Cassandra

Speaking of Cassandra:

...she has tagged me with another one of those things.

This one is entitled "What's on your nightstand?" That seemed like an odd question to me -- and, in point of fact, I don't have a nightstand anyway, that being one of the concessions to the lifestyle that keeps us moving every year. Furniture is somewhat limited. We have a very few nice pieces, mostly inherited, one or two we bought, a couple that we actually just found (including an antique trunk that was literally dug out of the mud at a nearby construction site, which the good lads working there gave me if I would only pick it up and carry it off). But we do without a lot of things we would have if we had a house of our own, to live in long-term.

However, tracking this back to its nest proves that the question had a deeper meaning to start with. It began among some of our gunbloggers, and the question "What's on your nightstand" meant, "What firearm do you keep ready when you sleep at night?" As to that Kim du Toit and I are in agreement as to what makes an ideal bedside gun: I keep a Smith and Wesson revolver, loaded with Winchester Silvertips in .44 Special. Kim has some good advice for keeping the thing safely around kids, and it happens that I agree with what he has to say there, too.

I don't load mine with Glasers, as I'm not worried about overpenetration issues -- my little boy sleeps on another floor, so there's no danger of that type. Anyway, the bullet is going where I want it to go. I can't promise "two X-rings" on the first two shots like Kim does, but I do put my first shot through the X ring every time. Usually, the second one drifts down and to the left into the ten ring, and the next 48 chew "one big, ragged hole" in the 8-10 ring on that part of the target. I don't think that's too bad for the .44 Special, which is a bear of a round though a pleasure to fire. If I'm not quite Kim du Toit, I'm not ashamed, either.

(By the way, have you seen Smith & Wesson's new Texas Hold 'Em Special? It's an engraved .38 that comes in a box with cards and poker chips. Allow me to take a moment to suggest that you probably should not join a poker game if you feel that you might need a revolver to get out of it again. In addition, the marketing photo has it sitting next to a hand that's two pair, Aces and Eights -- not the hand I would have chosen for a marketing photo, due to its history.)

Cassandra thought I'd have some interesting books on the nightstand. I don't have a nightstand, as mentioned, but I do have two large bookcases in the bedroom. There are plenty of interesting books there. I also have two Chinese guardian spirit sculptures, one from Zhejiang's XiHu and one from Shanghai. One of these I bought for myself, because I liked it, but the other one I've been carrying around for five years now although I bought it as a gift. My old close-combat teacher, Ken Caton, went missing while I was in China; I hope someday he'll turn up and I can pass it over to him. I assume, knowing Ken, that he is all right -- he just wants to walk unseen for a few years, for reasons of his own.

Anyway, if you happen to read this Ken, I have a gift for you.

The last thing that's close to the bed is a gift that was given to me: the working, scale-model catapult that Sovay gave me last year. It's a beautiful and beloved piece, good for hurling walnuts at neighbors.

So there you are. I'm supposed to get to tag people. I'm actually going to do it this time, but in a deferred fashion -- I want to tag Doc Russia. However, the tag won't take effect until after his birthday. He can tell us all about the new toys he ends up with.