Early morning shopping, and other thoughts

I went to Wal-Mart in the wee hours, this a.m., with a $100 budget and a desire for as much ammo as I could afford.

The best deal they had is a 250-round box of Remington UMC, 230-gr FMJ for $82.97. It's six dollars less than I'd have paid for 5 boxes of the CCI Blazer ammo I bought at Sportsman's Warehouse on Friday.

I also got gun oil, nitro solvent, and cleaning patches, and walked away with $8.56 in change. Not too shabby.

There's a pistol range about 3 miles down the road. I plan to do some shooting on Friday, just to break in the new, (much) smaller pistol.

My last handgun was a .44 Colt with a 9" barrel, so the 1911 seems kinda puny by comparison. My recollection of the 1911 I trained on, in the Navy, was of a slightly larger machine; but no matter. I haven't carried a semi-auto in years - I was into large-caliber revolvers for a long time.

I do miss having a private place to go, for shooting ... my brother-in-law and I used to hunt deer on a farm south of New Haven, Missouri, and we did a lot of shooting there whenever we got the urge to punch holes in paper targets, soda or milk jugs full of ice, chunks of wood, or whatever was handy.

Weather-wise, we have 9 frosty degrees this morning, and mostly clear conditions. Accu-Hunch says we'll get up to 13 today, with sunny skies - not bad for the winter solstice.

It's going to be a nice day, and I hope you're enjoying yours. So live, love, and laugh today - what else is there?

UPDATE: the temp has dropped to 3 degrees at my place, but the sun will be up in a few minutes. It won't make much difference in the temperature, to be honest, but it will be psychologically satisfying. We take what we can get. In the words of an old acquaintance: "If it can't be functional, it should at least be aesthetically pleasing."