Some interesting observations: I hadn't spoken too much with this fellow before, but immediately felt like I'd been friends with him for years. We got talking Myers-Briggs among myriad other topics-- it's almost unprecedented for me to meet someone whose brain is wired the same way mine is, and it was interesting spending time very nearly talking to a veritable clone of myself.
His wife was also incredibly charming: wearing a dress, child on one hip, second child in tow, cooking food, hanging out and making conversation. She's one of the least pretentious people I've ever met: salt of the Earth, very genuine, brain stacked with all manner of little tricks, home remedies, and the like. It was also fun having two very young kids around: I miss when my children were that age, and I could explain to them shapes, colors, the alphabet, and so on. I even got attached to the hip with their dog, a beautiful Alaskan Malamute-- her sweet temperament took me back to the Samoyeds I had growing up.
But back to the meat of the post: one topic of discussion involved firearms. We did some shooting yesterday: he'd brought his 9mm self-defense pistol and one other gun, which I will discuss momentarily. Meanwhile, I pulled the Ruger New Model Blackhawk .357 magnum plus my never-before-fired Walther PPQ Q5 Match out of the closet. But now, on to the showpiece:
This was his grandfather's standard issue rifle from World War II! It's an "M1 Garand", in wonderful condition. I had a go with it, and it was a real honor to handle such a piece of history. It must be sort of like how pilots feel when they get to fly a re-conditioned WWII fighter.
In fact, the most amazing part was how modern it felt! It was light, had minimal recoil, and was operated in a very similar way as a contemporary, let's say, AR-15. It must have felt somewhat futuristic to American fighters at that time. I can see why US adversaries in that period, with their much older-designed bolt action rifles, struggled in direct combat.
The plan is that as soon as he can prepare and sell his house, they will pack up and move within a five-odd minute drive of my home. It was incredible how quickly our two families integrated, seamlessly. Once he's here permanently, I'd like to get into "Dungeons & Dragons" along with "Warhammer". He's also a huge fan of old games, and I had a lot of fun showing him some of the 3DO's best software.
The plan is to also start a sort of joint-farming operation. I will be publishing a web site for it in the future, and will do frequent blog and possibly vlog commentary therein-- so look forward to that at some point, hopefully in the next year or two if things go according to plan!