In the last three months I've fallen five times and been hospitalized twice. I've been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation, some mitral valve weakening, and coronary insufficiency, in addition to my various lung diseases. Seems as if the wheels are trying to fall off and leave me up on blocks in the yard. Wouldn't even pay to part me out.
Hence, some adaptations..
I love and trust my Smith 640 no-dash. I've carried it in my right front pocket every day for somewhere around eighteen years, and never minded the weight. It weighs twenty-one ounces unloaded and without the Pachmayr Compac grips or the DeSantis Nemesis pocket holster. Probably totals at least twenty-eight ounces fully dressed and carrying the FBI load--no weight at all for those of you who CC full-size 1911's or M29's, right?
Suddenly I'm feeling it, and am very physically conscious that I'm just a few weeks away from turning eighty.
So tonight I did something I had thought about in passing, but never very seriously. I ordered a Ruger LCP--the original, internal-hammer version, as I wasn't interested in another striker-fired gun.
The idea of carrying a self-defense handgun that weighs under ten ounces instead of twenty-eight suddenly seemed appealing to a weakened, decrepit octogenarian. I always said I didn't want to go below .38 Special +P, but I'll settle for a .380 with good ammo.
Hell, I even figured if I was going to be drummed out of the S&W regiment for buying an LCP it might as well be one I thought looked cool and wasn't like all the others. Picked one Cerakoted, tan slide and flat dark earth frame.
The fine 640 will be my head-of-the-bed gun, and carried sometimes if I have some needed surgery and regain some strength.
Till then, just call me Benedict Arnold.
I hadn't really planned on this.
Threaded Mode
