Some good reading material on a cold winter night

“Baby, it’s cold outside….”

I was up about 4 a.m. one morning earlier this past week and noted the temperature was minus 36 degrees at my house in Big Lake. I wasn’t home later that day to check, but I doubt it warmed up much above the mid-teens to low 20’s below zero. This is really great weather to find a good book, curl up on the couch in front of the heater, and read.

Most of you long time readers already know that I’m a fan of shooting blackpowder firearms, both muzzleloaders and blackpowder cartridge guns. Needless to say, my reading habits tend to follow along those same lines. I’ve recently been reading books written by a couple of very knowledgeable but not so well known authors, one of whom writes about muzzleloaders and the other who specializes in blackpowder cartridge firearms and shooting.

The first author is Wm. Hovey Smith, who lives in Georgia. Smith has a series of e-books out and using my Kindle reader, I have downloaded all of the available to date books in his Muzzleloading Short Shots series. I’m currently reading the book titled:”Hunting with Muzzleloading Shotguns and Smoothbore Muskets.”

Smith has over 50 years of shooting and hunting experience with muzzleloading firearms and draws on that background in writing these short books. There are currently five books in this series with more expected to be published. Smith also writes the blackpowder section on new muzzleloading firearms and accessories for “Gun Digest,” one of the longest running firearms annuals in the gun industry. The 2017 edition marks the 71st edition of this book.

Smith has written other, full-length books on topic like bowfishing, published by Stoeger, and crossbow hunting published by Stackpole Books. I have both books downloaded on my Kindle as well since I enjoy shooting both bow and arrow and crossbow equipment while pursuing fish and game here in Alaska.

The second author I’m currently reading is Paul A. Matthews, another long time practitioner in his chosen field of writing. Matthews has a series of 11 titles, all published by and available through Wolfe Publishing Company in Prescott, Arizona, which deal with selecting the best cast or paper patched bullet for your blackpowder cartridge rifle, proper loading techniques, and bullet lubricants. He also spends a fair amount of time discussing matching bullet length and weight with rifling twist rates and velocities, and the topics list goes on.

I’ve read all these books at least once but I usually pick up something new I missed the first time through on my second or third time reviewing the respective book.

These are all “special interest” books which probably won’t appeal to the average reader, but since they all address aspects of interest to me, I enjoy the read.

Surgery is not normally a humorous topic but my recent experiences fall exactly into that category. I had a total right shoulder replacement earlier this month. The surgery went well although the surgeon told me it was a tough operation with my large, muscular arms (I wish he had said that!). Anyway, in the course of getting all the necessary MRI’s, x-rays, blood work, EKG’s and other alphabet-soup mix of tests ordered and completed, I was asked if I held a medical degree, specifically an MD.

I don’t know how but, in all the shuffling through my medical records, somebody recorded my holding this degree. It was news to me. I got my records corrected.

The next item was even more bizarre. My wife was sick the morning of my surgery so I drove myself to the hospital. My pastor met me at the check-in desk prior to the procedure. After arriving in the OR prep area, the OR nurse asked Doug to wait in the patient waiting area and they would call him back after I was prepped and ready to go into surgery. Doug never got the call back.

Doug called me after the surgery to explain why he never got back to see me. It seems the OR staff wouldn’t allow Doug to come back since my wife and daughter were already visiting me. Doug told them that my wife was home sick and we don’t have any children but they refused to listen. My pastor and friend for over 20 years explained to three different OR nurses that it was not possible for my wife and daughter to be visiting me.

They did replace the proper shoulder but I’m not sure on whom!