john's job jar

got so many little things accomplished at the courthouse today. Even cornered the local Fish & Wildlife guy and got me a set of crow tags. I was told to "use 'em up and ask for more when they are filled".... Not bad for a guy thinking he was going to get 2 weeks behind due to jury duty.

Jury Duty

Y'know I have had jury duty less than three years ago? And they are now grabbing me for two weeks starting tomorrow? (Monday) Today that is, less than six hours from now. Personally I had a date with some tin cans, my 10/22, and eight 25 round butler creek magazines. Or maybe the state would let me bag 200 crows this year. I am a little concerned about the abundance or crows, easily five times as much. I have nothing against them, but, I don't like the idea of being overrun in my neighborhood by them either.

Gun of my dreams!

I scored a Kel-Tec SUB 2000, 9mm Folding carbine. Like most of my pets, it eats prodigiously and has a large bark. Nasty bite too! Already the garbage / recycling guys are hating me. Almost every can in next week's recycling has been shot to shreds. There went all the cheap 100 round boxes of winchester ammo I scored before prices went soaring. I have enough wheel weight metal, to cast new bullets, and I'll be reloading this brass 'til the troops come home. the ad said not to use aluminum cased ammo so I saved that for my 994 Hi-Point.

Damned if one of the cases didn't jam in there. I got it free with the range rod. I'm going to see if I can't buy the winchester, or another brand in 10,000 round lots. Til then, I'll chase some cans around the range with 22lr. those, I just police up, and melt into ingots. Some time soon, I gotta mine the lead out of the berm in front of the backstop. We stacked sod in front of the steel so it wouldn't ricochet.

The Pussy Hunt!

At least that's what we called it before someone w/o a sense of humor objected. Now it's officially, "The Kitty Round-up". Myself and three different motorcycle groups, round up as many feral cats as we can, let the vets examine them, spay or neuter them, give them necessary shots, and release them back into their feral habitat. I got the idea yay number of years back from Rossi, and unashamedly stole it. Now we scan through about 20 areas where there is a large population of stray cats once every four months. Last year, I scored the donation of pet id chips, so tracking the kitties is easier, now we just hold a scanner on every cat brought in, and we can focus upon the cats which aren't chipped. lots faster than checking pictures and descriptions. One time one of the ladies suggested a spray of day glo green to mark the kitties done recently....

Crazy, of course! But then chasing down the most un-domesticated felines with only cheap harbor freight welding gloves to keep them from biting down to the bone... THAT'S really crazy...

spring cleaning!

I just finished a session of spring cleaning known as "Mucking out the dog run". This involves removing all the dead leaves, poo, and anything else out there. (I broke the dogs of leaving toys outside. If it's out there during spring cleaning, It goes bye bye.) Then everything gets scrubbed with several kinds of disinfectant. Chester has had several outbreaks of 'hot spot'. (Mild Staph) and I'm going to find those micro buggers, and murder them, and their entire race. and outside the run I have to plant large, fragrant, aromatic, and smelly bushes. Every 2-3 years.... To cover the stink a trio of Rotty's, one Cocker-Dingette, and guest stars, can make. Actually the current bushes are good for another year or more, I just have to work out with my neighbor, a yard of space between her dog run and mine, so I can maintain the shrubs, without one set of doggies or another eating them, or pooping them to death... plus the citronella bushes kill fleas as a beneficial side effect.

changing locks

First I got to remove the locks from the door... Pick open the ones that don't come with a key...
(I like that part, improves my skill set, and I can charge extra.) then I reference the pin depth chart for that model.
Small square on the lid of the big pinning box.
Then rack my memory for the offset. Meaning do I go one or two sizes smaller.
See, when that pin chart was made was 20-40 years ago, and the tolerances have slightly tightened up. Only 5 or ten thousandths... The pins differ in size by either 5 or 3 thousandths. and in diameter by 20 thousandths. In my 25 years of locksmithing I haven't had to splurge on the .003 pin kit or either of the .095 diameter pin kits. I have had to replace the .115 diameter .005 increment pin kit twice. In addition to ordering replacement pins. I used to eyeball the sizes, now I work with an enormous lensed lamp, and tweezers that could be used under a microscope. I just the other day pinned a hundred unit apartment complex. 2 locks per door, and some of the units had a front and back door. Add in the utility closets, the laundry room etc. And you have Big John being one hurting unit at the end of the day....
Usually one does this in stages, as tenants come and go. Sometimes, they don't even change the locks as the tenants come and go, if they get the right number of keys back. But THIS TIME the manager left under a cloud and no one could find his keys. Crack-head probably left them in a drug house somewhere.
So Big John has to come out and do a 12 hour work day to fix everybody's locks. Lest the evil crack-head former manager drive up with a u-haul, and steal everyone's goodies...

Don't get me wrong, I love the work, and the emergency money was right tasty. But the management company is one of those who require a contract before they go to the toilet. And all their contract wanted me to do was pledge to be their free slave on those locks the rest of my life. I tore up the contract and told them that I'd do the work and get paid. My invoice guarantees my work for 60 days. If they can find someone who'll sign their stupid contract, fine. But I'd be willing to bet if he/she were dumb enough to sign that toilet paper, they're too dumb to do the work they signed up for...

In the end they did things my way....
Next time, I'll do the job over two days though.....