Blah, blah, blah...

Sorry I've been absent a few days... I just can't find much new to post about.
I did get a new pistol this week. A neighbor gave me this nifty Hopkins and Allen (by Numerich Arms) underhammer black powder pistol in exchange for my helping him with something. It's a .45 caliber percussion pistol with the lockwork beneath the barrel, and the mainspring is the trigger guard. I cleaned it up and took it out to shoot the other day. I was able to put a dozen rounds through it before I felt it starting to foul.
It's got a good trigger and nice sights, and if I'm less than 25M from the target, I can hit a paper plate almost every time. Any farther back though and it really starts to get tricky. Such is accuracy with black powder and cast lead balls.

This one's fun to play with but I think I'll keep my P7M13 as my primary defensive sidearm.


Shooting aside, I hit the swimming pool with my swim fins and my dive foot yesterday. WOW, what a difference! My normal swimming is mainly upper body work, and I can swim a length of the 25m pool in about 40 seconds. Using these fins and a coordinated stroke, I can make that same 25m dash in less than 15 seconds! Eleven kick cycles is all it takes. Big difference. Now if I can work out a routine here, my swimming's going to take off. It takes a conscious effort to coordinate the arm strokes and kicks right now, but if I can get it down, I'll be able to do whole LAPS in under 30 seconds and easily halve my mile time... Onward and upward.

And then there was today. Since it was so nice out, I took Lagniappe for a hike down by the river. It was pretty muddy out, but he had a ball running up and down the trail and walking out on what little river ice remained.

We spent a couple hours playing "Fetch" and "Tug of War" with countless sticks (He's obsessive about sticks. No one can have a stick but him. All your sticks are belong to him. If he sees anyone with a stick--even me--he immediately goes for it and he will not stop until the stick has been taken from that person, triumphantly carried a short distance away, then bitten in half. If the stick breaks off in the person's hand and Lagniappe gets 90% of the stick, he drops that and goes after the remaining piece that he doesn't have. Crazy dog.

Here he is atop the remains of an old stone building, doing his "Master of all he surveys" routine. What a ham...
But it was a nice time, despite the mud, and when we got home, we both took well-earned afternoon naps. Since I'm the boss, I at least got the couch.