Author: BigCountryExpat

Greetings and Salutations!
OK
Let us get the health thing out of the way. Some of you who’ve been hanging out for quite a spell may remember that my dumbass cracked the ever loving shit out of my shinbone on the ‘bad leg’ (AKA Lefty) while doing PMCS and ‘stuff’ on The Boat (The J3 Donated Boat that is)… PMCS stands for Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services, which is a term used in the DotMil for inspecting equipment and doing on-the-spot repairs IF one has the ability. Meaning I was working on The Boat and forgot I had a GIANT assed tow hitch I needed to dodge…

Like I said, dumbass mode engaged.

Said-Injury looking like this:

Yeeeeah… a ‘Fred Flintstone’ sized lump that was so bad, Sapper insisted we go and get me checked out at the VA at the time… which was pretty much worthless, as it resolved after about 3 months (August 12th being the Day of Deep Impact if you will) on it’s own.

HOWEVER…
The reason I call it “the bad leg” is that’s the knee that got blowed da faq up back in 2006 and had to be rebuilt. Now in the hospital, you can see a wee bit better, but when they cut on me to insert all that Titanium and the other ‘robo-knee stuff’ a LOT of the return veins got either severed, smashed and or not fully mission capable:

All that blotchy color and darker skin?

Yep. That’s been there since the surgery.
Which was in January of 2006…
Not much they can do about it (so I’ve been informed)

So back then I got a Xray and some other pablum that was (IMO) wholly inadequate but it IS the VA so… not much I could do about it… That being said however, things appeared to be OK… Until a few weeks ago when I re-hit the original area…

My dumb ass hit the same exact area again… the how/where/when/why? No idea. I did, however, break the skin, and therein lies the problemo. It was a minor cut BUT

Seems it got infected.
And a BIG PART of my overall encompassing health issues stem from my nerve damage that I got waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day… that being the injury that earned me a One Way Ticket to Fort Living-room, The House.

See… I regularly injure myself.
Most dudes do to a certain degree

The usual stuff… minor cuts… smashed/broken toes (hence last night’s meme of the stones… that cracks me up)… but when I do cause a self induced injury, the problem is I barely register it/feel anything!!! It stems from the brachial nerves coming off of the Cervical 5,6, and 7 vertebrae.

The main nerves got squished when I did my best Wile E. Coyote imitation with the main gun toob of an M1A1 Abrams:

Meaning instead of a “Rock or Something” I got a 10,000 Pound Rheinmetall made M256 120mm Main Gun Toob dropped laterally across’t me squash, thereby inducing a serious vertical compression based impact injury that crushed me like a bug and almost kil’t me.

Hence the cartoon.
BUT
I did say
ALMOST
Thankfully I was in great shape and my at-the-time 26+ inch neck did NOT shift/slide or displace, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation, as I would have died right then, right there… Nope, I got ka-squish-tulated, and have been dealing with it since…

As it was however
So at first, I was in AGONY 24-7-365 for years.
Muscle Spasms, Pain, Joint Pain…

ALL the pain….

Then… it sort of just tapered off…

It seems that I finally found a Sawbones who could explain it to me… As it was such a severe injury, that over time?
The pain receptors burned the fuck out. Leaving me with NO IDEA that I had a cellulitis infection cooking away for a few weeks, and that it’d spread causing a serious buildup of liquid (lymph) and peripheral edema.

They loaded me up with a metric fuckton of meds so now I’m not worried about any potential social diseases like HerpaGhonorrSyphilAIDS or anything… the amount of shit they put me on I could probably bang a leper… anyways…

To add to the good news, the EKG came back awesome with NO ABNORMALITIES, and the liver panel came back the best it’s been in years, much to the consternation of my primary care, who’s used to seeing it marked “Pickled/Plastered” for the past 20 years or so… Add on that the chest X-ray and leg X-ray show no issues either, and I got the Ultrasound today and they said they’d call me IF there was anything to worry about… In fact the BP?
Yeah… without ANY drugs I was running a 127 over 72 Average

Which for a 57 year old sedentary (current lifestyle that is) sort of guy?
That’s fuckin’ great…

And since I haven’t heard anything negative about Ye Olde Ultrasounde???
That means I’m cleared for a bounce to California to see ‘Forbidden Planet’!

Which ALSO has a few surprises!

As in I may/may not be meeting up with some of you who’ve told me you’d be there and look for me, and I’m also the grateful guest of a fellow Blogger who kindly offered me up a place to stay, and is someone who’ll blow y’alls minds when you find out who… I’ll keep that for later…

I’m also trying to coordinate to see Concerned American from WRSA as he IS a damned good fren and we’ve broken bread quite a few times… it’s a matter of timing as he has to leave shortly after I get there… ships passing in the night and all that (without the romantical bullshit involved in that old saying…LOL)

So no matter what, this’s going to be a kick-ass weekend.

Now, to continue with the debrief of “Operation Nassau”

When we last left off, our Hero, Big Country had been repulsed by Superior Numbers and an Unnatural Putrescent Stink that was vaguely reminiscent of Mad Dog 20/20 and Old English Malt Likker, coming from the Hot-Tub(s) that appeared to be brewing “Negroid Soup” at the back of Ye Ole BOWT.

Needless to say… there was NO coming back from that level of gross… As seen by my reaction here:

“Run Away! Run Away!“
Monty Python and The Holy Grail
(or is it Groid these days?)
Anywho….

It was sort of like that joke when us GenX kids were kids still “What’s grosser than gross?” followed up by some really foul punchline in one form or another… Anyway, many of you in the comments tended to agree… So with that minor defeat being logged, I retreated to a ‘beach chair’ to read and relax…

I got a wee bit of sun, as I forgot the sunscreen, but only enough to feel ‘warm’ as opposed to ‘scorched’ which is a good thing. I stayed out there working my way through some long-overdue reading which, for once, did not involve training manuals and/or ‘educational stuff’ which is my usual.

Nope… this was pure ‘reading for mindless pleasure’

The unplugging of my Casaba was almost physically felt.

Of course said-mindless pleasure reading was getting caught up on John Ringo’s “Dark Tide Rising” Zombie-Apocalypse series of book(s) (up to #16 now!) but hey! Preppers gonna prep, and us TEOTWAWKI fiction lovers need some down time and love too amiright?

And when the night started to close in, I got this:

This picture does that skyline no justice!

It was absolutely magnificent, and reminded me of just WHY the Good Lord gave me a smol wakeup in N’awlins two weekends before via the Bishopman… It really reopened my eyeballz to the beauty that is still in this world, as well as a reminder of just what the fuck we need to fight for when the time comes…

Anyways, enough with the ‘waxing philosophically’.

Leave that to the Libtards and Bluehaired Breeding Rejects…

Jes’ Sayin’

So after soaking up the rays, and Saturday being a full-on “Day At Sea” which can translate to “We have them trapped and can try to milk every. single. shekel. out of them as they are, in fact, a captive audience.” (which was absolutely true) it was time to ‘go on the prowl’ and check the various bars and entertainment and shows to be had on Ye Olde BOWT…

Now mind you, I only had a total of 4 buckets of bleer (intentional misspelling, there’s a inside joke there) for the whole trip… essentially one a day, and only bought the occasional companion/bedwarmer a few boozles as well. she claimed not to like to drink too much…

Meh… whatever…

Now while I wasn’t drinking, I did have a cash reserve of a couple of fitties that Sapper had laid on me for his ‘rent’ before I left… he contributes weekly, and for the most part, said $$$ goes to the household expenses. Since I’m no longer having ‘extra expenditures of a type’ I was able to hold onto said $$$ for a “just in case/OH FUCK!” moment as cash talks a language allll it’s own overseas, even in a place as relatively civilized as Nassau…

And having cash?
Well the only place on BOWT that took cash was the Casino.
Hmmmmn…

Blackjack anyone?
Yep. That was fun…

Mind you I literally broke even as fuck.
By the time we re-anchored and docked back in Palm Beach, I had had a zero-sum set of game(s) for the whole weekend, meaning I started with $170.00 and went home with $170.00… minus $20 in tips to the dealer(s)… so as far as I was concerned it was a wash…

That being said, for a few hours, I was up by like $400…

To the point I started getting free drinks and if I wanted, appetizers IF I requested them. I’m not a great player by any means… I’m more ‘instict driven’, meaning while I can NOT count cards, I do see the ‘greater pattern of chaos theory and randomness’ of the Shoe as the cards are dealt.

Case in point:
New dealer.
They re-did the card decks or the shoe as it’s properly called.
Then, after -I- cut the cards, and after a few other things happened, the dealer asked us to throw down on the table, at which point I did not.

I waited.

Which after having played multiple successful hands the dealer, (an nice girl from Serbia named Markova) asked me why I was sitting the first (and subsequent hands) out?

I said I never play off a fresh shoe… maybe hand number 3 or 4, but only if it feels right.

She shrugged and played and I watched.

After Hand Number 2, on a $5 dollar table (the $5 table kicked in from 15:00 until 18:00 to get the suckers in) I threw in $50 for Hand #3.

Now this table had the “Insurance/If your hand has…” spots… and in this case IF your face cards on the first hand (meaning the first 2 cards you get thrown only) has either a Blackjack or a hand that equals 20, and IF you get that 20 with a queen, well I believe as memory serves me it was a progressive payout… if you got 20 via 2x Queen Face Cards, it was a 200 to 1 payout… meaning if you bet $1, you made $200… and it went from there.
That is IF you put down some ducats BEFORE the dealer even started throwing cards…
Otherwise it was a moot point. To continue

When it came time for Hand #3 on this shoe and I had thrown in the $50? The cards came up:
Two Tens
Which got me a 25-1 payout because I had hedged a bet on it equaling 20. And since I had two 10 cards?
I split.
And because of the split, I was able to double my original bet on them ($25 more on each)
Which in turn gave me a Blackjack on One Hand and another 20 on the other, which curb-stomped the dealer nicely… I made almost $250+ off that one hand alone altogether

Needless to say, I had a blast
And BTW, don’t argue my maff… it’s been a LOOOONG day and I’m a wee bit fuzzy. What matters is I had a ball, ‘companion’ had a good time, and then, well it was time to prep for the AM trip to Nassau itself.

Because of the upcoming off-ship adventure, I went to bed pretty early… This was Saturday night. I also didn’t drink worth a fuck-all as each beer, a 16oz tallboy, or a ‘pounder’ as they used to call them back in the day, cost $8USD EACH.

5 of them were $42.99 which gets filed under an “Oh my aching balls!!!” level of pricing… Buying a mixed drink for my companion? $18 for a Sex on the Beach or a Mai Tai on the BOWT… extortion-level prices IMO.

So… I went and crashed, and fought the good fight to get some serious ZZZs as they’d been in short supply.

I woke up and brekkie that AM was an omelette:

Somewhat on the lighter side, BUT!
It was good grub as I stated before.
And on that note, I’ll leave it to finish (maybe) tomorrow as I do have to continue, but that being said, the day tomorrow is looking BUSY-BUSY AF. We’ll have to see. I AM bringing my little Lappie (Thanks for that Ed!!!) so I can at least attempt to stay on topic as well as update y’all…

Say a prayer for me, wish me luck and I’ll be back.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Part the Second of the mission debrief is put on hold for tonight as I have to go to the E.R. It was pointed out to me by a fren who saw my picture(s) and told me I got some serious Edema going on and since my last Liver Panel (4 weeks ago) was completely normal… something isn’t right…

In fact the Docs at the VA said it was the best one I had done in like a year or three… like EVERYTHING either perfect or even low. So I don’t -think- it’s the booze… Also I don’t have ANY symptoms that are associated with that outside of MASSIVE edema/water retention…

Another point is my weight went from 320 to about 360 over the past 2-2.5 weeks. In fact I went from 357 last night to 360 overnight and yes, I did recalibrate the scale BOTH times as I had trouble with ALL the readouts.

That’s….concerning…

I mean I DO love me some beer and pizza but that’s a stretch, even for my garbage gut….

And when earlier Doc Samizdat called me just to yakk it up, when I told/asked him, he told me to make sure I go tonight

So I’ll update later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
OK folks… back at Ye Olde Casa of Ele Grande Campesino! Safe and relatively sound… leastways tired AF as it was a full day evolution to get back here… Long ride/Traffic/Minor Vehicle issues and the like took what should have been 3-4 hour jaunt into the Floridian Version of The Bataan Death March across the peninsula… like we’re talking almost 9-10 hours and my legs and back are still jacked up.

As you can see, literally “…from Sea to Shining Sea” and all that Jazz… Now this’s probably going to be in two parts as A) I got a later start as I worked late to -try- and make up some of the missed hours for People’s Glorious Tractor Factory… I was supposed to have only one day of LWOP (Leave Without Pay) and use the last 4.5 hours of my remaining VayKay time. And B) I’m still pretty tired… lots of fun (again) power packed into what was supposed to be a three day weekend, which due to unforseen circumstances became a full four day.

<Le Sigh>
Side Note: Ever notice if you miss one day of regular work without pay, the paycheck appears to be lighter by like a full $200+/- than normal… but if you do an extra 10+ hours of Overtime at time-and-a-half, you only seem to make like an additional $50+/-?

Go figure.

So on that note, let’s “Break it down like Barney” with some of the observations I had. Now… I pretty much was up all night worrying about the trip. Pre-Mission jitters is what I call it, as well as a certain amount of anticipation. The only other cruise I was on was with X#1, and ALL of the X-In-Laws and to be fair, it was mostly on MY mental headspace and timing, in that I had just recovered from that nasty near fatal lung infection, and they had discovered the tumor in my lung because of it.

Throw in a healthy dose of PTSD, and ‘other issues’ and said Thanksgiving cruise was doomed from the get-go. SO I had high hopes that this’d be fun.

Now… I got to the Port, and had a pretty quick run-through to get on board. The people were a interesting and eclectic mix with the ‘blend’ appearing to be a 1/3rd of the “Main Tribes of the US of A” if you will, those being Whytte, Blaq, and Hispanic. (with some serious various delineations among the Hispanics that I’ll cover in a bit).

For the most part, everyone was cool, calm and collected, with only ONE noticible group that had everyone’s toofuses on edge… it was a party of 4 Tatonka Whammenz… I.E. The Shaniqua Bridal Brigade… Loud, obnoxious, entitled and truthfully, all four of them looked like 800 pounds of gratuitously gross flab packed in waaaay too tight Spandex and bullshit…

<SHUDDER>
Just the memory makes me want mind-bleach in Liquid 90 Proof strength… It was that bad.

I got the following as I had cleared the Boarding/Customs location:

I will say the folks running the show were pretty damned efficient. They got everyone prepped and ready, locked and loaded and on-board within an hour of my estimated SP time, which was 12:00-13:00. SP being a DotMil term that refers to the location and time where a convoy or unit assembles and begins a movement I.E. “Start Point”

Once on Board, I made my way to my room:

Which was located roughly inside the red circle here:

Without knowing it, I chose wisely in that the red dot with the number 5 in it? That was/is the main onboarding/off-boarding point/door. It meant that due to my room’s proximity to said door, I was one of the first on, and the first off when the whole thing was said and done.

Honestly, I for the most part forgot pix of the room. It was OK… with a King Sized bed, on which the mattress was a wee bit on the harder side than I liked, but the AC was first class and the shower astall, while smol (for me) was still enough for me to get my scrub on in. The only issue, leastway in the bathroom, was the hot water was tepid at best in the shower, while the sink had a lot of the agua caliente rolling… In there of note was the toilet itself, which was somewhat reminiscent of a Jet Aircraft’s shitter. It appeared to be suction-powered or something… I dubbed it the “Turbo-Flush 9000” as I think if I had accidentally flushed whilst perched on it, the suction was so strong it was likely to rip my junk off and suck it down the tubes.

The major negative was only ONE US Standard power outlet on the smol desk area. It did have, strangely enough, another power outlet, however it was a Euro-Style two round-prong round plug type, and I didn’t have an adapter, nor did I know if it was 220 or 110, and wasn’t risking toasting any of my gear.

Once I got settled, I gave myself the nickel tour and rolled up to the 11th floor to the “License to Chill” bar and pool deck:

It was, as you can see, an utterly gorgeous day.

At this point the BOWT started rolling out, and since the sun was not quite yet setting, before dinner I plopped down, and sans sunscreen read my book for a few to initiate “Chill Mode”

I hung out and basted a bit in the sun until about 17:00 and then went to the “Port of Indecision Buffet” which was located one deck below the pool deck. Once I got there, I found it was a choice of pizza, burgers or the ‘flavor of the night’ which in this case Dinner being some Jambalaya and Mac n Cheese with assorted ‘other’ stuff…

Yeah, the food wasn’t great but it was “chow” in the respect that it was aight, plentiful, filling, and available damned near around the clock. I forgot to take the pic before starting to chow down as by that point I was hungry-hungry.

It was exceptionally reminiscent of the food we had in the chow halls in Iraq and Afghanistan. ESPECIALLY the Burger bar on the poop-deck in the 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar:

I swear to GOD as my witness that these were the same exact burgers we had “back in the day” in the chow hall(s) on Victory and Balad.

Speaking of Church, I did find the Chapel and yes, I did visit on Sunday:

Your basic AF Multi Denominational Church, with an emphasis on 1970’s decor and “All of the Above” Religions. I think the Bishop from N’awlins would have been pleased. No real services held of course, but at least it was a place to go (at least for me) to give thanks and reflect on the wild-assed shytte I’ve been doing as of late Aye?

Shortly after eating, and since I had only had about an hour-and-a half of sleep, I went and got a surprisingly good night’s sleep after dinner. The sleep was sound, but vivid dreams were had that really surprised the Hell out of me… it was like a ‘life in parallel’ so to speak where for a bit, I wasn’t sure which place was the ‘real world’… it wasn’t a problem, not even… just really vivid and… sincere? I’m not sure how to describe it… suffice to say I got some really good ZZZs out of it…

So, after a really good, hard crash out, I made sure that I was up relatively early for the “Full Day At Sea” to take advantage of the ‘stuff’ they had available. The first thing I did was hit the brekkie in the buffet:

My absolute favorite meal of the day on board hands down.

Polish Breakfast Snausages w/Onions, French Toast Stix, Infidel Meetz (ham) and good ole US Army (probably) powdered scrambled eggs. I realize it’s with an Ironic Tone that I say this, but considering how as I went along and discovered that the majority of the guys on board were all either retirees like me, and/or quite a few active duty guys who spanned ALL branches, the chow was great (leastways to us Grunts).

The chow also brought back some fond memories, leastways in the case of breakfast, which when I was active duty in the Army AND as well as being a Contractor, the brekkies were the tits man…

After breakfast, I then scooted back up to the “License to Chill” bar and pool deck, and well… I tried to be early and get to the Hot Tub as Ye Olde Spine was in pretty rough shape still, and there I found my first… hmmmn… “Diversity Checkpoint” so to speak?

Mudshark and Groid Soup anyone?

EUUUW! EUUUW! EUUUW! EUUUW!

So much for THAT amenity amiright?
Those two tubs stayed that way the entirety of the trip mind you. Meaning positively PACKED with ‘floaters’ so to speak… Needless to say, I had ZERO Interest in soaking myself in any potential ‘stuff’ that could have been passed on in such a hot-temp breeding ground for the HerpaGhonnaSyphiliAids that any one of them weirdos were possibly carrying…

Thanks/No Fucking Thanks Aye?

Sticking my dick in an open, pus-filled Festering Wound held more appeal TBH… I know… gross but y’all didn’t smell the scene… and yes… ‘Par-Boiled Nog’ Does have a rather pungent aroma.

And now… with that rather grody description, I realize I’ve hit the writing limit for tonight.

Tune in for the next installment tomorrow of our Travelog of The Country of Bigness™ and his Wild and Whacky Adventures!

Thanks for coming by!
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations…
I’ll have more to follow…
I’m on board BOWT and have temporary Intarwhebz and Fon (VERY sketchy connectivity on fon and NOT sure of International Fon $$$ charges….)

Pix cannot load, so You’ll have to wait

BUT
So far?
A VERY COMFORTABLE TRIP!
No chimpouts an waaaaaay chill… almost everyone is my age or a wee bit younger…

The primary thing is 70%+/- of the passengers are ALL Prior/Current service…. every one (for the most part are very polite and cool AF… I’ll go into depth later, so lemme run… I got an appointment w/a hottie for a steak dinner at the $teakhouse.

More Later
BCE

Greetings and Salutations!
This’ll be the last poast for a few as I am not shilling out the MAD $$$ (unless there’s an onboard deal) for the WiFi on Ye Olde Tub. They want like $200 for 2x devices (when it’s just me rolling) and I’d rather have $200 to either buy a quality meal or get some brewskis. It’s the “nickel and dime them to death” business model…

Even the bleer is outrageously cray-cray in price… a 5 pack pre-ordered is $70 “but comes in a neat-o souvenir cooler!!!” That sort of shytte only appeals to fucking splits, so that’s a no go at this station.

BTW: Not shilling for them, but if you’re vet, I got the room for the cost of the taxes port fees and whatever… I paid $250.00 and that was it… there’s a bunch of stuff they’re still hawking thru Friday, so if you’re in Florida and hankering, go check it out.

THAT is a MomUnit’s “Traveling well for short $$$” lesson of the day. She’s a certified Black Belt in cheap travel. She used to regularly sign up with a courier company out of NY that she’d get a call the day before asking if she had her passport and “Are you willing to go to ‘X’ tomorrow?” Depending on her circumstances at the time, she’d either do it or not, and she ended up catching some cool flights for free to various European cities for a weekend…

“Travel on someone else’s dime!” was what she told me…

Since I wasn’t hot enough to lock in an Heiress, thus my stint(s) in the Army, and then as a Contractor… Yeah, the Machine Guns, High Explosives and High Adventure were part of it, but also getting to go to strange places, meet interesting people and possibly shoot them was ALSO high on the list of “How cool is that?”

So if you have a GovX account and can prove to the algorithm that you be you and are a Vet, there’s some good deals out there to be had.

Now, the next thing is laundry… I still haven’t caught up from N’awlins. That’s next right after I get out of work and finish this….

And as far as comments about me going bugshit on an Island?
Folks… I was in fucking Guantanamo Bay for six fucking months. THE MAIN REASON I bagged that job was the company I worked for totally buttfucked me on my vacation as they didn’t pay for my one vay-kay flight home, as stated in the contract… $1500 round trip, and then the general “locked down” nature of the place.

I mean it was the most maximum of maximum security locations… and after the Abu Ghraib scandal, they went full retard to the point of OMFG… there’s Big Brother, and then there’s Gitmo. Add on while I was there I didn’t make not one single solitary fren nor did I have anyone cool to even occasionally hang with… I mean there was nuthin’.

And as loquacious and gregarious a motherfucker that I am, I decided “Fuck this for a trip back to Iraq” and I punched… I mean there were ZERO social clubs… even the USO was a dead-ender… no fun to be had, and as one of you mentioned, the ONLY thing in abundance was the Library, movies and really cheap vodka. I did a LOT of self inflicted liver damage there I swear…

Part of The Issue was that the National Guard who was in charge of the various Camps… The regular camps, not the black sites… they were clannish AF and purely hated us high paid contractors… so unlike Iraq where I made some life long frens with the Active Duty kids (2/8 CAV!!!) there, these jokers were openly hostile, so no fun to be had there either.

It wasn’t all bad tho…
There’s bad then there’s…. well….
There were some ‘mandatory fun days’ among us Jailer/Staff folks, but unfortunately there, the Captain, female, BLAQ (and don’t you forget it you, you utter whytte scumbag) type one each was a primo example of a ball busting whytte hating Negress who got off on nutcutting her subordinates, and especially us poor fucking Contractors who were beneath her contempt.

Any wonder why I’m an eeeeeevil ray-cysist?
THERE IT IS!
Just another example of obnoxious Shaniqua Behavior…

The mandatory fun days sucked enough that I couldn’t wait to go back to the house and play my vidya-games while getting torqued on Red/Orange/Blue Motherfucker…(or Green if I was lucky to find it)…that’s a 1/2 a liter of 80 proof Vodka, one liter of water, and add the ‘color of choice’ Kool Aid and bam! ‘X’ Color Motherfucker as we called it in Iraq as it was going to fuck you up like a motherfucker…

No wonder I was damned near shitting blood a few months in amiright? Lost some weight so at least I had that going for me…

Gitmo is 45 square miles in size, but in reality is a LOT fucking smaller… like FUNCTIONALLY the Area, to include the McDonalds and BX? Yeah like call it 8 square NY City BLOCKS worth of functionality. I don’t count the housing areas, as the majority of them were and still are mothballed… and none of the “Detainment Areas” either. The warehousing and dock areas, as well as the off-limits airfield? MAYBE 8 square blocks AT BEST. So yeah, I have quite a bit of experience in dealing with smol island life if you will. Like I said, I want to do a recon and check it out before committing to anything.

Saipan looks pretty fucking cool… if only for maybe a 2 week vaykay… might have to have a travel companion on that one, IF I can swing the $$$. Like I said, lots of moving parts and maybe/maybe nots to look at.

At least the Sun seems to have calmed down.

I was getting a mite worried about the Solar Storm and those offputting X Class CME Flares that almost came our way. From what I can see, they look (at least for now) to have calmed down…

The last thing I want to have happen is get caught in a “Carrington Level Event” on a cruise shit-ship filled with (potentially) cannibalistic Negroids…

That’s like a fucking script for a Comedy Horror Movie right fucking there ain’t it Aye? Unarmed, except for my own skill sets, fending off Deonte and Shaniqua who’re determined to be the first to eat my fucking liver!?! I’ll ‘nope the fuck out’ on that one…

In fact, no bullshit….
If the power on the boat goes completely dead for a period of ten to fifteen minutes… like COMPLETELY FUCKING INOPERATIVE… no ’emergency power’ no backup genny… nada… just silence and a HUGE “Ooooooh SHIT!” moment?

I’ll risk a federal charge and hit a lifeboat ahead of everyone else… one of the ones that has the emergency hand crank and all the rations in it for what? 30/40 folks? Steady Steve can punch holes in this idea… I was Infantry, NOT a squid…

Either way as part of the traveling preps I ALWAYS have, I’m bringing my compass, map board (poast on that in the future) and wearing my Garmin GPS Watch as IF the GPS is operational, well it can’t hurt… in fact if IT (the watch) goes roastie-toastie and turns up DOA due to a Carrington Level event happening while I’m at sea, it means it’s time to get the fuck off the boat, and out of Dodge…

Fuck being the “whytte meat” on the menu with a bunch of potential cannibalistic fucking groids…

Like I said, I’d rather get hemmed up by the feds for ‘prematurely abandoning ship’ IF it came down to that…

In fact I think they wouldn’t even go after me that hard ‘cos they do not want me on TV explaining just WHY I did such a thing… anyways…

AND if nothing happens BUT a chimpout?

I’ll consider myself Blessed AND hopefully I get some great footage that’ll go viral as everyone loves to see a good chimpout.

So off to do laundry.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Yep.
As asked, the recon is a loooong way aways however… I did find a place that IS within some distance and ‘out of the way’ but is still OUR territory.

Saipan

When asked by dude “How far you going?”
Dude… pretty fuckin’ far is my answer
I joke, I joke…

For real however…
It’s got a LOT going for it.
American (i.e. English) is the day-to-day lingua franca. Chamorro is the secondary locally. It’s a US Protectorate. Gun laws are close to the stateside ‘stuff’ i.e. no concealed carry but open carry allowed, and the Assault Rifle ban was struck down as unconstitutional. You need a Firearms ID card which I got no issue with, and hey… Palmetto State ships there!

Maybe become the Master Gunsmith of the Northern Marianas?

The rent on apartments are pretty decent too. $770 US for a NICE new fully furnished 2 Bedroom 1 Full Bath. Newly built mind you. One of my Expat Boards I roam on has the monthly utilities (electric/gas, water is included in the rent) is between 300-400. $400 if you need to keep your place cold-cold-cold with AC.

I get about $2k a month from Uncle with my retardedment.
That’d leave me (if I don’t keep working remotely) with about $600-700 a month for food and the like.

And the Apartments (at least the ones I’ve been looking at) are built like bunkers, with backup gennies and Typhoon Shutters as a Typhoon is on the menu so to speak… that’s a minor thing after all the shytte I’ve gone through in my life.

I’m waiting on a quote for a 20ft Connex now… that’ll tell me what I have to worry about $$$ wise there… I figure I’d sell the house, The Boat, get a good Motorcycle, throw it into the connex as well, with the guns, dishes and whatnot, (all my smithing tools and yadda yadda and clothing and bullshit) and hey… if the price is right?

There are far worse places (like Fucking New Yawk Shitty) to be living in… In fact Saip[an has a certain ring to it in my head… think “Puerto Rico” without the Puerto Ricans… It’s got a world class hospital in Garapan, however, there isn’t an Ambulance Service

Maybe a niche that needs to be filled?
DiveMedic, any thoughts?

Like I said, having lived in some true 3rd World Shitholes, I’m comfortable with what I speak of here. Saipan sounds pretty fucking nice, hence why I want to recon it. I know Costa Rica is nice, however No Guns. Ever. Not allowed… almost a dealbreaker right there IMO.

So your thoughts?
To me, so far it’s a fascinating mind-exercise.
Let me know in the comments

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
A few good conversations had in the comments (per usual with the usual suspects) and also, per usual, I enjoyed the Hell out of it.

As far as any current news, the one thing I’ve noticed is the INSANE amount of ‘flooding of my feed’ of assholes talking about how any and all opposition to the Izzies is anti-God, Anti-AMerican and general badness all around.

What.
The.
Fuck.

To the point one significant poast was about the Texas Bell County Sheriff’s Orifice made the utterly stupid and retarded choice to do a knock and talk with a disabled vet regarding him being critical of the Izzies. I lived in Bell County (Ft. Hood) and never thought I’d hear of such a thing…

Fuck those ‘shabbos goys’ too

As I’ve stated before, for “Murica’s Greatest Ally in The Middle East” they suuuuuure AF haven’t ‘put up’ anything. Gulf One? No use of Airfields. Which meant we had to use a real Ally i.e. the Saudis, who in reality are “Allies of Convenience” in that they were worried Saddam had them up next on the “Roll in the Tanks” games…

Which in turn pissed of the Wahhabists as having Infidels on the ‘sacred soil’ of Muhammed’s birth caused us a lot of fucking problems later….

How many times have the Izzies supported us militarily?

Let me know… I’ll wait…………….

Yep. That’s what I thought.

OH SO Typical of them, and then to NOT understand where the Gen X/Z hate is coming from??? Literally the most clueless bunch of inbred retards that claims a bogus religion as a ‘race’. No WONDER they’ve been chased out of 109 places over the millenia…

And as an aside: If you count Afghanistan, it’s 110.

Seems the last Rabbi in Bagram packed up and left shortly after WE left as the US Army had been financially supporting him (despite the Taliban NOT fucking with him at all)… in fact the interview with locals were like “Thank GOD that whiney sniveling Jew-Bitch is gone… all he did was complain and whine!”

I’m not kidding…

See… the Taliban are unwilling to fuck with a Priest, a Nun or a Rabbi… the whole “Talks to God” thing… Places, regular people and things? Fair game. So they suffered the Rabbi… until he realized they were NOT going to subsidize his schtick, and he packed up and left.

How bad is it that you annoy the the Taliban and want they you gone, but aren’t willing to shoot you due to the respect of Religious Norms???

Sums up Judaism to a “T”

I mean for real…

Then, a VERY PERSONAL ‘bedbug’ of mine:
Like 15 (at a minimum) HoloCost Memorials in Every. Single. State. of The USA. Like. every. single. fucking. state. And WE were the ones who supposedly rescued them.

How many memorials in Izzy-Land dedicated to ALLLLL the grunts who died during the march across Europe to ‘liberate the camps’?

Answer: Not. One. Fucking. Single. One.

They are, as both a religion and a race the most GRIFTING and ungrateful curs to have ever drawn breath IMO.

May they all enjoy Hell when J.C. decides to make an appearance.

Add on their retarded Tribemember:
The amount of pushback too vis-a-vis that fat fuck Sen. Fine has been unreal too… The fat fuck comes right out and states that the Jews have been chased out/expelled and “…none of it was our fault!!!”

Fucking dude is a retard.

Yep…
Make of it what you will…
Me?
I don’t care per se… just another fucking observer.
In fact I might have discovered a place I might want to retire to. Problem is, I need to recon it… and it’s a $2800 airfare, so I’m going to have to save up to check it out. I’ll kep you all in the loop as I go….

So otherwise
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
WOW!
Weather changed and the ole hands crinkled and wrinkled up like witches claws! The ‘thritis kicked my ass over the past couple of days, hence not typing at all. The VA gave me a bunch of different ‘things’ to take but none of them seem to work (Big Pharma right?) sao I just sort of set back and dealt with it.

Then I had 2 days of a really sore throat, like I’d gargled broken glass. I know where that came from. When I went down to GunGirl’s store to pick up my lower, there was this really gross hacking-and-wheezing FAT (and when I call someone fat… man this guy made me look fucking positively svelte!) anyways… fat motherfucker was hackin’ and being all gross…
I figured to stay away from him…

But NOOOOOOOOOO

When I sat at the little table she’s got set up to fill out the 4473, this monstrosity plopped down right next to me… and not to fill out a form but b/c it was the only other chair available I guess…

SO I ended up with just a touch of whatever nastiness he was handing out… Go figure. I’m feeling better now… It just hurts if I gab too much.

Then… let’s see… LOTS going on out in the world. The Niggerian Christian thing? OrangeManBad making heap big smoke about it? No worries IMO… I’d call it performative. We –might– drop a bomb or two but I’d say this was more of a public warning than anything else. Lat year the US supplied a combined (military and humanitarian aid) of about $876 million in aid to Niggeria. (and yes, intentional misspelling).

I think this was a warning to the current crop of Kleptocrats there to start actually using some of the $$$ we’ve been supplying or we’ll drop a few bombs, declare victory, and cut off the $$$ faucet. “Start doing something or we will.” It looks good to the base of Christians who support the Orange Retard.

Then: The Krain.
Whooo boy. Ivan is on a tear over there.
LOTS of territory gained in the opening of the Rasputitsia.
And a couple of ‘strange things’ that happened recently… specifically how a group of GRU Krainian Special Forces guys got wasted on a really strange mission…

On November 1st it was announced that, earlier in the week, late at night two Krainian UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters in the northwest of Pokrovsk, were videoed arriving at extremely low altitude. According to multiple sources, The objective was supposedly to assist with a break through the Russian encirclement of the highway to Grishino.

This pic was given out on November 1st by the Krainians. It was taken by the other UH-60. Some say it was leaked, but either way… it doesn’t matter as according to ALL sources the 11 or 12 man team was smoked within hours of landing. ALL of them were KIA or wounded so badly as to be as good as dead, thanks to Thermal Drones that seeked them out and smoked them.

The problem with this ‘supposed mission’ and why I call bullshit?
There were only 11/12 guys sent. (Actual numbers are sketchy)
There’s only 10 visible in the pic, fanning out the way we were taught to do back int he day… which also raises some questions…
This was not even a full team.
This was like a light squad at best.
A wee bit light on the firepower to ‘open up’ an encirclement wouldn’t you say? An encirclement that’s hundreds of kilometers in the overall scheme of things, filled with hundreds, if not thousands of Russkies coming in for the kill?

(H/T Simplicius)

Now… there are other oddities about this mission… which calls into question the actual mission, and such. I have a few theories. The BIG One is that I think this was supposed to be an evacuation of Higher Ranking NATO folks. They sent two birds and ALL of the guys who put boots on the ground were on the first and only bird to land.

So why have an empty bird with them?
Not gun support… that’s for sure.
They would have had a HIND.
Plus: Where they landed?

(again H/T Simplicius)
That’s a wee bit too far west to do any good regarding breaking the encirclement or even the highway.

But, if you notice, it IS very close to a small holdout area of Pokrovsk… Which makes me think this’s very much like what they tried to do back a year or two ago at the  Azovstal steel plant siege in Mariupol in 2022. Then the ‘Krainian Special Forces’ attempted to evacuate some Command and Control NATO personnel supposedly. The attempt was foiled then as this one was now… The reason I use quotes is that even then, the troops who went in after the fact were suspected of being US or NATO troops… and after that failure… well…

Lets just say I found it suspicious that an AUstralian General and his staff died in a small aircraft accident in the Outback within a month or so… and that a US General died somewhere around the same time…

Never mind the various Special OPs kids… Navy SEALs ‘drowning’ during training or MARSOC Recon guys dying in Helo accidents during “training”…

I’m watching now to see if anyone comes up on the ‘BINGO’ board from out team(s) as the reason I suspect US or NATO Troops use and fuckery?

The footage of the dismount is purely US ingrained Air Assault tactics… then, the way the team split up… My understanding is as soon as the Blackhawks left, the Drones went hunting… which means they could be heard. The Krainians, having tons of experience with drones know to completely spread out and get deep undercover. The videos I’ve seen of these teams?

They scattered, but stayed with their battle buddies.
Like US Troops are taught.

Experienced Krainian SF troops would have boltered in multiple directions. Usually individually. If only to allow the others to continue the mission. Instead they reacted (IMO) like noobz. Clustered, and didn’t make use of any of the ‘stuff’ that even the normal Krainian troops do when night drones start prowling, like stop moving and cover up with thermal-proof covers and shells…

Then, after some getting trapped in a Gas Station, three of them got hit with multiple drones until they were obviously eliminated. The reason I say obviously was the pieces parts of the last drone sent in was a giveaway. I mean they were scattered and splattered per the vid I saw on telegram.

My thoughts are they went in and were supposed to rendezvous and extract a group of NATO/US/Brit ‘advisors’ and got hemmed up by landing smack-dab in the middle of “Drone Central”. And since #ourguys don’t have like any IRL experience being hunted by drones, they didn’t know how to react, and paid the price.

I mean why else would a single 11/12 man team be inserted? They sure as Hell are not going to ‘re-open’ any sort of encirclement. What’s more? Pokrovsk has acted as the logistical hub and rear operations base for Ukraine’s eastern defensive lines. It sits astride both a key railroad juncture and the highway to Ukraine’s fourth-largest metro, Dnipro. 

Which means it probably has a significant Command and Control presence. And C&C in this war for the most part has ALL be run by on-the-site- NATO or US Occifers… so my wild ass guess? Someone important got hemmed up behind enemy lines and needed their balls pulled out of the fire again…

Meh
I know… just guessing but I mean why else send in 2 x birds, and only one team? A light team no less. It does show that they’re getting desperate again to use up some of their best troops for whatever the reason actually was…

Then here on the home front?
Nada
Bupkiss
All’s Quiet on the EBT Front
Interesting that.

Not sure if it’s good news or bad news.
Meh

This weekend however I have some interesting news. I got an email from GOVX which is a group that gets you ‘supposedly great deals’ on tickets and flights and vaykays and whatnot… This one caught my eye. A cruise this coming weekend that was “free”…

Now we all know that there’s no such thing as a free lunch BUT I went to see. Turns out that yep. The room itself is a feebie. The only thing I needed to pay were the tax/port fees, which came out to $240.

So this weekend I’m off to Nassau I guess…

Why not?
The reviews are either “Loved it!” or “Hated it!”

Guess I’ll have to find out for myself. At least a Chimpout might happen and THAT would be some great blog-fodder right? There will be no blogging however as the add-on to get the WiFi is filed under ‘retardedly expensive’ so any and all Shaniquannigans will have to wait until I’m back.

And yeah yeah yeah… I AM packing in the ‘living’ right now as it may be a “Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant” sort of time in the near future, so I’m going to not waste a moment… I mean why the fuck worry so much as to cower in the corner worrying about “what ifs?” I mean every. man’s. time. will. come.

I’m going to enjoy what time I have here in this realm on Whammenz Wine and Song… to do otherwise would be lame.
Maybe I’ll do a rifle raffle to raise money for my drinks on board? They tend to get pricey AF fast. Heck… if I raise enough I’ll be able to get the WiFi? I did end up with an extra AR after all… What say you?

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
I’m still spent.
Add on that I’ve been getting beaten at People’s Glorious Tractor Factory like a rented mule or clubbed like a baby seal, it’s been a long week.

“You get what you fuckin’ deserve” seems to be the story of this week… Take a wonderful weekend off?
Pay the price later Aye?

So I found some new material, and re-found some older stuff, so what the hell… I’m cheating for the night:

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Ok…
So yeah, my body is still spent.
Fell out -I think- about 10/11 as I woke up at 0300+/- with the hand on the mouse still… So this’ll be a bit short as I have to crash to catch up again…

As I stated, it was a fun trip.
And in the comments some of y’all reference Katrina and it’s fallout. I did see a LOT of places that looked like it still had damage from there, but then again, it might have been just general 3rd-World Shitholiness if you will… a tough call either way.

One thing I forgot to mention on Ye Olde 3rd World aspect was this:

Yep

Almost ALL the nicer places and houses had them signs in the windows. “Keep IV Waste”… I looked it up… apparently it’s to urge the junkies to police up their shit…
Like

Yah…
3rd World…
Go figure.
Now… the other aspect of the 3rd World?
I wanna know who got murdered in my hotel room?

When I arrived on Friday (late) night I was exhausted and spent. The front desk told me that the place (a Wyndham Resort) was ‘under renovations’. OK… I can deal w/that… not my first rodeo…

However… I realized Saturday when I got back that well…
OK… I’ll say this: The bed was awesome. It had a (from what I can) tell brand new gel-mattress that was mad comfy. Good pillows too… however, as you can see the curtains?
Yeeaah
Level 4 Biohazard Anyone?
And when I brought this up to the Front Desk?
Oh yeah… I couldn’t.
Unless I went down from the 5th Floor to them, the room phone?
Oh yeah… the phone was plugged into itself!
There was NO phone jack!
So needless to say I’ve got a BIG email I need to shoot to corporate. The hot-tub was inoperative, the pool greener than my bass pond in the back yard and they had NO Breakfast as promised on the website.

Bait and Switch much?
It’d be one thing if they’d said the place was fucked up
It’s another to get there and find ALL of this out after the fact.

So that’s it for tonight
More Later
Big Country