and making sure I didn't miss anything, or if he was contemplating jumping in and lounging on the piles of clothes.

The trip to Kansas went exceedingly well. Only one of my carry-ons was searched, and I didn't have to go thru pat down (MHT doesn't have x-ray yet). Our first flight both took off from MHT and landed at Baltimore on time. We made our connecting flight, which was routed thru Wisconsin before we made it to KC. Those flights were also uneventful. Once we were in KC, or two suitcases were within the first 5 on the conveyor belt so we made it out of the airport in record time. Once we got our rental car, we were off to the hotel about 3 hours away (accounting for stopping for rest).

We left the house at 6AM and arrived at our hotel at 7PM. After a long day of travel, we decided that eating dinner and just vegging at the hotel was the thing to do. Poor WS was really wiped out as he had had a very long week at work and then having to do the driving (he prefers to drive, and it is cheaper for rentals if you use only one driver). I did send Dudette an email saying we had arrived at the airport safely, and please send the message along, but evidently her email doesn't go to her phone, so she got the message days late. Guess I need to learn to text for emergencies - LOL.

Saturday we arose, used the workout facilities at the hotel (a recurring theme every day we stayed at the hotel). Since Casa Cop Car wasn't officially open until early afternoon, I called Dudette to see if we could get some time together. Turns out she had a mission that I could help with - the oven portion of her range had crapped out the night before (while CK was making cookies),so she needed to go applience shopping.

Well, I might not like to shop, but I like to think I am pretty good at getting bargains for large dollar purchases. Not only that, but shopping is more fun when someone else is paying, and you don't have to live with the consequences. So, once WS and I had showered, we headed to Wichi Dude and Dudettes abode. Once there, WS kept Wichi Dude on the straight and narrow of domestic chores (dishes and laundry) while Dudette, CK and I went to a relatively new large appliance store, of which name I forget, and it doesn't matter anyway.

At the large appliance store, there were many ranges to choose from. Dudette was prepared with the list of must haves, nice to haves, price range and sizing needs. We looked at several models and Dudette narrowed it down to two. At that point a sales lady attended to the questions. Then, it happened, a major issue arose when Dudette inquired whether it would be possible to arrange delivery before Thanksgiving. No - not for that stove, not for any stove. There were none in stock.

I was floored, there were no stoves in stock? This store, that had a huge showroom of appliences, had nothing in stock? That was just plain weird. Then, even worse, they couldn't get Dudette's pick in for 10 days or so. OMG, I could understand if it was a special order, but that is ridiculous for a stock range. The saleslady kept talking about how popular the stove was that Dudette picked out, but I wasn't buying it.'

Dudette then decided delivery after Thanksgiving wasn't a deal breaker (she has another built in oven), but it would be a major inconvenience. I then enquired as to whether they would sell the floor model - sure they would. Dudette perked up at that. Then I asked what the discount would be. Nothing, none, notta.

WTF? I am willing to take a used appliance and she wouldn't discount it? Evidently she didn't want to make a sale or something. Maybe she thought she had Dudette hooked and could make a larger commission. At that, we got a bit more info from the saleslady and told her we would look other places to see if we could find something with a delivery time before Thanksgiving.

CK had appointments to keep, so we dropped her off at her car, and headed to Sears. There, we found a stove that was very nearly the same as the one she had picked out at the appliance store. We found they could deliver before Thanksgiving, and that she could get a discount. Additionally, delivery and take away were free, with a small charge for hook up.

Dudette was exceedingly pleased with the outing (except the first part), she got a really nice stove at a discount, it was well below her budget allowance, it would be delivered in a timely manner and the transaction was very pleasant (the sales guy was wonderful).

The rest of the day was spent with watching CK mix and bake cookies before heading down to Casa Cop Car. There, of course, it was all warm wlecomes and great visiting. Dinner had the theme of potato bar. We love baked taters with all the toppings, so it was perfect. Then of course, there were all the cookies that CK had been cooking for desert.

The rest of the vacation will be on other posts, but as you can tell, it started out great - and happily, that would be the theme throughout our time in the land of OZ.

As an aside, I was looking at the notes I made on my phone about the trip. I was trying to figure out how the word "vogue" got in a sentence when I realized I had typed in Bogie, and it autocorrected - heh.

Gone Visiting

On vacation in the land of Oz, getting to see our families. Not writing anything today, and perhaps not anything until we get back home in another week.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

New Addition to the Family

Thursay I must have had a premonition. I checked both Cop Car's and Wichi Dude's blogs to see if there was anything new and saw that WD had recently written that the world was still waiting for NG2 to make an appearance.

Friday night I got a call from Wichi Dude that NG2 had made his appearance about 11 hours before I checked for blog postings, and about 3 hours before Cop Car got a post up about it.

It was pretty funny when I got the call because I didn't realize it was my phone ringing. See, nobody except family has my cell phone number, so it never rings unless WS calls (which is about once every 2 months). That night, all the cell phones (WS has two of them) were on top of the entertainment center, so I thought it was one of his ringing. WS looked at me, I looked at WS.

I then thought about it for another ring, and decided it must be my phone. Then I had to figure out how to answer it (it is a new smart phone, where before I had a basic flip phone that I just had to push a button to answer - the smart phone, well, you have to be smarter than that just to be able to answer the phone).

Once all that was out of the way, I heard Wichi Dude on the other end and knew it had to be that I was a great-aunt again. After getting the vital statistics (and making sure everyone was healthy) WD and I talked for a good 30-40 minutes - more than I talk on a phone in total all month, or two, or even three.

The only bummer was that I couldn't figure out how to put the phone on speaker, so WS couldn't join in on the conversation. Guess that is motivation to learn how to do the speaker thing.

Congrats to CK and Chew, and of course the proud Grand Parents and Great Grandparents!

BD WIshes

It's a little late but I'd like to wish Cop Car a happy birthday"

Thanksgiving Plans

WS's brother that lives in NH is leaving soon for an extended business outing (could be a year or two). Being as how he will be leaving sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas (at last check), we decided to have them over for Thanksgiving.

This is a huge change for us. Normally we take it as a day to lounge around, maybe get some work done, then go visit family and friends. If Jimmy has no place to go, we invite him over. Sometimes we have hamsteaks for dinner, sometimes I get a turkey breast, Sometimes we go over to BIL and SIL's for dinner. I think one year we had frozen pizzas for Thanksgiving dinner (I may be getting that confuse with Christmas though).

This year we are actually doing an organized dinner. I got an honest to God real live (er, dead) turkey and will be cooking it up. I'll be making mashed potatoes (mixed with a few sweet potatoes), gravy, rolls, and green bean casserole. There will be some homemade cranberry sauce for putting over the turkey if people so wish. We will have shrimp as well as chips and dip for appetizers (we have several bags of shrimp in the freezer from a sale earlier this year).

SIL has volunteered to make a Black Chery Pecan Pie - a recipe that was in the paper a couple of weeks ago that I had cut out as something to try for the holidays - you go SIL!

The four of us can do some eating, but I figure there will be massive leftovers - unless of course Jimmy shows up, and we don't know if WS's nephew is joining us - then I may have to prepare a couple of pizzas to keep them from starving to death :)

Buffy has nothing on me (besides about 36 more people she is serving).

Birthday Time

Happy Birthday to Dudette.

Yep, I'm a couple of days late, but considering I no longer really know what day it is, at any given time, I'm doing good to get that in during the correct month!

Anyway Happy Birthday Big Sister*!

*  Big sister refers to her being older than me.

Family Tree

Congrats to CK and Chew - they have become first-time parents!

I'd say that they made me a Great Aunt and WS a Great Uncle, but he would argue that he is always great. Ha!

Time Off Doings

I had Wednesday off from work and went to have lunch with a friend of mine. This friend and I used to work together and she had an interesting proposition - do some contract work, for her current place of employment, creating a couple of databases. I have created several databases using Access, but she wants them done in Base (a free database offered in OpenOffice). Hmm, after looking at Base, it seems to be a very simplistic database and may not be able to do what she wants it to do (or at least, I don't have the programing skills to accomplishing same). I have another meeting with her, and some of her staff, Monday. I'll know more about what they want from the databases then.

After lunch, I met WS (who only had to work 1/2 dya) at the Manchester Firing Line for a bit of target practice. We went thru a couple hundred rounds while discovering that we need a LOT more practice and getting used to our pistols, and I need to find a way to be able to see the sights. For just generally hitting something in the direction and size of a bulleye target - I can do that. It is just trying to actually aim for a specific place or area of the target. I think I will need to go to more sillouette shooting, before I take on targets again - they are less demanding on the eyes. I can see where a laser sight might do me some good. Unfortunately my gun doesn't have a rail for such a thing - I think WS's does, but I really dislike the way it feels in my hand (it kicks back into the web of my thumb). Since I have next week off, I will probably visit the range a couple more times by myself. While I am there, maybe I can rent something that has laser sights and see if that helps.

Christmas was very relaxing. Since we already gotten our presents, we opened cards after WS made us breakfast. I did some reading and piddling around the house (including calls from Cop Car / HH and call to Dudette / Wichi Dude). Karen came over and we exchanged a few gifts, then we headed over to BIL's house for dinner. We had a great time at dinner (good food and company of course) and played a couple of games of 10,000 (a dice game). Then it was off to home, build up the fire again and head for bed.

Hope everyone had the type of Christmas they wanted (relaxing, exciting, surprising etc)!