Midlife Crisis Wish List Update

So, yesterday, mom and I were going to meet for a late lunch/early dinner at a shopping center near where The Queen and I reside. Mom suggested the location as she needed to locate and purchase a new top to wear for a concert. Mom E., for those who are wondering, is a tremendously gifted musician (she has a masters degree in piano performance from SMU), and her current day job is the chorale director and professor of music theory (among other duties) at a small college. As such, she would be the one directing for her students at said concert.

I was under the impression that we would eat first and do any necessary shopping duties afterward. I was apparently mistaken as mom forced me to assist her in her efforts to locate the above mentioned top prior to allowing me to satiate my substantial hunger. In fairness to me, I had been working hard all day up to that point and had only had a bowl of yogurt and granola to tide me over since awakening (By the time we got to a restaurant after 5:00, I was ready to chew an arm off). In fairness to mom, she did point out that some of the stores might have closed by the time we finished eating since it was Sunday after 4:00 when we got to the shopping center.

Add to this the fact that, as some might recall, I have an aversion to clothes shopping in general and women's clothing in particular (especially when the one doing the shopping is the same person who taught me to speak "Thingie"). To say that my heart was not in it is yet another understatement of colossal proportions. It didn't help matters one bit that I spent a few minutes in the firearms section of Dick's Sporting Goods while waiting for mom to get to the shopping center. It was there that I came across a rifle that I didn't recognize.





It turns out that this little gem is the Savage Mark II BVT (which apparently stands for bull/varmint barrel with a thumb hole stock) in .22LR (they have it in .17HMR as well, but I'm not interested in that little varmint nose pickin' round). Of course I couldn't resist asking to fondle...I mean hold it for a few minutes. The stock on the one at Dick's appeared to have a darker finish than the one pictured above. It's satiny smooth, and it has the heft of a bigger rifle (as opposed to my Marlin 60 which I can shoot relatively accurately, pistol style, with one hand at arm's length). It's real comfy for my monkey man arms, and Dick's was even kind enough to put a scope on it as part of a package deal. To top it all off, they've got it on clearance for $329.99 which is a steal when you consider that the best price I found online was $339.00 WITHOUT the scope (and the little detail of shipping, handling and FFL transfer fees).

The Mark II is a bolt action instead of the increasingly more common semi-automatic. Now that I think about some, I'm seriously considering dropping the Ruger 10/22 from the wish list in favor of the Mark II. I already have a semi-auto .22 in the Marlin 60. The Marlin is plenty accurate for plinking and "shoot it as fast as you can" noise making. It was never designed as nor intended to be a serious tack driver. While the Ruger would be an improvement over the Marlin in terms of accuracy, but a bolt action would be a bigger improvement. Since I am more interested in improving my accuracy skills right now, the Savage is going to the top of the wish list

Did I mention the fact that it's all kinds of pretty?

Yeah, I want it. I want it real bad.