Big Country Expat

Greetings and Salutations!
So I took a night off last night… both physically and mentally spent. I actually went to bed on Friday night at 22:00 so I’d make sure I was up to you know, actually do something besides being a fart-sack-slug.

It worked. I was up by 08:30.

And commenced to working on a multitude of ‘sins’ if you will. Namely getting the yard squared away, AND working on the Boat. I finally went and did the window regulator. I’m exceptionally happy that a guy on the YouToob who had a video for this exact year and model which prepped me for the job.

I did the full-on tear-down, and got everything ready:

Once I had ‘skinned’ all the crap out, the new piece went in rather smoothly. Sorry for a dearth of photos, but it was hot as balls, and I was working, rather than doing a walk through. Needless to say, it worked. The window works like a champ.

I did fuck up one thing and that was making sure the door handle worked when I put it all back together. I’ll fix that in the next few days. It’s a matter of removing the inner cover, and re-mounting it properly (I didn’t get it ‘seated’ right as it seems) but hey, at least I can lower the window to open the door from the outside…

I also have to pretty much do the same for ALL the other door handles as the 03 Nav is notorious for having shitty door handles. Thankfully I got a completely new set off of the eBay for $35 w/free shipping, so I have that going for me.

It took me about two heat-cat inducing hours to get the door done. However, I was motivated, so I went a wee bit further and did the fog lamps, which I had mentioned I had overlooked before. They came out ok, but as they (as far as I can tell) are INOP, it’s a cosmetic thing. I figure out what’s wrong with them later.

THEN…

Yeah I wasn’t done.
I took off the broken and faded front grill, seen here:

Well, it looked like this after about 2 hours of work:

The reason it took so long was I had to take a Dremel cutting tool to 4 out of the 5 screw/nuts securing it… and as you can see, the discoloration on ALL the lamps is gone…

Interesting side note…

The hood is made of fiberglass
NOT STEEL
You can see in the upper right corner where the cutting blade hit the fiberglass and scored a line in it. Very interesting side note IMO AND explains the WHY of the paint on the hood being SO much more shitty than the rest of the truck. The UV is playing hell with BOTH the paint and fiberglass as those of us ‘in the know’ understand… sanding and repainting might just be off the table in light if this…

Jes’ Sayin’

So the new grill?
Well once I hacked off the old nutz n’boltz?
It came out looking like this:

Ain’t that purty?

Now as to the emblem of the front?

Well that’s a conundrum. The clear plastic on it is cracked all to Hell and gone from road debris. Pulling it apart and just ‘cleaning it up’ isn’t an option. Neither is the $66-a-shot new one. So I got it off, filled in the cracks, and am working on doing a custom ‘in progress’ thing that IF it works, well… I’ll show you. If not? Well I’ll suck it up and buy a new one.

Payday IS this upcoming Friday after all.

Who needs food?

I mean overall, J3 hooked me straight the fuck up. The only blip on the radar was when I took it to the Car Wash to get it it’s first decent scrub in who knows how long? This was shortly after getting the window operational, so of course I wanted it (the Boat) scrubbed. When I got then, all was well UNTIL I went to put it in ‘neutral’…

THE WHOLE FLIPPING SHIFTER KNOB BLEW INTO PIECES!!!

NO IDEA (at the time) as to what exactly happened, but maaaaan… I kind of geeked… the car wash alarms started blowing, which TBH sounded a LOT like the “INCOMING! INCOMING! INCOMING!” alerts we had in Iraq, which I’m sure contributed to me geeking the fuck out “Ert! Ert! Ert!” as myself AND the Boat were caught in the treadmill, unable to shift out of drive into neutral or anything else… queue PTSD meltdown amiright?

Thankfully, this must happen occasionally, ‘cos this big dude jumped into the ‘shotgun seat’ with a screwdriver and asked if he could do what needed to be done? I was like “FUCK YAH! dude!” and he popped open the shifter console, which allowed him/me to then shift the Boat into neutral and get my ‘scrub on’.

When I got home I was able to put it into park due to dude opening the ‘guts’ of the system, which allowed me to bypass the normal shit, and googled the fuck out of what the fuck just happened!?!

Seems it’s the lil itty bitty screw holding everything together had worked it’s way loose, which allowed the shifter knob to ‘pop off’ and thereby NOT allow the shifter to function, as the shifter knob ‘safety button’ was no longer capable of engaging.

Sheesh.

All’s well that ends well.

Now I have to figure out what’s up with the AC.

I’ve recharged it per instructions and specifications, but it’s still blowing hot as balls. Any insight would be appreciated. I have a new cabin filter, but am unsure if that’s the issue… I hope it is ‘cos I can fix that, even tho it’s a pain in the ass, but at least it’s cheaper than say a new compressor (worst case scenario)

So again, an early night.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Brutally Stolen off of ChatGPT ‘cos tonight?
I’m lazy:

So that about sums it up for tonight
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
So… First off…
No more comments here or anywhere re: the current marital situation. I’m not going to comment anymore, and I’ve removed the majority of ‘stuff’ out there as it’s nothing but ammunition.

She’s gotten the URL and is watching quite closely.

So other than that, if your comments and conversations ‘go away’ in the next few, it’s not you per se, but on advice from counsel and the rest… you get what I’m saying?

Now.. as far as tonight?

Well today after work was a wash on doing -anything- with the Boat. The rain has been pretty much non-stop today, and severe in some instances. I got a nastygram from the HOA threatening ALLLL sorts of $100.00 a day fines for not having cut my grass, based off of the last warning that I had “14 days to remedy the situation”…

Back on May 28th.

OF COURSE I remedied it within a day or two, as well, the nastygram I got dated 15+/- days BEFORE that on May 6th was that my grass had bare patches and that I needed to seed/sod the area… I think I ranted about it, in that I was given 14 days to grow a shit-ton of new grass (sod is worthless IMO and never ‘takes’ on my front yard for some reason) which I managed to get done… On the 28th they bitched at me that the new grass was too long…

FML… make up your fucking minds will you???

So it got cut of course.

NOW? Based off of that May 28th ‘warning’ they’re saying their going to levy $100.00 a day for the yard not being cut even though I got it cut today despite the rain and all that.

Also, if I hadn’t cut the lawn since May 28th, and it’s July 23rd? Fuck Me… the lawn would have pockets of VC and Japs who didn’t get word that the war was over, never mind ticks galore. It’d be realistically almost waist deep… <Le Sigh>

I’m really getting tired of being fucked with to the point that prison is looking pretty fucking comfy right now. They also bitched about the trees not being trimmed, and yeah… it’s hard to do when it rains damned near 5 out of 7 days a week, and I work 50-60 hours a week to keep this show rolling… I’ll have THAT done by Saturday.

Fucking swine… the lot of them…

So anyways… a couple of things or three outside of the Boat-Repair (heh) and the current Poly-Ticks of the day… as far as the Poly-Ticks, it’s a nonstop shitshow of ‘if it leads it bleeds’ reveals that I can’t even keep track of now… I’m sort of over it all… let me know when the world ends mnnn-k? I want to get off…

Nope.

Tonight?

One major topic: A Practical skill(s) that may or may not be needed in the future… which in my case has been a hobby of mine since I was bored-off-my-ass in Afghanistan. This particular skill started by a gift given to me from a buddy of mine who gave me a neat piece of DotMil issued kit while there.

Namely LOCKPICKING

Now, in my case I was given a small set of picks by a guy I was handling the Property Book for… Namely the 160th SOAR, the SF Aviation guys. One of their supply guys gifted me a set of Sparrows Lockpicks…

They were for some of the SF kids an issue to via the Rapid Fielding Initiative, which was a fielding of new/experimental gear… from what I found out, they gave these out tot he SF kids to assist in going into places they weren’t necessarily welcome… As you can see, mine’s a bit faded and worn…

It comes in that lil handy-dandy tactical style case, with Velcro on the back, to allow it to do a ‘quick detach/affix’ on your gear as needed. Inside in has a basic set of tension wrenches and picks:

3 Tension/Torque Wrenches (used for putting the lock barrel under tension)
3 “Rake” style picks (named for ‘raking’ the pins to get them lined up to open the lock)
and 5 “Regular Pin Picks” of varying sizes, to assist in pushing and setting the pins to unlock the lock.

Once I was given this, I realized I knew nothing about picking locks AT ALL. I mean outside of doing it in Fallout, and seeing it on TV? I had not even Clue #1. My Supply Buddy recommended the following however to learn the ‘basic stuff’ and seeing that I had nothing but time on my hands in Kandahar, I sent for this book:

Link (with my ‘taste’) HERE

Now this’s just advice… I’m not giving any direct instructionals as there’s just too damned much to cover. Nope… I will however offer that this’s a skill you want and need.

I can’t stress it enough… this book as above right here (as far as I have found) is the best introduction to Lockpicking across the board. Once I got it, I spent a LARGE amount of my down time learning the intricacies of doing a successful pick… tensioning the lock, learning the ‘feel’ of various pins and such… setting the pins…

It’s quite a challenge, both physically as well as intellectually.

In fact the feeling you get from successfully picking your first lock is rather cool… like triumphant is how I felt…

And having the proper tools for the job helps quite a bit.

Now, YMMV but ALSO keep in mind that depending on your area, SOME of these tools are illegal as Hell. “Burglary Tools” or whatever bullshit charges that ‘The Leviathan’ wants to pin on someone. I know a kid who got hemmed up for having “Burglary Tools” because he happened to have a Phillips head screwdriver on him when he got caught doing a B&E (I went through Basic and AIT w/him)… he said it wasn’t a tool to assist in the break in, but for his own defense against anyone who might try to jack him… instead of a knife, he had a screwdriver, which is faaar more common than peope realize…

That being said, it added an ‘enhancement’ to the B&E hence why he was in the Army… “Join or Jail” still happened in the late 80’s early 90’s. So be aware of the rules and whatnot.

Personally?

I use Sparrows picks almost exclusively.

Their Website is HERE

I don’t get anything for saying so (I wish I did), but hey… they’re damned good and have some pretty cool innovations. One of which is part of my EDC (every day carry) which is this:

Front and back (with belt clip) and smaller than a pocketknife.

It’s the “Escort” (LINK) which I got some time ago when it first got introduced for a very low price (like 1/3 less that the current price!!!!) It has the following:

3 “Rake” style Picks
3 “Normal” Pin Setting Picks
1 Medium Torque/Tension wrench

VERY portable (belt clip)
VERY concealable (smaller than and looks like a jackknife)
VERY handy (once you know what you’re doing)

Besides boredom, I realized this was a skill-set that may have some real-time use. I mean you don’t always want/need to smash a door open right? Post Collapse, is it not better to slip in quietly, rather than bash in the door and announce to one and all that ‘someone’ has come to visit? Quiet goes a looong way.

Same goes with secured containers/storage units and the like…

Better no one knows you were even there IMO.

So, I highly recommend this as a skill set to add to the need-to-know collection of ‘learn-learn-learn’… It’s for the most part a seriously overlooked one, but can be done, on your own, with a minimum of investment. A case in point, the “Tuxedo” which is what they’re calling that SF Issued kit ran on sale around Sapper’s B-Day for $30. It was of course his B-Day Gift from me, and he’s been learning how to do lockpicking via borrowing my book…

When he gets confident, we’ll start doing lockpicking contests… things like the same model lock, and start at the same time, and see who gets it picked first…. nothing like a challenge to make it fun right?

So, Your thoughts?
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
OK So today’s headlight cleaner/restorer came in courtesy of Terrapod (I think)… a random Amazon delivery. GREATLY Appreciated kind sir, and to the reader who sent me the check, it showed. Y’all generosity is overwhelming I swear.

Now, Thing is, the headlight restorer, the ‘one and done’ showed up AFTER I used the Cerakote Kit that I had gotten on Monday… What’s interesting that I sort of fucked up when I did the main headlights… as you can see:

I forgot the fog lamps!

BUT!

It gives a great comparison as the headlights were as jacked up and yellowed as the fog lamps. You can see the marked improvement. I swear I should get paid to endorse this stuff. Here’s a left and right close-up:

Now the cool thing about me forgetting to do the fog lamps?

NOW with the one Terrapod sent me, I’ll be able to use that as a compare/contrast test. I’ll hit the fog lamps tomorrow and see how they turn out.

I also have a new grill to put on AND the new window internals showed up, so this’s coming together rather well and quickly.

Brand-Spanky-New!!!

I also figured out what hardware I need to mount it on, as the old nuts that would normally be re-used on the old one are rusted to Hell-and-Gone. No worries… Home Depot was able to get me the correct lock-nuts for $0.17 a piece as opposed to the Ford/Lincoln Factory “Fasteners” (common lock-nuts as mentioned) that are like $1.25 a piece.

The Lincoln Emblem is somewhat problematic. The old one I’m going to try and refinish and reuse, as there ARE new ones out there, but they average about $70 bux. I did get excited when I found one for $35 but then the shipping and handling was like $37???

How the Hell they get away with shit like that, on a 4oz. piece of plastic is beyond MY understanding… Grift is my call… pure and simple Grift.

Now, since the Cerakote headlamp restoration kit worked so well, I’m eager to see how their Paint Sealer/Restoration kit is. I mean whatever it does, It’ll be an improvement no matter what.

Guess we’ll have to see.

Telling you… between rifle restoration and now truck restoration? I mean this’s becoming a full-time ‘thing’ restoring “stuff” if you will… And yep, I still am working on that other and last Lee Enfield… things have just been, as you’ve seen, a might chaotic up ’round here.

Let me know what you think!
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
AMAZING what a little TLC and elbow grease does on a vehicle:

Namely hitting the rims with the proper chemistry for brake dust and a stiff bristle brush…
This’s the left front “before”:

And then the left front “after”:

The discoloration on the center-cap is from the sealing tape that holds and protects the Lincoln lettering and emblem. The edges peeled back, and the dust in there and there isn’t much to do about it… either way, it’s one HELL of an improvement with just some minor scrubby-scrub amiright?

Either way, eBay has them for like (with shipping plus) $25-30 a throw… None of mine have a need for full on replacement. I have far moar important fish to fry so to speak.

Which BTW I had an interesting encounter last night with a “Froggy Fren” if you will…

I went out to do some scrubbing on the Boat… I mean why not right? I was using a leather cleaner/restorer around 10:30 last night as I tend to not sleep very much nor very often these days.

I figured what the Hell as the rain had finally stopped, so “lets be productive”… while I was cleaning, I had put my cellie up on the roof for a minute or ten while I was ‘cleaning’ and getting my scrub on’… when I went to retrieve it I saw ‘movement in the wire’ so to speak, specifically on the roof. I recovered my phone, turn on the flashlight and whaddya know?

“Lil’ Kek” if you will…

Just chilling out… all relaxing on the roof.
I have zero idea from where he came from.

I myself had to step up on the sideboards to even see on the roof. How Lil’ Kek got up there? I have no clue. I kept working for about 45 minutes, and then went back to see if he’d found a way off the roof…

Apparently that was a ‘no’… he was content as can be, still just chilling out on the roof… so I had to do something as I didn’t want him getting hemmed up/killed b/c I failed to assist… I caught him easily, and unlike ALL the other frog-encounters I’ve had in the past, Lil’ Kek did not do what I expected, which is usually ‘vent’ all his fluids and solids so to speak… meaning he didn’t piss and shit all over me, as most froggies in the past have as they tend to freak when you grab them, and do a ‘panic download’.

Nope… he was chill AF.

I caught him in my palm, and he immediately settled in, and then climbed up to ride on my thumb so to speak, and started watching where we were going. No trying to escape, no freaking… just…. chilled out… like he was there for a purpose.

I took him to the pond in the back yard, wished him well and as I went to toss him in, he pre-emptively “Hasta La Vista’d” me and jumped into the pond on his own… A BIG jump too… splashed right in… He then, as I watched, surfaced, croaked at me, and went on his merry way…

Well Met, Lil Kek Aye?

I mean maaaaaan…

Not trying to read into things too much, but I’m taking this as a sign that the New Truck has the “Blessings of Kek” on it or something… I mean a lil froggy, showing up, hanging out as I work, and then acting the way he did? TOTAL WEIRDSVILLE man…

WILD stuff…
So that’s about it for now…
I woke up late, went to bed late, and need to start resetting my pattern so to speak. The rain as of late is keeping me from doing the yardwork, as well as hitting the bike, so I need the fall dry season to hit I’d say. So also, I’m going to STOP discussing HER as -someone- has been feeding her tidbits from my writings… not that anything I’ve put out there is untrue, but still… I don’t want nor need her shit and drama anymore.

So More Later
BCE

Greetings and Salutations!
Maaaaaaaaan kindness and generosity… two really important words in life… Thanks to the unbelievable generosity of one Reader, J3 (as literally ALL of his initials all start with the letter ‘J’) I got a new set of wheels!
Meet the new Boat:

That’s the ’03 Navigator.

Needless to say, I fit juuuust fine in that big ole sucker.

Like me, the paint’s a bit faded, it has it’s quirks (like I need to fix the window on the driver’s side… the motor needs replacing) but also like myself, it’s got a stronk ‘heart’ if you will. Also like me, it just needs some TLC and clean up.

I call it the Boat as OMFG after driving around in that itty-bitty Hyundai with the 4 cylinder hamster under the hood? This 6.0 V-8 scared the Hell out of me when I went for a drive earlier. I stepped on the gas and Hoo-Boy!!! It’s got a whoooooole lotta ‘git up and go!’ which it’s been a looong minute since I had that sort of horsepower hauling my ass around. J3 was also kind enough to come here w/his gracious wife, who spent the majority of the time having the Sausage Princess lay her head in her (the wifes that is) lap, and making besties out of her.

“Never stop petting the dog” is a rule around here… once you pet Stella once you’d better pack a lunch ‘cos she’s NOT going to leave you alone. I got to show off the ‘Museum of Mayhem’, and give him a few things as a thank-you…

We had a nice lunch (again thanks Bro!) and then they had to bail as they had a passel of their kids still at home, with the 17 year old in charge… I remember those days too.

So…
Last night was fun.
I reeee-laxed.
Killed a lot of virtual bad guys who needed killing…

Again, another glorious weekend!
NO DRAMA or Bullshit to be seen!
A man could get used to this…

I haven’t been paying too much attention to the news, outside of the “Credible Threat” shit that came out on Thursday Night. I got a call from a bro at McDill at about 21:00 on Thursday, and last night I got a copy of the alert regarding the “Haj Threat to retired DotMil Kids here in Florida”

And yeah, it’s a legit warning…
I’m of two thoughts on this

ONE is it’s legit… odds on that are about 30 for / 70 against

TWO is that it’s a potential False Flag… odds on that? 80 for / 20 against.

I’m going with Door Number Two Monty.

My rationale for that?

First, it’s been what? Like almost 10 years or more for the whole “Iraq” side of things for the most part. I figure they’d have come after people a LOT sooner. Why now? Not only that, they’d be better off going after active duty guys truth be told. Active duty guys for the most part are NOT allowed (unless married and living off post) to have easy access to personal weapons. Softer targets if you will, whereas Ye Olde Retired Guys? We, for the most part, we’re armed to the fucking teeth and thirst to legally kill some bad guys again.

Secondly, going after the guys who’re retired? The only thing that does IF a bunch of older-ish retired Vets get clapped is create outrage and headlines/lies to push whatever agenda and/or war they want us in next… that and by eliminating the retired SF guys? Well retired SF guys are the ones who the DotGov fears the most. THAT is why there are watchlists and ‘gangstalking’… SF are force multipliers. Trainers. By designation. To train people to form anti-DotGov cadres to assist in overthrowing whatever ‘enemy of the week’ that’s in vogue. So wasting a few would be a net-plus for the current situation(s) we see going on out there.

Either way for the foreseeable future, I’ll be rolling heavy-er than normal. Guess keeping those additional mags for the Grok already was a wise decision… Even walking the doggos now in the yard, I’m rolling with a weapon.

So again, my thanks to ALL of you who’ve been here for the trials and tribulations, and especially a HUGE thanks to J3 for the HUGE assist in providing me a set of wheels. It’s going to make a WORLD of difference now.

As well as Thanks to -Whoever- is “In Charge” out there in the Universe… I needed a win like this.

So More Later
Big Country

< Insert Break Here>

RWED/REW Pipe Grep: “Big Country Expat”
Gamer Mode Engaged

LOCKOUT:

5152:2536:7547:4321
<Queue Graphic Loadout>

Loadout “Fallout London/Red Dead Redemption 2”
If Null; REDO Delete/Reload as Follows

NEXTPOAST Saturday

Initiated

Greetings and Salutations!
Picked up the Cop-Trade in ‘fantastic plastic’ Grock after slaving at the unmerciless Glorious People’s Tractor Factory or else!!! for the day… SHE also made an appearance but more later on that…. no one died or went to jail leastways So anyways… the weapon in question:

You tell me:

And then the flip side:

Annnnnnnnnnnd as I said, Cheap AF:

So yeah
I may as well have stole the damned thing.
The price doesn’t show as it was sold out BUT:

$397.73, with three mags in that good a shape, out the door?

Yep… I stole it apparently.
We’ll get in these issues later. I’m exhausted, doing well ( no worries) but just seriously behind in my ZZZZ count.

I also have a long-term project I finally got done with, but thats for later…
Literally More Later
BCE

Greetings and Salutations!
Well things are looking up ’round here as of late. First off in no incessant demands for attention/shit she didn’t need/nor compliments… No hearing about the ‘daily drama’ of Dumbcunt and her fucking antics anymore either… No calls for ‘Help, we’ve fallen and can’t get up’

Nunnadat.

Not. one. fucking. call.

Holy. Hells.

Is this what normal life is supposed to be!?!

No joke, I’ve been sort of confused by all the peace and quiet ’round here. I’m sooooo used to flailing from one crisis to the next, I’m a wee bit put out by the quiet…. It’s both startling as well as I dunno… unsettling? as I’ve been ‘programmed’ by her for the last 5-6 years to expect a ‘shit-show inbound’ All. The. Fucking. Time.

Like today? I had a VA appointment and had to punch early from People’s Glorious Tractor Factory. They’ll let me make up the hours after, but in order, I had a Liver Sonogram (to see if it’s concreted or not yet), a CAT Scan of my heart with Contrast which sucks, as while I may not be allergic, it leaves me feeling most shytteful and nauseated after… I have an Aortic WTF do you call it? I can’t remember but it’s a swelling that I’ve had for years on one of the aortas that they monitor every few… IF I need it fixed, they’ll go in (they told me) through the groin… mad ouchies there IMO.

THEN it was time to go and ‘do the toob’ with a MRI for the spine, which meant I had to drink the tracer, which comes in Banana Flavored Ass, or Berry Flavored Ass… the Mixed Fruit Flavored Ass was apparently unavailable, much to my chagrin. I went with the ‘naner flavored ass…. and had a valium chaser as I’m a wee bit claustrophobic in my old age, and I just do NOT fit in the toob very well…

So the point is, that AFTER all of these endeavors, as Sapper was the one who took me there (his truck IS currently working) we went out for a late lunch at IHOP…

….instead of racing back home to make sure my (heh) blushing bride wasn’t too put out by my absence as I would usually do. I was able to do what the fuck I wanted without getting a “where are you” phone call… Nope. No more of that… I’m sort of a wee bit confused and put out by the feeling Aye? Still sorting it all out I reckon…

It’s not a bad thing I know this…
Just…. Confused I suppose….

So to continue, since the day was done as far as work goes, we went to visit GunGirl to fill out my paperwork for my eventual pickup of my new carry, which in itself was a very pleasant surprise.

I went with a Law Enforcement Trade In Fantastic Plastic Glock Model 21 in .45.

Now it was supposed to be a Gen4, and come with one mag.

The one that showed up?

A Gen3 that was an AUSTRIAN Made Grock 21 w/3 Mags and man, it looked like it’d never been carried/fired/used.

It’s not a New Smyrna piece, but as Sapper said a “Gaston Glock SS Weapon” (Nigga Heil Hitler!)

It ALSO has tritium sights, that from what I could see are STILL operational. The lifespan in those sights are about 12 years, which is the half-life of the tritium.

Either way, to say I’m pleased is an understatement.
Comparable ones like it I’ve seen now as of today retailing for $600.

The only irritant is that in prepping for this showing up, and expecting ONE mag, I used Sezzle (like I did for the gat) to get 3 factory new mags as I figured 1 is none, 2 is good and 4 is perfect. Now I’m going to have 7. They haven’t shipped yet, and I’m only $18 into the payments, so do I keep? Not keep?

I hate conundrums like this.

I mean MOAR mags is ALWAYS a good thing, but outside of some IRL ‘John Wick Shit’ I never foresee a day where I’ll need 7 full mags of .45, and if I do find myself in such a predicament, it means I probably fucked up by the numbers. Like fatally so

Jes’ Sayin’

So anyways, I FINALLY got in contact with the reader who offered the Navigator, who assured me it’s good to go, with the exception of the left driver side window being in a perma-down position, and he’s not had the time or inclination to fuck around with it any longer. I already found a full window refit kit for $100 with is well within budget, and he said he’d come by to drop it off this weekend! My extreme gratitude to you dude.

I needed a solid like this.

So transportation is taken care of.
Least that I can tell
I also responded to a few of you kind folks who offered an assist, and I also thank you for that kindness as well… I really really appreciate you all and what you offered, as these days, people generally suck, and y’all here most certainly do not.
Y’all people are gold I swear.

And since that is the case (as far as I can tell) Here’s what I’ve been bumming around on since July 1st. As promised, a breakdown of the BCE Apocalypse Bike:

It’s an Ironhorse 21? Speed Mountain Bike (I think)
I’ve had it since 2016 when the FIRST X took off leaving me carless… (hmmmn… there seems to be a pattern here)

It’s got 3 Sprockets on the pedal area, and the normal gears in the rear so to speak… I think 7 sprockets which means a 21 speed… I’ve never been ‘into’ bicycles except as basic transportation to a point. However some years ago I outfitted this a weeeeeee bit more with a BIG lean into heavy cargo capacity, that IF we had an EMP style issue or whatnot, that I’d at least have the ability to quietly get the Fuck Out Of Dodge as needed. Bicycles being damned near invisible to a point.

I went with the Ironhorse as this as back when I got it (2016 I think?) this was one of the few bikes that was rated for “Extra-Fat-Ass” weights… like as in up to 500 pounds of cargo/people overall. Me at 325 right now? And then adding on gear and whatnot? It’ll do.

I also got a trailer for it as well for the Grans back in the day:

Those blankets in it?

Those are spare/leftover heavy Kevlar Blankets from a HMMWV kit… blast blankets.

Waste Not, Want Not.

It (the trailer) attaches to the back of the bike, and has two seats inside for the kids from when they were littles. I figured in a full grid-down TEOTWAWKI situation, a few minutes of rattlecan would camo that sucker up quite nicely, and it has a LOT of room to haul ‘stuff’ in it.

The bike itself is outfitted with a plethora of gear bags.

On the front forks there are two waterproof bags that hold 6 liters of ‘stuff’ OR as they ARE waterproof, make good emergency water bags in a pinch:

They’re mounted via a bayonet clip that’s strapped to the fork:

Also, the front basket and bag? Those are OK… The basket folds up and out of the way if needed, and the ‘lunchbox’ bag is insulated, and good for transporting the frozen stuff like Ice Cream.

The handlebars have an extension I had to add, as my torso is soooo long (6’4 but only a 31 inch inseam… I’m built like a gorilla) to allow the handlebars to reach me so I’m not bent over in “Italian Ass-in-The-Air-Bike-Racer” mode:

It gives me an additional 8 inches on the handlebars, raising them up quite a bit, so I don’t have my spine being blown out, and I don’t necessarily have ALL my upper body weight crushing down on my arms and shoulders. That was a problem initially, that I’d get home, and my shoulders of all things were killing me… a few more rides and I realized ALL my weight was on my arms and shoulders due to be bent ALLLL the way the fuck over. THAT item took quite a bit of fine tuning to get it to work. Once installed? No more issues.

ANother issue?
My Junk.
Specifically it being abused by the seat.
I shitcanned the traditional seat, and replaced it new.
The NEW seat is a comfy wide-load capable gel seat. I can’t deal with a regular bike seat, as I said, my junk gets all squished and uncomfortable, so instead I go with a ‘let it hang off the front’ style seat:

HIGHLY RECOMMEND if you’re dude
10/10.

Now other cargo initiatives? The panniers in the back (50 liter bags mind you) are mounted on a very basic rack that’s still the same price I paid for it back in 2019. I like the ease of the mounting, via clamping onto the seat post:

And, as stated, it carries quite a bit of gear comfortably.

The pannier bags and basket on the ass, well… I dismounted the basket. That’s going back to the ‘Zon… I don’t like how it fits, and it’s hard for me to sling my leg over when it on there:

I already pulled the hardware in that pic…
EVERYTHING is ALWAYS trial and error.
Hopefully I’m pointing out stuff so y’all learn from my mistakes. The bags however are GREAT!

50 liters storage each, has a waterproof cover for each, multiple internal pockets, and have a good easy-on/easy off set of clips that allow them to be mounted DIRECTLY to the pannier frame.

They hold a TON of stuff.

And lastly, I have a few ‘comfort touches’ One being a water bottle, which is an insulated Camelback jug that fits on the frame mounted bottle holder:

…as well as an Aftermarket Fender that clamps on the rear of the front fork. I found this to be necessary a few years back when I got caught out in the rain (an occupational hazard living in Florida) and the water from the front wheel was spraying all over my front and face as the knobby tires kept kicking everything up into my grill:

Muddy water just sucks when you get sprayed up like that.

As to the other ‘stuff’, on the handlebars themselves, I have the obligatory Cell Phone Holder that’s spring-loaded and actually fits my oversized OnePlus 10T I prefer, and the little Ironhorse distance/speed computer that theoretically calculates how many calories etc. I’ve lost since I started this farce.

The computer ‘reads’ from a little dingus that I had to attach to one of the spokes on the front rim… Bluetooth I think or something… You can see it on the pic of the bayonet mount above… that little disk attached to the spoke in the lower left….

Either way it’s been fritzing out on me, so it’s a ‘whatever’ sort of deal after 9 years of using it… I paid like $50 for it new, but found it on eBay new for $22 with free shipping tonight when I tried to find MY exact model of bike, as I cannot for the life of me remember… so yeah… maybe get a new one? Who knows…

So this’s my “End of the World Ride” so to speak.

Not fancy nor hi-priced. I think I spent $400 on the bike on clearance when Sears was going out of business in 2016? It was a ways back… Extras were probably maybe $100-200 and that’s spread out over the years. The best was the bike trailer… $25 on FB marketplace… a steal as it is/was.

So your thoughts?
More Later
BCE

Greetings and Salutations!
Whew!
LOTS of great discussion and PMs from you jokers (and joker-ettes… THAT still AMAZEBALLZ’s me that I have WILLING female readershit… normally I’d figure you all would be held at gunpoint, forced to read my non-PC ‘stuff’… anywho…) Leastways SWMNBN never read this stuff, and r/n I only supressed/deleted (albeit temporarily) the rest of the blegg on advice from my various mouthpieces. Even tho I’m pretty damned sure she doesn’t even know the URL…

Better safe than sore and sorry of course.

And Yeah, I have like 4 lawyers on speed-dial…
Don’t you?

Anyway… one thing that keeps cropping up in the discussion is the M-47 Dragon Anti-Tank Medium Antitank Rocket….

Whoooooooooo boy…

This’ll take a second.
-I- was ‘raised’ as a little ole 11 Hotel.
An ‘offshoot’ back in the day when Infantry MOS’s had various ‘flavors’… The following being:

11B = Straight Legg Infantryman, Modifiers like ‘Airborne’ (or not really per se) to be added later… Essentially the bare-bones Grunt of Fame and Lore.

11C = A Mortarman-who-was-a-Mortar Maggot. Their AIT consisted of dropping bombs down a toob, and killing from High Angles… “Hi-Angle Hellfire” was a popular t-shirt for them at the Sand Hill PX back in the day…. primarily trained on 82mm Mortars. They used to use the BIG 4.2in Mortars until those got retired… not sue if 11C is still around or not…

11H = Dat me. A Heavy Anti-Armor Infantryman, AKA TOW Gunner. Tube Launched, Optically Tracked Wire Guided missile badassery. The MOST fun I’ve ever had with my clothes on. It also stood for “Tired Of Walking” as the missile system, the BGM-71 overall weighed in at 550 pounds with only ONE missile, so we needed vehicles to operate efficiently. They eventually shitcanned the MOS only to bring it back and shitcan it and repeat as necessary. A few fucking times no less…. I got reclassed involuntarily in 1996 when they FIRST shitcanned it.

Fuckers.

Then, lastly, there was

11M = M2* (depending on the Brad) Bradley Crewmember/Infantryman. Brad crewmen used to be Grunts. They’d train a squad worth of guys (‘8 for the Back, 3 for the Track’ as we used to say) and out of the 11 initially trained guys, the three best trained guys would ‘run’ the track, and the rest, being familiar with the whole running of said track, would be the in-the-back Grunt Crew that’d supposedly storm the trenches if needed off of said track. IF the crew got wasted, then any member of the ‘Back 8’ knew at least how to nominally run the track… It looked good on paper leastways….

Nowadays my understanding is that EVERYONE is 11 “X” when they join the Infantry, and they fill the needs for who goes where “according to the needs of the Army” which IMO is a fucking waste as in some cases, as guys with a higher end GT score might end up as 11B (Bodybag) when they could have gotten a better deal… A ‘Hotel’ needed a higher GT score (for whatever reason… why I personally have no idea) but it is what it is….

Now a Dragon Gunner?

They were just ‘regular grunts’ who got a ‘modifier’ for training added onto their MOS. Like I have a few modifiers on my MOS… Originally I had 11H… basic TOW gunner…. and then had the E09 Modifier added which meant I had been trained on the M901 TOW ITV or Improved Tow Vehicle/track:

I was initally an 11H10E9
Meaning an enlisted 11H with an ITV modifier.

If I had made E-5, I would have been an 11H20E9 and so one… rank modified the MOS as you went on as well… In the Rakkasans, I was a 11H10/E9/2B/W5. Add on my Airborne Wings and yeah… not bad… a breakdown follows.

As stated, Modifiers I have are 2B, Air Assault and W5, Special Operations Foreign and Non-Standard Armorer (that one I actually am proud of… that was a tough fucking course lemme tell you!), as well as G2, a Standard Army Retail Supply System-2AC/2B (SARSS-2AC/2B) Materiel Manager which I got under my 92 series MOS. My B4 is in there somewhere, but after a while, too many numbers/letters to GAF about…

Believe it or not, Airborne does NOT have it’s own modifier.

You either have wings or you don’t.

The modifier for the Dragon is/was C2. They should be all gone by now, (except for relics like me LOL). Thing is, I only interacted with the Dragon ONCE… and it was a shitshow.

Like an extreme shitshow

The day us 11H from Lee Field went out to do our live fire? The ‘regular Infantry’ 11B-C2s? Their Dragon Gunner ‘Top Gun’ Graduates got to do their live fire too. The range was shall we say innnntersting in that we fired from what was essentially the top of a VERY large cliff. (The reason for this to be revealed in a minute)

So as Echo 9’ers and 11H standard guys got to fire and yes, I -was- the Top Gun on BOTH weapons systems so AFTER I had fired, the 11B-C2 kids (Dragon) got up and went to fire…

Thank CHRIST in heaven they were firing off a cliff…

BOTH dudes triggered their live rounds (there were NO submunition rockets, outside of the the training 9mm submunitions,) which meant BOTH rounds were FULL ON H.E. (high explosive) Warshots. Let me tell you, NOW we know WHY the range was on a cliff, and WHY both Dragon Gunners fired their shit from the edge…

BOTH gunners, in a row, were told to fire from the edge of the cliff…

They made the first guy wear the full on (for the day) Body Armor, helmet and Googles (unusual) and gloves. This alone raised eyebrowz. Guy #1 walked up sling-carrying his missile and guidance set. His instructor walked out with him, gave him what I think was a pep-talk (as we had a LOT of VIPS in the audience as these events were for the early 90s expensive and rare) and then left him to fire.

He fired, the round ‘kicked out’ with a “Blooop!” and then fell off the cliff where it subsequently exploded with great force. The Kick-Motor fired, but apparently, the actual motor-motor that should have propelled the missile downrange?

Not so fucking mucho.

It went ‘over the edge’ so to speak off of and over the cliff edge, into –whatever- was down there, and blew the fuck up.

It MASSIVELY blew the fuck up as I recall… a big ole Mushroom Cloud a big old pile of debris rained down on everyrone. AT rounds are positively PACKED with Octal Explosive which makes C-4 and other shit look tame by comparison. Needless to say, Dood #2 you could just tell was not happy to now be the ‘up next’ Top Gunner so to speak…

He experienced the same exact issue and ALL of us in the audience experienced the same ‘dirt bath and sound issues’ i.e. a giant assed explosion… I’m pretty sure BOTH dudes were ready to quit the DotMil after that, leastways as memory serves…

So otherwise….

I have not heard from SWMNBN so far except for the usual “I’ve been thinking about you” and “Can we talk”… Uh nope. I’m good. Too betrayed and hurt to talk have been my responses. Which works. I did get her notification of her permanant change-of-addy letter today, which I notified her of and that works… There ain’t no coming back from hurting the pupper man…. just no. fucking. way.

I’m channeling my inner “John Wick”

Granted she didn’t kill the pupper…

HOWEVER

But even the banned-from-everywhere perma-troll Hedge commented “Wait a minute… I missed that… the bitch. hurt. the. fucking. dog!?!” which of course I allowed…

When Hedge is on your side, you know you’re on the side of righteousness.

Yeah… as to all the other stuff out there?

Well…
Stella’s stiches came out by her own volition dammit.
Chewed them out overnight apparently

The wound is healed but it irritates me that I spent $7 on an overnight suture removal kit as my last one I used on SWMNBN dammit.

Ah well…. she’s doing great.

I also am getting a bike writeup done.
Pics taken… writing in progress…
HOWEVER

I do have a car I found locally but even with the Amazon Windfall I’m about $1500 short. It’s a 2003 Volvo. V70 Wagon in Olive Drab w/ a tan interior. 200k miles, but for a Volvo, that’s just broken in. I dunno…. Raffle? Fundraiser? I hate to ask for anyone to help at this point. I’m going to cash in what gold I have (about $600 worth r/n) and see what happens comes payday.

Hence why I’m riding my bike.
Losing weight whilst I do it too.

SWMNBN is going to be bent when she sees me… My gut is melting away r/n which SHE always claimed was a turn off… Bitch… you’ve been talking to otherDoodz since Day Zero…. suffer is all I can say ya cunt.

Either way, the new PayPal is up and running.
The PayPal name is @CountryOfBigExpat and the Email is countryofbigness@yahoo.com if you want.
I also have a mailing addy for those of you interested
And I no longer care about “the doxx” as one such as myself have ALREADY had enough shit thrown at me. DM Me at bce187th@protonmail.com for it.

Otherwise
Tomorrow is my ‘Combat Escape Bike’ FWIW
Stay Tuned
More Later
BCE

Number 3 Applies INORDINATELY IMO