Greetings and Salutations! AMAZING what a little TLC and elbow grease does on a vehicle:
Namely hitting the rims with the proper chemistry for brake dust and a stiff bristle brush… This’s the left front “before”:
And then the left front “after”:
The discoloration on the center-cap is from the sealing tape that holds and protects the Lincoln lettering and emblem. The edges peeled back, and the dust in there and there isn’t much to do about it… either way, it’s one HELL of an improvement with just some minor scrubby-scrub amiright?
Either way, eBay has them for like (with shipping plus) $25-30 a throw… None of mine have a need for full on replacement. I have far moar important fish to fry so to speak.
Which BTW I had an interesting encounter last night with a “Froggy Fren” if you will…
I went out to do some scrubbing on the Boat… I mean why not right? I was using a leather cleaner/restorer around 10:30 last night as I tend to not sleep very much nor very often these days.
I figured what the Hell as the rain had finally stopped, so “lets be productive”… while I was cleaning, I had put my cellie up on the roof for a minute or ten while I was ‘cleaning’ and getting my scrub on’… when I went to retrieve it I saw ‘movement in the wire’ so to speak, specifically on the roof. I recovered my phone, turn on the flashlight and whaddya know?
“Lil’ Kek” if you will…
Just chilling out… all relaxing on the roof. I have zero idea from where he came from.
I myself had to step up on the sideboards to even see on the roof. How Lil’ Kek got up there? I have no clue. I kept working for about 45 minutes, and then went back to see if he’d found a way off the roof…
Apparently that was a ‘no’… he was content as can be, still just chilling out on the roof… so I had to do something as I didn’t want him getting hemmed up/killed b/c I failed to assist… I caught him easily, and unlike ALL the other frog-encounters I’ve had in the past, Lil’ Kek did not do what I expected, which is usually ‘vent’ all his fluids and solids so to speak… meaning he didn’t piss and shit all over me, as most froggies in the past have as they tend to freak when you grab them, and do a ‘panic download’.
Nope… he was chill AF.
I caught him in my palm, and he immediately settled in, and then climbed up to ride on my thumb so to speak, and started watching where we were going. No trying to escape, no freaking… just…. chilled out… like he was there for a purpose.
I took him to the pond in the back yard, wished him well and as I went to toss him in, he pre-emptively “Hasta La Vista’d” me and jumped into the pond on his own… A BIG jump too… splashed right in… He then, as I watched, surfaced, croaked at me, and went on his merry way…
Well Met, Lil Kek Aye?
I mean maaaaaan…
Not trying to read into things too much, but I’m taking this as a sign that the New Truck has the “Blessings of Kek” on it or something… I mean a lil froggy, showing up, hanging out as I work, and then acting the way he did? TOTAL WEIRDSVILLE man…
WILD stuff… So that’s about it for now… I woke up late, went to bed late, and need to start resetting my pattern so to speak. The rain as of late is keeping me from doing the yardwork, as well as hitting the bike, so I need the fall dry season to hit I’d say. So also, I’m going to STOP discussing HER as -someone- has been feeding her tidbits from my writings… not that anything I’ve put out there is untrue, but still… I don’t want nor need her shit and drama anymore.
Greetings and Salutations! Maaaaaaaaan kindness and generosity… two really important words in life… Thanks to the unbelievable generosity of one Reader, J3 (as literally ALL of his initials all start with the letter ‘J’) I got a new set of wheels! Meet the new Boat:
That’s the ’03 Navigator.
Needless to say, I fit juuuust fine in that big ole sucker.
Like me, the paint’s a bit faded, it has it’s quirks (like I need to fix the window on the driver’s side… the motor needs replacing) but also like myself, it’s got a stronk ‘heart’ if you will. Also like me, it just needs some TLC and clean up.
I call it the Boat as OMFG after driving around in that itty-bitty Hyundai with the 4 cylinder hamster under the hood? This 6.0 V-8 scared the Hell out of me when I went for a drive earlier. I stepped on the gas and Hoo-Boy!!! It’s got a whoooooole lotta ‘git up and go!’ which it’s been a looong minute since I had that sort of horsepower hauling my ass around. J3 was also kind enough to come here w/his gracious wife, who spent the majority of the time having the Sausage Princess lay her head in her (the wifes that is) lap, and making besties out of her.
“Never stop petting the dog” is a rule around here… once you pet Stella once you’d better pack a lunch ‘cos she’s NOT going to leave you alone. I got to show off the ‘Museum of Mayhem’, and give him a few things as a thank-you…
We had a nice lunch (again thanks Bro!) and then they had to bail as they had a passel of their kids still at home, with the 17 year old in charge… I remember those days too.
So… Last night was fun. I reeee-laxed. Killed a lot of virtual bad guys who needed killing…
Again, another glorious weekend! NO DRAMA or Bullshit to be seen! A man could get used to this…
I haven’t been paying too much attention to the news, outside of the “Credible Threat” shit that came out on Thursday Night. I got a call from a bro at McDill at about 21:00 on Thursday, and last night I got a copy of the alert regarding the “Haj Threat to retired DotMil Kids here in Florida”
And yeah, it’s a legit warning… I’m of two thoughts on this
ONE is it’s legit… odds on that are about 30 for / 70 against
TWO is that it’s a potential False Flag… odds on that? 80 for / 20 against.
I’m going with Door Number Two Monty.
My rationale for that?
First, it’s been what? Like almost 10 years or more for the whole “Iraq” side of things for the most part. I figure they’d have come after people a LOT sooner. Why now? Not only that, they’d be better off going after active duty guys truth be told. Active duty guys for the most part are NOT allowed (unless married and living off post) to have easy access to personal weapons. Softer targets if you will, whereas Ye Olde Retired Guys? We, for the most part, we’re armed to the fucking teeth and thirst to legally kill some bad guys again.
Secondly, going after the guys who’re retired? The only thing that does IF a bunch of older-ish retired Vets get clapped is create outrage and headlines/lies to push whatever agenda and/or war they want us in next… that and by eliminating the retired SF guys? Well retired SF guys are the ones who the DotGov fears the most. THAT is why there are watchlists and ‘gangstalking’… SF are force multipliers. Trainers. By designation. To train people to form anti-DotGov cadres to assist in overthrowing whatever ‘enemy of the week’ that’s in vogue. So wasting a few would be a net-plus for the current situation(s) we see going on out there.
Either way for the foreseeable future, I’ll be rolling heavy-er than normal. Guess keeping those additional mags for the Grok already was a wise decision… Even walking the doggos now in the yard, I’m rolling with a weapon.
So again, my thanks to ALL of you who’ve been here for the trials and tribulations, and especially a HUGE thanks to J3 for the HUGE assist in providing me a set of wheels. It’s going to make a WORLD of difference now.
As well as Thanks to -Whoever- is “In Charge” out there in the Universe… I needed a win like this.
Greetings and Salutations! Picked up the Cop-Trade in ‘fantastic plastic’ Grock after slaving at the unmerciless Glorious People’s Tractor Factory or else!!! for the day… SHE also made an appearance but more later on that…. no one died or went to jail leastways So anyways… the weapon in question:
You tell me:
And then the flip side:
Annnnnnnnnnnd as I said, Cheap AF:
So yeah I may as well have stole the damned thing. The price doesn’t show as it was sold out BUT:
$397.73, with three mags in that good a shape, out the door?
Yep… I stole it apparently. We’ll get in these issues later. I’m exhausted, doing well ( no worries) but just seriously behind in my ZZZZ count.
I also have a long-term project I finally got done with, but thats for later… Literally More Later BCE
Greetings and Salutations! Well things are looking up ’round here as of late. First off in no incessant demands for attention/shit she didn’t need/nor compliments… No hearing about the ‘daily drama’ of Dumbcunt and her fucking antics anymore either… No calls for ‘Help, we’ve fallen and can’t get up’
Nunnadat.
Not. one. fucking. call.
Holy. Hells.
Is this what normal life is supposed to be!?!
No joke, I’ve been sort of confused by all the peace and quiet ’round here. I’m sooooo used to flailing from one crisis to the next, I’m a wee bit put out by the quiet…. It’s both startling as well as I dunno… unsettling? as I’ve been ‘programmed’ by her for the last 5-6 years to expect a ‘shit-show inbound’ All. The. Fucking. Time.
Like today? I had a VA appointment and had to punch early from People’s Glorious Tractor Factory. They’ll let me make up the hours after, but in order, I had a Liver Sonogram (to see if it’s concreted or not yet), a CAT Scan of my heart with Contrast which sucks, as while I may not be allergic, it leaves me feeling most shytteful and nauseated after… I have an Aortic WTF do you call it? I can’t remember but it’s a swelling that I’ve had for years on one of the aortas that they monitor every few… IF I need it fixed, they’ll go in (they told me) through the groin… mad ouchies there IMO.
THEN it was time to go and ‘do the toob’ with a MRI for the spine, which meant I had to drink the tracer, which comes in Banana Flavored Ass, or Berry Flavored Ass… the Mixed Fruit Flavored Ass was apparently unavailable, much to my chagrin. I went with the ‘naner flavored ass…. and had a valium chaser as I’m a wee bit claustrophobic in my old age, and I just do NOT fit in the toob very well…
So the point is, that AFTER all of these endeavors, as Sapper was the one who took me there (his truck IS currently working) we went out for a late lunch at IHOP…
….instead of racing back home to make sure my (heh) blushing bride wasn’t too put out by my absence as I would usually do. I was able to do what the fuck I wanted without getting a “where are you” phone call… Nope. No more of that… I’m sort of a wee bit confused and put out by the feeling Aye? Still sorting it all out I reckon…
It’s not a bad thing I know this… Just…. Confused I suppose….
So to continue, since the day was done as far as work goes, we went to visit GunGirl to fill out my paperwork for my eventual pickup of my new carry, which in itself was a very pleasant surprise.
I went with a Law Enforcement Trade In Fantastic Plastic Glock Model 21 in .45.
Now it was supposed to be a Gen4, and come with one mag.
The one that showed up?
A Gen3 that was an AUSTRIAN Made Grock 21 w/3 Mags and man, it looked like it’d never been carried/fired/used.
It’s not a New Smyrna piece, but as Sapper said a “Gaston Glock SS Weapon” (Nigga Heil Hitler!)
It ALSO has tritium sights, that from what I could see are STILL operational. The lifespan in those sights are about 12 years, which is the half-life of the tritium.
Either way, to say I’m pleased is an understatement. Comparable ones like it I’ve seen now as of today retailing for $600.
The only irritant is that in prepping for this showing up, and expecting ONE mag, I used Sezzle (like I did for the gat) to get 3 factory new mags as I figured 1 is none, 2 is good and 4 is perfect. Now I’m going to have 7. They haven’t shipped yet, and I’m only $18 into the payments, so do I keep? Not keep?
I hate conundrums like this.
I mean MOAR mags is ALWAYS a good thing, but outside of some IRL ‘John Wick Shit’ I never foresee a day where I’ll need 7 full mags of .45, and if I do find myself in such a predicament, it means I probably fucked up by the numbers. Like fatally so
Jes’ Sayin’
So anyways, I FINALLY got in contact with the reader who offered the Navigator, who assured me it’s good to go, with the exception of the left driver side window being in a perma-down position, and he’s not had the time or inclination to fuck around with it any longer. I already found a full window refit kit for $100 with is well within budget, and he said he’d come by to drop it off this weekend! My extreme gratitudeto you dude.
I needed a solid like this.
So transportation is taken care of. Least that I can tell I also responded to a few of you kind folks who offered an assist, and I also thank you for that kindness as well… I really really appreciate you all and what you offered, as these days, people generally suck, and y’all here most certainly do not. Y’all people are gold I swear.
And since that is the case (as far as I can tell) Here’s what I’ve been bumming around on since July 1st. As promised, a breakdown of the BCE Apocalypse Bike:
It’s an Ironhorse 21? Speed Mountain Bike (I think) I’ve had it since 2016 when the FIRST X took off leaving me carless… (hmmmn… there seems to be a pattern here)
It’s got 3 Sprockets on the pedal area, and the normal gears in the rear so to speak… I think 7 sprockets which means a 21 speed… I’ve never been ‘into’ bicycles except as basic transportation to a point. However some years ago I outfitted this a weeeeeee bit more with a BIG lean into heavy cargo capacity, that IF we had an EMP style issue or whatnot, that I’d at least have the ability to quietly get the Fuck Out Of Dodge as needed. Bicycles being damned near invisible to a point.
I went with the Ironhorse as this as back when I got it (2016 I think?) this was one of the few bikes that was rated for “Extra-Fat-Ass” weights… like as in up to 500 pounds of cargo/people overall. Me at 325 right now? And then adding on gear and whatnot? It’ll do.
I also got a trailer for it as well for the Grans back in the day:
Those blankets in it?
Those are spare/leftover heavy Kevlar Blankets from a HMMWV kit… blast blankets.
Waste Not, Want Not.
It (the trailer) attaches to the back of the bike, and has two seats inside for the kids from when they were littles. I figured in a full grid-down TEOTWAWKI situation, a few minutes of rattlecan would camo that sucker up quite nicely, and it has a LOT of room to haul ‘stuff’ in it.
The bike itself is outfitted with a plethora of gear bags.
On the front forks there are two waterproof bags that hold 6 liters of ‘stuff’ OR as they ARE waterproof, make good emergency water bags in a pinch:
They’re mounted via a bayonet clip that’s strapped to the fork:
Also, the front basket and bag? Those are OK… The basket folds up and out of the way if needed, and the ‘lunchbox’ bag is insulated, and good for transporting the frozen stuff like Ice Cream.
The handlebars have an extension I had to add, as my torso is soooo long (6’4 but only a 31 inch inseam… I’m built like a gorilla) to allow the handlebars to reach me so I’m not bent over in “Italian Ass-in-The-Air-Bike-Racer” mode:
It gives me an additional 8 inches on the handlebars, raising them up quite a bit, so I don’t have my spine being blown out, and I don’t necessarily have ALL my upper body weight crushing down on my arms and shoulders. That was a problem initially, that I’d get home, and my shoulders of all things were killing me… a few more rides and I realized ALL my weight was on my arms and shoulders due to be bent ALLLL the way the fuck over. THAT item took quite a bit of fine tuning to get it to work. Once installed? No more issues.
ANother issue? My Junk. Specifically it being abused by the seat. I shitcanned the traditional seat, and replaced it new. The NEW seat is a comfy wide-load capable gel seat. I can’t deal with a regular bike seat, as I said, my junk gets all squished and uncomfortable, so instead I go with a ‘let it hang off the front’ style seat:
HIGHLY RECOMMEND if you’re dude 10/10.
Now other cargo initiatives? The panniers in the back (50 liter bags mind you) are mounted on a very basic rack that’s still the same price I paid for it back in 2019. I like the ease of the mounting, via clamping onto the seat post:
And, as stated, it carries quite a bit of gear comfortably.
The pannier bags and basket on the ass, well… I dismounted the basket. That’s going back to the ‘Zon… I don’t like how it fits, and it’s hard for me to sling my leg over when it on there:
I already pulled the hardware in that pic… EVERYTHING is ALWAYS trial and error. Hopefully I’m pointing out stuff so y’all learn from my mistakes. The bags however are GREAT!
50 liters storage each, has a waterproof cover for each, multiple internal pockets, and have a good easy-on/easy off set of clips that allow them to be mounted DIRECTLY to the pannier frame.
They hold a TON of stuff.
And lastly, I have a few ‘comfort touches’ One being a water bottle, which is an insulated Camelback jug that fits on the frame mounted bottle holder:
…as well as an Aftermarket Fender that clamps on the rear of the front fork. I found this to be necessary a few years back when I got caught out in the rain (an occupational hazard living in Florida) and the water from the front wheel was spraying all over my front and face as the knobby tires kept kicking everything up into my grill:
Muddy water just sucks when you get sprayed up like that.
As to the other ‘stuff’, on the handlebars themselves, I have the obligatory Cell Phone Holder that’s spring-loaded and actually fits my oversized OnePlus 10T I prefer, and the little Ironhorse distance/speed computer that theoretically calculates how many calories etc. I’ve lost since I started this farce.
The computer ‘reads’ from a little dingus that I had to attach to one of the spokes on the front rim… Bluetooth I think or something… You can see it on the pic of the bayonet mount above… that little disk attached to the spoke in the lower left….
Either way it’s been fritzing out on me, so it’s a ‘whatever’ sort of deal after 9 years of using it… I paid like $50 for it new, but found it on eBay new for $22 with free shipping tonight when I tried to find MY exact model of bike, as I cannot for the life of me remember… so yeah… maybe get a new one? Who knows…
So this’s my “End of the World Ride” so to speak.
Not fancy nor hi-priced. I think I spent $400 on the bike on clearance when Sears was going out of business in 2016? It was a ways back… Extras were probably maybe $100-200 and that’s spread out over the years. The best was the bike trailer… $25 on FB marketplace… a steal as it is/was.
Greetings and Salutations! Whew! LOTS of great discussion and PMs from you jokers (and joker-ettes… THAT still AMAZEBALLZ’s me that I have WILLING female readershit… normally I’d figure you all would be held at gunpoint, forced to read my non-PC ‘stuff’… anywho…) Leastways SWMNBN never read this stuff, and r/n I only supressed/deleted (albeit temporarily) the rest of the blegg on advice from my various mouthpieces. Even tho I’m pretty damned sure she doesn’t even know the URL…
Better safe than sore and sorry of course.
And Yeah, I have like 4 lawyers on speed-dial… Don’t you?
Anyway… one thing that keeps cropping up in the discussion is the M-47 Dragon Anti-Tank Medium Antitank Rocket….
Whoooooooooo boy…
This’ll take a second. -I- was ‘raised’ as a little ole 11 Hotel. An ‘offshoot’ back in the day when Infantry MOS’s had various ‘flavors’… The following being:
11B = Straight Legg Infantryman, Modifiers like ‘Airborne’ (or not really per se) to be added later… Essentially the bare-bones Grunt of Fame and Lore.
11C = A Mortarman-who-was-a-Mortar Maggot. Their AIT consisted of dropping bombs down a toob, and killing from High Angles… “Hi-Angle Hellfire” was a popular t-shirt for them at the Sand Hill PX back in the day…. primarily trained on 82mm Mortars. They used to use the BIG 4.2in Mortars until those got retired… not sue if 11C is still around or not…
11H = Dat me. A Heavy Anti-Armor Infantryman, AKA TOW Gunner. Tube Launched, Optically Tracked Wire Guided missile badassery. The MOST fun I’ve ever had with my clothes on. It also stood for “Tired Of Walking” as the missile system, the BGM-71 overall weighed in at 550 pounds with only ONE missile, so we needed vehicles to operate efficiently. They eventually shitcanned the MOS only to bring it back and shitcan it and repeat as necessary. A few fucking times no less…. I got reclassed involuntarily in 1996 when they FIRST shitcanned it.
Fuckers.
Then, lastly, there was
11M = M2* (depending on the Brad) Bradley Crewmember/Infantryman. Brad crewmen used to be Grunts. They’d train a squad worth of guys (‘8 for the Back, 3 for the Track’ as we used to say) and out of the 11 initially trained guys, the three best trained guys would ‘run’ the track, and the rest, being familiar with the whole running of said track, would be the in-the-back Grunt Crew that’d supposedly storm the trenches if needed off of said track. IF the crew got wasted, then any member of the ‘Back 8’ knew at least how to nominally run the track… It looked good on paper leastways….
Nowadays my understanding is that EVERYONE is 11 “X” when they join the Infantry, and they fill the needs for who goes where “according to the needs of the Army” which IMO is a fucking waste as in some cases, as guys with a higher end GT score might end up as 11B (Bodybag) when they couldhave gotten a better deal… A ‘Hotel’ needed a higher GT score (for whatever reason… why I personally have no idea) but it is what it is….
Now a Dragon Gunner?
They were just ‘regular grunts’ who got a ‘modifier’ for training added onto their MOS. Like I have a few modifiers on my MOS… Originally I had 11H… basic TOW gunner…. and then had the E09 Modifier added which meant I had been trained on the M901 TOW ITV or Improved Tow Vehicle/track:
I was initally an 11H10E9 Meaning an enlisted 11H with an ITV modifier.
If I had made E-5, I would have been an 11H20E9 and so one… rank modified the MOS as you went on as well… In the Rakkasans, I was a 11H10/E9/2B/W5. Add on my Airborne Wings and yeah… not bad… a breakdown follows.
As stated, Modifiers I have are 2B, Air Assault and W5, Special Operations Foreign and Non-Standard Armorer (that one I actually am proud of… that was a tough fucking course lemme tell you!), as well as G2, a Standard Army Retail Supply System-2AC/2B (SARSS-2AC/2B) Materiel Manager which I got under my 92 series MOS. My B4 is in there somewhere, but after a while, too many numbers/letters to GAF about…
Believe it or not, Airborne does NOT have it’s own modifier.
You either have wings or you don’t.
The modifier for the Dragon is/was C2. They should be all gone by now, (except for relics like me LOL). Thing is, I only interacted with the Dragon ONCE… and it was a shitshow.
Like an extreme shitshow
The day us 11H from Lee Field went out to do our live fire? The ‘regular Infantry’ 11B-C2s? Their Dragon Gunner ‘Top Gun’ Graduates got to do their live fire too. The range was shall we say innnntersting in that we fired from what was essentially the top of a VERY large cliff. (The reason for this to be revealed in a minute)
So as Echo 9’ers and 11H standard guys got to fire and yes, I -was- the Top Gun on BOTH weapons systems so AFTER I had fired, the 11B-C2 kids (Dragon) got up and went to fire…
Thank CHRIST in heaven they were firing off a cliff…
BOTH dudes triggered their live rounds (there were NO submunition rockets, outside of the the training 9mm submunitions,) which meant BOTH rounds were FULL ON H.E. (high explosive) Warshots. Let me tell you, NOW we know WHY the range was on a cliff, and WHY both Dragon Gunners fired their shit from the edge…
BOTH gunners, in a row, were told to fire from the edge of the cliff…
They made the first guy wear the full on (for the day) Body Armor, helmet and Googles (unusual) and gloves. This alone raised eyebrowz. Guy #1 walked up sling-carrying his missile and guidance set. His instructor walked out with him, gave him what I think was a pep-talk (as we had a LOT of VIPS in the audience as these events were for the early 90s expensive and rare) and then left him to fire.
He fired, the round ‘kicked out’ with a “Blooop!” and then fell off the cliff where it subsequently exploded with great force. The Kick-Motor fired, but apparently, the actual motor-motor that should have propelled the missile downrange?
Not so fucking mucho.
It went ‘over the edge’ so to speak off of and over the cliff edge, into –whatever- was down there, and blew the fuck up.
It MASSIVELY blew the fuck up as I recall… a big ole Mushroom Cloud a big old pile of debris rained down on everyrone. AT rounds are positively PACKED with Octal Explosive which makes C-4 and other shit look tame by comparison. Needless to say, Dood #2 you could just tell was not happy to now be the ‘up next’ Top Gunner so to speak…
He experienced the same exact issueand ALL of us in the audience experienced the same ‘dirt bath and sound issues’ i.e. a giant assed explosion… I’m pretty sure BOTH dudes were ready to quit the DotMil after that, leastways as memory serves…
So otherwise….
I have not heard from SWMNBN so far except for the usual “I’ve been thinking about you” and “Can we talk”… Uh nope. I’m good. Too betrayed and hurt to talk have been my responses. Which works. I did get her notification of her permanant change-of-addy letter today, which I notified her of and that works… There ain’t no coming back from hurting the pupper man…. just no. fucking. way.
I’m channeling my inner “John Wick”
Granted she didn’t kill the pupper…
HOWEVER
But even the banned-from-everywhere perma-troll Hedge commented “Wait a minute… I missed that… the bitch. hurt. the. fucking. dog!?!” which of course I allowed…
When Hedge is on your side, you know you’re on the side of righteousness.
Yeah… as to all the other stuff out there?
Well… Stella’s stiches came out by her own volition dammit. Chewed them out overnight apparently
The wound is healed but it irritates me that I spent $7 on an overnight suture removal kit as my last one I used on SWMNBN dammit.
Ah well…. she’s doing great.
I also am getting a bike writeup done. Pics taken… writing in progress… HOWEVER
I do have a car I found locally but even with the Amazon Windfall I’m about $1500 short. It’s a 2003 Volvo. V70 Wagon in Olive Drab w/ a tan interior. 200k miles, but for a Volvo, that’s just broken in. I dunno…. Raffle? Fundraiser? I hate to ask for anyone to help at this point. I’m going to cash in what gold I have (about $600 worth r/n) and see what happens comes payday.
Hence why I’m riding my bike. Losing weight whilst I do it too.
SWMNBN is going to be bent when she sees me… My gut is melting away r/n which SHE always claimed was a turn off… Bitch… you’ve been talking to otherDoodz since Day Zero…. suffer is all I can say ya cunt.
Either way, the new PayPal is up and running. The PayPal name is @CountryOfBigExpat and the Email is countryofbigness@yahoo.com if you want. I also have a mailing addy for those of you interested And I no longer care about “the doxx” as one such as myself have ALREADY had enough shit thrown at me. DM Me at bce187th@protonmail.com for it.
Otherwise Tomorrow is my ‘Combat Escape Bike’ FWIW Stay Tuned More Later BCE
Greetings and Salutations! OK… Drone Defense. MANY problems exist in the Drone Arena of Warfare. FAR too many for but a single Infantryman who got MedRet in 1999 to go over, but I do have some ideas. It helps that I think outside of the box on so many things, as my time as a Contractor in Iraq it was damned near a full time gig of “Adapt, Improvise and Overcome” lest you be caught with your britches around your ankles and your pud in yer fist.
There’s a LOT of different ideas being put out there.
First and foremost are from the GIANT Defense Contractors who never met a problem that they couldn’t find an answer to via throwing HUUUUUGE gobs of dinero at it…
Bloom County did a couple or so strips about the Strategic Defense Initiative or SDI under Reagan that mentioned this exact issue:
Opus et. al. ‘jumped on the DotGov Gravy Train’ and then were unexpectedly expected to produce results… queue mayhem after the fact…
The “Space Defense Gizmo” that Opus is referring to ends up being a ‘belt’ of woven together $100 bills three feet thick in a 100 foot high wall that both encircles and orbits the Earth, thereby stopping any Rooskie Missiles from getting thru to ‘Murica!!!
So yeah, High Tech?
So far, not so mucho. Not that I can actually see So Far.
All the shytte I’m seeing so far positively reeks of a “Bloom County” level of stoopid-expenditure with very little actual return… Go figure Aye?
‘Stuff’ so far that DotBigMilCon (rather appropriate as it stands for Dot Big Military Contractors, “Con” being the functional definition) are man-portable ‘weapons’ like these:
Uhhhh
Yeeeeeah….
I sure as Fuck don’t want to be “That Guy” humping that… and IF they were to go that route, well “That Guy” would have to be one in every. single. Infantry. Squad. which would designate him a number one priority target. That particular one is called a Droneshield DroneGun Mk111. A 40+ pound ‘gun’ of dubious use and funtionality…
Considering something like that being carried by a troop on the Front Line is going to positively scream “SHOOT ME FIRST!!!!”
I can’t even imagine the weight of it, never mind the battery pack to power that monstrosity. BTW, ZERO mention of that in ANY article about it…. Jes’ Sayin’
And let me tell you this’s the Dot Big Mil Con’s best idea!!!! THIS is what they’re planning on running with with each unit expected to be just under $100k per ‘gun’… which IRL means about a quarter million per unit, plus cost plus and maintenance expenses…
I mean how in the fuck do they actually expect a Grunt to fire and maneuver with such a heavy and probably useless piece of ElephantGear? It’s pure vaporware. It has an expected range of 2.5 kilometers, which sounds great on paper. However when you take into account that some of the larger drones in the Krain, on both sides, the ones that take out tanks and Infantry are about at maximum are at absolute most no larger than two square feet in height and diameter, and are only audible up until the last minute or so… So… that means that roughly Visually if you’re lucky as fuck you might see a ‘speck’ in the distance…. HOWEVER: by the time you actually visually identify a drone???
If you see a drone, you’re already beans on toast Fren.
Drone Warfare is literally “The Quick and The Dead”
And all the high end Boutique Wunderwaffen?
Like the SmartRounds Inc., who makes the SAVAGE (Smart Anti-Vehicle Aerial Guided Engagement) anti-drone rocket???
At $200k a pop???
Yeah… tell me again how great the Patriot PAC 3 is again? 2.5 milliona round We knew the Iranian Strike on Al U-Deide was coming. We evacc’d everyone so as to NOT have casualties. We shot off, with the Qataris OVER 65 Patriot Block 3 production missiles at $2.5 million a shot (+/-)
And MISSED the SINGLE Iranian Ballistic Missile ANYWAYS!!! Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Tell me again how awesome our DotMil tech is again?
See, Ivan ‘went back to basics’
They went and asked for, and got volunteers from ALL the Russian Summer Olympic Trap/Skeet Shooting Teams and set them up to train common Grunts in ‘how to kill drones’. It’s been an exceptionally successful program from what intel I’ve gathered. The former positively jumped at the idea…
They started off training the troops to become efficient in shooting skeet with semiautomatic 12 gauge shotguns. 26 inch barrels to start, as that’s the optimal length. Then they worked them up so it becomes damned near reflexive. Once they passed the skeet/trap part of the course, THEN they introduced drones.
They started off with slow, man-guided drones… none of which have any real capacity (outside of getting close enough to cause a ‘fail’ on the testing) to do harm, and then in the next evolution, they eventually worked up to real-life Mavic Drones carrying simulated deadly charges that have a significantly reduced charge…
One that ‘marks the fail’ so to speak with colored powder when it ‘blows up’ thereby showing that the individual in question failed in their mission to stop the drone by ‘coloring them’ with the powder… pink being one of the more popular ‘marks of shame.’ gets recycled from my understanding. Because they’re a wee bit more expensive, (a DJI Mavic runs/retails for about $600) the charge doesn’t ‘kill’ the drone necessarily during training UNLESS the student ‘wins’ and takes out the drone so to speak.
The point is they’re willing to lose a drone via the student’s live fire, but NOT if they fail. IF the student successfully blows the drone away, then it’s money well spent… if they fail, then the drone can be reutilized on another student/trainee.
And as and Aside: Shame is a great motivator in the DotMil, no matter what nationality you are… coming off the range, covered in pink powder proving you failed? Yeah…. IF they think you can do better and recycle you, well I bet you’ll make it the second time around rather than embarrass yourself….
Another thing the Russians have been finally utilizing is what -I- told them they needed to be using back many months ago, and that was the KS23 Shotgun:
The KS23 was/is a four round capacity pump action Anti-Riot Riot Shotgun designed and built in the early 70s. It is well known for its utterly INSANE caliber, firing essentially what is a 23 mm round… which makes it roughly a 4 gauge using European standards. That makes it the making it the largest-bore shotgun in modern use.
Fuck My/Your Shoulder Aye? Or in the case of having no stock, your palm.
FFS they made it using failed 23mm Anti-Aircraft Machine gun barrels in the whole nature of Ivan’s “Waste Not, Want Not” proclivities… Ivan throws NOTHING away if he can help it… hence the size/name/caliber of this beast. It fires non-lethal (why bother?), buckshot (oh that must suck) and fucking slugs although what sort of targetneeds a 23mm Deer-Slug?!?!?!
That’s one fucking deer I never want to meet up with… Armed or Unarmed… A Siberian/Mongolian Man Eating Death Deer maybe? Jes’ Sayin’ No fuckin’ thanks brohiem.
Now, as far as (and I know this’s going to go over like the proverbial lead balloon,) but I have a COTS idea that could be implemented right here, and right now… As I discussed with Herschel last evening or the night before…
My Idea utilizes pre-existing stuff… In this case it’d be the M7/M243 LVOSS or Light Vehicle Obscuration Smoke System to dispense an anti-drone package. The anti-drone rounds would be new, but easily and cheaply made/manufatured.
I make my own ‘timed/fused’ fireworks legally here for holidays for my 37mm Launcher… If -I- can make them here, utilizing a glue gun, some black powder, and learning how to time my visco?
So easy, even an Airborne Infantryman can do it LOL.
As it is, currently, the LVOSS is/was used to ‘throw mad amounts of smoke’ in Iraq and Afghanistan during ‘negative crowd issues’ i.e. protests and/or riots. The launchers themselves individually look like this:
A lot of you probably remember them. I saw them very frequently in Iraq on the roof(s) of primarily MP (Mil Police) vehicles and the like, in clusters:
Usually 2x launchers, like that, facing outward. They generally were on all four corners of the roof(s) of the Gun Trucks with 2x per, with a total of 8 launchers available… They usually looked like this:
(In this case there’s only one launcher per corner… hey, it’s a websearch man… I do what I can w/what I got…)
Now the round used in those launchers? They’re the L8 Smoke Round that has a makeup like this (cutaway pic so you know of what I speak):
Each tube on a M7 launch tube is 66mm in diameter wide round, and about 5.75 inches (the round itself) in the pic above long… meaning the overall length is about 7.28 inches long, but the Boomy-Boom part of the round itself is about 5.75 inches by 66mm which is 2.6 inches wide. The round has the capacity in that picture of having a 19oz payload…
Remove that Red Phosphorous/Butyl Rubber Smoke Composition?
Replace that and Load the shell with #4 Turkey Shot?
Well the payload for the above-stated round is 19 ounces.
The math said a comparable 19-ounce load of #4 lead shot would contain approximately 2,584 pellets. #4 lead shot contains about 136 pellets per ounce. Therefore, 19 ounces * 136 pellets/ounce equals roughly 2584 pellets.
THAT is a LOT of pellets IMO.
Each M7 launcher holds 4 rounds.
That’d put about a little less that 10000 #4 Turkey Shot Pellets out there ALL at once. LITERALLY A CLOUD of #4 shot out to about 100 yards +/- ALLLLL it takes is ONE PELLET to hit a rotor Game Over at that point.
Multiply Times ‘however many’ drones may be coming in? I mean c’mon…. 10,000 #4 shot? In ONE ‘shewtin’ match’ so to speak? That’s all she wrote. As I said, All it takes is ONE pellet on a rotor or whatnot to bring down a drone…
This’s the best route to go IMO, because they’re PRE-EXISTING tech means just re-ramping the loadout for the rounds themselves. Add on that they cane be reloaded BY THE GUYS DRIVING THE TRUCKS instead of needing some aftermarket Contractor Contact Team???
Driver: “Hey, we shot down another drone, launcher #3 is dry”
TC looks up to the Gunner: “Yo man… When we stop, reload #3… I think the reloads are under my porn-stash-ammo can…”
Gunner: “Roger.. got it.”
Win-Win I think to myself.
Of course watch this happen exactly as I describe it, and I get fucked out of the idea, as it ALWAYS happens…. The Penta-gram has bounty payments for ‘stuff’ like this, but you never hear about guys like, the real ‘thinkers’ getting paid nor credit for stuff like this…
Greetings and Salutations! Man… Glad I’m in shape. Round is a shape innit?
Sapper and I still live despite exceptional gastronomic overload yesterday. Dinner tonight was a mite on the lite side as neither of us had much of an appetite almost 24 hours later STILL.
That as some good grub man. Some of y’all comments cracked me the fuck up too. Like literally laughed out loud. In fact I realized something… I’ve laughed out loud MORE in the past 4 days than I have in the last 4 months.
Like genuine laughter at some ‘stuff’ I haven’t enjoyed in a while. Case in point, SWMNBN didn’t like Cartoons. For the life of me, I can NOT understand how you can’t enjoy Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny and the rest… nevermind the fact we are BOTH GenX and cartoons were the “Staff of Saturday Morning Life” for our generation. Sapper thinks it’s that she lacks the ability understand abstract concepts… like that question “If you didn’t eat breakfast this morning, how would you feel now?”
In my case I think it’s her inability to embrace or understand absurdity. Either way, Saturday Morning Bug Bunny was on MeTV and one I haven’t seen in ages popped up “Forward March Hare” where Bugs gets drafted:
At 00:19 seconds in, the guy behind Bugs?
He looked at the camera, and did that insane giggle? Maaaan I lost it for some reason. Genuinely laughed my ass off. I mean it is funny, especially in light of the whole “Rabbit drafted into the Army” thing…the X-Ray tech was great too. I LOL’d when I saw the ‘ear bone’ so to speak…
Over all it’s been a very stress free weekend.
I also got a package today from a Kickstarter that I had completely forgotten about. Not sure about y’all but I’m not too big into the whole Kickstarter thing… This one though I figured that why not? It wasn’t going to break my bank so to speak and if it vanished, well OK. Sapper does a LOT of Kickstarter support, and his track record hasn’t been too bad… likje me he’ll do one, and months later, out of the blue a ‘rando-package’ shows up and then it’s a “Ohhhhh yeeeeah!!! I forgot about this!!!”
This was a instance like that here today. I opened said package and……..
Meet “Clay the Claymore” Some of you probably already saw it on Gab where I put it up earlier… It’s waaaay cute. It’s also got a BIG velcro section on the back, which is how I was able to mount him to the front of my vest… I have no idea why, but this stupid lil thing makes me very happy for some reason.
Now supposedly they’re still up for sale. I’m unsure. I got mine via a Kickstarter. And the tag on mine says “Only 10431 made”
After getting it I did order another… Ranger Jay has his first kid on the way… I’m not sure if the Redhead would like it or not… she also is a wee bit spoiled when it comes to plushies… I got her a “Blood God” plushie AKA “Nanner” from ‘Sketch’s World’:
For those of you unfamiliar, ‘Sketch’ is a former Marine who does a comic called ‘Sketch’s World’… he’s funny AF w/various takes on the DotMil as well as the various services…
Nanner is oft referred to as “The Blood God”
The plushie was a limited run and well, the Redhead didn’t cotton onto it… I think it’s b/c she has WAY too many to even notice it. So Yep..
Then lastly, a meme that cracked me up courtesy of CA over at WRSA:
“Flammenwerfers” need to be added to the ‘No Step on Snek’ side of things… Jes’ Sayin’.
So tomorrow I’ll have a wee bit of a writeup on an idea about countering drones. Herschel from The Captain’s Journal put up a suggestion on Twitter that I responded to, and I can elaborate more on. The tweet in question is this:
The U.S. military is thinking about drones. Doctrine usually doesn’t survive first contact, but at least it’s a start. I especially approve of the shot shells for tanks.https://t.co/HOGeDehsWE
My idea is in the replies. I got a few more thoughts on the subject to go over later.
Otherwise, the commenter who mentioned the 2003 Lincoln? If you can reach out to me at bce187th@protonmail.com. I’d appreciate it. I really need my own wheels. Also, I haven’t heard back from the raffle winner. I know the email was delivered (I got confirmation of that) so the clock is rolling there. If I don’t get a response, I’ll pull another name in a week. And those of you who asked, the new PayPal is CountryofBigExpat if you want to know… All contributions to keeping the lights on are appreciated, but not absolutely necessary (for now thank the Good Lord!)
If I don’t hear back, I’ll reopen the raffle for another week ‘cos I had a LOT of people email and DM me saying they wanted to join, but as the fucking cunt had hijacked my shit, well… Yeah… about that… I hope the fucking Feds nail her DC Ass to the wall as I did report that shit. Interstate Wire Fraud is a thing donchaknow?
So it’s now time to game out for a bit. I’m at the end of my 2nd run thru Fallout London, this time being a ‘bad guy’ which is something I like about the Fallout series, being able to do different factions and whatnnot….
Greetings and Salutations! >URP!< I’m still full from brekkie w/Ranger Jay and Sapper. A very enjoyable morning, much like when Concerned American came by last week and met the ‘BCE Casa Clan of Cats and Doggos’ and then we hit IHOP for our repast. Just as we did today.
ZERO drama. ZERO bullshit. AHHHHHHHHH… >queue deep sign of satisfaction/relief<
I mean DC is still playing games in the background. I’ve gotten a few alerts that someone is TRYING to get into my various ‘things’ but since I went “Full Covenant” and initiated ALL the two-factor authentications, and ALL the security, everything (as of now) appears to be good.
I did call SWMNBN (She Who Must Not Be Named) to let her know that DC was still trying shit, that I had the evidence and “…don’t you realize what you idiots did (hijacking and taking the PayPal account over and emptying it) is a federal wire-fraud rap?” The usual denials came fast and furious, so I told her to step on that shit HARD or her newgran is going to be born in a Fed Lockup. She was all weepy as if I give a shit anymore.
Buh Bye Felecia.
I might just pull that trigger (metaphorically speaking) out of absolute spite at this point. The interactions with the cops has been exceptionally enlightening. They (the idiot twins) fucked up in sooooo many ways I could have the two of them bent over and fucked so hard it’s really sad.
And they keep doing to themselves. Wirecutter and I had an email conversation today where he put it pretty succinctly: “What in the fuck is it with women and fucking their soon-to-be exes around? I’ve never met a woman that could just walk away from a marriage and call it quits. Every fucking one of them has to do as much damage as they possibly can. “
Sheesh. No shytte man, no shytte…. All I wanted was to be loved man…
Anyways. I got ONE bit of OUTSTANDING News Today!!!! (I needed this BTW)
Said-news is that over the past couple of days, since all my shit got hijacked, I’ve been checking and securing ALL my Accounts. I mean ‘MAD paranoia’ are the word(s) of the week, so I’m covering my ass. Like ALL THE ACCOUNTS!
So one of them was my Amazon Associates account. That’s the one y’all have been supplementing me via MRE and gear purchases on occasion. When I went in… well DAMMITALLTOHELL!!! What. The. Fuck. Man?
Even THAT bank account number was NOT mine and I had never realized it!!!! I had no idea what the number was, and I know calling the ‘Zon would have been an exercise in futility, so I just fixed it as I figured AGAIN it was DC and SWMNBN doing their Wreck-It-Ralph shit again.
FIDO: Fuck It, Drive On.
Now the way the Associates Account works is that The Zon only pays out after like two months behind at the end of each month, meaning I JUST got the April/May payout (but I didn’t so to speak).
I fixed the Direct Deposit, and kind of figured any of the previously-dispersed funds, well those were a wash, but it’s cool b/c the majority MRE cash is still pending… (I sold over $70k in MREs thru those links LOL… that’s a LOT of MREs folks!!!)
And since USUALLY I have like BARELY any commissions, I never noticed the lack of $$$ coming in from it before… Like $12 here, $20 there… so little as to not rate me even noticing… Plus you have to hit like $100 before they actually pay out, so it might be months before I get a dime from the Bezosclown….
That was like 3-4 days ago.
So as today progressed, I needed to check the new BoA account to see if the water/electric bills had cleared and WOWSERS!!! Seems that account, the wrong one that HAD been getting the $$$ previously? It has been apparently holding ALL my commissions and is/was an escrow account or some such.
I guess by inputting my NEW account info, well all that cash stored and saved up since November of 2019 dropped all at once!!!
I just got ALL of my commissions!!!! It was about $2k!!!! I NEEDED this win!!!
Thank the Good Lord for watching out for drunks/stoners/freaks like us amiright?
Whew…
THAT is a MAJOR load off my mind.
Funnily enough I had something like this happen a few years back with my Patreon Account. I didn’t realize I had to withdraw the $$$ from it, and when I looked, there was like 4-5 years of accumulation in there. It wasn’t much, (like NO subscribers LOL) but these days?
Every. Penny. Counts. Even though I heard they’re no longer making them? Pennies that is…
So I’ll be emailing the Raffle Winner tonight And if they’re cool w/it I’ll poast their handle/name.
Then I’ll ship it on out. And I can actually afford this shit for once. And even better? NO female expenditures left for this month so to speak.
<Insert Dinner Break Here>
Whew…. OK just got back from a wee bit of a celebratory dinner.
We went to a new restaurant that opened a ways back. A Turkish kitchen featuring some good Turk/Arabic food. What with SWMNBN gone, I can partake in my favorite food picks like Middle eastern cuisine. She hated Haji-Chow. Sapper and myself? It’s our third? time there I think.
Now, it’s a bit pricy, but we went for the BIGGEST platter they have… ALL THE MEETZ. Like grilled meats including Lamb Adana, Lamb Shish, Chicken Shish, Beef Shish, Kofte, Chicken Adana and sliced Doner meetz. It’s supposed to serve 4-6 people. It’s cooked into a GIANT pita over a bed of rice.
It comes out looking like this:
I had to use the stock photo as Sapper and I sort of got ahead of ourselves, and by the time I took the pic, ours looked like this:
There’s also a BIG pile of pickled red onions, pickled radish and shredded lettuce. Big ole chunks of sliced whole tomatoes were in the mix as well as them chili peppers you see…
We went hog-wild on it…
The waiter said he’s never seen ANYONE destroy the platter so completely…. especially only TWO of us on what’s supposed to be a 4-6 person platter.
We wrecked that sucker. There wasn’t much left… We both have that ‘meat high/sweats’ you get after positively GORGING on a HUGE pile of dead animal flesh…
I ate like I had two assholes. ANOTHER Great Day! Sapper? I think Sapper is dead. Or at least in a Meat-Induced Coma I’ll check to see if he’s still breathing later.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh It’s the little things in life Peace and Quiet… I forgot what that was.
I done forgot to update y’all on the Snausage Princess! That’s inexcusable, so apologies there! For real!!!
First off, No issues. She’s doing great! Outside of an increase in her already GARGANTUAN appetite (Sapper calls her a ‘stomach with legs’) because of the meds we figure, she’s been really doing well.
Hence the following pics:
Sapper, Stella and the attention-whore Chili.
Not sure if I put that one out already. Then yesterday, Bob-the-Cat and Stell were chilling out on Sapper’s bunk together:
Bob shockingly has been really cool and seems to know that Stella got fucked up a bit. He’s been cuddling up w/her on the regular. Granted, for a cat, he was raised essentially with Stella from the get-go, so he’s got some ‘doggo-attitudes’ so to speak. Pretty cool IMO and what’s hilarious is they’ve got almost the same coloration… like IRL they’re brother/sister/littermates. At least in their minds…
Now last night I didn’t get much sleep.
B/C of doggo reasons.
Stella was on her usual perch (see the 2nd pic below) so to speak on the sofa in the War Room AKA “The Museum of Mayhem” and started having what I think was a bad dream… whining, whimpering and crying out all the while sound asleep… doggo-dreams if you will. She had these even BEFORE ‘the incident’ so I gathered her up, and brought her into MY room as the bunk is a Cali-King with plenty of room, (I thought, more the fool sez I) and so I figured she could crash w/me.
Which she did… (pic taken at about 0400)
All 75 pounds of farting/drooling dead-weight of her.
On her back… happy as a clam.
That Bitch kept me up ALLLLLL night and the dog-farts were something Glen Filthie would have been in awe of… UTTERLY devastating. Nerve Agent Level. Toxic. What the fuck are we feeding her? I asked myself? Dead fucking rotten squirrels??? Pickled rhinoceros guts? Add on she took over the center of the bunk, leaving me on the Edge of It? WAITING to fall to my doom???
Typical Woman… even Doggo-Whammenz are bed hogs.
BUT She slept with a cute pittie-smile she has, stayed all night and I pretty much had to clock in late to the People’s Glorious Tractor Factory as I barely got any shut-eye between the farting and the fact I was clinging to the edge of the bunk ‘cos like I said, that bitch? She’s a bed-hog. It also damned near took a stick of TNT to get her OFF the bunk when it was time to get up…
Heh. Whammenz amiright? She’s doing well like I said… I took this whilst writing:
They were both out cold until I went to take that pic. Then BOTH of them opened their peepers…
No idea what ‘radar’ they have, but yeah… both of them are good girls. Love ’em to death. Literally I’m burning my relationshit/marriage down b/c of one of these bitches LOL.
Nuthin’ wrong with that Aye? And YES I do feel the relief. MAD more mellow. No longer feeling like I’m walking on broken glass. TBPH:
Case in point: Sapper, Ranger Jay and Myself are going out for breakfast at a Denny’s/IHOP or wherever for the first time in almost 10 years.
This used to be a ‘regular thing’ that X#1 never interfered with.
However, Soon-to-Be X#2 had ‘issues’ ‘cos she wasn’t part of it, as this was our guy thing… normally brekkie, and then a movie. In fact when X#1 got me hemmed up with the Gendarmes back in the day, it was because I failed to show for our “regular” Saturday morning brekkie and the movie with Sapper and Ranger Jay that got Sapper to do the detective work and eventually bond my ass out of the clink…
Frens like that are gold folks.
No movie this time as A, there isn’t one worth fuck-all right now and B, Jay has some shit he’s got to get up to w/his ole lady.
BUT Smol Baby Steps back to ‘Normality’ Aye??? For the values of what’s ‘normal’ in my Chaotic Good lifestyle right? Holy fuck I’m so pleased I could bust!!!
The last thing for tonight is probably one of the cooler things I found recently. As they say,
“Reject Modernity, Embrace Tradition!”
This video here is about the WHITEST video you’ll ever see… an IrishRUSSIAN (more on this in a later poast!!!!) A-Cappella group named “Spokanki” (Spokane) doing a traditional song (in Gaelic) called ‘Ceann Dubh Dilis’ (My Sweet, Dark-Haired Love):
-I- have an Irish Boner going on… Russkie or not, I dig the traditional Gaelic moo-sik Traditional costumes…song… lyrics… Oh Holy Hells… THAT is traditional
