09:43 – Barbara and I finally started watching Revenāe last night on Netflix streaming. Apparently, it’s a retelling of an original story by some French guy named Al Dumbass. It stars Emily VanCamp, whom I adore only slightly less than I adore Amber Marshall. As I commented to Barbara, Emily is adorable even when her character is doing absolutely vicious things. And the series is decent, too.
Changes often have unforeseen implications. Barbara is playing Saturnalia music while she decorates the tree, and I just realized a big implication of the Hostess bankruptcy. No more Ding Dongs Merrily on High.
I’m still working on the manual for the new CK01B chemistry kit.
10:53 – It’s that time of year again, when I start planning how to nail Santa on his annual run. I’ve decided to go back to basics this year. Instead of high-tech weapons, I’m just going to use my Remington sniper rifle, loaded with 7.62×51 API rounds. I figure if I nail Rudolph, the team leader, the rest of the team and the sleigh will pile up behind him. Then the loot is all mine.
Incidentally, the rifle is a Model 788, which Remington produced to compete with inexpensive models from its competitors, and positioned as an entry-level rifle relative to its flagship Model 700. I bought mine used back in the 70’s from a friend. I bought it just as a cheap knock-around 7.62×51. At the time, people sneered at it as a cheap piece of junk.
But then I learned something interesting when several of my friends took their expensive Model 70’s and Model 700’s out to a range to shoot groups at 300 yards from a bench rest. I expected it to be all over the paper, but that cheap 788 shot under 1/2 MOA groups with factory ammo. (In other words, at 300 yards, the 788 was shooting 1.5″ groups.) At the time, I thought I must have been lucky enough to get the most accurate 788 ever made, but I later found out that mine was nothing out of the ordinary. All of those cheap 788’s were extremely accurate, not just for a cheap rifle, but period.
14:02 – By popular request, Barbara shot an image of me in full Christmas Eve camouflage, holding the 788.
I thought about mounting a scope, but I decided that if I make the shot I’ll have to do so at 50 yards or less, probably from a prone position behind our neighbors’ chimney. At that range, open sights are superior. At the rate that damned sleigh moves, I probably wouldn’t be able to pick it up in a scope, let alone make the shot.