Month: September 2015

You can take anything too far.

Including concealed carry.

In all seriousness. This is really unsafe. That weapon could rust.

OMG, it just hit me that we are the Zombies. And we are eating out planet alive.

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1

Episode 5, Cobalt

Summary:

Cobalt kicks off at an offsite camp. (I was wrong, it actually exists. I was pretty sure they just took the fat neighbor guy out and killed him but they actually did take him to a camp.)

Doug (fat neighbor guy) is still alive, but his cell mate is doing his best to push him over the edge. After Doug gets pulled out of the cage the instigator moves on and asks “Who the hell are you?” and the camera pans down to show Nick sitting in the corner.

When we come back from commercial Ofelia is throwing bottles at the checkpoint and the young soldier she was making out with tries to protect her. She’s pissed, she wants her mom. Her boyfriend saves her, but the morale among the soldiers is faltering.

Inside the house Travis, Madison, an Chris are trying to figure out what to do. Chris wants his dad to go rescue his mom. They all fear that something bad has happened, they just don’t know how bad it is yet. Travis goes to talk to the lead soldier while Madison goes to a neighbor’s house. When she gets there she hears something banging downstairs. She’s smart enough to grab a knife and a flashlight at least, but of course the light isn’t reliable. When Madison opens the door Ofelia and her dad have boyfriend soldier duck-taped to a chair. He wants his wife back, she wants her mother back, and it looks like they are willing to get a little dirty to make it happen. The soldier tells the Salazars and Madison everything will be okay. Ofelia is waffling, she is trying to say her boyfriend doesn’t know anything while at the same time is willing to use her boyfriend as a bargaining chip. Mr. Salazar (The Barber) tells Madison to take Ofelia back to her house and not to let her come back. He’s going to make the soldier talk. The soldier tells Mr. Salazar he cares for his daughter. Mr. Salazar tells the soldier he lied to his daughter, he’s not going to let her boyfriend go without hurting him. As he’s talking he’s opening his kit and pulling out his straight razors. When we see the Barber again his shirt has blood on it and he’s cleaning blood off his straight razors. He’s skinning the soldier alive, making him talk.

While Madison is dealing with the Salazar Travis is trying to reason with the soldiers. For the second time the lead soldier mentions he can do what he wants because he has guns. Travis pushes too hard. They are going to take him to see the doctor.

At the medical camp Travis’s mom is actually helping people – but the doctor mentions that they started with seven nurses and won’t say what happened to the ones who didn’t get evacuated. I think the doctor knows.

As they are taking Travis to see the doctor the Hummer stops. There is a walker in a building. They pull out the 50 cal sniper and tell Travis he’s up. He’s got to take the shot. The soldier is pissed that Travis doesn’t want to take the shot. Travis is forced to take the weapon and look through the sights (and poorly – he puts his eye right up to it). He can’t do it through. I think she served him in one of the earlier episodes.

As Travis is rolling to the medical camp his ex wife is finding out what happens when soldiers get bit. As the doctor tries to deal with a bitten soldier Travis is left in the Hummer as the unit he is rolling with steps to help another unit pinned down in the local library.

His escort unit goes in and we hear gunfire and screams. The soldiers come out without their commander and tell Travis they will drop him off within a few blocks of the camp. They are abandoning their posts, they are going to go try and save their families.

Outside Alicia finds Chris and tells him she needs to show him something. She’s found a mansion full of toys and other crap to play with. She plays dress up while Chris plays with a toy drone. When he sees her in a pretty dress he runs. Wuss. They then get drunk and destroy the house. Good ZA survival plan.

Back in the camp the soldiers come back and take Nick. He’s got a fever and the soldiers think it might be the infection. The same instigator who wouldn’t shut up when Doug was in trouble saves Nick’s ass – trading his personal goods to keep Nick in the cage with him.

And then Madison screws the Barber – by falling asleep and letting Ofelia go back to the house to see what her dad did to her boyfriend. To Madison’s credit all she asks is whether they got the info they wanted.

Somehow Travis makes it back to camp without an issue after the soldiers drop him off. He walks up in time to find out from Ofelia what her father is up to. Which transitions us to the Barber questioning the soldier who is now spilling his guts. The soldier tells Travis that Cobalt is an operation to evacuate and “humanely” terminate the civilians. It looks like the Barber did what was needed after all and saved their asses.

Back in his cell Nick and his new friend are talking. The Instigator tells Nick he’s now in debt to him. The Instigator knows the soldiers are leaving, he wants Nick to help him when he makes his move.

As Alicia and Chris are walking back to their house they see soldiers drive by, but they aren’t patrolling. They have stuff crammed in the back of their trucks. They are beginning to flee.

The episode ends with the Barber’s wife dying while Travis’s ex wife and the doctor are next to her. She’s rambling about the devil and her husband. She dies and Travis’s ex wife is forced to use a bolt gun to destroy her brain before she can turn. The doctor knows that everyone who dies becomes a walker.

The very last thing we see is Mr. Salazar walking up to a stadium. The doors are barred and locked with chains. The undead inside want out.

Things I loved about this episode…

• Chris being a pain in the ass over his mom. Kids don’t understand reason. They are full of emotion.
• The Barber holding out his hand to the soldier while he’s torturing him. His hands are rock steady.
• Alicia looks amazing when they in the rick people house. Apparently she is still shaving her pits and showering during the ZA. Lucky girl.
• The bolt gun. That was great thinking on someone’s part.

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

• Madison’s flashlight going out while she’s going downstairs. Really, 80’s horror tricks?

Main Characters:

• Nick Clark – Starts the season off by finding his girlfriend turned into a walker in a church. Has a addition problem.
• Alicia Clark – Nick’s sister. Has already lost her boyfriend to the virus.
• Madison Clark – Mother to Nick and Alicia. She worked at the high school where she met Travis Manawa, her boyfriend.
• Travis Manawa – School teacher and Madison’s love interest.
• Chris Manawa – Travis’s son.
• Daniel Salazar – The Barber who shelters Team Travis in Episode 2.
• Ofelia Salazar  – The Barber’s cute daughter.

…

…

It was opening day of the season for us and a beautiful day. Just cool enough to wear jeans as we walked around the course.

It was supposed to be a birthday shoot for my friend Jessie, but he had a really good night last night and slept through our range time so we are making it up next weekend. So my youngest and I headed over and tried to clean the rust off our shooting skills.

We both shot a 26/35 and called it a day after my back started to act up. Sadly I don’t have a lot of range left in me when it comes to walking. I’m hoping when I go see my back surgeon this weekend I don’t get horrible news. I guess we’ll see.

Benelli M2 Shooting Log

Date	Rounds Fired	Comment	1
6/14/2020	250	First outing of 2020	19
01/13/2019	125	Snow clays!!!	18
12/04/2016	200	Clays.	17
11/27/2016	100	Clays.	16
11/12/2016	200	Clays.	15
11/05/2016	250	Clays, took a new shooter out.	14
10/08/2016	225	Clays & some slugs.	13
09/24/2016	200	Clays.	12
09/04/2016	125	Clays.	11
08/06/2016	250	Clays	10
07/21/2016	200		9
11/14/2015	125		8
10/11/2015	110		7
09/27/2015	125		6
05/09/2015	300		5
04/25/2015	100		4
03/28/2015	200		3
02/08/2015	100		2

I’m all for teaching kids to respect firearms and for teaching them to shoot – so don’t freak out of my “Kids & Guns Don’t Mix” comment. I don’t have enough room in the title to put “People who are A-holes who let kids do this with firearms that are way too much from them to handle.”

Now this kid thinks guns are fun toys and or is so scared of them he’ll never want to learn to shoot again.

Don’t do this.

It’s wrong.

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1

Episode 4, Not Fade Away

Summary:

Not Fade Away takes place nine days after the last episode. The national guard has stabilized the survivors camp – but everything and everyone is a little stressed.

The survivors think they are safe behind their fence with the national guard protecting them as the world on the other side burns. Chris is filming from a rooftop, watching the boy sin green when he sees someone flashing a signal mirror on a distant hill, outside the fence. He gets a mirror and tries to signal back – and they do. Which doesn’t make sense because the national guard told them there was nothing alive out there.

Inside the house the electric is being metered and the adults are starting to fight. Madison is feeling the stress of having a lot of strangers in her house, while at the same time trying to take care of Nick and his addiction.

After Nick refuses to take a pill (not sure if he has another source or is really trying to get clean – and we find out shortly he’s not) a national guard commander tells the civilians there are in one of twelve safe zones south of the San Gabriel. He then tells the crowd to be nice so he doesn’t have to shoot them – and he has a creepy smile on his face when he says it.

Travis is then called over by the commander, who wants him to get his neighbor to submit to the screening. The commander basically tells Travis he can help them get the guy to do the screening or the soldiers are going to take him down. Travis talks him down. The dude was just having a bit of a break down, struggling with what to tell his kids.

There are sick people in town. No one realizes what happens when they turn yet. They’ve cleared a safe zone – or at least think they have – but they don’t realize there are little time bombs everywhere, waiting to go off.

Chris is caught up on the flashing in the distance. His dad wouldn’t listen so he tries to tell Madison, but she just tell him that if someone were in trouble they would go to the soldiers.

When we come back from commercial Ofelia is making out with a soldier who is trying to get into her pants. He is being aggressive and she wants meds for her mom. So i guess they are both using each other.

It cuts to nightfall. Madison & Travis just had “make-up” sex because their house is full of people. Travis is worried about Madison which kicks of a discussion about parenting that eventually leads to Madison telling Travis she saw the reflected signal on the video too. She is also frustrated that the soldiers haven’t gotten the phones or other communications networks up. As they are talking the wife of the neighbor Travis talked into getting tested earlier comes over, very upset. Her husband Doug took his car and is missing. Travis goes to find him while Madison goes back to the roof with a flashlight to see if she can see the flashing in the distance.

Just as Travis finds his neighbors car against the outer fence Madison is flashing a signal which gets returned.

The next morning Travis is asking the commander to send out a patrol, but the commander tells him he doesn’t have to. They found the neighbor and “he’s getting the help he needs” at command. Which I am pretty sure means a bullet in the head. The next scene is of a government doctor telling one of the sick peoples wives (and Travis’s wife) that they took Hector to command.

As the seeds of badness are planted inside the camp Madison is sneaking out. She wants to know what is happening outside the fence. She slips out and finds herself in a dead neighborhood filled with the smell of rotting flesh. Some of people look like they were gunned down before they were walkers. Just as she is looking over a body lying next to a gun she hears a patrol coming.  She hides under a car as the soldiers march by.

 

It looks like the soldiers are doing more than just killing the undead.

The same doctor who took Hector wants to take the Barber’s wife to the command center. I think she knows something is wrong. The doctor then finds Nick sitting on a bench and she asks him if he needs methadone. Nick tells he doesn’t need it – he’s already kicked his habit. As they are talking Travis walks up and the doctor mentions the patient whom Nick was stealing morphine from. He knows the doctor is lying about something.

Just before Madison comes back there is a brief scene where we see Alicia in the neighbors house, sticking a needle in her arm. I’m not sure if she is trying to tattoo herself or deal with stress via self harm.

The Barber is in the house when Madison comes back. He tells her a story about when he was young and the soldiers took people away from his village. The soldiers promised the people would come back – and they did. The Barber found all their bodies in the river a few days later. He warns her if “it happens” it will happen quickly. He is going to go with his wife, and he realizes he may not come back. He makes Madison promise to look after Ofelia and tells Madison to keep Nick close. He knows the soldiers aren’t totally on the up and up.

Which leads to Madison finding Nick scavenging through houses for drugs. She’s pissed. She knows he’s putting himself in danger in multiple different ways.

When we come back to commercial Alicia is trying to get Nick to tell her why his face is bruised. She wants to know who hit him. She gives him a big hug. He doesn’t tell her it was Madison. She is in the garage drinking when the soldiers come to get the Barber and his wife – only the soldiers are there for Nick and the wife, not the Barber. Nick tries to run but the soldiers nail him.

The soldiers zip tie Nick’s hands and load him into the truck. The doctor convinces Travis’s ex-wife to go with them. She tells Chris she loves him as he watches her climb into the truck from the window.

Madison storms back inside and tells Travis its his ex-wives fault Nick was taken before storming off. Travis goes up onto the roof to think and he sees gunfire flashing in the distance. The soldiers went to investigate the signals after all.

Things I loved about this episode…

• The way the survivors are trying to pretend everything is normal.
• Nick’s addictive behavior. They say one thing and do another. If you’ve ever had to deal with an addict his behavior rings very true.
• I feel like there is a secret building. Is the military gunning people down outside the fence?
• The way the soldiers are “taking people to command” who are sick or causing trouble.

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

• The survivors look to clean. I know they have electric for part of the day and likely water – but everyone still looks too clean. Did they really have 9 days of TP on hand? How are they wiping their butts?
• How did the overweight neighbor Doug make it over the fence? (Never mind – he didn’t.)

Main Characters:

• Nick Clark – Starts the season off by finding his girlfriend turned into a walker in a church. Has a addition problem.
• Alicia Clark – Nick’s sister. Has already lost her boyfriend to the virus.
• Madison Clark – Mother to Nick and Alicia. She worked at the high school where she met Travis Manawa, her boyfriend.
• Travis Manawa – School teacher and Madison’s love interest.
• Chris Manawa – Travis’s son.
• Daniel Salazar – The Barber who shelters Team Travis in Episode 2.
• Ofelia Salazar  – The Barber’s cute daughter.

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This is one swamp you don’t want to mess around in.

al

I’m very aware of how “non-shooter” view those of us who like to shoot. It is what makes me comment on what I see as examples of “Bad Gun Handling”. I’m hoping to influence those of us who like to shoot to make them look as responsible as I hope they are when they aren’t doing funny things for the camera.

This is a perfect example of that. Does it seem like a good idea to use a 12 gauge to pop the balloons keeping you aloft? Do you think this makes the non shooters look at us like we are any more sane?

You have to love what you are doing or you won’t enjoy it – which means you won’t get better at it. I’ve had to do jobs I hated to pay the bills, but I only did them long enough to get back onto the path I enjoyed.