{"id":6503,"date":"2025-07-24T01:54:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T01:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/?p=6503"},"modified":"2025-07-24T01:55:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T01:55:44","slug":"no-more-comments-hoa-stoopidity-and-a-must-have-skillset-imo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/24\/no-more-comments-hoa-stoopidity-and-a-must-have-skillset-imo\/","title":{"rendered":"No More Comments\/HOA Stoopidity\/and a Must-Have Skillset (IMO)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Greetings and Salutations!
So… First off…
No more comments here or anywhere re: the current marital situation. I’m<\/strong> 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<\/strong> 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<\/strong> 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<\/strong> was too long…

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

So it got cut of course.<\/strong>

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<\/strong> despite the rain and all that.

Also, if I hadn’t <\/strong>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<\/strong> to the point that prison is looking pretty fucking comfy right now.<\/strong> 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<\/strong>

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…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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<\/strong> about picking <\/strong>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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Link (with my ‘taste’) HERE<\/a>

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

I can’t stress it enough… this book as above right here (as far as I have found) is the best<\/strong> 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…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/strong>. “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.<\/strong>

Personally?

I use Sparrows picks almost exclusively.

Their Website is HERE<\/a>

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

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

It’s the “Escort” (LINK<\/a>) 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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “No More Comments\/HOA Stoopidity\/and a Must-Have Skillset (IMO)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6512,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6503\/revisions\/6512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigcountryexpat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}