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Old Glock guy

What's everyone doing with their pandemic isolation free time?

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Curious how all of you are spending your plentiful idle time, especially now that all the gun ranges are closed?  I feel like the nerdy guy who loved to read in the Twilight Zone episode where he finds himself in a large library at the end of the world, with no one else around and nothing but time on his hands, only to break his only pair of glasses. 

We went out for a couple of family hikes on the weekend, but the trails were so crowded, we might just as well have gone to the mall.  Not coincidentally, I received a notice from the trail conference that people should stay home, because the trails are too crowded to allow for social distancing.

I spent yesterday taking inventory, sorting, and labeling all my ammo, which I had not had a chance to do since moving last fall.  I won't say how much I have on a public forum, but let's just say it's enough that if it ever made the news, I would be labeled some kind of maniac, probably no different from the rest of you. 

Other than that, I've been getting out for morning runs on some quiet trails near my home, hitting our makeshift basement gym in the evenings, doing some reading, and watching some shows and movies at night.  This whole thing would be a lot more of a painful ordeal if the power was out!

How about the rest of you, how are you spending all that newfound time?

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Well, last week I cleaned all my guns for the first time in over a year. Took me about 10 hours across 3 days. This week I started rebuilding my garage workbench to incorporate a miter station. And will be building a second work bench that will incorporate table saw and router. And in between playing games with the kids and taking walks around the block with my wife just to keep my legs from seizing up from sitting on my ass for 10 hours while i'm working.

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Several hikes with the wife and our two dogs.  Power-washed part of the house and started cleaning up the garage.  Had ordered a competition rig I was hoping to get some use out of for 3 gun at Quinton this month but that's off the table.  So maybe some dry fire exercise.  Lot's of good home cooking overnight so that's a plus.  

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I'm fortunate in that I can work from home.  That said, the conference calls span 5 or 6 time zones on a daily basis, and 12 zones on occasion, so the days are long and wearing the headset all day, while looking out the window but unable to go outside, is getting old.  I have to keep reminding myself that I'm one of the lucky ones in this mess...

I am slowly catching up on my reloading, but have a few more calibers to work through before that is done.  I plan to get back to dry firing a couple of times a week.   I've got a few commonly-used guns overdue for a thorough cleaning, and I know this is also the time to get out all of the safe queens and clean/re-oil them.

Aside from shooting, I'm trying to make some time to get more proficient on the wood lathe.   I've made a few small turnings that don't suck, and I've also learned that if you drop and lose one of the little brass locator pins from a Dillon 550 caliber conversion kit, you can turn a perfectly serviceable replacement out of hardwood.

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1 minute ago, 10X said:

... Aside from shooting, I'm trying to make some time to get more proficient on the wood lathe.   I've made a few small turnings that don't suck ...

I've seen so many videos of lathe work where they make it look so easy.  My Uncle has an old lathe I tried my hand at years ago and it was a disaster.

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Here are examples of what I have been up to.
- Interestingly, I am not snacking as much and am eating better. Have not had an Oreo in over 3 weeks, lol.
- On nice days, taking long walks with the wife. 
- Lost 4 lbs so far. 
- Ammo supply was already adequate and inventoried, so nothing to do there.  
- Did purchase a Streamlight TLR-2 HL G light/laser and Sig Romeo5 red dot for a long gun I acquired in early March (Phew! Just in the nick of time). Will be mounting them this evening.  
- Inventoried my spare mags. They were empty. I loaded a number of them.  
- Started thinking through what specific items  a firearm “Go Bag” should contain. Starting with the bag itself.  A fun planning exercise. 
- Will re-clean several firearms that have been in the safe for quite some time.  
- Things have not yet deteriorated to the point where I would carry within my home full time. However, did locate my gun belt, holster, etc and did carry this morning to ensure these items were readily at hand and comfortable. 
- Need to update my inventory xls of emergency preparedness supplies(non-firearm related). 
- Got caught up submitting various medical claims, EOBs, etc that were awaiting my action. (I usually procrastinate on that.). 
- Started working on my taxes. 
 

 

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Cleaned all my guns. Again.

Cleaned out the kitchen pantry, painted it, and organized it.

Took all the laundry off the treadmill and set that up again.

Cleaned and organized the shop.

Learning how to make bread.

Picked up my guitar after a long hiatus. You know how they say you never really forget? That's B.S. I sound like a noob again.

I also work part-time from home (marketing, writing, editing), and that's still happening, so there's that. 

 

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Forgot to mention also I purchased from Costco and installed a ceiling light in my garage.  One of those approx 4’ long led ones.  Very bright and adjustable. Much better illumination for the table where I clean firearms, do other projects, etc. Includes a remote control. Was $30. Highly recommend it.

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Im working from home, but there is nothing happening at work. So it's either sit at my desk and stare at my laptop, or do stuff around the house. 

I built the frame and table top for model railroad. Learned how to fully disassemble and reassemble, and cleaned my 870. Bought a generator and am currently learning how to safely use it. Cleaned out the garage and organized my workbench. Also put together a pile of stuff to sell on ebay. Next would be to get the lawn mower ready for the season and put away the snowblower. I would love to get outside and do some yard clean up. Thursday is supposed to be sunny. 

And my dog is fed up with taking walks. She walks away when i grab the leash. 

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Over the weekend I tuned up my bandsaw and built a storage cabinet for bandsaw blades and accessories. Started working on some new saw horses too. Put in a safe door organizer that I ordered a month ago and never got to install and then cleaned the safe up and took inventory.

-Jim

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It's not isolation time for me, just another day in paradise. Nothing changed because of the shutdowns.

Working the pup hard on the nice days with tracking and trailing for search and rescue, and training him for Mud Dog obstacle course races coming up. Hopefully they won't be cancelled, like everything else.

Doing some upgrades and add-ons to the RV, had two upcoming trips coming up that were both cancelled (really pissed about that), and looking to schedule others.

Got some new pin striping for my truck, next warm day, that's on the schedule.

Doing exterior yard cleanup and getting garden ready. Wifey wants the pool opened now, I told her to do it herself... :yahoo:

That's the toughest part, having her here :scratchhead:... she just loves to start projects, that I get to finish... :no2: I can't even send her to Kohls or mall to burn off some hours... they're closed... :mutley:

Not seeing the rugrats as much, the kids are trying to stay self-quarantined as much as possible. Those little ones are active germ machines,  on a normal day. :swoon:

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I'm still working, the hotel I work at closed on sunday and laid off 90% of the staff for at least 2 weeks starting tomorrow. As maintenance and security I'm considered essential so I will have a job throughout all of this craziness. I work second shift so during the day I do preschool stuff with my daughter while my wife works from home and then leave for work in the afternoon when she gets off of work. 

To keep active in my free time I've been hiking the closed ski resort next to my house with one of my dogs and snowboarding down while he chases me or out in the woods cutting and splitting firewood for next season. 

So besides my daughter being home from school and the ski lifts shut down my life is pretty much unchanged. 

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I work from home... and live alone... so, not a lot of change for me at all. Even my workflow is unchanged… one pipeline is down, but the other is up. However, in the first few days of this, I did find myself looking suspiciously at my usual parade of fresh-faced Millennial food delivery guys...  suddenly, they all looked like Petri dishes that had sprouted arms and legs! No good! :rofl:  Soooo, no more delivery until a little more data rolls in on this virus... and so that has spurred an unusual degree of menu planning and cooking in This Old House. For the most part, I've decided to largely conserve the canned goods, since they have the longest shelf life, and to use my frozen and fresh produce instead. So far, I've made big batches of homemade chicken soup and tomato sauce - and some of that has gone back into the freezer. Tomorrow will be either beef stew or beef vegetable soup - still deciding. I feel like Ina Garten!

And evening/weekend hours when I would usually be running out of the house... I'm now channeling towards organizing projects. Lots of bags piling up for good will, closets looking good... great progress! :)

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I’m still working, although my customer visits are pretty slow, because some of them are shut down for COV19. 
It’s the time of year where we do our compliance training, so I’ve sat through a lot of training videos online. Ugh. 
 

Gun safe has been organized, guns cleaned, and ammo fort inventoried. 
 

Mrs Tex and I have been taking turns cooking, and trying out new recipes. 
 

When it was nicer out, we started on some yard cleanup, and spring cleaning around the house. 
 

Fun wise...I’ve starting catching up on my hobbies. Shot primer on a 1/24 scale Star Wars x-wing I’ve been dragging my feet on. It’s almost ready for paint, when it gets a little warmer. 

 


 

 

FE95C5FC-8224-4D47-9986-F75E73F77BCA.jpeg

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29 minutes ago, Displaced Texan said:

I’m still working, although my customer visits are pretty slow, because some of them are shut down for COV19. 
It’s the time of year where we do our compliance training, so I’ve sat through a lot of training videos online. Ugh. 
 

Gun safe has been organized, guns cleaned, and ammo first inventoried. 
 

Mrs Tex and I have been taking turns cooking, and trying out new recipes. 
 

When it was nicer out, we started on some yard cleanup, and spring cleaning around the house. 
 

Fun wise...I’ve starting catching up on my hobbies. Shot primer on a 1/24 scale Start Wars x-wing I’ve been dragging my feet on. It’s almost ready for paint, when it gets a little warmer. 

 


 

 

FE95C5FC-8224-4D47-9986-F75E73F77BCA.jpeg

R4-M9!

Red Four standing by!

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My workload has actually increased.

I'm working to convert traditional face to face training material into a virtual instructor lead format. The challenge is I don't have access to equipment, props, etc... that we typically use. So it has to be tweaked a good amount. Also working to update older self-paced online training with more current info and convert it to a virtual instructor lead format. Sitting in front of two computers and four monitors non-stop all day is no fun. I'm usually up and moving around.

 

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