Country Santa C’est Mort.

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Many years ago, the Missus bought what was considered a cute Christmas ornament: a singing country Santa. It was fun for a little while but after the 100th time listening to the same song, I developed a hatred for the bastard.

The doll eventually ceased to function, but rather than throw it away, we kept it because I had promised myself to shoot the dammed thing whenever I had the chance.

So, I tested the upgraded 10-22 just now. 10 rounds without a hiccup.

Country Santa is dead.

I haven’t shot the shotgun in a while. I figure a mag full of birdshot to test functionality may be in the future books.

Budget Carry Optics: The Taurus GX4 T.O.R.O Is Finally Here!

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Budget Carry Optics: The Taurus GX4 T.O.R.O Is Finally Here!The newest iteration of Taurus’ successful GX4 micro-compact 9mm pistol is finally here. The Taurus GX4 T.O.R.O (Taurus Optics Ready Option) has just been announced. It will be compatible with many of the market’s most popular red dot sights and features a lot of flexibility in terms of optics selection for budget-minded customers. If you’ll […]

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The Firearm Blog

Comic for December 02, 2021

https://assets.amuniversal.com/532f21002a07013a8638005056a9545d

Thank you for voting.

Hmm. Something went wrong. We will take a look as soon as we can.

Dilbert Daily Strip

It Took an Entire Month to Build This Elaborate Treetop Hot Wheels Track That Includes a Powered Elevator

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One of the many joyful things the internet has brought us is seeing people take their favorite childhood toys to the extreme. If you thought the Hot Wheels track you built as a kid that spanned half your house was impressive, it’s time to hang your head in shame while watching this truly amazing treetop layout.

Although the track zig-zags through a towering tree and races along branches, the creators of this course explain on Reddit that they didn’t use a single screw or nail to attach the structure to the tree. It was tied on using string so that when the fun was over the track was easy to remove without causing any permanent damage.

All-in-all the folks behind the Backyard Racing channel estimate it took two whole weeks to design the layout of the treetop track and test that all the various obstacles would work, and another two weeks to put it all together. In addition to the track sections that seem perilously perched atop tree branches, there’s also jumps, full loops, tunnels, Kodi the Australian Shepherd, and countless boosters that keeps the Hot Wheels car zooming along the track when gravity power runs out.

Without a doubt the most impressive feature (with the beautiful Fall foliage coming in at a close second, and the popsicle stick swinging bridge just behind that) is the drill-powered gondola lift that takes Hot Wheels cars from the very bottom of the track all the way back to the highest point in the tree again. Operated by a small Lego minifigure at the controls inside, it turns this whole track into a continuous Hot Wheels roller coaster, but more importantly, it means no one has to climb a ladder every time they want to launch a car.

Gizmodo

If you insure through USAA, you might want to check the status of your account…

 

… because it appears some of their customers are having problems.  Beans, blogging at Chant du Depart, describes what he found.

So, there I was, Saturday, planning on holiday meals and planning bills (like car tag renewals and such) and while reviewing my bank statement (on-line, I’m not a total Luddite) and lo and behold, something was missing.

Utilities – check.
Cable/Internet – check.
Rent – check.
Death insurance – check.
Scamazon – check.
Food, food, food, food – check, check, check, check.
Drugs (legal variety) – check.
Car insurance – 
Car insurance – 
CAR INSURANCE!!!???? 

Lo, and behold, the wondrous USAA of which I have been a valued and happy member, thanks to Dad and Mum, for a very long time, has not dunned my account for October or November.

. . .

USAA lady – "Hello, how can I help you?"

Me – "Why have you not dunned my account for October and November?  And does this mean I no longer have car insurance?"

USAA lady – "Well, (goes onto short but clearly understandable explanation of how USAA has gone to new computer system and they migrated most data over, like phone numbers, addresses, email addys, shoe sizes, but not billing info)."

Me – "Just my billing info?  Because that would be my usual luck."

USAA lady – "No, a lot of billing info."

Me – "So you’ve been answering a lot of these calls?"

USAA lady – "Yes."  Deep remorseful sigh…

There’s more at the link.

Of course, I immediately called USAA, and found that our insurance premiums had been debited as usual.  However, our account was no longer listed as "verified", which meant I had to do that at once, otherwise our December premiums would not be withdrawn on time.  That’s in hand right now.

Full marks to USAA for sorting out the potential problem as soon as I queried it;  but it’s not so good that I had to find out about it through a third-party blog on the Internet.  If you insure through USAA, you might want to give them a call to make sure that everything’s on the up and up with your account.

Thanks, Beans, for the heads-up.  It was very timely.

Peter

Bayou Renaissance Man