Amusing observation

The SCSon had a short work day today (only ~4 hours).  It was early so he headed across the street to our friendly local indoor range.

There he found a drool-worthy rifle and asked "can I buy this?"  They asked his age (20YO) and said yes, they could sell it to him.

But then he asked but will you rent me a lane on the range to shoot it (pushing the incongruity)?  "Um no."


His point and they acknowledged "Yes, at your age I can sell you a rifle, but our policy is to not rent a lane to people under 21".

I have a.. I'll use the term "group membership" as their class name might unduly "doxx" them and I have no such intent.  Which means I can reserve a lane ahead of time online, but to bring him, I have to list him as a "minor" even though he is north of the age of majority.  Fair enough, their party, their rules.

"Sheriff"* Joe please go away!

you are long past your "best used by date".   You should have retired long ago.  Part of the reason you no longer hold the office is people like me DON'T WANT YOU AS MY SHERIFF!"  Slink off to your hole.  I didn't vote for you nor Penzone last time around and he won.   Just go away and let a proper conservative challenger take on PP.

* is it one R and two F's or two R's and one F?  Both look wrong to me.  But then again so do Arpaio and Penzone!  Time for new blood.

Vehicle Woes...

Wednesday the SCQueen noted starting troubles.  Suspecting the battery was dying, she took it to the vendor who pronouced it "Healthy!  The battery isn't your problem."

We talked about it over dinner "What else would he say?  He just doesn't want to replace the battery under warranty!".

Attempting to start brings silence, no "clack" of the solenoid engaging.  Later we monitor battery voltage under the same conditions.  This time it fired, but battery voltage only sagged to 11.5V.  Conclusion, it's not the battery!  Not hearing the starter solinoid fire, I figure the starter has given up the ghost.  In the old days we could replace the solinoid for a sawbuck, or even the entire starter for < $50.   But Ford buried the started under a whole bunch of other stuff.  So what I could have fixed for $40 30 years ago, now costs me >$700 because of access issues.   And because today's forecast called for 113F OAT, What's it worth to you now?

SCQueen emails our trusted shop with our discoveries.   Next AM, no start so she calls AAA.  AAAGuy says "it's your battery."  She explains, we checked it twice, it's not the battery."  Ok, but let me try to jump it first.  SCQueen "Have at it, as long as it doesn't cost me anything".   AAAGuy tries...   and proclaims "It's not your battery:-("

She maturely withheld the "told ya!" and let him load up the SCQueen-mobile

Seven bills later she has a new starter and an oil change.  Life is goo. Did I mention todays high temp hit 114F.  What would you pay to not spend > 4 hours in the garage today?  Seven bills is a fair price!

** The vehicle is of brand F and around 9 years old with just short of 200k miles.  The only real problem we notice is the radio display is invisible in daylight.  I can't fault them with an OEM starter failing after ~9 years and almost 200k miles.  I can live with that.

Update Ides of July 2019...
The "oil" light had been coming on since the maintenance....  The Oil Light most often is a pressure sensor..   Odd it's not been a problem until we have the oil changed. 

We shouldn't need a law...

.. for people to secure their firearms!  Economic desire to protect one's property worth several C-notes should be sufficient.  Even if you can afford to write off the multi-C-note loss, there is also the risk to the community now that your firearm is on the darkside.

Here's what I'm talking about.

For context once the above link fails:

The group of thieves stole at least three guns and an unknown amount of other valuables from mostly unlocked cars, according to police.

We are beset by crews roaming neighborhoods looking for UNLOCKED car doors.  When they find one, the scour the interior for anything of value and move on.  The linked article notes the bad guys got away with 3 guns (at least?) from UNLOCKED cars.  While this is a story that made the local news, there are 10x stories on my local NextDoor feed. 

Whoa Nellie!  What are you people thinking?   I've learned the vehicle security lesson the hard way:  It cost me a nice car stereo in the '80s.  You can't protect anything in a car.  If a thief wants it bad enough, they'll forkload the car onto a truck and take it to a safe location.  But in this case the low-lifes are merely looking for unlocked doors.  These successes encourage further expeditions.  Make their searches unfruitful and dry up the tests.

I am not advocating for more laws.  Laws penalizing victims are just wrong.  But please lock your $#!^ up.  Just lock the @*&# car doors!"  Don't give the bastards an excuse to impose a new law on the law abiding!

Park your cars in the garage if possible and lock the doors if not!  This isn't rocket science.