Monthly Archives: October 2010

Vegas continued

So if you read the postings I made during the trip then you pretty much know how I spent Saturday afternoon. What you do not know is the extent of political ads I was forced to endure.

Once I reach vegas itself I stopped using the ipod in the car. I listened at the Ipod by way of a small fm transmitter and there were so many FM stations in Vegas it was difficult to find a clear channel for my own music. Because of this and the TV in my room, (Cable but no premium channels.) I saw and heard a lot of political ads during those three days.

I never saw one ad that was pro-Sharon Angel. Oh there were endless ads anti-Harry Reid. Some of them quickly tricky. (“Ladies, Harry Reid wants to take away your right to chose.” Without explicitly stating that what they mean is chose your won healthcare.) To me the ads in Nevada were microcosm of the political winds blowing across the country. It isn’t that the Republicans are suddenly popular with their ideas, it’s that the Democrats are taking a pounding.

You can argue it is because of the way the Democrats passed their bills.

You can argue it is because they tried to push the country to far left.

You can argue it is because the economy is in the drain and they’re caught holding the bag.

You can argue it is because Obama is so arrogant and people hate that.

You can argue all these viewpoints on why, but you cannot prove any of them. You can not disentangle the factors enough to prove any single factor is the principle factor in the coming wave. However, the wave is coming, the question is what happens next year with the new Congress.

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More on Vegas

So after the Gun Store I drove over to the Atomic Testing Museum.

This place was very cool. IT took me about 2.5 hours to go through the entire thing and many of the exhibits were very informative. They had mock-ups of shells from both Atomic Annie and A Davie Crockett.

I also learned more of what JFK called for when he called for the USA to send a man to the moon and return him safely to earth. That was point 1 of his vision for space. The very next point was accelerating development of a nuclear rocket.

(chemical rockets are very limited. If you really want to scoot around our solar system, nuclear is the way to go.)

It’s a shame all anyone remembers is the decade to get to the moon.

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Saturday Evening Post

(yeah, there was no way I could avoid that pun.)

I’m back from the Sheena Easton concert. It was worth the 5 hour drive in my opinion, and mine is the only that matters on the subject.  I will post more when I get home and try to find decent photo to upload. Short treatment.

She still has her voice.

She still has her impish sense of humor.

She had fun and was very interactive with the audience.

I’m quite happy I made this trip.

Before the show, I was bored to tears because I had arrived too early. So even after gorging myself at the buffet, (ahh that was good Prime Rib.) I had too  much time to kill. I bought chips and joined a blackjack game. (I was not going to finger fate in the eye again with craps and I can count to 21.) Same routine as before, any winnings I set aside and when the stake was gone I was done. That carried me through until the Showroom opened up. Final tally at blackjack — won $10.

Total gambling winnings/losses — $63. Way ahead of the odds for this old boy.

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Saturday Afternoon post

Pictures will have to wait until I get home and upload them to my much faster desk top. (Mainly pics from the gun range as neither the Museum nor the Exhibit I went to allow photography.)

Started off the morning with a steak-n-eggs breakfast, one of my favorites. The table next to me was occupied by an elderly engineer with plenty of stories to share.  I never got his name, but his lively personality and good tales helped pass the time while I waited for my breakfast.

I showed up at The Gun Store just before they opened. After a few minutes I was inside and dithering over which package to chose for my gun shoot. The Coalition Package’ had more modern weapons, but cost more. The “WWII Package” cost less but had less relevance to anything I might be writing soon. Money won and I went with the “WWII” set of guns, a m1911 for a pistol, a MP40, and a Tomspon sub-machine gun for my fully automatic.

T shot them in that order. I’m a lousy pistol shot, many rounds missed the OBL target I selected. Oh the bastard would have ended up dead anyway, provided he just stood there and let me shoot. The MP40 was fun, but I like the Thompson the best. I had the best aim and the best control with that sweet little Tommy Gun.

After that was the Atomic testing Museum. That took about 2.5 hours and I throughly enjoyed it. I’ll more to say in the days to come.

Then, because I had hours yet to kill, I went to the Luxor on the strip and took in the exhibit “Bodies’. A display of dissected human bodies. Very informative and interesting, just not as much as the Atomic Testing.

Now I am getting ready for dinner at the South Point Hotel and Casino followed by the Sheena Easton show.

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