Greetings and Salutations!
OK: Note to everybody (and self).
When handling a can of cop-grade pepper spray that’s faaar beyond the “Date of Use/Expiration”, I highly recommend utilizing gloves and even a a respirator depending on the circumstances.
Yep.
I’m ok, because it seems as it ages, it (the capsicum itself) loses a certain amount of potency. Lets get into the specifics shall we?
The story behind it is that earlier this evening, Gretchen was digging and rooting around the 4th bedroom in the back of the house, this being DumbCunts former dossing space. She (Gretchen) was looking for a shirt or something in the closet.
Now mind you, we’ve cleaned and (for the most part) exorcised and sterilized the room, to the point of even shitcanning the bed/mattress and bedspring that her nasty ass used. Gretchen then reclaimed the majority of the closet for her excess clothing… (God knows that chick has a LOT of clothing LOL) I keep some smol stuff in there myself… anywho
That room is now the ‘guest room’, with a nice queen sized 4 Poster bed that was made by the Bombay Furniture Company. Post Divorce I still had ‘Ye Olde Marital Bed’ which lasted until Gretchen moved in, at which point she made it clear that she did NOT want to keep “…sleeping on another woman’s bed” and found that one on Facebook Marketplace. That was back when I was making pretty good bank so it wasn’t an issue. Even then, the one she found, and the price? $300.00 for a Bombay 4 Poster in awesome condition wasn’t to be sneezed at. (She’s really good about finding deals, and even talking folks down on price… I wish I had her with me in the Souk(s) in the Middle East back in the day… she’s a great bargainer).
So after we got rid of DC, she found ANOTHER 4 Poster bed, except this one was a king size. To be honest, the two of us need a King. I mean my shoulders are 26in across, and my chest is 59.5 (call it 60in) around. Gretchen as you’ve seen from pictures is only a wee bit shorter than I am, but as broad as I am, and her chest?
Don’t get me started.
Even the post-op Boobies are Yuuuuuge.
So yeah, King gives us a lot more room to get comfy. That too was another “OMFG we paid how much for this!?!” I mean I feel like we stole it TBH. We paid less than we did for the Bombay… but there was a catch, we had to take a bunch of ‘other shit’ they wanted gone, which only made it to the nearest dumpster on the way home.
I mean to save $100?
So anyways… after she found the shirt she was looking for, she found something -I’ve- been looking for for a long minute (a file folder of all my FEMA/Disaster Management/Counter-Terror certificates) and brought it out to me. This was a thing of goodness, as I’ve been trying to locate that for a while. I then went back, and put it with ‘other’ important documents that I have in a centralized and locked fireproof filing cabinet.
Just an aside: A very good thing to have IMO
Double locked, fireproof… I got all the critical dot.docs in there in physical form, as well as some thumb drives with scanned copies that are in (theoretically) thermal proof containers inside the supposedly heat-proof/fireproof file cabinet… YMMV, don’t run with scissors as well. I always make sure I have Backups of the Backups of the Originals if you will…
To continue…
The rooting around made me realize I haven’t, outside of transferring a lot of the deep storage food/prepping items, rooted around in some of the boxes like since the separation/divorce. That was allllll the way back in 2016. While looking, I came across an insignificant little square/cubical (8x8x8in maybe?) woven wooden basket… one of those ‘decorative’ ones that has a cloth liner that chicks love to use for various displays and whatnot…
This one however had some of MY ‘stuff’ in it… nothing major, just a couple of tactical pouches and tactical cell phone holders and the like, as well as a pouch holding a can of ‘Fox’ brand pepper spray… It was in its proper pouch, and was pretty much untouched… I think the last time I has that particular item out and in operation was when I was working between contracts as a Counter-Terror Officer for the Tampa Electric Company, TECO as it’s better known as… it was part of our basic pistol belt loadout. That was OMG… Like between Iraq Tour #7 and Pre-Afghanistan… “A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away…”
I did the 10 second “pull it out, examined it, and put it back in the pouch thing” noting only that it seemed extremely light and almost empty? when I shook it? Meh. Either way, back into the holster it went. I didn’t really pay it any mind because in the same basket, I found a bunch sheets of 2in tall black vinyl stickers like we used to use in the Army for bumper numbers in there.
I ALWAYS have a use for such items, so I thought “COOL DEAL!” and put up the basket, as well as all the other crap I had disturbed during my rooting around…
I then came back here to “Chaos Central Command” which is the A.O. that I’m at right now. I started going through the sheets of stickers to determine if they were at ALL salvageable, or if any of them had gotten messed up sitting for what? Almost 14 years +/- of laying around?
As I started pulling the sheets apart, the majority of them were in perfect shape. However, one or two sheet(s) of them was/were stuck to another sheet, and I was having trouble getting a grip on it…
This’s when I had my Oops! moment.
I licked my thumb and index finger to get the recalcitrant pages apart.
It took about 10-15 seconds for it to hit…
My tongue first, followed by the rest of my mouth, then lips.
Dull pain, followed by fire…
I’ve been pepper sprayed before in training, so I knew exactly what happened. First thing I did was go to the sink, set the water to ‘scalding’ and scrubbed my paws. I then immediately walked over to the fridge, and did a full on rinse/gargle/spit/repeat with the milk about 4 times. THEN I went out to the ‘Redneck Freezer’ in the garage and got me one of those awesome Ice Cream Cones I have on hand…
Hey…
They were BOGO at Publix last week…
Even the BCE deserves a treat now and again!
They also are a great solution for instances like this
Jes’ Sayin’
I’ll say this, it worked… between the milk rinse(s) and the Ice Cream Cone, I’m now back to normal.
After that, it was time to figure out just what the fuck happened. I knew I had handled Ye Olde Pepper Spray, but I wanted to know EXACTLY WTF had happened. To be safe, I got me some gloves, and a respirator that is capable of keeping me from breathing that shit in…
I also got my goggles, pretty much the same ones pictured above. These items are ‘leftovers’ from a shit-gig I had with ServPro a waaaays back, doing home disaster/mold remediation. I didn’t want to break into the NBC Gear Storage Boxes, so this was what I had on hand… BTW ServPro? Worst “job” I ever had in the respect that I got utterly fucked as the guy who owned and ran the particular branch never put anyone on the books… EVERYTHING was under the table, but at the time, I didn’t give two shits as being paid cash at the end of the week, ZERO taxes being pulled out? MOAR cash for me, and Yeah, that kept me afloat for a while… but in the end he cheated me of almost $400 and I had no recourse…
So, dealing with shit like this? Not my first rodeo with a potentially toxic/dangerous item like that. My biggest concern was that it was going to really “pop open” and get alllll over the Casa. I went in and checked, and it turned out to be pretty damned easy. From what I can tell, the seal around the edges on the top of the can, where the spray nozzle mates to the can itself just went bad over time. Shit had leaked out ALL over.
The pouch as well as ALL the other gear in there are pretty much soaked/covered/contaminated with this stuff. I can tell it got everywhere as this’s a can of Fox “Mean Green” spray:
It’s got green dye in it to help ID whomever you hose down with it… that same green colored dye was ALLLLLL over the rest of the pouches, the basket and well almost everything else. I might be able to salvage some stuff… but not I’m sure if I want to put in the effort TBH.
Needless to say, a couple of take-a-ways from this:
ONE: I’m thankful as fuck I didn’t go and hit the latrine right after the initial exposure. I saw some guys in Basic who went and touched their pee-pee whilst still covered in powdered CS, and the term “Great Balls of Screaming Agonized Fire” comes leaping to mind.
TWO: I’m also happy I didn’t rub my eyes, nor pretty much touch any ‘sensitive’ body part (aside from my big ole yapper). Thankfully as I stated earlier, the older it got, well… I’ve had hotter ghost peppers than that, so it definitely degraded over time IMO.
THREE: Same goes for Gretchen She’s in a particular happy mood about this… it’s supposed to be cuddle time tonight, and maaaan I’d have been kil’t if I done touched her with ‘pepper paws’ let me tell y’all… on top of that, she’s also laughing her ass off at me for the absurdity factor…
FOUR: Most importantly, it’s become critical (in my eyes) that I (man, lets make that a ‘we’ for all of y’all who come here on the regular) that items we think are immune to degradation ARE (possibly) NOT. Until this happened, I -thought- the expiration date/best used by date(s) on a can of CS/Pepper-spray was just oh so much bullshit or a recommendation to spark return customers… much like “300,000 year old Salt from Nepal, (expires 2028)”
Guess it’s not Aye?
Keep in mind, this can was in a specialized holster, that I bought specifically because it was a perfect fit and designed to carry an item EXACTLY like this. The can itself? It was stored inside for the most part (unless I was on duty and actively carrying it) in a climate controlled area for the majority of it’s lifespan.
If anything, this’s now made me realize I need to triple check some of the items that I had previously figured were safe from “issues” such as this…
“Entropy is a bitch” as one of the characters in the book written by Sci-Fi author Dan Simmons in his epic “Endymion”… I think it was Aenea…
And again, a quick aside: the whole series of 4 books, called “The Hyperion Cantos” from which that quote is from? That’s the third book… ALL are fantastic and I can’t recommend the series enough… dead serious… the name of all 4 are named as follows:
‘Hyperion’
‘The Fall of Hyperion’
‘Endymion’
‘The Rise of Endymion’
I own them in print, as well as digitally, and in print I got both hardcover AND paperback, just in case. As some say, some books are like old friends, and these particular four are very good ones at that.
But as I was saying, best check the ‘stuff’ you think might be or even worse expect to be fine over the long term. We know food (for the most part) has to be ‘rotated’ but I sure as Hell never expected that something as simple (and potentially critical) as a can of Pepperspray would ‘go bad’ and become worthless.
Thank God I found out this way as opposed to an instance when I wanted/needed a non-lethal alternative, grabbed that particular item and had it spectacularly fail on me.
So YYMV as I said.
Take and Make of It What You Will
More Later
Big Country
I especially liked the first book Hyperion. It was the Canterbury Tales in Space. Really rich characters with rich back stories. Really like the thought of the scientist who was aging backwards.
Im typing this one eyed as I was handling bird peppers earlier and my left eye started itching. Youch!
Ahhh good ol’ OC, AKA ‘Satan’s Money Shot’.
The shit ain’t ‘kung fu in a can’, but I’ve used it a few times to surprisingly great effect.
I’m told it is possible to ‘innoculate’ one’s self to it by way of repeated exposure and that about 4% of the population is totally immune to its effects.
Military grade CS gas? Shit, like walking in a spring shower. As an MP, I got to be dosed every 6 weeks on some posts and would sniffle a few times and go on about my business. You do build up a resistance to CS gas or pepper spray. JL is correct about the 4% immune to the effect. I unloaded a full can of military pepper spray into the face of a 200 pound E-6 she-boon in a chimp out and it didn’t phase her on base because she said the PX shorted her money and they wouldn’t return the change, so she chimped out. She spent time in the brig and was DDed.
Good advice. Will check on some of my preps as I have a couple pepper “grenades”. Going to check the smoke and “distraction” devices too.
I assume CS is similar to bear spray. We are very careful about disposing of that when it hits best before. When its good an angry grizzly will run away when hit in the face with it. Expired looses potential fast and the last think you want is an angry grizzly who just got hit with sub par spray, because they will take out the burning pain on you.
Funny timing, yesterday was pull the bear spray from the trucks as nighttime temps are below -5c and thats the temp that breaks down bear spray and dries out the seals on the nozzle. If you leave a can in your tool boxes on the back of the truck over winter bad things happen when spring comes and it defrosts. That sadly is experience talking
No. CS and OC (which is bear spray) are two entirely different substances.
CS is a synthetic chemical compound which is only effective as a gas released into the air.
OC is a natural food grade substance derived from capsaicin from hot peppers. It is usually used in a liquid spray, but it’s also been dried and mixed with talcum powder in what’s called ‘pepper gas’.
The OC used on humans by security/police/military differs from that used on animals in two ways: 1.) the variety used on animals has a higher concentration of capsicum; and 2.) human grade OC is water based, as opposed to bear spray which is oil based.
Basically, because the fur of animals like bears have water resistant properties, the human grade spray would be significantly less effective. Hence, the oil based spray which tends to stick to them.
Actually, I stand corrected. There actually IS a CS spray, similar to OC.
https://tacticalelitecompany.com/products/sabre-1-5-cs-military-tear-gas-spray
I do know the bear spray is OC based, at least up here in Canada. I would be VERY surprised if CS spray was available up here.
But I’m curious…is it an oil based spray? Water/alcohol?
I always thought CS could only be deployed as a gas.
Given what it took to clean out of my truck boxes, it was definitely oil based. A lot of water and a lot of degreaser and a lot of scrubbing.
I’ve read you have to do maintenance on pepper spray. Monthly shake. Quarterly shake and short test spray. Had a couple of Fox sprays just refuse to spray after a couple of years. Same storage as yours (minus the wicker box).
True. It’s because the capsicum grains sometimes dry up and clog the nozzle after use.
You can also clean the nozzle with a Q-tip soaked with rubbing alcohol.
not only check but put on, wear, try out etc… checked a back up box of get-gear the other day, pulled out my spare boots. looked fine, but wife said she remembered those boots from twenty years ago. i say they’re good, i’ll show you. put them on and walked across the floor. left a trail of dry rotted rubber cleats, then the heal fell off. those were not cheapo boots either. and don’t know how but my feet are a size and a half bigger now too. elastic in socks and underwear dry rots too. the waterproofing on ponchos, tarps and rain gear gets sticky and peels off. check your gear, ab-so-f-ing-lutely.
Happy to say I only got gassed once, in NBC for Autistic Retards (Military Sealift Command qualifying classes for mariners, so we can work on MSC ships or ships with MSC contracts) and it was half assed. Getting gassed sucked and they said it was diluted down for us.
I did take a leak after cutting Jalapenos last year, which caused me to revisit my opinions on assisted suicide.
The Hyperion series was amazing. Dan Simmons’ “Olympos” (Aliens aping the Greek gods on mars) is even better, IMO
Off-Topic, yet over in your area:
.
https://nypost.com/2024/11/09/us-news/fema-official-who-allegedly-told-workers-to-avoid-florida-homes-with-trump-signs-fired-report/
.
Synopsis:
* A mulatto gal with seventeen earrings was a supervisor with Managers And Administrators of Federal Emergencies (fema).
* According to testimony from other employees and screenshots evidence, this fema supervisor issued verbal and written orders to IGNORE HURRICANE-DAMAGED HOMES IF THE YARD HAS A ‘TRUMP’ SIGN.
* Apparently, according to the press-release, the mulatto is ‘re-assigned’.
* According to her sister, the fema supervisor is fixated on slavery.
.
In the comments, some are suggesting a noose and a drag behind a mule.
That may be excessive…
LargeMarge:
Excessive?
I really don’t think so.
No “Unity” here.
In Hawaii the only good part of being armorer was helping the NBC dood out with the Gas Chamber, only time my sinuses would empty out.
The rest of the time I just stayed drunk because each of the three platoons supported different grunt battalions and each squad was assigned to a grunt company so I was constantly jingling those keys.
They made sure the next armorer was a teetotaller since they had to pull me out of the enlisted club so many times, but I never lost anything or failed an inspection.
I had a pepper spray that went bad. I tried it and it bubbled out in my hand. Burned like a mother. Decided I did not need it. Any thing I would have used it for I no longer have.
Found an unlabelled can on walkabout, all black, had to make sure which end was which.
The Pietro B is best for pest control and make good commie.
Got tased over the summer and it wasn’t bad as I wobbled and went on my way, they were in shock expecting some seizure type reaction.
The popo that some wifey called said it didn’t connect and bad spot, the knee.
Ned Kelly body armor in old XXL sportsball jacket just in case it gets too sporky and that team is hot right now.
Tasers only really work on about 60% of the population. The rest are either naturally hardened or chemically hardened against the results.
Since it affects the nerves, funny thing is people with fucked up nerves are rather immune. Happened at UF, a not-student with major fucked-up nerves whose visa had expired and was a total shit was freaking out. UFPD hit him with a taser and nada. CSed his ass, nada. Hit him with stingballs and beanbags, nada. Finally got him to slow his roll by proper application of 5.56. He survived, sadly, only to continue to cause problems in later times.
And then the leftists went full chimp-out. Of course. UF being in the Berkeley-of-the-South (that would be that one North Central Florida county that voted for Her in 2016 and Her in 2024.
Hi Mark, unfortunately for me I live in the same county as those loonies.
What’s funny is if you look at voting precincts the whole county is solid RED and then downtown Gainesville (with the commie UF people and woke students) is solid BLUE.
What pisses you off is they keep fighting to keep “at large districts” for the county commission seats.
That means the entire county commission are FAR lefties who live in downtown Gainesville and not the districts they supposedly represent. Then each election all of the nuts downtown elect everyone and the rest of the county has to put up with and pay for their left wing BS.
We have some of the highest property taxes in the state and I just paid $5000 in property taxes for the year on my 1750 square foot house (yes, that’s WITH homestead exemption). Oh and they passed MORE mil increases for “the schools” last week, so my taxes are going up more !! Meanwhile while we pay the most in school taxes, we have the WORST rated schools in the state !! I won’t even go into the millions they give to Grace Marketplace for the “homeless” thus attracting bums from all over the Southeast who commit much of the crime.
You want to hate Lefties ?? Live under their rule for awhile.
You have three options, you can keep funding them while they try and genocide you, move to a different area, or redacted them…
So … oil and solvent resistant kitchen gloves, start with those for dexterity.
Use a low-medium viscosity cooking oil to wipe down the green spicy, something you’d actually cook with, so light olive oil would do the trick.
A bag of detailing wipes to be used and thrown away, that’s a given to have, don’t try to use Shop Towels because while they’re OK for auto work, they don’t really pull away the spicy oil gunk as well as cloth.
Once you’re done wiping the green spicy down, you can use ethanol on some more detailing wipes to remove the rest of the mess to where it’s thinned out.
This is where a bottle of neutral grain alcohol would be very helpful, but as you’re in Florida which doesn’t allow anything over 140 proof to be sold, get whatever you can get, even overproof vodka.
Isopropanol might work but it’ll damage some plastics, so stick to the drinkable solvent.
Then leave everything alone in a well-ventilated area for a few months, especially one where it gets a bit warm.
Time, temperature, and natural oxidation will deactivate the rest of the oleoresin capsaicin for you.
No need to throw anything out, just suck it up, buttercup. 🙂
We can get 150 proof in Florida. Good old Everclear. Works pretty well for any surface skin needs like cleaning pores or wounds. Doesn’t have all the stench products and toxic products that are put in rubbing alcohol.
Or you can get 90% rubbing alcohol from Sams.
Have a couple of cans of bear spray we picked up in Montana just prior to an elk hike. They’ve got to be 15 years old at this point – thanks for the heads up. I’ll be checking the expiration dates and arranging disposal
We like to use our expired bear spray for practice. We don’t wait around long after they’ve expired to replace them. There’s usually a good deal on bear spray once or twice a year at Costco (especially in the ID and MT Costcos).
Used to go to church with Mark Matheny in Butte. Good guy.
UDAP is definitely the good stuff. The pasties (rhymes with nasty) are also pretty good in Butte.
Did some FEMA training in Anniston Alabama, got put in the wrong group, and was a firefighter for a week.
They have a good sense of humor though, made it fun.
They’ve got anthrax, and some nerve agents there for training. Trippy.
Then next time went and got put in the hospital training, and that was not so fun. Overall good training though.
I gave an elderly female relative three cans of bear spray, because I’m not sure if she would be good with firearms, but anyways it’s there for her for home defense if needed.
I figure if it can make a grizzly turn away, it should at least stop the advance of a human.
But yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if some humans who eat really spicy food often would be resistant to it. Worked with a girl from northern Thailand. I love spicy food, but she ate stuff wayyyyy hotter than I could handle, and it wouldn’t even affect her.