An Unexpected Blessing from an Elders Quorum Moving Party

Have you ever been called by the EQ president to help someone in the ward move, and then you dutifully show up only to find that its the crazy cat lady and she doesn't have anything packed? That's where I found myself this morning, trying not to breath while hefting weird junk into a U-haul.
Things unexpectedly got much more interesting once we reached a back bedroom and found a couple of rifles in the closet of what was obviously a guys room. She told us that her son had passed away some time ago and she hadn't really done anything with his stuff. We asked her what she would like done with the rifles and she said she really didn't want to think about it, and just intended taking them to the nearest pawn shop.
They were in pretty rough shape from neglect but the elders quorum president and I both had an eye for the situation and promptly made her two offers she couldn't refuse. I came home with a nice little 270 Winchester Model 70, and he bought the other two which were a Sears model 30-06 Springfield, and a little tube-feed .22 that looked more serviceable as a baseball bat than a rifle.
The 270 was very dirty, but after taking it apart and cleaning things out, I don't think her son ever did anything with it. The stock has no signs of wear other than a pinhole size indentation on one side. The checkering is still very sharp with little sign of handling. The bolt is bright, the action smooth (once cleaned and oiled), it has a cheap but functional scope, and a fairly nice leather shoulder strap (although the leather still reaks of cats and smoke, so I'll have to see what a little saddle soap will do for it, or just throw it out). Everything is perfect about the gun except... it looks like he stored it with the end of the barrel in a glass of salt water. The last inch of the barrel and front sight are horribly corroded with rust, to the point that I seriously think the gun would come apart in your hands were you to fire it as it is. Have a look at the pics and you'll see what I mean.
So, now my next decision is do I buy a new barrel, or just shorten and re-condition this one? If I buy a new barrel do I look into smithing it in myself or do I find a reputable gunsmith and pay him to do it (I'm partial to this option)?
The funny part about this story is that once I realized I was getting a gun out of it, I didn't mind so much helping the crazy cat lady move!

Pharmacist 1, bad guy 0

Kudo's to this pharmacist showing his grit in a bad situation.

Saturdays were made for good books

I decided I needed a break from studying this weekend. Pam wanted to try out her new 'sit-n-stand' stroller with the girls, so we took them on a walk to the park for some slide time (the sun was out and it was a balmy 55'ish degrees). On the way out the door I decided on a whim to take a Louis L'Amour book along that had been sitting on my headboard for weeks begging me to read it. The title is "Utah Blaine", which caught my interest for reasons that should be obvious. Utah is a gunfighter who escapes from a Mexican prison and flees north to Arizona territory with nothing but the clothes on his back. On the trail he rescues a wealthy rancher from being hung by his low-down, no-account, two-bit, (you get the idea) varmint of a ranch manager and several other thugs. Utah and this new friend strike a deal to quell the conspiracy of land-hungry neighbors and preserve the ranch. Of course as Utah takes to his new job there are plenty of badguys to fill with lead, but a fiery, attractive, and implausibly available young woman shows up in this Arizona frontier story and you just can't help hoping Utah can get the girl in the end... but those flea-bitten, yellow-bellied, cattle-rustlin' pole-cats just keep turning up and it makes for a great story.

Sterile Compounding Practical Exam

I'm feeling a real sense of relief today. The first major round of exams for this semester is officially wrapped up, having finished the sterile compounding practical exam earlier this afternoon. This was a simulated preparation of a sterile solution for IV injection. We had to scrub and suit up in the anteroom, then enter the simulated ISO-7 cleanroom and prepare a solution of growth medium in an IV bag, making 17 different manipulations, back and forth with the syringe, all in a sterile compounding hood. I feel like it went really well, but the final result will remain to be seen as the bag of growth medium is incubated now for the next two weeks. As long as nothing grows, I'm good.

Mom's and sportsmanship

This is one of those stories that stays with you and tends to generate great movies like Rudy and Hoosiers...

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=914609