Earworm alert ...

In the comments section of a post of a unicorn with a rainbow (over at Random Nuclear Strikes)  Erin mentioned a "pony version of “Every Day I’m Shufflin’” video…" 
As this song and horses are two of Miss 8's favourite things I asked for the link - which she kindly provided:
I've also tried embedding it here - hopefully it will work.

This is for OldNFO (Not that I'm saying anything by this)

... and the rest of you might like it too ...

New Rules for Old Farts

• If you think “Occupy” is a verb and not a noun, you are an old fart.
• If you just want to be left alone, you are an old fart.
• If you remember when only sailors had tattoos, you are an old fart.
• If you know how to spell, you are an old fart.
• If you know how to get there better than that GPS contraption, you are an old fart.
• If you’ve ever felt shame, you are an old fart.
• If you know how to fix mechanical devices, you are an old fart.
• If you’ve ever gotten on an airplane without first being searched, you are an old fart.
• If you remember when tech support answered without an accent, you are an old fart.
• If you know what VHS stands for, you are an old fart.
• If you ever smoked a cigarette on an airplane, you are an old fart.
• If you still think there are only two genders, you are an old fart.

 More can be found here.

(Found via The Ultimate Answer to Kings)

Shooters and Fishers Party to take on WA

Received this in my email yesterday:

This is a very positive situation in my opinion.

Infiltrating the school system :)

In Miss 8's class this term they have been given a specific date & topic for news and on the same day they also need to present a "word for the day".

Miss 8 decided that her word was going to be "camouflage" and she found some pictures of various things which demonstrated the word.

The news topic that she was given was "The best present I have received".  She has already done all of her "horse stuff" (Miss 8 lives for horse riding) in previous year's news sessions so she wasn't sure what to do.  So over the last couple of weeks we have been tossing ideas around.  Everything I suggested she has said no to.  So, pretty much in desperation, I suggested that she does news on her rifle (which was a Christmas present a couple of years back).  She agreed! 

Last week I doubled checked with the teacher if she was happy for her to do this for news - and no, we weren't planning to bring the rifle in.  The teacher agreed with this topic but asked Miss 8 to focus on the 'safety aspects' rather than the 'killing & maiming' aspects.  This is what Miss 8 had already planned.

Today was her news day - here is the poster she designed and made (with a little bit of help):



I was particularly impressed with the wording she put on the poster.  We discussed the main points to remember when handling / shooting firearms and these were the things she came up with.

When I went to collect her from school this afternoon, I asked her teacher how her news had gone.  The teacher gave her two thumbs up :)

Public transport ...

I decided to take public transport today to my new job.  This was mainly based on the fact that parking in the area is $3.15/hr!?!

Now I've not taken public transport to work for at least 10 years, maybe more, and the aim of today was to see how challenging it would be and whether it was going to be a practical way of getting to work. My hope was for a 'yes' answer (see cost of parking above).

My plan was to drop the girls off at school, go to the library to pick up some reference books I had ordered, head to the train station to discuss the pros/cons/method of buying a 'smartrider' (multi travel ticket), catch train, go into city, catch bus, go to work.

Well dropping off the girls went fine, as did the visit to the library.  However it was at this point that things started to go wrong.

You don't buy multi-travel tickets at the train station!?!  You buy them at local chemists or similar.  So, as I was already at the station I decided to buy a 'Day Tripper' pass (valid for travel after 9am - which it now was just) and AS IT WAS PRINTING OUT an announcement came over the PA that there was an issue with the Perth station and therefore the train was going to terminate at Cannington and we'ld all have to switch to buses.

Too late to change my plans now (well the "Day Tripper" was $9.30) so I hopped on the train and had a pleasant air-conditioned trip to Cannington.  Off the comfortable train (our trains are pretty nice) onto an old bus :( ... for a long and winding trip via all of the train stations into the city.  Now trains run very fast but buses don't.  It seemed to take forever to get into the city.

The bus driver then went 2 blocks passed the Perth train station, where he was supposed to drop us off, and then stopped in the middle lane of a three lane road for us to disembark.  Skirting around the cars I managed to get to the pavement.

I then walked back the two blocks to get to the bus stop I needed just as the bus was pulling out :(  However the electronic display indicated that the next bus was in 10mins - not bad.  Except that it counted nicely down 10 ... 9 ... 8 ... all the way to 2 and then stopped.  It stayed on 2 for 10 minutes ... then down to 1 for another 5 minutes.  Eventually the bus turned up.

The bus trip was quite pleasant and I reached my stop without incident (and a nice chat to a guy from a competitor of the company I'm working for).  It was then a short 700m walk to the office.

I think I got to the office around 11:30am (I didn't check my watch until 11:45 by which time I had sorted myself out).

I'm hoping that my next foray on public transport goes smoother ....

Spiders anyone?

Interesting isn't it how the internet makes the world smaller?  I was blogsurfing tonight and ended up at Greg's place.  He had a post on misplaced spiders in Australia which I've not seen reported here.

Apparently the floods over east have unsettled a number of wolf spiders and they've taken up residence above ground in such numbers that their webs look like snow - 

Yes folks, that's spider webs that you can see there.  Anyone want to go for a walk? 

Full story and more amazing pictures can be found here.

Newbies - expected and unexpected

(Just for the purist among you, this is out of time sequence ...)

Last Monday I had arranged for a friend to bring his daughters and a couple of friends up to the range.  As the weather forecast was for a HOT day (37C) I suggested that they get there around 4pm.

We went up at 2pm as Miss 8 wanted to take some photos of her shooting her rifle as she is using it for news next Wednesday.  She (Dad & Miss 10) had to leave by 3pm to get to basketball.  This gave Shooting Buddy a me a break of an hour where we were planning to do some shooting ourselves ... However ...

A car drives into the parking lot.  I went across to see who it was and discovered two women and a kid in the car.  They were looking for some rock pools and had discovered the range instead.  (Apparently there used to be some rock pools up near our old range, but they had been filled in and were inaccessible due to the TRG now owing the area).

While chatting about rock pools they asked what we were doing and why there was red flags flying.  We explained that it was a shooting range and I offered them a walk around.  I showed them some of the ranges and they asked additional questions along with one about the boy having a shoot.

So I offered them the opportunity to have a go.  The kid started out with my Ruger 22/45 and did well with that.  Then the women asked if they could have a go too.  We let them use the Ruger and they loved it.  We then let the kid have a go with the 9mm Glock - which surprised him a bit.  Photos were taken all around and email addresses given.  They then headed off saying that it was the "best day they've had in a long time".

WOO HOO

By this time our "real" visitors had arrived.  Of the five expected only four were able to come (one guy & three gals).  Of these only one hadn't shot at all before.  The others had attended the Scouts shoot we had last year.  So again Ruger 22/45, 9mm Springfield & Glock and then the .22 rifles.  I also got the Tuffy out but only one person was willing to give it a go - and they only shot once :)

By this time it was getting quite late so we had to quickly pack up and head.  The lady who hadn't shot before LOVED it and wants to do it again!

So in one day we had 4 total newbies & 4 not-so-regular-shooters!!!!!!  And I think I only got to shoot about 10 rounds all up (and the Tuffy!).