M1 carbine

 

I've got a universal replica m1 carbine. Have yet to shoot the thing. It's not an awesome round, but it was basically a magnum revolver round in a light rifle, before there were either of those things commonly. Essentially it's a 357 magnum in performance.

 

John, perfect description . When ya get ready I've got a case of bandoleers

 

Great opening some windows to replace stale winter air w/ near springtime air.

 

Watching The Actor awards waiting for one of Gwyneth Paltrow’s melons to fall out of her dress.

 

That would have been a nice sight!

 

I've noted IB techs have logged on several times during the past week. A serious degradation in service has been occurring. Not sure why I mention it, but it's annoying.

 

Good afternoon guys,

Cool this afternoon, low 40's and overcast. We got sleet and a little freezing rain overnight, I saw a little ice on our deck and on my truck, but from what I have seen there were no school closures this morning.

My little guy Keegan is playing in a hockey tournament up in South Bend, IN this coming weekend. I'm not going with them, but the good news is I will be able to watch the games live or download them on my LiveBarn hockey App.

Not much going on around here. When the weather get's back up into the 60's or 70's again I'm going to start in on prepping the 4-4-2 for the coming season. I'm also going to need to start perusing the various Car Show sites to start building my Car Events Spreadsheet for 2026. Usually the earliest cruise-ins and shows start in late March or early April, it'll be here before I know it!

Surprised we haven't heard a peep out of Mike? Maybe he has connectivity issues from over there, or he's just having so much fun he hasn't had time?

I hope everyone has a great day and week? 😃

 

If he brought his laptop, he'd easily be able to get a local WiFi connection. If he brought only his phone (didn't he get a new phone &/or new service or something) he does need to have cellular roaming enabled, maybe he doesn't have roaming enabled?

 

Norm - I trust your observations, but I haven't really noticed the degradation you mentioned, but I haven't been on the site nearly as much as I usually am. I sure hope we're not headed for a total crash???

 

Yes, who knows, guess we'll get the story when he gets back.

 

Navigating from My Posts to say New Posts or sometimes navigating to certain posts is taking a long time for posts to appear (render). A new annoyance which occurred two weeks ago is my login screen GUI now appears on the far side of my screen, I enter my PW then after two alpha-numeric characters (of my PW) are entered the login GUI screen jumps to the middle of the screen. Bizarre and I have all updates to the OS and to Mozilla Firefox.

 

Going over a letter that I received. Data breach. Just @@##$% fine! Looks like my medical records, insurance info, and S.S.# were grabbed, along with probably a few million other people. From the letter, it first started in Nov. 2024, and they did not catch it until last October. I know exactly where it happened, the place that did my ankle surgery in 2015. I had an appointment with them back in October, and they asked about my medical history with them. I gave them a puzzled look, at which point the said that did not have my records. No explanation, nada. Per the letter, no financial records were compromised, i.e. C.C. or Debit card info.

 

Dan - I've had two of those breaches in the past 7-8 years. First was from AT&T the second from my Dermatology office/clinic.

Did they mention they'll pay for your credit monitoring for two years BULL$HIT?

 

Dan, It seems like there is a security breach going on all the time- yep they offer a data service- I just got another in mail just before we left for this trip, I'll look at it when we get back.
--Chris, I haven't heard much about your trip to Michigan- did it go well ? were you able to visit friends and family?
-- We are in Istanbul now at a really fancy old in town type hotel. Pretty nice. This trip was/is handled with Kensington Tours, which is excellent- though expensive. We are picked up by a rep at every stop- very helpful- also we get a tour by someone who is a skilled tour guide- some of them have went to college for that- Egyptian history ,etc. Last stop at the airport in Cairo we had quite a problem- we had no rep there as we were just switching flights. I think problem was we didn't have our info for 2nd flight when we checked in to 1st flight in Aswan.. So we and our luggage were sent on our way at Aswan to Cairo- but then at Cairo we had to fill out a slip for visa to go out of country . There were huge lines and when we got to desk no cards in English- only Arabic. We filled out as best we could and waited in 2nd line, then when we got there the clerk crossed it out and said "NO NO", then I told her there were no English cards, so we got english cards and went back in line-. 2nd time thru she asked for our boarding pass- which we didn't have- "Go back downstairs to EgyptAir and get boarding pass" back downstairs- then ask someone there and they say go back upstairs!! Ugh go back upstirs to grumpy lady and again she says go downstairs! Finally find out that there are 2 "upstairs" and 2 "downstairs" separated by a wall . So get to other side of wall at baggage claim area and see our checked bags on floor!! Good thing we found them!! So off we go then with our checked and carry on bags and finally get info needed to check in and recheck bags and get out second fight from Cairo to Istanbul.. man! I can see how easy it is to get messed up!! well we made it...

 

Greg, Istanbul is a cool city, glad to see it's included in your tour!

 

Dan - I've been included in a couple of large data breachs too, including a big one when the Chinese hacked the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) a little over 10-yrs ago. At the time the U.S. gave everyone who was breached a free subscription to a Credit Monitoring Service. I got a letter prior to the end of 2025 from OPM stating they were ceasing everyones' coverage by that service at the end of 2025. What a bunch of $hit! I've signed up with basic (no cost) accounts with the 3 Credit Bureaus, Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax. You can use these services to monitor your credit and lock your credit file if you desire. Locking your credit file does not preclude you from using your credit card or debit card, but it should stop someone from walking into an automobile dealership, furniture store, or any other retail outlet and being able to make a large purchase on credit when the retailer runs your credit.

 

Greg - Sorry to hear about your ordeal trying to transfer flights from Cairo to Istanbul, sounds like a real "Cluster"! I'm glad to hear that overall It sounds like you're having a great time and seeing some really neat places!

I had a great time in Michigan, and the weather was great that weekend. The boys played great. Gabe had an incredible tournament, he even had a game where he scored 4 goals in one game, and he had a total of 9 goals in their 4 games. His team made it to the Championship Game, but they unfortunately lost that game going 3-1 in the Tournament, getting 2nd place. I did get to see several family members while I was up there. You can look back on here when you get home and have more time, I posted about the trip multiple times with multiple pics.

 

How do you guys feel about people who sell something and then substitute it for something else and then try and convince you it's the same. I always thought it was called deceptive sales practice and against the law.

 

Good morning guys,

Overcast and light rain this morning, headed towards a high around 60°. We're in a significant warming trend each day for the rest of the week headed towards a high of 80° on Friday, but there is also a threat of substantial rain every day the rest of the week. If the weatherman is correct I wouldn't be surprised if we see substantial localized flooding by Friday.

No big plans for today. I've been keeping my eye on the events going on with our war with Iran, and I'm very thankful I'm retired. I'm sure things have been crazy around my old place of employment. For all I know there may even be employees I know that are deployed to one or more of the many U.S. airbases that exist in many of those Mideastern Countries. Scary times for sure for those that are over there at the tip of the spear!

Hope everyone has a great day! 😃

 

Art - I hope it's not the case, but it sounds like you may have been the victim of the old "bait and switch"? It sucks, and yes it should be illegal! Unfortunately, I often see this type of thing become a real quagmire when the transaction is between 2 private individuals. You really have to do your due diligence these days with so many unscrupulous scammers out there! 😠 😡 😤

 

I'm just getting sick and tired of corporations screwing the little guy. They offered to take the product back but I have to go through the hassle of returning it and I'm not going to bother with packaging it up etc. The thing is they pull this crap knowing most people won't bother sending it back. They shouldn't pull this **** in the first place. It's not so much they did this it's 'WHO' did it. And their answer is, 'oh it's no big deal' and it's not the owner of the company replying back. It irritates me because I know they are already making a killing with their brand but the greed bug gets them and it's never enough and they stoop to screwing people to make even more. I just can't stand the dishonesty especially when they have sold their self as trust worthy people and their whole livelihood is dependent on that trust.

 

In today’s world deception is the rule. I’ve lost confidence in most of humanity.

 

Agree/Agree 100%!

 

On a more positive note. I parked the Olds in the unheated detached garage for the winter, Nov 15 was the last time I drove it and haven't started it since then. It's not hooked up to any battery kind of trickle charger, I tested it a few days ago with a meter and it's showing 12.57 volts. I didn't make any attempts to start it but it looks like I'll be all set when I do. It's the same battery that was in it when I bought it. I hope I didn't just speak too soon.

 

Art - Just curious, do you know how old the battery is in your Old's, does it have a purchase date sticker on it?

i haven't had mine out since the 4th week in October. It's stored in a non-heated garage, partially insulated, and gets some transfer of heat from the home. Thankfully it never gets nearly as cold in the garage as the outdoor temperature. I keep the battery on a "Smart Trickle Charger" that supposedly occasionally emits higher voltage pulses to keep the battery desulfated. I have no idea if it really works? I believe I'm going on my 3rd season for this battery, I need to check the purchase date sticker. I don't anticipate any issues, but ya never know?

 

12.57VDC should be a charge state of ~92% for a lead acid battery (roughly)?

 

It should start right up then.

I bought the car 2-2021. I'll take a look for the battery date and report back. Whatever the temp is outside is inside and we've had some really cold days over the winter.

 

It's a 'Duralast Gold' and the only thing I see is a small circle sticker on the side reading 6/13. The Duralast Gold label has information on cranking volts etc but no date. That's pretty amazing if that's the date.

 

Charts such as the 1st chart (below) provide a v. good approximation of charge state for a 12VDC battery which is not hooked to anything with no surface charge (a complete no-load state). To determine the true voltage of a battery you'd need a little more information [(beyond the scope of automotive battery basics & more accurately moving into the physics of EMF (Electromotive Force)] which is to say the total potential difference & who the heck wants to go there! And, it can get ugly.



At any rate, (battery) terminal voltage is closer to true voltage of a battery (generally a little less than the chart above because we don't know the internal resistance of a/the battery; yet we know there will be some resistance).

 

The sticker date of 6/13 is likely the date of manufacture. I have owned in my lifetime a couple batteries which have gone the distance - that's a 16 yr. old battery. Many factors come into play, i.e. never any increases in resistance in the charging electrical circuit, no increases in resistance inside the battery (for many reasons) e.g. no/limited anode/cathode metal degradation, no/limited sulfation, usage, temperature fluctuations, storage conditions, etc., etc.

It should (hopefully) provide sufficient charge to fire right up. Long term storage I generally disconnect both battery terminals from any battery & either leave in the vehicle, remove & set on a wood shelf (never on the ground) or connect a trickle charger (maintainer). So much often comes into play w/ batteries - not the least of which is the actual manufacturing of the battery itself. I used to follow battery manufacturers over the years as nothing more than a hobby. I think the greatest majority are made by East Penn (I think). They may not say East Penn since they supply batteries to thousands of companies worldwide.

 

To Norm's 1st sentence above, different retailers may handle sticker dates in different ways. I know for a fact that the Walmart by me applies the sticker at date of purchase because I've seen the salesperson put it on right in front of me when making the purchase. In any case Art, I'd say you're definitely living on borrowed time. I surely wouldn't stray far from home with that baby in there!

 

One year, and yes it's bullshit. The credit reporting companies do it for free, and I will put in a freeze on my Experian account, then head over to the other two and do the same.

 

Good information Norm, thanks. Over the years I've had good luck with replacements, I wring out every last crank I can get out it. I keep my vehicles in good order and most always they start with just a click of the starter. This will be the longest I've ever had a vehicle sit without starting it so I was surprised to see it has that much juice in it.
Funny story of a battery experience. Many years ago I was working at a mill in a bad part of town and it was during a low point in my life, I was broke and the battery in my truck was dead and I'd have to bother someone for a jump every time I had to get it started. I was going to get a new one at the end of the week when I got paid but before that one afternoon when I got out of work I went to start it up and when I opened the hood to get it jumped someone had stolen it. At first I was pissed but then started laughing at the thought of when the thief found out it was dead (this was at a time before you could get a refund for a core).

 

That's pretty funny! By the way Greg, glad to see that you are seeing ancient architecture. Gotta be pretty cool. Put a freeze on at all of the credit reporting sites. I actually had old sign-ons from years ago,, they all went well except for Equiax, what a pain to get back in, but it's done.

 

Then they're applying a different sticker altogether for whatever reason - either incorrectly, or to be deceptive. The battery manufacturer is required to place date of manufacturer sticker on each battery - the small circular tag. That is the date of manufacture of the battery. Ninety nine % or all battery manufacturers also place a initial date of service (sold date) tag on each battery. The company which sold the battery to the customer is expected to indicate the date the battery was placed into service (sold date). The very thing I ever do when purchasing a battery is to check the manufacture date on the battery before I eve considered purchasing a battery. Even an AGM or lead acid battery which is purchased dry has a date of manufacture sticker. The day it is sold (placed into service) either via a store employee or customer (in the case of dry batteries), the date of service is the date the sulfuric acid solution was added to the battery cells.

 

Chris - I'll point out there is a different path to those date code stickers. If a manufacturer (most do) does not place a circular tag (date of manufacture) on the battery, the battery will be stamped (generally on the top). The 1st number and the 1st letter indicate the date of manufacture & the employee would place a stamp on the battery indicating sold date (date placed in service).

 

I began reading an excellent authoritative article this morning on the history of Constantinople (Istanbul). Will take me some time to finish it.

ISTANBUL OF THE ORIENTALISTS

 

Dan - Glad you were able to freeze your credit at all 3 bureaus.

 

Norm - Thanks for the extra info. What you relayed above must be the way Walmart is doing it with their "Everstart" batteries.