September Random - 13 Shots

As I said, I have a lot I could have made posts on, so I'm going to go a little random to do a recap here!!!

Back at the end of March we had another range day. The night before it was raining, and was precdicted to continue. I thought it was going to get scrubbed, but others weren't to be deterred by a little rain!!!

It had the cool effect that you could see where your bullet was hitting!!!

It started clearing up later on in the day, and turned into a really beautiful day!!! There was a big puddle on the road in and out, and a bunch of rocks had become disloged from the sides on the way out.

Came upon a patch of the rocks strewn across the road, and was unable to avoid one of them as I was rolling through. Predictably, one of them popped one of the tires. Got to see if the spare and the tools in the Matrix (wasn't going to take Scruffy off road!) were up to the task, which gladly they were. We stopped at the strangest Del Taco for some lunch on the way back, and then ducked into the place I usually buy tires these days, and got a replacement put on.

At the beginning of April the boy and I went to an Angels game. It wasn't a particularly wet winter, but a little drizzle started towards the end, so we left early.

At the end of April we went up to Running Springs again for a couple nights.

It was a pretty good low-key vacation.

The boy and I went on a night walk, and we went to Lake Arrowhead and a thrift store in Blue Jay. Of course, we had breakfast both days in the best coffee shop in Running Springs!!!

Just for fun, here's a picture I took of the front of Scruffy reflected pretty nicely in the back of a truck, reminiscent of a shot I took years ago!!!

I noticed that post I've linked has the keyword "potato" for some reason. Guess I'll have to have it in this post, too!!!

Went to the beach for my birthday. Dug holes and made a sand sculpture and splashed around in the water, then went to In-N-Out Burger for a late lunch!!!

Early June my wife went in for back surgery again. They connected everything from the neck to the pelvis!!!

Since it was the second time going in, the surgeon enlisted a plastic surgeon to work on the closing. If that's the result you get from plastic surgery, I don't think it's worth it!!! Told her if she ever wants another tattoo, she could get a zipper pull drawn on the end!!! She was in for both her birthday and the 4th of July. The surgeon wanted her up and moving as soon as possible, and the plastic surgeon wanted bed rest for as long as possible!!! I think she was up and around the quickest I can remember from this surgery!!!

At some point during the summer, my work announced that since things have been economically rough these days since we have clowns running the country, they were going to have a cash profit sharing mid-year this year!!! As always, the man took his chunk, but I still had a good amount of gravy left over!!! I was thinking that since (1) I don't really have a spare car these days, I could pick something up, and (2) since I've never owned a true convertible, I could get one!!! Since they aren't making them anymore and I've always liked the look (not to mention, it would keep with a theme I've had going for a while now) I was thinking of getting a Saturn Sky. The budget range I was thinking I'd like to stay in was around $5,000. You can find 'em around that, but naturally not pristine. Of course, there's the ugly duckling sibling, the Pontiac Solstice. Found this one that was in the range.

My wife made mention that it's not a super-practical car (kinda the point!!!) and kind of a vanity type thing. I considered it, and yeah, kind of. I considered what else there was, the Toyota Solara and it's Lexus twin have that Toyota reliability, if you believe the hype, but if you thought the Solstice was ugly... Then I remembered, they had made a convertible version of the PT Cruiser!!! I know, they have a polarizing style, but my wife and I have always been on the positive end of that polarization, and we liked the rental we had when we went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. I've always thought the classic was better looking, but I could deal with the convertable!!! A little more practical, and still a drop-top!!! The convertible isn't super common, but almost all of them are below the price threshold I'd set. Found this one that's being offered by a dealer for $3,999 with under 92k miles, and as far as the engine goes, it's the one you'd want!!! Kind of love the color, too!!! Not so much that I've actually called about it, or looked into actually going to see it...