Quick Update

I apologize for being a delinquent blogger here of late. It's been a busy several weeks here at Castle Erickson with work, school, studying and the false alarm foster child situation. Unfortunately, I think it's only going to get busier for the next couple of weeks. There is something afoot that I cannot discuss in detail yet; however, it involves a a pretty major potentially life changing decision. Discussions within the family about this issue have pretty much consumed the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. 

While I've been away, I seem to have attracted a few new followers. Several bloggers have a tradition of welcoming new followers to the fold so to speak which I think is admirable. I've tried to do that from time to time, but it has been a real long time and many followers ago since I did so. My intent has been to do another massive follower intro, and I even started working on it before law school started to get in the way. I'll try to get that finished here before the end of the year after finals are done and things stop being so crazy. 

In the mean time, I offer a heartfelt welcome to Warlock Sundance, Stephen, Duke, Modern Day Redneck, Hoss Boss and justcook. I appreciate you taking the time to follow me increasingly irregular postings. Hopefully, regular programming involving guns, law school, foster parenting and associated craziness will resume sometime in the near future. No promises. 

One last thing before I get back to studying for my "all or nothing" Torts final scheduled for tomorrow evening. I've been meaning to mention this for a while, but it keeps eluding my limited attention span. I had to spend the better part of a week working from the law library at school because AT&T managed to kill my DSL connection for an entire week. I noticed something during that time which had been poking around the edges of my consciousness. Despite the reputation attorneys have for being ruthless, unethical scavengers, law students are, at the same time, generous, helpful and entirely too trusting. The heartless and unethical part must come later. The scavenger part, however, is purely instinctual. 

Allow me to explain. I sat in the law library for over eight hours on at least two different days watching students leave laptops and books worth well over $1000 unattended (and the laptops unlocked) while they left to go get coffee, go to the bathroom or others for fifteen or even thirty minutes at a time. A dishonest person could have walked away with not only valuable stuff but a semester's worth of work had they been so inclined; however, I never once saw anyone so much as blink in the direction of someone else's stuff. Balance this with what appears to be the near universal and ravenous appetite of law students. Every group event or meeting at school involves free food. Not that I'm complaining. Usually it's pizza, but we've also had Chick-fil-a, In-And-Out Burgers, Pot Belly Sandwiches and others catered in. Any leftovers from these events are shamelessly scavenged by other students. If a student walks in and smells food, it's on like Donkey Kong. It's like chumming the waters for sharks.

Anyway, must go now. Back to studying.

Pitter Patter

To The Child who God has selected for us:

I wanted to take a few minutes to write you a little letter telling you that The Queen and I are very anxious to meet you. We have been waiting a long time for you to come into our lives, and we so desperately want to get to know you and see you grow up with all the love and joy we can shower upon you. Don’t worry. We won’t smother you.

We thought last Thursday was going to be the day we would get to meet you when The Queen received a call from the nice lady at the agency about a little girl (not even three weeks old yet) who needed a home right away. It turned out to be a false alarm though. That little girl did not turn out to be you. She had three other siblings, and she was placed in a home that would take all four of them together. We were disappointed for moment because we were so very excited that we might be getting to meet you that day, but we quickly realized that we needed to continue patiently awaiting your arrival.

Mimi was disappointed she didn’t get to meet you too. I think she can’t wait to have another grandchild to spoil. We hadn’t told Oma or Opa yet. The Queen wants to surprise them with your arrival. Grandpa B. says he’s looking forward to meeting you. I’m sure he is, but I hope he’s a little more diligent about visiting you than he has been about visiting your cousins.

You may wonder why I am writing this letter to you and posting it here for the whole world to see even before you’ve set foot in our home. It’s entirely possible that you might not even have set foot in the world yet. I decided to write to you now so that you would know that you were loved and wanted even before we knew who you were.

We’ve spent a lot of time getting ready for your arrival. We had to take classes so that the State of Texas would license us as foster parents. The Queen spent a lot of time getting the house ready for your arrival. She’s cleaned and organized, removed a lot of clutter, shopped for clothes and sheets and stuff. I’ve helped some too, but I have to work and go to school which takes up a lot of time. Boooo!

Don’t worry though, I will find a way to make plenty of time for you. We have so many things to do together. There’s a whole world out there for us to experience together. The Queen and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Sasha, Boo, Numbnutt, J.G., Spanky and Filbert also can’t wait to give you warm, furry (or scaly as the case may be) and wet hugs and kisses. They will love to have someone small and energetic to play with. Especially Spanky. We think the little guy gets a little bored around here with all the older animals.

We hope you will arrive soon. We are patient, but we are also greedy. We want to spend as much time with you as possible.

With Love,

The Shepherd and The Queen

Faith Renewed

Here lately, in between classes and homework and work work and sleep, I've been spending a fair amount of time fantasizing about my next firearm purchase as I have The Queen convinced that my reword for successful completion of my first semester of law school is a new shooting iron for the stated purpose of becoming involved in some friendly shooting sports activities. Which, by way of brief update, I made a B+ on my second Legal Analysis, Research & Writing (LARW) class memo (good enough to be above the class average thank you very much). So, with great anticipation, I've been trying to narrow down the wish list to one (or two...maybe...no, really, three at the very most...I promise) selection to add to the armory for fun and games.

My goal is to get involved in one (or all) of the pistol action shooting sports. There is a local club that puts on IDPA and USPSA matches at least once a month. Now, I am a total noob when it comes to shooting sports. Historically, I go to the range and shoot stuff. Going to the range to shoot stuff against the clock and possible actually have to move and think at the same time...should be interesting.

Anywho, a quick skim of links related to the aforementioned sports suggests there are varying schools of thought about the best choice of weapons for a beginner getting into the sports. Basically, pick any weapon you want and there's probably a cubbyhole to fit it. The polymers are the cheapest entry price point in the games with revolvers coming a close second. Cheap 1911s can be had for about the price of a good polymer gun, but who wants a cheap 1911 for competition?

So, there I am, perusing the gun manufacturer websites looking for the next Pistole de Shepherd and debating whether it should be a double action revolver (Ruger or Smith are the only contenders in either .357 or .45), polymer plastic fantastic (Smith M&P .45 is really the only contender here unless Ruger gets off their butt and puts out an SR45) or the venerable 1911. I had almost talked myself into getting a Ruger Redhawk in .45 Colt (with the intent to get it customized for both .45 Colt and .45 ACP) because I really do like revolvers and shoot them fairly well. Then, I started second guessing that. The Ruger only has a 4" barrel or a 7+" barrel. My preference would be for a 5" barrel. Smith made the M325PD with a 5" barrel, but it was Scandium framed for light weight which equals abusive recoil in a .45 revolver. So, I just about gave up on the revolver idea for now and went back to cogitating the polymer pistols. I just can't bring myself to like Glocks. They are dead simple, reliable, rugged, etc., etc., and they are butt ugly. The Ruger SR pistols are down right sexy, but they don't make a .45 yet. That leaves the Smith M&P. Why Smith feels the need to limit them to 10 round mags I will never know, but they are a good looking pistol that feels right and even has a variety of options to choose from with respect to safety mechanisms. Not a bad choice for the price.

Then I see what North posted today.

I have to say, that one photo and especially the caption instantly renewed my faith in 1911s.

I must go to school now, but rest assured that I will now be noodling the nominations for best leading 1911 in an Erickson holster.