{"id":25175,"date":"2020-01-01T11:17:17","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T18:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=25175"},"modified":"2020-01-01T11:17:17","modified_gmt":"2020-01-01T18:17:17","slug":"liberals-with-guns-say-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=25175","title":{"rendered":"Liberals with Guns (Say What?)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"30-30\"<\/a>
fig. 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s a disturbing thought, but 2020 makes me think of guns. Well, duh (see fig. 1). Except I won’t be around in 3030, so 2020 will have to do. I hope the new year won’t be too shooty, but my impression is that every year lately is more full of shootings than the one before.<\/p>\n

Speaking of guns and ammo, I’m letting my Arizona concealed carry permit lapse. The state wants $43\u00a0for a two-year renewal, which seems reasonable until you read the fine print: you can only pay with a certified or cashier’s check. You can’t use your credit or debit card, as you can for auto registration. No. I’m not going to jump through\u00a0a 1950s-style\u00a0payment hoop to please an obscure state agency that refuses to move into the 21st century. Anyway, thanks to the NRA anyone can now carry concealed firearms in Arizona, with or without a permit, so the only reason to renew is to legally carry in states that have reciprocity agreements with Arizona. Since I no longer pack on trips to neighboring states, it’s not an issue with me. And why do I no longer pack? Because, c’mon, the only person likely to get shot\u00a0with my gun is me.<\/p>\n

My Arizona\u00a0driver’s\u00a0license expires on my birthday\u00a0in October. Coincidentally, October 2020 is\u00a0when all Americans will need\u00a0Real ID-compliant licenses to travel by air.\u00a0I expect long lines at the\u00a0MVD as October approaches, so I’ll try to get a new Real ID license sometime within the next couple of months … that is if I’m allowed to renew early. After all, if the Concealed Carry Unit of the Arizona Department of Public Safety can demand I\u00a0wait in line at\u00a0Mister Potter’s bank in Bedford Falls to get a\u00a0cashier’s\u00a0check, the Motor Vehicle Division of the Arizona Department of Transportation\u00a0might very well\u00a0demand I wait until my birthday to renew my driver’s license.<\/p>\n

Bureaucracy. Enough already.<\/p>\n

It seemed like everyone was\u00a0posting collages of their favorite 2019 social media photos yesterday. I thought Instagram\u00a0and Facebook had\u00a0tools\u00a0for making them, but no.\u00a0You need a third party app. I downloaded one that promised to make a nine-photo collage of my most liked Instagram\u00a0photos from 2019. Well, it did, but the\u00a0collage came with the app’s name and link stamped all over\u00a0it, removable only if I forked over $2.95. To boot, the photos my Instagram followers liked most were not my<\/em> most liked. So I made\u00a0a collage with the photo program on my iMac,\u00a0making sure it included the high points of the year I wish my Instagram followers had favorited.<\/p>\n

\"mosaic_2019\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I stay up to observe the new year, if only to comfort the dogs when it gets noisy. Maxie had already gone to bed with Donna last night, but Mister B was by my side. Just before midnight I gently laid my hand on his back, but then the time came and nothing happened. No fireworks, no gunfire. Until about three minutes after midnight, that is. BOOM BOOM BOOM! I don’t know what the neighbors were setting off, but it sounded like the SWAT team was using\u00a0a battering ram\u00a0on our back door. Mister B’s head shot up and he flew off the couch, barking his head off. So much for comforting the dogs! Why the delay? Who knows? Maybe the neighbor’s matches\u00a0were wet.\u00a0Hey, at least they didn’t\u00a0get out their pistols and assault rifles\u00a0and start firing them into the air, a New Year’s Eve tradition\u00a0I didn’t fully appreciate until we moved to Tucson.<\/p>\n

Mister B is avoiding me this morning. Not because of last night, but because he knows it’s cold outside, just a few degrees above freezing. I know it too, so we’ve agreed to\u00a0postpone our walk.<\/p>\n

My Facebook news feed is flooded with ads for doggie ramps, no doubt because of all the dachshund photos I post. Actually, I’m in the market for a ramp. I made a carpet-covered plank ramp years ago for\u00a0our first dachshund, Schatzi, so she could\u00a0get on and off the couch without hurting her back; Maxie and Mister B use it today (Maxie always, Mister B reluctantly but he’s slowly coming around). It would be nice to have a taller ramp\u00a0at the foot of our bed, though. They make them, but we don’t want to spend the money just yet. For now, we lift the pups on and off the bed.<\/p>\n

On-on to 2020, dear friends, and another decade of blogging at Paul’s Thing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On-on to 2020, dear friends, and another decade of blogging at Paul’s Thing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,40,555,2,827,2761],"tags":[2963],"class_list":["post-25175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-brother","category-critters","category-local-color","category-personal","category-social-media","category-yell-clouds","tag-2963"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25175"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25188,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25175\/revisions\/25188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}