Wapsi Square Forum

shows a Bushnell boresighter being used. It's an end-of- barrel design which comes with a bunch of arbors for different barrel diameters.

Yeah, I'm probably gonna go with that, so I can use it with my AR-15 when I'm done with that build, and also if I build more uppers for it in different calibers.

Makes sense to buy good, flexible tools. Over the decades I've found that cheap is often very expensive in the end.

There are a bunch of reviews out there for barrel-end boresights... lots of pros and cons, different prices and approaches. You pay significantly more for a dayliyht-visible green laser.

Over the decades I've found that cheap is often very expensive in the end.

Cheap is good for something sufficiently infrequently used and basically inexpensive that it makes sense to put the thing in your garbage bin for the storage company to haul away, and then when you need it again go down to the hardware store and pay the storage fee. (With this approach the storage fee is NOT tied to how long the thing has been in storage.)

Expensive and infrequently used tools, it may make more sense to rent or to pay a professional to both provide and use.

But the stuff you're going to use frequently, buy quality and take proper care of it.

Well, I've gone and moved... and yet not quite...

U-Haul messed up my reservation: instead of June 16, they booked it for JULY 16! They didn't have any other truck for me. The only one they could get would be at 2PM (it was 8AM, at the time, and I had told my friends to meet me at my place at 8AM... And some of them needed to leave by noon...

So one of my friends who was already waiting for me at my place made another call, and found a truck with Discount, instead. So while the truck he found was smaller, I was also able to rent a trailer from U-Haul, while I was there. So I got back home late, with only a trailer, while also waiting for my friend to come back with the other truck. While we were waiting, we finished boxing up stuff (I had not had time to finish boxing up stuff, having spent the last few weeks either spending much time practicing for a choir event, or working overtime...

Add to this the fact that two people were unable to come after all, and well, we did what we could. One friend did come who had not said they would, so that was nice. We had enough time to load up the truck and trailer, before two of my friends had to go. By the time we finished unloading the truck, the friend who had rented it had to leave, leaving one friend, my sister (who had not been sure she could come, but was able to, after all - NICE!), and myself, to unload the trailer. Once that was done, we had enough time to come back, and load up some stuff into the truck and trailer (though not that much...) before my friend left and, soon after, my sister as well.

I took the trailer home, but didn't unload it until much later the next day.

And now, instead of merely cleaning up my new house and unpacking, I still need to come back and finish taking my stuff back with me.

Still, I am happy with my new house.

I managed to find a "cheap" Simmons bore sight at WalMart for a little over $30, and it goes in the muzzle. It works for .22 caliber up to .50, as well as 20ga to 12ga shotgun bores. This one is a bit larger, and it's gonna be sitting in the cleaning supplies box (which is really just a somewhat small toolbox).

Also, in regards to moving, that sounds like one of the biggest debacles regarding moving I'd heard, as far as I can recall. I just hope I have an easier time of it myself when I move out of my parents' house.

Alkarii wrote:Also, in regards to moving, that sounds like one of the biggest debacles regarding moving I'd heard, as far as I can recall. I just hope I have an easier time of it myself when I move out of my parents' house.

NEVER BUY A HOUSE UNLESS YOU’VE SEEN ALL OF IT.

When my family moved to Tennessee, the people that we bought the house from kept saying they had a couple of sick kids, flu or some such, in a room in the basement.

Well. Dad decided he knew what he was doing and didn’t insist on seeing that room.

When we moved in, it was covered in... various... bodily fluids and excrements... floor to ceiling... and seeped deep into the layers underneath.

Mom found out and said “well, you didn’t insist on looking, so you clean it up. The kids and I are going to a hotel in the meantime.”

So yeah, Dad had to do his own Superfund Bio Hazmat cleanup there. He was grumpy for months.

Alkarii wrote:Also, in regards to moving, that sounds like one of the biggest debacles regarding moving I'd heard, as far as I can recall.

Trust me... as moves go, what lake_wrangler described is somewhere in the "moderate complications and annoyances" region. It doesn't come anywhere near a true debacle.

A true moving debacle generally requires a professional to pull off... a "professional" which is days or weeks late delivering your property, loses or damages or steals a bunch of it, and refuses to deliver and unload unless you pay a bunch of "surcharges" that they've decided to add to your bill without notice or explanation.

Fortunately I've never had one that bad myself, but there are some real horror stories out there, involving some seriously shady fly-by-night movers as well as some big well-known national franchises.

GlytchMeister wrote: NEVER BUY A HOUSE UNLESS YOU’VE SEEN ALL OF IT.

...

So yeah, Dad had to do his own Superfund Bio Hazmat cleanup there. He was grumpy for months.

And don't buy from the winner of the state Prune Stew championship.

Dave wrote:

Alkarii wrote:Also, in regards to moving, that sounds like one of the biggest debacles regarding moving I'd heard, as far as I can recall.

Trust me... as moves go, what lake_wrangler described is somewhere in the "moderate complications and annoyances" region. It doesn't come anywhere near a true debacle.

A true moving debacle generally requires a professional to pull off... a "professional" which is days or weeks late delivering your property, loses or damages or steals a bunch of it, and refuses to deliver and unload unless you pay a bunch of "surcharges" that they've decided to add to your bill without notice or explanation.

Fortunately I've never had one that bad myself, but there are some real horror stories out there, involving some seriously shady fly-by-night movers as well as some big well-known national franchises.

Yup. My family and I were never victims of that level of shenanigans, fortunately. Just dad getting a big head.

Oh, so it's Moving Van Story Time! So here's what happened to my Mom and Dad....

Military move from Plattsburg NY to Waco TX. Military contract movers pack up, load, and leave. Family travel on vacation through the central US enroute to Texas and arrive safely into the Transient Living Quarters. TLQ lasts until they can get caught up with their stuff arriving any day now, eh? Er - any week now? Two months? WTF over?

It seems the Moving Guy driver parks the truck in Indianapolis, checks into the hospital for unspecified whatever, gets out a few days later and quits the moving company. Didn't tell anyone where the truck is.

THREE months later the Indianapolis PD act on an abandoned vehicle (guess which one) and are gutting it to sell at abandoned items auction when somebody finds the military paperwork. Yay!

Much of it finally arrives, more or less intact...

Yikes.

Also, I’ve heard three military moves equals a fire. 0_o

GlytchMeister wrote:Yikes.

Also, I’ve heard three military moves equals a fire. 0_o

Three ANY kind of moves equals one fire.

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote:Yikes.

Also, I’ve heard three military moves equals a fire. 0_o

Three ANY kind of moves equals one fire.

Not if it’s my damn family. We’re experts, thanks to daddy dearest and his salary-chasing at our expense.

Moved from Pekin to Bartonville to Crystal Lake to Knoxville TN back to a different house in Crystal Lake and finally to Germantown Hills before the divorce... then dad moved to Streamwood, then Bartlett, while mom moved to East Peoria. I went with dad first, then back to mom in GHills, then I moved out to Peoria, was homeless for a while because mom was moving and was temporarily housed in Metamora, stopped over briefly at mom’s new house in East Peoria between rentals, and now I’m renting with a few people in East Peoria.

I believe the Bartonville-Crystal Lake-Knoxville-Crystal Lake-GHills stretch, four moves, was done in three years. That fucking sucked.

We really haven’t even lost a whole lot through all that. Everything small is personally wrapped in paper or bubble wrap and packed securely by us, and after one moving company scratched up some walls with a couch, we just did the whole thing ourselves.

I hate moving the damned 700-year-old English china cabinet and the 200-year old English wardrobe.

We actually have a set protocol for moving.

I bet you a million dollars we can move any household better than any moving company.

GlytchMeister wrote: I bet you a million dollars we can move any household better than any moving company.

I smell a business opportunity here...

Just Old Al wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote: I bet you a million dollars we can move any household better than any moving company.

I smell a business opportunity here...

Get me 10 strong, cooperative, responsible, honorable people, six of which have CDLs fit for Semis, and I’ll show you the best goddamn moving crew on the face of the earth.

We could pack a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom house up in two days, load into two semis trucks in one day, drive across the country with drivers rotating in 8-hour shifts (get there 3 times as quick), unload and unpack in another 3 days.

With no damage, guaranteed.

We could probably even do a fair job of post-load cleaning of the old house and pre-un-load cleaning of the new house, too. Add a few hours max to both ends, seeing as it’s ten people.

And the way I pack, the old house would be liveable up to the last 3 hours and the new house would be liveable after 3 hours, because things like toilet paper and toiletries, important papers, non-perishable foods, and cookware are the last to be packed, along with air mattresses and camping chairs.

GlytchMeister wrote:

Just Old Al wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote: I bet you a million dollars we can move any household better than any moving company.

I smell a business opportunity here...

Get me 10 strong, cooperative, responsible, honorable people, six of which have CDLs fit for Semis, and I’ll show you the best goddamn moving crew on the face of the earth.

We could pack a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom house up in two days, load into two semis trucks in one day, drive across the country with drivers rotating in 8-hour shifts (get there 3 times as quick), unload and unpack in another 3 days.

With no damage, guaranteed.

We could probably even do a fair job of post-load cleaning of the old house and pre-un-load cleaning of the new house, too. Add a few hours max to both ends, seeing as it’s ten people.

And the way I pack, the old house would be liveable up to the last 3 hours and the new house would be liveable after 3 hours, because things like toilet paper and toiletries, important papers, non-perishable foods, and cookware are the last to be packed, along with air mattresses and camping chairs.

If it wasn't for the fact that I probably don't count as 'strong' anymore, I'd go in on that business arrangement. I could get a CDL with Semi papers in about six months (there's a semi-school nearby who keeps begging me to go take classes for cheap). But I'm just not up to hefting weight around anymore. Maybe using a dolly, or packing fragiles.

Y'see, I've got about as much moving experience as you do, and my mom was a packrat. My daddy was a preacher, and every six months to a year, they'd assign him a new parish. Then, after my parents split, I ended up bouncing between 'em, and my mom never stopped moving every six months to a year, and even if I wasn't living with her, I was still helping her pack and unpack.

You know those shows where you see the inside of a house and the boxes are literally floor to ceiling, and there's a few navigable paths between 'em, and people who live that way? That's my mom. When she looks at a floor plan of a new place to live, she takes into consideration things like building walls out of boxes to further partition rooms. That's how much crap she has.

...where was this six months ago when I coulda used it?

You’re free to make an investment to start this business, because I gotta find enough people who fit the above description who don’t already have a job, two semis, packing material, and advertise.

Reading your "No Damage Guarantee" reminded me of an old Ernie Kovacs scene -- here he was the mad inventor type, trying to show off his newfangled Truck Unloader. Pulls cord, huge puff of smoke out the back door of the truck, and voila! It's empty!

Unfortunately, it was a farm fresh delivery of eggs and milk, which were now splattered all over the walls of the loading dock....

Something weird happened tonight: I was at the old apartment, to organize things for the rest of the move on Saturday. I had fallen asleep on a chair and had been sleeping for a while, when someone rang the door bell... It was around 11 pm, by then. I got up and went to see who it was. There were these two guys, who were saying that they had "booked" the place for X days (I forget how long they said it was to be for).

They mentioned a name, which was not my old landlord's name. They tried to show me a photo of the apartment (obviously from Google Street View) as proof that they had the right address... They tried calling that person, but could only get his voicemail.

Turns out they had "booked" the apartment through Airbnb. When they heard I had been living there for 14 years and that the place had never been rented through Airbnb, they went away. Their taxi was still waiting in the street, with their family inside.

I feel bad for them, but obviously someone had tried to pull a fast one on them. I hope they had not paid, yet.

I can't help but wonder, whether that was pure coincidence, or if someone picked my address because they had seen me move out last week.

Upon leaving the apartment to go back to my new house, I felt compelled to lock the second lock on the front door for the first time in years...