Greetings and Salutations!
So… First off…
No more comments here or anywhere re: the current marital situation. I’m not going to comment anymore, and I’ve removed the majority of ‘stuff’ out there as it’s nothing but ammunition.
She’s gotten the URL and is watching quite closely.
So other than that, if your comments and conversations ‘go away’ in the next few, it’s not you per se, but on advice from counsel and the rest… you get what I’m saying?
Now.. as far as tonight?
Well today after work was a wash on doing -anything- with the Boat. The rain has been pretty much non-stop today, and severe in some instances. I got a nastygram from the HOA threatening ALLLL sorts of $100.00 a day fines for not having cut my grass, based off of the last warning that I had “14 days to remedy the situation”…
Back on May 28th.
OF COURSE I remedied it within a day or two, as well, the nastygram I got dated 15+/- days BEFORE that on May 6th was that my grass had bare patches and that I needed to seed/sod the area… I think I ranted about it, in that I was given 14 days to grow a shit-ton of new grass (sod is worthless IMO and never ‘takes’ on my front yard for some reason) which I managed to get done… On the 28th they bitched at me that the new grass was too long…
FML… make up your fucking minds will you???
So it got cut of course.
NOW? Based off of that May 28th ‘warning’ they’re saying their going to levy $100.00 a day for the yard not being cut even though I got it cut today despite the rain and all that.
Also, if I hadn’t cut the lawn since May 28th, and it’s July 23rd? Fuck Me… the lawn would have pockets of VC and Japs who didn’t get word that the war was over, never mind ticks galore. It’d be realistically almost waist deep… <Le Sigh>
I’m really getting tired of being fucked with to the point that prison is looking pretty fucking comfy right now. They also bitched about the trees not being trimmed, and yeah… it’s hard to do when it rains damned near 5 out of 7 days a week, and I work 50-60 hours a week to keep this show rolling… I’ll have THAT done by Saturday.
Fucking swine… the lot of them…
So anyways… a couple of things or three outside of the Boat-Repair (heh) and the current Poly-Ticks of the day… as far as the Poly-Ticks, it’s a nonstop shitshow of ‘if it leads it bleeds’ reveals that I can’t even keep track of now… I’m sort of over it all… let me know when the world ends mnnn-k? I want to get off…
Nope.
Tonight?
One major topic: A Practical skill(s) that may or may not be needed in the future… which in my case has been a hobby of mine since I was bored-off-my-ass in Afghanistan. This particular skill started by a gift given to me from a buddy of mine who gave me a neat piece of DotMil issued kit while there.
Namely LOCKPICKING
Now, in my case I was given a small set of picks by a guy I was handling the Property Book for… Namely the 160th SOAR, the SF Aviation guys. One of their supply guys gifted me a set of Sparrows Lockpicks…
They were for some of the SF kids an issue to via the Rapid Fielding Initiative, which was a fielding of new/experimental gear… from what I found out, they gave these out tot he SF kids to assist in going into places they weren’t necessarily welcome… As you can see, mine’s a bit faded and worn…
It comes in that lil handy-dandy tactical style case, with Velcro on the back, to allow it to do a ‘quick detach/affix’ on your gear as needed. Inside in has a basic set of tension wrenches and picks:
3 Tension/Torque Wrenches (used for putting the lock barrel under tension)
3 “Rake” style picks (named for ‘raking’ the pins to get them lined up to open the lock)
and 5 “Regular Pin Picks” of varying sizes, to assist in pushing and setting the pins to unlock the lock.
Once I was given this, I realized I knew nothing about picking locks AT ALL. I mean outside of doing it in Fallout, and seeing it on TV? I had not even Clue #1. My Supply Buddy recommended the following however to learn the ‘basic stuff’ and seeing that I had nothing but time on my hands in Kandahar, I sent for this book:
Link (with my ‘taste’) HERE
Now this’s just advice… I’m not giving any direct instructionals as there’s just too damned much to cover. Nope… I will however offer that this’s a skill you want and need.
I can’t stress it enough… this book as above right here (as far as I have found) is the best introduction to Lockpicking across the board. Once I got it, I spent a LARGE amount of my down time learning the intricacies of doing a successful pick… tensioning the lock, learning the ‘feel’ of various pins and such… setting the pins…
It’s quite a challenge, both physically as well as intellectually.
In fact the feeling you get from successfully picking your first lock is rather cool… like triumphant is how I felt…
And having the proper tools for the job helps quite a bit.
Now, YMMV but ALSO keep in mind that depending on your area, SOME of these tools are illegal as Hell. “Burglary Tools” or whatever bullshit charges that ‘The Leviathan’ wants to pin on someone. I know a kid who got hemmed up for having “Burglary Tools” because he happened to have a Phillips head screwdriver on him when he got caught doing a B&E (I went through Basic and AIT w/him)… he said it wasn’t a tool to assist in the break in, but for his own defense against anyone who might try to jack him… instead of a knife, he had a screwdriver, which is faaar more common than peope realize…
That being said, it added an ‘enhancement’ to the B&E hence why he was in the Army… “Join or Jail” still happened in the late 80’s early 90’s. So be aware of the rules and whatnot.
Personally?
I use Sparrows picks almost exclusively.
Their Website is HERE
I don’t get anything for saying so (I wish I did), but hey… they’re damned good and have some pretty cool innovations. One of which is part of my EDC (every day carry) which is this:
Front and back (with belt clip) and smaller than a pocketknife.
It’s the “Escort” (LINK) which I got some time ago when it first got introduced for a very low price (like 1/3 less that the current price!!!!) It has the following:
3 “Rake” style Picks
3 “Normal” Pin Setting Picks
1 Medium Torque/Tension wrench
VERY portable (belt clip)
VERY concealable (smaller than and looks like a jackknife)
VERY handy (once you know what you’re doing)
Besides boredom, I realized this was a skill-set that may have some real-time use. I mean you don’t always want/need to smash a door open right? Post Collapse, is it not better to slip in quietly, rather than bash in the door and announce to one and all that ‘someone’ has come to visit? Quiet goes a looong way.
Same goes with secured containers/storage units and the like…
Better no one knows you were even there IMO.
So, I highly recommend this as a skill set to add to the need-to-know collection of ‘learn-learn-learn’… It’s for the most part a seriously overlooked one, but can be done, on your own, with a minimum of investment. A case in point, the “Tuxedo” which is what they’re calling that SF Issued kit ran on sale around Sapper’s B-Day for $30. It was of course his B-Day Gift from me, and he’s been learning how to do lockpicking via borrowing my book…
When he gets confident, we’ll start doing lockpicking contests… things like the same model lock, and start at the same time, and see who gets it picked first…. nothing like a challenge to make it fun right?
So, Your thoughts?
More Later
Big Country
Good on you for locking down before the blow. Good luck and keep up your morale.
I saw on of the power vibrating lockpicks and it looked a LOT like the carbide scratch tool that Dad used to carve his driver’s license everything. Buzzed like the devil and a rheostat control for vibration speed. Just the top looked different. Do you think it would be possible to graft a pick tool to the powered scratch awl?
In the old days, battery powered toothbrushes were considered good for making auto tools.
Lockpicking Lawyer is great stuff on youboob. In one of my old DOD contractor gigs, we did lockpicking for fun in the office. If you have a B-Sides conference in your area, they often have a lockpicking “village” where you can stop and try your luck with various pick sets and locks of all kinds. The hacker crowd is great for this stuff and you can have a lot of fun watching Deviant Ollam (from the book above) discussing this stuff. One of my favorite videos of his is his elevator hacking one from DefCon 22. Years ago, I would find picks at gunshows and places like SouthOrd.com.
BTW- I wanna wish Rest In Peace to Hulk Hogan. All my heroes from my youth are passing away.
Contests are awesome. that’s how I learned to weld, working at a shop and the other tech and I would have welding contests to see whose weld was nicer looking, which would hold up to abuse, etc etc.
Check out the lockpick lawyer vids if you haven’t. He gets some pretty out there locks to play with.
Yeah,,, Silent running right now is your best defense. That goes for text messages as well, but I’m sure your legal beagels already stated that.
Stay cool headed bro,,, you’ve been here before, the Femmes just made sure you forgot,,,,,
Heh.
There was a guy on our oil search ship who was known as
“PGS’s only quick-release welder”.
Just a thought regarding the missing badge on the new front grill.
They sell nightrider front scanner light sets so it waves back and forth like C.H.I.P.’s did.
Around 20 bucks. Had one on one of my Harleys back when I was still riding.
There is cool and then there is David Hasselhoff cool.
I guess the car was called KITT. Where did I get CHIPs from? Getting old is a bitch.
Well, if you want to get -technical- K.I.T.T. WAS full of ‘chips’ so to speak… computer chips but whadda I know?
The voice of KITT was done by William Daniels, who played Dr. Mark Craig in St. Elsewhere and was superb as John Adams in 1776.
i played John Adams in a skrewl play version of 1776 back then.. still have the tricorn hat..
HOA’s always have more bullshit than a cattle ranch. Another good reason for you to un-ass from the present AO and find more tolerable environs to setup shop. In addition other [obvious] reasons.
K.I.T.T. operated primarily in California, so maybe had some interesting interactions with CHiPs. I think I still prefer Baker and Ponch (that was probably my first “favorite” TV show as a little kid, and way cooler than ADAM 12) over Michael Knight, But Knight Rider was pretty bitchin’ too in its day. Seeing clips from these shows now though makes me cringe. About the only 80’s tv that has held up well was Magnum P.I. and Simon & Simon, because they didn’t rely so heavily on corny gimmicks.
Have done a bit of lock picking myself, never got really good at it. Saved my butt a few times getting into a house, or a car with the keys locked inside.
I found the original “Fall Guy” series with Lee Majors on streaming. I think it was on the zone. That was one of my favorites, plus with a catchy theme song. And the women…damn, what we’ve lost.
Today is thursday right? one of those antenna channels has a little mini binge of the Fall Guy on thursdays, H&I iirc. You ain’t kidding about the ladies on there, and the cars and trucks too!
Been interested in lock picking for some time.
Rakes are good. But I have a ways to go before I’m proficient.
Yeah. Ixnay on the talk is good. And as to the HOA, offices little bitches all of them.
Next place no HOA?
Damned skippy
Make Sure of it, because you have a narc feeding that hoa info, thereby giving you special attention.
You’ve bene having a rough time, my dear. Sorry to hear of all of this. I don’t know if you are planning to stay in the HOA – but AVOID at all costs, if you do relocate at some point. I always look at real estate sites, just to get a feel for what’s out there. My dream is to live in a little cottage by the sea, one day. A rocky shore New England type place. I once found the PERFECT place, and then noticed it was a part of an HOA – and that was the end of it
All the best. I’ll send some prayers for your well being. Sliante!
>> A rocky shore New England type place
You could do a lot worse. Population in Maine is 90% white. Winters keep the weak and vibrant away. The sea provides a ready food source and a plot of land on shore for growing potatoes, squash, and corn. Lobstermen living near the water all have vegetable gardens to supplement the fishing. The woods are thick here, with good populations of deer and turkey. In some places the mountains come right down to the edge of the ocean, and the freshwater fishing is good too. There is true wilderness to the northwest, north, and northeast where a woodsman can get lost and stay that way if desired.
While what you say is true Mike unfortunately Maine is full/no housing available.
Hey Denise! Good to see you!
There is a lawyer on YT (IIRC) that does lockpicking – with explanations – for a side hobby. Some fascinating stuff.
He has an entire channel, LockPickingLawyer.
Radio Silence is the best bet until it’s all over.
If you are really into lock picking, look into joining a locksmith association and maybe start a part time locksmith business on the side.
That way as long as you aren’t breaking and entering or anything, your “burglar tools” are instead tools of the trade of a locksmith.
I’ve never seen a Kwikset I couldn’t pick in under two minutes using a bent paper clip, and a Revlon cuticle trimmer as a tensioner. Even picked a Benz once. I have never yet been able to pick a Schlage.
Kwikset is total shit. Lowest common denominator of lock sets, save for hardware store “private label” stuff. Schlage is fairly decent for a mainstream keying system, if you aren’t buying for high security. Weiser used to be ok, but I don’t even know if they are around much anymore.
Saw a Kaba system years ago where the wide edge (face) of the key had small “dimples” of varying depths machined in it to trip side-loaded tumblers. Based on what I learned from talking to a couple of old pro locksmiths, that setup was 1) very expensive to buy, and to have duplicate keys made for, and 2) damn near as pick-proof as one could get without resorting a to custom designed lock.
KESO and i think also KABA now owned by assa abloy, those kind of locks are very common in switzerland for decades now and reasonably common elsewhere in europe, though there are a lot of knock-offs with quality all over the map. The actual keso/kaba/assa abloy ones are quite high quality. Duplicating the keys is a bit more work but nothing extreme- blanks can be found from the same suppliers as other profiles, and at least in europe most key cutting/duplicating machines (and thus most hardware stores which offer key dupes) also have a vertical setup for doing those style of keys. In switzerland the original branded ones, had some kind of arrangement where no professional locksmith would copy such a key without some kind of documentation that you were the legit owner – almost always theyd order dups from the manufacturer and the owners had registered such and such a key number , and they were pretty strict about it. Didnt stop anyone from crossing the border over into FR/DE/AT/IT and going to any run of the mill hardware store to get a key copied there instead. Not even for nefarious purposes but just for the case where you lost a key and your landlord charged you 4 or 5 hundred bucks for a replacement.
Theyre harder to pick for sure, but there are picks and tools specialized for picking them. The basic mechanics are the same, the main difference is that the keyway being perpendicular to the motion of the pins, theres very little room to maneuver.
They also typically have more pins.
The only time ive ever seen them in the US were people who’d spent time in europe and brought cylinders back to swap out, mainly for the cool factor. swiss profile cylinders are round and dont match anything off the shelf in the states but euro profile cylinders are out there too. overall the actual swiss ones are very good locks, but the sideways keyway setup has many cheap imitations of low quality as well.
Good info, thanks for posting that. I’m of the impression that it was a very costly keying system in the US mostly because of it’s rarity, and for the very small number of locksmiths who sold it, and could properly duplicate it’s keys here. I had a customer years ago (I do plumbing repair work) who had all their exterior door locks on this Kaba system. I don’t even know how we got to discussing it now, but they showed me the keys, and I was quite surprised by them.
Had further discussions about this system sometime after that with a couple of locksmiths who worked for the biggest outfit in town, and they related some additional information on it, as they were about the only ones locally to service this system. This was ~3o+ years ago, even before other unusual key types like those with recessed groves having the pattern cut on the inside edges (as seen on some luxury cars) became someone common. The next closest thing to these Kaba keys I’d seen at that time were the old round barrel ACE keys used in vending machines and other high security applications. I’ve always been curious about locks and keying systems, as just one of the many areas of technical specialty that capture my interest.
I do know the typical rotary key cutting machines most often used here in the US couldn’t duplicate these keys, as they cut strictly notches in the edge of a key. Therefore, a specialized key duplicator would’ve been required. Interesting to learn such machines were pretty standard issue in Europe. I guess it’s just a function of how well established the system was over there, versus stateside.
Glad to hear it about new comment policy. Besides, IMNSHO Comments have improved anyway. What have we (y’all) talked about recently? Cars, trucks, dog farts, gun stuff. Not to mention genially insulting each other over choices of same. Exhibit A(+): plastic Hitler gun.
This all is now pretty much the exemplar of a low-drama masculine space. Good on ya.
“Plastic Hitler Gun” is a classic.
Reported for trademark infringement.
Rotsa ruck. By nightfall these hills will be swarming with Chinamen saying “prastic Hitrah gun” as their catchphrase.
Bwahahaha!
Keep you head down
Lock picking lawyer on youtube. It’s a damned deep rabbit hole. His videos are rarely more than 5 minutes long, but I think he has over 1000 of them.
I lost one of my favorite memes, but it was captioned, “worst day ever” and it was a picture of the inside of a Fallout vault door, and the audio was a muffled, “this is the Lockpicking Lawyer, and today we have a Vault-tec VT-1000 door lock. This was made on government contract by Vault-tec…”
I got started picking after a weekend class by Rescue One of the FDNY on forcible entry. The one Lt was a walking hardware store with just what was on his person, plus what was in his bunkers. The other was more technical oriented. How to open combo padlocks of any type, those circular locks including those with the anti cut ring on trucks, different types of dead bolts so as not to damage the door, plus stories putting out small smoldering fires in a locked & gated storefronts, and leaving a “friendly” note regarding discarding of smoking materials before securing and re locking the store. Types of custom keys for the cheaper padlocks and how to make your own picks and tensioners from street sweeper brush bristles (spring steel). Don’t remember much about the circular locks from 50 years ago, but still have my picks and some custom dead bolt tools not that I run calls anymore.
You can make the tensioners from the steel inserts in wiper blades that you find randomly.
Back when I was dating my future ex-wife, I had to hide my motorcycle in her back yard behind the wood fence because of the HOA (pronounced whore-a).This was a stock V-4 Honda, not loud at all at putter through the neighborhood speeds. My hatred for them is bottomless. Never live amongst them.
Glad to see your luck has been turning. Like the Dead sing in U.S. Blues, “Ain’t no luck, learn to duck!”
God bless.
down in N Palm Beach our hi rise condo Old Port Cove didn’t allow PU trucks after 5 pm- NO exceptions.
BCE-that little blonde nurse now lives on Marco Island and is teaching at the Uni there abouts on the mainland- which would that be ya think?
We keep our property pretty well maintained, the wife loves to mow grass and trim trees etc., but I wouldn’t be able to handle some nosy twat telling me my grass was 1/4″ too long. Screw that.
HOA? ha ha ha
up here on the island they’d be knocked over the head and into the drink they go.. my place is like the Ford estate, the not so close and can’t be seen neighbors live like well, indians… a fucking junkyard surrounding every place… actual peasants with chickens, cows, horses, every type of consumable creature that can survive in extreme winter climate.. yeah, i have a LOT of security measures going on… the 160th you say? i was good friends with a crew chief from SOAR “the Night Stalkers”. that group flew us around quite a few times and fuck do they eat good! when in garrison, that’s the chow hall i went to whenever i could.. the Rakkasans mess hall? fuck that. the grunts get grunt food in or out of the field… i have a bit of experience with lock picking myself and when push comes to shove, i have a set of bolt cutters 4ft long and have defeated every lock it ever come across..
oh. on another note, i had an online chat last night with one of my favorite musicians Peter Wolf of the J Geils Band. i was listening to the Sanctuary CD and decided to send him a message. so we went back n forth a few times.. we both know a gorgeous little blonde cardiac nurse(my old squeeze) that when in Detroit, the band would have her backstage just in case… i’m going to try and get some swag from him before he passes..
Damn, that’s pretty cool (shooting the shit online with Peter Wolf). I was always surprised he didn’t get a lot bigger in his solo career. He certainly had that rock and roll front man swagger – much like David Lee Roth – and was a better vocalist than DLR, yet he kind of faded off into obscurity post-J. Geils Band.
I’d seen some slightly more recent (2010’s?) video of him doing a few live shows on YouTube, but really not much out there of him after the late 1980’s. Good to hear he’s still around, given the accelerating rate of “check outs” among the classic rocker crowd these days.
i used to buy drinks for Kid Rock when he was just a dj.. partied with Ted Nugent many times- went to school with his wife, swam in Eminens pool a couple of times, backstage with Aerosmith back in the 80’s, i had dinner with Lee Iaccoca at my parents home in the 70’s.. i know a lot of famous peeps
i have to mention the most infamous person i knew
Harry Bowman aka “Taco”- look it up…
i was his painter for awhile, he ran the strip clubs in Detroit and my X wife was a stripper. i didn’t do drugs, had a clean record, had a close relation who was a member of his federation, and came highly recommended by several Grosse Point Shores famous people….
I was a big Geils fan in the 70’s/early 80’s,many a show at Cape Cod Coliseum(RIP)during the summer and they even did a Dec. 22 Christmas show down there one year!
Growing up then outside of Boston one year Geils would play New Years and the next year Areosmith,was a lot of fun!
My son-in-law’s dad was having trouble with the HOA, so he ran for president and won and his buddies all ran for board positions and won and they took it over. Seems the “HOA Karens” decided to sell out and move on. All it takes is one man, sometimes…
^^^THIS! My last place was in an HOA. Became president and made sure nothing but the necessary was done. Moved years ago…no HOA now.
“This is the Way”… My HOA had a couple of Karens on it and we got together and had a couple of retired neighbors who wanted no BS run and we elected them and ejected the Karens.
As an aside this started because the Karen who was HOA president was furious that a homeowner painted their house WHITE.
It looked nice but technically it wasn’t an approved color. She spent $10,000 of our money suing that homeowner because she didn’t like the color of their house !!
Every election the Karens try to get back on the HOA board and every election we have to fight them off.
The sucky thing is that the retired guys are going to step down next year, so it’s going to be MY turn to be on the HOA board.
It sucks but it is the only way to keep things “cool” with no BS.
My opponent will be a Karen who hates cats and wants any cat outside to be picked up by animal control.
She’s a real busybody bitch so I’ll have to take one for the team.
Indeed. If one finds themselves in the unfortunate scenario of living under the thumb of an HOA, the only solution (other than moving out to a less obstreperous location) is to beat them at their own game and take over the board.
Whether one can be successful in doing so is largely predicated on the number of like minded Karen’s in the neighborhood, as they will vote for their own kind, naturally. That can make it difficult for more reasonable, laissez-faire types to garner enough votes to push out the busybodies.
Not only take it over, but change the bylaws to hamstring any future HOA tyranny.
That sounds great in theory, but can be a high bar to get over, depending on the voting requirements to pass amendments to the bylaws. I’ve served on an HOA board, and was the main obstacle preventing Karens from stirring up bullshit for years.
In Charleston, SC, the ladies of the Charleston Historical Society rule the historic parts of the city with an iron fist. At that time, early 1970s, no exterior house paint other than white was allowed, although they did make exceptions for trim color, which could be white or Charleston Green, which is a dark green.
Well, some lawyer with money to burn decided to paint his house in rainbow colors. I saw the house, and the paint job was extremely well done, with crisp borders between the different colors. I think half of the ladies on the society must have died of anger at having their authority challenged by this impudent man “from away”.
He left it like this for about a year, and then had it repainted white.
This is a viable solution. I ran and won for one term, it was worthwhile experience in the inner workings of an HOA. I 10/10 do recommend.
Good call on the lockpicking skills. I took a bunch of courses at a locksmith school out of boredom, and once they were assured I wasn’t a criminal, they let me take alot of locks apart, re-key them, decode them, all good shit.
Youtube has alot of vids, some good, most are bullshit, but the lockpicking lawyer definitely has some skills, and is worth a look. I got good at decoding combination locks, but picking is a perishable skill, you got to keep at it.
When was your HOA incorporated? Because many of the ones from about the 1970s and earlier weren’t properly incorporated.
My mom’s HOA was pulling the same thing with a lady a few doors down and she had some knowledge of the law.and looked. at the incorporation documents and they were fubar, so the FL SOf State dissolved it, no corporate structure any more.
Also you might want to check the Florida Secretary of State and see if they have properly maintained the HOA corporate status, if they haven’t been properly maintained like maintaining and properly filing annual reports then they would be stripped of their power to enforce CCRs collect assessments and initiate or.defend lawsuits.
For example if someone slips and falls in a common area and sues the HOA if the incorporation is suspended then the directors could be personally liable.
You could look up the corporate structure on the Florida Sec of State web site and check into it.
Also the HOA directors would lose liability protection
All kinds of nasty stuff happens of the HOA fascists screw up their Corporate filings.
Change that meme to Kieth Richards saying to himself “I told Ozzy to go to my dealer, better preservatives…”
Or “Oh shit, an I gonna be next? Damn I feel old.”
With Ozzy gone, I believe Keith Richards and now declared himself to be Iron Man.
Good policy about that thing at the place with the guy!
Hey BC! I am slightly confused by the lock related comments. A) you are a guy B) you presumably had a childhood C) how come you did not learn the skill age 10 to 16?
Every kid in my school was into opening locks, a survival skill really as we all rode bicycles and had old style key locks. Being kids, we also lost the damned key frequently (my story and I am sticking to it) ….. so necessity is the mother of invention and most of us were able to use a small screwdriver and a bent paper clip (who could afford a real kit?).
Move on up to the present (at least 50 years later) and every self respecting home owner has one in their tool kit. Of course, now that you brought this up, I can’t recall where I stored that darned thing, going to search for it (mumble, mumble) . Carry on.
I self taught in the Army while on motor pool guard. Served me well at a huge ammo bunker complex when I picked the doors to several bunkers only to find them all empty. It was a WTF are we doing here moment.
Radio silence about the soon to be ex is wise, as is sanitizing your blog. In Texas when one spouse files, you are presented with a code – a set of rules that apply to both. Such things as can’t apply for credit, can’t run up the cards, and whatnot. I don’t know how it is in Fla, but in Texas everything gets split down the middle. However, you can petition the court to have you work out personal property together, as opposed to having the court do it. Wouldn’t be a bad idea, in your spare time (heh) to get a spreadsheet going and do an inventory. Saved some pain in my case (I want one of the guns [no], I want one of your guitars [no]). Depends on the lawyers, I guess. My flat fee deal included arbitration, her’s did not. So I could’ve been a dick and ran up her tab.
I got lockpicks for me and the son. When the women went on their dance contest trips, we sat there watching Clint Eastwood or some other great flick, and picked locks. We looked like two old women with knitting needles. It’s a good skill. My latest was picking lockboxes. Like with padlocks, Master Lock is the easiest to spring. It’s stupid easy.
“Household Maintenance Tools”
A friend once worked at a condo hive, people were always getting locked out of or on balconies, standard procedure was to break & replace the lock. Showed him the picky trick.
wat i miss? someone got sick of the white trash loser vet had no other options lifestyle?
BC – Serve your country and make big bucks
https://nypost.com/2025/07/23/us-news/ice-offering-six-figure-salaries-and-50k-bonuses-as-it-ramps-up-hiring-to-fuel-deportations/
Anon
And what you are getting from the HOA Fuckwit Karens are why I would live in the middle of a desert in a tent before ever living in a HOA!
I don’t have ANY tolerance anymore for those Gestapo fucks.
Another fantastic youtoob resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef9pr7whqEg
This guy is “BosnianBill”, he runs LockLab. he has serious creds, where he did this professionally. Foundational information.
Other place to look if security and how to look at it is your thing, google “Deviant Ollam”. His presentation skills are excellent. And no, IDGAF about what his politics may or may not be. His info is spot on. You owe it to yourself to watch him.
Have seen some of his stuff. It confounds me how a guy so heavily into personal security, defense, and guns can be a fucking outnought leftist, as those two baselines seem fundamentally at odds. Haven’t watched him since before the last election, so no idea if he went into a terminal case of TDS or not. Maybe I need to go have a peek.
Hate HOAs too. Current domicile does not have one. The guy across from me is a hermit/hoarder with a broke down car in his driveway (has not run in 20 years). THAT is still preferable to an HOA! I second the comment (above) about Lock Picking Lawyer on YouTube, lots of entertaining, useful info there. Deviant Ollam is also on You Tube a lot, mostly hacker conferences, I don’t like his politics but he always has some interesting tech stuff to talk about. Finally, an SF guy I was associated with became enthralled with lockpicking during the Q course. Turned it into a successful business when he transitioned to the Reserve side. I locked my keys in the car once, he got the door open in 9 seconds (I timed him). You are sounding good these days, purposeful, productive, strategic….keep going in that direction!
Think an Hoa is bad? Try a stuckup town north of nyc rules and regulations backed up by civil servants and cops you get fined and arrested and if you don’t pay they put a lien on your property Don’t ever live in the shadows of the elites. Sell the place before you wind up losing it in the courts and find a nice lonely place to rest and recover. Time will heal if you help it along
Good advice from counsel. So looks like it’s going to be adversarial instead of working out something fair to both parties. That sucks and is so unnecessary.
I have been praying for you, that things would smooth out.
Let this lead you down a rabbit hole or three….
I recommend Bosnian Bill’s page 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-43REd2pATQ
Use to be if there was no kids you could divy stuff up and go your way.
But NOW with Modern Womenz, OMFG
The fight is on Mad Max style for EVERYTHING down to the last fucking Q-tip. And if you the guy have a dog, even thought she hates it. She WILL try and take just to turn it into the pound or drop off somewhere just to fuck you over.
I will take a lot of shit but I draw a line at my DOG. You mess with my dog and shit gets REAL serious real quick. When SHTF its me and the dog, fuck the rest of the world.
There’s a YouTube channel called the lock picking Lawyer.
Check kt.out, he basically can pick any lock made.
For example he opened one of the US GI locks used for weapons lockers in a few minutes at most.
It’s worth a look