‘Stranger Than Fiction’, mailbox fun, Freedom Armory visit (posted from home)

(this post covers 2 – 7 April)
------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday, 7 April –

The cold weather continues and in fact today is the coldest day in this long stretch of below-normal days. We should’ve stayed down South for another two weeks! I spent the morning going through and filing the maps and planning brochures from our Florida trip and then cleaning and re-organizing the shooting gear. I then spent a couple of hours doing some preliminary planning for a family reunion trip to Michigan this summer. I began making a map of state forest campgrounds in Michigan in the new ‘My Maps’ feature on Google. But after plotting a few I retrieved my Michigan Gazetteer to help with the process and had a nice surprise—they’re already on the Gazetteer maps! That will help keep costs down this summer. I see Michigan, like Georgia, has gone completely bonkers and is now charging $23-25 per site in their state park campgrounds and some of them also charge a vehicle entrance fee while the state forest campsites are $10 per night.
That evening we watched ‘Friday Night Lights’ on F/X network.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, 6 April –

I spent the morning on the web today and then went shooting at Freedom Armory, a newer gun shop and shooting-range facility off the Glen Rock exit of I-83, not far from the Maryland border. I had shopped there several months ago and had some less-than-great customer service experiences but nevertheless wanted to try the range. And, as expected, it was expensive. But I was impressed by their setup. I was first given (and told to thoroughly read before we could proceed further) a four-page brochure which provided the safety and operational information about the range. It very clearly laid down a very safety-conscious approach to shooting. The ‘range officer’ is clearly identified (by a red cap) and is in charge of every aspect of your use of the range, from assigning you a lane to monitoring your use, to resolving any problems which could occur. Each shooter must have, and must wear, a photo-ID badge specifically issued by the facility and must surrender a driver’s license to be held until completion of the range session. There are 12 range ‘lanes’ (for pistols that is; there’s a separate rifle range in the basement), each with barriers between you and the next shooter and each with an electro-mechanical target hanger /retriever. Exhaust fans pull smoke downrange and away and there are fans behind and blowing over you to immediately carry the smoke away from you and the other shooters as you fire.
So what does something like that cost? Well, I had to pay $18 for the registration process, i.e., to go through the paperwork and have my fancy (and admittedly very nice) photo-ID produced. Then, shooting time is charged at $11 per HALF-hour. And your time is rounded up to the next half-hour. And if you pay by credit card, they tack on 3% (because that’s what the credit card companies charge them). So today’s one-hour shooting session cost me over $42 (plus ammo). That’s expensive but I’m also happy I went. I won’t routinely need more than a half-hour at a time so I would be paying ‘only’ the $11 per session. That’s a little more palatable. I can now mix in occasional proficiency sessions at the fancy range with longer trouble-shooting sessions at freebie ranges and have a place to shoot in lousy weather.
Back home that evening we watched ‘Papillon’ and “The Long Kiss Goodnight”, the former with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, the latter with Geena Davis (as an assassin with amnesia!).

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, 5 April –

This morning I took Cherry Larry into York to look for a trailer-lights connector and possibly a receiver hitch for Mocha Joe. I have a bumper-hitch on him and can use that to tow the fishing boat but I’d like to eventually add a receiver so I can haul the KLR on a motorcycle-hauler platform. Of course good ol’ Mocha Joe happens to need a special converter to make the lights work correctly. Ford put separate turn signals on the 92-94 Econolines and the boxes are fairly expensive, particularly if they are integrated into what’s called a ‘T-one’ connector which allows them to just be plugged in (rather than spliced in) to OEM wiring. Those are between $42 and $58, depending on brand. Anyway I searched at Wal-Mart, a local trailer dealer, Tractor Supply Center, Pep-Boys, and Advance Auto before finally settling on a $17 splice-in model at U-Haul. But I had an experience at U-Haul. I took the converter to the counter and the tech told me I not only didn’t need that one, it would not work with my lights. The tech said he has installed a lot of trailer-plugs on Econoline 150’s and all I needed was a basic plug, not a converter. I bought the basic plug and took it along in to a nearby restaurant on my lunch stop. But as I read the installation instructions and started thinking about it I realized the tech had to be wrong. If I hooked it up according to the instructions, the turn signals wouldn’t blink if I had the brake on. So I went back to U-Haul and told the tech I didn’t think it would work. He continued to insist it would work fine but finally called over a senior technician to convince me. When I insisted that I have separate turn signals, they finally decided my lights must have been changed by the aftermarket vendor when the high-top was installed and if that was the case, then I did indeed need the converter. As I drove out of the parking lot I saw several E-150’s in the lot and sure enough, they DIDN’T have separate turn signals. I finally realized what I had learned in my internet surfing and my search for T-one connectors. Ford had switched to separate turn signals on the ’92 to ’94 models but then had switched back in ’95 and up. That explains why the T-ones for the other years are a lot cheaper; they don’t have a converter.
We spent the evening on the web.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, 4 April –

The weather’s still relatively cold so I’m hanging around the house and spending my time on the ‘net and reading today. I have a lot of catching up to do on magazines and newsletters which came in while we were away. I’ve been trying to find a plug-in-type connector to put a trailer-lights plug on Mocha Joe and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find something. Looks like I’ll have to take a tour tomorrow to find something. We didn’t have a movie for the evening and spent our time on the web.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, 3 April –

This morning I installed the new mailbox and post. The new post is a teeny-bit smaller than the old one so I couldn’t just replace the damaged parts on the old one. I pulled out the in-ground section of the old post without too much difficulty but things went downhill from there. I attempted to drive the new in-ground section into the ground and it only went in about four inches and then became much harder to drive. When I eventually got frustrated and pulled out the section, the reason became clear. A stone of just the right size had lodged in it and turned the hollow tube into a solid three-by-three post. The sharp end of the post had collapsed around the stone and the box-shape of the post had collapsed on three sides. You’ve GOT to be kidding! What are the chances I’d select a spot with a stone of just the right size and position to go inside the hollow post and then jam in there tight enough to prevent the post from being driven further?
I ended up taking the damaged post section to the workbench and using a crowbar to pry the stone out, then vise-grips and hammers to pound the metal back into some semblance of its original shape. And with my new-found adrenalin from my encounter with the god-of-unbelievable-coincidences, I drove the post in with no more problem—other than the fact that it’s not exactly plumb (but close enough!).
I then tried to add the top part of the post and it wouldn’t fit! Though I had used the protective block while hammering it in, apparently the too-thin metal had also distended at the top. But fortunately I had some ‘Harley-tools’ (hammers!) to ‘adjust it’ into submission. The only downside is the top section then split for about half an inch along one corner as I tapped it into place. Nevertheless it’s on, it’s solid, and I’m done.
And Labashi thinks I don’t enjoy working in the yard. HAH!
After lunch I fired up the Concours for the first time since returning home. I rode into York to pick up a cell-phone battery for my old Tracfone. The Concours ran GREAT. It seems odd I had been away for the better part of two months in wonderful motorcycling weather and never thought of the bike. Around the time of Daytona’s Bike Week we had seen a lot of bikes and even that didn’t do it. But it sure felt nice today.
We spent the evening on the web.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, 2 April –

Today was a day to get back in the swing of things at home. I buzzed off to the Post Office early this morning to pick up our month-and-a-half’s worth of accumulated mail. While traveling we’re concerned that something important will come in via snail-mail and we’ll miss some deadline. We’ve not had that happen yet but we had a near-miss on our last trip. We came home to find a jury-duty notice for me but it turned out to have arrived just before our return and therefore was not yet a problem. This time we had nothing of concern.
I spent much of the afternoon shopping for a new mailbox and post to replace the ones someone had clobbered a few weeks ago. We’ve never learned what happened, i.e., whether the snowplow hit it or what. But in any case it wasn’t really a loss; the mailbox was peeling and starting to rust so it was time to do something about it anyway. Finding a new mailbox wasn’t a problem but it took me a long time to find a replacement post of the same design. The old one had been a no-dig model and the portion driven into the ground was still OK so I was hoping to just replace the top portion. I finally found the right style at Lowe’s but it appears to be made of lighter steel than the old one—hopefully it will fit. I was also shopping for a solution for the cooler we use in Mocha Joe. We had upgraded to a cooler with thicker insulation and have been happy with its cooling performance but disappointed with the drop-in basket. We had bought a larger basket which fit at first but soon started to sag when weighted and would fall down into the cooler. I had been looking for something to solve this problem and finally found it today. I found a plastic media-storage box at Lowe’s which is just the right size and will fix the problem.
That evening we watched “Stranger Than Fiction”, a surprising, witty, and quirky film about a guy who hears the voice of a narrator of his life in his head—and the story is getting scary. Will Ferrell plays the guy, Emma Thompson the narrator. Highly recommended!