Mission Accomplished

In yesterday’s blog, I mentioned that son-in-law Kenny and I were going to go to the gun show in the small town of St. Johns, about 47 miles northeast of us. I said I was looking for a set of grips for one of my single-action Ruger revolvers. Kenny and I left a little after nine and drove through the rain to St. Johns. It was a grey dismal day, and we didn’t know what to expect from the gun show or if anybody would even turn out.

When we got to the fairgrounds where the gun show was being held, the dirt parking lot was a sea of mud. But on the way in, quick-thinking Kenny noticed a small gravel parking area on the side of the building. He parked there and we just had to walk up a slight hill to a sidewalk that took us inside with no mud all over our feet.

There were not many vendors for a gun show, and most of the ones there had everything overpriced by at least 20%. The crowd was sparse and we wandered around for a while looking at things and not finding anything that yelled “take me home” when Kenny spotted exactly what I was looking for. A pristine set of hard to find original wood grips from Ruger that fit my .41 Magnum. Mission accomplished!

While I was paying the vendor for them, Kenny was at it again, spotting something I don’t have in my Ruger collection. In fact, something I had not even heard of. A brand new stainless steel Ruger Blackhawk in .327 Magnum. I looked at it, drooled over it, hemmed and hawed with myself, and finally walked away. It was only after we got back to the house that I looked it up online and found that the seller had it priced at almost $500 below retail. There was an opportunity missed!

It was still rainy and dreary outside, so after I got home, I snuggled into my recliner for a nap. What was wrong with me as a kid when I didn’t like naps? I had no idea how much I would come to love them. When I woke up, I wrote another 2,200-word chapter in my new book and then made the few changes that Judy had suggested from the last chapters that she proofread.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of Gone The Next, the first book in my friend Ben Rehder’s Roy Ballard mystery series. Roy Ballard is a freelance videographer with a knack for catching insurance cheats. He’s working a routine case, complete with hours of tedious surveillance, when he sees something that shakes him to the core. There, with the subject, is a little blond girl wearing a pink top and denim shorts – the same outfit worn by Tracy Turner, a six-year-old abducted the day before. When the police are skeptical of Ballard’s report – and with his history, who can blame them – it’s the beginning of the most important case of his life.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn This evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. If you must smoke, please do it quietly.

Thought For The Day – Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward. – Victor Kiam