Exploring Mike

Its only the end of August, and my Christmas Calendar is filling up.   Yes, some of my clients from previous years booked their next years visit as early as January, although that is only true of a small percentage of my visits.  We get a steady stream of requests over the remainder of the year.   I do not book most of the appearances myself.  Instead, my Mrs. Claus has taken charge of scheduling our time.  I spent an hour on the phone yesterday synching my calendar with hers.  I like to work in Google Calendar, whereas she is old school, and works entirely on paper.  There are advantages and disadvantages with each method. Scheduling Christmas visits by Santa is a little more complicated than just available calendar dates.  Indeed, when we work with a client, we have to know not only when they want Santa, but where the venue is.  If two or more events are adjacent in time, we need to allow for travel time between the two locations....

  I've been busy this weekend.  Yesterday, I took time to head to the range.  This morning, I had to work as my company was releasing a new software version.  This afternoon, I am going back to trimming bushes around the house.  Tomorrow, the day starts with the NCBC Summer Rally for 2024.  After that, its back to housework. Let's start at the top.  Friday evening, I had scheduled a lane at my favorite gun range ( OnPoint ).  As I've mentioned in a previous post, I like to try to get up there to shoot at least a couple of times a month.  This is as much to ensure my continued proficiency as it is to have fun.  This time, I was trying out the new Red Dot that I had just had mounted on my old Taurus G3.  I think I still have some fine tuning of the sight zero, but it is SO much easier to see with my old eyes.  As planned, I blew through 100 rounds of 9mm Lugar.  I like to go to the range with the ammunition already loaded in...

The month of August had more than a little rain, especially on the weekends. This resulted in delayed yard maintenance.  Last Saturday, I was finally able to mow the lawn.  My plan was to spend Sunday trimming hedges and bushes.  Great plan that would finally get the front of the house looking good.  There was one problem:  When I pulled out my hedge trimmer, I realized that the battery was missing. I have a lot of electric power tools:  string trimmer, edger, leaf blower, sander, chain saw, to name the ones that come to mind.  Unfortunately, as I aquired these tools, I often had to settle on what was available, rather than those that share a common battery.  The bulk of my tools are by Craftsman, with a 20v battery.  I have eight or nine of these batteries.  I also own a number of Dewalt tools (also 20v), and there are 3 or 4 batteries for this brand.  And then there's the hedge trimmer... Black & Decker (40v).  No other B...

  Yes, this post is a day behind schedule, but I have an excuse.  The only thing that happened Friday was that I was able to pick up my Taurus G3 from the gunsmith.  But my last post was about firearms, so I had to talk about something else.   Today, I headed out early to drive across town to a local high school, which was the start/finish point for the Five-O Memorial bike ride .  This yearly event includes 50 km and 100 km routes.  There were something over 200 riders particpating. No, I was not a rider.  My job was driving as a Support and Gear truck (SAG).   The local amature radio community organizes volunteer HAM operators to provide communications support for these races.  For this particular event, there were 6 HAM SAGs.  There were also other radio operators taking position as Rest Stop contacts (3), and one operator at start/finish as Net Control. The 100 km race started promptly at 7:30.  I chose to wait for a ...

  Tonight, I have a class up at one of the local gun ranges.  Handgun 2 is the class name, and it involves skills training as well as shooting practice. Normally, I would take my 9mm automatic, a Taurus G3 that I picked up right before Covid.  I took the Handgun 1 class with this weapon, and am very comfortable with it.  Unfortunately, last month I took the weapon into the gunsmith to have a red-dot sight added.  Of course I haven't received the gun back in time for my class, but I have others. Yes, I have others.  I have a choice of a .45, or a .22.  Considering the cost differential between the two calibers ($0.41 vs. 0.02 per round), it isn't much of a choice.  Neither is my main handgun, and while the 9mm runs $0.30/round, I have a lot of rounds. That all aside, I plan on taking the .22, a Taurus TX-22 that I bought for my wife to use.  Yes, I did get her to go shooting, and she likes the lighter recoil of the .22 over that of the hevier ...

  You might ask yourself why I am dressed as Santa Claus in this picture, and what that has to do with the Title of this post.  Really nothing.  Just a catchy phrase, more related to the fact that I had intended to publish this post Yesterday.  The Dollar Short is a misnomer, since yesterday, I had an unexpected, out of season, Santa Claus gig.  Generally, I don't get those that often, so it was an interesting break from the routine of work and chores.   For my time and sweat, I earned $125.  As all Santa Claus earnings, this is "Fun Money", even though Uncle Sam will hear about it next spring. I say sweat, because the Santa outfit is a very good insulator... great for an outdoor even with the temperatures in the 40's.  Not so much during an indoor event with the thermostate set to 72 degrees.  This appearance was only for about 30 minutes in the suit, but even after this short time, I t-shirt and dress shirt under the jacket were soaked...

Saturday, I attended a PrepperNet  meeting.  The subject was off grid sanitation and water purification, and the presenters showed us a number of their solutions to deal with these issues. I'm not too worried about these topics, since I've already got backup water and sanitation measures in place.  Not so much for off grid situations, since my wife and I are getting older and not physically fit for an outdoor lifestyle. Of more interest, I've been watching  Hurricane Betty  as it crosses Floriday and moves up the east coast.  Although it has been downgraded to a tropical storm, the forecasts have it passing through my area, arriving sometime in the early hours of Friday.  Winds will only be in the 30mph range, but the storm promises to dump 6-8 inches of rain on the area.  Usually, it only takes a couple of inches to cause area flooding, so I expect that roads that are prone to flooding will do so... and probably more roads that don't usually floo...

  I have two peach trees in my yard.  The trees are about 8 years old.  They produce a lot of peaches from sometime in mid-June until mid-July.  This year, I harvested about 40 pounds of the fruit in two batches, and canned them.  (No way was I going to eat 40 pounds of peaches.) This blog post is about the canning process.  Once picked, the peaches will remain usable for a week or so, after which they start spoiling.  When I have all the peaches I'm going to get for a batch of jam, I start by placing the peaches in near boiling water for a few minutes.  This helps loosen the skin of the peach.  The next step is the removal of the skins, and discarding the peals and the pits.  The flesh of the peach can be sectioned into convenient pieces. This process takes the most time, since it will need to be done in batches. Once all the fruit is skinned and sliced, it can be placed in a large pot.  Add granulated surgar (about half the wieg...