Spring Broke! I mean break!

So far my spring break has been all spring broke!

Monday-I found a dead hornet in my bottle of root beer at lunch. After they forgot my order, of course, and I had to wait 30 minutes for a tuna sandwich. I didn't notice the hornet till I'd rolled it over my teeth and tongue a few times in curiosity before spitting it out.

Then I went to shooting practice and my new 120$ worth of target stands worked worse than my $12 home made ones. And I forgot my chronograph and couldn't get a lot of the data I really wanted to gather. Finally my custom gun, which just had to be sent back for trigger work, stopped working properly again.

Tuesday-Rain. Contractor to fix stuff at the house cancelled. No breakfast due to a medical test in the am. Which then took 50% longer than advertised. And they had to poke me three times for the IV. And I had to vomit and nap for hours afterwards due to the side effects of the more than quart of oral contrast I had to drink.

I wanted a nice lunch as I was sick and starving. Off to sandwiches again. Guess I didn't learn.... What I first ordered they were out of. Then Super D got the wrong drink. Then I dry heaved in their parking lot. And I wasn't really satisfied with my order either. Maybe through no fault of theirs.

I have a bunch of stuff up for sale on Craigslist and dealing with sellers is turning out to be a nightmare.

I also missed shooting practice today. Which means I have to do extra tomorrow when I'm already feeling less than 80% and pressed for time. Oh and when I bought some gunpowder today from a private seller he charged me twice retail, thanks.

Terrorism Tourism

Ok, so I've been to some interesting places. Kuwait, Qatar, Israel, Morocco, North Vietnam, Malaysia, Iraq and so on. Each of these places has had some "issues" in the past with war, terrorism or conflict. Well it seems to be forgotten now, but so does San Diego.

And thus I have my next photography project! Some of the 9-11 hijackers and plotters lived in San Diego! So I am going to go to where they lived and studied and take pictures then superimpose their faces on top of them. Just the type of thing to get me interested and feeling creative!

Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky and me.

Two of the three are some of my favorite existentialist writers. Dostoevsky is a close third. It's been said all problems are ones of time and/or distance. I think this was said before the advent of modern banking or they would have added gold in there as well to complete the triumvirate of components in the problems we all face.
My "crisis" this morning is the dreaded to do list, like half a year's worth hanging over my head in a way Damocles would understand.
(if you're not getting the references, read more)

All of the stuff I feel I need to do:
-get a paint and drywall guy to fix three areas in my house damaged by water from the broken water heater. $??
-make an appointment for three different medical procedures. a MRE, colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. $free!
-synch my work, shooting, travel and school schedules. i fear i have some mistakes in them....
-get the shutters on the west side of the house painted $500?
-hotels, flights, rental cars for all my upcoming shooting events out of state. $3,000
-plan and pay for the upcoming S Korea vacation for 3 people. $redacted
-sell two motorcycles and some accessories on craigslist to purchase others.
-prepare for Killer's return
-prepare for Juice Boxs' wedding
-get a custom screen door made for the front door. $1000
-buy the different stuff i want from the stuff sold 4 points earlier
-have a true gardener/landscape person come and fix my mostly dead bougainvillea and replace the ground cover in the back yard and add some fruit trees. $2000???
-do my volunteer time to keep a club membership in force
-new tires for my truck. $800. 90,000 mile service for my truck. $450. headlight refurbish $50.
-install new parts and oil changes on two motorcycles before selling them. $250

One hard 8 hour day on the phone could probably get the ball rolling on 3/4 of this stuff. But the inertia of it, the import of most of it and the dollar amounts involved have just paralyzed me. I just keep hoping it all works out on its own, in its own time.

"Hope is not a plan"-Mysterious Eric.

Dress for the job you want.

Professional shooter. That's the job I want. In getting closer to that goal, here is a pretty close mock up to the new shirt I have to/get to wear to claim different prizes and such. That whole contingency thing mentioned a few posts back. Oh and my full name is on the back across my shoulders in orange.

XC

I don't fly across country to come home empty handed. North Carolina was 1st place. Massachusetts was last place. This weekend in Arkansas yielded a 2nd place in a tough field. I got a sweet etched glass trophy, nicer even than the one I got at last year's national championships.

Which lead to this funny post on fb and me being called "California" and "California Kid" all weekend. Hearing it in their southern accents only made it even funnier.


And since I've also been called "Hollywood" due to my constant filming with the gopro, here are some action shots. 'Cause I'm an action man.

The Walking Dead

Well not exactly, 'cause I'm not in Georgia but I am in Arkansas currently. Rural Arkansas. And boy is that rural, let me tell ya.

Which really isn't that bad when you think of owning some property, trees and stuff like that. Bucolic small town romanticism.

But when you see lots of cash-for-gold stores, liquor stores and no on you know some stuff aint good. But then at the same time you can go to Stubby's BBQ, Mr Whiskers' catfish house and Nom Noms Mexican Grill-n-Chill.

Which would you prefer to focus on? Southern comfort food or economic depression? Or maybe it's observation bias?

If I win tomorrow I guess I won't really be thinking about it. =)