I remember a time, about a hundred years ago, when I could operate on a few hours of sleep; that's right, my memory extends that far, at least for now. The glory days of youth I guess one could call them. I don't know how I managed it but I did. These days...yeah, well let's just say I like sleep too much to find out how little I need to operate.
Friday night I drove about an hour north to catch up with a mate I've not seen for about a year. He's a guy I've known for many years, we used to shoot together back in, ye olden days, when we both lived different lives. We had a close bond and it's endured over the years.
A few months ago he started seeing a new lady after he'd gone through a rather terrible four year divorce situation with his ex-wife in which she set out to destroy his life as best she could. It didn't work.
Last night I went to meet the new lady, have dinner and tell some lies. I arrived at 19:00 [7pm] and began what was to be a really nice night. I left at just after 02:00 [2am] and managed to get to sleep about 03:30. It was a long day but enjoyable. I'm suffering a little now though and I can report that four hours sleep is hardly enough for me to operate on these days. Ah, where did my youth go and when exactly did it abandon me?
It was a great night in which many stories were told and many were, as expected, embellished to inspire additional laughter from those listening which worked a treat. We caught up in pretty epic fashion. My friend's girlfriend is a lovely lady and it was heartwarming to see them together as he deserves someone special in his life. She also laughed at [most of] our stories from the old days and was generally awesomely pleasant.
The weekend was off to a great start.
This morning I awoke feeling like death and wanted to kill myself refreshed and energised, fell jumped out of bed, told the day to fuck off greeted the day with a smile and said, today is a shit fucken day today I'm going to live my best life and be my best version. I was super tired happy and cheery.
I had a day of running errands ahead of me and after a quick shake for breakfast headed off in the Big Dog to a mates farm to pick up some projectiles he had for me.
He owns and operates a large farm, you can see a small portion in that image below. Everything you see except the very furthest hills, the dark line in the very distance to the left of shot, is his and if I could spin the camera 360° you'd see the rest of it, which looks the same. His homestead is on the top of the hill just behind where I'm standing.
Further to being a farmer he is a gun dealer, works for an American company that services the military and another here that does the same. He's a busy man, and a handy one to know.
With things the way they are we're seeing a decrease in availability of firearms related products including factory-made ammunition and ammunition components like primers, powders and projectiles. Most people cannot get what they need and that's when it pays to be connected, like me.
I make my own ammunition and am in the process of increasing my stock by fifteen percent.
I maintain a healthy stockpile of the ammunition I use for my various rifle-systems however a few conversations I've had lately have prompted me to increase that and I've been doing so over the last weeks, along with checking and rechecking my equipment.
I've had trouble getting the projectiles I picked up today [Hornady 87gr VMAX] at a reasonable price. In fact, they've been almost unobtainable.
These projectiles are what I use to make ammunition for my culling rifle, a custom .243 Tikka CTR, and are accurate and destructive all the way to 1,000 metres and more. They go transonic at 1175m, however one wouldn't want to be in it's path even at that range as they're still travelling at 1249 feet/second and will leave more than a mark upon a person. It's a good all-round calibre, the rifle is light, the scope magnificent and I can play it like a finely tuned instrument. But not without ammunition, hence my trip today...I need more. [One can never have enough ammunition.]
From there I headed to my gun range to meet up with a guy who had some factory-made 9mm ammunition to give me. Again, I make my own 9mm ammunition usually, however I'm taking a young lad shooting in a few weeks and don't want to use any of my own so have bought a 250 round box of Sellier & Bellot from a mate as, they are also hard to obtain, at the moment. Fortunately he had a box he was willing to part with at the going rate of $135.
I talked some shit at the range, listened to some shit-talk, and then skedaddled to run a few more errands I don't wish to talk about here.
It was about lunch time by this point and, after that rather uninspiring shake for breakfast, I was feeling a little hungry so headed home, packed away the stuff I'd got and had a bite to eat...now I'm writing this...and feeling super tired.
I don't have much happening for the rest of the weekend to be honest.
I'll snooze in a bit and later will watch the first few practice sessions of Formula One as the first race of the year is this weekend, in Bahrain. I've just finished watching series five of The Last Kingdom which was totally legit, and am thinking about a new series to watch. Peaky Blinders maybe? I've heard it's good. I'll read a little bit, have to program some new roller door controllers for my vehicle garage, do some gardening, make a little more ammunition and do about a gazillion other things but right now...I think it's hammock and snooze time...I need to catch up on some beauty sleep so I don't feel like death.
I hope y'all have a great weekend and do some things that make you happy; life is too short not to make it the best it can be right? If you feel inclined let me know what you're up to in the comments below and, if you'd like, maybe take a look at the #weekend-engagement topics which you'll find here and get an entry in over the weekend.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
All images are my own
