Aristo! Aristo! A la lanterne!: Gun show report

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Gun show report

.
It was a wild and rainy morning..... (as opposed to a dark and rainy night).

My shooting club is holding it's gun show this weekend. A regular club fundraiser, and usually a fun way to spend an hour or two. Vendors rent table space, the club charges a small entrance fee, and the ladies cook some delicious food to sell.

I like to support my club, and I like fun shows, and the weather really IS nasty today... so off to the club with my chubby butt.

It was what I call a scrap-gold show, as in "Your stuff is scrap, and my stuff is gold". Prices were mostly just a little over the top, with a few exceptions. I don't need another 8x57 Mauser just now, nor another Mosin Nagant .... even a five liner. Other than that the $ was just too pushy.

I paid my entrance fee, ate a fantasmagorical fried egg and bacon sandwich, bought an old machete to strip bamboo with.... and walked away down only $10. Frankly, nothing caught my eye or made me salivate, and there were only a few pieces I handled. 30 minutes in the heavy crowd was enough... and now I am back home to relax and await the appearance of Sleeping Beauty.

No joy in a gun show.... that's just not like me. I even went with cash this time, planning on some new toy coming home with me. But.... no joy. Usually the crowds are not crowds, but bunches of people who I share something with. Not today. This day they were just crowds of strangers, with a few handshakes from the past and requests to get together soon.

What is so different today? I can only pin it to one thing.... last night I was reading around the blog circuit, and stumbled across a simple phrase. They were words I had heard a hundred times before from someone, that now served up a wholly different meaning. Just a few words... that harshly grated a wound not healed.

This too shall pass, and strength will come of it. "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger".

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: I felt the same way at last weekends gun show. Tons of people, high prices, mostly black guns, and no wheelguns that could add to my collection.

At least you enjoyed some good food.

See Ya; March 13, 2010 at 1:42 PM

Post a Comment

Robert Heinlein

"Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.

But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please — this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!
So learn to say No — and to be rude about it when necessary.
Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.

(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)"