Today gives us occasion to remember our birthday, which we are led to understand occurred 28 years ago. We were thankful to receive a number of generous gifts from our parents, covering both of the two most important categories, reading and shooting.
Under the former, we received A. W. Pink's commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is a mighty tome, and we are eager to avail ourselves of its contents. It was out of print for a good while, expensive and hard to find used, and, incidentally, was previously published in two volumes. Some years ago, during a burst of activity surrounding this book of the Bible, our father and we had gone to some lengths to get a copy, but to no avail. It is a delight and a satisfaction to now own a personal copy. We also received Philip Schaff's "The Creeds of Christendom", which seems to be a standard and well respected reference work, and it arrived in three attractive volumes. This will undoubtedly be of extensive value in our studies in the history of theology. Additionally, all four of these volumes lend dignity to the bookshelf.
Under the latter category we received the Forster priming tool, which appears to be a virtuous instrument, and if it proves to be of comparable quality to their venerable single stage press, ought to be difficult to improve upon. We also received a set of Lee carbide reloading dies for the .40 S&W. The best part of this set is the factory crimp die, which serves the additional function of a resizing die for the fully loaded case. We used to have frequent trouble with loads not fitting in the chambers of our .357 Ruger revolver, and the same die in that caliber eliminates the problem altogether. We have had feeding problems with all reloaded ammo in the Robarized Glock, with its tightly toleranced Bar-Sto barrel, and we are eager to see if this new die can solve that problem as effectively. We are now fully set up to reload all the centerfire cartridges for which we are chambered. Joy!
For the Tucson celebration, we are holding off until Saturday, when we intend to make a pilgrimmage to Phoenix with friends from church to see the Red Sox play the Diamondbacks. We are confident that a good time will be had by all.
