Some Goings on at Casa De Garabaldi

Well I went to court yesterday,  the solicitor wants me to return to get one ticket dismissed and the other amended.  my having a CDL and a clean record does wonders.  So I will return late next month.  after all is finished, I will provide details.  While I was there, 70% of the people whose names were called didn't bother showing up had bench warrants put on them...for something simple, now is made complicated. if they get stopped or license plate gets run for any reason...guess what...who goes to jail and their car gets impounded.  According to "Mack",  who is a popo, it is a lot of moved away from baby mama drama, to new address, summons goes to old address, or it goes to grandma house and they don't live there anymore, or they have old license and don't bother updating it and a bunch of other things so they get hemmed up for being lazy.  The court appearance was a better experience than expected, everyone was really nice, Mack told me "they were glad you showed up", LOL.

   Back to the regularly scheduled blog.

 I had decided to do a mod on the truck, there is a endemic problem with the headlights of the 2021-2023 headlights outer trim burns out and the replacements from Ford are about $1500.00.  Yeah ain't cheep.

   So I got some after-market lights to replace them...much cheaper.  Well I had gone to "Youtube university" to remove headlights on a 2021 F150 and it was more complicated than it was on the "Precious" my 1999 F150.  

   First thing I did was use my garage door to mark the centerpoints of the headlight beams, so when I install the replacements I can make adjustments.

    I proceeded to remove what was required to get access to the headlights.

      I had set up a table and labeled where each piece of hardware came from to make it easier to reinstall and keep it organize.

  I did everything with this little "gearwrench" 1/4 drive through ratchet set I bought years ago at AMT day. one of the best tool purchases I ever did.  Everything on that truck was 10mm, 8mm or the valance covers were 7mm.  

Truck looks kinda funny, that is the spousal units Edge next to the truck.

I had to route the accessory wire for the new headlight accessory function to the battery so I routed it through where it wouldn't get binded or kinked, and held it in place with zip ties, then cut the tails off the zip ties.(EWIS Training for the aviation bent folks, LOL)

    Put everything back together, this is what the truck looks like assembled except for the valence cover.

   Yes the headlights beams took a bit of adjustments to align up, but I got them there...

    It made the truck look totally different.  I am pleased and so is the spousal unit, it got that big ass box out of her office where it started to grow roots after a couple of months.  I was waiting for the weather to get better.

     To those that have been following my blog for years know that I built my first AR back in 1991 and the original barrel had the 

    yep, even had the 3 pronged flash suppressor, but the problem was that the rifle barrel shot to the left, no matter what I did, and finding a "original pencil AR barrel that wasn't labeled "Colt" with the associated price was very difficult.  I finally found one, PSA had some and I bought it.  The replacement had the "Birdcage " suppressor, I may eventually try to switch them out.    Yes that is a Chicfila cup there, can't work AR's without God's Chicken Sandwich 😉

suppressor

 Well anyway...

                    I was having my son shoot the rifle after I shot it..

        This was the group I had shot at 25 meters, I think the new barrel works great!  Finally it shoots where I want it to after 30 something years, LOL

     While I was at the range, I happen to see another rifle and it was one that I had wanted since the early 1980's where a friend of mine had one...except his had an AK74 muzzle brake on his, 

     Yep I bought a shorty AR, I always wanted a what I called a "Car-15" even tried to get one issued to me while I was in the service using us being around armored vehicles and the smaller size would be beneficial....Hah...was told "Not authorized by T.O&E"   damm.   and I saw a few come out in the early 2000's mid 90's and they wanted a lot of $$$ for them.   I did build a "Palmetto Shorty"  it is an "Angry Joe AR-14", I wanted to build a much lighter rifle after my 2nd AR (that I lost in that durn kayak accident) turned out to be heavy, very accurate, but heavy.  Go to the 3rd post I believe and you will see it on that link. 

      I gotta plan another kayak trip.........

   As a spur of the moment, I decided to replace the Cabin Air filter's in my truck and the spousal units Edge,  Keep in mind the dealership charges average $179 to do it.   

    Filter from Her Edge, she has 74,000 miles on her car. never changed.  Looks kinda bad.

      My truck, I have 93,000 miles.  her edge is a 2020 and my truck is a 2021.  It took me about 5 minutes to pop them out and put the new ones in. saved us a boat load of money, and "you tube University" for the win.  Check on how easy it is on your vehicles.  I never thought about it because on my older F150 it was a massive PITA. but on the newer vehicles, they tried to make some maintenance easier.

   I decided to go to the range again to run both my old school AR platforms, also my Springfield Range Officer .45 and my Glock 22C,

First one was the old school shorty AR, I used one of my old school G.I. Magazines, and she ran with no problem.  only issue I had was differentiating the front sight post and the target, it made sighting in the target more difficult than necessary.  Since it was a "free" target, man sized silhouette target, black rifle front sight post, black target...well I just had to aim center of mass and the rifle shot center of mass, all the shot hit inside the silhouette.

I then pulled out my old school AR, loaded another G.I 30 round magazine, and enjoyed shooting that rifle, had the same problem, Black Rifle Front sight post, black silhouette, just aimed center of mass.  All the shots hit inside the silhouette.  I gotta put some kind of paint or something on the front sight post to make it visible. 

   I stacked both rifles to cool off then grabbed the pistols.

   I had gotten new magazines Christmas before last, I had gotten 2 "Wilson Combat" from the spousal unit and my son had gotten me 2 "Colt" magazines.  I haven't fired my .45 in a while because of the cost of .45 ACP ammo.  But AMCHAR had a good deal on "Lawman" so I bought a couple of boxes.

I then pulled out the Glock 22C, she shot like a glock, but has the "Pumpkin" on the front sight and that made it easy to shoot the target.  I had bought several surplus magazines that were L.E. turnin's. 

                       What the "C" means on the 22.  Compensator. Compensates for the recoil.

       Got finished, loaded up my range bag, both rifles, cleaned up my mess and headed to the truck,

   Loaded the pistol and stuck the pistol in the console,  There has been dummies that case gun ranges that try to rob people after they leave figuring that they would be easy marks and worth the risk because they are carrying several firearms.  

   I also loaded the shorty AR.  I kept  3 mags in reserve. 

     For Just such... Emergencies....