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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Marathon Tuesday

Beastly and I are still busting butt, trying to get everything done for market tomorrow.

We've got all the finishing work completed, except for a few touch ups.  Today we have to sign, photograph, and pack everything. I also have to run out here in a few minutes and get change and an awning for our table.

You can see where this is going right?

Yeah, I'm busy today and probably won't get around to posting much of anything, at least until this evening. I'm also behind on my usual blog reading and commenting.

You'll just have to suck it up.

 

So here, have a picture.  Beastly took this up in Hatcher's Pass last weekend. Me, of course, in my spiffy new hat, standing on a rock overlooking the beaver ponds off Goldmint Trail.  It was raining, as usual, which is why I'm wearing the rain jacket. There were bears about, which is why I'm wearing the pistol on the outside of the rain jacket, despite the fact that the chest strap on the shoulder harness was choking the piss out of me.

Note the fresh snow on the ridgeline behind me.  No, that does not make me happy. Usually we don't see snow on the mountain tops until mid September or so.

It's been a weird summer.

Jim at the beaver pond

38 comments:

  1. Well, it's the subject matter. Obviously.

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  2. I never realized you were left handed!

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  3. I'm impressed that you recognized a left handed shoulder holster.

    I am left handed, but I'm fairly ambidextrous. I shoot revolvers left handed, and automatics right handed for the most part. Because most automatics are designed for right handed ejection and loading. And all military weapons are right handed. I'm rated expert with either hand and I do own a left handed Colt M1911A1. In this case I was carrying a Colt Anaconda .44 mag, which is my bear gun, so that's a left handed rig.

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  4. I don't know about recognized per se, but I saw it would be really difficult to draw right handed with that harness.

    Especially for someone with shoulder problems.

    And just out of curiosity, were you trained to be left handed, pick it up naturally, or was it self-defense? (My mom is defiantly left-handed, as they tried to force her to be right-handed in school. She also has the neatest handwriting of anyone I know, despite being a lefty.)

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  5. I'm naturally left handed, but I'm not obsessive about it. Like your mother, the school system back in the 1960's tried to "correct" my "condition." It didn't take, but it did make me ambidextrous to a large degree.

    Nowadays I'm predominately left handed as a default. I write left handed, but other than that I can pretty much use either hand. Nowadays I throw right handed, because my left shoulder is a mess and the throwing motion is the worse possible move I can make with it.

    And my hand writing stinks, for a number of reasons, shoulder damage and numbness in my left hand, and arthritis from having my hands broken repeatedly (Yeah, don't hit people with your hands, that's what tools are for, just saying). I mostly type everything.

    Most of my shop equipment has been modified to left-handed use, and as I said I tend to shoot revolvers left handed. Long guns I shoot whichever way is best for the situation, it's a talent that has come in handy upon occasion.

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  6. My mom was left-handed, so I learned to use left-handed scissors and such, but I'm dextrous, not sinistrous.

    So, do you type left-handed or right-handed?

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  7. Great photo - of both the background and Jim! Definitely the picture of the rugged Alaska outdoorsman.

    I think you need a cropped closeup of you wearing that shoulder holster on your comment policy page. ;)

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  8. So, do you type left-handed or right-handed

    Mostly the gray cat does the typing.

    Jeri, excellent suggestion, I'll get right on it :)

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  9. My little brother is left-handed. We locked him in a closet in 1976 and haven't let him out in public since. The embarrassment is just too much to bear.

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  10. Disclaimer: The previous was a based on a running joke some friends and I had in College. I was Zeppo, the missing Jewish Kennedy. Rose didn't want the world to know about me so I lived under the stairs, (Boston accent and all).

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  11. I was Zeppo, the missing Jewish Kennedy. Rose didn't want the world to know about me so I lived under the stairs

    Look, Nathan, you need to warn people before you make comments like that - I could have choked to death on this slice of pizza, as it is I've got pepperoni bits all over the fucking screen. You Bastard.

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  12. Hey! I heard this had become a classy place to hang out, so I put on shoes and brushed my hair.

    So where's the entertainment? Where's the journalism? Where's the chocolate?!

    I thought you always got chocolate at high-class establishments?

    And anyone who starts humming "Short People" gets a kick in the shins.

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  13. ....they got little feet and little eyes, they run around telling great big lies...

    Come on! Everybody now.

    Short people...

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  14. Just because you live here you think you can be mean to me?!

    Oh. Wait.

    I forgot.

    You're an asshole.

    (sigh)

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  15. And how come you never vote in any of my polls?!

    (flounces off in a huff)

    (an undersized huff, but a huff nevertheless)

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  16. left handed asshole

    Actually, I prefer the phrase "Bastard flavored bastard with bastard filling and little bastard shaped sprinkles on top."

    Just saying.

    short people got no reason, no reason...

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  17. Actually, I prefer the phrase "Bastard flavored bastard with bastard filling and little bastard shaped sprinkles on top."

    Nope. You're now officially the left-handed asshole.

    Hmm... I wonder if I can make that hover text for my sidebar....

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  18. Polls, um, uh, er ::looks around guiltily::shuffles feet::looks at toes::

    Sorry, I'm off to see Michelle pole dance, er, raise a pole barn, um, pet a polecat, no wait that's not right.

    Oh, yeah, polls. Well, as long as it's a short poll.

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  19. I'm sure Scalzi would enjoy meeting some shorter members of the UCF. :D Although his taste, like Jim's, seems to be somewhat self-sacrificially amazonian. We'd hate for him to get a kink in his neck from all that looking up that affects his ability to write!

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  20. Anne C. Thanks for the complement. It really was a great day for photos but this left handed asshole kept stepping into the frame. For all the electronic airbrushing I just could not get him out of the photo. I think it's the "boy of destiny" virus that has been going around. AGH gotta trash my camera. And did you notice how many comments "Mr. Busy today" posted? Sheesh!

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  21. Jeri;
    Though I scanned through before thanking Anne C. I missed your comment Thank you too. and all that other stuff still applies.

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  22. What is this? Pile on Jim day?

    Fine, come on then, I'll take you all one handed (left hand, of course)



    Oh look, Cake!

    ::Wanders away distracted::

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  23. What is this? Pile on Jim day?

    I thought every day was pile on Jim day!

    Where's the chocolate? Have you cleaned up your moderation queue yet? Entertain me!

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  24. Also, if you hold your cursor over Stonekettle Station in my blog roll, it now pops up "Left-Handed Asshole"

    Heh.

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  25. So Jim is now "The Left-handed Asshole" (there can be only one). Is there a trophy and prize money for that? If so, I gotta get working on my candidacy.

    Left-handed, check.

    Ability to be an ass-hole, check.

    Ability to improve ass-holiness, double check.

    Has asshat that fits head, um, yep, check.

    So what else is needed? Are there like, olympic style trials or something?

    And Random Michelle has poles in here house?! Cool, I'm like so there. I love polish cooking.

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  26. And Random Michelle has poles in here house?!

    Yup. My grandmother is half Polish. But she doesn't have any specific cooking.

    Though she does make a mean crab cake.

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  27. Ha! Steve's left handed too.

    We're taking over, soon we will dominate the dexterous world, soon the door knobs and scissors will be ours. Oh yes!


    ::feeling just a touch of megalomania this morning::

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  28. Well, I do still plan on conquering the universe and crowning myself Emperor.

    Soon too. School starts up again next Monday - and I'll finally be able to get back to writing full time, which is good because otherwise I might just lose my fucking mind. I've been on hold for two months, but I just can't write when the kid is underfoot.

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  29. I think he means "a touch more than usual."

    Beastly:
    Thanks for the good belly laugh. Photoshop really does have its limitations, doesn't it? :)

    And did you notice how many comments "Mr. Busy today" posted? Sheesh!
    Heh. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that! He just can't get enough of us, can he? ;)

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  30. No matter how busy I am, I always have time for you guys. 'Cause you're the best.

    Assholes.

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  31. Beastly - a tip. If you're going to photoshop something that major out of a photo - like a pistol and camera brandishing backwoods Alaskan asshole - then it helps to have a *second photo* to work from, either of the same scene or a similar enough scene.

    Then you can layer the two images and use layer masking and the paint tool to simply take him out.

    Too bad we can't remove more assholes from our lives so simply and easily. ;)

    (Disclaimer - I'm simply playing along with the theme. I actually have no desire to remove Jim from my life - I enjoy his friendship. Even if he is an asshole.)

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  32. Yippee! We're the best assholes in the world!

    Sorry to be late to the party...I was busy Serving Democracy.

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  33. Janiece is trying to make us feel guilty that we didn't volunteer as a voting judge. What an asshole.

    ;)

    (Thanks for your service, Janiece!)

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  34. Hmm, my Steve is left-handed, too, and he can outshoot right-handers with his off hand.

    I suspect left-handedness is more of a guy thing. Perhaps Steve Buchheit has already done some research in this area?

    I am hand-specific (do some things better with the left hand, others with the right), and I am so glad that Rose didn't make me live under the stairs with Nathan.

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  35. Jim,

    Even though I didn't hesitate to pass that on, I had no idea if anyone else would think it was funny. I'm talking about the same group of college friends who'd laugh til we cried every time Johnny K. put on a falsetto and said, "Don't call my boyfriend a towel on the trunk". It was funny to us. I don't even remember why.

    Sheila delurked,

    What's wrong with living under the stairs with me?

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