The gun show in Downtown Richmond

I made it up to the C&E Gun Show in Downtown Richmond today.  This was the first time that they held the gun show at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.  Previously the C&E Gunshow was held at The Showplace on Mechanicville Turnpike.  But, that location was sold and something new is to be built there.

The big issue for that location is that the attached parking charges $6.  One big issue is that so few people are used to paying for parking.  That was a big drawback for the Sixth Street Marketplace when that was in operation.  But, if you go to Downtown Richmond, you will probably have to pay for parking.  And they wonder why people don't come.  Fortunately I was able to find some free on street parking.

The crowds were not as heavy as I'm used to when it was at The Showplace.  Also, there were a number of empty tables.  On that note most of the tables did consist of firearms or firearm paraphernalia.  There were very few tables of artsy/craftsy stuffs as I've become used to.  For the most part I don't go to a gun show to purchase firearms, as I find them very overpriced.  However, I did find some good deals that made me stop and think.

I don't think that the Greater Richmond Convention Center is a good place for the gun show.  Hopefully a better location will come available to them.

Marine Cutbacks.

Business Insider has an article about a funny video that was posted in a response to military cutbacks.

Marines Use Nerf Guns In Video To Lampoon Government Shutdown

It's pretty funny.  "No First Sergeants Were Actually Used in the Making of this Video."

Deathinger

This.

Deathinger

I can't figure out how to post the actual video to this site.  Blogger makes it easy to post from YouTube and not Vimeo.  (Of course, Google owns Blogger and YouTube so that's a pretty straight forward set up right there.)  But go watch it.  It's an awesome short animation about "Death School" for the harvesters of souls in the afterlife.

Stick Shifts. I love them. I hate them.

When I was 15, I got my crash course in driving stick.  My dad told me to get in the driver's seat of our F-150, and take it on down to the cow pasture.  

Now, I'd had very little experience in driving any vehicle up to now.  And the concept of using the clutch was very hard to understand.  Plus I was getting on streets that were not known for slow traffic.  The pasture, maybe ten minutes down the road, took almost a half an hour for me.  Between taking forever to turn onto the main road (too much traffic for me) and having the engine cut off almost every time I tried to shift...  By the time I got their my grandmother had already fed the cows and was leaving.  I don't really recall the trip back, but I'm sure that it wasn't any better.  

But, I eventually figured out how to drive stick shift.  And I became pretty good too!  The rescue squad that I volunteered for needed drivers, so I took the course and became certified.  When I got hired in corrections, I took the EVOC course for cruisers and vans.  The instructors kept making the van course tighter for me because I could do some fun stuff with the transport van.  

There were some interesting incidents.  The first time I was put in the drivers seat of a massive moving truck, I had to get used to the idea of "Reverse" in the far upper left position.  I was exceptionally used to First Gear being in this spot.  I only confused the two once...  Unfortunately I was at a stoplight driving uphill.  It was pretty scary.  

So...  About two years ago we bought a new car.  My wife's car was having back to back EXPENSIVE mechanical issues.  When the transmission went, so did the car.  We were fortunate that we had a friend who was a manager at a local Hyundai dealer.  We got a great deal on a used Elantra.  One of the reasons that we got such a good deal was that it was manual, and not automatic.  Apparently there is not a huge demand for an Elantra that is not Automatic.  

I hate that car.  

Shifting is such a pain.  I'll grind gears or place it in the wrong position.  I'm just terrible at using it.  The manual transmission for this car is just so different from the larger trucks that I'm used to driving.  In the trucks, I had the feeling of power when I was able to shift myself.  In this car, I think it's built for speed but with four cylinders it doesn't seem to work.  Now, my wife has absolutely no problem with it.  She is in love with her car.  Well, I guess it's good that I have no desire to drive her car.