More Adventures of Chicken Little-I Don't Even Have Any BBQ's To Wear This S*** To, But We Do Dress For Tea

I don't mean to bum anyone out(at least not any more than usual), but I have shared so much with you all about our situation that I feel compelled to do so. Life always has ups and downs and usually at the same time. As we come within a week of taking care of grandpa(the "real" Merton) for 3 full years, two and a half of which have been 100%, 24 hour care, he is fading and hard. He is no longer taking food and drinking water in only tiny sips, which seem to pain him. He is speaking to people that are not there and is more lucid than he has been in some time. When he has his "visitors", our youngest dog barks at them in a way we have never seen and it is a bit unnerving. Like there is really something there. Since we did hospice for grandma and her death in Jan. '20 I have seen and felt things that I simply can't explain and never experienced prior. I don't know what else to say. He is beloved by us and this burden has been ours to bear and we wear it well. If it is upon us to care for family that others cannot, then we will answer that calling. It is an honor. It is awful. Both of those things are true and that's just the way it is.

Mallory and I went to Portland on Monday to wrap up the sale of the house there and were supposed to drive home Friday morning. Grandpa crashed hard and we packed and left in a hurry Thursday afternoon. It's 250 miles to home in Klamath County with The Klamath Tribes. On the way, we go over Mt. Hood, pass through the entire Warm Springs Rez and usually stop and say hello. There are Klamaths, Modocs and Yahooskins(The Klamath Tribes) that moved to Warm Springs when the government bought back The Klamath Rez in the '60's, reducing it from nearly the size of NJ to a few hundred acres. It's strange the way we have fallen in with The Tribes and the way they have accepted us. We brought none of the city biases that many pack with their household and it has separated us while so many have come and gone in our decade here. Anyone may buy in, but it don't mean you'll fit in. We didn't visit this time, as we were driving with a purpose.

We will be with him until it is over and then we will settle his affairs exactly as he would have it. What else is there? If it weren't for caring for him and my becoming the caregiver in more ways than either of us could have expected(when we lived in Portland, my wife worked as a caregiver before she was a stay at home mom. Have I mentioned my affection for irony? I sprinkle it on my f'in' Cheerios.), I would not have found this forum and who knows what else would be different. As we eased grandma to the other side, there were murmurs of some new illness coming out of China. It's amazing what three years can bring.

When we got back I went immediately to be with him and he recognized me and his eyes lit up. We've been strangers for a while in his mind and he gripped my left arm with his right hand as hard as he could and I'll be damned if it wasn't a firm grasp. It was honest love and it's been a while. It was good to see him, even if just for moments. He asked how I was and "Where do they have you bunked?" and as I told him that they had me down the hall, he raised his eyebrows and nodded in approval as though I had prime real estate and went back into being unable to communicate or make a word at all and I'm not sure that he was conscious. He is hanging on and we are with him for however long that may be. When the time comes, you all will know.

To shift to some good stuff, there was a package that arrived yesterday. My very first purchase on this site was two Del Fatti belts. I have worn the black one every day for two years and it is incredible. The brown one hasn't been used yet, but if I keep wearing the black one after Memorial Day this year I'll be the laughing stock of all the Rez fashion gossip and I'm not going through that again! "Fool me once" and all that, you know what I'm sayin'? Knowing that the belts are of such quality and that the wait times are very, very long the decision to buy a Del Fatti Speed Scabbard for a Government Model when it came up for sale was easy, even if I did put it on a credit card. I have never seen one for sale, it was brand new and at a price that I couldn't pass on. It is the ultimate in "luxury", in my opinion, when it comes to gun leather and more importantly the quality is fantastic. I have played with it a bit and I believe it will be my everyday OWB holster. So, I figured I'd get my EDC stuff and my fancy stuff together and brag on it a bit. I learned it from you jerks, anyway.

The first photo shows the EDC. The black Del Fatti, KGB-stamped Sparks 55BN and a Sparks SSII along with my Jim Wilson/10-8 Colt. I love that gun more and more and a year of carrying it has only made it closer to me. The second photo shows my fancy leather and a couple fancy guns. ACW Anomaly #117, Classic Carry #401(both .45, 'natch) in elephant ivories, Del Fatti belts, my KGB stamped Sparks 55BN with elephant trim to the left of the guns and the Del Fatti RSS to the right. Third photo shows the two holsters and the fourth shows my two base guns that will someday be fancy. The top one is a '74 with a fat trigger guard just waiting to be squared and built for shooting. The bottom is a '77(them ivories is fake) which is my wife's birth year. I understand the chase for our own birth years, but I personally have a desire for the years of my family members rather than my own and my world is built around my wife. These are my first two customs and I very much look forward to them, but very patient at the same time. I'm 44 years old. If someone with more spins around the sun or some other situation "needs" their gun before me, I'd lose not a wink of sleep over them jumping me in line and in fact I may lose sleep if they didn't. Those guns are going to be my dream guns and I hope the dreams of others are fulfilled as well. The fifth photo is The Deschutes River on The Warm Springs Reservation and photo six the sun through the fog as we near the southern border of The Rez. Only 150 miles until we're home.....

The last four photos are from early this morning. We have had pretty terrible weather this last week(month). Beautiful snow fell, followed by nasty rain and blowing winds. I look forward to being able to take better photos in actual sunlight. We were playing Polly Pocket at 7am, but then we switched to some of her other dolls and had a hair salon going and everything! It was probably the most fun I've had this week. When I put her in her chair to eat some very unhealthy "breakfast cereal" made of chocolate and marshmallows, I set up for another photo or two because the photos of the Speed Scabbard from yesterday just aren't that good. I moved the hair salon and Mallory said "Dad, you're messing up my world" and I nodded and said "I think that just makes us even, Sweetheart" and she said "Oh", as if that made perfect sense. Photos 7&8 have my Rock River Arms Elite Commando and Guncrafter BC-17 Hellcat(again, .45's obviously) next to the Alchemy's. The last two are of my partner in crime, wearing one of her prized KGB shirts(P.S. @Karl Beining she is requesting different colors. She loves her shirts, but she was born an Addict because of her father's crippling Addiction and wants more. Makes sense to me. What can I say? The kid knows what's what. You're welcome, Society.) and playing with her toys. She loves her toys, but her guns are important to her as well and she can't wait for shootin' weather. That makes two of us. I am gonna look so good for the mountain, trees, animals and poor souls that are my family this year. The elephant 55BN is for my KGB guns that will be here someday. I'm gonna wear and use the Del Fatti Speed Scabbard a lot. The gun flies out of it like it's spring loaded and I've just barely had it 24 hours. Good stuff is worth it.