You have twenty minutes to clear the apartment.

[wombat_socho]

Last night started off well - my masseuse did wonders for my back and shoulders, worked the lymph nodes in my legs (it hurt so good) and in general made me feel, if not like a whole new man, then at least like a factory-reconditioned man. ^_^

We also talked about the downtown crime situation, and I strongly advised her to take a carry class and get herself something small and deadly...like a Makarov. She grew up in a family of hunters, so she's not a complete n00b about gun safety, but like most civilian women I've known she's not keen on the idea of being armed & dangerous to criminals, despite having been mugged about seven years back.

After that, adequate nachos and a great burger with hand-cut steak fries at Eli's at 13th & Hennepin, a neighborhood bar type place that seemed to be doing a pretty good business, though God only knows where most of the customers were coming from. Loring Park? The sliver of apartments west of 11th and north of Hennepin? Well, whatever. The food was good if a little pricy by my standards, the service likewise.

They had the home opener on the TV and some u/i alternative rock tunes on the sound system, and I was momentarily tempted to head down to the Dome and see if there were any decent seats left. Then I realized that it was already 8:30 and the Twins were coming up to bat in the bottom of the third. So much for that. My legs were starting to ail me again (the last set of painkillers I'd taken at work having long since worn off) so I was lazy and took a taxi to 12th & 3rd where I caught the 535 to the Park & Ride...or I would have if 1) it had actually been scheduled to stop there, or 2) I hadn't had my Carbon going, so that I would have heard the driver ask if anyone wanted off at the P&R. So I wound up having that nice long walk anyway, from the front of Best Buy HQ to the back corner where the park & ride was.

Once I made it to the Sportage, I needed to refuel the poor beast so it was off to the SA, and then some fruitless noodling around on Lyndale searching for a DQ. I eventually settled for a McDonald's cone and went home, arriving just in time to listen to Joe Nathan nailing down the save. Since I have both Radke and Nathan on my fantasy squad, this'll give me a boost in the league standings, even with Jeff Weaver getting hammered by the Rangers.

Unfortunately, despite being fairly relaxed, I couldn't get to sleep at that point and wound up watching various...interesting...videos linked off Good Morning Silicon Valley until about 3 AM. (My favorite? Got to be The Easter Bunny Hates You.) So I might as well have gone to the game anyway...

That gave me four hours and twenty minutes of sleep, since I slept through the alarm; fortunately I was able to pull it together, shower, bandage and dress myself quickly enough to catch the bus into work.

Fortunately, there is coffee and enough work to keep me busy. Tonight, however, I am thinking the early bedtime will be required.

Comments

[zippychik.livejournal.com]

Wombat,
As my therapist would say, "You didn't waste an evening. You gave yourself some much deserved downtime. That adds to your efficiency." We both know she's full of it but she's always telling me to take it easy and get hubby to pick up some of the slack, so I keep going back. Besides, hubby's health insurance foots the bill.

It does seem though the more you have to do and the closer the dealine gets, the more reasons you find to procrastinate. Yesterday I spent a whole day on my final project. I did get ONE section of the report done -- only 14 more sections to go! Oh damn, the sun's coming out maybe I'll go for a walk this afternoon. It will add to "efficiency."

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I guess you could look at it that way. I sometimes wonder if I've been operating in crisis mode for so long that I can't get motivated otherwise, which is not good.

[(Anonymous)]

For several reasons (human factors, round capabilities, semiauto), the Mak (I have an East German one) is not a particularly good choice for people who may or may not practice a lot. The 9x18, while better than .380, is not a particularly lethal round, and while talking about stopping power in handguns at all is a little disingenuous, the usual rule for defense is to get the largest caliber that you can comfortably and accurately shoot. it's worth repeating the first handgun advice that my team usually gives out to people:

"Get a revolver or a Glock".

Semiautos are harder to shoot than revolvers if you don't practice - limp-wristing can cause malfunctions and malfunction clearances are something one needs to practice in order to be good. Small handguns in general are a pain to shoot well. Best to get something more reliable (revolver) with the best human factors engineering you can. Something like a Ruger SP-101 would be a good choice. Yes, they cost (new) a fair amount more than the Makarov, but what you're getting for that is a gun that can fire .38 Spl +P or .357 Magnum (if you want the longer cylinder). Aside from being more likely to stop the bad guy, shooting someone once or twice with .357 is more humane than emptying the gun on them with something less powerful - the paramedics have less work to do and a greater chance of saving them.

First step is a good Basic Pistol class, followed by Personal Protection (these are curricula from the NRA) - if the instructors are good, there will be different guns there that she can try shooting. I wouldn't expect hand strength to be a big problem with a masseuse, but hand size might be (this is a point in favor of the Mak; for all its Soviet-inspired human factors, the grips are relatively small, even if you've replaced the nasty bakelite panels with something more suitable from Hogue).

Anyway, that's my $0.02

[(Anonymous)]

oh yeah, duh, this was RS if you didn't guess.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

I figured as much. ^^

Your points are well taken, but I'm mainly trying to noodge her in the right direction at this point by pointing out the least onerous alternatives. I'm not too worried about her wrist strength after several years of having her work on my shoulder, believe me.