Greetings and Salutations!
I for once was up early and actually got a LOT of ‘stuff’ done today! Go me! One of the missions was to remember to pull out a bag of the deep-freezed Red Snapper filets, which I did and was perfectly defrosted for a glaze and bake for dinner…
And the day’s activity was one that’s necessary and not too much fun… that’s water refills. We have a water filter/cooler/heater that we use as the town water is just soooo bad… like “kidney stone” levels of minerals… hard water indeed.
Since I never went in for one of the water softening machines, for whatever reason it just seemed like too much work, I went with buying some jugs of water initially and then ‘reloading them via a ROWPU machine which are located on almost every corner down here.
ROWPU meaning Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit.
The one I use is a “Penguin Brand” aka Water dot Com and costs (now) $2.50 for 5 gallons of purified and filtered Agua:
This one is located outside of a CVS and gets serviced pretty regularly. In this case it was last done on October 2nd, which is fine.
What kills me is it used to be a quarter for a gallon, and $1.00 for 5 gallons… then is started creeping up… until it’s now at $2.50. Mind you I’m not bitching… to buy a 5 Gallon Jug at Publix, including the bottle deposit is like $12-$13 a bottle!
Now, for us, well…. waaaay back in the day I did a spell working for Nestle Waters doing customer service support… let me tell y’all:
Worst.
Job.
Ever.
No joke… I’ve done phone support off and on my entire life… it’s easy, relatively mindless, and the pay is aight… one is NOT going to strike it rich by a long shot, but for a “filler” gig? It’s not bad. You can make a living…barely but like I said, it’s a good simple job that doesn’t require much other than just showing up. However… Nestle? Holy Hells that was the worst job I’ve ever had.
Period fucking dot.
In my case, I used it both as a filler gig AND to take advantage of that sweet, sweet, employee Discount. In my case I used it to acquire quite a number of 5 gallon jugs:
13 all told… 65 gallons of potable.
And the day before I got fired?
I went into MY account and cleared any of the jugs that I was supposed to return I had listed under my account, so I didn’t owe anything… Mind you it wasn’t my account but a bogus shadow account I had made specifically to utilize for things of this nature… Long term I knew this gig was bullshit, so I set things up for me to profit as I could, when I could. I mean FFS the deposit for a Nestle 5-gallon water bottle is typically around $7.00 to $8.00… add on the $8-10 they charge for the water itself?
SHEESH!
So the next day I got fired and my access got closed out.
It was a mutual thing
I sort of quit/fired.
Essentially I made them fire me so I could get unemployment… That was over 7 years ago…
And yep. The jugs?
Still operational.
Every few fill ups we sterilize them with a light bleach solution and run the rubber caps thru the dishwasher… we don’t want to get any creeping water based crud right?
We also do a scrub on the water dispenser every 3 months.
Just Regular maintenance yannow?
The water as you see, we keep racked in sets of 6-5 gallon jugs. It keeps them out of the way, but readily available to load into the cooler as needed. Plus the racks have wheels so we can easily move them around if necessary as well.
And yeah, the paint job on and around there purely sucks.
That was back when I -tried- to have DC and her ‘meat of the week’ paint the family room for some much needed cash… and as you can see, they did a fucking suck-job of it… eventually I’ll go behind and fix it, but right now?
Meh.
I got a LOT more important things to unfuck around here.
Then dinner tonight?
The Red Snapper again… Courtesy of J3’s generosity on taking me out on that trip… and MY luck in landing that big 17 pound sumbitch that we et on tonight:
That’s one big honkingly HUGE filet ain’t it tho?
Marinated in a wee bit of pure lemon juice for 10 minutes:
Then I dredged it in the seasoning… which consisted of
Salt
Black Pepper
Paprika
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Aleppo Pepper
Cayenne Pepper (just a wee dash)
Italian Seasoning (slightly more than a dash, but more than a spot)
The other bowl is plain Panko mixed with 1/2 a cup of grated Parmesan cheese.
I prepped two pans. One for the sear, and the other to bake/broil the fish in:
The baking pan I melted a full stick of salted butter.
Then I melted 1/2 a stick in my LeCrueset cast iron.
I pan seared the fisjh in that 1/2 a stick of melted butter, and flipped it once. Each side I seared on HIGH heat for about 45-60 seconds:
THEN I layered a thin coating of the cheese and panko IN the butter, and laid the pieces of seared fish on top of the panko and cheese mix. Then I covered everything with the remaining panko/parm blend, and baked it for 12-14 minutes at 375.
It came out looking like this:
And served up like this:
OMFG good.
Very rarely do I miss on a meal.
Even better knowing -I- had caught the damned thing too.
Made it that much tastier IMO.
J3 will probably comment and agree w/me.
Man am I full…
This diet has been going well… the problem is my stomach has shrunk, so that meal? I’m as full as if I had ate a full grown moose… TOTALLY stuffed.
Thankfully NOT uncomfortable so however.
So tomorrow I’m hoping for better weather. It’s actually VERY cool here right now (73 degrees) but with 190% humidity… walking around outside feels like you’re almost swimming I swear…
IF the Weather Gods and Kami line up, I’m hoping for either vehicle repair time OR better yet, some trigger time as I have 5 weapons that need testing/firing, one of which is that Beretta and the Glock 21.
Plus ANY trigger time is a good time right?
OH!
And Lord forgive me… I can’t remember if I shared this or not… Back when I went on the fishing trip, there was a minor ‘issue’ that came up…I won’t go into specifics, but yet again the Sheriff’s Office got a call to respond to Mi Casa again.
Now at this point, it’s getting to be like this:
Yep….
To the point that said-officer who showed up AFTER dealing witht he ‘business’ at hand, asked for a tour of the “Museum of Mayhem”…. and NO this was NOT an attempt to ‘gather evidence’… trust me… I know of what I speak… Not that I have anything even remotely illegal in the Casa… I’m clean as the Preacher Sheets and that’s no joke.
Nope…
La Casa del Gran Campesino (House of the Big Country/Peasant… make of it what you will) is known for the “Museum of Mayhem” now. And in a positive way. I’ve had Local, County and in one case Federal officers by to talk/check/inspect and ALL have given me a clean bill of health so to speak… Hell. I’m known as “…that guy who builds flamethrowers!” by the County.
Sometimes a rep can be a good thing.
So, “The Current Unpleasantness” is why they’ve been by oh so many times. In this case however, the Watch Sergeant who showed up for the call wanted to see for himself. It was Sapper’s call, and he tends to be far more suspicious than I am. He told Sapper he’d heard a lot about the “Museum” and wanted to see it for himsself, and this was on a personal level, NOT in an official capacity (not as if that’d matter but anyways)
Since he (Sapper) thought it was cool and the cop was playing it straight so to speak, he gave him the nickel tour. He was pretty impressed from what Sapper told me. So much so, well… he ‘coined’ the house… as in went out to his truck, and came back in with these:
Hillsborough Sheriff Department coins!
One for each of us!
Or, I should say one for the house, and one for Sapper.
I racked mine to the House Collection.
It’s a pretty cool design too IMO. It being in the shape of a weather service emblem for a Hurricane… neat!
For those of you who’re unfamiliar, Challenge Coins are an old military tradition…
Per the Goolag AI:
Military challenge coins are tokens of recognition given for significant achievements, milestones, or service within a unit, symbolizing pride, camaraderie, and affiliation. They are often used in social traditions called “coin checks,” where a member presents their coin and challenges others to show theirs, with the expectation that the person without a coin will buy a round of drinks.
So it’s kind of really cool that the ‘Museum of Mayhem’ has been ‘coined’… I think that’s about as close to “official recognition’ that we’re on the Cool Kid list or something.
I might have to actually start doing a full on website and 503c or something… Yes? No? No Idea. I just love collecting historically significant DotMil artifacts and the stories behind them.
And as far as my coins? I don’t have a lot…
A wide and varied selection…
These are a few of my faves.
To include The III Corps Command Sgt. Major’s coin, circa 1998 (front then back)
And then, the 5th Group Command Sgt. Major’s group coin from 1999, front and back as well:
I used some chalk to get my name to show… it’s otherwise so worn it’s hard to see the engraving. The CSM had that done for me while we were having some drinks in his office after he caught me and a fren doing some unauthorized shit… Maybe I’ll tell the story one day… I was actually a civilian at the time, which makes it that much more interesting and cool….
Anyways… the last coin is one I’m proud of…
My Gray Man coin:
“What a long, strange trip it’s been!”
Indeed!
So that’s about it for tonight.
Not sure if there’s going to be a poast tomorrow or not… I suppose it depends on the day’s events and whatnot.”
So More Later
Big Country
Nice collection!
I’ve got one from the local base – helped them with a few things, bailed out some other stuff. It’s an honor to be thanked that way. It’s pretty cool – looks like a bite was taken out of one edge
Gonna try that fish recipe. Dunno if I can get the Aleppo pepper here though. Do you think it would go well with a dash or two of tajine?
The DIA coin is extremely cool.
Shooter
You willingly let the cops into your home? Dude.
Better to have good community relations w/them now than the time(s) they’ve shown up with a SWAT team in the past.
It beats having to deal with the bullshit…
Nowadays I’d rather have it like that John Wick Clip (which is why I added it)
“Evening Jimmy…”
“Evening Big Country….”
“…..”
“You…. working again BC?”
“Nah Jimmy… just… working on some issues yannow?”
“……….”
“OK BC… Night…”
“Goodnight Jimmy!”
Better that than the alternative right?
BCE,
You, sir, are correct.
It is better…until one cop flaps his gums to an ATFaggot trying to look cool and then you’ve got problems…
There are some cops I am friendly with; however they will never see or know of any of my cool stuff, or what I used to do.
Had a thought, BC. Yeah, I know. I think this might be a good one. Since you have reasonably good relations with a number of departments, have you ever thought about offering your services as a part time armorer? You “do” have the experience. Hell, with a few peace occifer courses you could wind up with a genuwine badge in your pocket. Would probably boost your rep with a lot of LEO’s in the area. Just a thought, bro.
Shooter
yeah…
i am not one to love badges… but. i had some injun problems here as i am surrounded by the losers and i now am on first name basis with the county boys.. i met the first one when he was deputy about 6-7 years ago when he came over to make a report on some vandalism. he is now a captain. i met the sheriff and some other fellas since. they’ve been in my home a few times and even in my operations center in the loft. sucks, but better to be on the good side than the bad side with them. same with the last county i lived in, i joined the sheriffs county watch program because i was the only one in my remote area who lived there full time.. talk about walkng a fine line..
Challenge coins are not an old military tradition, they came about 30 yrs ago or so.
We never had them VN era or in the 1980’s.
Yeah, the coins really seemed to explode starting about 10 years ago or so. Quite a few authors have them. Lots of P.D.s. I’ve got a Dallas Field Office stick pin a friend gave me about 2010, pretty sure if the Service had a coin Marc would have handed me one. Got a lot of minor stuff from him including a nice set of Frog Toggs in a carry bag. Various corporate flashlights and such, he was my contact for some rich folks I was contracted to. They liked to hire ex Service and high up retired DPS types for their security.
And that was a really cool scene where Wick and Jimmy talked. “Noise complaint?” “Noise complaint.” The cleaners were cool too. “Dinner reservations”.
Shooter
In the 80’s, we called them “General’s coins” because they were the only ones giving them out. Funny they always ran out before they got to me in the formation. At NTC, the General pinned an Army Achievement Medal on me because he felt bad for running out of coins. Never got orders for it, though.
LOL go figure….
We got coins from a two-star at the end of our Iraq deployment. Half of us chucked them in the lake before the guy was even done talking lmao.
make him famous. what’s his name?
the shitstains in charge are always the worst smelling turd in the bowl that was left unflushed. i’ve always had problems whenever i come across some asshole “in charge”- and they always ALWAYS pull rank.
they sense an abstract thinker and without fail, take the low road. instead of working with others, they insist on being in control. which usually proves to be a goatfuck.
and that my frens is why we can’t have nice things
t-fat, I don’t remember the guy’s name. I think he was some staff two-star from MNFI.
Our team was in Basrah, so we drove to Kuwait, then got on a C-130 to Baghdad, shaved and put on uniforms, just to go to this ceremony and then fly back to Kuwait, then fly home. I was so absolutely done and wasn’t paying any attention at all.
A REMF? A fucking staff weenie?? I’m surprised everyone didn’t play skip the stone with the coins. They couldn’t even send a real combat general. Because they care.
Shooter
nothing existed in the old military..
air conditioning? kevlar?, digital? drones? trannys?..
Look how little 11B’s carried compared to now. LBE with 1 or 2 canteens, 2 ammo pouches with 3 mags/ea. Maybe a butt pouch with more mags. Flashlight, pressure dressing, compass. Medium or large Alice pack.
The soldiers today? Damn, Skippy!
Where did you get those racks for the bottles? I could use some of those.
https://amzn.to/3VYH33h
They’re really nice to keep them off the floor. The only negative is if you ‘bump’ the rank w/empties on it, the empties fall with a cascade effect that’s pretty loud… but would make a good interior alarm now that I think about it w/a tripwire now that I think about it…
I hope you get a cut from the link.
Mark Jewell…are you from Kansas?
BCE,
I like your idea about a 501C3 Museum. It is the basis for a continuity plan after we all go. We all do, eventually.
This is an example of an on-line digital museum that may comport with your musings: https://www.cryptomuseum.com/
Different, but not really. Good format.
V/r,
Sumdood
Hello Sumdood,
Thanks for that link to the cryptomuseum.
That’s a great website, so much mil stuff to read, what amazed me was how so much crypto stuff had a backdor that was open to the NSA, even back to the 1970’s with this below :
https://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/hagelin/hc520/index.htm
Even the Brit crypto units developed for the PRC 319 radio’s had a NSA backdoor in the 1980’s.
https://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/mel/emu_a/index.htm
Great stuff to read, thanks for the link.
Regards,
Bush in Oz
I’m lucky as there is a natural spring a local church has tapped into close by which they let everyone use for free. You just have to wait your turn in line and its always about a 30 minute wait. The water tastes great and its clean according to someone I know who had it tested.
Big Guy –
Have you considered a Berkey gravity water filtration system ?
Commissioned by the British government, about a 100 years ago,
for military and missionary use world wide…
Alexa-pure also makes a very similar system…
We have the Berkey system… just fill it up daily with tap water and the gravity filter system takes out
99.9% of the impurities… Although your tap water may be heavily mineralized, you’d just need to clean the filters more often than I. As our tap water has gotten slightly harder over the last thirty years.
I only need to clean the filters every 4 months…
Check it out, it will save you a lot of money long term… and no trips to refill at their increasing prices…
The initial investment is not that bad and pays for it’s self soon…
and then the FDA shut down the sale of Berkey filters
will the Alexa filters fit the Big Berkey?
The Berkey filters are off the market?
they were flagged a couple of years ago they may be back on line. i have a stock of them when they were still reasonably priced..
https://uslawyernow.com/berkey-water-filter-lawsuit/
https://support.berkeywater.com/update-nmcl-court-case-vs-epa/
The filters are inter-changeable…
Not to mention there’s a lot of after market filters available too…
(Just be sure to compare materials used to assemble the filter to Berkey’s…)
I purchased authentic Berkey water filters from wal-mart “on-line” just this past spring…
And they were reasonably priced too, to my surprise…
Filters typically last a long time, that is unless your processing a lot of bad water…
If I’m thinking correctly, we figured filters will last us several years… going buy average tap water,
and the estimated gallons processed through the filters, by Berkey…
I just checked Berkey’s web site : https://theberkey.com/
Still up and running…
I think they’re back up and running. Held off on purchasing during the end of Biden days… May stock up if they come back…
Nice collection
Have you ever worked for an employer that you didn’t steal from?
First off, it wasn’t ‘theft’
It was an reallocation and application of supplies due to personal underpayment which was because of extreme managerial incompetence/prejudice.
Didn’t want to give me a $.50 cent raise after 90 days? OK… we’ll take it out in trade fuckers.
And currently? Nope, People’s Glorious Tractor Factory is treating me just fine. Just got a $100 bonus this week for outstanding performance.
BCE, I know that you don’t want to get into details but WHY exactly was the PD sent to your house and WHO called them ?
You said “current troubles” which indicates “soon to be Ex”.
I thought that you guys were being civil to each other and this is AFTER you had met and things were “OK”.
Why would she call the PD on you or was it DC with her usual BS ?
Dude with ALL of the shit my ex wife pulled on me, she knew better than to call the cops on me over BS.
I told her straight, you do that shit just once and the golden goose is flying to another country. I will hide and YOU will never receive another DIME from me via your court ordered alimony and child support.
She knew I was as serious as a heart attack and I was.
That shit was a bridge too far for me. I hope that BS ends ASAP and hopefully the court date is approaching and it will be all over for you.
I got tired of going to the water machine and installed an under sink RO system. I have to change the filters every 6 months, but it gives me good water. System cost under $300, and was well worth it to me. My water company water is way beyond EPA safe maximum levels for suspended solids. I don’t know how they keep from getting shut down.
Re: Nestle Waters being the worst job ever.
I concur. Spent three years of my life at a bottling plant here in Indy moving semi trailers in and out of dock doors…and it was the longest three years of my life. The most toxic environment I had ever experienced. I consistently called them out on their bullshit, and I was written up and “investigated” more times than I could count. The covid nonsense and their reaction to it was the last straw.
I quit before they fired me, and I didn’t give a fuck. I was in control, and I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction.
With my class A CDL, I had a better job the next day!
OMFG, BCE, you missed the part where the Sheriffs Department officially adopted the Casa as their unofficial cool dude HQ with those coins! Talk about getting branded! Now youre officially on their radar as the guy with the rad museum. Might need to start charging admission, or at least a cover charge for the coin check. 😉 Keep up the good work, Big Country! Sounds like youre running a smoother operation than most.
Bunch of Mexicans with a live band playing oompa-loompa music across the countryside.
Some local nearby got sick of it, mag dumped 100 rounds into the berm in his backyard.
Oompa-loompa band stopped. All quiet on the western front now.
Maybe the wetbacks will finally get the hint they’re not welcome here.
There’s a simple way to use the same 100 rounds and ensure those folks will never make noise again…
Hey BCE, read your latest. Man, that fish sounds like it would put even the most jaded LEOs into a food coma! Plus, getting coined by the Sheriffs Dept? Now youre officially in the cool category, right up there with having a working flamethrower collection. Those challenge coins look sweet – better than a dinner reservation, I reckon. And your collection of military relics? Impressive, like having a museum of awesome in your House of the Big Country/Peasant. Keep it up, BC, and maybe next time youll get invited to a round of drinks with those coins.
BC, you sir, are living the dream! Fish cooked like a boss, plus getting official coins for your impressive Museum of Mayhem is peak cool. I love the idea of the 501c3 – gotta plan for the afterlife, right? And your collection of historical artifacts? Top shelf! Maybe next you can start charging a small admission fee… or just keep racking those cool coins. Keep up the good work, Big Country
I installed a large water filter under the house. The installation was a royal pain but it’s done now. My water source is a spring at the base of a 12,000 foot mountain but I’m not taking any chances
BCE, you sir, are living the high life – moose meals, challenge coins, and good ol county boys dropping by for a chat. Impressive! I say start charging tours, maybe monetize that Museum of Mayhem fame. As for the coins, my collection consists of a single, slightly tarnished one from a guy who forgot my name at a party. Guess Im not Cool Kid material. But hey, at least your empties rack has better acoustics than my collection of failed DIY projects. Keep the good times rolling, BC! More later, just keep em guessing! – An Envious Observer
If you read A State of Disobedience or The Last Centurion, you begin to realize what a nuclear warhead we dodged when Shrillary was NOT elected Prez. Even though we got Obummer and Emperor Poopypants two of those times. At least Obummer liked dick (Big Mike) and Biden liked underage girls. Killary was a pure carpet muncher, if you had a dick, you were automatically wrong. She would have totally destroyed this country and tried to become dictadore for life. I know it doesn’t seem that way but we got lucky.
Shooter
501c3 is dirt simple. I’ve set up a couple five of ’em my own self, and IANAL. Vets actually get special consideration! Dooo Eeeeet!