You did what?!?!?! Why did you do that???? Those seem to be the questions I've been getting lately from some people and I think it's time I come out and explain myself... not that anyone needs an explanation seeing that I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions.

About a month ago I made a decision and after a long deliberation, both in my mind and with Jen, I traveled down to Redding's Hardware in Gettysburg to purchase a handgun... A Hi-Point C9 9mm Compact pistol. Before I get slammed for the brand I want to say I didn't want to spend a ton of money on something that I may not ultimately get into so I decided to get the no frills entry level model. Sure, it may not look pretty, its heavy, and not easy to conceal but it does go bang each time you pull the trigger. Its basically a gun I can learn with and also have it "just in case".

After having it for about a month I can say it was a purchase I won't soon regret. I have about 300 rounds through the gun so far and while I'm still learning how to be a decent shot I can safely say I'm improving with each outing. For all of you saying "He's never handled a pistol, how does he know how to use it"... It's not that hard and if you use some common sense it's not that dangerous. I'm also going to attend a gun safety course towards the end of July just to make sure I've covered all my bases.

Now, I've been told once you've purchased one gun you're going to want to buy more. I can say this is certainly the case and I'm already looking at my next purchase sometime in the near future.

Now I say, let the fireworks begin.

Until Later...

I'm taking an electronic free weekend. Yup, you heard that right, the geek with all the electronic toys is taking a weekend off from his electonic gadgets and getting back to the finer things in life.

Mark it on your calendars now, starting the afternoon of July 2nd and ending July 5th I'm going to be putting down my laptop, netbook, TV, DVR, PS2, and even my iPhone and heading to the mountains to camp for the holiday weekend. The only technology I will have with me is my cameras and the camcorder. Even the Kindle will be safely tucked away 4 hours south of where I will be at.

Jennifer and myself are planning on heading up to her Uncle's cabin along with her brother and sister-in-law and roughing it (Yes, that includes no running water too). We're going to enjoy fishing, swimming, target shooting, spotting, nights by a campfire and possibly a good cigar or two... but most of all we'll be hopefully rekindling a Wentz children's family tradition of going camping at the old cabins and having a grand old time.

I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories to tell after we get back so,

Until Later...

Well, now that it's summer in downtown Carlisle the drivers around town, especially in the vicinity of Dickinson College, can now relax a small bit knowing that most of the college kids have gone home for the summer. Why am I saying this you ask? Well, the simple answer is the college kids have no concept of how to walk safely through the crosswalks in and around the college. They think that they can walk right out into the crosswalk and vehicular traffic will stop for them. Most of the time this is the case, however I can recall on at least 2 occasions within the last year that there have been people hit in the crosswalks. Now, before anyone starts complaining to me saying that pedestrians have the right of way, I'd like to refer you to the following points in the PA Driver/Pedestrian Laws...

Title 75 Chapter 35 Section 3542. Right-of-way of pedestrians in crosswalks.
(a) General rule.—When traffic-control signals are not in place or not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.

(b) Exercise of care by pedestrian.—No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close as to constitute a hazard.

To my feeble brain, what the above states is that if a car comes upon someone who is already in the act of crossing in a designated crosswalk the driver of the vehicle must allow that person to safely walk across the roadway. However, the second part which I highlighted in red, states that if there is a car so close to a crosswalk that they can not safely stop the pedestrian MUST wait for the car to pass.

Now, this is where the problem lies, College students pay no attention to subsection B... I can't tell you how many times in the several years I've lived near the college that I've had to either lay on the horn or jam on the brakes of my truck to stop from hitting one (or a group) of them while they either talk on their cell phones, talk to friends or listen to their MP3 players and walk blindly into the intersection without even a glance either way. It seems to me that they must think they are invincible or a several thousand pound vehicle going 25 miles an hour (or more) can stop on a dime. Let me tell you this, I know for a fact that my Chevy Equinox can not stop on a dime and I would pay good money to have a vehicle which would.

What is it going to take to stop this from occurring? I hope it doesn't take a death of a student to bring this to a head, but I have a really bad feeling that will happen within the next few years. What can the college do to make this stop? I say public awareness, make the students aware that the crosswalks are there for their protection but yet they need to use their heads before walking into them. I hope something happens soon, before something bad actually happens.

Until Later...

Snow, snow go away, come back another day... or should I say year.

As much as I love winter and the white fluffy stuff I'm really getting a bit tired of it. Within the last 10 days we have had not one, but three snow storms... two of which dumped 14-15 inches of snow on us each and guess what, within the next week or so we could be faced with our 4th, which is being called a possible "Major Event". I really hope all the early forecast models are incorrect and this one misses us, mainly because I'm not sure where we could put another batch of snow. Thankfully, where I live we have off street parking but the parking lot is nearly at capacity with piled up snow. I quite honestly have no idea where it's going to go. Well, I take that back, I know where it's going to go but where are we going to park our cars. I say we now start to think warm thoughts and hope spring comes quickly, then we can all move onto more pleasant past-times then shoveling this white stuff.

Until Later...