Author: BigCountryExpat

Greetings!
So slept in ’til 16:00! Whew… worn out and tired I have to say. I’m always running a deficit of zzz’s on a regular day, and add on the whole emotional aspect of yesterday and I was wiped the hell out.

Now, Friday night. We had a LOT of rain here in the Tampa Area. The pic I put up of us Sapper took as we were on our way out the door. Many thanks from Gretchen regarding her birthday wishes from you all out there. Again, y’all shame me by your kindness.

Well, we went to Hooters as I had said. We intentionally went later-ish as the Friday night dinner crowds here in Florida, especially in the early summer are outrageous, so a later din-din is warranted. That and less chance of screaming kids being present as well.

We got to Hooters which was surprisingly still crowded. I had my own personal moment of pique when I drove by and saw this:

Yep.
One of Hillsborough’s Finest parking in the Handicapped Parking spot. I as you can see for this poast, have removed the identifying marks on the thug’s vehicle, because as of right now, I don’t want any of y’all to start putting them on blast.

Yet.

And as you can see, his partner was parked next to him, in a regular spot. Now I took this pic on the porch of Hooters after having to park waaay off in the distance, and walking in. I then went in to look for the offending asshole, and didn’t see him. At this point I settled in to having my dinner, as it was Gretchen’s Birthday. Not really a big deal, and hey, I figured I’d just leave it (the picture) as an annotation for some blog-fodder later.

The trouble happened when I realized I forgot my readers out in the car, and went to retrieve them. I noticed that the offending fuzzmobile was now gone, and as I do have a handicap hanger, I’d move the car so Gretchen didn’t have to get soaked when we left. The mistake was not realizing that Badged Thug Number #2 in the other vehicle was in his truck.

HE initiated the encounter.
-I- wanted nothing more to do with him NOR his asshole-attitude. He initiated by rolling down the window, and in a nasty, somewhat accusatory voice stated “I saw you take that picture… WHY did you do that?…” and the like… he then grilled me on why I just didn’t come in and speak to them, at which point he cut me off… His stated objective was to “change my perception” of the cops b/c at one point I stated unequivocally that I have had too many recent negative interactions with Law Enforcement and that I needed to get back to my wife’s birthday dinner.

He even went as far as to get OUT of his truck and then continue to, in my thought process, to harass me. I even told him that No, I did NOT want to continue this discourse. I finally begged off by again repeating that it was my wife’s birthday and Adios, that there were no hard feelings… (BUUUUUUUUUUUULLSHIT! there weren’t/aren’t… I just haven’t made up my mind if I want to open that ‘can of stupid’ as shit like that NEVER ends well for the guy who tattles on the cops…they ‘police’ themselves and then the guy who reported them gets fucked with forever…)

So, I got back to the table, and Gretchen was all upset as you can imagine. What then bothered me, was Super-Trooper during his discourse to me told me he was off duty, just trying to eat with his friends. Seems I had ‘ruined’ that. As I ordered a SINGLE Beer, Super Trooper comes back into the restaurant, walks around a bit, and then stationed himself by the front door.

Uh. Oh.
Enemy Action… I just knew it.

Gretchen told me I was over-reacting, but that lil voice was screaming at me. I then ‘faked’ needing to call Sapper, (it was very loud in the restaurant) and passed by him, all friendly-like and made some innocuous statement about the heat and wearing Body Armor… I went outside, faked the call… went back in and on this pass by I asked if he was doing ‘double duty’? which is when the cops work after hours at a place doing security style work. I’ve seen it before, and his answer of “Gotta make that money” didn’t ring too true…he just seemed too fake about it…

Either way, I settled in, and didn’t tell Gretchen my suspicions. He was behind her, so I could keep an eye on him over past her shoulder. He just stood there the entirety of our meal at the front door. I made sure to have only the one beer juuuust in case my radar vibe was correct. Dinner was good despite this guy making my antenna ring. One of the things he kept doing was talking into his earpiece/throat-mike though, which absolutely made me believe I was being set the fuck up. Times like this and in a land far away, I’d just be able to shoot the fucker and that would have been that, another dead tango down. Unfortunately, we’re not at that point

Yet.

We finished a very nice meal, and got up and left. I said a friendly Good Night as we passed him, and went to our car. I walked over and opened the door for Gretch, and surreptitiously saw HIM watching our every move. We had backed out of the spot, and we were headed to the exit, when I saw in the rear view Super Trooper came hustling out of Hooters and fumbling with his keys to get in his truck!

GOTCHA Motherfucker!!!

I immediately put on my left turn signal at the stop sign. Going left would take us out onto the main drag. He saw this and then he went out of sight as he started to unlock and climb into the fuzzmobile.

Me?
I killed the lights completely
“Dive! Dive! Rig for Silent Running!!!”
Told Gretch to hold the fuck on!!!
And turned right into the very Large Mini-Mall parking lot at combat speed. I fucking gunned it. I positively flew thru the parking lot, and aimed for getting behind a cluster of trees by another restaurant that blocked the view so if he looked right, we’d be gone and gone. I looked back, and saw him stop at the same stop sign I had been at 60 seconds earlier, and off he went to the left!!!

Guess the head fake of the left directional worked.

Given it was dark as all get out and raining, plus he obviously thought he’d out-thought me, (dumbass!) he went to the left, and I’m willing to be, dollars to donuts that his buddy was waiting in ambush up the road… pull me over, have me ‘fail’ the Roadside sobriety test and/or plant some evidence, never mind that when they run me, they find out I’m out on Bond?

Yeah…

It would have ended exceptionally poorly for me.

Hell… thankfully that mini mall is so huge… it even has a Frontage Road Access that we used to go home on… it took us about 3/4 of a mile away from Hooters in an out-of-sight-out-of-mind way, and then we got on the Interstate, which the Sheriff can’t ‘tag’ me on… only Staties can do that and it’s got to be for good reason. Plus the tag is still registered to Gretchen’s Dad, so they’d have no idea where we were headed locally.

The only change I’m making now is I’m removing the identifying plate frame (my Rakkasan plate holder) and scraping Gretchen’s initial stickers) off the rear window, thereby putting us back in ‘gray man mode’ ‘cos I’m pretty sure Officer Fuckwad is still smarting from Friday night…

What absolutely kills me though is this idiot wasn’t the one who’d been in the wrong! His fucking buddy was the one who’d parked in the wrong spot!!! I guess though that whole “you attack one, you attack us all” herd-moron mentality does run really deep with these fuckwits.

Congrats there Superswine!
You sure did change my perception of Law Enforcement!
You utterly reinforced every. single. negative. stereotype. I have ever had about ALL OF YOU. I wouldn’t piss on a cop now to save his/her life if it depended on it. I sure as fuck won’t stoop to assist EVER in any way, shape, or form in the future.
Fuck You All, now and forever more.
Amen.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings!
Spent the better half of the Day w/Cowboy.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

That was a tough one.
Both Gretchen and I are both spent like a shell casing fresh off the range.

More Later
Big Country

Greetings!
Dinner out w/the Wife:

Post cataract surgery, sometimes the light hits my eye ‘wrong’ and makes me look like I’m not human or something, like a T-800 w/that glare happening. Gretchen on the other hand:

Looking good for Birfday #29

For the 25th time.
Not a bad night… had an -unsettling- interaction with Law Enforcement again but that can wait until tomorrow.
More Later
Big Country

NOW we know why they don’t want to visit anymore…

Greetings!
Just a short one. I’ve been keeping up with Cowboy and performing overwatch. He’s doing as best he can under the circumstances… He greatly appreciates all the kind thoughts, prayers and wishes from everyone here. They did the autopsy today, and he’s waiting on the ‘initial paperwork’ (i.e. Death Certs and such) after which ‘the rest of the stuff’ i.e. the cremation (per her wishes) and Celebration of Life to follow.

His daughter is there now with him, which is a great thing as now I’m feeling a bit better about -someone- being in the house with him. This way he’s not tempted by dark thoughts and whatnot.

Speaking of downers…

‘MASH’? ‘Klute’? Fucking ‘The Hunger Games’!?!
Nilla Please
How about ‘The Dirty Dozen’ and ‘Kelley’s Heros’ instead?

THOSE were movies…

So, in keeping with that, the positive of today:

Had a LONG VA Compensation Appointment on my “Climb to 100”. I have 2 more over the next week or two as well, and then hopefully get to the “Magic Cee-Note” at which point I’ll do some re-evaluations regarding work and life in general…

On the way home, Gretchen asked me to stop by Publix and grab some stuff. When I pulled the cart out, the kid seat/basket thing? it popped open per usual. What wasn’t par for the course was the $20 scratch ticket sitting on the seat. Huh.

Needless to say I snatched that sucker, and then realized that the carts were nose-facing towards me, and that this cart had been pushed into the queue some time ago. So no worries about an irate person attacking me for ‘stealing’ their left-behind scratchie.

I did my shopping and went home.

Told and showed Gretchen, and asked her is she wanted to do it. It was/is one of those ‘crossword puzzle’ games, that they give you a bunch of letters, and two filled out crossword puzzles, and you have to get at least three complete words to get your $20 back. After that it starts getting exponentially better. There’s also a 3rd game, which is just the ‘Bonus Game’ of get a bank-bag symbol, and win the $$$ showing with 6 chances on that part. Not my favorite, nor Gretchen’s as you got to go over it carefully . Gretch took a ‘pass’ on doing it, so I sat down, cracked a beer and started.

Within like 2 minutes, I realized I had a winner.
It was that obvious.

Thankfully and it sounds dumb to say, but it wasn’t a HUGE winner. For a second the thought of that flashed in my head, and I realized just what a potential pain-in-the-ass that might be. Especially since here in Florida, they usually announce where a BIG winning ticket was sold, and what game it was that won. The last thing I want is some asshole who lost this thing showing up to claim or try and put a claim on it, as the BIG PRIZE on this ticket is a cool Five Mil… and like so many greedy fuckers do, you know SOME asshole SOMEWHERE would come out screaming that it was their ticket that I had ‘stolen’.

However, such was not the case… not that I’m bitching mind you. Nope.

Initially I thought it was $150.
But when I went to cash it, the computer said $100.
Not a biggie.

A $100.00 winner?
That works juuust fine.
Not a bad take, considering the investment was nothing.
It also pays for Gretchen’s birfday dinner tomorrow She’s turning XXXDELETEDXXX.
Yep.
She wants Hooters. I’m down with that.
So all in all, not a bad day at all. Hope y’all had a good one too.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings!
Yep… If this’s the ‘Calm’ BEFORE the Storm, I sure as Hell need to start digging in.

Deeper

MOAR Deeper

Like ‘Hole to Chy-Nah’ deep. I just got word today that our fellow Deplorable over at BustedKnuckles, CederQ had a mini-stroke!!!

Sweet Jesus.
I just don’t know what to say… Irish and Bearclaw knew (thanks for telling me guys dammit!!!) and Phil let me know. I called and spoke with him (Ced that is). He’s a bit ‘off’ as you can imagine but he said he thinks he’ll be fine in the long run. I sure AF hope so… too many ‘things of badness’ happening as of late. Which also includes Borepatch.

I got a hold of him as he’d dropped off the radar too, and seems he’s doing better. With him? Cancer. Some malignant melanomas. Fucking cancer again rears it’s ugly fucking head.

He’s now good, as they removed everything, to include the ones on his ears. Too much sun I suspect, as does he. I -did- however during the discussion get all creeped out when he told me about the removal of the ear-melanomas. I was a bit ‘thick’ during it, but I’ll let you see for yourself. The conversation went like this:

BP (talking about the procedure): “Yeah, I didn’t feel a thing! It went well.”
BCE: “Ahh ok… so no issues… they just snipped it off?”
BP: “Yeeeeah but that was the problem…”
BCE (being fucking retarded) “What? Didn’t they numb you all up?”
BP: “……………………”
BCE: “Annnnnnnnd?”
BP: “Yeah they did.”
BCE (still retarded, if not moreso now): “So what? What was the dealio that made it that bad?”
BP (realizing he’s dealing with a Retard) “BCE…. jeez… OK… yeah I didn’t feel a thing, but I could hear everything!”
BCE (lightbulb moment! the idiot has awaken): “OH SHID!!! So you heard….”
BP: “Yep… every. single. snip. cut. squirt. and stitch. I heard the ‘sizzle’ when they cauterized it. Smelled it too. It sounded like a Friday the 13th Movie was happening in my ear…”

Yeah… dumbass me… sure, the anesthetic made it that he couldn’t feel anything, but they were chopping on his ‘radar dishes’ man!!! The numbing meds don’t turn off the sound!!!!
So poor Borepatch?? He heard all of it in what was probably graphic 3-D movie horrorshow levels of grossness.

I’m getting the ‘creepyskin’ hair standing up on end again just writing about it.

Add on that sometimes I’m just fucking Jethro-Bodine-Stump-Dumb…. at least I can cop to it, unlike others out there Aye?

Sheesh…
Anyways, he’s doing OK, and the Queen of the World is surviving and putting up with the Big Galoot. We’re planning on meeting up for dinner and drinks in a week or two. That should be nice…

Then, as far as the bad news from last night, call it the most tragic out of all the current Shitshow Bullshit happening, Cowboy is maintaining.

He’s still not realizing it… numb. Told Gretchen that this A.M. he popped out of bed, and per usual yelled into her bedroom “Morning Honey! How are you feeling?” before he realized she’s gone.

That tore Gretchen up pretty badly.
She’s actually a good person for him to talk to. The guy before me? Her husband before me? She woke up to him having come down with a bad case of the ‘deads.’ Accidental Overdose supposedly. Not for nothing, I won’t go too deeply into it, but he guy she was married to was not the guy she married so to speak…

He was about to ‘go down’ on some serious Federal Charges, hence why the whole ‘accidental’ thing is called into question. Not only that… while we were dating she had me dig up what -I- could find of his DotMil record, as she knew he’d served, but had no idea about his service.

Let me tell you, I’m pretty good, but this shit was buried.

A Bad Conduct Discharge for desertion for more than 30 days, along with unlawful carnal knowledge of a minor under the age of ??? possibly… The problem is his Daddy was/still is a big fucking deal locally and state-wise, so’s there’s a certain level of coverup that happened. To the point that they tried to frame Gretchen for murder believe it or not!

Mainly because he used her pain meds to off himself.

And Momma couldn’t believe that her poor, sweet baby went and done kil’t himself. It had to be that Harlot that done and trapped him into marrying her!!! She done did it for the insurance money!!!

Mind you Momma was the one who collected on that particular life insurance policy… in fact Gretchen got fucking el-zilch-o after this ham-sammich cashed himself in…

Project Much Momma?

Yeah… if anything, my life?
It sure as fuck ain’t boring…
She was upfront about his while we were dating BTW. I figured that dating a potential murderess was a new one for me, and might be entertaining… I mean I did got to Iraq as a volunteer Aye? I mean a highly paid volunteer, but I did do it, partly because of the Adventurous Side of me…

Hell… A Tall, Leggy, Big Titted, Pin-Up Vargas looking potential Black Widow chick?

What’s not to like/love?

That Naughty Gretchen Nurse Illustration is courtesy of Chris Muir over at Day By Day. He did that one thanks to ScouterGreg hooking me up with him when I did that big assist for my Brother From Another Mother Mike Hendrix at Cold Fury. I -just- redid the chart on the wall for grins and giggles…

Which reminds me, I owe him (Mike) a phone call, but right now? I’m sort of nervous to do so, because as of late? I mean bad news on bad news on top of fucked up news… This shit is getting recockulas. Maybe tomorrow or Mike, if’n you read this YOU call ME bro…

The phone as of late has not been my fren I’m telling you.

So… I’m still trying to wrap my head around the past 5 days or so. There’s whirlwinds, and then there’s this:

I think I need a break.
What say y’all?
Let me know in the comments.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings!
So sorry for some missing postings and whatnot.
ANOTHER Looong UNEXPECTED weekend this time around.

AGAIN

LOTS of ‘stuff’ going on. Part of it being Our Gran, The Red Headed Nukular Powered one? Kylie had a bit of a Tragedy happen this past week/weekend.

The OtherGrans, Nona and Papa, well Nona’s Dad “Bub” had a heart attack on Thursday? I believe and unfortunately passed. The thing is it’s Kylie’s first experience with a KIA so to speak. According to Papa, she’s numb and sad… she and “Bub” were pretty close.

Now, “Bub” from my understanding was like almost in his 90’s? Not sure but Papa (OtherGranDad) and I talked and it’s not like he didn’t have a full and good run of it… I mean the only two things in life that are sure are Death and Taxes, and “Bub” now has checked both boxes…

Sorry, sorry… bad humor is my cope ok?

We offered up any support, but for the most part, we tried to stay out of the way as everyone of course on that side of the fam had their hands full. Thankfully, Red has her summer camps she attends during the week to keep her busy, so they were a welcome distraction.

Just a BIG bummer for Fathers Day for Nona Aye?
Talk about shytte-timing Aye?

I offered up condolences in a DM, as she’s WAY too busy to hear from me directly, and I don’t want to intrude at this time…

Hell, she may get mad I’m putting this out there, but hey, my writing, my blog, and in my own way, I’m trying to give some comfort to her… Truthfully, I’m not very good at this sort of ‘stuff’… but anyways….

As I said:
“Truly a heartbreak to have one taken from you as such. Nothing can replace him, but know in your heart, for as long as you are here, he will not be gone nor diminished in time, especially since his memory will continue as yours will in (with sic) Kylie. Fortunately we’re only able to see ‘the moment’ and forget the fact that ‘things’ go on forever. Your Dad has joined the “Forever” and such as it is.”

“Know that he’s probably looking down, and smiling knowing you got this. And, as I said, Kylie at least got the chance to meet him, and as long as one is remembered, they never truly die.”

“The journey itself is my home.”
― Matsuo Basho

“So your Dad went ‘home’ but he’ll always have a place with you and those he loved.”

Like I said, I’m not very good at this whole “comforting thing”

I prefer bad jokes and Irish Wakes.

True Story:
Had an obscure Irish Cousin (MomUnit’s side of the family) who got kil’t walking home hammered in Ireland back in the day. Young guy, unmarried, well liked. He was going home from the Pub, walking around (staggering really from the police report) on a blind curve when a car came around at like 60mph and clowned the poor bastard right out of his Nikes.

They held the wake IN the Pub itself.

Usually a traditional Irish Wake is held for two days in the family’s home. In this case? Well, they did it there at the Pub because the Pub pretty much was his home. Not a bad gig I suppose…

The issue started cropping up towards the end of the first day. By tradition, provided the deceased isn’t too fucked up for viewing, it’s an open casket. Because of this, and my cousin’s propensity for ‘strong drink’, MANY, if not ALL of his friends, and acquaintances started leaving 1/2 pints, and full pints of his favorite tipple (some Irish Whiskey, the name and brand of which elude me this night) as well as innumerable cans of Stout Ale (I believe it was Strongbow… that name still rings a bell 30+ odd years later)… well they left them in the coffin with his stiff.

The issue became that there were ‘so many for the road’ the body was beginning to literally become unviewable… as in they started running out of room in the box for the utterly massive numbers of half pint and pint bottles of liquor as well as like what was probably in all likelihood a keg worth of good Irish Ale if one were to measure it in just factoring in the liters of liquid involved.

They finally came up with a compromise toward the end of the second day when it was time to plant the poor bastard. ONE half pint bottle, and ONE full pint bottle of the Irish Whiskey would be buried with him as a representation of all the ‘liquid good wishes’ that his friends were determined to have him ‘roll out’ with. And as far as the Beer/Ale, they took One can of Each of the top three predominate representative ‘flavors’ if you will, with Strongbow being #1, Guinness Stout being #2 (of course) and #3 being some other local Irish brew that remains obscured to me with the mists of time, and those three cans were placed into the coffin with the deceased for his “final ride”

It’s a good thing too.

No joke, that much booze and brew?

I’m willing to bet that they would have needed a fucking forklift to move that coffin if they had left all that stuff in the box with the stiff… And as far as the remaining party favors? Well needless to say, they didn’t go to waste. They utilized all of that for the post-funerary party.

Never let them say the Irish don’t know how to do a death.

Although I do have to say, that one African Tribe?

I do have to say, despite all the ragging that goes on about it, the dancing/pomp/circumstances in that ‘coffin dancing’ thing has me rather entertained as well as intrigued. According to this:

Dancing with the coffin is an ancient tradition in Ghana. The people believe death to be a homecoming and thus they celebrate it by hiring these special dancers, also called the Pallbearers. Usually, these pallbearers are a group of 4 to 6 people, with some impressive dance moves.

Medium, ‘Coffin Dance: How these Boys from Ghana became an Internet Sensation through Memes’ May 2020

The Ghanaians prefer to celebrate the life, rather than the death of the person who cashed in per se, so they ‘dance the dead’ to their final resting place.

Which IMO is sort of cool.

Lord knows the normal North American Funerary services and quote “Celebrations” unquote are usually a real fucking drag man… give me a Hunter S. Thompson style madman party with guns and chicks and hookers and blow and firetrucks and LSD and at which the culmination of me (well, my ashes really) being shot out of a fucking cannon man…

HST’s Funeral Firework

Not bad…
Johnny Depp paid for it. Personally I think he got ass-raped on the deal if he paid what it’s rumored that he did… $250k to make a firework that incorporated HST’s Ashes into it…

Considering that –I– make (albeit smaller) airburst fireworks, I know what it takes and what it costs to make a good air-burst firework… I know that THAT particular airburst did not cost a quarter of a cool million to make. No. Fucking. Way. did. it.

Another true story. I unfortunately got rerouted through De Gaulle Airport in Fwance back in… oh man, I think it was 2006? It’s official name is Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle. Me? I call it that Fucking French Pain in the Ass Frog Controlled Fuckhole-Airport.

The reason for my ire is that Body Armor is illegal in France. No bringing it in, no transporting it, and subsequently, even possessing it is, as I found out much to my irritation, a major pain in the balls. Possessing Armor and Kevlar and/or Plates is Illegal As Fuck as far as the Froggies are concerned…

Can’t remember the how/why, but I had to deplane in Paris at De Gaulle. I wasn’t supposed to. THAT was not on the schedule, and because of this, I had to go through customs.

And being a contractor, coming out of Iraq, I had my Skull-Bucket and my Body Armor w/Plates.

The way the fucking Frogs reacted to this ‘indiscretion’ You’d have thought I was wearing an explosive vest and screaming “Allahu Akbar!!!”

Now, for all you irritating motherfuckers out there, No, I never if I could get away with it, checked my Armor nor helmet as ‘checked baggage’ back then. I always tried if I could to make it carry-on, or in one instance, I actually wore it onto the plane, and removed it and stashed it in the overhed compartment AFTER the fact. The reason(s) being?

FAR too many of my compatriot contractors back then at the time did check their shit… helmet, plates, vest, all of it, only for it to ‘get lost’ in the process. Now granted, for the most part WE weren’t financially responsible for it, so lost armor? Not a big deal… especially if you were on your way home.

HOWEVER

It suddenly became a HUGE deal if you were going back IN COUNTRY where it (the armor and helmet) was absolutely required to go back ‘downrange’ at which point then it suddenly became a big fucking deal of what happened to your ‘sensitive item(s)’/DotGov property!?!

So to “avoid any Imperial entanglements” (H/T Sir Alec Guinness, “Star Wars”) I generally kept my armor and helmet as carryon. I mean IF it did get lost/stolen or whatever, you –could– in a worst case scenario get hemmed up in a multi-day investigation before they’d allow you the privilege of signing for an entirely new set of armor. That with the understanding that NOW that you were on their ‘financial radar’ so to speak, they’d eventually come to collect their blood-shekels at some point… I actually had a buddy of mine who had this happen to him (lost armor/helmet in like 2005) have his Tax Return levied for the cost of his lost helmet and IBA last fucking year…almost 20 years after the fact!!!

Well, back to me/myself/I.

When I came through customs carrying my shit, the Frogs flipped. They tried to forcibly carry it away, as in when it was in the XRay Tray, one of the slick and sleazy fuckers tried to walk away very quickly with it, but I broke away and intercepted him. Thankfully because of my size, and the relative puniness of these Frog Airport Punks, I was able to maintain a bit of edge (vis-a-vis physical intimidation) on them. From my understanding, they supposedly ended up calling to their Higher-Higher who in turn, from the next conversation, passed the buck. What amazed me was just how fucking few of these fuckers speak English right? The usual bureaucratic bullshit that seems to predominate things in the West amiright?

Since this was happening at what I’ll Call “Customs Primary Checkpoint #1” ALL the hoi-polloi were rerouted to Customs Checkpoint #2. I sure as fuck wasn’t moving. I’m a seasoned traveler, so I wasn’t moving, as I knew the second I caved on anything, I’d be screwed. I mean if you ever find yourself in a situation at an airport….ANY airport… and you know you’re in the right, dig in your heels. Follow orders IF you ABSOLUTELY have to, but do NOT allow yourself to be coerced, bullied or intimidated. I knew in my heart-of-hearts that something or specifically someone wanted that IBA and helmet… mainly because other countries I had traveled through as I was doing here? They had ZERO issue with me transiting their respective countries as I wasn’t going to interact with the general population nor be able to sell/give/donate my Armor or Helmet to any ‘bad actors’ so to speak.

I smelled a French Rat.
My own personal opinion?
–Someone- there was stealing and selling ‘confiscated’ armor on the down low, and I was throwing a wrench in the works maybe? Not sure… however: Now here’s the COOL PART:

While ruminating on how the food in Frog Jails might be, I had a guy tap me on the shoulder and asked in ‘American English’ if you will, if I was OK? I looked up, and started to answer “Yeah man… these fucking Frogs they…………..”

I cut it off when I realized I was talking to Fucking Captain Jack Fucking Sparrow man!!!!

Mind you this was I think after Pirates #2.
Usually I’m not the type to be star struck but maaaaan
This guy exuded cool…
As some say “That dude is so cool, he pisses Ice Cubes…”

What’s even cooler about him is he’s like ‘normal’ if you will. VERY unassuming. VERY laid back. GENUINELY concerned about my situation (or at least it seemed.) We chatted only for a few minutes… like for real. It was a cool minute or three. I doubt he’d ever remember it, and I know he didn’t speak nor say anything to anyone else during this OH so brief moment of chatting, only speaking with me. -I- only remember it because of what happened next.

After the briefest exchange of pleasantries and the obligatory “Thank You” for my service (God I hated that and still do personally) he moved out to I guess either go home, as I believe the time he had a residence in or around Paris) or to catch a plane… The thing of it was?

The attitude of the Customs Pukes went into a full 180.

“Can we assist Monsieur to his next Gate?”
“We had no idea that Monsieur was a friend of Monsieur Depp!”
“Our deepest and most sincere apologies for any misunderstanding Monsieur and we hope you will visit us again!”

No. Shit.

Tell you what.
I’m pretty sure Mr. Depp has no idea how much of a hassle he saved me just by talking to me for that oh so brief moment in time. Guess a lil “Star Power” rubbed off maybe? Tell you what though, I owe him a solid and if he ever needs to collect, all he has to do is call and I’m there man… Hell, he should have called me when that slore he was divorcing pulled her shit… I would have made that problem ‘go away’ quickly and quietly LOL.

And…. wait one…….

AWWW FUCK
OK… NOT Cool
As I was putting the touches on this with some pithy but pertinent finale stuff, I got a text:

What.
The.
Fuck.
Called him Right Fucking Then….

Brent is my man/brother-from-another-mother A.K.A. Cowboy. It’s He who owns the Horse Ranch that Adriana was in love with…

Maaaaaaaan
I just can’t register it…

He’s fucked up man… like I’m one of the first people he reached to…. they just took the body out apparently…….. I really need to get over there but he’s adamant that I stay put and that he’s fine…

Y’all who’ve been hanging around here for a while ‘know’ him too…

He’s the ‘main character’ in the ‘Soul Circus Cowboys’ “Last Train Running” Video…..

Fuck
I am so not good at this…
Prayers needed Big Fucking Time
This’s some bullshit. Kylie fucking loves Brent and his wife and the Horses, never mind Adriana being the same way………………..

I gotta bail… my shit mentally right now is like an egg airdropped sans chute into the blender already set on ‘high’ from 20k feet… Talk about a spin on the head…

I mean in Iraq?
Cool. No Issue. That’s the daily.
This shit? Civvie-Side? Two KIA? In less than 5 days?
Woof.

More Later
BCE

Greetings!
So you may/may not have heard about that mass shooting in Detroit on Saturday. Some loon walked up to a Park in Rochester Hills in Detroit and shot up a bunch of kids. No fatalities, and a suspect has been found dead-by-suicide in the house where he had immediately holed up.

I noticed it because of the “Breaking News” flash, and when I heard the “Where” of it, i.e. Detriotistan, and the “How” of it, i.e. shooter hits and wounds everyone except for maybe the target? I immediately dropped it off my radar as it seemed like we were looking at another Chimpout gone sideways. I mean it is within the ‘Juneteenth’ timeframe so I figured it was an ‘early start’ to what’s probably going to be a huuuuge bodycount by the time that shitfestivus is over.

HOWEVER!
Never assume! I would have lost the “Guess the race” contest here!!! The reason I’m currently pecking this out because at 06:20 one of the support beams on the bed caved in, and the box spring failed as well. Truth be told Gretchen and I both know (besides being fat-of-ass, me not her mind you) that it (the wood crossbar) initially cracked during a particularly ‘festive’ time between us so to speak.

That and it’s made of fucking layered Hardwood. It looks like from the break that there was a too-close seam that gave way on it. Plus it is about ten years old and has had quite a bit of the ‘ole in-and-out’ performed on it… The box spring frame is actually just a metal frame that’s a rather ingenious piece of engineering. The main frame folds up like an accordion, and the various crossbars and stringers connect to it. It’s an Amazon product, and it? Well from the look of it, the stringers ‘slipped’ out of the notches, causing it to cave in a bit. Nothing bent, but when I reassemble and reinforce it, I’ll make sure to tape the crossmembers and stringers with some good duck-tape to keep them in line.

Anyways, there’s the reason for being up. I positively am not a morning dude… Back to what I think may become another “Man Of Three Names.” The first thing I noticed was this story has already ‘dropped off the radar.’ last night. Nothing headlining on CNN/FOX or the “Usual Ministries of Propaganda and Lies.” Not that unusual if Da’Quann or Yur’inal goes on a ‘spray and pray’ with no significant fatalities. I thought I’d have to follow up as the morning progresses…

Then I did a wee bit of digging.
What the Hell right? I mean its oh dark early, and I got my Latte Aye?

Seems that Rochester Hills in Detroit is a nicer area.
The demographics are 79.6% White, 12.8% Asian, 3.7% African American, 2.9% two or more races, 0.1% Native American, and 5.6% Hispanic or Latino.
Huh.

Call it the far Northern Burbs of Detroitistan.
Then, I actually had to goolag it… couldn’t find any updates. The link to it is HERE
Now, the suspect hasn’t been named, BUT they did say that

“The suspect was identified as a 42-year-old white male who lived with his mother. Bouchard said the man had no criminal history but was believed to have had mental health challenges.”

Now, interestingly, he dropped the Glock after firing off 28 rounds. The story said her reloaded twice, so 3x mags at 10 rounds per mag. They also have a picture of the weapon on the ground:

Looks like a Glock 19? maybe? Although that shell? I looks pretty large so I ran it through https://eleif.net/photomeasure which is a freebie app you can use to take a ‘known’ measurement, and then try to get another measurement by dragging a line across. It’s hard BUT I have my ‘known’ measurement to start.

Those are as you can see, Sirchie Crime Scene Forensic Counters. They’re 3.5 inches across, and 2.63 inches High. Using that, I got:

It’s a wee bit off but it’s harder than Hell to get it on there just right. The shadows play hell with it getting a clean line across the mouth of the empty shell casing. So, in this case, .32 is close enough for Government Specs as .354 comes out to 9mm, so I’d say dude was throwing 9mm. He was probably throwing ball as all the people hit were wounded as opposed to killed.

Got to love the ¡Science! Aye?

That if you look closely, the Glock doesn’t appear to have a no ‘giggle switch’ either.
This Homie apparently didn’t play that.

Now here’s one I haven’t heard of… they tracked down this guy via the Glock he dropped. Unusual in the fact that he dropped his piece, but then that

“The suspect had already left the scene and authorities located a handgun and three empty magazines at the scene.

“The one weapon on scene led us to the address that was registered to that address, which is why we got so quickly to the home,” Bouchard said Saturday night.”

Wow.
That’s really fucking quick in my mind that they were able to, within mere minutes of this shooting have a name AND address attached to the oh so conveniently ‘dropped on the scene’ weapon…

I mean a suspicious dude might think that some ‘strange things are afoot at the Circle K’ right? There’s QUICK and then there’s “So QUICK as to be genuinely unbelievable”

Nah.
Our Glorious and Wonderful Law Enforcement Community would never think of participating is something as untoward as setting up some poor shmoe and/or programming him like a wind up toy to “Pop Off” when the time is right?
Nah.
Perish the thought
Badthink! Hatethought! Bad, Big Country!!! Bad Bad BAD!!!
No cookie for you!!!

So after confirming in less than 10 or so minutes where this guy lived, surrounded it, and then they set up a cordon, and waited. A couple of hours went past, and when they didn’t hear anything, they breached the door, and sent in the drones (there they are again). When they got inside the house they found suspected shooter dude had self-deleted via a single shot to the casaba.

More interestingly from my POV they found:

“The examination also found another weapon in the home on the kitchen table. Bouchard said the suspect had “what looks to be a semi-automatic 223, but I don’t know for a fact until that scene’s processed.”

The cop then goes on to say:

“…because we had quick containment on him, that if he had planned to do anything else, and it wouldn’t surprise me, because having that on the kitchen table is not an everyday activity…”

Jeez, what sort of pantywaist is this guy?
And he calls himself a Cop!?!
I mean you’ve got to have the Nightstand Rifle, The Desk Rifle, The Kitchen Rifle, The Bathroom Rifle, and the all-too-important but frequently overlooked Shower Shotty:

I mean No one expects The Spanish Inquisition!!!

Nor does one nominally expect -someone- to try the door while you’re hosing off or dropping a Deuce, but hey, you do you my man… Myself? I’ll just keep it real.
Real Close and Available

Anyways
Now, I’m waiting to see if the name drops.
42 Years Old.
Lives with Mom.
Known Mental Health “Issues”
Drives up to the park, does a three Magazine dump into a bunch of kids and families in an Upscale Suburb of Detroitistan.
DROPS. THE. WEAPON. and drives off!!!! (who the Hell does that!?!)
A member of the current “hate group” i.e. Evil Whytte Dude”
I want to see if they get, or more importantly give out any more information. I mean name? Where did he work? Was he “previously known to Law Enforcement?”

And as I’ve been writing this, ‘all of a sudden!’ there’s updates all over the place. Like ALL the news and Ministries are getting on board… to include THIS one here which I’m linking and screen capping for OBVIOUS reasons. This Link is to ClickOnDetroit news and the capture is self explanatory:

Yellow Outline by Me…

Annnnnd there it is!
Now all we need is the naming of the Doer.
Place Your Bets!
Three Named Man inbound?
More than Likely.

So again, to recap this mess:
“I’ll take things that don’t make sense for $800 Alex”

A Mentally Ill 42 Year Old White Male who lives with Mom.
(never a good start/sign IMO)

Shows up with at least one Glock semiauto.

Some witnesses said he used two.

HOSES at least 28 rounds, reloading 2x, so he was probably using DotGov compliant 10 round mags, no the usual 17 in a Glock 17 or 15 in the Model 19.

Hits 3 kids, 6 adults. No KIA yet
Prayers up that everyone recovers please, especially the kids.

Conflicting reports of whether he WAS or WAS NOT known to the police. All depends on which paper you’re reading.

HAD but DID NOT USE an “AR Based Platform” that the cops found at his house. To -my- way of thinking, if you go retard, you go full retard and use every gat at your disposal. Especially if you’re looking for a body count.

I’m waiting and will Update as I go…
I’m thinking we’ll get the three-name-drop sometime after noon.
More Later
Big Country

And BTW I almost forgot! Happy Fathers Day to all them Dads out there who did the best they could and keep on keepin’ on. May you have a nice relaxing day with your kids if you can, and if not, at least enjoy the memories of better times. They will come again someday.

Appropriate for Fathers Day IMO

UPDATE:
Looks like I was right (again).
The critter that went on a spree?
“Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said 9 people were injured, some in critical condition. The suspect, he said, was found in a Shelby Township home, dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was identified as Michael William Nash, 42.“
(Bold and underline mine) H/T to Art Sido over at his Place

Now, lots of comments about how everyone or a majority of people have three names. I’ll grant that. My IRL name I’m running four names as opposed to three, and my Non-de-Plume of BCE is of the three named variety.

HOWEVER If you look at the MAJOR assassination/mass shootings over the past 75+/- years, starting with Lee Harvey Oswald, it’s a way that “They” for the values of “They” are (Leviathan, what have you) they utilize the Three name Value as a ‘focal point’ or ‘fixation point’ that ‘twigs’ the mind into accepting the “facts” that are presented by the ‘Authorities’ as absolute truth. It’s a reinforcement model… I’m not a p-shrink, but I read a paper on it many many moons ago, and it’s always struck me as closer to the truth than not.

It also almost exclusively is used to focus on Whytte Shooters only.
I mean look:
Lee Harvey Oswald
James Earl Ray
and those are just ‘instant off the top of my head classics’ so to speak.
More recent and notorious and (probable) “wind up toys” as I call them?
The Batman Shooter: James Eagan Holmes (12 KIA)
The Vegas Shooter: Steven Craig Paddock (60 KIA)
The Sutherland Springs Shooter: Devin Patrick Kelley (26 KIA)
The Mickey D’s Shooter: James Oliver Huberty (21 KIA)

And those are just a few quick snapshot(s) if you will

Add on the Australian Port Arthur Shooter, of which there have been many many questions regarding the validity of what really happened that day back in 1996, Martin John Bryant. THAT was the shooting that got ALL the guns essentially banned in Oz…

Make of it what you will… I just ‘notice’ things, and let you decide. Now, gotta shower and off to Dad’s for the rest of Father’s Day.
More Later
BCE

Greetings!
Well that was no fun at all.
I’m getting old I swear. I used to be able to eat anything without any sort of issue. I used to brush my teeth in local Baghdad water… even got to the point that I could cook with it without issues. But these ‘artificial ingredients and dyes’?

Oh not so mucho.
Not anymore that is.
Sapper was shopping and picked up a couple of packages of Oreos. Normally not a big deal, only that they, like every. single. food. item. out there have gone up in price, so the junky food and sugary crap are only purchased when it’s a two-for-one thing at Publix.

In this case it was a special “Star Wars” pack.

Now the thing here is you don’t know which you’re getting, Light Side (blue filling) or Dark Side (red filling).

To be perfectly honest, I wish I hadn’t had either.

In my pack, it was all blue. And the reason I know it was the dye that done did me in? Well, without too much graphic description, let’s just say the toilet had a faaar deep blue hue to it than it normally has from those hockey-puck thingies we have in there.

“Never Trust A Fart”
So, I got sick as a dog for a few days. Too many chemicals in what they call that Goyslop I swear. It’s a damned shame really. Now I’m back. Sort of kind of. I’ve gotten my Father’s Day gift early from Gretchen. It’s a really elaborate watch from Garmin. She got it on eBay used, and considering how elaborate it is, I think whomever owned it previously just didn’t want to learn how to use it.

It’s the Garmin Instinct 2. Normally like $400+ new. She paid juuuust under $250 by ‘sniping’ the bid. That’s when you sit and do a last minute/second bid and cut the legs out from underneath whomever had the last high bid. The only issue with doing that is someone might have a higher bid that you don’t have time to beat… either way, seems she’s been doing this and watching for a while.

It’s also how I got her one of her B-Day gifts. Nothing overly elaborate. On Gab there’s an auction house in the Gab Marketplace that does online auctions that I look at on occasion. The place usually handles Estate Sales, and some of the stuff is pure junk, and other stuff is really nice. In her case I got her a Kate Spade purse for $30 including shipping. I checked it out, and retail it’s like $125. It’s the basic ‘lil black purse’ with a ‘lil black internal makeup bag as well. Total theft IMO.

Theft to MY advantage that is…

So it’s a nice watch. I have some other nice timepieces, most of which I got back in the day in Iraq where there were fakes and real ones floating around. I still have a Tag-Heuer that I don’t know if is ‘live or memorex’ maybe you guys and gals can tell me?

It’s got the weight, and zero corrosion like the “Folex” would get… the pot metal that a fake was made out of? The salt and sweat would literally corrode a fake Rolex to junk status muy pronto.

However this one I got in 2004, like right after we ‘took over’ Baghdad and there were the occasional ‘real deals’ to be had…
The back of this one is also seriously engraved as opposed to the fake stuff where you can just tell it’s a cheap replica/cast pot metal:

You can see all the micro scratches and dirt and gunk built up on it… I had to use that lil borescope light as without it’s just too dark to see the detail(s)

If it is a fake, well Hell, either way I’ve gotten 20+ years out of it and it’s still a nice chronograph. Not going to lie, but it is also a fairly nice piece of memorabilia for myself…. knowing the shit I went through while wearing it.

Other news: The world went off the deep end about those hostages Hamas was holding. Personally, in this particular shitshow, I have the “not my circus, not my monkeys” attitude for the most part. Just as long as we here stateside don’t get ‘splattered’ with ‘blowback shit’ so to speak. I mean for real, they’ve been killing since killing was invented with Caine and Able if you want to go that far back… how or why we need to be involved beats the Hell out of me…

And the propaganda?

THIS particular one stood out to me:

The issue?
I mean… not for nothing, the pictures I’ve seen of the ‘immediate happy reunion with friends/family?’ I believe this one is from the guy above, as the Tee Shirt beard and hair sort of makes me think it’s him:

Pale as all get out…like he’s been locked away out of the sun, which makes sense…

But Starved? Beaten? Not for nothing, but I’ve looked rougher after a three day all-you-can-drink weekend bender. The only thing it looks like this guy was denied was his acne medication…

Or it might be this guy… not really sure as they look identical… the media probably screwed that pooch there on who-is-who on the freed dudes… the last pic is of this guy here:

Not a mark on him and he’s still sporting the dad-bod beer gut like oh-so-many of us are these days. I’m actively trying to get my paces in as well as working a kettle-ball while working.

So far be it from me to deny that these guys had it rough. It’s just they do not look like they’ve had it that rough. I mean there’s beatings and then there’s beatings. And starved? There’s ‘didn’t get a meal for a day or two’ to “OMFG the guy’s a walking skeleton!”
These folks?

I’m not buying into it, not fully.
Jes’ Sayin’

And the trade off of KIAs? The supposed body count is between 210 admitted to 270 claimed killed during the process of the rescue. That includes women and children. “Collateral Damage” as the movie with Arnie was titled back in the day…

Personally, I have a hard time with kids getting whacked. Don’t care the ‘why’ of it, it the kid isn’t actively participating, i.e. holding a weapon/grenade/whatever and the kid just happens to be there, you do not waste the kid.

And speaking of raw, undiluted bullshit propaganda, add on the whole spin of “Well, they were part of it! Those families were participants!!! They got what they deserved!!!”

Listen, when the “guys with the guns” show up at YOUR house and tell YOU that in no uncertain terms that this guy/gal/hostage is now YOUR responsibility for this day/week/month and he/she had better be taken care of or else capisce?” YOU literally have no other option…

I mean Hamas? That’s the Mob… The Guys with the Guns… the Guys who’ve been running this shit show. The Guys who, in all likelihood, control the food that YOUR family oh so desperately need… All you wanted to do, like most of the population in the World, want to be left the Hell alone… YOU personally have just been trying like Hell to ‘go along to get along’ and if they want to keep playing with fire, all you want to do it try like Hell to keep YOUR family out of the flames….

And in this case? unfortunately, you AS WELL as your families number(s) came up… And that therein lies my issue. It seems readily apparent from a lot of the gun cam footage that there seemed to be an excessive amount of fire… outgoing fire as far as I can tell. M-4’s versus AK? I can tell you half-stone/drunk asleep the difference when a round gets snapped off just which type of round got fired… and there was a LOT of M-4 fire… which means one of two things to my mind:

1) They were completely negligent and just panic-shooting anything and anyone who moved.
OR
2) They were intentionally making no effort to figure out the “sheep” from the “goats” willfully and intentionally killing everyone in line-of-sight, in order to terrorize the rest of the population, with the bonus of adding to an already insane genocidal score card.

Kind of pisses me off in a professional sort of way.

As Leon in “The Professional said: “No women, no kids.”
That’s practically beaten into everyone in the DotMil

Least it used to be that way.
Eh, what do I know? I’m just a broken down old Grunt who thinks that particular “rescue/massacre” was a shit show, and because of it, there’s going to be some pain down the road for the rest of us, because of it.

Mainly because, and it still blows me away that if they were going for #2, a willful and intentional slaughter of randos in and around the rescue operation, The Arab mind does not work the way others do. It’s a serious Honor Coded society, with a strict and religious aspect. I’ll tell you what… per the U.N.:

UN human rights experts* today strongly condemned the umpteenth massacre by Israeli forces in Gaza during a hostage rescue operation in Nuseirat Refugee Camp, which killed at least 274 Palestinians, including 64 children and 57 women, and injured nearly 700.

U.N. dot org

64 kids? 57 women?
Alllllll probably with relatives.
Some of which who may reside here in the Untied Staatz?

Guess what, Twenty One Year Old Cousin Abdul is now very upset that his six year old Cousin Fula was shot and killed in the raid… he’s here on a student visa at CalTech for Organic Chemistry… I’ll leave it to your fertile imaginations just what Abdul may decide to do as payback for his lil Cousin…

Either way, it ain’t going to be good

And with the TOP MEN^TM in the FedGov having the MASSIVE strength and investigatory powers of our Homeland Security being laser-focused on guys like me, disgruntled vets blowing steam off into the ethers, or jackasses wearing Nazi Uniforms or KKK robes and marching around, all hat, no cattle? That us whypeepo are the threat. The National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin dated May 24, 2023 (with an expiry of November 24 of the same year) was the last Bulletin that them jokers at Homeland put out.

Link is HERE if you feel an overwhelming need to be nauseated by our corruptocrat Overlords.

True Story: Waaaay back in 2000 I started working after the regular work day was done at an around-the-corner Liquor Store. It’s what your local New Englander calls a “packy” which stands for “Package Store”. I grew up and heard various reasons why it (the liquor stores) were given that name. A very interesting in-depth article can be found HERE

The TL;DR is that the etymology of it is derivative of the way things were literally packaged. Per the article:

The concept of selling liquor in the “original package” was incorporated into many states’ laws after Prohibition to prevent retailers from buying bulk spirits and repackaging them, lest they water them down or adulterate them in some way.

Robert Moss ‘The Origins of the Package Store’

-I- was always taught it was because back in the day, booze was wrapped in heavy dark brown paper, lest folks see you as the local boozehound or drunk. Either way, a good second job. Shit pay, but I got to take home a 30 pack every so often, which hey! Some of the best two words in the English Language: Free Beer.

So anyway, at one point we had this kid working there. Typical Quincy High School dropout. The kid was nice enough, but dumber than a bag of burnt hair. He ended up getting fired for fucking up the till one too many a times, usually in favor of the customer, which in itself was sort of sus. Mainly because we had cameras everywhere and the owner was a member of the tribe. VERY money conscious. I lasted until the end, when he sold the business to some Indians who immediately fired everyone who wasn’t one of ‘their tribe’. But before this happened, Burnt Hair Boy got canned. I was told it was because he couldn’t make change… and truthfully, he just might have been that dumb… This was like in August of 2001.

9/11 happened shortly thereafter, and the FedGov started bulking up on the security apparatus. About a year or so? Maybe more, maybe less… too many years, too many beers, Burnt Hair Boy shows up in uniform. Now, it seems like this was waaay earlier than the date(s) I find of when they actually started hiring, (March 2003) but I do distinctly remember that B.H.B. was in the very first class of the New Department of Homeland Security Airport Security Officers…

He told me I should try to get in… Federal Job and all that.

The next time I saw him was when he showed up, no shit, in a fucking suit. Seems because he was ‘in’ at the beginning, he had seniority, and was made the Supervisory Homeland Security Agent for ALL of Logan International! Now, I bear the kid no ill will… we got along ok, but it was sort of a sore spot to see this GED special coming into the store running a sweet FedGov gig like that, being as dumb as he was/is.

Man… I will say he helped me out in I believe it was September of 2004 when I was on my way back to Iraq. I had a HUGE ‘shopping list’ of various ammunition that had been requested by like everyone. Ammo for contractors was a catch-as-can, especially if officially you weren’t supposed to be armed. Plus some of the weapons had some oddities that even here at home I had trouble finding, leastways back then. 7.62 Makarov, Good 7.62×39 Hollowpoints, .45 ACP… 12 Gauge Shotgun (00 Buck for the most part) things of that nature.

I ended up filling 2 five gallon Home Depot buckets, them BIG Orange ones? with each box of ammo wrapped nice and snug in an individual foam liner. They stacked very nicely in your basic seabag/duffel bag type one each. And yes I did declare it all as I wasn’t taking any chances.

Tell you what, that sucker was heavy AF

Either way I got pulled for ‘extra screening’ for just that bag. I personally think that they couldn’t believe I actually had all that boom-boom safely wrapped all to hell and gone in the buckets. The XRay apparently couldn’t really see inside as I mean it was packed-packed to the max, and this was before those “they can unlock it” locks were in vogue.

When I got there, Surprise Surprise! Burnt Hair Boy was there in his “Fuck You I’m In Charge Suit” with 2x Homeland Kids, and Two Mass State Troopers. I was a wee bit nervous until I realized B.H.B. was all super happy to see me, and we had a mini-reunion. He was all giving me the backslap(s) and telling the other guys “This guy’s OK… we just got to make sure you packed everything OK all right?” I opened the bag, and we started pulling out -some- of the ammunition. Mind you this was right there by the boarding gate… NOT in the back room, so now I have like an audience of 500+ people staring at me, the typical Contractor wearing DCU pants, Combat boots, and some Mercenary bullshit T-Shirt I liked to wear when I was travelling…

I have to say, the old saw of “It’s who you know” paid out in spades that day. ALL the ‘experts’ on hand signed off that it was safe for this to go in the hold of the plane, and a couple of “Good Lucks” and “Give ’em Hell boy!” and off I went…

That was probably the last good interaction I’ve ever had with Homeland let me tell you…

So yeah… TOP MEN^TM are in Charge.
All is well I guess…
The only thing we can do is ride it out, and see where it goes.
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings!
Sorry I’ve been down and out w/the crud. Achy and all foggy. Been getting up, doing the barest minimum then going back to sleep. Hell… I’m ready to crash now, so let’s just call a lid on it w/some meme aight?

So More Later when I feel Better
Big Country

Greetings!
Ahhhhhhhhhh…. a nice Sunday Morning… had a good day yesterday. Gretchen has this ‘thing’ for Haunted Locations. She used to do paranormal investigations back in the day. Now this’s something that I’m in the ‘not too sure about these things’ column about. We’ve/She wanted (and got) to go to the May-Stringer house in Brooksville

which is famous for being one of the most haunted houses in Florida, and it’s architecture. Add on that it was also a Doctor’s Office in the late 1800s. The website is HERE

Not that I don’t believe in specters, spooks, ghosts and the like.

It’s that IMO there’s ‘stuff’ that you probably shouldn’t fuck with

The dead/undead and the like.

As I told our guide yesterday after the tour, “If I can’t kill it, fuck it, or eat it, I’m not dealing with it.” The day tour that WE took was more of the historic tour, and we found out they offer Ghost Tours that are offered late at night Fridays and Saturdays. The house has been featured on a LOT of those Discovery Channel ghost shows. Gretch is addicted to them I swear. So, it’s only an hour ride, and gas has dropped locally to $2.99 if you can believe it, so off we went.

We had to bring the Sausage Princess Stella with us as Sapper’s been getting beaten like a rented mule at work. His boss got a better gig, two other guys left, leaving him and three others to do the work of 7. The issue there is one of the 3 is a noob, and in training, so he’s more worthless for the time being. Poor bastard comes home (IF he comes home mind you) looking like he’s been jerked through a knothole, positively covered in salt-sweat stains… he works as a Fuel Guy at the various ports and has to sample the tanks… meaning he spends the shift climbing up and down them Giant Storage Tanks. He also has to go out to the BIG tankers occasionally, which is a crapshoot on whether or not he’s getting battered to death on the small skiff if the Gulf is riled up so to speak.

He makes great bank, but it’s a tough gig.

So since his schedule is sooo fucked up lately, we can’t leave Stella at home if we don’t know when we’re coming home. Now she’s trained to an unbelievable level so we can take her anywhere. The Tour Guides allowed her to go in on the tour, and well… it was… interesting.

Now Gretchen has all these ghost-hunting apps on her phone. One is an SLS video thing… SLS stands for Structured Light Sensor. According to the app store : “GhostTube SLS SEER detects humanoid bodies in your environment similar to the Kinect SLS cameras” If you’ve ever watched any of the Ghost Hunter shows, it senses, I don’t know? Ghosts? It picks up moving objects, seen and unseen, and lays a ‘drawing’ that looks like a stick figure where the object is. According to the ‘how does it work?’ Q&A “The SEER app senses Magnetic fluctuation using the phone’s magnetometer which could detect the presence of EMF”

The other is a Spirit Box app. That’s the one that can ‘hear’ words. Supposedly it picks up EVPs, electronic voice phenomena. Now as to the validity of these ‘things’? I’m kind of undecided. Now, saying that there WERE some seriously odd things.

One of them stick figures showed up in the Doctor’s Office. There was a combination birthing chair/surgeon’s chair/x-ray machine. According to the guides a lot of people had died in this house to include a bunch of kids in the 1800s. We all seem to forget that life back in the day was brutal on kids, and the mortality rate was really high… hell, I’m 54 and that’d be considered an Old Man back in the day.

According to an article by J. David Hacker, the life expectancy for males and females in the United States between 1893 and 1897 was 44.1 years. This estimate is based on life tables for the white population that use data from Massachusetts, a state with higher levels of urbanization, industrialization, and immigration.

The Goolag

And according to that article, the lifespan in 1860 was 39.

“Life moves pretty fast.”

Ferris Bueller

SO, despite my various misgivings, we did the tour, or at least Gretchen did the full tour because my bad robo-knee doesn’t like stairs, nor does the Sausage Princess. A three story building? No elevator? And those are normal stairs I’m talking about usually. This place had these insanely high-angle with really high risers and narrow tread. I was content to hear and walk the first floor, but after that me and the Sausage sat out the remainder of it.

Now, Gretchen was in her element got some videos of that chair I mentioned:

Right there at the beginning you can see the ‘thing’ and as the video progresses, you can see the people who were actually there getting ‘mapped’ as well if you will…

The other video was in the dining room of what appeared to be a person dancing on the table. A very short person. For some reason it won’t upload, so I can only describe it as such.

In fact I have like 8 other videos from around the house she shot, and none of them will upload. Even when I change the file extensions it’s still erroring out…

Wild huh?
It’s personally irritating the shit of me…
Anyways, it won’t let me upload the vid, but I screencapped this shot of what appears to be a kid-sized ‘thing’ dancing around the dining room:

Creepy Aye?

She also ran that Spirit Box and the words that came up were pretty wild too:

The wildest according to Gretchen was when they went into the Nursery. This’s where one of the kids, a baby, really died shortly after birth… That was when the word “infant” popped up.

The “We’re following you” came up she said as she was going back downstairs…

And the name “Elizabeth” keeps coming up not only with Gretchen’s thing, but according to our guide, she said that name comes up on almost every single Ghost Hunting app/show/investigation that’s been through there.

The thing that convinced ME that ‘strange things were afoot’ was when everyone went upstairs, and Stella and I were chilling in the front foyer. Stell was sitting all placid like, laying on the cool floor, on her best behavior. About 5 or so minute into just relaxing she popped her head up, her ears all straight up on alert. That usually only happens when she hears something or the Amazon guy is at the door. Her head and ears popped up, she got up, and walked about 5-6 feet away from me looking down the hallway, towards the Doctor’s Office. She was fully alert.

So I got up and went over and checked down the hallway…
Nothing.
So I started down the hallway.
Stella wouldn’t budge.
Her lead is one of those automatic feed/rewinders that you can lock if you want her on a short leash… usually when I take the lead I don’t have to do anything. She’ll fall into a heel and keep the pace with me.

Normally.

This time she just stood there as I passed by and did this lil ‘woof’ thing she does… sort of a light doggie grunt/exhalation. She rarely barks unless the doorbell rings. SO I get a few feet past her (the hallway is about 25-30 feet long and runs the length of the house) and I look back and she’s like not moving.

That’s about when I got the hairs on the back of my neck going up… like I was like… Nope… Nope… so I go back to the chair where I started from, and Stell comes and plops down beside me. About 3 minutes later, she does the same thing. Alerted, walks to the same spot, and stares down the hallway for a minute or so, then comes back.

She was seeing or sensing something that’s for sure.

All them gizmos may-or-may-not work, but I’ll take my doggo’s instincts over everything else.

Afterwards Gretchen and I and the guide compared notes. That in itself was interesting, so much that we’re going back for one of those late-night Spook Hunts in July. No idea if it’ll be productive, but either way it’ll be entertaining.

More Later
Big Country