TGO David

  Wow.  Glad you guys didn't go early!   PS:  Good thing your boss moved your on-call to the week leading up to Christmas, huh?  Kept you from getting swept away to Oz!  :D

  I'll take a swing at this.   Mars' full name was James Shannon Elder.  He served our country in Viet Nam and in various civilian contractor roles for alphabet-soup agencies afterward.  He spent a great deal of his time after Viet Nam in places south of the equator, doing the work that rough men do to keep evil at bay.  Most of what he told me about involved drug interdiction and working to arm and train indigenous people in those countries to fight against the cartels.   On the forums, here and over on HK94.com, he was a respected staff member.  He was keenly intelligent, well read, and well traveled.  He enjoyed sharing what he knew about firearms (in particular the Heckler and Koch variety) and wouldn't shy away from discussing world events or politics from the sort of finely distilled vantage point of someone who had done plenty of fighting other people's wars for them.   We will never know exactly why, but on September 19, 2008 he took his own life at his home in Blountville.  I and others had picked up hints from him that he was struggling with the early onset of Alzheimer's and he had said that he greatly detested the idea of losing control of his mental faculties or becoming a burden for others.  Compounding this, he had also recently gone through a divorce and the parting -- while amicable -- weighed heavily on him.   His passing came pretty early on in our history here at TGO, when we were much smaller.  It hit me hard, personally, as I believe it did many others as well.  It's no surprise to me that one of his threads ("What are you listening to now?") is one of the longest running on TGO.  Some of us keep it going just to see Shannon's screen name in our recent posts feed.   This likely doesn't scratch the surface of all that could be said about the guy.  Hopefully others will share too.   Frankly I think I'll raise a glass to Shannon's memory tonight.  Maybe we can start a thread about that.  :)

Merry Christmas!

Pandora's Traditional Christmas channel.

  An interesting bit of information about the Cloverton video:  Apparently the band sought and obtained permission from Sony Music to use Leonard Cohen's original work as a "derivative art" but after they released their version of it, Sony pulled permission.  So the video is making its rounds on the Internet not quite with full copyright approval.  It's a shame that Sony pulled support for it and honestly begs the question "Why?"   It's a pretty powerful version of the song, in my opinion.  I'm glad you liked it.

On behalf of my family and the TGO Staff, I would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! I hope that you find yourself in the company of family, friends or loved ones this Christmas -- or at the very least, warm, happy and safe doing something that you truly enjoy. If you are one of our many members who are currently serving in the United States Armed Forces and you are away from your family, especially if you are serving downrange somewhere, my special prayer for you is that you and your brothers in arms are kept safe and that you find a way to celebrate Christmas with those around you. We here at home enjoy the safety to observe the holidays due to the sacrifices men and women like you make every day, and it does not go unnoticed or forgotten. And last but certainly not least, I leave you with this video which is making its rounds quite virally this season. I hope that you enjoy it. https://vimeo.com/55641900

Welcome!

Welcome!

Added some Single Barrel Whistle Pig Straight Rye 10-year to the library... I also had a staffer suggest Jim Beam Black for something cheap to try. I might go back for that this weekend. It would have seemed weird walking out with the Whistle Pig and a $20 bottle of Beam.

I'm hoping to be back in the "lifted, pavement pounding, cost more than my first house" truck club soon.  You won't find me posting how much it cost or how many luxury items it has, though.  Ya'll are a hard bunch.

  Send me some whiskey and I'll send you not two, but THREE of the stickers.  :)

Go visit a walk-in clinic and let them check to see what you have.  The holidays are no time to be sick.  :)

Several sticker orders went out this morning.  If you have been waiting on yours for a while, I doubled the # of stickers I stuck in the envelope to soften the delay.  I also threw in some "Shall Not Be Infringed" stickers for each of you.   I *hope* these make it to you all before Christmas.   :)

I don't think the web store sent out a notice that there were any orders pending.   I'll check and send them out on Monday if there are.  Sorry about that.

I run Wilson Combat's Vickers Tactical rear sights on my Glocks, paired with Ameriglo Pro i-Dot orange outlined Tritium fromt sights of the appropriate height for the caliber.  It's a stupendously fast sight combination without sacrificing accuracy.     Other than that, I run a grip plug of some sort to keep belly-button lint out of the grip cavity, a heavier stainless steel guide rod and lighter spring (15#) in my 3rd Gen G19, and that's it.  My 4th Gen 19 doesn't have the internals monkeyed with.  Just the sights and "butt plug".

I have the Ezra and the Woodford.  Both are excellent.

So.

One of mine is a M&P .40SW which makes it even more sensitive, I think.

Leafinthewind, I have been asked by your Secret Santa to let you know that your gift should arrive this Friday.  They tell me that it was delayed in manufacturing and just arrived with your Secret Santa today.   Obviously they cannot message you or that would reveal their identity.   :)

Welcome!

  Take a mag loader with you, or take some medical tape and wrap your thumbs.  I've wrapped my thumbs before during multi-day classes and it helps a lot.

  Well I guess we can count on them never advertising on TGO since they can count on us to use the power of the Internet to slam them for taking care of one customer instead of taking care of another customer.   I mean, after all it doesn't sound like they were socializing and just ignoring you.  It sounds like they had a customer at the counter, no matter if the other customer told them to go ahead or not.   Guns aren't low-dollar sales.  Walking away from a customer on the cusp of making a large purchase can give that customer all the opportunity he or she needs to embrace indecision, talk themselves out of it, and take their money somewhere else.  Ask anyone who works on commission and they'll tell you that you don't do that.   I think as consumers we've all become pretty damn whiney.  We expect instant service, unlimited selections, and for retailers to kiss our butts while making shoestring margins, and there's hell to pay for a company's reputation on the Internet if they don't deliver all of it with a smile in 30-minutes or less.   For what it's worth, I have spoken with Royal Range recently about becoming an advertiser on TGO.  We really need advertisers.  We don't have near as many now as we once did and that really cuts into our operating capital.  I'm sure if they read this thread, it'll weigh into their decision to support TGO.  Any why the heck shouldn't it?

  Got a larger version?

  You and me both.  I take a few mags, boxes of ammo and enjoy the act of loading mags and talking to the folks in the the pit with me, or just use that time to think.    It's very relaxing.

The last bottle I had was Voyage 2.   Voyage 5 tastes considerably different.  Much more floral on the front end.