Just need to vent...

I suppose that for about 5 months/yr, mountain highways there are grippy enough that one can attend to the scenery.

"One time it was a tractor trailer" Only once. Wow.

 

You don't need grippy roads in order to attend to the scenery. You need to pull over or have slow, easy-going traffic.

I can think of many more incidents with tractor trailers. The one that had come to mind was around a blind corner, me going speed limit (45mph) tractor trailer aparently thinking it's still 65 (and around those tight curves???).

 

Ooh la la. Please leave this grumpy thread behind and post many pix like that.

 

About the age of 18, I worked as a general roustabout for a very short time in northeastern Nevada. The landscape was much like pictured above. Camera not so easy to come by. One afternoon a lone coyote was standing in an open plain about 7,500 feet in elevation. It was late July, so lots of grass and probably lots of small game.

On a whim, I stopped my Chevy Apache and got out of the truck, sat down in the dirt and started talking to the critter. He was probably 30 feet away.

The ears twitched and the animal seemed not to know what to make of this strange creature. About two minutes went by as I talked and coyote with cocked ears seemed to listen. The canine finally put his head down and went back to what I assume was his food survey. I finally got back in the truck and drove off to finish my job. Most folks in that region would have shot on sight. I did not carry a weapon; would not have shot if I had.

 

If you're not having fun, then perhaps you are doing something wrong.....

Necessarily, false.

ALSO, false, IMHO.
After all, this is a CAR forum, albeit a Prius car forum.

The ability to move about at your own will is a glorious freedom - enumerated (ish...) in, and protected BY our Constitution - at least in the US.
Go to a country where you have to carry a pocket full of Bongo Bucks to get by armed military check points sometime and you will appreciate the glory of being able to, LITERALLY convey yourself from one end of the continent to the other with a few days, perhaps, of effort.
At your OWN pace (ish....)
By your OWN leave.

Q.E.D.

 

I was out in the never never back areas of NSW Australia, working on a rail line that serviced the wheat silos along a roughly 100 mile stretch.

Australia has a serious problem with feral animals and humans for that matter, but putting that aside, I could smell a very pungent wild animal scent and from experience, I believed it was a feral cat.
I thought I'd try calling it and sitting down to see if it would come to me, possibly only recently abandoned or something. Nothing for a few minutes, then the bushes in the area in front of me started to move, but from the ground to probably waist high.
This worried me a bit, we also have a serious wild pig problem and the wild boars can get real big, so I was getting to my feet to make a quick dash back to the work ute, when this cat, about the size of a german shepherd and packed round with solid muscle, appeared out of the bushes and heading away from me down this dirt road.

It was a monster, kicking up dust and rocks as it powered away down the road .... even if I'd had a gun, it would have needed to be a decent size calibre to bring this thing down ......

It kept going till it disappeared over a hill, I had to stay where I was waiting for a track repair machine to arrive that I had to fix, otherwise I would have chased it down , .... it was the work ute after all, and it had a bullbar

It was a big animal, no idea what it was feeding on, but I wouldn't doubt it could take down a sheep or a wallaby ..... thankfully, it didn't decide to take me on

T1 Terry

 

Like what?

Maybe if I owned a manual car, that might make it a little more enjoyable. But that's not going to happen any time soon.

I can't find anyone who goes the speed limit, unless there's a police officer on the side of the road. My speedometer points to the speed limit, yet car after car after car pass me (all roads here are no more than two lanes, one in each direction). Nobody goes the speed limit except me.

With the constant harassment by other drivers, I don't really see the difference.

Since I've moved here, I've known 13 different pedestrians or cyclists alone who were ran over and have seen countless car wrecks, many of them now dead. I've been hit in my own car and the driver at fault just took off like nothing had happened. Part of the reason that car in insurance is sky high here partly because of the number of accidents that occur.

And as I've said before, the cost of owning a car and the cost of everything else is getting to the point that I may have to give up owning and driving a car entirely.

 

Most of my time driving in Colorado has been on the interstate, so I will stipulate that I do not know what it is like to drive there.

If you cannot change the wind, then perhaps you should adjust your sails.
I drive a LOT on the job for Big Bell and I have a data-logger in my car - so I CAN attest that is quite possible to enjoy driving at PSL and without having people flip me off and brake check me.
I have to work at it a little bit more when I'm in the company ride - but I also find that I pay more attention to the wonders of the beach - or piney woods and I get to see a lot of sun rises - so it is WORTH it in the long run.
I pull over a lot, and I will get behind a truck who is also PSL limited.

@Mendel Leisk PSL=Posted Speed Limit.

Wild pigs are a problem here in the US, and they CAN get a little frisky.
You really do not need a large calibre weapon to handle them, though.
.380 (9mm short) or larger will do.
Speaking of.....'venting' In some US states they even allow you to use pellet rifles on pigs in some states - usually with a large bore PCP (pre-charged pneumatic) capable of delivering a certain muzzle energy ex: 200 ft/lbs for large game.

Fun Fact: Silencers, or suppressors are legal to use on air guns.
They often call them 'moderators' - NOT to be confused with the kind we know and love here in PC............

 

I do try to pull over from time to time. I haven't been doing it as much. On the other hand, people don't wait for a sedan to pull over. They pass whenever they get up on it, sometimes on the shoulder of the road, right where I might be trying to pull over.

Getting behind a bigger truck is nice in the sense that now no one blames you for going the speed limit. On a two lane highway that's kind of hard to do. You can pull over and wait, but the truck will have a long line of cars behind it. And there's always a chance that the next truck you try to follow isn't PSL limited, but rather going 10 or 15 mph above the speed limit.

 

Wow, prices are down.

Apparently, epi pens went off patent this year. Even Amazon has them for $190 USD. The actual odds of being stung again by a type of wasp I have never seen before and will probably never see again..., but, still it is nothing to mess with, so well I have convinced myself. I will do the right thing and get new pens. It is the right and proper thing to do. Do not eat yellow snow, do not use expired meds.

While I had a fairly significant reaction, it did not reach the level where any medical treatment was needed. Just major hives and swelling of lips and various other facial features.

 

The 243 is popular over here, mostly because the 308 is illegal in 3 states over this way. The .22 hollow point will take down a roo if you shoot it in the right place, but it requires a 243 to take down a pig or head shot a roo or deer ...... a lot of those in scrub in NSW.

Besides the virtual toy air rifles I had as a kid, I've never even thought about them as something that could be used for hunting. I went down the Google rabbit hole and there seems to be a liking for .257 air rifles for hunting pigs and deer, they all require a licence over here, but I'm not sure about the gun safe laws regarding an air rifle ..... might look into the further ....

T1 Terry

 

I remember you' all once had a problem with rabbits? Also "cain toads?"

First off, a former Marine, I am a strong believer in proper weapons training including proving skills. I really have no interest in hunting on public land although there may be one exception in NorthWest Alabama. I've just seen too much stupid stuff at public rifle ranges and the untrained (and a few trained!)

Bob Wilson

 

Thankfully, we have a lot of space between the people over here, and a lot of introduced animals that have become a problem.

I'm planning on travelling in our motorhome and wouldn't mind supplementing the food supply with a few of these introduced pests. A .22 using shorts and a silencer fitted was the go to method for shooting rabbits, through the head so the meat and fur remained good. But an air rifle with a bit of punch would work well, just need to get my head around them not being the toys I played with as a kid.

Goats are a big problem here, not sure how wild goat meat would go though, might have to mix it with other less wild tasting meat. They take a lot more projectile velocity to bring down with a head shot, they have very thick skulls ....

A deer would be great, but that's a lot of meat to find somewhere to store it at sub zero temps. Wild pigs are the same, very strong tasting meat and a lot of it.

Plenty of Kangaroos and they breed real quick as soon as there is rain and a bit of grass about. The meat is very lean, so it needs to be mixed with a fatty meat to get the flavour to come through.

Cane toads can be sorted with a mix of 50/50 Dettol and water, a short spray stripe down the back and that's the end of them. The Dingoes and Crows have learnt how to eat them, they roll them over and eat the under belly, so they will start to become part of the food chain until they are wiped out.

Feral cats are a real problem, so I'd like to be in a position where I could kill them to save the smaller wildlife from being wiped out.

I'm not the sort of person who kills for fun or sport, shooting at clay targets or paper targets is mind numbing to me, I don't care how close I can group my shots, I want to take the one shot and a second if the first didn't kill the animal outright, past that it simply doesn't interest or entertain me .....

T1 Terry

 

In my experience, meats taste like what the animal eats. If the animal eats just grass, there's not going to be a lot of gamey flavors. But if the animal was eating something like sage brush, the meat will be very gamey, with a strong taste to it. If the animal eats a lot of fruit, it will taste a bit fruity, etc.

 

Another gripe I have is they are taking down over-the-air TV in my area. All stations are here on repeaters, and all of them are going to be taken down within the next year. And I'm so cheap (or strapped for cash) that I'm not going to pay for cable or a subscription service. I've even thought about getting rid of the internet several times. Like, what's the point in spending money on internet if I don't have enough money for a house, a new car or retirement?

 

They're gaining some popularity here in the US.
It might come as come surprise to you that air rifles have been widely used in hunting since at least the 17th century.
They have very obvious advantages over smoke-poles - so my advice would be to tread carefully lest you be lured onto the rocks by the sirens.

HOWEVER (comma!!!)
Your government seems to regard air rifles as......firearms, which is somewhat curious - so you shan't be lured too far into deep water.

Best of luck in the NWT.
I envy you your vistas.....

Huh?!
It's my understanding that OTA broadcasting is mandated by the FCC.
Granted, we were thrust into the ATSC 1.0 standard by an evil regime back in '09 but it's my understanding that all of the 'markets' are more than adequately served by at least that horrible broadcasting standard.
The thing with ATSC1/0 is that....it's digital.
That means that it's either all the way there or it's all the way NOT there, and the TAXPAYERs are left to the tender mercies of cable providers who happily profit from people who are not able to fabricate a proper antenna.

If you're served by a cable provider?
You almost certainly are within broadcast range of all of the "local" stations that they RE-broadcast.

Antenna Man - Cut The Cord

I get it.
I'm a for-real 40-year electronics technician and am I familiar enough with antenna theory and wave propagation - but due to an accident in geography and sports markets I struggle with this as well.
HINT:
The station number of your "local" broadcasters have no relationship with VHF/UHF CHANNEL numbers that you may have grown up with.

Also:
If you have internet?
You probably have local television shows through providers like Pluto, VuIt, etc.

No.
You will not be able to watch sports or catch the latest episode of The Last of US.
You have to help pay for NIL....

 

What verb are you supposed to use when you do that thing where you pull the trigger? Ready, aim ... puff?

That hasn't been my experience exactly. But I'll agree that the intermediate conditions are a lot more annoying to watch than a faint analog channel.

I was once looking for a video clip of the 'snow' from a vacant TV channel, to use in something I was putting together. All the ones I was finding were the DTV version of snow, which is just not right at all. I had to go rip something from a scene in a '90s movie.

 

Yes, perhaps, but I live in a rural area where the broadcast signal does not reach. It is rebroadcasted here, which was funded by tax payer money. MetRec to end TV service

As the article above states, the rebroadcasting of TV is being ended here. End of discussion.

Yeah, this is probably the time in my life when I need to stop watching TV and deathscrolling on the internet. Maybe if I cut my internet, I'd be happier. Internet just keeps getting more expensive anyway.

 

There's plenty of Free internet sites that host TV episodes - Just make sure you have pop-up blockers and antivirus software running.
There's also the Smartbox option - Pay once...

YMMV

 

I prefer squeezing to pulling.

As far as the command to shoot - probably something like........"shoot.'
Submarines tend to save the word "fire" for rapid oxidation, and 'shoot' is the execute command for loosing a torpedo or other weapon.

Stat launches are one notable exception that proves the rule.