The Arizona Rifleman

I haven’t been to Sportsman’s Warehouse in a long time, so it was pleasant to visit with a few friends today, including two female friends who are interested in buying guns for themselves — one hitchhikes around (she’s the adventuresome type) and wants to have something in case she needs to protect herself, the other is interested in fun Shooty Goodness trips at the range. They got to handle a few different guns, but didn’t buy anything today.
Interestingly enough, powder prices have stayed the same over the last year or so — it’s about $21 for one pound of IMR 4064 (Is there a more versatile powder? I think not.), just as it was a year ago. Not bad for retail pricing; I’d have to buy a considerable quantity of powder online to save any money per pound, and with a limited budget I simply can’t afford to save that much money. 🙂
In addition to the pound of powder, I also picked up a 12 gauge boresnake, as my poor Mossberg 500 is in need of some attention. I haven’t cleaned it in about a year…of course it still works flawlessly, but I think it’s been long enough.
After returning, I had a date with the kitchen: a bunch of friends came over to my tiny studio apartment and we were going to make pies (I make a pretty tasty apple pie, if I do say so myself).
Unfortunately, the pie-making was delayed by an hour due to freakishly intense thunderstorms. One friend was trapped in her car in a parking lot a few blocks away due to flash-flooding of the streets around her — Tucson has very few storm drains, and flooded roads are quite common. After nearly an hour, the waters subsided enough for her to travel the few remaining blocks to my apartment.

(Photo credit: Tucson Citizen)
Another friend was delayed as the storms prevented him from crossing the 100 yard distance separating our two apartment complexes. The rains were simply too intense, and the lightning too close.
In getting from their cars to my apartment (maybe a 25 yard walk), a few friends got extremely soaked (I said the rain was intense!) and had to borrow some clean, dry clothes. Fortunately, I just did laundry the other day, so I had plenty…though it was rather amusing to see two slender females wearing me-sized t-shirts and shorts. My garments were entirely too large, but they were evidently preferable than wet clothes.
During most storms, I take no additional precautions, but this one was different. My Honda generator was prepared and waiting by the door, computers were shut down and unplugged, and the only things plugged in were the lights, fish tank stuff, and the electric ignitor for my gas oven. One of the lights was plugged into a UPS so that if the power was to go out, there would be sufficient light for us to locate the flashlights and get the generator running. Fortunately, the power only flickered a few times, but never actually went out. My compliments to Tucson Electric Power.
I also need to find a way to protect the generator from the elements while it’s outside. During moderate storms, I have it sit under the overhang outside, where it’s protected from falling rain. However, with the intensity of the wind this evening, there was no place untouched by rain. I should look into securing a small umbrella to the generator with duct tape, so as to keep water away from its sensitive parts.
I discovered a troublesome vulnerability with my apartment: intense wind-driven rain can flood the track in my sliding window, and thus flow into the apartment itself. It required several towels to absorb the incoming water, though at the time it was not possible to actually stop the water from entering in the first place. When the rain subsided a little, I fashioned a small deflector shield with duct tape and affixed it to the outside of the window so as to direct rainwater away from the window track. This seems to have been successful: when the rain returned later, it did not enter the apartment. Since I rarely open the window (air conditioning doesn’t work well with an open window, and I use AC about 80% of the year), I should see if there’s a better, semi-permanent way of sealing the window track. Any suggestions?
As for the pie, my friend Louis made his chilled pumpkin cream pie, which was quite delicious. Since it’s a “cold” pie, no cooking was necessary — simply combine the ingredients, mix, and place in the freezer for an hour or so. My apple pie was moderately good, but in my haste (never make pie when hungry!) I prepared it in a somewhat sub-standard way: the butter in the handmade crust was not distributed evening, and so there were a few spots in the crust with excess butter. Additionally, we ate the pie shortly after it came out of the oven, so it didn’t have time to cool properly, and so lacked some of the distinct apple pie texture. Oh well. It seemed to go over well with the guests, particularly when combined with Blue Moon.
More smokeless powder, a big storm, friendly guests, tasty pies, and ale: what more can one ask for?

I wrote to my ISP (a major cable company) yesterday informing them that they were vulnerable to a serious security exploit and that they had not yet patched their systems (even though patches had been out for some time).
On the first line of my message was the statement “Please direct this to your security/network operations staff. Front-line customer support will be unable to address this serious security problem.”
I received their response today: “We apologize for your connectivity problems (?!). Please reset your cable modem.”
Idiots. I wrote back, LARTed them for not actually reading my message, and again requested that they direct the message to the suitable department. We’ll see what happens.
I know that customer support folks have to deal with a lot of crap from users (I know, I’ve been there), but this is a serious security issue and there’s no other means that I know of to contact their security staff.
Is it too much to ask that they actually read my message before replying with boilerplate?

The Wall Street Journal reports on my personal “line in the sand”:

This morning, US Airways began charging fliers $2 for bottled water and sodas and $1 for teas and coffees. First class members, trans-Atlantic passengers and a select group of others are exempt from the extra fees.

While I’m certainly not going to start shooting over this, I did utter quite a few choice words at the computer monitor. Also, I won’t book another flight on US Airways. I already have a few already booked — visiting family at Thanksgiving, for example — but those are the last.
Granted, I don’t fly all that often, so this might not mean much to them, but if they’re getting desperate enough to start charging people for water (particularly when the TSA confiscates all liquids from outside the security checkpoints), I think even my lack of flying might be noticeable.
When I was a child (not that long ago…), my father used to take me up to the cockpit when the plane was at the gate. The pilots would let me play with the controls, and would even push some test button that would cause a mechanical voice to say “PULL UP! PULL UP!” I’d even get a little pair of “junior pilot” wings. Silly, perhaps, but it’s a pleasant memory from my childhood.
I remember when all the airlines would serve food on flights more than an hour or two. When they stopped serving food on domestic airlines (or worse, charging separately for the meals), some part of my brain thought “I have a bad feeling about this…”
I knew that Foul Things Were Afoot when the airlines started charging for luggage. This, combined with the absurd restrictions on carry-on items implemented by the TSA, made me seriously consider cutting back on flying. I don’t go anywhere without at least one folding knife and my Leatherman. They’re not allowed in a carry-on, and I’m not going to pay $15 just to check a bag with the tools in it.
Charging for sodas and water crosses the line. It’s simply absurd — how much money could it possibly be saving them? US Airways charges $212 for a round-trip mid-September flight from Phoenix to San Francisco and back. This includes a weekend stay. Southwest charges $106 for the exact same flight. The staff at Southwest are more pleasant, sodas and water are free (and they still serve actual peanuts instead of the ridiculous “snack mix”, allergies be damned), and I’ve never had Southwest lose a piece of luggage.
If I were to drive, gas would cost about $135 (assuming $4.50/gallon gas, which is considerably more expensive than the current price of $3.70/gallon here in Tucson, and my Camry getting 30mpg on the highway, which it does) each way. That’s $230 in gas. Let’s round up to $300 to take into consideration wear-and-tear on the car, tires, maintenance, etc. That’s $88 more expensive than US Airway’s cheapest possible flight for those days…but I get to sit in a larger, more comfortable chair, eat and drink whatever I wish, enjoy the open road, and transport all the sharp and pointy objects my heart desires. If one counts the $15/bag fee ($25 for the second bag) per passenger, the difference is quite a bit less.
Granted, it’s a 12 hour drive from Tucson to San Francisco, but with a passenger or two, it’s much, much cheaper to drive than fly. Adding a couple passengers and a few bags to the car slightly reduces its fuel economy, but the cost-per-passenger-mile decreases greatly. The cost savings compared to flying totally offsets the slightly reduced fuel economy.
I know that jet fuel isn’t cheap these days, but rather than nickel-and-diming passengers, why not raise the ticket fare a little to make up for the increased costs? I doubt that most passengers would notice a $20 increase in their ticket price, but they’ll sure as hell notice when they need to pay that amount for drinks, food, and checked bags
If anything, they should try to differentiate themselves from their competitors by offering better service (comfy seats, free booze, etc.) for only a slightly increased fare.
Trying to become the Greyhound Of The Skies by racing other carriers to the bottom is a recipe for failure, espescially when carriers like Southwest are charging less, offering more, and still making money.