Well, family and other responsibilities prevented me from shooting USPSA on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, I planned to get out all my guns and all my photo equipment and shoot gun pr0n, to illustrate some upcoming gun reviews.
But first, I think I'll blow all the leaves off the driveway.
Only, now I remember the leaf blower won't start. So I check the easy things - plenty of gasoline flow, filter is clean. Spark plug is ugly. Off to the home center for a new one. That doesn't work.
So, I break it all down, and find the starter spindle has a tooth broken off. But the motor still turns when I pull the cord, so that's not it. So I put the compression gage on in place of the spark plug, and when I pulled the cord, the pressure is all over the place, never the same reading twice.
According to the gurus on the interwebz, who are all experts, the means bad gaskets, a cracked cylinder, or worse. Maybe $50 to repair. Given this machine is 7 years old, it's better to spend the money for a new one.
Back to the home center. But the only models they sell are the same make as the one I have. I'm not buying.
So I need more research, and maybe a backpack model.
But by now it's getting late. Too late to take pictures. Besides, I'm too annoyed to do a good job.
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Now I know why I shoot guns and play golf. Besides the exercise (dubious) and the tension relief (less dubious), they both involve an individual solution to a problem.
When I'm shooting a USPSA stage, I don't always solve the problem the best I can, but in the end, it's solved. And the Range Officer says "Unload and show clear," and I'm done.
I wish the rest of my life's problems had a Range Officer. One thing's for sure, when he asked at the beginning "Do you understand the course of fire? Any questions?" I would sure as hell speak up.
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Only now it occurs to me, when I breathe my last, and open my eyes in Glory, maybe the first thing I'll hear will be "Unload and show clear."
