Last night in our neighborhood, Santa Claus came to visit. Thanks to our Police Department and the Police Officers Association, Santa goes to almost all residential areas of the city starting late in November (we’re almost first on his list) and continues through Christmas Eve. He is preceded by an entourage playing Christmas Songs over a mobile music system and several police cars with red/blue lights and sirens — pretty impressive, not to mention that it gets your attention. Lots of kids show up curbside to see Santa and collect a candy cane or two.

Coconut Commando, “currently enjoying an extended, all inclusive vacation package to Iraq,” composed a very good article on home defense. I especially liked this recommendation for a home defense weapon. Here’s the excerpt:

From Defending the Ponderosa

Generally, the best choice for home defense, tactical movement inside buildings, firepower, low cost and pure fear factor is a shotgun. They’re easy to use and criminals, as well as insurgents, dread getting anywhere near the business end of a shotgun. It has been my first hand experience, through years of training and multiple combat tours, that a shotgun is the top choice for home defense. The 12-Gauge Remington 870 “Youth Model” makes an excellent choice because of it size, dependability, ease of use, and cost. It is also best suited for women due to their smaller frame.

I just LOVE MINE!   

Most of the time we have marine haze or fog along the coastline in the Los Angeles area. Today, however, the air is remarkably clear, thanks to a little cool front passing through. I wasn’t able to stop in traffic this morning to photograph Catalina Island, so I dug this photo out of the archives taken on a similar day last winter.

This photo is a segment cut from a Panoramic view of Catalina Island.

Seen at the gun show on Saturday:

Yesterday, Damsel and I went to the gun show and bought a few novelty targets to use at the range. One target resembled a dart board, so we decided to play a game with .38 special “darts.” The only problem was the “bargain” reloads we bought at the show made the range look like an old-fashioned smoke-filled bar room (cough!). Regardless, we had a lot of fun, hit the targets and enjoyed the shoot.

Read on for a bit about one of the other targets we bought.
Continue reading » Shooting Darts in a Smoke-Filled Room

We spent most of the day today attending a gun show in nearby Orange County at the fair grounds. We didn’t have much to blog about since there were no cameras allowed in the show. But it was a lot of fun and we plan on going to the next one in February.

I did take a picture of this nice flower in the garden out front yesterday, so I’ll put it up here and tell you a few words about it.

Cascading down from a stalk extending out of a low cabbage-like succulent, these petite red flowers attract late-autumn hummingbirds and look very pretty in the flowerbed. Each little bell is about 3/4 inch (2 cm) long and the stalks are about 3 feet (1 m) in length.

These have been blooming every November for several years now; click here to see a close-up photo I took a year ago.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writing in the voice of his “greatest detective” character, Sherlock Holmes, presented a tribute to this magnificent natural beauty (read below the photo).

During a brief lull in a criminal investigation (”The Adventure of the Naval Treaty”), Sherlock Holmes took a moment to smell a red rose. The flower, he remarked to his friend Dr, Watson, clearly was evidence of divine beneficence. “Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers,” proclaimed the world’s greatest detective. “All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again we have much to hope from the flowers.”

The roses in the photo will assure goodness at our table this weekend.

I posted about our Thanksgiving Day, and Damsel posted about the sacrifice our military families make on holidays. All good and well — but — imagine having an untimely event happen in your family on this holiday and having to make the best of a bad situation — well that’s exactly the scenario for Retired Geezer and family as they rushed to be with their son recovering from a helicopter crash. Seems like Brian is on the mend and will recover — A Thanksgiving, indeed.

Note to Brian: get well soon — and welcome to the club. “They” say there are two kinds of helicopter pilots: those who have crashed and those who are going to. You and I are both past that milestone now. I was lucky and walked away from my crash in 1979. Damsel and I hope you keep flyin’ Brian . . . I kept at it and I’m thankful that I did.