Neanderpundit

is to rake grass. Hell, raking of any kind just torques me off. So I’m very careful when I can be to cut grass early and often; it’s much easier to drive the tractor around several times a week than it is to rake.

But on vacation, I didn’t have the ability. And none of my neighbors have much in the way of equipment. So I mowed yesterday, and the clumps of dead grass took five heaping wheelbarrows to get back to the garden.

In somewhat related news, Barber Joe has been forbidden from mowing his lawn. Seems he was getting ready to mow, and the lever didn’t start the blades. So he turns off the mower and gets down on the ground to look underneath the frame; sure enough, a cotter pin has sheared. So he’s trying to get it out to replace it and the “WHOLE GODDANED NEIGHBORHOOD” (His words) come running over yelling “JOE!!! JOE!!!!” thinking he’s had a grabber and fallen off the mower.

His wife (Again, Joe’s words) says “Goddammit Joe! No more goddamned lawn! You’re gonna sell that goddamned mower and I’m gonna get someone to mow the goddamned lawn before you give ME a goddamned heart attack”

Joe, like me, fails to see the issue. He has(Had) a riding mower so it wasn’t like he was pushing an old reel.

Still. Joe says one of his customers runs a lawn service, and he comes and mows Joe’s lawn for $25 a week. So Joe put me in touch with Jesus. That’s HaySoos, not the other one- and I’m gonna call him and ask if he’ll mow my backyard. And see if he runs screaming away like everyone else. If he does I’m gonna see if I can find an old bent ash snath and scythe and mow like the old man did. Have to be safer than pushing a damned mower. Plus grim reaper.

I saw the PPX at Cabelas; for some reason the 9 was more expensive than the 40, which they were advertising for $419. I don’t mind some things at Cabelas but I like to try to give my business to small local shops, because that’s what keeps them in business.

So I went to Blythes. The price was a little less, they had a little wiggle room and I ended up going out the door with the gun and a box of ammo around $440. Blythes bought these when they first came out- there are online retailers selling them for less than Blythes paid for them, but for the few extra dollars, supporting a local company and helping them stay in business is worth it.

And then I went to the website to register it, and found that they are running a promo till years end that gives you an extra magazine, a polymer retention holster, and a dual magazine pouch for $9 shipping. So if you’re thinking about buying one of these, get cracking. I hope to be able to shoot it this afternoon.

I am drawn to long guns. I love, of course, big doubles; I like hard thumping bolties. I like a few specific kinds of military rifles. Light and elegant side by sides. Slender rimfires, especially those Browning designs. Crowbar thick target rifles by the old makers. Engraved and elegant Schuetzens.

Oh, I have some handguns, and I like them- even a few nice ones, but handguns were never my first love. And so carry guns, for me, have been mostly whatever I pulled out of the gun cabinet. I looked at the little Walther PPK and clones because they fit my hand so nicely, but I think I’d feel heavily undergunned. 1911’s are great, and I have connections to get nice ones, but if I had a gun I spent as much on as my first five cars I’d feel bad about carrying it daily. I shot some glocks and they just don’t seem to fit my hands well. The Beretta 92 is just a monster. The Sigs are thick in the grip and while I can shoot them I find the controls to be in difficult positions for the shape of my hands. And all the guns I have seen and shot that I like a good deal are spendy as shit. So even if I had found something I really liked, I would spend a wad of cash and end up afraid to carry it.

I needed a sort of a volkswagon gun. Something cheap and cheerful, easy to shoot and easy to own, a decent caliber that fit my hand. And then Tam started testing the PPX.

I liked everything I saw about it. The use of some innovating materials and manufacturing to make it. The clever way things were done. I started to like it. I shot a box of ammo through a rental at a gunstore. And by this time tomorrow I will have one in my gunsafe.

It hits all the right spots. Cheap, good manufacturer, fits my hand, comes up nice, shoots well, and based on everything I see and read about it,. is surprisingly well made and well regarded by the majority of the people I know who have shot it. Tam’s reports haven’t hurt either.