Kim du Toit – Page 36 – Splendid Isolation

Hollies

January 27, 2026 Kim du Toit SHTF

No, not the 60s Brit vocal band. I refer here to that ancient bed warmer known as the hot water bottle.

With the advent of electricity, the humble hot water bottle (known to many from childhood as a “holly-bolly” or the derivations thereof) fell from favor, hanging on mostly as a palliative for things like muscle strains and sports injuries (filled either with hot- or icy water, depending on need), and the world switched to electric blankets and so on.

Well, this is all well and good; but when the electricity fails, what then?

One of the SHTF necessities I’ve mentioned often before is a butane-powered camping stove, or its smaller (and cheaper) domestic equivalent like this one:

You can of course go with the two-burner Coleman type (which is better if you’re needing to cater to a family, for instance), but I’ve always found the single to be perfectly adequate, plus it’s safer to use indoors for short periods.

Now what does this have to do with the holly?

Well, coupled with a camp kettle:

…this means that when the power goes and you don’t have access to any other heat source like a fireplace or gas heater, all you need to do is heat up some water on the camp stove, fill the holly and huddle under the blanket / duvet / whatever to keep warm.

I know, this sounds so self-evident that it invites ridicule; but at the same time, back in 2015 when most of Texas was without electricity for nearly three weeks(!), our family was caught short in the personal-heating department because we had no hot water bottles. (Of course, we had lots of electric blankets and foot warmers, a leftover from our sojourn in Chicago; but in Chicago they can handle brutal winters. Texas? Not so much, thanks for nothing ERCOT.)

New Wife and I have one each, and when this cruel winter is over I’m going to get another two. (Why? Because two is one and one is none, that’s why. And hollies wear out, especially when you fill it with very hot water — that rubber perishes, ask me how I know this.)

Yet another example of how sometimes, the old things just work better when modernity comes up short.

Gone Missing

January 26, 2026 Kim du Toit The Gun Thing

Several people have written to me, asking about shooting the lovely Ruger Redhawk .45 Colt I got hold of a while back.

Here’s its story.

One of the things I do whenever I get a new gun is to take the Son&Heir to the range to acquaint him with more guns, because otherwise he’d just shoot his 1911 and Ruger Mk II pistols till the end of time. Occasionally that backfires on me — I’ve lost my treasured Princess Inge (Swedish Mauser) and a Marlin Mod 60* to him this way. And that’s what happened here.

We’d finished shooting about three or four different guns at Mission Ridge (his home range), and when I was packing up I suddenly noticed that the Redhawk had gone missing. When I asked him if he’d seen it, the Son&Heir said casually, “Oh, that’s going home with me.” (Said without a hint of guilt or remorse too, I have to say.)

When I half-remonstrated with him, he simply shrugged and said, “I’m going to shoot it a lot more than you are,” followed by the killer: “…and I’m going to inherit it from you anyway.” And then the final, unanswerable statement: “This way, I’m not going to run the risk of you trading or selling it, either.”

He loves shooting it, and of course he shoots it far better than I can, the little shit.

Oh well. I guess if I do want to shoot it some more, I can always ask him to bring it to the next range session.

What really got up my nose was that just the day before I’d gone to Bass Pro and acquired what we may call a “decent sufficiency” of .45 Colt ammo — so of course that disappeared into his trunk as well.

Kids… [he said proudly]

*For some reason, I cannot seem to hold onto a Marlin 60.

No sooner have I got a new one, when somebody needs one really badly and off it goes. Bought one, lent it to a friend, bought another, lent it to Adopted Daughter, same result: gone forever. In the most recent of these occurrences, the S&H was going off plinking with some of his old shooting club buddies, so he borrowed yet another Model 60 from me because all he had was a bolt-action Marlin 981T (his first-ever rifle).

When I asked how the shooting went, he mumbled something about the joys of shooting a semi-auto .22 rifle and had the decency to ask if he could keep the 60.

Oh well, could have been worse: he could have “borrowed” my brand-new Ruger 10/22…

Oops

January 26, 2026 Kim du Toit Law and Order

Well, he got what he asked for. Sadly, however, I see no floggings in his future.

Well, There Ya Go

January 26, 2026 Kim du Toit Business, Drive Time

That wasn’t so hard now, was it?

General Motors has announced that production of the newly updated 2027 Chevrolet Bolt EV will end after approximately 18 months to make way for a gas-powered Buick crossover at its Kansas manufacturing facility.

Inside EVs reports that General Motors has confirmed plans to discontinue production of the heavily updated 2027 Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle after a limited production run of about one and a half years. The decision will allow the automaker to repurpose its Fairfax, Kansas, factory for manufacturing the Buick Envision, a gas-powered crossover currently built in China that will be reshored to the United States.

Could it be that the Duracell Envision is getting undercut in the CCP market because of the subsidized price of their competitor? I have no idea, although I wouldn’t bet against it. Here’s what I do know:

The decision to move Envision production to Kansas represents a strategic response to trade policy pressures while the company also prepares to relocate gas-powered Equinox production from Mexico to Kansas in 2027.

The automaker faces pressure from the Trump administration to increase domestic manufacturing, particularly affecting vehicles like the China-built Buick Envision, which is exposed to tariff-related concerns. Meanwhile, the Bolt has been impacted by the loss of the $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs, reducing its competitive advantage in the marketplace. With relaxed fuel economy regulations, GM sees less business justification for the electric vehicle compared to a gas-powered crossover that offers higher profit margins.

So for once, GM is doing the Right Thing, albeit only after having a Trump-sized cattle prod rammed up their corporate ass.

And as for that “no gas-powered cars after 2030” or whatever, let that remain in the fevered (and stupid) dreams of the Greenies and Californian state government [some overlap] while we sensible people get on with our lives and drive proper cars.