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December 20, 2021 – Gumbo

December 20, 2021 /

I made gumbo the other day. The inspiration for this recipe was a bag of okra in the freezer for some unknown reason. Having spent a couple of years in South Carolina, My wife and I came to appreciate okra more than the average Oregonian. I think that it was there because we tried to bread and fry some frozen okra a year ago or so.

I am going to talk about dietary adjustments and reasons later.  For now, we have stepped up the vegetable consumption and toned way down the carbohydrates.  Traditionally, gumbo would be thickened with roux or butter and flour.  Okra does help in thickening without the added flour.  That was another reason to use it.

Lets talk about gumbo at a higher level.  Creole recipes start with ‘the trinity’.  That is celery, onion and green pepper.  I don’t worry terribly about the ratios, but equal parts of all is what I shoot for.  I do however use what I have.  Sweat those and add the rest of the ingredients and heat up and done.

Mine had sausage, chicken and shrimp.  I throw in some Cajun seasoning salt and pepper and thyme.  Top with chicken broth to desired volume.  In my research, I found that gumbo has almost as many variations as there are available ingredients.  There is ‘Lenten’ gumbo that is all vegetables, some have tomatoes, some have limited meats.

Ah hah, I added the remainder (about one cup) of leftover tortilla soup as well.  Oh, I found some leftover pasta sauce (about two cups).  Now don’t go crazy, the basic ingredients in Tortilla soup was chicken, chicken broth, stewed tomatoes and garlic.  The pasta sauce was tomato sauce, garlic and green pepper.  The only thing that might throw it off would be basil, but I doubted that the after a good measure of cayenne it would be too evident.

Traditionally, this soup would then be ladled over some rice.  Not rice with sauce, that would be jambalaya but soup with some rice.  We had some leftover rice from Thai food in the fridge, I added about a 1/4 cup for my bowl.  This came out spot on.  You couldn’t taste the melded additions and it was complex and hearty.

About ten years ago, I started doing research about diet and the effects on health.  My wife has a history of immunocompromise issues.  Through my research, I found that gluten was a primary irritant for things like psoriasis. We tried paleo for a couple of months and her psoriasis went away. We slowly added starched back in and cut out a lot of junk food.  

I would say at this point we were reduced in our carbohydrate consumption to probably half of what it was before the last experiment with paleo but psoriasis came back.  So, we are going full time low carb.  For her specifically, gluten free.  I will have some carbs now and then, I had the rice, she didn’t.  As you know, I am not going to just throw out perfectly good food.  I won’t make a habit of making it again and we are not going to be militant about it.  Everyone should enjoy the festivities of Christmas.

End Your Programming Routine: Psoriasis, Psoriatic arthritis, cancer and diabetes all run in her family.  Eliminating gluten (and sugars) reduces inflammation in the body and all of those risk factors.  Inflammation also causes stroke and arterial buildup of plaque as well.  If the research is correct, this is the right thing to do.  I guess time will tell.

 

 

December 17, 2021 – An Nearly Free AM Antenna

December 17, 2021 /

This one has been a long time coming. I actually planned on building this last year at this time.  In fact, I took the materials to the Boy Scout Christmas tree stand last year to work on in the down time.  I will explain my foibles below.

The only real cost to this project was the wire.  I bought an entire spool at Habitat for Humanity for $3 because one of the real ends on the spool was broken.  The reason this was a problem was because when unwinding the wire, it became a rats nest of wire.  It took me hours to unwind and straighten.   That is what stopped my progress last year.  This year it got some priority because of my basement clean-up efforts.

Before I get too far down the road, the design and plans for this go to Dave Pederson at Trans World Radio which is a 501C ministry to connect the message of Christianity throughout the world.  The reason it is cheap is so it can be built worldwide with salvage materials.  Dave claims that this can be built in thirty minutes.   I would say that it took me a couple of years (just kidding a couple of hours).

My original plan today was to build this antenna and embed the YouTube video.  Right now, I have built the antenna and the video needs to be edited and assembled.  Part of why I am dragging my feet a little bit is that I don’t see any improvement with the antenna.  So, I don’t want to post a video that is marginal or potentially useless.  Or said another way, I am spending some time testing it first.

Getting into antennas is kind of a vortex of science namely physics.  I am positive that there is a lot to know that I don’t, but I do at least understand some of the basics.  Did you know that every AM antenna is is a big coil of wire situated inside the radio?  For that reason, the quality of AM reception is always directional or how the radio is sitting. 

Building an exterior antenna without connections to the radio and in theory get better reception does it by in some ways concentrating the signal.  My goal is to ultimately connect it to my receiver without a bunch of monkeying around with the antenna each time I want to change the signal frequency.  So, I am not going to be real happy if it turns out that I need to adjust the location of this antenna frequently.

It turns out that AM radio stations turn down their ‘power’ at night.  In my quick research, it seems like the amount of environmental electromagnetic interference is reduced.  This would cause some stations to stomp on other stations because of the lack of interference, hence reducing broadcast power to keep them separate.  This plays an additional problem with reception as marginal stations usually are even worse at night.  Ironically, some stations can be found from long distances at night due to signal bounce.  I have heard stations from San Francisco and Calgary Canada at night.

Simple interference itself, is a subject that has lots of gotchas.  The best way I would describe it as a Gaussian Field (take a look at that math).  Ignoring most of the technical information, wires carrying electricity, fluorescent ballasts, LED transformers and all other powered devices emit interference in a bell shaped pattern.  Non-shielded cables (like antennas) are subject high degradation when the lights are on.  It is not a lot of fun to sit in the dark listening to the radio, especially when the benefit of radio is that ability to do things concurrently.  Grounding itself is not as simple as attaching another wire to ground as it can create a loop causing additional interference.

My CCrane radio is marketed at least as the best AM reception available in a radio.  I do admit it is pretty good, it is still subject to the electromagnetic interference from power usage.  I can get stations on that radio that I cant get anywhere else. Testing this new antenna on a lessor quality device is probably worth doing.  I did try it on the receiver loop as well without effect.  So, my tests will be ongoing before I declare this thing done.

End Your Programming Routine:  The truth is, I got better reception by splitting the signal from the dipole antenna (for FM).  That may have to do with the coax cable being outside and shielded rather than the shape of things.   There is more to come on this subject as I haven’t finished my testing yet.  There are other designs that use more expensive electrical components, or maybe the loop isn’t big enough or maybe I just don’t know how to use it?  I am not sure yet but the quest goes on.

December 16, 2021 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

December 16, 2021 /

One of the few things I don’t mind too much is Christmas shopping for the sportsman on the list. I did a lot of looking around last weekend not because I needed to but because I wanted to. I thought that I would give a summary of my observations today.  Between the run on firearms and ammunition to the supply chain issues I got a general sense of how things are fairing.

I wrote about the gun show earlier this week.  This particular one happens twice a year and happens to be my geographically closest, perennial show.  It also happens to be regarded as one of the best in the state, so I usually make a point to go even though I never buy anything.

The truth was I was looking for a few items.  I was looking for shotgun slugs for my next range trip. I am waiting for some on order but I also wanted a different style as well.  The way things are going these days between availability and quantity limits, it is very difficult to find all of what you want in one transaction.    I was also looking for reloading components, specifically powder.  

Here is what I saw

  • Firearms – Some of the same players were there.  The Old West Colt dealer was there.  He had his $3000 Peacemakers and his selection looked as healthy as ever.  The big, show dealers were absent.  Typically, these are regional dealers that take 3-6 tables and have that many new firearms.  The single table, 7-8 hunting rifles for sale seemed to also be missing.  The side racks usually hold the ‘value’ purchases.  Most of what I saw there were surplus bolt actions, the Mosin-Nagants, Mousers, 1903 Springfields and the prices weren’t bad.  Overall, I would estimate 50% less firearms than normal.
  • Ammunition- Typically there are several vendors that are selling ammunition only.  Sometimes they are reloads, sometimes they are just a selection of factory new.  There were no vendors of this description.  Ammunition in general was pretty scarce.  What was there was no deal, I would say above even market rate which is probably why it was still available.  Components faired worse.  I saw almost no powder, or bullets or primers.  I saw 1000 primers for $144.  That is 4x what I paid two years ago.
  • Knick-Knacks – I wouldn’t say that there any more dealers there than normal.  I would describe the most prevalent tables as dealers that had 5-20 firearms and 75% of the table space was other sporting goods.  I would describe it as a sort of a flea market or bizarre of related goods.  It is kind of fun to see once in a while but largely more of a time waster.  There was one dealer that had several tables of cheap knives, that was new.  There were several dealers of knives only which is unusual.

Because I failed at finding slugs at the gun show, I checked several other places.  Sportsman’s Warehouse had no slugs and no reloading components other than bullets (which selection does seem to be improving slightly). It seems like 9mm is available now, albeit the price is three times what it was and you are limited to two boxes per purchase.  As I said before, I don’t own a 9mm but it is the bellwether being probably the most common and cheapest centerfire caliber.  They even had some 22LR, the price was $50 for a 500 bulk pack which I last bought for $15 two years ago.

I next checked a regional chain called Coastal Farm and they did have slugs with a limit of two boxes.  A box is five slugs and I want five boxes (25) for my sight in test and to have a box or two in reserve.  This chain has several stores in our region so I went to another nearby town.  They also had slugs, but they restricted me to one box.  So, technically I have enough to do my test and that is it.  I suppose the good news is that I paid $8 a box which seems to be the best price I have seen.

In between the two, I went to a local pawn shop that I have had good luck.  They did have a couple boxes of slugs for $10 a box.  I wish I would have bought them based on how the rest of the day went.  They were busy with other transactions and no one was behind the gun counter, so I left. 

I will say it again, but when checking ballistics, having one lot (and brand) of ammunition is important for consistency purposes.  Now that I have surveyed the state of affairs, it will be really difficult to achieve this in this in the current times.

End Your Programming Routine: I am hearing on the national radio shows that the shortage is getting better.  The ammo/component makers are saying that they are making more than ever, yet the shelves still seem to be bare. The reason any ammunition is on the shelves, it is two – four times what it was. My analysis says that it might be infinitesimally better.   You might be able to buy something, be prepared to pay significantly more and don’t expect a lot of choice in load and bullet.

I saw slugs available in September right before hunting season but the way these things go, that will be the last time I see them on the shelves until next hunting season.  I think that we have a long way to go.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see it still a problem in 2023.

 

 

December 15, 2021 – When Your Fear of Dying Has Already Killed You

December 15, 2021 /

This is a tough subject and I am going to obscure some of the details for privacy purposes.  I am sure that there are people who can guess the subject and circumstances because they already know.  To them, I would say please respect the privacy of this person’s wish.  I am, by not naming or getting in depth with the details I think that this is a lesson for all of us. 

There is someone that I know that has a likely, terminal illness.  After seeking multiple opinions and specialists, the prognosis is ‘never been successfully treated’.  As every person in different, we don’t know what that really means in terms of what is the quality (and duration) or remaining life is.  I have an opinion based on observing  progressing symptoms, but I will keep that to myself.   

Growing up, I frequently worked with a local doctor doing odd jobs.  He told me one time that 90% of the men that make it to age 80 have prostate cancer.  I know people that have it right now.  The good news is that for the majority of men, they die of something else before prostate cancer.  My point is that there is ‘living’ with a fatal disease.

Let’s be honest, some day our day is coming.  I remember sitting in church one time and the subject of salvation came up.  The pastor was trying to get across and the idea of ‘still having time’ is one of the primary motivators for people’s sin.  I think death is like that as well.  When we do not have a sense of when the last day will be, we ignore doing the things that we should probably be doing thinking we still have more time.

Why am I talking about this today?  My observation of this person’s behavior is that they are so scared of dying that they are not living.  What does that mean?  I got a communication on Sunday from this person out of the blue that if I had been around any unmasked people that I should self quarantine for the five days prior to visiting.  Everyone reading this knows that Monday I talked about running around mask less on Saturday and Sunday.  

It is not that I am intentionally disrespecting this person, it is quite the opposite.  I even had a conversation with them in November stating that they have the right to direct treatment in any way they see fit; that includes barring people that have not worn a mask.  If I can, I will accommodate and I will take reasonable precautions and respect their wishes.  At this point, I am not going to change my values and beliefs just because we have philosophical differences.

As I do, I will digress a moment here.  This is a person that had Covid about three months ago and survived.   This is a person that has had all of the shots, including the booster.  Granted, I am not an expert in the current treatment, but I have dealt with enough doctors and the medical system to know that they are never going to give the green light to live your life, your way.  There is just too much risk out there, including their own liability.  

This is also a person never got deprogrammed and would see a headline and that would immediately support delusional constructs.  Try this one on “Immigrant Children Detained for Illegal Entry”.  This turned into Trump is coming for all of brown people and they have been separated from their parents to never be reunited as they will die in the concentration camps.  

When I talk about sharing more in similarities than differences I am talking about this situation.  I didn’t investigate the source of the information.  I would love to see the border open, if we get rid of the welfare state.  I am probably against separating children and parents in detainment.  But, who really knows the circumstances?  Maybe they were picked up separately, maybe it wasn’t safe to have kids with adults, what if the parents disowned them because they thought it was more likely they would make it into the USA?  My point is that you can’t just assume that the story is as reported.

A long time ago, I liked to listen to Dr. Dean Edell on the radio.  He was talking to someone about an eating disorder.  He said that they have done studies that starving rats would slow down metabolism and that they would live a longer life.  His point was however at what cost?  And do we know for sure?  What if you starved for 40 years to get cancer or hit by a truck, was that extra life worth it?

I have a step-Grandmother.  When I was young, she used to scare me (and my brother).  She would yell at us and shoe us outside from the pool table so that we wouldn’t interrupt her soap operas.  This was in the 1980s.  Amazingly, she had three VCRs to tape all of the soap operas concurrently.  My opinion now is that she was rough around the edges and didn’t have the patience for children.  As time has gone on, I have come to see a change to a sweet, old lady.  I do think it is a change of personality from my youth as a result of realizing that loneliness is worse than missing out on TV shows.

Getting back to my point here.  Fear is the result of programming.  Combine hope with fear and you have premature death.  By no means do I want to remove hope.  This is one of the main ingredients in successful treatment.    However, hope is not the same as living.  Hope will lead you to wait until the treatment is done and I think likely too late.  

End Your Programming Routine: At this point, I am not in a position to make the same decision fortunately.  I can’t help to think that if I was, I would choose my path differently. My wife accuses me of living in the future and not in the present, so I am not immune.  This does cause me sometimes to pause and analyze my behavior.  I still have time.

 

December 14, 2021 – I Have Just Declared December 10 as AltF4.co’s Birthday

December 14, 2021 /

Stubbing out this week’s content, I was looking back at the previous years. My first deliberate post was December 10, 2019. That means that I just passed two years this last Friday. Now that I know that, I will pay more attention in the future.  I have talked about it, but today I will talk about the origin story.

If you look back in the archives, there are two posts from 2016.  For those of you that do not know, you can create a free WordPress site.  There are definitely some limitations but that is where I worked in the first year (2019).  But I am going to go deeper today.  

It all started back in 2014.  I was coming off of a blistering travel schedule.  My company was working on the biggest project that we had ever won and I was one of the key players in the project’s success.  The owner’s of my company had decided that they had reached the pinnacle of what they could do alone and decided to try and get the company positioned as a larger company.  Our 30 person operation suddenly became a 200 person company.

As a result of the new company operations, they decided to shuffle people around and consequently, I got put on another project that was in bad shape.  It was described to me that they needed a ‘strong person to re-energize and change the course of the project’.  That was the beginning of the end for me.  Maybe I will talk about this period some more later but to keep a looong story short, I was miserable.

Because it is ultimately germane, I will add a little more.  The problem with my new project was not the people working on the project, it was the owners and management of the new company.  The project was undersold to win the job.  Then, they kept insisting that I recover the money to which the customer kept saying no.  I looked like an ass on the project and the management kept insisting that I keep sending change orders.  This caused major conflict on multiple sides.

After working for three different companies, I realized that my best chance on happiness was going to be working for myself.  I needed the ability to run things the way that I wanted to do it.  I have mentioned this before but I have listened to ‘The Survival Podcast’ since 2008.  It was probably the first podcast that I subscribed to.  In the early days, it was all about hard skills and items.  Over the years, it has morphed into more of a lifestyle podcast.

One of the lifestyle items was career and income.  The host, Jack Spirko made the transition himself into podcast host from a career in a technical industry.  He was heavily influenced by Gary Vanderchuck’s 1000 true fans model.  The summary of that model is that you need 1000 people that believe in your work to the point where they would give you one day’s wages to support it.  If you have that, then you have enough to survive.

I started the site on WordPress in 2016 as an attempt to get started.  Things got better in late 2015 but I knew in my heart of hearts I was kind of dead inside from the whole experience of 2014.  My hope was that I was going to grow an entity to the point where I would simply be able to leave my job.  What I didn’t count on was that I was mentally checked out and shortly after starting the site I abandoned it.

After I quit my job in 2019, I needed six months of downtime before I could think about the future.  I started my job search and I figured I could parallelly develop my content business since I was on the computer anyway.  I started writing daily to build discipline in priority and also to see if I would actually like doing it as a career.  Quickly, I prioritized writing over the job search and I started doing it daily.

After writing on WordPress for nearly a year, I knew that I would have to take the next step with a proper domain and site.  First of all, when I picked my blog name, I misspelled Resurrection.  My original idea was that it would related to my career change.  I thought about keeping it but then I didn’t want to repeat how to spell the actual site name all of the time, specifically on podcasts.  Plus, I didn’t want to answer why it was spelled that way, which was a hasty mistake.

I took a major step in late 2020 with the transition to AltF4.co.  I now had the freedom to make this what I wanted to be.  I could build ecommerce, I could directly embed content without going through a third party like YouTube, I could collect mailing list data and all the things that are necessary for a content business.  The down side to all of that was that at the same time, I started working again.   All that free time I had for a year and half was gone without me really turning it into a business.

End Your Programming Routine: From time to time, I bring up the Toolbox Fallacy.  I clearly have the desire and the discipline to post but I haven’t actually made it to a business.  As much as I enjoy this part of it, I don’t know if I will have the drive to actually convert.  I don’t exactly know why.  I am going to investigate podcasting into the new year.  That comes with it’s own set of challenges but it is time to take the next step.

December 13, 2021 – Fascism 2.0

December 13, 2021 /

I heard something interesting on Friday. One of the reasons that Texas is in a different state of mind than Oregon is that people just decided that they were not going to comply, regardless of the rules.  When I was in Texas a couple of weeks ago, there were still signs everywhere that said masks were required however I would estimate 1 in 20 actually wearing one.  The rule became unenforceable.

I decided to run an experiment over the weekend.  I went out and about to check on mask enforcement and compliance.  I didn’t push too hard, but if I saw people going in or coming out without mask I would not where a mask myself.  So, I am going to run an point by point of my experience.

  1. Semi-Annual Gun Show –  There were a handful of people wearing masks but it was a busy event.  I encountered no problems.
  2. Local Music Store – I try to respect private property rights and it was posted masks were required to enter, so I did.  While in the store, two men came in without masks and the store owner confronted them and made them put on masks.  Neither side were happy over the situation.
  3. Sportsman’s Warehouse – No problems there. I walked in without a mask.  I would estimate 2/3 of the customers were mask-less.
  4. Costco – I was in there earlier in the week and I would estimate that probably 25% of the patrons were without a mask.  On Saturday I saw none.  
  5. Local pawn shop- When the people working there are wearing mask it seems pretty safe to enter without one and there aren’t going to be problems.
  6. Walmart- No mask-less customers
  7. Regional agriculture chain – 2/3 mask-less
  8. Local second hand store – No mask-less customers
  9. Liquor store – There were two ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ slogans on the glass outside.  I figured I was not going to have any problems here.

Emboldened by my experience on Saturday, yesterday I went completely mask-less.  When I did this experiment before, I was operating within compliance of the rules, it seems that few were willing to test that.  This time I was not.  

I am not looking to cause problems per se but I am looking to be a leader.  To be ungovernable means that you think as an individual.  If we had true, non-biased data with policy decisions made as such then I could respect and comply with that.   

I am going to change directions here.  Traditionally, people ‘comply’ when it is in their best interest or there is more to lose not because someone else says so.   Using one example, why do bribes work in China?  The practice is illegal and the punishment can be public execution.  Here are the reasons why: 1) the risk of being caught is low 2) the practice is extremely prevalent, see number one 3) Punishment is only used as an example, you have to have done something else wrong as well.

Today, my government has superseded freedom for the attempt at safety and security to the naked eye.  This is precisely the results of combining government and things that do not belong such as healthcare.  Now because they have become entangled, not only do they feel a responsibility to keep it operating, there are so many entities that are making crazy amounts of money under this charade. They all have a vested interest in kicking the can down the road as long as they can.  

This is why all the governments are pouring tons of resources into analytics and data modeling.  It is all in efforts to prevent the hospitals and the medical systems at large from failing.  The medical cronies get together with the ‘big ag’ cronies to create a food pyramid and other such propaganda to keep us sick combined with a system to keep us alive.  Those two enlist the help of ‘big tech’ to collect the data and market those ideas.  To which our society is addicted to and cant resist.  Don’t forget about the big banks who have created the monetary policy to help themselves to a lot of profit while funding all of these other endeavors.

And who runs the government?  All of those interests.  We are the witnessing Fascism 2.0 and guess what is their business? A compliant flock of useful idiots who think they are making a stand by picking one side or the other.  To be ungovernable means that we reject Fascism. 

I ran across this graphic this morning.  It is no surprise to me that Oregon ranks in the bottom 10%.  If I had a crystal ball, I would be willing to bet that Oregon could end up at the bottom of the rankings easier than all of the other states.  Why? It has the smallest population and it seems like the willpower to make it worse.

End Your Programming Routine: My prediction is that mask mandates are here to stay forever.  The only thing that will change that is if the people decide that it isn’t going to be so.  I also think that there is a window where we the people will have an opportunity to reverse it.  Once that window is shut, it is going to be very difficult to open it again.  It is interesting that the mask represents double entrendre.  When you are not wearing one, your face is visible and identity exposed.  That is the way it should be.  

 

 

 

December 10, 2021 – An Unappreciated Art Ruined by Fakes and Slander, Fruitcake

December 10, 2021 /

A couple of days ago a friend came by and delivered us a fruitcake.  We talked a little about the process  and she said this is something she said that she has been doing for nearly 60 years.  I think it was last year, I happened to catch a segment on TV on how to make a fruitcake and my opinion and appreciation changed immediately.

Adjectives that I think most people apply to fruitcake are cheap, tacky, passé or dare I say thoughtless.  I have to say that I held that opinion as well.  The reason being is that my impression of fruitcake was that someone bought a couple $5 processed fruitcake to reciprocate as hostess gifts or ‘whoops, I forgot about your family’ enjoy this crappy fruitcake.

With a real fruitcake, nothing could actually be farther from the truth.  This is an art that takes a lot of effort and planning.  I suppose that is where the breakdown starts.  I think about mole for instance.  Good mole is incredible, bad mole is almost inedible.  It all has to do with the process.

Today, most people and restaurants make mole from a base.  That starter includes poor ingredients and substitutes like hydrogenated oils replacing lard and thickened with chemical agents.  This leaves a semi-sweet, pasty and lifeless sauce that kind of makes me regret the upcoming meal when I smell it.

But, enough with mole lets get back to fruitcake.  How did we get here?  The planning, effort and cost is how.  A proper fruitcake would be soaked in Rum 30-60 days.  That means that it needs to being made around Halloween.  When you combine a corn syrup drizzled concoction of a ‘store-bought’ fruitcake with peoples lack of dedication to the finer points of cooking our only context is a sticky, bland uninspiring mass.

We have a society that doesn’t know fruitcake because of our lifestyle and it is easy to see why we can’t appreciate it.  My wife and I are old soles.  As we were talking to our friend yesterday, she offered to give me the recipe.  I immediately jumped at the chance.  Ultimately, I don’t care to change the world and if you aren’t willing to try then fine, more for me.  But, the tradition seems appealing to me so I think it is something I want to try next year.

End Your Programming Routine: This is the definition of ‘End Your Programming’.  Tradition, culture, effort and craft combine into something special, wonderful and counter to popular belief.  I think it is an honor to learn from someone that has persevered through the opinion of fruitcake to keep on doing what you believe.

 

December 9, 2021 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

December 9, 2021 /

Just because I don’t shoot as much as I would like, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t maintenance that needs to be done.  There is a saying in the used firearm world ‘Carried a lot, shot a little’.  This implies that there is what is called holster wear or places where the holster contacts the metal and rubs the finish but the bore is like new.

So, if you are in that carried a lot, shot a little camp like I am, then you should also take a look at things now and again.  The two primary things to watch out for are corrosion and lint build-up.  Both of those things are fortunately addressed by periodic cleaning.  This is a long way of saying, inspect and clean you firearms even if you don’t shoot them.

It is the similar justification I use for changing my own oil.  When I am in there, I plug in the scanner, look at the washer fluid levels, check the battery and the conditions of belts and hoses.  Most people argue that it is not worth their time to change your own oil, as you know from my previous post, I think it saves you time.  Plus, I am familiar with my vehicle and its’ condition.  You need to assess the condition of your tools.

I have heard advice from people that live in hot/humid climates to clean firearms once a week.  The premise being that you are constantly sweating and that doesn’t mix well with metal.  This of course has a lot to do with the construction of the item.  Polymer and stainless steel have much less issue with corrosion.  However the small screws and springs are rarely ever mad corrosion resistance.

You can see all of the crud in the barrel from the picture above.  This was clean, post the last use.  I also disassembled everything (for the first time) so that all the interior lint and powder crud could be cleaned out.  It is also worth noting that magazines should be inspected and possible cleaned as well.  It goes without saying but the last thing you want in a carry piece is a failure because of neglect.

There are other considerations after cleaning.  Particularly carry pieces, you want them as dry as possible.  I am not saying no lubricant, but as little as possible.  That reduces the amount of stuff that ultimately adheres to an oily surface.  If your firearms are in a high humidity environment and just stored, I prefer a wipe down with a light silicone oil lie Birchwood Casey Barricade. 

End Your Programming Routine:  If you are serious about personal safety, then you realize that concealed carry is a lifestyle.  Your wardrobe, your tools, your choice of spare time activities and where you spend your money is part of the consideration.  I think it has been over a year since I last cleaned this firearm, and I feel OK.  It doesn’t mean that you have to be obsessive, just be aware of the risks and responsibilities.

 

December 8, 2021 – Review: Husky 36″, 11 Drawer Toolbox Combo

December 8, 2021 /

It’s been a long time since I did a review. This was supposed to be one of the cornerstones of my work so that at some point I could gain a business advantage buying, using and reviewing items. It’s not that I haven’t bought things since 2020, I suppose that it is I kind of forgot about reviews.

This is one of those items that I always wanted.  I imagined that I would have a bright red, Craftsman toolbox with everything organized and accessible.  It is not just that, but also I would have space to add more tools, if needed.  It sounds a little fruity, but another thing I could accessorize.  

When I moved to South Carolina, I built a bench in the garage that had custom slider drawers.  I could see all of my wrenches in order so I could easily find what I wanted.  When we moved here in 2005, the shop already had cabinets so I stashed stuff where it would fit.  It wasn’t my ideal, but it worked well enough that I couldn’t justify the cost.  

About a year ago, the plastic container that organized all of my sockets started to fail.  That meant that every time I was pulling out my sockets, I was having to reorganize them because they would fall all over the place.  To top it off, my son started ‘borrowing’ tools and leaving them in his car.  I repeatedly asked him to return them when done and because they weren’t too organized, I really couldn’t tell what was missing. Plus, with my sometime working on cars, I find that I was constantly going back and forth to the shop when I could have what I need right next to me.

I finally decided to make the plunge and buy a tool chest.   I had some experience with a Craftsman tool chest in the lab and I knew that weight can quickly add up and then things don’t work so well.  I suppose some of the difference between the consumer chests like Kobalt, Craftsman, Husky, etc. is the real amount of weight each drawer could hold.  I don’t know for sure, but I think the Snap-On ones can really handle the load which is why they are 10 times more expensive, even the used ones.

I knew that I wanted ball bearing drawers.  They just work better.  I also looked at the total weight capacity.  In this case, the 36″ chest  castors were rated for 1500 pounds.  The 40″ chest was rated for 1200 pounds.  Even though I wanted the larger size, overall weight capacity was more important to me.  I also liked the price better at $400 versus $600 and I got 10% coupon, I was sold on my choice.

I looked at the different brands.  I know that Stanley bought Craftsman so DeWalt and Craftsman in theory are the same.  The truth is, I couldn’t find much difference between any of the brands based on specs including US General at Harbor Freight or Stack-On at Napa.  Unless you are going to pony up for Snap-On, it boils down to color, drawer layout and price.  

I probably overanalyzed every detail because I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, but I saw this blue color and I really liked it.  I knew that I really would have no practical opinion without actually putting tools in it and using it. The price was good, the need was there and it was a good project to work on while my wife was in Texas and I was spending all of my time organizing junk in the garage going through my in-laws estate.

Thin drawers are good because everything can be laid out in a way that each can be seen and extra stuff cant be put in the drawers.   When the drawers start getting deeper, then it feels like there is room to add an organizer.  What I have learned about those is that the cost starts to really add up and they add a lot of bulk to the overall use of the chest.  But again, one of the main goals was to organize tools.

With organizers in the drawer, they take up a lot of space.  That means that there is a lot less weight in each drawer (at least for now).  I found that Harbor Freight has a number of inexpensive options, in stock.  Of course online you can easily start having more cost in the organizers than in the actual chest.  

Here is my analysis.

  Score Advantages Disadvantages
Value 5/5 This was the most inexpensive choices I have seen with the features I wanted Still $400
Quality 3/5   The locks  and latch are really flimsy.  Top lid could easily be pried open to access the rest of the top
      I am not a fan of soft close drawer runners.  They offer artificial resistance and causes the drawer to operate stiffly when cold
Performance 4/5 I got all of my tools in the chest.  I have been able to roll it to the vehicle to work on things rather than running back and forth to the shop. I wish there were more thin drawers.  My optimum design would be 80%, 1 1/2 inch drawers with maybe two larger drawers.

End Your Programming Routine:  It is like most things for me.  I dreamed of one day having a nice chest with everything organized. Now that I have it, it is anti-climactic.  I will say rolling it next to my work has been nice and it is so much less frustrating to be able to easily find the tools without sorting through the pile of wrenches.  I have seen nothing that would make me say “buy that, not this”.  

December 7, 2021 – In Contrast to Yesterday…

December 7, 2021 /

I have an experiment going on. I got this bicycle light for Christmas in 1994. I got the batteries for this light at the same time. Guess what, they still work. That is 27 years later, functioning alkaline batteries.  I like to check the light every couple of years to see if it is still working.