it’s all building up to something

i was in training tuesday through thursday for a new product my work is looking at deploying. it was nice to have a chance of pace for a few days, although the training center was in houston (over by the galleria area) and wasn’t anything special.
wednesday night or thursday evening i watched deliverance. i’ve heard plenty of references to it, but i’d never actually seen the movie. it was kind of unpolished, as most older seem to be, but it was good. i was surprised to some degree, because the only cultural references you hear are crazy hillbillies, the song “dueling banjos” and “squeal like a pig!” while those all exist in the movie, and even play important parts, the movie is really more about suburban guys going into the wilderness and having to overcome nature and find out what has or has not been buried within them under the layers of suburban life. the dvd had a “making of…” in the extras, and it was cool to hear the director and writer talk about how they shot it isolated, on the river, with only the four actors and three or four other people. they’d drive a couple of hours into the wilderness to get to the river and get dropped off, then they’d pick them up a couple of hours downstream. the actors did all their own stunts and such, and the insurance companies wouldn’t cover the filming or anything. it was also interesting seeing a young burt reynolds, jon voight, etc. (the movie was done in 1972.)
last night i watched harold and maude. it was also filmed in the very early 70’s. it wasn’t really what i’d thought it was going to be, but it was pretty good. i felt like it fit in well with a lot of the late 60’s and early 70’s movies i’ve seen, where i guess the culture in america and cinema was to create weird things mixing up morals and ideas and just kind of flipping the finger at societal standards. i guess the hippie and folk music scenes sort of fit in there too. a lot of the things harold did bordered on absurdism (or maybe it was well within that land), and maude seemed completely oblivious to society around her (call her a “free spirit”). i can see how this movie might have influenced a lot of the style and techniques of some of the later indie and off-the-beaten-path films (although there were other movies at the same time doing similar things of course).
today i went by a shoe repair store and dropped off my chocolate brown tony lama’s to get the heel repaired on one of them and get them cleaned and conditioned. i put a big scuff on the upper toe of one of my sha-sha’s not long after i got it, so i may have them refinish them when i go to pick up the boots. the only thing is they said it probably wouldn’t come out the same color exactly. so i’ll be thinking about it. from there i headed to goode company for some delicious Texas bbq and some good music.
afterward i headed over to a carter’s country to look for another holster for my walther ppk/s.
okay, since i’m talking about that, i have to relate something. if you recall, back in january someone stole the license plate from my motorcycle (entry), then later i noticed a box of stuff, along with my walther ppk/s, were missing (entry). i remembered thinking before that i shouldn’t leave the walther box laying out in the open, so i’d tried to put it into a locking fire-safe filing box but it wouldn’t fit. when i noticed it missing, i spent several hours over a couple of days going from room to room looking for boxes, opening boxes, etc. because i knew it was possible i’d moved it and misplaced it. finally i had to admit it had been stolen (and i didn’t want the cops busting down my door because it’d been used in some crime and traced back to me), so i called the police and reported it (entry). well, when i put the new gun safe in a couple of weeks ago i moved a number of boxes around to make room for it. friday evening i was doing some cleaning and rearranging and i went to move a box that was on top of some stuff and it was really heavy. i wasn’t sure where the box came from, or what would make it that heavy. i opened the lid and guess what i found? 3 boxes of winchester .45 ammo, 1 box of federal .45 personal protection ammo, 3 boxes of .380 ammo, and my walther ppk/s. plus the stuff that had been in the box i thought was stolen/missing. evidently i moved it all into a different box than any of it had been in, and i must have placed it under some other boxes or something in a different room, hidden even to me. egads. oh well, it’s nice knowing all that stuff wasn’t out in the world somewhere. so i now have a pair of matching walther ppk/s pistols. and a new, bigger fire-safe. and a gun safe. but i did call the police department and tell them to cancel the incident/report.
anyway, back to carter’s country. i went there to try and find an inside-the-pants (or maybe inside-the-belt) holster for my walther(s!) that would fit in the small of my back and rest the gun at an angle so i could pull it with my right hand. i didn’t find one. i also asked them about doing repair work on my charles daly 1911, but i hadn’t brought it with me. …so i went ahead and bought a new pistol. i bought a kimber tactical ultra ii. it’s an ultra compact (3″ barrel) 1911 .45 acp. this model is based on an aluminum frame for lightweight carry and comes with a mag well, etched front and rear handle and lower trigger guard, dark checkered grips, and tritium night sights. (kimber’s page for it.) so whether i get the daly fixed or get rid of it, i’m hoping this kimber will give me plenty of ability to shoot up all of the .45 ammo i have.