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<\/p>\nThis is going to be one of those rambling, topic-hopping blogs that flits like a butterfly in a bed of flowers. You know, touching lightly on a variety of topics and then flitting to the next one for a pollen fix.<\/p>\n
First up:\u00a0 Do you have a favorite family restaurant?\u00a0 We’ve got two.\u00a0 One is Rancho Las Magueyes, a Mexican place right around the corner.\u00a0 I know everyone there by their first name, and they all know Susie and me.\u00a0 And my shooting buddies (we always have lunch there after a day on the range).\u00a0 The other is an Italian restaurant.\u00a0 It’s Di Pilla’s in Rosemead, and I’ve been going there for thirty years.\u00a0 Susie and I always get a small pizza and a pasta dish, we share some of both while we’re there, and we’ll bring the rest home (it’s good for another two meals for both of us).\u00a0 I was in Los Angeles last week to renew my passport and we stopped at Di Pilla’s for exactly what I described above (a small pizza with olives and mushrooms, and Dante’s angel hair pasta).\u00a0 It’s just wonderful…the closest you’ll ever get to Heaven without a one-way ticket.\u00a0 If you stop in there, tell Claudia Joe sent you.<\/p>\n
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Next topic…the Superbowl. I guess the game was okay. It used to be I would occasionally watch the Superbowl just for the halftime show and the commercials. I\u2019m not much of a football fan (never have been), but the commercials and the halftime show used to make the 4-hour slog worthwhile. Not any more, though. At least not to me. I thought the halftime show was revolting, and if my kids were at home, I would have changed the channel. Is it me, or was it like going to a strip club? Maybe I\u2019m just getting old. I don’t like twerking coming into my family room on a widescreen TV, and I didn\u2019t understand a good 70% of the commercials. They weren’t clever or entertaining, and I wasn\u2019t sure what most of them were advertising.\u00a0 The commercial would end and I\u2019d wonder: What was the product? Ah, there\u2019s no maybe about it…I am getting old. But hell, even old people still buy stuff. After four long hours of Superbowl LIV, there\u2019s nothing I\u2019m going to purchase as a result of watching any of those commercials. Color me cranky, but I thought the whole thing was a stupid waste of my time.\u00a0 That’s four hours I won’t get back.\u00a0 It won’t happen again.<\/p>\n
More rambling, this time about Facebook and the endless supply of brainless memes that flow from its feed. I like Facebook and I like to keep up with my friends and my memories, like that photo above of good buddy Carl and me up on Glendora Ridge Road with the CSC 150 Baja Blaster I rode to Cabo and back<\/a>. But the rest of the Facebook schtick…wow, it gets old fast. Is anyone else here tired of the mindless political ranting on Facebook?\u00a0 Look, who I vote for is a decision I’ll make without any help from CNN, MSNBC, the NY Times, the Russians, or you.\u00a0 It’s my vote, and all the breathless exhortations by Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, and Sean Hannity will matter not one whit. It\u2019s what happens in a free country. Mindlessly sharing memes on your Facebook feed (I know, there’s a lot of redundancy in that phrase) isn\u2019t going to change a thing.\u00a0 Folks, get a life. Grow up. Vote, and then move on. It\u2019s what we do in America.<\/p>\n A happier topic…I\u2019ve been spending more time on the range. If you didn\u2019t see the 9mm cast bullet comparo, you might want to take a look at it<\/a>. I\u2019m going to start shooting the 9mm jacketed bullet series in another week or two. Jacketed bullets are frequently more accurate than cast bullets, so I\u2019m excited about how that\u2019s going to go. I was tremendously impressed with the Sig Scorpion and how it handled cast bullets. We\u2019ll see if it brings home the bacon with jacketed bullets.<\/p>\n One of my shooting buddies is a California Corrections Officer, and he told me about their qualification course with the Mini 14 (the California Department of Corrections uses the Ruger Mini 14, one of my favorite rifles, as an issue weapon). They qualify with the B-21 target, and when I was at the target manufacturing operation where I buy all my targets I asked if they stocked that one. The guy behind the counter was surprised, and he told me the only folks who ever want that target are CDC officers. But they had it, and then it was my turn to be surprised. The B-21 target is huge. I\u2019m going to have to make a bigger target stand for it. I\u2019m thinking maybe our next informal milsurp match will be with it.\u00a0 My objective is to shoot a higher score than my CDC buddy, and he’s real good.<\/p>\n And on that subject, we\u2019re still toying with the idea of a postal match. You know, one where we specify the course of fire and the target design, you mail your targets to us, we score them, and there\u2019s some kind of a prize for first, second, and third place. We\u2019d make it for handguns only and spec the distance at 50 feet, and we\u2019d make the prizes significant enough to bump up participation. Like maybe a Gear\u2019d Hardware watch for first place, with a book and a T-shirt for second and third place. Let us know<\/a>…if we did that, would you participate?<\/p>\n Last topic for today, folks:\u00a0 Baja. Yes, Baja beckons. I aim to get down there sometime soon and then again later this year. Maybe stop in to see Baja John in Bahia de Los Angeles. See the whales in Scammon\u2019s Lagoon. I’ll be on my motorcycle, and of course, I’ll be insured with BajaBound<\/a>. Gresh will be along, maybe even on Zed now that his Kawi 900 resurrection has resumed. Whaddaya think?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/TT250Manual-232x300.jpg\")
I do buy stuff, though. Lots of it. In fact, my new goal as a senior citizen is to make sure my outgo equals my income (I keep telling the kids if there’s anything left after I’m gone, it’s strictly the result of an computational error).\u00a0 And to help me meet that goal, I think I\u2019m buying a new motorcycle. One that has no fraud associated with freight and setup, as is typically encountered at most dealers. Maybe around the end of this month. Watch for more details. Before I do that, though, I want to get my TT250 running. I don\u2019t ride as much as I should, and my TT250 carb gummed up from disuse. I\u2019ll have to refer to my free CSC<\/a> TT250 shop manual (why don’t all the manufacturers do that?) on how to clean the carburetor, but I\u2019m not worried about the job. I hear the TT250 manual is pretty well written. I\u2019m thinking I\u2019ll get around to the TT250 this week or next.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/MungieCSC150-600.jpg\")
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<\/a>On to a new topic…I\u2019m afraid this coronavirus business is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I have good friends in China from my Chongqing and Riding China<\/em><\/a> adventures. I recently wrote to one of them to see how things were going over there. \u00a0In a word, it\u2019s bad. Real bad. The streets are deserted in China, no one is going out, companies are shutting down, travel is severely restricted, and the market is plummeting.\u00a0 Their economy is tanking.\u00a0 Approximately 2000 people a day are getting infected (and that number is likely going to increase).\u00a0 I loved my time in China and I love the Chinese people.\u00a0 I respect their engineering and manufacturing prowess. I hope things get better for them soon.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/IMG_75581-600.jpg\")
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