Black Widow Quest, Part 2

Having acquired the jumpsuit for my Black Widow costume, next came the bullet bracelets. I considered copper piping, doweling, or something along those lines, but in my heart I wanted real bullet casings. A friend suggested I try an Army surplus store. A quick Google search revealed one a few towns over, and I emailed them about it.

They said they had some stuff lying around, and to come by if I were local. I headed over there at lunch today. This is where I remember how life is full of adventures if you are enthusiastic about embracing them. One minute I was at my normal day job, doing normal day job things. Twenty minutes later, I was having an engaging conversation with two war veterans and the store proprietor about tactical evacuation planning. Life kicks ass if given half a chance. :)

But anyway, I walked in there, and said, "Hey, I'm here about the bullet casings!" Not surprising, they knew right away. They were a bit baffled about my purpose, but nonetheless, produced a box of spent casings that were a little shorter than the ones I was copying, but partly because the bullet tips were gone of course. However, they were real brass bullet casings, and I knew right away I had to have them.

"How much for the box?" I asked.

"Oh, say, $5?" the proprietor replied.

Done. We had some fun and lively discussion (where I distinctly wished I had my camcorder), and I was about to leave when another thought occurred to me. I asked them if they might be able to help me find shoulder patches with sort of an eagle on them. And that's when I was able to pull out my phone and show them this:



They had something pretty close right there in the store, but also a catalog of patches. It didn't take me long to find almost exactly what I needed in this catalog. I put in an order, and I'm looking forward to coming back there in a week or so again to pick those up. Two birds with one stone, as it were.