More photos…

Ah, just having a little fun shooting things, folks…with the Nikon, the iPhone, and the Garand.

Susie and I stopped by the plant today and had a nice chat with the boss.   Steve found a comfortable spot (on one of his classic original Mustangs), and while Susie was telling him the many ways in which I had been remiss lately, the Nikon just kind of found its way into my hands and I grabbed this shot…

Susie has a couple of weeks off and we’ve been just kind of putting around.  We fired  the Vette up this past weekend intending to the visit the Patton Museum out in the desert (what with it having been the 4th of July weekend and all), but it was just too hot.   As we rolled through Palm Springs on Interstate 10, the Corvette’s thermometer told us it was 114 degrees out there.   Yikes!

The temperature scared us a bit, and so did the traffic headed back toward Los Angeles on the other side of the freeway.  All of the river rats were heading home from the 3-day weekend.   So, we chickened out, turned around, and pointed the Vette back toward home.   Just as well, I suppose.   That heat was brutal.

The 4th of July weekend always gets me to thinking about the Greatest Generation and the sacrifices they made for us.   The Patton Museum is a good tribute to what happened in World War II.   It’s about two thirds of the way across California heading toward the Arizona border, located right at the Chiriaco Summit.

That’s not my photo above, but one of these days I’ll get out there again and grab some good ones for you.   They’ve got a bunch of cool old armored vehicles outside (like that Sherman shown above), and a bunch of even cooler stuff indoors.   It’s a great place and it’s definitely worth a visit.

My interest in things from the war years includes the small arms of that era, and a couple of years ago I bought a Garand rifle.   Old “Blood and Guts” Patton called the Garand “the greatest battle implement ever devised,” and that sure is a good description.   When I wore the uniform the Army had already gone to the M-16 (which never felt like a real rifle to me), so when I saw the Garand at a dealer I grabbed it most rickety scosh (loosely translated from Korean, that means “real fast”).

The problem with my Garand, though, was that it didn’t feed reliably (you know, it didn’t always chamber the next round).  It fired okay, but there wasn’t enough gas pressure to force the action all the way back to shove the next round into the chamber.   Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.  My buddy Pauly (who knows more about guns than anyone I’ve ever known) diagnosed it as a gas cylinder problem (that’s a consumable wear part on these rifles).   Pauly found me a place to order a GI service-grade gas cylinder, I ordered it online, and after installing the new part, my Garand was humming the way ol’ John Garand intended.  My daughter Erica even grabbed this photo of me firing it, and she caught the ejected cartridge case in mid-air with her iPhone’s camera!

And speaking of Pauly and the guys, we’re having the next big shooting event the weekend after next…a rifle match at the gun club and a BBQ at my place the night before.   The guys are bringing their World War II military surplus rifles and it should be a hoot.  I’ll grab some photos for you.   And Duane and Twin Peaks Steve, if you’re reading this, we’d like to see you guys there, too!

That’s it for now, folks.  Ride safe!