Author: BigCountryExpat

Greetings and Salutations!
At least the swelling has gone down significantly:

As gross as it is, ALL the discoloration on the lower part of the leg is due to the knee rebuild surgery and shrapnel damage that fucked up all of my “up and down” veins. The varicose veins started when I was still on active duty, and pretty much end at where the tops of my jungle boots would end.

Believe it or not, it’s not that bad. Bad Lighting doesn’t help. The bruising however? Yep. Almost “All American” in that it’s Red White and Blue as well as Purple and Black in some areas. Also it turns out that lil zit on the leg? That right there was a piece of metal that it would seem got ‘worked loose’ beneath he skin… the reason I know this was I took a big ‘fishing magnet’ I have, and it pulled that sucker right out to the surface. So now it’s all good. These things happen every few years…

So otherwise…
Tonight I have a new recipe for y’all.
Philly Cheesesteak Pasta Bake.

It’s pretty simple. I’ll lay out what I used, and y’all can make it by size, as needed. The ingredients:

Philly Meat and Veggie filling:
24oz (2 packages) Fine Shaved Ribeye. (see below)
1x Large Green Pepper
1x Large Sweet (Vidalia if you can get it) Onion
3oz fresh diced Garlic (call it a full peeled clove)

Cheese Sauce:
2 12oz packages of Cabot Creamery Mac n’ Cheese Blend.
2x slices of Provolone Cheese
1x stick of salted butter
1/2 cuppa milk

Spices:
Salt and Pepper as needed
2x tablespoons Aleppo Pepper or more or cayenne as a substitute. Your choice. I like the mild Aleppo.
Italian Seasoning to finish

Pasta:
1 1/2 Boxes of Pasta as preferred.
I used spirals as it hold the cheese in quite nicely.

Stove Prep: Set it to 375 to bake after the prep is done.

Step One: Start the water boiling, salt as needed.

Step Two: Slice the pepper and onion into decent size slices. I don’t recommend dicing as they’ll cook down to nothing by the time you’re done.

Step Three: Start cooking the meat. Spice it with the garlic, and salt and pepper, and about 1/4 tablespoon of Aleppo pepper. When it’s about half cooked, add the sliced veggies. Cook until the meat is done, and the veggies are softened, but not fully cooked. That will be finished during the bake phase.

Step Four: Somewhere in the middle of cooking the meat, the water should be boiling. Cook the pasta until Al Dente.

Step Five: Once the meat and peppers are done, pull them, and set aside.

As you can see, the veggies are blanched, but not overcooked, and the meat is fully cooked. Mind you if one were so inclined that on it’s own, that dish? stuffed in a bun would be good to go. However, for this exercise? Once the pasta is done, pull it too:

Mind the steam.

Now
Step Six: On a low setting, place one stick of salted butter in a smol pot, and about 1/2 cup of milk on the stove. Set it to a low boil. As soon as it begins to boil, add the cheese (both of them):

As a reminder, use the whole bag of mac n’cheese blend, and 2x slices (if wanted) of the provolone. Stir constantly and evenly

It should only take about 5-6 minutes on low to medium heat to get the cheese, butter and milk to melt and fuse together. Do Not Overcook It. If you overcook it, instead of it gelling, it’ll start to separate, which is a no-no. As stated Stir continually, and keep an eye on it. It should all be smooth, no lumps and blended together. Once it’s done, pull it aside. Do NOT let it get too cool. You need to pour it over the pasta/meat/veg mix to finish it in a few.

Step Seven: Mix the pasta and meat mix, and place in a baking dish. Once you have it in the appropriate dish (or dishes as I did tonight) pour in half of the cheese sauce mix (while still hot and liquid-y, and mix it in thoroughly to insure a maximum blend throughout:

Looks good donnit?

Step Eight: Once you get it there, with everything mixed and smoothed out, the second bag of mac and cheese blend comes into play. Pour THAT evenly over the top of the now-mixed pasta. Make a nice even coating as needed. Dust with the Italian seasoning.

Final Step or as they say Step Nine: Place the baking dish into the stove covered. Set the timer for 15-20 minutes depending on the size. Once that timer is done, uncover the dish and bake for 30 minutes more. Now you can reverse this depending on your likes/dislikes. Sapper and I love the crunchy crust, so we did 15 covered, 30 uncovered, and we got this out of doing so:

Oh yeah baby
A meal fit for the Kitchen King.

Tasted pretty damned good too!

Considering I had only had ONE cuppa yogurt for my brekkie, the evening meal? Yeah I chowed on 2.5 full bowls of that lovely and delicious meal.

My recipe about as you see makes a LOT of the bake. You could cut it in half if you only want one meal for one, with 2-3 days worth of leftovers… either way, the cost of this meal would be about $20 for the shaved ribeye now, and about $5-10 for the rest of the ‘stuff’. However, the meat I bought and pulled from the deep freeze, so it was from September of 2024… and I only paid $7.50 per 12oz. The one I used was from Publix:

No idea the current price, but it can’t be anywhere near what I paid for about almost a year ago… it’s probably double that now… either way, YMMV.

And as far as making a double batch?

The other white baking dish I did NOT bake, but threw into the deep freeze for later use, as I expect some guests here in the future, and the BIG pot will do as a ‘don’t have to expend $$$’ while entertaining relations, as well as being able to impress with my cooking skills.

I mean I made this meal up… there might be something similar out there, as after all… the food on this planet has been pretty much the same for the past 40-6,0000 YEARS so at best, mine is a variation on a theme. Said theme being “Throwing meat, pasta, veggies and cheese into a pot and baking it”

However plebian this may be, I figured some of y’all enjoy my cooking adventures, so there is that right?

So tomorrow?
Molasses cookies again.
I’ve had the fixings laying out forever. I need to get off my duff and just ‘git ‘er done’ like the man used to say.

So More >URP!< Later
(The “I’m FULL now”) Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Damn if that didn’t hurt!
The CAT scan showed a minor tear in the feeder vein which is why is went to ‘grapefruit sized’ within like 5 minutes… that’s the only reason I went to the E.R. because as I said, the previous circulatory issues had me worried… clots and whatnot and blood pooling… no need to stroke out this early… not when things have gotten peaceable around the Casa as of late…

The X-Ray showed a (thankfully) vertical fracture… a ‘greenstick’ fracture when the impact happened… thankfully I’ve had a ton of those over the years so I know how to deal with it. They gave me an inflatable ‘cast’ and some really tight fitting “ace’ style wraps, and as everyone knows the drill, wrap it, ice it, and elevate it.

It’s allllll sorts of Black Blue and Red under there with shades of angry Purple as well. I really hit the sumbitch full one. What’s even worse is I consciously not 60 seconds before warned myself to “mind the hitch!” and subsequently didn’t.

Go figure right?

So otherwise. I’m good, the truck is undamaged, the neighbors fully offended. That being from the full on stream of obscenity and invective that came pouring forth from Ye Olde Sewer-Hole when I hit the damned thing. I let loose with a torrent that even after the fact impressed myself at the creativity and amount that came out… I wish someone had recorded it… it was one for the Ages.

Now, as far as other things
Nothing going on that I can tell, except the World Overall is that much more obviously ‘fake and ghey’… so much as that even the most ‘Normal-Normie NPCs’ are beginning to ‘awaken’ and that scares the shit out of a BUNCH of various tribes, grifters and our so-called self-appointed “betters”

“The Long Big Con Inc.” AKA CorpoGloboHomo is starting to collapse, and it’s got the various factions quite literally shitting in their various headcovers, be it a Fez with the Turks, to a Jewish Kippah. In particular members of (((The Tribe))) are recognizing that killing an entire race of people and using some really thin ‘justifications’ because “October 7th” and “Muh Holocaust” aren’t working anymore.

I mean it should be collapsing.
Their own troops have testified that they were told to stand down and essentially ALLOW Hamas (which TBH has always been under the nominal control of Mossad) to do the performitive strike… and my understanding it was done to keep the criminal corruption investigation of the Head Hebe Nutjobyahoo essentially ‘buried’ due to a “National Emergency”

Much like how Clinton order massive airstrikes and bombings when the news of the Jizz Covered dress ‘came’ out…

I know, I know… Bad joke but it’s true.
“Wag The Dog” wasn’t a movie really

It was a playbook

And allllll of these criminal scumbags have been doing ‘performance art’ to either enrich themselves OR cover up their various misdeeds via mass distraction/destruction, which includes the much over-exaggerated January 6th “Insurrection” and COVID which was used to finish off the “Big Steal” of 2020…

And what’s really sad?

No One Really Cares
Not anymore
It’s become expected of the fucking scum in DC

I mean I personally do care (to a point), but also I don’t.

I’ve come to the sad conclusion that ALL politicians are scum and villains… and that there is NOT bigger inhabited hive of scum and villainy than that of the District of Criminality, Sodom-on-the-Potomac. Not ONE of them is worth a squirt of piss in a forest fire. Not one of them is worthy of a minute of my thought nor care. They could ALL die tomorrow in a Nuclear Fireball courtesy of that Mad Vlad Lad from Russia, and I’d be good with it.

Sure I’d be bummed about the Smithsonian, but in the end?

Life would go on. Probably be a LOT quieter, and Lord Help the next group of fuckwits who try to “take charge” as I don’t think it’ll work out the way they expect it to… I, for one, after a collapse would be just forming up my ‘tribe’, staying out of the way, and the first fuckwit who said the word “Taxes” or “New Government”? I’d shoot that fucker in the face, and mount his head on a post as a warning to others.

I mean just keep it simple right?

That’s all I want.

They do them, we do us, and everyone keeps doing the barest minimum to stay alive, as there is no way under the current system to thrive per se… We’re in a new neo-feudalism… not quite serfs (yet) and no where near ‘minor Lords’ or ‘Freemen’… we’re in that in-between phase right now… and by God the only reason that has happened is were are as a people one of the most heavily armed populations/free-standing Armies in the world.

The Brits?
The Irish?
The Germans?
The Eyeties and all the rest?
They’re rapidly becoming modern techno-serfs.
Slaves by an older ‘politically incorrect’ definition.

They’re all terminally fucked and about to go extinct due to the extreme demographic changes due to their traitorous “Elites” who for some reason foolishly imported a VAST Horde of Muslim INVADERS thinking that they could control them via the usual socialist “games and prizes”…

HA!

Fucking Morons…

They have yet to personally feel that “pain” that’s been inflicted on the “Little People” so far so to speak but I’ll assume that when a high enough ranking Elite finds his daughter or young son a victim of a rabid Goat-Gang-Rapist that the tune will change… That or the overwhelming stench of Jeet-Streetshitters will finally hit home… it’s hard to say…

Normally I’d say it’s time to start running guns to Ireland, but from my own personal understanding, they have enough, but! They haven’t been allowed to dig them out and start the party…

Nope.
And again, for some seriously fucked up reasons

Word I have is that the higher-higher in the various Irish Militant leadershit is that they’ve been bought off. Much like in the Mel Gibson “Braveheart” movie, the majority of Scotsman Clan Leadershit were ‘bought and paid for’ until Robert the Bruce said “Enough is a enough!” and went full house on the Brits… seems history repeats itself in that Sein Finn, the Provos… ALL of them have taken the ‘Danegeld’ if you will, and are actively attempting to prevent their more shall we say motivated? members from going and digging up the Armalites, and beginning a full on ethnic cleansing of the Emerald Ilse…

Unlike the “Troubles”, target ID is easy when your skin is your uniform. The Haj would find themselves in serious trouble very fucking quickly.

“Keep your lads from starting and or popping off, and we’ll make sure you and yours are safe and protected!”

How many times has a fucking Brit said this to the various folks under them over the past 400+ years? It’s never ended well if my memory serves me right…

So those are my somewhat muddled thoughts for tonight. Feeling no pain (comparitively) so let me know your ideas. Personally I think Michael Collins is spinning a whirlygig in his grave right now… and quite righteously so.

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!

banglading shit on my shin while working on the boat on the fucking trailer hitch…. Note to self there is a trailer hitch on the new truck…. Even told myself while working on it but managed to still clown myself…. I blame Glenn filthy as he posted about a maze of trailer hitches earlier this weekend damn it.

you can’t really see it too well but it’s about the size of a grapefruit sticking out of my leg … I need to get it checked just because I have so many circulatory issues from the surgery rebuilding the knee from that VBEID back in the day… They’ll probably drain it so I’ll update as we go

BCE

Greetings and Salutations!
I appreciate EVERYONES contributions and perspectives that they’ve thrown up in the comments. Truly… they’ve helped me a lot with ‘maintaining my perspective’

Now on thing, tfAt, a fellow Rakkasan Brother who’s advised me to dip completely when it comes to the Grans? I can understand the perspective, however, It ain’t happening. -I- was the one who initially engineered Gran #1’s “rescue” if you will WAAAY back when she was only about a year old. Hell… I wasn’t even married to SWMNBN at the time which is exactly why she went to the OtherGrans.

Since we weren’t married, we knew (all of us) that the best bet when the State started examining the families so to speak for stability, that the OtherGrans were the best choice. I however was the one who came up with the scheme of telling DumbCunt that she and the BabyDaddy had “…worked so hard, and deserved a break from the baby…” which is why they left her with us, and gave us the time and ability to set things in motion…

And now?

Gran Number One, the Nukular Powered Never Sleeps Redhead has been formally adopted by the OtherGrans which means she’s safe forever. And for that? Well… maybe that one good deed is something I can be proud of for setting in motion. Maybe that’ll keep me out of Hell when the Reckoning comes right?

See… Family may be blood…
BUT
To me, Family is something/the people you choose.

And despite some bad choices, and shit-decisions I’ve made as well as ‘other’ things in my life, I choose to make sure Red and Addy are going to be in my life no matter fucking what and that they know it.

In fact, one of the things that drives SWMNBN absolutely bugshit insane is that OtherGran? Her X-Hubby? He and I, despite all of her machinations, actually were and now are close and get along thick as thieves. It positively drives her to madness…

I mean sure, he’s got his faults (like being a rabid Bucs fan LOL) but overall, even before the whole shytteshow, he and I actually got along pretty well… and now?

Well… let’s just say I get visitation after Red gets fully settled into school. Right now she needs to focus, but after? Frodrick (which is how I’ll refer to him, as he reminds me of Gene Wilder in “Young Frankenstein”) Frodrick has already said that Red can come for a weekend with Sapper and myself AFTER she gets her ‘school rhythm’ and pattern down.

That’s pretty important as she’s a wee bit ADHD and non-stop as I’ve mentioned… so making sure that getting her ‘patterns’ and regular ‘dynamic’ right is more important right now that a visit with Big Papi, Sapper and the Doggos. Once she’s good, I might spoil her with a trip to Busch Gardens or something… either way…

Family is important

BUT

Not if it hurts or harms you.
Or diminishes or degrades you
ESPECIALLY if the people who are doing this claim that they’re doing it out of ‘love’ or ‘care’ or even worse, the phrase “… for your own good!!!” That bullshit gets immediately classed under gaslighting and fuck everyone who’s ever done it to me in the past… preferably sideways with a jackhammer…

Hence why I have very limited contact with a lot of my ‘blood kin’… Like why should I tolerate disrespect, gaslighting and bullshit ALL because we have some ‘blood related relationship’?

Nope.

Done with that.
My family are who I choose

Like it, lump it, or leave it.
I’m too old to play semantic games.

And Red and Addy?
THOSE are my Grans.
End of Story/Explanation.

So otherwise, a story from WAAAY back in the day…
Since SWMNBN has been telling THE WORLD I’m some sort of abusive prick, making sound like I’m some sort of alcoholic abusive wife-beater, I figure I should clarify things.

1) I am not an alcoholic
They go to meetings.
I’m a fucking drunk goddamit.
Get it right woman!

2) I’m abusive.
Nope.
Never have I ever hit a woman
EXCEPT
(queue story time)

WAAAAAAAAAAAY back in the day as a young party hard E-4 in Nurnberg Germany, there was a rather notorious club called the “Green Goose”:

“The Goose” as we called it was a Heavy Metal Bar. Just Outside/Inside of the “Old Town” side of Nurnberg, with a GREAT Gyro shop next door, it was the go-to place for most of 1-4 Infantry back in the day’. The Goose was originally opened and run by a US Army veteran, it had expanded alllllll over Germany when I was there. Bamberg, Frankfurt… it was Nurnberg ‘branch’ if you will that I practically lived at during my two years there, and had a great time while doing so. I even had the “club card” that let me get in without having to pay a cover:

I’m kind of bummed that I don’t remember what happened to that card… it was like an actual plastic card like a credit card… but anyways…

Since places like this is where “Joe” (i.e. US Army Personnel) congregates, you invariably end up with some fights/brawling or in some instances some “out of Hollywood” full on Bar Brawls like you see in the movies.

One night I ended up involved in one such fight.

The night started off like a normal Friday.
Lots of booze
Great Music
Pantera being a BIG thing on the play list at the time… Glen Danzig and “Mother” being on regular rotation:

I have NO IDEA how the fight started…

I just know it erupted
Sort of like a Volcano…
Shit starts popping off, and it becomes your mission to survive

My best friend Dana and Squad mate went back-to-back literally. We had gone through Basic Training together, went to the Gulf for Gulf War One together, ended up being RIF’d together, lived together, and even rejoined active duty together. I mean this guy and I were family to the point that to this day MomUnit is bummed he and I had a falling out as she considers him her third son…

I won’t get too deeply into it but we were friends up until he met and got with this weird Catholic Fringe group where he met and married chick from it… From what I can tell, it’s a cult IMO… they have Ordained “Catholic Female “Priestesses” and such whatnot… its utterly bizarre and really weird and our last communique after we had met up in Baghdad (me a Contractor, and him leading a platoon of Mech Infantry on Bradleys) was when I send him a post card asking how things were and he pretty much called me a “sinner” and that he needed to cut all ties with my “sin-filled life” and me for it… and that was that… call it 7 years ago…

I’m still besties w/his first ex-wife Sabine who he was with during out time in Germany. I love that girl to death… my lil sis if you will… anyways…

Dana and I went back to back.
Beer mugs, tables, chairs… ALL sorts of shit flying ALL around the room. It was pretty dicey, but we were holding our own.

Well now, in this fight this was the ONLY time I EVER full on hit a whammenz IRL…  As I said, my bro and I were back-to-back throwing down with all comers in a classic bar brawl when I had some (what I thought was a) dude coming at me with one of them 1.5 liter German beer bottles over their head swinging to bring it down on my nugget… pretty much trying to kill me is what my reaction was at the time… 

Thankfully (or not) I caught sight of it out of the corner of my eye, and it was one of the greatest punches I ever threw… I was able to step into the punch.

Like I was able to step forward, and I telegraphed this fucking thing to the MAX with ALL my upper body strength (and as you all know, I’m a fucking beast IRL) so it was a PURE uppercut…

A textbook PERFECT impact…
I hit the (what I thought was a) ‘dude’ so hard, he/she was literally thrown across the bar unconscious…  This punch literally blew her (no shit) out of her sneakers… 

It was when he/she slumped to the floor bleeding all over the place I realized t’weren’t no dude, but a bitch.  Back then, Male Krauts usually had long-ish hippy style hair, so I thought it was a dude…. and she didn’t have any tits that ‘registered’ if’n you know what I mean… My target recognition if you will, in the heat of the moment wasn’t tracking so well…

So, she went down and out for the count…
Needless to say, due to the mayhem and the knowledge that the MPs as well as the local Gestapo would be showing up shortly, Dana and myself, as well as a slew of other combatants and practitioners of hand-to-hand combat made ourselves scarce toute-le-fucking-suite.
Departed with haste
Vamoosed
Bailed
Headed for the woodline
You get the idea…
However…

I found out later that the German Politzei and MPs were looking for me for really real as I had apparently REALLY fucked this broad up. I had (from all reports) fractured her jaw, knocked out like half of her chompers and/or broke the majority of them when her jaw got crushed, and left her half retarded from the concussion. 

THANKFULLY No one “grassed” on me as the Brits would say… with damned near the entire overwhelming attitude of everyone involved was that she got what she deserved trying to stave my squash in w/one of them BIG beer bottles. It seems that they spent a few months ‘looking’ for me, but from my understanding is the MPs didn’t try that hard under the circumstances… Go figure right?

And as a side note? A funny thing is the right hand ring finger knuckle is still flattened from that punch…  Best punch I ever threw TBH.

FAFO indeed amiright?

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
OK
Just a short personal update.
Followed by a bunch of new memes. In this case, we’ve got updates on the Redhead and Addy. The two of them started school this past week. Red started second grade if you can believe it or not!

As you can see, since she lost that ONE toofus, her grill has started to re-align nicely. She might need some braces later, but hey, she’s gorgeous either way. I personally think she needs a couple of cheeseburgers as she’s thin-thin, but hey, she’s comfortable and wonderful, and I still have access to her despite me not being the bio-Gran so to speak.

And the other Gran?
Addy? Well she started Kindergarden:

She’s doing exceptionally well by ALL reports. The BabyDad had a close call recently however… seems he went to go fishing and the car slipped out of park and into neutral. Not sure how that happens per se, but even by his own admission, the car was a third-hand piece of shit. It apparently ran him over when he tried to stop it (dumbass) breaking a few ribs, and then the damned thing ended up in the river. Needless to say the car is a total loss.

Like WOWSERS man!

I’m glad the guy is OK as IF he’d gotten his chips cashed, DumbCunt would have been next in line to get Addy, and she’s been doing just fine where she is… no need to rock the boat if you will…

Le Sigh.

So otherwise, news out of the Kraine is the usual Bullshit… As in “…nothing to see here citizen, Russia is losing, please move along!” When in reality, my own personal estimates are about 1.5 million KIA on the Krainian side, and about 600k on the Russian side, and the shit ain’t over yet.

My analysis being based off on satellite pictures of Ukrainian DotMil Cemeteries which have quadrupled since the intial invasion. Add on the proof-positive (and utterly ignored by the Ministries of Propaganda and Lies here in the West) videos of the Krainians cremating their own fucking troops and just disposing of the cremains in order to avoid paying out the $250000 hryvnia death benefit that each family of a fallen soldier is owed…

Instead said roasted/cremated dude is listed as “MIA” or a “Deserter” and then the payout is either delayed or forfeited.

If I had to make a guess, it’s going to be an eventual “Babushka Revolution” there when enough mothers realize just how bad the situation is, and how they’ve been lied to and deceived by the Rat Face Krainfeld Jew. His ass is dead no matter who tries to give him shelter IMO.

As I’ve stated before, the Ukrainian SS units in WW@ were far more brutal and ruthless that the German SS elements. Historical fact there folks… when they decide to go full retard? Yeah… Krainfeld is a dead man walking.

Otherwise…
Dinner?
Tonight was Brekkie for Dinner as the Sou’fricans would call it:

Scrambled eggs, hash browns, snausages and bacon.
What’s not to like?

And then, the Memes for tonight as promised:

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Tonight we’re having a Guest Poast from Shooter, a regular commenter here on Ye Olde Blegg. His article is well done, and it’s a reiteration of some pretty common knowledge that we all pretty much know, but is good to go over again every once and a while. That being Firearms Safety 101.

It’s always good to get a refresher, and I thank Shooter for sending it to me. And as stated before, if you want to throw me a story, a poast or some ‘stuff’ and I deem it worthy, I’ll throw it up here with the proper credit where credit is due. Submissions can be DM’d to me at bce187th@protonmail.com. So for that, here’s tonight’s article:

A great and glorious day to you, my brothers and sisters.

I’m going to touch on a subject that is often ignored by even long time firearms aficionados. Firearms Safety or How To Avoid That Embarrassing ND (negligent discharge) and how to make sure no real harm is done even if one happens.

A Pet peeve of mine, I get rilly cranky if someone around me is being unsafe with a firearm. It shows a great lack of respect and consideration of those folks nearby and even those not so nearby. Also, it’s dangerous as hell. Once that bullet is launched you are committed. There is no calling it back or self destruct command.

The classic list of safety rules:

1- Treat every gun as if it is loaded.

I have some quibbles with this one, if I can see inside the firearm or it is disassembled on a table, it “is” safe right up until it is closed or reassembled again.

2- Never point the muzzle of a gun at anything you do not wish to destroy.

(I think this should actually be rule number one as it is the very most important in my humble opinion.)

3- Keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are on target.

This is why you see knowledgeable shooters with their fingers laid along the trigger guard while pointing a gun at a target. It is also very easy to forget. A rather large study was done with law enforcement and military personnel using a shoot house for training. A high percentage while under stress (50ish percent?) had their fingers creep onto the trigger and swore they didn’t. They were shocked when shown video proof. So this has to be worked on constantly, especially when drawing or holstering handguns.

4- Always be sure of your target and WHAT IS BEHIND IT.

Over penetration happens, you don’t want to shoot the old lady behind the perp. Well, not usually. You may need to shift position slightly left or right to avoid this. As has been said, every bullet you fire has a lawyer attached to it. The legal consequences of a bad shoot can ruin your life.

I’ve been shooting since I got my first pellet gun at 8, a Benjamin pneumatic smooth bore. Moved up to .22s and shotguns by 10. I have fired somewhere north of 100,000 rounds of ammo in my life. No idea exactly, could be quite a bit more. In that time I’ve had four NDs. First was a single shot break barrel 20 guage shotgun. I was about 15, would have sworn I emptied it.

I pointed it across an empty field and pulled the trigger. Bang!

A bit startling to say the least.
The second time I’d been hunting with my Sears semi auto .22, was about 16. Racked the bolt until all the shells flipped out onto my desk, racked it four more times to be sure. Pointed it up, took the safety off and pulled the trigger. Bang! A round had stuck in the tubular magazine. Third time, was about 35 and fondling a .357 revolver. Pointed it up with it cocked and touched the trigger a bit too hard. BANG!!! That one rattled my head in a closed room. The fourth time I was about 42 and playing with my Cougar which is a sweet pistol with a wonderful trigger. Pointed it up while cocked and touched the trigger too hard. BANG!! Another head rattler, had to get on the roof and fix the 9mm hole a couple of days later.

A couple of common elements here. I should have cleared the weapons properly and I was obeying rule #2 so no harm was done other than some roof abuse. If I fondle a firearm these days I unload it first and triple check it. I reload it when I’m done.

I always check a gun if someone hands one to me even if I just saw them do it. If I hand a trusted friend a gun I inform them if it is loaded. Like I said, I’m really anal about gun safety nowadays.

I grew up in a non shooting family, my brothers both shot but my dad was into golf, not shooting. My friends and I learned gun safety on our own and bitched at each other as needed.

Peer pressure can be a wonderful thing.

Being in a gun club and shooting competition reinforced my safety habits. Range officers have their sense of humor removed as a job requirement.

Hopefully some of you gained some useful information from this. Be safe and God bless you all.

Shooter

My thanks to Shooter for the info. Hopefully this reinforces the good habits you should already have.
Otherwise, a niiiice quiet day here. A good day at work, and now off to play some Red Dead Redemption.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
WOW!!!
A guy takes a break and MAN do the comments go full on explosive! Right now as of this typing, there are, no shit 109 comments regarding my situation…

Funny that… there’s a parable in there with that particular number and expulsion maybe? I might be getting a ‘Hint From On High’ maybe?

I mean really?
109 on the nose…

Sheesh… even plain statements and I’m making a ‘statement’ it would seem…. the Editor said:

Only 3?

Those are rookie numbers… I got to pump those numbers up!

Seriously tho… But for all the concern and advice I greatly appreciate it and y’all who took the time to offer me support and/or advice. Much love for y’all for all the ‘stuff’

No worries though

Everything is cool. The cathartic aspects was that we didn’t have any serious “must kill each other” issues… no yelling, no serious fights… which is ALWAYS a plus… and Ricky? Well Ricky essentially told her she was lucky AF to have me as a husband… that she should be the wife that a guy like me deserved.

Hence it being Cathartic for me right?

So. THAT was what I was referring to. It was a good weekend. I mean I did find out that her Dad AND Mom BOTH took a header recently. Like some serious header(s) which they should have been hospitalized for, if only for observation and their own good… and DC is, per usual, worthless. In this case the excuse is/was she has ‘Covid’ and therefor can’t help Mom and Dad lest she ‘infect them’.

Meh.

Not my circus anymore.
Whew
I really feel bad to a certain degree.
Dad was kinder to me than my own Dad to a point.

He deserves better, but I used to tell him, and I did tell him this (and I wasn’t joking) that he needed a stronger ‘Pimp Hand’ with Mom, as she’s not making the best decisions as she tends to run the show, and is not properly rational (in my eyes) due to the early onset of Dementia/Alzheimer’s anymore…

Add on that the major problem is than NONE of them are willing to state the obvious, and that’s that they no longer have the ability to care for themselves. This is ALSO why Ricky-The-Saint came into play… he’s a retired RN like Gretchen’s Mom, and offered to be a neutral third party IF her Mother went full retard in refusing help… as I recall he said something that “Nurses can talk to nurses, and we listen to each other professionally, and it might help!” and gave us his phone number to call IF she needed backup so to speak.

See… Gretchen’s Mom is ‘sliding down the dementia rails’ if you will. However, BECAUSE she was a nurse, well… as in many instances, the Nurses know as much, as if not better than some of the harebrained Croakers out there, so trying to tell Gretchen’s Mom anything vis-a-vis her mental state or her inability to care for Dad, welp…

Just like a typical Whammenz, she takes it as a personal attack when we question her choices, and that BECAUSE she was a Nurse, she knows better, and refuses to listen to ANYTHING we try and tell her, even to the detriment of Dad and herself.

Hence the dilemma.

BUT

Like I said and told Gretchen, I’ll be a shoulder to cry on, but as far as me being a performative assistant?

Nah.
Hard Pass.

I mean tonight I am making her Dad a batch of Molasses Cookies as they are his favorite, but as far as me stopping my life, dropping everything, and jumping in the car to be Captain Save-A-Hoe, the (highly unappreciated) White Knight Wonder?

I’m noping the fuck out there.
It’s not personal,
It’s business.

Anyways, I hope that give y’all a bit better understanding of the situation. I mean I saw for myself that Gretchen said point-blank that she’s “…enjoying her freedom!” and that “… she has options.” so she’s got all of that going for her, and I wish her nothing but the best and wish her well with ALLLLL that freedom, and what it entails.

Now…
Last night’s dinner:
I think I’ve mentioned that we have what I call “the never-ending spaghetti sauce” pot. Meaning I’ll make a great meat sauce and as it gets used, I keep adding more of ‘whatever’ we need to keep it going. I got the idea from a video I saw some time ago of a noodle vendor in either Korea or Japan where the noodle soup traces it’s origins back like 200+ years… Meaning the original batch was cooked, and as the time rolled on, well, the pot never emptied as the shop just kept adding to the pot, keeping it fresh, hot and always full.

The never-ending sauce here rolls along the same lines.

When the meat starts running out, I season and cook another couple of pounds and add it. When the sauce-sauce (the tomato part) starts getting low, I add a couple of quarts of sauce. And occasionally, I’ll randomly throw in some diced tomatoes with either onions and peppers, or even a can with chili peppers that would normally be used in a chili.

So last night I cooked up a batch of meatballs as well as a 2.4 pound batch of ground beef. The ground beef was an Aldi bought cheap 80-20 blend. I found is deep in the back of the extreme deep freezer in the garage. The label on it was very interesting in that the meat had been in storage since late April/early May of 2024. I took a pic and you can see the deep freeze in this picture:

$4.09 a pound.
WOWSERS!
The cheapest beef I could find at Publix tonight was this:

You might not be able to see it, but that’s $5.49 a pound on sale from $7.07 for a 75-25 split, which is waaay crappier than the 80-20.

Which also brings up another thing.

I had forgotten this particular pile o’dead cow flesh. It was completely and utterly buried in the back of the deep freeze, next to a turkey Sapper got from work from a few years back. I practically had to do the “Ice Man” thing to chisel it out. Surprisingly, ZERO freezer burn and it came out fresh as the day it went into the deep cold.

Now all of you know I’ve always been the ‘primary cook’ here at El Casa del Grande Campisino. I cook with enough regularity that I notice different effects of various ‘things’… and I’m mad at myself for not getting a picture, but after I defrosted the Aldi 80-20, and started cooking it, well… the amount of ‘liquid fat’ that I needed to drain was far less that the 80-20 meat I’ve been cooking as of late.

Like 1/4 of the amount of liquid.
A LARGE and NOTICIBLE difference!

Meaning the meat I’ve been cooking as of late which has been and is generally ‘fresh and recent’ I personally think that despite the “80-20 blend” claimed on the label, the amount of liquid fat leads me to believe it’s more like a 70-30 or even a 65-35 blend… THIS batch had like waaaay less liquid fat that needed to be drained off before being added to the Endless Sauce…

It makes you wonder if they’re ‘adulterating’ the meat with a higher fat content, as the majority of ‘normies’ wouldn’t know nor understand the difference. The only reason I took notice is since I cook ALL the time, that the ‘leavings’ meaning the liquid fat was far less than I was used to.

Considering just how fake, corrupt and ghey we’ve discovered the world really is I have ZERO doubts that I’m correct in this. Add on I plan to PROVE it in that this want the only package of the meat I found.

There’s an identical pack that was bought and then frozen at the same time. My intent is to buy a ‘current’ pile of ground beef which is labeled 80-20, cook both batches separately, and measure exactly how much fat I drain from each batch.

I’m curious as to what I find out.
Any bets that the ‘new meat’ versus ‘last years meat’ shows a significant difference? I’m not taking any sucker bets I think…

I’ll poast it when I do it.
It should be entertaining.
Otherwise, I’m back to the normal boring grind. I do have a minor bit of good news however. I’m going back to finish what I started with that Lee Enfield Mark 3 (SMLE). All the emotional baggage and distractions made it hard for me to focus on doing and participating in my passion, the restoration process. I ask you to forgive my reticence, and tell you to watch out as I plan on getting this one done shortly.

It’s going to be something else as the barrel is ‘like new/used’ with a lot of surface pitting, but the rifling is pristine, which means WHEN (not if) I get this done, I’m going to have a 1921 Short Magazine Lee Enfield that’ll (if I have my way) shooting MOA. I also have the stock repair parts, and the cleaner, so stay tuned. Good things come to those who wait.

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Maaaan
LOTS of great comments about the Broken Toofus. I appreciate ALLLLLL the suggestions! Y’all rock in that respect. I do have a couple of observations regarding this…

One of which was a conversation I had with Wirecutter. Yeah Kenny from Knuckledraggin My Life Away who I regularly chat with via DM along with a couple of other Bloggers on the regular. Kenny apparently has suffered from some of the same issues that y’all and myself have had regarding the teeth being alllll sorts of fucked up DESPITE our best efforts to insure the longevity of said-teeth.

As I mentioned, and I figured I’d post as I was able to find it, was the ABC Public Service Announcement that used to be broadcast during Saturday Morning Cartoons back in 1973 through 1975… and yeah, for whatever I remember it, hence it’s mention. Aforementioned “Yuckmouth”:

Holy. Hells.
Man…
1) That takes me back.
2) OMFG I’m old!!!!!

OLD!!!OLD!!!OLD!!!
Damn yet again if’n I’m not dating myself.

So yeah, Kenny and I were talking about the various issues we’ve had over the years, and as we went on, well he laid THIS on me towards the end of the conversation:

My teeth weren’t bad when I was growing up. I started having to get root canals when I was in my early 30s, but I still had ’em all.

I asked the dentist one time why I was having to get what seemed like a root canal a month and he told me most of the time it was trauma, then he asked if I’d been hit in the mouth. I asked him, “Recently?”

He said, “No, not recently. Ever. Have you ever been hit in the mouth?”

I laughed and told him, “You might as well do a root canal on every single one of them then. Kind of a PM thing, you know?”

Have I ever been hit in the mouth….. sheee-it. Who the fuck hasn’t been hit in the mouth?

Man… God Bless the man… Talk about an opening.

My response was pretty much what you’d expect:

“…Who the fuck hasn’t been hit in the mouth?”

FAAAAAAR too many ‘Democrats’ LOL

<Mic Drop>
I’d say that summarizes it pretty fucking well.
And yeah, I asked if I could put this up…

His only codicile was for me to explain a LOT of those “punches to the face” were due to his propensity for loose wimmen in dive bars back before he met Miz Lisa. With Wirecutter, I’m sure the majority of y’all are like “Tell us something we wouldn’t have known/guessed!”

Truthfully, it’s something -I- never contemplated.

Probably means I have a LOT more toofus trouble coming sooner, rather than later, despite my attempts to NOT me a “Yuck Mouth”

My concern is that in the Infantry, bar fights were a way of life before the Army got all Uber-Militant-Anti-Fun in the late 1990’s. In fact one of the three Field Grade Article-15’s I got was specifically for brawling in a bar. In THAT particular one, I got off exceptionally light.

NO loss of pay, NO loss of Rank and ONLY 15 days extra duty which consisted of me taking the trash out of the Battalion Commander’s office and the Command Sergeant Major’s office at close of business, and then sweeping and mopping said-aforementioned offices. That took, in total about 20 minutes.

Yep. That was it.

In fact the CSM told me the reason I got off as light as I did was BECAUSE I had jumped in when a fellow member of our Unit (one I didn’t particularly like… he was a bit of a douche) BUT! He was a member of our unit, and as my attitude was that I would be damned if he was going to be beat down by a bunch on Legg Non-Jump Punk Ass Engineers… The CSM told me that unit integrity was MORE important than what I had done, so ergo, I got a minor ‘cooking’ instead of being deep-fried…

I did that bit of extra duty with a bit of pride if I do say so myself… Especially because I refused to rat on who else was in the fight. In this particular brawl, I had the unfortunate issue of getting caught under a dude who’d I had been grappling with on the floor of the bar. I still have no idea who coldcocked him, but the fat fucker was out cold on top of me, with me trying like Hell to get out from his ‘corpse’ so to speak when the MPs showed… It was a shitshow as there were a LOT of folks on the ground rolling around and fussing and fighting, and me struggling with this fat piece of deadweight laid out cold on me…

And when we got to the MP station, I clammed the fuck up.

I wasn’t going to ‘cheese’ on any of my fellow soldats.

Guess it paid off in the end…

So anyways…
Today was a very interesting day.

Gretchen and I went out for a civilized lunch to discuss our issues, and see what needed to be done. Better to be in public and have everything be cool so to speak. It was actually VERY pleasant. We went for some Arabic/Turkish food. When we got there, well… let me tell you. This is a place I frequent when I’m in that part of town (near the VA) and when I have the $$$ to do so. It’s called the “The Dough Show”

Seems there’s a few of them… it’s a new chain.

The place IMO is unreal. It’s located by MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry) and across from the Tampa USF main campus… Turkish Fahteer is the specialty, which is a filo dough sort of cheese and meat stuffed pizza. I mean it’s hard to describe. They have a location in Orlando, one here in Tampa and the newest in Jacksonville. They also have traditional gyros, shawarma, kofta and kebabs. All 100% halal.

ALL 100% absolute AWESOMENESS in eating.

A fahteer looks like this:

Like I said, a filo-dough pizza.
UBER Thin Dough.

The reason it’s called “The Dough Show” is when the chef is prepping the dough, he whips it around in the air to s-t-r-e-t-c-h it out to it’s fullest and thinnest capabilities. Once it’s almost paper-thin, he lays it out on an olive oil soaked mat, and adds all the filling, and then spindle’, folds, and mutilates it and stuffs it in a wood-fired baking oven. It’s a bit pricey BUT OMG!!!

So when we got there, it was standing room ONLY. Wall to wall people. Like more than I’ve ever seen there. In fact Gretchen went to the bathroom, and I after ordering copped a squat at the last table left available in the place. I sat down and found myself next to a gentleman named (as I found out) named Ricky.

Ricky is a naturalized US Citizen from the Philippines. He told me that while he knew of and had been past the Orlando location, he’d never had Arabic food. I was more than happy to explain the chow to him as I having lived there for numerous years, and the fact I knew it was going to be a loooong minute before our chow (both his and ours) was going to be ready, I was more than happy to talk to him. I gave him a breakdown of the various food(s) and the background of them (as far as I know from my limited intel…)

Long story short: Dude was awesome.
He’s a gentleman of the Old School Variety. He was here from Jacksonville visiting with his college aged daughter who was attending an activity at USF (which is right across from the restaurant). He’s retired, and is an avid traveler, hence our ‘common ground’ if you will… Traveling Internationally is almost as bad as a heroin addiction, let me tell you. We both (Gretchen and myself) got along with him like gangbusters. We ended up spending almost two hours waiting on our chow… and yeah it was THAT busy… which led to something a bit out of my ordinary experience..

Without going into it too in depth… all I can say is this was a really strange encounter in that by the time we had to leave… Gretchen opened up in ways she’d never done before… for me or anyone else… maybe the ‘strange shoulder’ or something, but deep down, even -I- felt some weird vibe… well… let’s just say God and Jesus work in seriously mysterious ways, and that Ricky helped Me and Gretchen in so many ways that I don’t even know if he realizes it… or maybe he does…

I dunno… I didn’t go into things regarding us and our current situation… we just sort of left it that we had some serious problems we were working through, and man, he offered support, and advice, and had Gretchen crying openly in the restaurant from some of the thing he pointed out to her regarding our relationship… some of which have been issues that -I- have been pointing out for the past year, year and a half, to no avail… It was like having a mindreader there or something…. Like I said, a very strange but welcome encounter…

VERY helpful and cathartic…

Maybe it took a total outsider to point it out…
Or maybe it was a Divine Intercession…
I have no idea…
But I will say…
Truthfully
Something odd happened today.
Something good
Something that gave me hope
Something that gave me peace in a turbulent time…
All because of some wild assed random meeting in a Haji restaurant that Gretchen didn’t even want to go to… and that afterward, she was grateful that we had gone….

I gave him this URL and warned the guy…
I mean fair is fair amiright?
No idea if he’ll check this out…
But if he does, all I can say is man…

Ricky, you did a world of good today whether you know it or not, and you have my utter and absolute thanks. My own personal NORMALLY cynical POV on this one encounter today tho? All I can say is that Angels don’t always have wings yannow?

Leastways not ones you can see…

And on that broken-tooth note, I’ll talk with you all tommorrow.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
I wasn’t in the mood to write last night. Bit down and BAM! A right rear molar shattered. One that I had just had fixed not even a year ago. I had a old amalgam cavity replaced (not a root canal) and dunno?

I went to ‘finish off’ an after dinner mint (peppermint lifesaver) and towards the end… when it’d melted down juuuust about nothing… it shouldn’t have been particularly overly hard, and I just bit down and OOF! I felt the toofus just collapse.

Crap.

I ended up spitting out the remaining pieces/parts of the mint and the now-detonated toofus…

Currently, right now it doesn’t hurt, but this’s means it’s gonna be ANOTHER extraction as even WITH my dental plan, I can’t afford the deductible, and a yank/pull is only $100. THAT I can cover. At this rate I’m going to be eligible to joint the West Virginia Kissin’ Cuzzins’ Club… (eligibility determined by the number of remaining natural teeth) And then after it’s pulled? Well let’s just say the diet is going to be going very well over the next week or so…

Needless to say, I’ve only had yogurt to eat today… I’m not sure just how much ‘hurt’ is going to happen from this shitshow. I’ll be sticking to my mush until I can get an appointment with the Fang-Doc.

So More Later-Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Whelp.
The guy who shot up Fort Stewart has been ID’d:

Definitely the face of a future rocket scientist or nookular physicist and sheeee-it right? /sarc.

Fucker must have been a bolo-badge bastard… He couldn’t have been an Infantryman, even though 2BCT is a Stryker Brigade and “Grunt Heavy” that’s for sure. He didn’t even kill anyone… sheesh… What the fuck happened to my Army???

UPDATE INSERT: I called it. The fucker was a 92A which is an Automated Logistical Specialist i.e. a fucking supply puke. Granted I performed as a 92A at the end of my career, but that was more in-line with me being assigned to the S-4 in my capacity as the Battalion thief. ALL the blaqs tend to congregate in that MOS FWIW… the least danger, the least effort, maximum power over others (everyone has to kiss the Supply Guys ass if you EVER want to get anything) so this ties it neatly together… Jes’ Sayin’

The picture of the perp, Sgt. Quornelius ‘Two-Gee’ Radford is from a mugshot taken by one of the local Police Departments after his DUI bust three months ago…

I’d say that –might- be the motive there.
Meaning I’m guessing that Sgt. Shitbird there finally got called on the carpet for the DUI. A DUI in many instances is an absolute career ender.

ESPECIALLY for an Non-Commissioned Officer aka NCO.

Unless you’ve got ‘cover’ i.e. someone in the chain of command who’ll make things ‘go away’ usually you’ll be deep fried in oil for the offense. As to the time between the actual offense and the shooting?

Well I’m throwing out the wild-assed guess, but in many cases that I saw back in the day, the wheels of DotMil justice roll pretty fucking s-l-o-w-l-y unless it’s for something serious like rape/murder. The Chain of Command that handles a DUI is usually the Battalion Commander a light Colonel or Lt. Col. who usually does ‘group readings’ of miscreants…

Meaning they let all the guys who’re getting hit with a Field Grade Article 15 wait until they get a few of them, and the Colonel will call them in as a group to get it all done on the same day, one at a time. Trust me as I know first hand of what I speak…

Three fucking Field Grades in my time.
Miraculously managed to keep the E-4 each time.
And yeah, I had ‘cover’ thank the Good Lord.

They do this for a couple of reasons. One is to have a group of unwilling but made-to-do it after hours and weekend laborers. When you get a Field Grade, you usually get 45 days restriction to barracks, and 45 days ‘extra duty’ which means that if you get busted, you have to do allll the shit-work no one else wants to do. Painting the Battalion Building… mowing lawns with push mowers… cleaning out the Motorpool grease traps… really nasty shitty work that takes place AFTER the regular duty day up until 11:00 pm and usually up to 6-8 hours every day on the weekend for a month and a half.

It really sucks.

UNLESS you manage to know things and how to ‘skate’ professionally. Like my first Field Grade? On the first weekend, well it happened to be Memorial Day weekend. The Command Sergeant Major told me I was the only one they had doing extra duty as no one else had fucked up that month, and since he was feeling magnanimous, my ONLY detail for the long weekend was to mow the entire Battalion Area and as soon as it was done, I was done for the weekend.

OK CSM… Roger, Got it.

Now our Battalion only had 2x shitty non-self propelled POS lawnmowers, and the Battalion Area was about an acre and a half, including the Parade ground. Needless to say a LOT of territory to do by hand, in the blazing Texas Summer…

OTOH 2-8 Infantry? The Battalion next door to us? For whatever reason they had a nice and damned near brand new John Deer Industrial Grade Riding Mower. One with a HUGE cutting deck. Could go like a bat-outta-hell too.
They never let anyone use it.

Of course I used it.

It’s all in ‘who you know’ and knowing how to ask.

The first thing I did was I went down to the Shopette and bought a case and a half of beer. I then went over to 2-8’s Battalion HQ where I knew a buddy of mine had gotten the ‘bad luck of the draw’ to be pulling staff duty on Saturday, which meant he was going to be pretty disgruntled. So I rolled in with that set of beers and asked very nicely if I could rent their nice new mower for the low low price of say? A case of this Ice Cold Tall and Frosties?

Maaan… them keys were in my hand in like point zero five seconds. He got the case, and I kept the Twelve Pack. The reason for that was as I was mowing, well… let’s just say I was staying ‘hydrated’ so to speak while doing so. I had my Walkman on (remember those?) and was playing a mixtape (GOD I am dating myself!) and as I guzzled the brew, I disposed of the can by throwing it in front of me, at which point when I rode over the now empty beer can, said psycho-mower reduced any evidence to a fine spray of aluminum ‘hash’ and literally scattered it to the winds.

Needless to say, I got the job done in like an hour an a half.

When we came back frtom the long weekend, the CSM was pretty impressed… he didn’t really dress me down or give me shit. Told me he really got a kick out of my creativity. Hence why I had cover as I was his thief/dogrobber. Every good CSM has an enlisted man who does the dirty work for him, and I was that guy.

This guy however? If I was a betting man, I’d say that he was looking at the full 45 and 45, as well as 45 days forfeiture of pay, and even in the worst case scenario, a Bad Conduct Discharge which means his life was over-over either way. I want to know -who- he shot… that’d be very telling.

HOWEVER:

Got me a hunch that’s going to be fully activated if it hasn’t already. This summer has had ALLLL sorts of nigger-fatigue stories, and the noticing has gotten out of hand as far as the Leviathan is concerned… the last thing they want nor need is a nigger in uniform bustin’ caps in his chain of command right?

So yep. Add on he was already ‘in the wrong’ as soldiers by UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) are forbidden from possessing personally owned firearms on base for any reason, so nope… no ‘good guy with a gun’ was going to stop this… THAT particular pile of bullshit needs to go away… maybe.

The problem with doing that is there are SO MANY low-impulse control 2Gs in uniform, so allowing them to be heeled might not be a good idea… it’s a tough call IMO.

So More Later
Big Country