Big Country Expat

Greetings and Salutations!
My word… talk about being beaten on.
Take a few days off and it’s like the world just -stopped- at People’s Glorious Tractor Factory and waited until I came back, and then they/it threw me into the deep end, with weights tied around my ankles. And beat on me when I came up for O2.

No matter.
I persevered. Prospered even
Made some good networking connections this week, and solidified some business ties that will help both myself and Ye Olde Factory in the long run, but mostly it’ll help me ‘cos at this point, that’s the only mo’fo I’m looking out for.

Numero Uno.
Moi

So I got that going for me. (at least for now) So because of this. I’ve been so busy I actually haven’t really been keeping up on current events. OrangeManBad and VodkaManBad are still doing ‘the usual bullshit’ over the Krain, and it’s becoming moar and moar obvious that the Universal Financial House of Cards is teetering dangerously right now if the parabolic climb of Silver is any indicator.

Add on that ‘King Copper’ as it’s known has also been shooting up quite radically, this after a significant dive during the Covid Dumbasshattery. As the trend for the past 5 years shows:

Key Price Points & Trends (Approximate)

• 2020: Around $2.80 – $3.00/lb (Low).
• 2021: Averaged over $9,300/metric ton (Peak).
• 2022: Around $8,800/metric ton.
• 2023: Around $8,490/metric ton, low point around $7,900/ton.
• 2024: Rose significantly, averaging over $9,100/ton, reaching near $10,100/ton by May.
• 2025 (Early-Mid): Continued strength, hitting highs near $10,700/ton (October 2025), generally above $9,000/ton.

BOTH Copper and Silver are critical elements for the bullshit A.I. ‘revolution’ and all the data centers that they’re ‘supposedly’ going to build… the reason I say supposedly is while they’re talking a great game of building up these Skynet-Level A.I. data centers, I’ve noticed a distinct lack of discussion on just just how in the Hell are they going to power them!?!

I mean I don’t know about y’all, but I haven’t heard anything about any new power plants or any new energy producing breakthroughs or anything… I mean the newest Nuke Plant we built, the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia just went online with one reactor in July of 2023, (called Unit #3) and then the latest was at the same plant going online in April of 2024….

Per the Goolag:

As of mid-2024/early 2025, the United States has 54 commercially operating nuclear power plants with a total of 94 active nuclear reactors across 28 states, providing significant baseload, low-carbon electricity, with Illinois having the most reactors and Georgia’s Vogtle plant housing the newest additions. 

Now, considering just how much power these data centers are supposed to use, methinks we’re being sold a bill of goods, i.e. a pile o’shytte in that there’s no way we currently have the power generational capacity to run as many of these data centers that they claim to be planning on building.

Personally, I think it’s all vaporware.

Hype
Bullshit
Ain’t gonna happen.

Hell… Never mind the cooling factor… My gaming PC is liquid cooled in a closed circuit cooling loop so to speak… the PC generates quite a bit of heat…

Multiply MY lil PC by say 100,000 and OMFG…. talk about needing coolant!?! I mean the amount of H2O it’ll supposedly take to cool one of these A.I. Supercenters? Utter Insanity IMO. I mean take a look at the map above again… there’s like what?

Like only two or three operational nuke plants out west towards Silicon Valley? And the whole “green energy thing” we figured out and already know that’s one giant money laundering scam that ‘shit the bed’ so to speak… And when you figure in the cooling needs, you’re talking about billions of gallons of water…possibly TRILLIONS with how the talking right now…

Which is a BIG reason I’m throwing the bullshit flag.

Case in point: For 2023, the current data centers we have in the United States right now consumed an estimated 211 BILLION GALLONS OF WATER JUST for cooling in 2023 ALONE…. And in that time? Back in 2023? There were ONLY approximately 684 large data centers in the U.S. nationwide according to ABI Research. And the locations of these DCs (shortened for brevity) are primarily located in Northern Virginia (Duh! that of course, would be the CIA/NSA gathering ALL the info… like all of “the everything(s)”, all the time, constantly nonstop, forever) with California and Texas being the next two largest conglomeration/centralized areas of DCs.

Now, as to those two other states?

They’re not exactly known for having VAST quantities of water… and as already stated, they need a lot of good power sources…. and since the cooling of ALL of them expensive chips, doohickies, whatzits and thingamabobs is an absolute necessity…. that means GIGANTIC AMOUNTS OF WATER NEEDED…. so we’re talking (potentially) about complete and utter aquifer(s) collapsing allllll over the place… I once read somewhere that if the water flowing from Oregon to California were to suddenly and dramatically stop, LA and a whoooooole lotta other places would revert to straight up desert again.

In fact there’s quite a few post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction novels that discuss that very thing happening… that the water runs out, and Cali goes all “Desert Mad Max”.

MY personal opinion?

A.I. and ALL these data centers are just another grift in keeping with the pattern of a long line of Psyops and grifting cash from the Ignorant Rich, and labor out of the Slave Class (i.e. folks like us.)

I mean they’re using the ‘threat’ of A.I. to keep us all hard at work, willing to work harderer and for less money, to show we still have value because they’ve got the majority of Joe and Bobbie Sixpack, “The Northern Boobus Americanus” scared to death that their jobs are going to be eliminated by this mysterious Computer Based Overlord and Sooooooopergenius A.I. whatchamacallit….

I mean think about it

It’s kind of brilliant in a sick, twisted way.

Shit like this is right up their alley so to speak…

Get everyone to ‘invest’ and go BIG into A.I.
Then they use the threat of A.I. to keep the Wage Slaves in line, ‘cos “You can be replaced by a faster, smarter computer program that we don’t have to pay!!!”

Mind you, they had to do this mind you because the big ‘Hindu Threat’ of them replacing us with the Ganesh Worshippers quite literally and figuratively shit itself to death and brutally backfired… it’s because that we, as a whole, found out (very quickly mind you) that the only group stupider than Somalis are the fucking subcontinental Indians.

I mean I’ve NEVER seen a group that went from being touted as our “replacements” to the ONE GROUP that’s actually become hated more that the blaqs and the Jews, and that’s the fucking streetshitting Hindu-Dindus.

In fact the HinduHate that’s out there? I think they (the Indians as a whole) set a new speed record for creating absolute racial animosity towards themselves…

I don’t know anyone who actually likes them… in fact I think it’s one thing that the Jews, Blaqs, Whyttes, Mex-Hee-Cans, and Squatemalans can ALL agree on and that’s we cannot stand those fucking people… I mean when you get a Jew and a Nazi in the same room, with them looking at (and smelling) a Hindu and then they look at each other and say “What the fuck man!?! Those are nasty motherfuckers!” you know you got a problem… and the Indian? He’s fucking OBLIVIOUS to it ‘cos as far as he’s concerned? He’s the smartest motherfucker in the room….

And that right there? That’s a BIG reason for the how/why of why almost EVERYONE cannot stand them… it’s their fucking arrogance. Fuckers are just WAAAAY too arrogant for their own good… and LOUD about it too…

If they had kept their fucking gobs shut, we might have overlooked their shytte, but because of the unwarranted and undeserving sense of superiority which they positively LOVE to rub in our faces (along with their feces), they fucked it up, the mask fell off, and now?
EVERYONE fucking hates them.
Fuck those guys.
Seriously.

So food for thought right?
As far as other more pleasant things….

The raffle I’ll be announcing OFFICIALLY tommorrow.
With Pics of the Prize.
And where to send entries.

Big Papi needs some $$$ to get the Grans some Christmas Gifties… Oh…. and speaking of which, DC popped out Gran #3 (a boy) via C-Section on Monday. 8 pounds, 6 oz.

Dammit.
FML.
I’m staying stronk, but maaaan… the one thing that stupid broad (DC that is) does do right is she makes great kids… which is a fucking shame… and in this case, I’m doing my damnedest to stay the fuck away ‘cos babies are my Kryptonite. After all, it’s not HIS fault his momma is a worthless retard…
Like I said
FML
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
So there’s going to be some re-dos of the pics (the very few I was able to get to upload during the trip) but it’ll at least give some perspective and some of the sights I saw whilst on my possibly last for quite some time “oot and aboot trip”.

It started with me ‘mounting up’ on the Margaritaville Islander, which is a 26 year old cruise ship and the newest of the Margaritaville line.

My bunk was an inner cabin on the 9th Deck “It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere”

My A.O. was 9012, juuuust a wee bit forward of the red dot on the upper right corner of the map. Desk 9 was where ALL the pools and hot tubs were located, as well as all the chow and the majority of bars. The casino was on Deck two, as was guest services, and the main atrium, which ran 3 glass elevators top-to-bottom:

There was quite the ‘holiday vibe’ kicking as Christmas (in theory) is around the corner… Funny thing is I kept having the term “The Great Glass Wonka-vator” from the second Charlie and the Chocolate Factory running through my head whenever I climbed in one of them.

I then had to hunker down for about 2 hours while the room got ready in a piano bar, which wasn’t that bad….

They did a few drawings for some free shit, mostly inconsequential cheap assed sunglasses and/or hats… stuff that appealed to the 70+ age crowd that seemed to make up the majority of this bunch I sailed with.

The breakdown of demographics was mostly 85+ % white, 10% black (and NOT the hoodrat persuasion) and then about 5% VERY young families with rug-rat kids. A further breakdown on the whypeepo is that 40% of them were old-old. Like mobility scooter/wheelchair old, which meant learning what the best time to dodge the lines at the buffet were, as they tended to ‘gum up the works’ if’n you will.

There were three pools on board, as well as three hot tubs.

and then:

Lastly:

And a smol pool w/Hot Tub on the fantail:

Where you could see the water slide:

A very well set up boat for R&R to say the least.

And no I did not go down the waterslide.
Too fat, Too high. I’m Airborne/Air Assault.
Not retarded.

The last time I ‘did’ a waterslide was my sophomore year in high school and ended up with a broken wrist. I lern’t that lesson early, AND cheap at the cost IMO.

On the way out of town, we went under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge which was pretty damned cool. I was a bit slow in getting outside to get pics from UNDER it, but either way….

It was nonetheless Very Cool
So it was off to the races for the night.
I tried my had at $5 Blackjack and realized that the JuJu was ‘off’ so I avoided the tables after the fact…

Best to lose $20 than my ass.

After a night at sea, and some drinking and carousing,

We hit the Yucatan:

We then travelled downtown, and went into some of the ‘shadier’ non-tourista areas, primarily so I could find an ATM that spit out pesos as opposed to USD.

This from experience that paying in the local dinero, it’s harder to rip off us Gringos as exchange rates fluctuate, whereas what’s printed on the menu is printed on the menu, and harder to not fuck around with (in my experiences). Because of this, like I said, we got off the beaten path and well, it was cool AF in my experience.

MY travelling companion was a bit weirded, but trusted me as I had spent the night before regaling her with some of my adventures in Baghdad and other points of dangerous interest I’ve been in in the past. Egypt in particular…

I told her worse comes to worse, hide behind me as I absorb knives and bullets (albeit for a short time) pretty well. So we hit the bazaar:

They sold EVERYTHING there, from sandals to bedsheets and everything in-between. By that time, we were hangry, so
we plonked down for chow

As I had mentioned, it was dirty, dingy and not up to the usual ‘Murican Tourist thing, but ALL the locals were eating like mad, so I figured it had to be some good grub.

As I stated before, brekkie was Empanadas and a Coke

The Coke(s) there were WAY better than the chemically made crap we have stateside… the real deal if you will. A bonus was that the waiter (or whatever he was) told me that the ice was from a purifier, and considering we didn’t shit ourselves to death, good on him! The chow was good/great, and as I mentioned the other day:

“The Green Stuff/Sauce”

OK
An explanation is in order.
Here in The US we have Habanero.
Leastways what WE call Habanero.
Then
In Mexico, THEY have Habanero.
The Real Fuckin’ Deal apparently.
Outside of the name, that’s about ALL they share.

Now… let me tell you… it was delicious.
It was the ‘afterburn’ that got me… a slow, creeping burn that in the end felt like I had called in a “Danger-Close” ‘Snake and Nape’ airstrike on my tonsils… I just had to ride it out but damn if it wasn’t hotter than the norm. And I positively enjoy a good hot meal. There’s a new definition in my book as to my rating of heat, and it ain’t scovilles… Nope… it’s going to be “Local Hot” or “Mexican Hot” with the “MH” meaning the real deal.

My poor asshole took a few days to recover from it let me tell ya.. The songs that kept being replayed were “Ring of Fire” and “Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love” came leaping to mind when I had to do a ‘download’ so to speak. Ice cream wasn’t touching THAT burn let me tell ya…

So…
After lunch we wandered around a wee bit. The exterior of the Marketplace/Bazaar was at that point getting set up, in all it’s glorious veggie and fruity glory:

A positive riot of color…
Look but no buying as the strict rules about bringing fruits and veg back on board were in place per usual. I also saw them roasting some questionable ‘street meats’ as well:

….which just so happened to be across from the yet-to-be opened Chinese food place:

The name alone cracked me the Hell up… That and to come alllll this way to find Chinese Food in the Yucatan amiright?

I also found a place named after Frida Kahlo, apropriately named “Frida’s”:

A wee bit of a bougie upscale eatery, with the prices to match.
The artistry on the building however was great.

I also, as per an earlier poast interacted with the Yucatan State Police, and while I couldn’t take any pics of them, I did get a pic of their recruiting poster (I think):

So I dug the Yucatan.

I’d go back for another longer visit given the opportunity.
The local State Police sure enjoyed hanging with me it seemed…
It’s always nice to interact with fellow professionals…

The last thing I took of in the Yucatan was this weird assed sculpture of what appears to be a stylized heart that has some ‘stuff’ airbrushed on it:

The very bottom having what appears to be a Mayan Pyramid.
What’s unsettling is that a culture that literally sacrificed hoomon beans has a sculpture of what appears to be a heart, with a pyramid painted on it where the aforementioned hearts would have been ripped out?

Maybe it’s just me….

So onward back to the Boat, and I got ready for dinner. Said-dinner being part of my prepaid dining packages, and after a GREAT MEAL in the on-board steakhouse:

We went to a comedy show with Edwin San Juan,

He’s a Filipino comedian who was funny AF. Seems he’s been on Comedy Central, leatsways my dining companion told me this… It was a great show, and my sides hurt by the time I got to bed.

By First Call in the AM it was time for Cozumel.

And as far as Cozumel?

Unfortunately, it was WAY too crowded and commercialized and expensive.

“Thank you for coming Mr. Big Country, your total comes to one arm, half a leg, and your third born grandchild, payable on demand!”

Needless to say I hit the pharmacia, and chilled out by the pool for the rest of the trip, getting burned even more. At least I got a great base for a tan out of my efforts Aye?

So… I’m done.
Leastways for a while. It’s been 9 states, and two countries over the past 60-90 days. I’ve seen my Gran in TN, re-connected with old frens, connected with new frens, gone deep sea fishing, gone to Naw’lins to see the infamous Bourbon Street, went to California for a movie, met up with Aesop IRL and some excellent readers, plus done two cruises.

I’d say it’s been a lot of living packed in that timeframe.

No complaints.
No regerts either.
I only have One More Thing I want to get before the End of The Year, and this’s courtesy of WiscoDave:

I NEED THIS TAT
Right shoulder or right forearm… not sure which, but I am getting this inked come Hell or High Water! They had a tat place on the Boat, but they wanted $400 for it, and I was like ‘hard pass’… I’ll go down to Ybor and see, as MY tat place went out of business a ways back, which is a bummer ‘cos the guy did good work.

So… that’s pretty much a wrap for this trip. I’ll announce the raffle by weeks end, and yes, it’ll be for an Enfield.
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
A gorgeous day in Cozumel. Again -I- was one of the first off the boat (On the bounce Cap Trooper!)

One of the kind folks on the dock took that pic of me.

Cozumel: The best description I can have of it is that it’s waaaaay overly-commercialized. I was not impressed. LOTS of the usual crap, Senor Frogs (cheap drinks and obnoxious tourists) TONS of bogus souvenir shops and obnoxious locals (hustling a buck) and the only thing of not was the Pharmacia… wee that there are three of them right outside the tourist trap area.

The pyramids (leastways the one I saw) was cool but TBH meh.r

….and of course Iggy was out and about:

THAT BTW is a stock pic as NONE of the Iguanas would sit still long enough to get a pic of… better either way as they tend to be ornery critters at best in my experiences from Guantanamo.

Now I’ve had a Hell of a time getting my pix transferred over to the lappie. The amount of time to do just ONE picture is insane, so yeah, Stock Pix (with the exception of the one of moi)

So I was able to stock up on some good meds at least.

Otherwise, when I get the pix I did get downloaded, I’ll share my observations and stories… one of which is “Never trust the Green Stuff”…

I’ll get into that later…
So off to dinner w/my Fren
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!

Progreso!
The Yucatan (as you can see)!
Chichen Itza!
Which I unfortunately couldn’t hit. $$$ issues doncha know?
HOWEVER!
Cozumel and it’s ‘stuff’?
No problema.
Payday is overnight tonight.
Either way, the Enfield is going to be raffled off when I get back. I’ll poast pictures up of which on it’ll be. Understand the bore on it is shytte. Damned near shot out but it does fire and is pristine.
Soooo… dinner last night with the Tall Brunette went well…

The food was 5 Star.
The company was about the same, 5 Star as well…

Other than that, I’ll leave it at that, and I’ll poast the touristy sites as my internet is sporadic at best… utterly shitty at worst. Hopefully in Cozumel I’ll be able to get the pics onto the lappie and poast from there. The only pic (besides these two above) was the one I took as I/We were being taken downtown to check out the scenery:

Now, the Progreso pier is the worlds longest pier according to all the info I got on the boat, and even the Google agreed:

5 Miles long.
With all the security on it (backscatter x-rays and search points) it took almost 30 minutes to get downtown. Once there, We did the slow-exploration, after I pinned the “Evac Point” on my maps. The bus ran every 30 minutes, so getting back to the Boat wasn’t an issue. Since we left early, the town really wasn’t fully open yet, but this was a plus, as we were like the only folks out and about, and it was still cool temperature wise. It got as how as Iraq it felt like as we’re straight up on the equator, and that sun was physically beating down by noon….

Now, the bus was exactly the same model busses we had in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. Chinese made and your basic ‘tour bus’ with seats that were seriously undersized for my Large Western Frame… and add on the pic above?

Those big stones are part of the breakers for the waves that hit the pier… at first, I thought they were HESCO barriers, as they sure as hell LOOK like HESCOs. Between being on the same type of bus, and what appeared to be HESCOs? Yeah, mad flashbacks. In a cool way that is.

For the uninitiated, HESCO barriers were the DotMil answer to a shortage of sandbags and such. They were 5 foot? by 5 foot? (I think) by 5 foot deep metal frames (like a heavy chicken wire but waaaay thicker) and a burlap bag, which was then filled with dirt and rocks to make BIG shrapnel-proof barriers which were then put ALLLLL around various buildings in the Area Of Operations.

Then downtown, we went to what was a bazaar…

Like LITERALLY a just-like-in-Kuwait and baghdad… A souk as the Arabs call them… a roofed over open air market selling everything from hot food to household cleaners to fresh veggies… pics to follow as I said.

I stopped into said Souk/Bazaar with my companion and we went to a smol cafe… She asked “Why are we eating here? It looks dirty…” To which I pointed out that it, compared to what were obviously tourist oriented places, the fact that it was positively packed with the locals who were obviously getting their ‘eat on’ before they opened their little stalls and/or businesses, and that was proof enough to me that the chow would be first rate.

And maaaaaan
I was right.
The empanadas were off the chain, and the cokes were ice-cold and REAL Mexican Coke. No chemistry and tasted magnifico…

And was it dirty?
Fuck yeah.
This was Third World Dining at it’s finest…. I was in my element however… “Back in the Saddle” so to speak… Eating in strange local places, keeping my head on a swivel, and being left the fuck alone as I had turned up my ‘vibe’ I was projecting to “lethal” so almost everyone was smiling and friendly, as they sensed it’d be a BAD IDEA to piss off or fuck with the HUUUUGE Gringo and the chick who was with him….

GOD I love doing shit like that!!!
I missed this shit man!

And then, (no pics allowed due to security) I found a Yucatan State Police Checkpoint with a whole crew of cops…

The town was positively crawling with Fuzz… (a good thing IMO) both state and metropolitan… The State Police were something right out of “Sicario”… Ford F-250s with mounted M-240Bs or M249s. I went over and talked to El Sargento in charge, and explained (and showed my ID) that I was a former Soldado americano, and just wanted to talk guns and maybe get a picture or two?

He apologized, but no pics allowed (OPSEC, which I dig what w/cartel bullshit) but we talked guns… ALL of them were running Sig P226s in low slung cowboy style Blackhawk leg rigs, with M-4A1 (full auto able) and the aforementioned Squad Automatics… I was able to get across that I was an Experto en armas i.e. an armorer and they dug the fuck out of that.

I got to get an up close check of the squad weapons… Their gear was in pretty damned good shape… used but not abused and El Sargento said that on occasion the weapons got a lot of use.

I wish them guys good luck man… they’re on the pointy end Aye? So that was cool. I picked up some tchotchkes for some frens and the usual, and then we went back to the Boat early to hit the pool. Tonight is the Adult Comedy show… I got a taste of the PG side of it last night, but tonight is the Adult Only show… it should be good as the guy was funny AF even tho he was stuck doing a PG version…

So I’m off to meet up with my frens…

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
….and you know we don give a fuck it’s not my birthday!

Yes
In Da Club Yo!!!!
Fo’ sho’
LITERALLY it’s been since Iraq when I last went to a club… which was actually a MWRO Tent with dancing and lights and such whatnot…. Now as far as my outfit?

‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man!!!

My Hawaiian shirt is a 1944 Marine Frogskin Camouflage:

Amazing how many Marine Vets have come up and asked either where I got it, or how cool it is…

Had a good night last night.
As you can see…
LOTS of dancing and carousing.
Had a bump and grind w/a couple of 20 something hawties…
LOVE dancing… don’t get a chance to do it too often
And yeah, I’m a damned good dancer from what females have told me… anywho…

One of which I noticed when one of them (a tall blonde) was jumping up and down, and her tube-dress, well….
Her boobies done fell out, or I should say, her dress slipped down, unleashing the bewbage…

VERY Nice Hooties mind you…|

Me being me, I started cracking on her, and joking and whatnot… BTW: Note to y’all… If you can get a chick to laugh and keep her laughing? Yeah, it’s a great start.
We’ll see where that goes.
Her fren, a TALL Brunette seems very innerested!
Me? I just enjoyed the dancing and the fun of it all.
Truthfully, I’m not interested in anything myself

My God, it’s official
I’m old.
Get the fuck off my lawn.

So no partying right now… for tonight is a scheduled ‘quiet night’, as I’m a wee bit sunburned (again) from my post-breakfast hot-tub soak (ahhhhh my back needed that!) and post-soak pool time so I’m wiped…

And burned AF on my face and shoulders and back….

So in the AM, we hit Progreso, which is where the Mayans were running the show so to speak back in the day, and the ruins of Chichen Itza and ‘other’ historically significant ‘things’ are located. I’m not sure if I can hit those however as the cost of the excursion(s) there are retardedly expensive, so I just might settle on hitting the town, and then heading back to be chillin’ on the Boat whilst evvabody is oot and aboot so to speak…

Unlike the Margaritaville Paradise (the last cruise out of Palm Beach) the Tampa based Margaritaville Islander requires cash up front (which I did not know) for a LOT of shit, and I thought the tab would be settled at the end like it was w/the Paradise. On the Paradise, I could run a tab, whereas this place? Not so mucho. A wee bit pain that Aye? Soooo, it is what it is… the more you know amiright?

I do know I’m ‘reloading’ the Isopropyl and the Pharmacia is on the list of ‘must do/have’ to handle while in Mex-hee-co. As well as some Aloe ’cause I’m a wee bit torqued.

And going back to Ye Olde Boat? An empty Boat = No full pools and whatnot so a bit of quiet.

Cozumel? Now there I’ll be able to do something as payday hits on Thursday night so the account gets a ‘refill’ so THERE I’ll have some ‘stuff’ to show from there.

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Whelp…
I broke down and bought the ‘net on the Boat. So I can throw some adventures up as I go. First off: The Boat? The Margaritaville Islander.

A VERY nice (and newer) Boat than the Paradise that I was on last time. This one’s ‘central avenue’ is all done up for Christmas:

Besides being nicer, the beers are cheaper much to my relief.

Of course I’m did/am doing the “bottle of Isopropyl” like I used to do in Iraq. That’s triple rinsing a new EMPTY 91% alcohol jug, and ‘reloading it’ with Everclear… So now with the free lemonade and strawberry kiwi, I ‘juice it up’ with some octane, and hey! Bob’s your Uncle!!!

So I got that going for me!

I am having a raffle after this to defray costs. A basic M-4 from the collection OR
I can do one of the Enfield MK4s.
Y’all tell me.
Which do you prefer?

Now on the way ‘out of town’ we went UNDER the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (in the background) which was cool AF. The sunset was cool too:

This Boat even has a water slide!
PLUS three hot tubs
Oh, and before I forget, THIS crowd on the Boat?
85% or better ALL whytte.
Sooooo relaxing.
Now some of these amenities? Mind you I -think- it’s a wee bit much for a Boat, but what the Hell right? The food on this one is ALSO superior, so I got no complaints!
Except I’m bent my diet is out the window
AGAIN!

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Sooooo many things…
First off, MANY thanks for the kind commentary on my helping out with Miss Daisy… she really appreciated all the kind words and whatnot as well, as she IS a reader here. Also… in response to the questions of the “Players” in this here place, even tho JimmyPX had a pretty good grasp on it, allow me to elucidate y’all a bit.

SAPPER: My bro. My strong right hand, my torpedo. AKA “The Gray Man” as he’s so innocuous and blends in to any and all crowds. A former combat engineer, he did a full 4 year tour before I met him, mostly in Korea. Great guy. SOLIDis the best term and someone I’d take a fatal round for. He got ‘voluntold’ that he’d be babysitting me when my first divorce happened as the rest of my frens were terrified that I’d go loco and decide to go ‘operational’… not afraid for me per se, but that I’d have done a lot of bad things before I got stopped… he’s good like that.

MISS DAISY: 92 years old… Originally one of Gretchen’s former BF’s mom. Nice guy… I met him as they had stayed ‘cool’ so to speak… He unfortunately died (as did his brother and father, all before Age 55… bad ticker syndrome) and she stayed close to her. I also have, and since I haven’t really got a fam anymore I’ve spend moar than a few holly-daze doing what I did this past T-Day.

DC: DumbC*nt. Simple as that. Gretchen’s millennial daughter. Lost custody of….

THE GRANS: There’s two. Addy and the RedHeaded Nukular Firecracker. BOTH are awesome. We fought to get custody of Addy after the whole shitshow w/DC Totalling my truck. Either way, Addy is doing great and whelp, the RedHead is awesome as well…

DEADDAD and MOMUNIT: Self explanatory. My ‘rents.

SPAWN #1 and #2: My kids, pretty much permanently estranged (bummer that one). One (Boy) is doing great as far as I know, and the other is…. well not sure… she said she was trans last I heard… no idea… I compartmentalize it… easier that way emotionally speaking….

STELLA THE SAUSAGE PRINCESS AND THE RED HOT CHILI PUPPER: My doggos. AWESOME doesn’t begin to describe them.

RANGER J: My bro from Iraq. Former Ranger. Just had his #1 Spawn (a son) making me and Sapper Funkle(s).

I think that covers it for the cast of characters around here.
There may be others occasionally mentioned, but for now, that’s about it.
Now
New News.
Curse Cyber Monday!!!
I’m off and out for another adventure.
This time to Mexico.
Progreso and Cozumel to be exact.
I mean why the Hell not?
So far, just to make a list, I’ve been to (in the past 45 days) by my count:

Georgia
South Carolina
North Carolina
Tennessee
Arkansas
Mississippi
Louisiana
Texas
California
The Bahamas
and now? Add Mex-Hi-Co to the list.

So if I’m out of comms, you know why.
I leave at 1400 tomorrow.
I mean why the fuck not amiright?

Part of the reason is I got the COLA bump on my retirement which is helping defray the cost, and also, I’ve never been to Cozumel, so why the fuck not? As the man once said:

Who am I to say otherwise?
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Whelp!
Sapper got us home!
Not for a lack of trying from all the reee-tards and knuckleheads on the road that’s for damned sure. There were a few points where I debated if shooting them would be considered ‘defensive driving’ as there was no “Road Rage” involved… just the cold reality that some people on the road should not be and are absolutely dangerous behind the wheel. The Hindu in the semi who was on his phone texting when he tried to ram us off the road as he was drifting -so badly- it scared me enough (as I was navigating and the gunner) to unlimber my .45 and chamber a round…

I figured if he hit us, I was going to roll the window down and mag-dump as we’d be dead anyways… Thankfully the fucking twat ‘woke up’ and then almost overcorrected where he almost ditched into a ravine, which would have been sweeeeet. Alas however, Mister Hindu-Dindu recovered…

Now whether or not he survived the Highway Patrol is another thing, as when I realized we weren’t going to become roadkill, I called the emergency line, and dimed the motherfucker out… Sucks to be Singh I suppose… serves the non-American fucker right.

Deport. Them. All.

So… LAST night I had ZERO Blogability left in me, as well as I had ONE MOAR MEAL to cook… namely a beef stew… a simple but flavorful and healthy meat-on-yer-bones jobber…

An easy recibee:
BCE Stew:

2x Pounds Stew Beef. Brown it first, don’t cook all the way through. Add to slow cooker.
1 Full ‘thing’ (stalk? bunch? who knows?) of Celery, sliced.
1 Bag Chopped Carrots
3 Tablespoons Diced Garlic
1 LARGE Onion, Diced
6 LARGE Taters, Diced Bigley
4-5 Tablespoons Italian Seasoning
Salt and Pepper to Taste (add as you go… like I said, to taste)
1 Quart of Beef Broth

Add water to cover when everything is in the slow cooker
Then, after 3-4 hours on High, Add either 4-5 bags of the McCormick Brown Gravy Sauce (the $0.89 cent ones) which I did, and then I had to add a wee bit more corn starch to it on top of the gravy packs… otherwise the broth is just watery… this thickens it up, and adds some density and flavor…

It usually takes about 6-7 hours to cook fully:

Now, as an added bonus, one of Miss Daisy’s neighbors came by to drop off a freshly baked loaf of sourdough bread… it was a killer loaf, and matched up w/dinner perfectly:

The crust on it was magnificent.
VERY hard to cut without a proper bread knife… it practically laughed at my Shun blade…

I’m mad jealous.
That’s one skill I lack… I can’t bake bread to save my ass…
DeadDad was a bread-master. Me? Notsomucho. Never have been able to figure out the why of it… even my automatic breadmaker that Scoutergreg gifted me, I was only so-so with, whereas Gretchen could bake her ass off with it
Dammit.

So… after we chowed on some EPIC grub, it was time to tray up the leftovers for Miss Daisy to have some MOAR great food for later:

Unfortunately, only 9 meals out of that, but truth be told, it was a smol crockpot. Overall however, it was a total of 47 meals I was able to put together and pack her freeze and deep freeze with:

Those are all doubled on layers in there BTW.
We also got her some ice cream as you can see.

So overall, a great but busy trip.
And OtherGran sent me a picture of the Nukular Powered Redhead looking coot as all get oot:

Yep…
I’m starting a savings fund to assist with the orthodontics for her… I mean right now she’s in ‘cute mode’ but those fangs are going to need some work sooner, rather than later. Either way, that smile positively melts me. She spent T-Day up with OtherGran’s Fam in Upstate New Fookin’ Yawk… hence the cold ass gear she’s wearing…

In fact that was part of the hairy part of the trip home this AM… 0700 it was hovering between 30-34 degrees with rain on the Mountain Miss Daisy has her Redoubt on… made the first two hour leg out a wee bit hairy if’n you know what I mean…

However as you can see, I made it, so I got that going for me.

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
No rest for the wicked I suppose.
Even when I’m doing a good deed. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished, especially in this fallen world I suppose. I got (not rudely) awakened initially at 0500 by Miss Daisy who apparently is an early early riser, much to my horror.

Damned man… can’t a negro get his beauty sleeps?

It was the smell of the coffee that roused me from my crypt.
Sapper as well.
We both came out looking like Death Warmed over, and had a cuppa, and then I went into “T-Day Mode” meaning that I started my brainium in figuring out ‘what needed to be made first, how long it’d take, and then what was next.’

See, when I do this sort of thing for Miss Daisy, I cook my ass off non-stop. Usually two-three BIG meals. Then I use some single serve food take-a-way containers to box up and freeze a shitload of meals as otherwise? She’s stuck eating goyslop as she’s just too old to ‘do’ a full on meal for herself. It’s just the fact that no one in her immediate fam does squat for her that burns me the fuck up…

She’s been eating shit faaaaar too long IMO.

So, I started simple. A basic meat base Bolognese Meat sauce.

I was able to start with that, and at 0700. It stewed while I got the bird to room temp, and then around 10:00 once I prepped the Turkey, I jammed IT into the oven, which it had about a 4+ hour ‘ride in the roaster’ so to speak.

At 11:30, I boiled up 2 pounds of rotini for a light lunch.

The ‘extras after we ate our ‘lite lunch’??

Into the foil containers.

15 meals into the deep freeze.

Her dearly departed son Barry had a BIG deep freeze that he had for when he went hunting, and now? It’s stuffed with ready-made meals so to speak. I wasn’t near done however…

Every hour I kept working the bird, as well as the fixin’s.

I ended up doing two HUGE trays of food, one Italian Mac n’ Cheese, the other my first X-Wife’s Italian Sausage Dressing:

BOTH trays, as you can see were magnificent.

Sapper, on the other hand, used his Martial Skills to assist.
The Army DOES teach useable skillz yannow?
Namely Peeling Taters.

He, as you can see, took the job seriously, and did a great job and the mashed came out fantastic.

Then the only thing left was the Italian green beans (noticing the trend? Yeeeeah… that’s what I get for being married to a Sicilian for 20+ years LOL) The recibee for the beans is easy… on bag of fresh green beans (pluck the ends off each bean, the most laborious part IMO), then melt 1/2 to 3/4 of a stick of salted butter in a pan on medium (5) and add two HEAPING spoonful’s of fresh diced garlic. Brown the garlic for about two minutes. Throw in the beans, and ‘stir-fry’ them. If you want them ‘limp’, turn up the heat to high, wait 30 seconds and braise them by throwing some water in to steam them. Then serve.

About that time I also threw a smol honey-baked slice ham, about a pound, pound and a half into Zee Oven. I came out as well very very well. Didn’t really have to do anything w/it… but to me Turkey day ain’t done UNLESS there’s ham available. This was already a pre-cooked jobber, all I did was heat and serve really, BUT my timing was impeccable…

As a bonus, Sapper had made a home-made from scratch cranberry sauce BEFORE we left Florida, so it’d gel nicely (which it did) and THAT came out AWESOMELY. The very very last thing was a batch of Hawaiian sweet rolls, and BAM!
We had a dinner

It was off the chain good…

Oh yeah, I made gravy too, using a base stock and adding the diced guts and drippings… I swear Miss Daisy was eating like a prisoner who’d been on starvation rations… which she sorta-kinda was… no worries tho, she’s fine… it was just she loved the home made factor…

AND

Tomorrow?
I have a Beef Stew I need to make and feed her, then freeze.
Breakfast (late morning) is going to be scrambled eggs and bacon (which she has onhand) and then Beef stew for dinner for us, with the leftovers being deep-freezed again, giving he at least a month of seriously good eating, nevermind when I get done slicing and dicing ALL the turkey carcass, and making insta-meals for her.

So, I’m done

Done Done.
More later, I’m crashing… it’s been an 18 hour cookfestivus.
My back is moidered.
I’m wasted.
But
It’s been worth it…
This’s God’s Country
And HE reminded me of it after Dinner

Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!

Made it to Miss Daisy’s place!

11 Hours in the car…
Of course it didn’t stop the Sausage Princess from immediately getting lovin’s from Miss Daisy

It’s full-on dark here and we’re crashing.
So Happy Thanksgiving to one and all… I’ll be cooking ALLLL day tomorrow as we’re doing it up right.
More Later
Big Country