Displaying a Handgun

A few days ago, my dad had a bad experience trying to return a small dresser with a chip taken out of it. One of my parents made the comment that if I had gone with my dad and been open carrying, then they might not have been so belligerent.

I then went on to have a discussion with my mom about the legalities and wisdom of open-carrying. She would kind of joke about how dad would be talking with the employees while I could just stand back with the gun on my hip, just staying quiet and standing there with my arms folded. And I'm thinking, "Yeah, like Guido, the local La Cosa Nostra Neighborhood Liaison Officer."

So I know she was just joking, but I didn't want to let her get by without getting my point across that what she was talking about was highly illegal. I explained to her that the only time it's ever appropriate to coerce someone with a weapon is when you feel that your life is in danger, not because you're mad because they're trying to bully you into keeping slightly damage furniture.

Would you be willing to give up your right to vote over a small wooden dresser? Because crimes involving deadly weapons result in felony convictions, and Felons lose certain rights for the rest of their lives.

Self defense with a deadly weapon is serious business.

Some pictures

I need to clear some photos off of my phone, so here they are.


This first is of a dead moose I saw on the road to Heber. I knew it was dead, because this was the second day that I saw it, but it was so big, that I still didn't get too close to it, for fear that it would suddenly jump up and eat me.
I must have an irrational fear of dead moose.


These next pictures are from a project that Sohm Photografx is working on, a catholic church in West Jordan.







If you want to get aerial photographs, but you can't afford a helicopter or don't know how to use one, you can just use a blimp.

It's interesting how Barnes and Noble arranges its books sometimes.




I don't know if Larry would be insulted, amused, or flattered to see a rack of his book next to a bunch of copies of "Twice Tempted By A Rogue".

Maybe it's targeted to bored suburban couples, with perfect selections for husband and wife.

Makes sense because this was at the Fort Union Barnes and Noble.

Corps Encore 2010

Awesome drum corps last night. The Troopers are really rockin' these days. I love the new uniforms and their show was the best I've ever seen out of the Troop. Their horns were great, drums were good. I didn't think they deserved to be 8 points behind Vanguard. However, one of their trumpet players lost his hat, and a snare player lost a drum stick and had no backup.

I really like Santa Clara. They have incredible horn players, great drumline, great style. However, this year's show kind of lacks energy. It took too long to get into the show, and there were too many dead spaces in the music. However, I think their show deserved a higher placement than they got.

I am not a huge fan of the Blue Knights, I think they have created so much tradition that they limit themselves creatively, and kind of don't try new things. However they were better last night than I remember them being. I thought that they and Santa Clara were about on par with each other. Their music was energetic, it was good. They placed higher than Santa Clara by 3 tenths of a point.

Blue Devils really blew the lid off the whole show. They used giant mirror panels and had some neat effects, for example they would have a string of horn players facing a mirror (the mirrors face the audience of course) then they would slide to the right while still facing the mirror, and when they moved past the edge of the mirror, another player from behind the mirror came out and was following the first player. The effect was that the reflection jumped out of the mirror and followed the reflected player. It was really cool. The Devils drumline, specifically the tenors were incredible. They did play quite a few measures of silence punctuated by single blasting notes, but when they would play groovy jazz music and rock out in place, and they did it correctly. Some other corps tried the 'stand in place and groove' visual effect, but they did not have the energy in their movements or in the music to pull it off.

The Blue Devils really were leaps and bounds ahead of the other corps at the show. I didn't take pictures, because I wanted to just enjoy the show, and not worry about taking pictures of it.

Trap shooting

So who could have known that this shotgun would not have performed as well as this one at a trap shooting competition?

And to anyone who says that you can't miss with a shotgun? Well I missed. A lot.

But it was fun.

Independence Weekend, Part Two

We took the Little Guy to a carnival thing and he . . . well, he'd never been to one before, so he didn't quite understand everything that was going on.



His thought process probably went like this. . . .
"Hey look a little swimming pool. Wow! It's got fish in it! I want one. Wait, a stick? What's this for? You want me to get fish with this? What do I need a stick for, the fish are right here. Why can't I just reach down and get the fish? Fine mom, I'll grab the stick. Hey Mom! You got a fish! Good job. Now I'll just get one for myself. . . . Candy? What's this candy for, I thought we were getting fish?"

Independence Day Weekend, So Far

The Lovely Wife, for a few years now, has spoken very highly about the City of Moroni's July 4th celebrations, how they spend most of the yearly budget on Fireworks, they do a cool little parade, etc, etc. . .

One of the coolest things about the parade is that it is kicked off by a small airplane that buzzes the parade route and drops a mass of ping pong balls on the parade route. TLW's eyes would light up as she would recall the cloud which erupted from this plane and the chaos as balls would go flying every direction and kids fighting each other to get a ball, because some contained prizes.

Imagine my anticipation as I see the plane, flying low over main street, heading right for us, and then a handful of balls start falling out of plane. It doesn't quite block out the sun like I thought it would, but maybe the ball dropping mechanism jammed. It's ok, they'll come around again.

The plane had quit dropping them before it got to us, and I watch it as it flies past, and I see someone's hands sticking out a side window, shaking the last balls from a plastic Walmart bag.

So they fly around again and come down the street again, and this time they over shoot us. And the second time around was every bit as impressive as the first one.

Lovely Wife looks at me, and says, "I promise it was way cool when they started, they're cheaping out on us." To which I replied, "I guess they couldn't afford more than 1500 ping pong balls."

Maybe the oil spill is driving up the price of oil, and therefore plastic, so ping pong balls must be like $30 a pop.

Last year the Awesome Fireworks were canceled because of gale force winds and Thunderstorm. The Lightning was very spectacular and fun to watch, as loud and bright as any fireworks display, but you don't get that distinctive sulphur smell of summer.

Tonight will tell if Moroni will live up to The Lovely Wife's childhood memories.



In other news, the City is putting on a Trap Shoot, which I will be attending. Hopefully pictures and video to follow.