Big Country Expat

Greetings and Salutations!
OK… so it wasn’t the fuel system after all.
It was our friend, Mickey Fucking Rat again!!!

The shop called Sapper this A.M. and told him that it was the mass air flow sensor as well as the wiring harness. Plus the air cleaner box! You couldn’t see it from just popping the hood however… it was all ‘under and out of sight’.

The sonofabitch chewed it ALL up in there.

To the tune of $800 in parts alone. This was the point when Sapper flipped his shit, and I did a quick goolag search and found that the fuckers at the shop were not just overcharging, but “Bending over and assraping us” in overcharging. The Mass Air Flow sensor? Theirs: $125. Amazon for an OEM? Try $39.99. The air box itself? They wanted $225!!! We found it on one of the parts houses for less than $100.

Sapper went down and chewed some serious ass. The fucking guy behind the counter tried the “Well all our parts have a xyz warranty!” and all this shit. Then tried to say they wouldn’t use parts that we supplied… I wasn’t there but in the end the Manager got involved and now? Well they’re using OUR parts and the bill is going to be oh-so-much less now.

I’m sooooo weary of “The Grift™“

Like is there anything or any place in this fucking country that isn’t trying to fuck you up and over for your cash? I mean even the church… I completely cut the Catholic Church here dead because of the number of times that the Collections Plate(s) went around…
“This one is the Mother Church collection!”
“This one is for our Overseas Missions!”
“This one is is for the building of the New Church”
“This one is is for….”
What the fuck ever dude…
You lost me for good now man…

I mean it was just like horrible man. The “Overseas Missions” in particular chapped the fuck outta my ass. The “Mission” in question? It was to help the Catholics in Costa Rica… The way they played it up… OMG… like it’s a completely unsettled Third World country or something. The big problem I had was that the areas that they were talking about going to and ‘helping’ weren’t exactly the poor areas… Nope… they were going to places like Jaco… which to someone unfamiliar with the area wouldn’t know that’s some primo beach and vacation area there.

It’s right down the street from Punterenas. That’s exceptionally well known as ALL the west coast cruise ships stop there IF they have Costa on the itinerary. Essentially they were collecting dinero to take vacation trips on the parishioners dime, and by doing a few days of helping out with building a new school or handing out bibles or some other sort of ‘justifiable bullshit’ and gee… they get a fantastic Vay-Kay out of it.

I know of what I speak as The Other Countries Lil and Middle are located in Esparza which is about 20 miles inland directly up Route 1 on the InterAmericana Highway. My last trip to see Middle Country I spent a weekend with him blasting up and down the Highways and Byways on his Harleys. He’s got two of them, so I got to do “The Motorcycle Diaries” in real life. Needless to say, some of the most fun I’ve had in eons back then…

Telling you, this kind of grift is why I bailed on the church. Nevermind the padre who married me and the X who got ‘perp walked’ a few years after for being a fucking kid diddler…

Can you blame me?

So tonight is another quiet wife-less evening. I can’t update y’all for a few more on her mission, but I will when OPSEC is no longer an issue. The cool thing about her being gone is I get to make the food she doesn’t like, like tonight’s chow, oven Baked Tilapia.

I should call it buy it’s correct name “Oven Baked Butter/Garlic Soaked Tilapia with a Hint of Lemon”

And of course we have a recibee and pics.
The start:

Two pounds of fresh Tilapia. Any fish will do, but this was on sale at Publix and never frozen and fresh caught supposedly. NOT Chinese stuff… again supposedly. Either way, those are some magnificent filets.

Then, it’s time to season them:

Salt and Pepper of course (not seen) and then the Thyme, Paprika and Oregano. You have to liberally coat both sides of the fish:

Then it’s time to get the Butter/Garlic (and Lemon) all put together. I scraped the entire exterior of one of the lemons for the zest before I sliced them up:

I ended up with about a teaspoon worth, which is fine. Then, I melted a stick of salted boo-tard as I like to call it:

And yeah, I need to clean the microwave LOL
I’m so tall I don’t see the roof of it, so I have the think about it when I’m cleaning, otherwise it gets funky like that. That’s the spatter from the leftover meatballs I had for lunch yesterday I reckon.

So after the melting of the butter, I added a 1/4 cup of lemon juice, the zest, and two heaping honking spoonfuls of the minced garlic:

Then I blended it all using the ‘boat motor’ as my X used to call it:

Now, one picture I forgot to take was before I put the fish into the pan. I added a very thin layer of seasoned Panko:

After the Panko went in, I -then- layered the fish:

You can see the Panko there in the pic.
After doing that, I poured the melted and blended garlic/butter/zest/lemon juice over the entire thing. I made sure that a nice coat was layered on each filet. After that, I followed up with another thin coat of the Panko, and placed the sliced lemon on top:

Then it went into the oven for about 15-18 minutes at 400 degrees. It was a wee bit longer because the filet were extra thick, and I didn’t want it underdone. I checked the thermometer and it needed to be (at the thickest part of the filet) at 145 or above. It hit 150, and I pulled it:

The side was ‘double dipped’ thin cut french fries, extra crispy due to the double dipping. It came out plated like this:

Super light, OUTSTANDING flavor and nice and flaky as a well done Tilapia should be. I think it’d be even better with Cod or Haddock, but currently the prices on those are insane AF, so I’ll have to wait until it comes down in price, or get farmed and frozen which I’m not a big fan of…

Either way, I’m pleased for an off-the-cuff ‘mess’ of things…
I hardly ever measure ‘stuff’ and just sort of throw my recibees together, and hope for the best. The only thing I didn’t add which I realized after the fact was some Aleppo Pepper, which would have only added to the awesomeness. I keep forgetting to add some ‘kick’ to the food here as Gretchen can’t ‘do’ hot spices because of her stomach issues, so my default setting for a lot of my cooking is ‘meh’ on the heat.

I think the next meal I cook up will be a bit ‘hotter’… like maybe some ghost pepper chili as my bro Cowboy gave us some that he grew, and that I subsequently froze as at the time, I wasn’t going to use them…. call it the ‘rainy day ingredients’ so to speak.

So that was dinner.
Otherwise, I’m off for an early bedtime tonight.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Whew. Still employed for now. Also my thanks to everyone who entered for the Raffle. A great turnout thus far, so I appreciate it. Sapper spent the ENTIRE morning busting knuckles and turning wrenches, only to give up. Seems that there’s a few issues that he didn’t expect to contend with.

One is where the fuel pump is located in relation to the rest of the truck. He’s got a 4 Door Tacoma. Because of this, this eliminates our ability to do it ‘the easy way’ as -I- call it, namely removing the bed and going from there. The pump is, according to the diagrams and our own observations, under the front cab. That makes the ‘lift and switch’ idea a nonstarter.

Then, he’s got over 1/2 a tank of fuel in the tank. That’s about 10+/- gallons of benzine man… call it 60-65 pounds worth of gas. And since the vehicle is a post 2005, draining it is… shall we say… problematic? Straight up IMO it’s a pain in the ass. Never mind the fact that dropping the tank is going to require a LOT more resources than we have collectively on-hand. We need a ‘cradle’ or lift of some form, some other ‘stuff… Overall it’s so bad that Sapper cried “ENDEX!” at about 11am.

ENDEX being DotMilSpeak for “End of Exercise”. I’ll give him credit… he tried like Hell and worked diligently from sunrise until 11. He started early as that’s the best time around here before the mid-day heat and hooo-midity comes up and cooks you in your own juices so to speak. And like I said, around 11-11:30 he came in all dirt covered and grease smeared, and asked for my Triple A Card.

“Fuck this noise man, I’m taking it to the shop around the corner! Gimme your AAA card!” Unlike Saturday night, the tow truck dude showed up in about an hour (and who also wasn’t a weed smelling Jamaican like the last dude) which beat the other night timewise by a long shot. Sapper went with him, and I then punched for lunch, and went and picked him up in our Rent-a-Putt-Putt… And as far as the rental? They gave us a 2023 Kia Soul… it’s an ‘Itty Bitty Thang’ so to speak…

Amazingly I do do fit in it. I knew I would when we went to pick it up the other day, as Gretchen’s parents have one that I’ve driven before, so I’m not completely unfamiliar with the ride. It’s as ugly as the day is long, a boxy utilitarian ride at best, but hey…. as basic transportation? I’ll take it. One observation however is that man…. I hate some of these ‘new cars’ and their features. This thing has two of the worst.

One thing it’s got, which OrangeManBad and his Merry Crew of Chaos and Destruction is apparently getting rid of, is the automatic engine start-stop system. For those unfamiliar, this a devious piece of shit device hoisted on us without any input from the consumer. Start-stop systems are designed to automatically shut off a vehicle’s engine when it stops—at a red light, for example—and restart it when the driver releases the brake. Ranger Jay had one on his Ford a few years back, and I was loathe to drive his ride or even ride in it because of it…

According to Zerohedge, the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin is pulling the plug on this particularly odious and wholly unnecessary forced addition to a vehicle. No one asked for it… it was essentially implemented via fiat under the Rule of the Obummermessiah. Link to the article is HERE Thankfully shutting it down was merely a push of a button, designed specifically to shut it off, as oh so many hate it with a passion.

Now that feature is going to go away (Thank GOD!)

Personally I hated the fucking thing in every vehicle I’ve ever driven that had it. I personally was terrified that the car would not start up in a critical moment, leaving me with my ass in a sling or my balls in the wind. Either choice? Not cool.

BUT THEN:

Whereas the other particularly concerning feature this buggy has is a “Lane Assist System” which includes a ‘Lane Keeping Assist’ and a ‘Lane Departure Warning’.  LKA helps prevent the vehicle from unintentionally drifting out of its lane, while the LDW alerts you if the vehicle is about to leave the lane without a turn signal. The ‘warning’ is just that… an annoying assed ‘beep’… and because of that, I got no issue there.

HOWEVER

The ‘Lane Keeping Assist’?

Holy fucking shit! OK… I’m not exaggerating as is my wont as a Storytelling Irishman. No joke… we were driving on I-75 in an area that’s been under some serious construction as of late. I didn’t (at the time) know how to turn off this confounded device, and found myself literally wrestling with the steering wheel as IT (the Lane Keeping Assist and/or the Vehicle) tried to ‘keep us in the lanes’ despite me having other ideas. Namely that due to all the recent construction, the optical sensors were reading the lines that no longer had meaning and in fact would have kil’t us dead if I had allowed this thing to proceed!

As in some of the lines radically changed lanes where you no longer needed to change lanes…so said-optical sensors, seeing the line go ‘hard right’ tried to force the car into the right lane, despite the traffic and or anyone who was IN the right lane at the time… No joke, the fucking car had me fighting it until I finally pulled over, brought up the Google, and found out just how to disconnect this infernal device. Which in itself was an issue… It should have been as easy to shut down as the start-stop system… instead I had to pull over and find the info online…

By the time I got done, my wrists were sore as fuck from fighting the steering wheel. It really sucked.

And just as an add-on to this observation: I’ll be perfectly honest, I’ve always thought people who drove Kia Souls were full-on mentally retarded. It seemed like an inordinate amount of them were always lurching around on the roads… lots of drifting… lane changes without signaling… I mean for real… they seemed utterly clueless and dangerous.

To the point I noticed that people driving/owning in that particular model of car must attract a brain damaged group of fans and followers and because of this, I mentally made a note so to speak that went so far as to say when I saw one on the road:

“People who drive Kia Souls don’t know how to drive!”

And reacted with extreme care when around said-vehicle.

But now? After this experience? NOW? I wonder if these poor folks were driving without knowing how to turn off the over-eager ‘Autocorrect’ if you will. That their poor driving wasn’t so much them as it was their vehicle being ‘possessed’ so to speak by this app? Surely there has to be numbers out there regarding accidents due to people having a lack of intel and/or knowledge vis-a-vis this fucking supposed ‘assistant’ and how to disable it?

Shades of “Christine” I suppose.

What’s particularly odious about all of this is that ALL of these ‘features’ were foisted on us by people who claim to ‘know better’ and ‘understand the broader picture’. To my perspective and as things have progressed, I, as well as the majority of y’all have realized that the self proclaimed ‘so called betters/elites’ are in reality a bunch of slack-jawed, low foreheaded mouthbreathers who’ve all interbred to the point that it defines the concept of “The Law of Diminishing Returns”. Too much ‘pissing in the gene pool’ if you will… I mean look at Chelsea Clinton as a prime example…

And no, I’m not going to insert an Arkansas joke here… besides being born to those fucking pig-ignorant hillybilly grifters made good, to be truthful, she’s uglier than a bag of broken rusty hammers and has a lower IQ than a room full of retarded streetshitting Pajeets. There’s plenty of reasons that you have literally never heard that broad speak publically at length but the primary reason is that she’s been found that she’s genuinely stupid and that because of that, she is utterly incapable of having a Cognizant and/or Coherent thought that anyone could understand. Think Kamala X10.

And because Mumsie and Dadums realized she was worthless politically speaking (i.e. capable of running for orifice) She essentially was ‘sold off’ to a member of the “Tribe” a dude named Marc Mezvinsky, who’s a ‘connected’ member of the “Elites” in that he’s a Wall Street ‘moneyman’ (i.e. a money launderer). Interestingly enough his BOTH his parents, Marjorie Margolies and Edward Mezvinsky, are both former members of Congress!!! Huh…..

What are the fucking odds Aye?

So THESE are the ‘types’ of people who’re ‘shot callers’ for stuff like I mentioned if you will. Thankfully Cankles and the Whoremaster seem to be on the outs across the board, and their demonspawn doesn’t appear to have any drive to follow in their demonic footsteps… so that’s a plus… but anyway….

Eric Peters rails on this sort of DotGov overreach and Implementation of unwanted/unneeded regulations on the regular on his libertarian weblog. I do recommend it.

Hopefully we’ll see some changes in the future

So that my Frens is tonights ‘stuff’.
I’ll be going into some other chain of brain-thoughts later.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Well a hearty “Thank You” to all who’ve entered so far. I’ve sent a few folks a DM via email who wanted a mailing addy rather that utilize the PayPal. If you want/need to mail me an entry, the email to HMU is:
bce187th@protonmail.com
If you throw me a DM I’ll give you the mailing addy.

So far, so good.
The only wrinkle of the day was at People’s Glorious Tractor Factory, things are wee bit slow, and I missed a tasker because I was watching a movie. So I have to take the hit so to speak… Yeah, I was purely fucking off, but at the time, I was waiting on clients and or suppliers to return either emails or voice mails, and there wasn’t a Hell of a lot left for me to do. The new Commissar (who I originally thought was cool) apparently is a wee bit of a micro-manager and gave me the line that “…as your supervisor, it’s my job to make sure the company is getting it’s worth out of you, and by not doing anything, well…”

Ah. OK. A Company Man Fucktard

My ‘old Commissar’ had the idea of “Live and Let Live”. If the work and production is getting done in a timely manner, and if no one is complaining, all he cared about was that the proper amount of hours were filled, and that no one was bitching. It was a Golden Time so to speak.

But Dis Fukkin’ Guy?

Yeeeeeah.
I got no use for “Company Men” nor Micromanagers.

So I’m probably getting a write up.
That’s fine.
Time for me to start looking for another gig then.

I’ve acquired quite a new set of skills that are very sellable, and this guy doesn’t quite have a full grasp of what he’ll be losing, so it’s on him. That and if he thinks I’m remotely going to help out the way I used to i.e. doing extra over-and-above ‘stuff’ for the clients that the Politburo have determined are ‘special cases’ he’s on fucking drugs.

Doing shit like this puts me of a mindset that all he’s getting out of me verbally in the future is going to be “Yes Sir/No Sir Three Bags Full Sir” and the unsaid “Go and get fucked Sir.”

Add on the fact that in the three years I’ve been there, I’ve only gotten a $2 per hour raise in total.

Yep. I started at $20 an Hour.

In three years, I’m now at $22

The fucking Pizza Hut is advertising up the street for delivery drivers starting at $22 an hour. And they apparently can’t get anyone to work there. And here I am doing exceptionally skilled work that is absolutely NOT ‘hire off the street’ sort of stuff. In fact, I -did- have to learn it all, and -I’m- the reason that People’s Glorious Tractor Factory even does my line of work, when every. single. competing. business does not offer these services. We’re utterly unique and it’s because of me that it’s been successful.

However, like ALL companies out there, they could give a fuck.
As I even said to him today, “One fuck up erases and entire plethora of attaboys” so as I also said, “It is what it is”

So the plan is to keep doing what I’m doing, and let them, if they have the balls to, let them fire me so I can collect. Whats funny is we have a new person that’s supposed to be assisting me, and that I’m supposed to be training in some aspects of my side of things, but now?

Yeeeeeeah let me get right on that Massa.

So much for the work bitching.
Now… other things…
Polytix?
Haven’t been closely following anything as it’s been the ‘same-old-same-old’ with the exception of the deep dissatisfaction I have with the absolute failure of the Pajeets and fucking Pakis to start a full on war w/Nukes. I was really looking forward to a full Nukular Exchange and no, I’m not kidding. It’d have been epic. Another aspect to that particular ‘tempest in a teapot’ is a lack of Videos.

In this day and age I would have expected, nay planned on watching some toe-to-toe slugfestivus ‘stuff’ and instead? We got Nada. El Zippo. Zilch. It’s even worse than the Krain right now.

And speaking of the Krain and the apparently Koked up Klownshow? The video is pretty damning in regards to the Eurofags covering up the spoon and packet of coke. The m,ain reason I’m convinced it was real was the number of ‘scattershot’ excuses that came out… “It was a deepfake…” then it was “That was just a Kleenex!” and of course after that “That was AI and made up!” and then “You didn’t see what you thought you saw…” oh so fucking plainly and openly on videotape that we could see for ourselves.

Any wonder why no one at all outside of retards and morons have any faith or belief in any and all “Leadershit out there. Like we still haven’t had any of the Epstein Clients revealed… I mean for fuck’s sake, we got some clambag Henchwoman, Ghislane Maxwell or however you spell that hebe-cunt’s name sitting in jail for the trafficking of sexual slaves and shit to…. nobody???

Then all the other crap out there…
Anyways, it’ll never change until someone starts killing these assholes in wholesale lots. Once bodies start stacking, and if done correctly, the fucking enforcement swine won’t even try to interfere as they’ll recognize that it’s a zero-sum game, and the smart thing to do is just stay the fuck out of the way while the butcher’s bill gets paid.

Not that I’d ever encourage that sort of behavior.

Now lastly, working on the new rifle.

I got the vice installed finally:

So as an experiment, I figured that BEFORE I attempt to fit the new barrel to the receiver I’d attempt to remove a barrel from a receiver, specifically on one of the Donor rifles.

Now, I got everything nicely clamped down, tight as all get out. I set everything up, and then I tried to wrench it off. It didn’t go as planned:

The barrel, despite being torqued down like a mother still slid and rotated in the collet. Looking at it closely, my hunch is the hole they bored through and the weld that they put on the pin also bored/melted the threads to each other. It got to the point the ENTIRE work table was going to break if I kept it up, so that’s done for now. I had even soaked it in penetrating oil before I tried this, hence my reasoning for the drill/weld being the issue. It sure as Hell isn’t from lack of strength nor trying.

I think I’ll just chill for a while and work on degreasing the new donor rifle. That should keep me busy for like the next month or so. I did get in the new ‘soaking tub’ today:

It’s the same as my original tub. 36 inches long and perfect for soaking the longer pieces/parts in. The tub itself is just your basic flower trough:

For those of you interested in it this’s the link:
https://amzn.to/3Zey2oC
and yes, I get a ‘taste’ if you get one. I found it to be VERY good in using it with almost ALL the solvents EXCEPT that Xylene shit. The Xylene melted that fucker down like a Styrofoam cup in gasoline… whereas gasoline? No problem in that sucker. Hence the need for a replacement.

Now that I have the new ‘soak tub’ here I can get down to business. A nasty dirty business, but hey, what ya gonna do?

So that’s what I got for tonight
Hope all is well and appreciate all of you who’ve entered.

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Gah!
I hate to let it go as I really enjoy shooting it, but the Ishapore RFI 2A1 is up for grabs!

The Rules:
You have to be over 18 and be able to accept a transfer from a FFL Dealer. No FFL info = No Rifle

This means passing the the FFL background check is called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), SO if you can’t legally own it, don’t enter!

The Raffle will run from Tonight May 12, at the Poasting of this Until Next Friday, May 23rd where the winner will be randomly selected by Sapper from a good old M1 Army Helmet.

Raffle Entries are
$10 for One,
$25 for 3,
$50 for 7, and
$100 for 15.
The $$$ is done thru my Paypal at

theintrepidreporter2019@gmail.com

Make sure you include your Name and Email Addy so I can contact you IF you win, so as to set up the delivery.

The reason for this is we had an unexpected setback here financially at the Casa. This past weekend on Saturday Night on the way back from Pizza and Brewskis, Sapper’s truck shit the bed. The problem is Gretchen is currently ‘out-of-pocket’ on a Secret Squirrel Mission and will be for a few weeks possibly with OUR ride.

We had to sit in the pouring rain for like two exceptionally humid and shitty hours (lost my buzz dammit!) until AAA got a tow truck there and got us back to the crib. I’m renting a wreck tomorrow, and we figured out Sunday that it’s the fuel pump that’s crapped out. That’s going to take a lot of effort and work to do (as we’re going to –try- to do it in the driveway as we both ‘turn our own wrenches’.

Still, the renting of a wreck is going to ding the pocketbook. So hence the raffle. Plus we’re going to need to do a lot of running around methinks, as all projects like this invariably require multiple trips to the pieces-parts houses. Nevermind that I have a bunch of VA appointments this week…

Bad timing for this Aye?
So I’ll update you more on how things go as we putter along here. Good Luck on the raffle and may the odds forever be in your Favor!

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
OK
There’s dirty then there’s dirty.

Gretchen’ll kill me for the title but OMG…

I uncrated the new DP Donor rifle today and took some pics as soon as I got off of work… This one here is going to challenge even MY de-Cosmoing skills I think. To the point I might go over to one of the Auto Repair shops in the neighborhood, and see if they’ll let me use or rent? their mechanized solvent tank to de-lube this thing.

How bad is it?
Well

Now, from that angle it doesn’t look too bad
It’s when I get in close that it really shows how much crap is caked on it:

Ooey-Gooey Goodness again
And with the action open?

I can’t even see what they year/maker/model info says on the wrist strap. And it only gets worse as we go along. Here’s the inside of the chamber/mag well:

And then the sight ladder:

As you can see, you can’t see ANY of the numbers and just… wow man… that’s nasty. Now the good news is the sight has ALL of it’s pieces as well:

And the slide button -does- move, albeit all gummed up from the Cosmo. At least here it’s front and present, ready to be cleaned up unlike some of the other rifles I’ve refinished.

The front sight and nosecap?
You tell me:

Sweet Jeebus
That’s a LOT of Cosmo!!!
It looks like someone ‘plonked’ it nose first into a bucket of Cosmoline and called it ‘good’. I haven’t even been able to see if the serial numbers match ANYWHERE as the Cosmo buildup is beyond anything I’ve come across before.

Which is a ‘good news/bad news’ sort of thing.

As of now, the basic observations I have shows that the donor rifle is only missing the stacking swivel at the front of the nose cap. Which in reality should be expected as the Indians got rid of that when they started making the rifles for themselves, as they didn’t do the whole ‘stack arms’ thing like the Brit DotMil did.

Hence why the 2A1 doesn’t even have a mount nor hole punched thru to mount a stacking swivel on it:

They just left it off completely.
However, this rifle -does- have the mount, and the hole, so I’ll be able to tell more when I’m able to get the wrist cleaned off and can tell who made it and when.

The other aspect is for all the grime?
The wood looks like it’s in really really good condition:

Outside of all the paint, it looks good.
A couple of dings and scrapes here and there, but nothing crazy. No obvious cracks, and like I said, like NO missing pieces or fiddly bits. Once I get it de-Cosmo’d I’ll be able to tell better for sure. I do know that wood is going to take a Hell of a lot of solvent and sanding to get that paint off.

So yep
ANother project requiring a LOT of work.
We shall see.

Speaking of which… tomorrow Sapper and I are going to go ‘print’ the 2A1 to make sure it shoots worth a shit. If it does, well then I’ll let y’all know as it’ll be Raffle Time.

Wish me luck.
More Later
Big Country

(and yeah, that was a real ad… slow golf clap)

Greetings and Salutations!
Soooooooooo… Gretchen and I spent the entire day yesterday running around from Doctor to Doctor, having her checked out. I began to feel like it was some sort of video game where we finally got the the “Final Boss” who just happened to be one of only three Surgical Ophthalmologists? in the state. (Edit: I should say “..only three who deal with issues this bad in the state… most won’t touch something like this)

After numerous testing, pix, probes, ultrasounds… you name it, they did it, the conclusion was Gretchen, for lack of a better word is fucked. Seems she had a retinal tear that developed (over time) into a full blown detachment which only finalized the other day when she lost vision in the eye on Monday completely.

Hence why we went to the Doc.

Now the problem was/is she didn’t tell me the severity of the issue. Unless I know what’s going on, and because of my Infantry “FIDO” background (FIDO meaning Fuck It, Drive On) unless the broad was bleeding out from her eyes, ears, nose, mouth or asshole, I figure she’s good to go and can Charlie Mike (continue mission). In this case I should have asked moar questions.

Seems because it started like six months ago, there’s a lot of scar tissue in there that’s got to be resolved BEFORE they can even start ‘welding’ the retina back in place. THEN it’s going to be three weeks with her ass in the air, face down with like NO movement.

So yeah
She’s now scheduled plus or minus a month or so as the damage is already done, and there’s no rush. That and she’s got -other- business to attend to that I may or may not get into. OPSEC is the watchword here, and that’s all I got for you on that.

On the OTHER Hand However:

I got in the ‘supposed to be stripped’ Lee Enfield Receiver.
In actuality, as you can see, it’s got the sear, mag release as well as the bolt tension spring still mounted. Not in bad shape either, with about 60% of the bluing intact.

I’m still going to strip it ALL the way down and start fresh.

It’s GRI Mk1 Mod 3 made in 1950. The GRI refers to “Georgius Rex Imperator” which is what the Ishapore (Indian) made Rifles were stamped before the country gained independence from Great Britain. It is an interesting date in that it is right at the time of Indian Independence but still using GRI (King George Emperor) rather than the later RFI. I read on a few of the boards that the Indians didn’t re-tool the machinery until around 1952 to ‘RFI’ which stands for Rifle Factory India, as the 2A1 I did earlier last month.

Another interesting aside is how ‘clean’ the stamping is compared to the RFI Stamp on the 2A1:

The letters seem ‘off’ and out of line as opposed to the GRI stamp, which, as stated, is clear, crisp and clean:

Guess the Hindus dindu so well at making a clean set of stamps for their rifles when “King and Country” bailed on them.

Annnnnd since I’ve ‘folded the envelope’ as DeadDad used to say, and gone Full Retard… or is it Full Enfield? I went and saved my pennies and got the tooling to do the barrel and receiver swaps:

It set me back $200 but as far as I know, I am literally the only gunsmith within a 200 mile radius who now has the ability to do barrel swaps on Lee Enfields. The reason I know this? Well as tried as I could, I called around to ALL the BIG gunsmiths around the I-75 corridor to see if -someone- had the proper wrench and vice to do this job.

I really didn’t want to drop the ducats.

I figured if I could find someone with the tools, that I could get a ‘professional courtesy’ extended to me, and let me go there and use their gear to slap the new barrel and receiver together. Instead, after numerous calls and chasing down leads, whelp…

Looks like I’m Number One with a Wrench and Vice now for anyone who wants or needs a barrel swap on a Lee Enfield I suppose. I have to fully mount it to the bench, and I also have to do some work on the aluminum collets, as I don’t like how they’re set up for now. Leave it to me to figure out improvements on the fly amiright?

Also: The wrench itself?
That thing is a pure-dee Murder Club should the need arise. I am not exaggerating when I say it’s about 7 pounds of solid stainless steel. It’s a skull crusher for damned sure.

Guess I need to get that C&R FFL now if only to be able to get ‘legal’ in case I start getting jokers who want work done. Speaking of which, I got a guy who reached out and wanted me to do a muzzle brake swap. Hit me on the DM again man… sorry that you dropped off the radar… things have been busy-busy here as you can see.

SO that’s what I got for now. More interesting stuff to follow, as I go to pick up the ‘donor rifle’ during lunch tomorrow. GunGirl called today and told me that the grossest and nastiest rifle she has ever seen showed up today in a box with my name on it. It’s the one I got from J&G that one of y’all had pointed out to me. Many thanks for that as I saved $50 on getting another D&P from Atlantic… Once I get it, I’ll take pics and we’ll start the whoooole nasty process again for a new Mk3 build.

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Then there’s the other Top Ten Hit for this war:
Jon Bon Jeetvi’s “Going Down in a Blaze of Curry”…

In all seriousness, the Jeet has hit the fan over there from all reports. Or as Sapper said the Shit is hitting the ‘Stan. LOTS of artillery fire, cross border firefights, and general mayhem.

Twitter is alllll over it… in particular both the Pakis and the Hindus posting non-stop public service announcements and pure propaganda. Case in point:

Indian media is showing this all over the country…..
Starting nationwide civil defence training at this stage is a red flag that Indians plan to escalate very very soon…
For the first time since 1971 this is being done…

Pakistan should expect an Indian invasion… pic.twitter.com/NQ4VFRyKAP

— اللہ کے بندے۔۔۔ (@missiontakmeel) May 6, 2025

Now, personally?
I prefer the reality of Indian Combat Readiness:

Live footage from the India-Pakistan border right now pic.twitter.com/j1MlsY4FKp

— Vodka 🧊 (@vodk_anon) April 25, 2025

OMFG…
That’s funny!!!
Seriously

I will say this, all humor aside:
I never in a million years would have thought that a potential Nuclear ‘World War Poo’ would start between the Pakis and Jeets… I will say, for the record that this’s probably going to go on record as the stinkiest war in history, bar none. And I mean that sincerely.

Anyways
I have never understood that Paki/Hindu “High Stepping” weirdness they do… It seems that this’s a daily occurrence at the Attari/Wagah Border. This’s a overview:

Now I’m making a wild ass guess, but mayhaps this’s some sort of Paki/Hindu “Haka” sort of thing? Doing prancing and peacocking around? Who kicks highest wins? Me? I got No idea…

Now as an interesting set of side note(s)

The video above is shot from the Pakistani side.
At 2:17 there’s a pretty cool rifle drill

At 2:27, if one looks closely you can see that the rifles they’re using, the chromed up Parade Rifles with the Bayonets attached? Those are Lee Enfield Number One Mark Fours. The shape of the magazine, as well as the spike bayonet are part of the giveaways.

Like I said, pretty cool Aye?

Now just as an ‘Inquiring Mind’ question:

I wonder if those are strictly drill and ceremony weapons OR are they like our Tomb of the Unknown(s) Guard Rifles? Our guys in the Old Guard (3rd Infantry) use M-14s with a loaded 5 round magazine that fits flush in the mag well. They also have sidearms. Those side arms are M-17 SIG Sauer(s), which (unfortunately) is the DotMil variant of the much maligned self firing/detonating P320. They used to have the SIG P226 or better known as the M-18.

However shitty that might be, SIG put a LOT of effort and work into them. There are four that they made. Those four pistols issued to the Tomb Guards have names. “Silence” and “Respect,” are the ‘day/show’ weapons, both highly polished for daylight hours while “Dignity” and “Perseverance” are matte-­black pistols for night duty and bouts of inclement weather.

And yes, they are loaded.

In fact I had the privilege (if you want to call it that) of having my squad leader when I was stationed in Germany be a former member of the Old Guard, AND a “Walker” so to speak, which means he was one of the guys who actually did the “Walk”. One of the best NCOs that I ever served with, and a hard task master. Guy was a ball buster’s ball buster with ZERO tolerance for fuckups and failure. He was the guy who unfucked me so to speak.

He was also hilarious in that our Platoon Sgt at the time? Who ALSO happened to be fucked up from the neck up (how he ever made E-7 still blows my mind) and the Good Corporal would correct him, respectfully, on the regular when it came to a lot of the basic Drill and Ceremony stuff… used to piss of the E-7 to no end…fucking funny stuff there…

Believe it or not we’re still in contact.
I met him as a Corporal, and then he got E-5. I lost track of him when I PCS’d to Fort Campbell and the Rakkasans. I think he was responsible for me actually ‘making it’ in such a hardcore unit.

He eventually went green to gold, and retired as an SF Major, where then he went into contracting, and we (by chance) met up in Afghanistan much to his shock. When I was his soldier, I’ll admit, I was fucked up from the neck up, but he was patient with me, and set me up to win. He was genuinely shocked and surprised that I was there, and had BT-DT like he had for so long… Ended up telling me he was proud AF of me that I had turned out so well… sort of like a big brother as he’s got me by like 5 years.

About nine months ago we got together for lunch… thinking about it now, I need to call him again… ever since his divorce he’s sort of been on a worldwide “walkabout” as the Aussies call it, trying to figure out just what he wants to do I think… and on random occasions he ‘surfaces’ here in Tampa.

So anyways…
I’m keeping an eye on the shenanigans in Jeetland
Not sure how it’ll play out.

Realistically, it’d be best if they could settle it with a Dance-Off/Stomp/Step-Off, but unfortunately, we all know that ain’t going to happen.

Most folks on Gab/Twitter and Poast are all like “Grab the Popcorn and let’s watch them burn!!!” as realistically?

If the fucking turd-world wants to self-immolate?

Let ’em.
Fuck them street-shitting fucktards.

“Pakis to the Left of me, Hindus to the Right, Here I am, eating popcorn with a view”

Let them burn it and themselves all to the ground.

I got no dog in the hunt, except that we should not accept ‘any and all‘ refugees even IF they nuke each other until they glow…

They did it to themselves, so since they “broke it” they “bought it” so they can unfuck themselves with out OUR help.

We got enough of our own fucking problems.

Speaking of which:
We could use a couple of good thoughts for tomorrow.

Gretchen, about 6 months ago was having some minor vision issues in her right eye. Floaties and the like. Then it sounded like as it progressed that she was, like me starting to have some cataracts. Her vision started getting worse, with some blind spots and the like. Hence MY thought that it was cataracts as that’s exactly what happened to me.

Now mind you, getting this broad to a Doctor is like pulling fucking teeth man… she purely hates doing it. Don’t believe any of her denials… I’ve been with her 9 years now (OMG!) and I know she has a stronk dislike of the ‘Croakers’ so to speak…

Saturday was for whatever reason the final straw, and she asked for me to set things up w/a doc. We have Eyeball Insurance from People’s Glorious Tractor Factory as hey, for like $6 a month? Why not? I got HR to resend me the Insurance info and went from there.

I called the local eyeball clinic that -I- had used when -I- had gotten diagnosed with the cataract issue. The VA at the time was appointment wise, like a year and a half backlogged, (which is ALSO why I had gotten the work insurance) so I went local so to speak…

I put her on the phone and they started asking questions. When she described the symptoms to the chick on the phone, they were like “You need to get in here pronto.”

So what we got what was pretty much an emergency appointment yesterday at this local eyeball clinic that takes my work Eyeball Insurance for today.

We went, and whoopsie!
We have no idea the how and why of it, but she’s got a seriously ripped and detached retina. To the point that her surgery is tomorrow to see if they can save the vision in her eye. She’s had like NO head injuries, and I (pinky swear) haven’t done any “Donkey Punches” so we have no idea the how and the why of it.

According to the Eye Doc there AND Doc Samizdat (who we called/consulted with to find out if what we were told was true) both said that “These things happen!”

So any thoughts/prayers and the like are appreciated.
Thankfully the insurance has this covered, so I don’t have to worry about that, for once. So that’s what I got. How about you?

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Well that went well.
I got the 1911 done last night, and spent the day getting it all finished up and reassembled. The coating (OD Duracoat) came out pretty well:

Once it dried completely I unmasked it and checked the slide to make sure there wasn’t any overspray or build up issues.

As a heads up for anyone using this or Cerakote or even the Alumahyde coatings: Too heavy a layer on the moving parts literally locks up the parts. As in sticking/no movement or bad fitment. On weapons sometimes the tolerances are measured in micrometers, so layering a thicc coat of -something- is enough to jack up the functionality of a weapon.

I unfortunately don’t have the pictures anymore, but when I was working part-time at a local gun store, I learned how to Cerakote. I did a custom job that I learned about the whole ‘too much is too much’ on this project. It was a Spike’s Tactical “The Jack” lower with what can only be described as a “Halloween AR”

Yes, it is a skull lower.
What I find interesting is that the skull’s profile is much lower than on the one I did. The one I worked on was back in 2007? as I recall? I read somewhere that the original ones had structural issues… maybe, maybe not. I did find a picture of a custom one that the profile matches for the one I worked on:

The one I did was Flat Black with the “Zombie Green” blening into it. It came out really well and I’ve got ‘sad panda face’ that the pictures didn’t survive. Thing of it was that I needed to do it a couple of times b/c I was so heavy-handed with the ‘Kote.

In the end it all worked out, so as with this project, live and learn. Who said you can’t teach an Old Grunt New Tricks?

Now for the unveiling:

The black really makes it ‘pop’ IMO.
Oversized Mag Release.
Oversized Slide Lock/Release
Oversized Safety
Custom Competition Trigger
Wilson Combat Hammer and new springs all around.
MagPul Panels.

So at least that project in the end turned out pretty well. NOT what I had originally planned on, but hey, if it works, it works.

So your thoughts?
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
3. Different. Fingers. Locked up on me randomly whilst I was working on the 1911. I swear to God I need to try and get this ‘service related’ and added to my count, as Oh So Many Years of messing with smol pieces/parts and the fiddly bits have definitely taken a toll.

I went out and took the 1911 out of the chem-bath I had it in:

As you can see, two days in there and that Hydrodip film and the base coat was well on it’s way to the ‘last round up’. I wore some chem-resistant gloves while I used a pair of brass bristle brushes to get ALL the crap off. The chem in question is xylene.

Some potent stuff.
The gloves started to break down after about 10 minutes
I got everything done, but it was a near thing.
The last thing I wanted to do was have my hands in that crap.
The can had enough health and cancer warnings that after having my lung issues, I tend to pay attention. I follow all that ‘use in well ventilated areas’ and the warning that “…this product is essentially Tumor-In-A-Can” and whatnot.

Even with the precautions, I look like I smoked a doobie
Gretchen called my attention to it when I got done
“What’s wrong with your eyes?”
I look and see Cheech and Chong Eyes staring back.
Them fumes were harsh man.

But I did get it done:

Yep.
Took all that crap off and down to the bare metal.
HOWEVER
The “Sons of Arthritis” came to visit while I was taping it up for the next step(s).

I use a scalpel to get the tape formed the way I want it to, and there’s a lot of precise handwork that needs to be done. About 3/4 of the way through, the fingers went on strike so to speak.

They weren’t happy.
Locking up, either fully curled up or going fully extended without my say-so. Fun fact: Renoir had some serious arthritis. So badly that it severely limited his mobility, including his ability to grip a brush. To the point when he continued to paint, he’d have the brushes tied to his hands/wrists. Unfortunately for me, this ain’t painting, so I think I’m going to have to push for the Carpal Tunnel Surgery at the VA. They’ve already diagnosed me, but now?

Yeah… this night sort of surprised me in the intensity of the onset of the pain and suddenness of it, if that makes grammatical sense? Either way I FIDO’d and got this done:

And for now, I’m done.
I’ve been two-fingering this poast, as Ye Olde Paws are still sore AF. I’ve been hitting them with the Voltaren (prescription stronk) but for now?

I’ll hit you all up tomorrow.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Bit of a different one here tonight. Word came down that Ruth Buzzi has died at the age of 88. Now TBH, I had no idea she was still alive.

Seems she’d retired from all of Hollyweird many years ago, and passed from stroke-induced dementia. I was to say that it’s sad, but 88? That’s a good run in my book. And as far as “…best known for TV’s Laugh-In”?

Not to Gen X.

When I heard this I immediately had a long buried memory surface.

A curious and Gen X “thing” was Saturday Morning Cartoons and Shows. Cartoons starting at like 0700 and running until noon, at which point the parental units would throw ALL of us outside to go play ’til the sun went down. Unfortunately, the Saturday Morning Cartoons? They died out when we aged out from what I can tell. Back then, it’d be me with Pre-FedBro grabbing the Honeycomb, Milk and being quiet while MomUnit and NotSoDeadDad slept in.

In this case, said-memory of Saturday Mornings was triggered by the news of her passing… mainly because of this:

Sid and Marty Krofft

Saturday Morning Standards

“The Lost Saucer” staring Ruth Buzzi and Jim Nabors.
I prefered it over some of the other shows that’s for sure. My personal favorite was “Far Out Space Nuts”:

Now THAT one???
Gilligan in Space!?!
I pulled up the link, started playing it, and Sapper tripped the fuck out.
In fact what’s crazy is BOTH of us remembered the lyrics and started singing along.

Almost 50 Years Later!!!!

Good memories and times.

Besides those two, there was “Wonderbug”, “Ark II”, “Doctor Shrinker”, “The Mighty Isis”, “Electrowoman and Dynagirl” (both mad hotties), and of course, “The Krofft Supershow” starring Kaptain Kool and the Kongs…

You don’t get much more “70’s” than that picture.

The only thing missing is a mirror covered in high grade Columbian Booger Sugar.

Interesting side note: The majority of the aforementioned shows were part of the “The Krofft Supershow” as a 90 minute sort of ‘variety show’ that was hosted by Kaptain Kool and the rest, with musical interludes and shenanigans.

There was also the utterly excretable “Sigmund and the Seamonsters”

Even at a young age I fucking loathed that fucking wimpy fucking shit-assed costumed seaweed draped fag. I also hated the original probably LSD inspired “H.R. Pufnstuff.” Lil Jimmy can suck on his magic flute allll day long as far as I was concerned…

Out of all of those, the ONLY one of the Krofft shows that other generations know is “Land of the Lost”

Primarily due to the shitty movie starring Will Ferrell did back in 2009. Personally I was sort of ambivalent about that one, except that the fucking Sleestack?

Those things, rubber suits or not, were Pure Fucking Nightmare Fuel to a kid back then. Still are IMO. Implacable Bug-Eyed Lizard Men with a thirst for human blood? (which TBH sounds like Adam Schiff and all his relations) Great bad guys… excellent execution in the production of them too.

So that’s tonight’s ‘stuff’ The 1911 is coming along, and I’m going to soak it for one more night, and finish off the scrub in the afternoon. Then I’ll figure out the next step(s).

Let me know which one y’all remember or dug in the comments
More Later
Big Country