Meanwhile back in Finland...

[KK20]

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/2020...tell-the-truth

[AK-Gunner]

There are lots of proverbs on life and I came up with one more:

Life is a series of near death experiences and shifting priorities



More about this and other things later tonight. If I survive this day, that is...

[AK-Gunner]

But first a geopolitical recap: I probably did mention unrest at our borders, mainly in the land border to the east and to the south on the Baltic ocean. During the last month or so, there was some preventive actions and heightened threat level in effect before Emperor Putin had his wish granted again and the Russian constitution was changed the way that uncle Kolya can keep his throne for the rest of his working life.

Every time there's internal turmoil of any kind in that caricature for a democracy, their propaganda machine begins anti-neighbouring country psy-ops and the armed forces, mainly the navy and the air force forget how to navigate and they "accidentally" pop in for an impromptu illegal visit to Finland and other neighbours.

It should've been stopped already, but just today Russian fighters flew in the Finnish airspace... twice.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/two_russian_planes_suspected_of_breaching_finnish_ airspace/9216256



I have my orders and am standing by waiting for a GO/NO-GO status confirmation: you never know what tomorrow brings on your plate.



About near death experiences and shifting priorities.

My number one tinkering project for this summer was my AMC Hornet and the goal was to make it run before the winter. I had the flow going on strong and the project was coming along nicely.




Was.



Then this happened on Friday the third this month...



Before you judge: the rhythm of the traffic differs from country to country, as do the laws (it is illegal to change a lane to give room to the car trying to exit the slip road or cause an accident by slowing down promptly), my bakkie was running full speed (105 km/h), other cars advancing from my seven o'clock were driving at 130-140 km/h as were cars advancing me from the behind, so changing a lane on slowing down were a big no-go, AND the car on the slip road had all the time in the world to accelerate to the speed limit of 120 km/h. But instead, the young Fast And Furious-dude didn't look over his shoulder and turned his steering wheel to the left with no logical reason.

After my impromptu flight turned into an ear deafening silence, I turned off the ignition, let me loose from the seat belt (not an easy task hanging from it your head down), pushed the door open (up, the door is pretty heavy to open that way), climbed out of the wreck, chatted with the pretty amazed people who stopped to help me and when the ambulance arrived, walked to the ambulance. Everybody on the scene, the paramedics included, were treating me like I was dead but stupid enough not to realize this grim fact.

Serenity the Bakkie is to be written off, still waiting for a word from the guilty party insurance company. The culprit ran to the wreck to check my well being, took the blame as he should and was fined by the police.



And then they took me to the hospital for a full trauma check, blood samples, full body 3D X-ray: the works. Sent a picture to some of you guys, thought it might stir the pot a little, but better to let the guys know I'm OK and in good hands. Didn't realize that my appearance might not be all that positive trying to take a picture with that neck brace on...




After a couple of hours in the hospital they kicked me out since they found nothing alarming. My wife picked me up and that's when we drove to the towing company depot they had taken the bakkie to: had to remove the radio transceiver, aerials, additional beams, relays, wiring, jerrycan and it's bracket etc. Some was left behind, but couldn't dismantle the whole wreck.

Move fast and keep busy to keep up the energy level, no time to stop and think too much. I've seen people collapse psychologically with stress syndromes and I know that excess idle time is an enemy to the mind at this point.

Hence my actions back at home: first, edit that video above from the dash-cam footage. I had to blur the license plate for liability reasons and I wanted to add something interesting to my "want to buy a bakkie, NOW" messages in the Internets. Busybusybusy... Dead tired I slept like a baby and the next morning, Saturday the fourth, I had some messages from people willing to sell and made the deal with a private seller before breakfast and told I'll pick up the pickup the very same day.

The only caveat was, the bakkie is over four hour drive away. My lovely wife did agree to take a road trip me and lucky for us, the place was just an hour drive from her childhood home, so we had a place to stay for the next night.

The trip was quite pleasant, after four hours drive it took 10 minutes to complete the deal and an hour of drinking coffee and chatting about cars, hunting, farm animals, dogs and guns before we could depart for the next leg to Laukaa and enjoyed from sauna and good night's rest. On Sunday morning we left for home, tinkered that day with the bakkie, since now I had to start the whole upgrading thing from the square one again, plus it did come with things needed to repair. Like the parking brake I broke with my first manly pull from the lever...oops...



About PTSD. It did hit. After all, I was pretty lucky to not to get a scratch on me, usually people end up being a bloody mess internally after a deceleration from 10 to 0 that violently. Nightmares, shifting moods, irrational feelings of fear, cold sweat etc.

But it wasn't me, it was my wife who suddenly realized she almost lost me. PTSD by proxy is a thing, so remember to take care of your loved ones even if you are like me, just extremely happy for the positive outcome unable to drown myself in the dark and bottomless abyss of "what ifs". Better just soldier on and be happy with what you've got and keep busy, like tinkering your new to you bakkie among all the other things...


And after quite a lot of tinkering during these three plus weeks, let me present: Nostromo the Bakkie



Nostromo is a 1998 Nissan D22 King Cab, TD25Ti turbo intercooler 4x4, a bit under 467k in the meter when I bought it, now already over 470k. The engine is good for the next 300-500 clicks if I just remember to change the oil and filter every now and then. And maybe more, who knows. Usually these Nissans rust away before the engine gives up the fight.


Because of the previously mentioned shifted priorities, there might be a couple of bakkie-posts in the very near future, so bear with me please

...like the radio transceiver and aerial installations and and and...




See you soon...

[StanCT]

Hectic, AK-G! Glad you're still in one piece...

[Kaptein L]

Glad you are ok enjoy your new vehical

[StanCT]

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/two_russian_planes_suspected_of_breaching_finnish_ airspace/9216256

Just a question: the above linked news article appears to be dated 2016 - is that correct?

[AK-Gunner]

Just a question: the above linked news article appears to be dated 2016 - is that correct?

Yes, my bad! I re-shared the article without reading it first... Here's the correct one:

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/russian_fighter_jets_suspected_of_violating_finnis h_airspace/11469409


Btw, even with my choice of Goodyear tires I'm a proud supporter of the economy of South Africa...

[StanCT]

Yes, my bad! I re-shared the article without reading it first... Here's the correct one:

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/russian_fighter_jets_suspected_of_violating_finnis h_airspace/11469409


Btw, even with my choice of Goodyear tires I'm a proud supporter of the economy of South Africa...

Great thanks ... didn't know that we exported tyres to Finland

[AK-Gunner]

Remember how I replaced my Glock 19 Gen 3 ejector with a Gen 5 one?

About smooth shooting, remember when I told you guys about failures to eject and brass-to-face problems with my Glock 19 and about the solution?

After 623 shots fired

- stovepipes: 0
- brass-to-face: 0
- any other failure: 0

Statistically there would've been 15 to 20 stovepipes, and an annoying amount of brass-to face phenomenon and now the number is zero, nada, no problemo amigos. Dis good!

That was in April, now after three months and 1327 more rounds (Sellier & Bellot and Magtech FMJ) the number of failures and brass-to-face count is still zero.

I must say, the original design was in err, and this is the corrective action the Glock factory should've taken a long ago and not leave it to us, the consumers. To err is human, but responsible manufacturers correct their failures. Regardless how Glock salesmen try to spin it, this is not the behaviour of a manufacturer with a slogan containing the word "perfection". I'm not bashing Glock as a weapon system, but as a company their lack of corporate spine and willingness to correct their failures is not acceptable. Why am I so furious about this? Because these weapons are designed to save your day by giving you a chance to eliminate a lethal threat: brass hitting your face is just a distraction, but a stovepipe may get you killed.




My back yard right now. Still building the trust to my Glock 19, already happy to be able to rely on the functioning of this little technical marvel. A bit wet couple of days ahead according to the forecast, but still every day is a training day...

[nkosi]

Glad that you are ok.

Sorry about the old bakkie.