What a bureaucratic song and dance I witnessed today. I brought my rifle from Maine to Guam so I could lend it to the War in the Pacific Museum. I innocently packed it up as required by the airlines, checked it as luggage, collected it in Guam, and went through customs with it. At no point did I try to hide what it was nor did I make any false statements.

Customs told me to get it registered at the police station. I innocently took it in today and asked to have it registered. Sigh. First I have to get a firearms permit. That will cost upwards of $80 and take several weeks to process. Then I get to register the rifle and that will cost another $40. Only then can I take it to the museum. And the police are holding the rifle ('confiscated' is the word they used) until this farce is all acted out.

I'd be pissed off except that the guy working in the armory was such a nice fellow.

I learned today what 'Taimanglo' means. It is the name of our street. In Chamorro 'tai-' means 'no' and '-manglo' means 'wind' or 'breeze'. I already knew what 'tai-' meant as it is a popular prefix for quite a few names on the island. There is also 'Taitano' which translates to 'no land'.