A Good Morning to Eat Crow

• I heard from Tequila briefly yesterday afternoon from Flatonia, TX, who reported the situation growing increasingly "chaotic," but not out of control. "This is Texas," he said with some pride. "Well get through this." It looks this morning that the storm's continued eastward hook is taking a little pressure off the more westerly communities.

• My Sweetie and I took the afternoon off to cruise over Peak-to-to Peak Highway to Estes Park, both to have a decent pizza and see the spectacular aspen color in the high country. Normally, we'd take the motorcycle, but she's still a little fragile from some surgery earlier this summer, so we opted to take her Mini, which is about as close as you can get to a motorcycle with four wheels. If you've never seen the aspen in color, it's hard to imagine how beautiful they actually are. The colors range from a pale green through the yellows and golds all the way to a deep red-gold, a pointillist's pallet spread over hundreds of acres. Estes Park is fun this time of year because the elk herds have come down from the high pastures, to camp out on the Estes Park golf course and on people's lawns. The junior bulls face off with the Big Guys, bugling like crazy over who gets the prime cows. I saw one absolutely amazing bull — somewhere Dwight Van Brunt of Kimber, who lives, breathes, eats and sleeps giant elk, must be twitching his trigger finger!

• Crow-wise, at various times I'm been contemputous of the "bug -out gun" school of gunwriting — "What gun would you take with you if you had to 'bug-out' of your home, quick like a bunny?" I thought it was fantasy worry, the next step up from a penetrating discussion on which is better, revolver or auto? Boy, was I ever wrong on that one! I realize that my contempt was based on not fully understanding the situation. From
9-11 to blizzards to hurricanes, I've been forced to yank my head out of my buttocks and face the 72-hour reality. I still would always prefer to go to ground...ie, stay home, hunker down and ride out whatever is going on. But I've also made plans if we have to bail. It's a basic 5-day pack, including food, water, first aid supplies, sanitation gear, tiny backpacking stove and fuel, flashlights, batteries, blah blah, all packed in a Pelican case. It also includes a .22 revolver and a brick of ammo, 100 rounds of 9mm ball and 50 rounds of hot .44 Magnum. I gotta bail, I'll take the SIG 226 on my person and a lever action .44 Magnum rifle. SIG is loaded with JHPs (currently Hornady TAPs); rifle with .240-gr JHPs (Black Hills)

Rationale for both should be fairly obvious — 9mm means lots of bullets; SIGs are largely indestructable; .44 Mag offers a level of versatility over .30-30, my second choice for a rifle caliber; I have a better chance of getting a "cowboy gun" through "the authorities" than something paramilitary, especially here in the Out West. I'd probably stick a J-frame in my pocket, since I do that a lot anyway. Am thinking of rounding up one of those little sub-J-frame Taurus 9mm revolvers I handled at SHOT last year. Sucks having to think about stuff like that! Of course, it sucked for Tequlia, too, but it paid off in spades!