Winter Commuter wheels

For you folks out there in the midwest with a bit of a sprinkle,  here is your get home ride.  Addy is in the link.  Could pay this off by spring with the amount we're supposed to be getting here this season.   Again your Mileage may vary.  Diesel with an auto tranny,  easy peasy.   Just remember to check your air and oil before every ride.  Them power packs are expensive.  ;)   



http://www.fentonfire.com/new_listings/listing.php?lid=5009

Charles Durning

Played Ernie Yost in my favorite episode of NCIS.    God Bless you Mr Durning.   WW2 Vet.  Big Red One.   Carried around a bullet until the end of his days.   May His Angels lift you up on High.  



 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HZEPCM/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=weblab-control-20


Pay the two bucks.    You will appreciate it.  

The Straits of Woe

    Area I used to work was a large Plain between a couple of middlin' mountain ranges.  When we got rain in the shape of thunderstorms,  high water was a real possibility.   The run off from the mountains found its way down into the valley pretty quick and the streams hit flood stage with little warning.   Trains ran north south through the valley with both underpasses and bridges.    Not many of the underpasses but They could be tricky with the high water.  Enough so that some had depth marks like the bow of a ship painted on the side of the tunnel. 

   Had this one kid who worked for me,  not a Star Player but he managed to stay off my personal attention list for motivation for the most part.  That changed in a big way when he grabbed one of the brand new cars (Less then 3000 miles) for patrol one day.  Some Patrol supers used to assign cars and zones.  I would assign zones but leave it to the individual to grab a car.  I would normally take what was left.   Used to grab the oldest ride 'cause if I had to wreck somebody, nobody would get snippy then if I took out a brand new ride.   Wicked thunderstorm,  We started getting all sorts of calls and the dispatch is hopping.  Sweeney gets a call out west and decides he is taking the Straits of Woe.  Railroad Underpass, floods EVERY Time.  So what does he do.  Sweeney decides he was gonna run the rapids with the new car.   Turns out it wasn't such a great idea.  When the water started coming over the window sill of the cruiser,  Sweeney bails out and manages to get to high ground.  He then calls it in on his handi talki as the car was submerged  50 feet out from the waters edge.    I wasn't working other wise I'd told him to leave his gun, badge, and creds in the trunk of the car and start walking home as he was on suspension.  Got in the next afternoon and was informed of the previous days events including his.  

 Gotta love cops,  Somebody taped a life jacket to his locker door along with the message  "Who's the U boot Captain?"   the next day.   He got the word from me he was never driving a new ride as long as he was at the "Berg" EVER.   Put his card in for another Troop soon after that.    Can't imagine why.    Oh yeah,   They named the underpass after him.   Can't repeat the name as it would be the giveaway but even the new kids who have never met him refer to the underpass as the "Straits of XXXX".   How's that for being remembered.  ;) 


   Just remember,  If you wouldn't walk through it,  why the hell would you try and drive through it.  

Just sayin'.  

And in Other News

Supposedly the Guy who voices ELMO committed some indiscretions a while ago.   Dunno what the fallout will be.   Probably banned from the Thanksgiving Parade for five years and no Bowl Games.  


http://news.yahoo.com/elmo-puppeteer-accused-underage-relationship-150143910.html


Sorry,  Considering all the BS flowing out of the MSM,  This ranks right up there with...    Nothing.  

Grooming

   I am not a metro sexual.  Lemme get that out of the way.  Military Haircut,  Starched Shirts,  Pressed Dockers, Etc.   My idea of accessories are matching the holster and belt to my shoes.  Simple things.   Used to date a fitness person.  Chick would be the appropriate moniker but don't want to offend, (much).  


Anyway,   I am not svelte,  picture burly or Beorn if that gives you a better frame of reference.   And She was into the whole appearance thing.  Me, not so much.   Gods know she tried.  I was accused of having 5.11 being my Tailor.  Don't see the problem,  the stuff they made fits. Dress Shirts with a Body armor Vest.  Like it was made for me.  Anyhow,   I am that Beetle browed, Knuckle Draggin' guy and have the single eyebrow running across the front ramp.   I guess She figured small steps and asked if I wanted to go do a Spa Treatment.  Sure, Why Not,  "What could be the Harm"?   I thought.  Picture Dark Clouds forming on the horizon,  Lessening of the winds and a kind of unsettled hush.   Should have paid attention to the signs.   Right,  Didn't start off bad, Massage,  Haircut,  things of those ilk.   Now I remember hearing something 'bout trimming the eyebrow.   I don't if for nothing else,  it drives the secretary at work right up the wall.  Not in the amorous way,  the bat shite insane I can't stand it way  ;).    Why is it they import Olga from the Ukraine for these things I don't understand.  Not like those guys do the whole grooming thing.   So Olga takes the warm buttery stuff and smears it on the center line above the nose.  OK,  Shaving cream.  The things we do for love.  Next Olga takes a puts a piece of Tape (?) there.  Still no problem. She then ripped it off.   Stars,  a White hot sheet of WTF, and me looking cross eyed for a sec.  Now I've been tased,  Went through that for training.  As soon as they let off the gas,   I was ready to murder.   Here I am doing the whole breathing exercise and She was looking at me guessing if she should hit the exit.   OK,  I am in it now.  Gotta finish or I'll look like something from a bad movie.  Two more warm buttery treatments and  my eyebrows are not what they used to be.   Turns out she was leading up to get me to get a body wax.   Seems one of the guys from the office does the whole Brazilian body wax.   Short Answer, No.  I will never do that again. 

    Pepper Spray,  Tazer,  Tear Gas.   All in a days work.   Come near me with a Can of Wax,  I'll shoot ya.  

Middle East

    Got some missions going over there.  I'm not on 'em.   Wonder why? 


Maybe 'cause I'd be stackin' up Assholes like cordwood.  Dunno.  :/

To Protect and Defend

"I, (Your Name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."


   I got to do something the other day that ranks in the top Ten of Coolest Things I have ever Done.   I was asked by my Team Sergeant if I would re-enlist him.  Sure,  No sweat,( even though he got the Germany Option in his contract, Jerk).  "So when do ya wanna do it."     "Friday at the National Archieves."  Sure, Wait,  What?  Where do you want to do this?    "At the National Archives,  In front of the Consitution."  Seriously,  Holy Crap.   Call the Det Sergeant,  We good for this?  Yes Sir,  Already coordinated.      Wear your Dress Blues.  Got that,  Dress Cover, No Beret.  Copy.  So the BC, First Sergeant, Nate (reenlistee), Myself and Chris the Det Sergeant took a drive up to DC.   And Nate Took his Oath in front of the Constitution.   "So Help Me God"     



    That Was Cool.     

Domestic violence

http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2012/07/letter-to-victim.html

Dog had a victim of DV show up at the Jail where her beloved had ended up for the evening.   Here in PA DV is/was one of my "Go directly to jail" pinches.   I walk in and see marks,  somebody is getting hooked up. 

    Roger and I were working the midnight shift in Little House in the Prairie.   There are some scattered local PD's up there that work when they feel like it and leave it to Us to pick up when they aren't.   One in particular would go off when the sun when down but would always call when we had something in his 'Berg.  Didn't mean he'd come out,  just means he was listening to what was happening.   One night me an Rog picked up a call when Eugene and his Sigo were headin' home from the Moose.   Seems Eugene and his beloved got into a spat where he kicked the living daylights out of her and bodily hauled her back into the truck when she tried to bolt.  We showed up and She proceeded to expound on the last fifteen-twenty years of their circus of a marriage. Looked at Rog and Asked "You heard enough".   "Yup".   Suddenly it dawned on her we were the State Cops and not the local LEO's she'd always dealt with.   See Little house on the Praire  was way up in the woods and 99.9% of the local pop were... white.  Roger was out of Pittsburg and had played Football back in College and was...   Black,    She musta realized we were taking her dearly beloved next as he came tumbling down the stairs after we had found him passed out on the bed.   We hauled him down to the barracks and did the Charge sheet and Affidavit before hauling him down county to Night court.   She'd beat us to the Jail with a blank check for his bond.   Never did get called back there though.  Figure Eugene found out when the local Po Po ain't on duty  and the State Shows up,  he was taking a ride.   Dunno if it made a difference but I always figured it did for me.  The bastard would sit in jail for the night as the judge wouldn't come back out on a DV and the Jail wouldn't/wasn't allowed to release without his/her say so.  

Gamers

    Shoot IDPA in SSR and SSP with a 1911 thrown in for good measure.   IPSC when I'm in town an the schedule allows.   One weekend myself and one other guy in SSR.  Both L frames,  I'm in a Safariland duty rig and he's in kydex.   I was keeping up with him but really had to work at it.   Asked him at the end of the day what he was shooting for ammo.  He replied handloads which were one step above cowboy loads.  I blew my cork as I was firing full house Federal 125's.    Sumbitch wasn't even meeting power factor.   Seriously,  are you shooting this for fun or to train?   I look at trigger time as prep for the main event.   Proof of concept to see what works and what don't.    Don't be that guy and use every chance to get ready for the day. 



Now go shoot. 

Rainbow bridge

The little guy is my Nephew.  The pup is Shadow.  He'd been having trouble keeping food down and they thought it was GERD.   Had his winter coat shaved and he looked like he lost weight.   he was throwing up frequently and my brother took him to the doc while I was at work.   Scott texted and told me he was in bad shape.   Seems they found a mass.  He is my brother's dog but I got him whenever they went out of town.   They took him to the doc while I was working.   Didn't want to extend the pain.   I was ready to punch walls.   He was a  good dog.    See ya Buddy.  

Cop Talk

   Guys and Gals who carry the shield talk shop when they get together.  It's just what they do.  The general Motoring Public hasn't a clue what the Emergency Services deal with.   EMS, Fire, cops, medical examiner, 911 Dispatchers,  hell even the tow truck drivers experience more then what John Q sees daily.  So in that thought  I was talking shop with some Feds here the other day.   One of the things discussed was how you get your calls and how screwed up it sounds vs how bad it really is or how generic the description and then how effed up it REALLY is.   Yelled at the 911 super one day when they forgot to put across a crash where the local fire was on scene for over an hour.   The Chief called us on his cell and asked when were we going to make an appearence.   Sorry pal,  911 never put it across.  Right,  I got on the phone and gave the super royal hell and asked just when they thought it would be a good time to refer the call.   

    Fed Badge said "Got you one better,  How'd you like to watching CNN and watch an incident that falls under your responsibility and nobody called you." 

   Seriously,  Ya got me.  Can't top that one.


Ya'all be careful out there.      

The Bixby Letter

    Gods Blessings on those who go in harms way.   Remember them when you're enjoying that beer.  

Paint Your Wagon

    Herve Presnell played Rotten Luck Willie in the movie.  You may remember him from "Saving Private Ryan."   He was also a trained Singer.   Enjoy his range.  

Life on Mars

   One of my favorite scenes.  I've been accused of being Gene Hunt.  ;) 

Kal's Gram Remembered

Kal has had a bit of a rough year. Lost his one gram a bit ago and his dad's Mum just passed here. Look in on him when you can. He's a Good Joe. For Gram.

Road Trip

Come O Dark Thirty on Tuesday, I'm heading to Indy for an Instructor Conference. Meanwhile all the koolkids are at the NRA Annual Meeting in St Louis (hate you'all). S'okay, I get to have lunch/dinner with Brigid, Tamara, and perhaps Roberta X: The Adventures Of... . Be interesting to be seen with three Scandihoveen Shield Maidens. You can bet there will be weapons present, Sharp as well as blunt. ;) You'all behave while I'm gone.

Health and Wellness

Seems me and Lawdog share some common health issues.

Have engaged the services of a Personal Trainer for the exercise portion of my personal pennance, I can honestly Say He is Cheerful, Motivating, and a very Competent trainer.

Can I say how much I hate him.

He has me on three different programs, Chest, Shoulders and arms, and Legs. I have no problem with the muscle part of it. He has added yoga and some Cardio program that takes from Insanity and other programs that equal up to a level of hell that rivals Dante's. To say I am sore the next day doesn't approach what I have felt the morning after. Runners talk about the high they get from it. I'm not buying it. My high left a long time ago. Having said all that I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.


Get out there and do it.

Degrees of Heat

Note to Self.

When ordering at a Thai Resturant, ask to see the MSDS sheet for the Stuff you are about to consume. I've eaten Korean, Szechuan Chinese, Habanero's and other assorted Hot Dishes but this went right through the Scoville Scale (http://www.chilliworld.com/FactFile/Scoville_Scale.asp), out the other side and right into Industrial Toxic Waste. Sweet Baby Jesus, and they seemed like such nice people too.

Stupid Busy

Febuary must have saved up all the bad ju-ju for wednesday. A cascading series of events piled up and just dumb things kept happening. Staff wasn't keeping the team updated, we were not getting timely info and the balls were dropping like greased manhole covers. I had calmed down by the afternoon but about midmorning I was ready to commit murder. We weren't the only ones having a bad day and the other section had its comedy of errors rolling just like us. The end of day was greatly appreciated butthen the e-missles started flying. The culmination was EVERYBODY coming in on Saturday Morning for a meeting/asschewing. I called the other Team Chief and we discussed it. I was prepared to tell my team to stay home and show up in jeans with my coffee cup. Just to make a point, We had a Bad day, Nobody died. Team Sergeant and I will work on fixing it. Don't be an Ass and be "Stupid Busy". Big Green has a habit of this, Reservists not so much as We are One OLDER and Two used to working with folks to get them to fix themselves, either that or be fired. We decided to have a Wait and See attitude. Seems he has calmed down and we are having a Team Leader meeting later this week to address lessons learned. You can always learn from experience even when they are bad ones.



Thomas Edison once Said "I didn't fail to invent the light Bulb 2000 Times, I figured out 2000 ways it didn't work".

Now Get your ass Back in the Game.

A Horse

This is in response to a Laura B. post. You hafta be old enough to understand. ;) Kudos to a certain Redhead who told me how to link it. ;)

Adversity

Locked myself out of the car Sunday. Went to lunch. Knew right where the keys were, In the trunk. Which I remembered just as I was slamming the lid. The spare set, in the trunk as well. No reason to all knoted up, it was in a secure area. Wasn't gonna get towed and not ticketed as well. Why the "What the Hell"Attitude?

I'm not on final/takeoff and lost an engine. I don't have a unit in contact and no commo. I'm not rolling on a reported dwelling fire with Entrapment. Seriously in a scale of one to ten with Ten being the end of time as we know it. It didn't even register. So when the Car don't start, the kid left you on empty when he/she returned the wheels, The boss just dumped a no notice tomorrow suspense on you, keep it in mind that the shit could be lot worse.

You are what you do when it counts. Now go handle it.


That is all.

Tetsubo

Oh Sweet Potato Pie, Me wants. Could you imagine rolling in on a fight call with one of these? That's Larry Correia from Monster Hunters International in that Pic. He's 6' 5". The Club's half again as long as he is. 'Course I'd hafta go with the laminated armor for authenticity but hey What the Hell. ;)