Tragedy and Pain

I guess I'm going to have to post personal stuff again.  In doing so, I am not asking for anything.

Those of you who have blogs that I read daily and keep close tabs on their hit counters may have noticed that I haven't been visiting for the last couple of days.  I thought I would post the reason just so everyone knows why should they care.

Warthog Control suffered a devastating fire.  I lost both ham radio base radios.  Probably all of my books, both of my laptops, some records like tax info and such and most sad and devastating of all.  My sweet Selena died due to smoke inhalation.  My youngest daughter and her boyfriend discovered her body in one of her favorite places in the home.

Rest in Peace my dear, sweet friend.  I love you and I miss you.  Posting may be lighter than usual for a while.

Spring

You all know what that means.  It's time for the Spring preparedness post.

If you don't already have one of these, now is a good time to go get one.  It's $30 spent that could save your life.

Now is also a really good time to see to your emergency supplies of food, water, pet food, meds and these kinds of things.  You might also want to take your pet carry piece to the range and shoot off your carry ammo and replace it with new.  Clean your mags and check your springs while you're at it.  An ounce of prevention and all.

Change your smoke and carbon monoxide detector batteries.  Might as well look into simple stuff like changing your watch batteries and maybe having the insides cleaned.  These things don't run on dilithium crystals yet.

This is a really good time of the year to look into Ham Radio too.  Your local club will probably be running Ham in a Day classes.  It's a fun hobby and a great public service too.  Look into SkyWarn training while you're at it.  It's free and it helps the community be safer.

Once you get the radios and antennas, the hobby costs nothing.  Although my antennas aren't very far off the ground, I have already had a contact on 10 meters with a Nevada station.  You can talk around the world with not a lot of fancy equipment.

Now is the time to plan for the bad weather season.  It's coming and it's not going to skip over you because you didn't take some time to prepare.  Do it now, save yourself some pain later.

What's Up With The Labels?

I'm at a loss to understand this label thing.  Those who would have everyone be equal (Liberals) are always saying that it's wrong to label people.  In this, I can usually agree.  There was a line of dialog in the movie Gettysburg, I don't remember it verbatim so I shall paraphrase.  A man should be known for his own qualities, not for the qualities of his forefathers.  This trend of labeling people gives far too much focus to what a person may be instead of the more important issue of WHO a person may be.

Let me turn to music for 2 fantastic examples of this.  Freddie Mercury from Queen and Rob Halford from Judas Priest.  2 of the best lead singers in rock.  Excellent musicians and song writers.  I love both bands.  Both men are gay.  I don't care.  It does nothing to change the fact that both bands were excellent and set trends that can only be hoped for and probably never achieved.  Damn, how I miss Freddie Mercury's vocals and curse AIDS for taking him from us.

Listen to Liberals speak on how wrong it is to label people.  Now, step back and watch as they do it.  Everybody seems to have to be something such as, African-American or Latin-American or LGBT or feminist or metrosexual (whatever the hell that is) or a "teabagger" or something.  Why does everyone have to have a label?  Why does everything have to be labeled?

Can't we just be human and be happy with that?  Despite all of our flaws and imperfections, why can't we just be human and understand that sometimes humans don't agree and that's ok.  It doesn't matter that I dislike Obama because he's a muslim supporting traitor that obviously hates American freedom.  You can like him all you want, I don't give a damn.  Don't try to hang some stupid label on me because of it.  We disagree and that's ok.  Name calling is not required or welcome.

Yes, I've done plenty of name calling on this blog.  Yes, I'm probably going to wind up being a hypocrite and still calling people names.  Yes, I disagree with everything the liberals are trying to do to destroy this great Republic.  I guess the point I was trying to make is that labels are unnecessary.

Not only unnecessary but stupid.  Disagreeing with your obviously flawed liberal logic does not make me a racist.  Hating Barack Obama because he's a scumbag socialist, muslim supporting, traitor to the constitution does not make me a racist.  I don't give a damn what color his skin is.  His actions speak a hell of a lot louder than his skin color does.

See what happened there?  This is why I have a certain problem with blogging as regularly as some other people do.  I get angry and my brain wanders and I can't put the train back on the track.

Something stupid happened at a Washington D.C. hotel during Nixon's term as President.  Since it happened at the Watergate Hotel, it was called the Watergate scandal.  Now, everything stupid that happens has to be a ______gate.  Why?  It's winter time in the Northern hemisphere.  During the winter, it snows (I know that's obvious but I'm trying to make it easier on the liberals to understand).  Sometimes, it snows a lot, welcome to winter.  So why is every snowfall event that drops over a couple inches of snow labelled as "snowmageddon?  How freaking stupid is that?  It's just snow, we get that in winter, get over it.  Now they actually want to name snowstorms?  Are you fucking kidding me?  Why?  I suppose the next big rain event will be labelled as a rainpocalypse?  Get over yourselves, it rained a lot.  That happens.

Too much of anything can be a bad thing.  This labeling shit has gone way too far.

Thank goodness, I finally got to the point I was trying to make before I got mad.  I now return you to your regularly scheduled coffee.

TO BOLDLY GO

Yesterday, I got up out of bed to discover that Leonard Nimoy had passed away.  The geek universe has lost a bright star.  This made me ponder many things. 

People who tolerate my sporadic posting habits and visit on a regular basis (you are appreciated) know that I very rarely post things of a personal nature.  This post will contain some very personal thoughts.

I have spent my night thinking of the people who have left us.  Gene Roddenberry, his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Rick Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Jeff Conaway, Michael O’Hare and so many more, big time actors like John Wayne, Rock Hudson, Clark Gable, Dean Martin, Gregory Peck, John Colicos, Lorne Greene and now, Leonard Nimoy, my father, who passed beyond the rim in late October and my mother who joined him in early January.

It occurred to me, early this morning that most of my childhood heroes have left us.  Yes, my parents were heroes to me.  There are few heroes left from my childhood.  Many of the actors from the original Battlestar Galactica remain.  William Shatner, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig are all still around.  On the odd chance they ever see this; I give them thanks for making my childhood a better world.  For teaching me that I should never give up, never surrender, that there is always a way.  These are lessons that I was able to learn while spending an hour in front of a television watching Star Trek.

The death of one’s childhood is nothing to take lightly.  I believe that our inner child fuels our imagination and our creativity.  It allows us to escape the doldrums of our so called adult lives and lets us be free if only for a few moments.  As a person from an older generation, my heroes had class and style.  They were well dressed and well spoken.  They weren’t in a tabloid every week and they didn’t act like trash.  They were role models that shaped a generation.  I miss them.  No one today measures up.

I miss my childhood heroes and I weep for today’s generation who will never know them.  I think this world would be a far better place if they had.

You did indeed live long and prosper Mr. Nimoy.  In ways you may not have been aware of, you touched the lives of so many.  May your lessons never be forgotten.

Asking The Wrong Question

Here we are at the beginning of winter.  Warthog Control just had it's very first snowfall of 2014's winter.  One accident on US 131 had more slide offs than law enforcement could count.  A bad thing with a sad component, it happens every year.  It will happen again.

I think the number 1 cause of this is that drivers in the wintertime are asking the wrong question.  They ask, how fast can I go?  Wrong question, what they should be asking is:  How quick can I stop?  When the roads get bad, they get far too concerned with the go and they forget about the stop.

MDOT and the MSP always say, take it slow in ice and snow.  Leave early and slow down to a speed that you know you can stop in a hurry if need be.

Cause For Celebration

Today, before I left for work, I checked my mail.  Nothing special on most days.  Usually a few additions to the list of people or businesses that want my money for one reason or another.  Today was a bit different.

Today, there was a thick white envelope.  I noticed the unmistakeable elegance of a female's handwriting.  I put it in my truck and left for work. 

When I arrived, I took care of all the little stuff I have to do.  Calling dispatch to let them know I was on duty and available for trouble calls.  Making sure the cruiser still had gas and oil.  Getting the laptop started up on the computer stand and preparing the reports that will have to be filed by email after the shift is over.  Running into the bathroom because it's a 1 hour drive and those damn...no double damn high blood pressure meds would have to include a diuretic.  For those of you who don't take meds like that, believe me.  Giving a coffee addict a diuretic should be classified as cruel and unusual punishment after an hour in the truck.

Once all that was all said and done, I remembered that fat white envelope.  I grabbed it and put it in the cruiser.  What the hell, I thought.  Like all other security officers, I always pray for an uneventful shift as paperwork is the enemy.

I made an initial patrol of my assigned area and found quiet so, with understandable curiosity, I ripped the envelope open.

THE BOOK OF BARKLEY

Thank you so very much my blog friend that I so much hope to actually meet someday.  I will love and cherish this book for the rest of my days. 

Of course, tonight is now double citation night for any poor soul who displays the lack of judgement and good sense to make me put it down and get out of this cruiser.

Independence Day

Happy 4th.

Reasonable

Yeah, let's talk about reasonable.  Plenty of folks out there like Moms Demand Action for Prozac and Box Wine in America and Mayors Future Felons Against Illegal Guns, keep saying they want reasonable gun control.  Let's take a second to look at that.

One of the bulwarks of their argument is how the founders never saw the coming of these evil black death machines they like to refer to as Assault Rifles, even though they're not.  Well shit, they never saw cars, printers or the internet coming either.  They did say once that: the power of the sword, say the minority..., is in the hands of Congress. My friends and countrymen, it is not so, for The powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their swords and every terrible implement of the soldier are the birthright of Americans. The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments but where, I trust in God, it will always remain, in the hands of the people (Tench Coxe).  Jefferson said that you should make your gun your constant companion on your walks.

They keep trying to say the first amendment is regulated because you can't yell fire in a crowded movie house.  I hate to tell you this but, yes, you can.  It's stupid but you can do it.

The bullshit about well regulated militias meaning they can pass whatever kind of gun control they want is crap too.  In the days of the founding, well regulated meant kept in proper working order.  Suck on that anti's.

There's one big flaw to all of their arguments and that flaw in their arguments is unique to the second amendment.  It's all in the last 4 words of the amendment.  Shall not be infringed.  You can't play compare and contrast with the second amendment because no other amendment carries that language.

The gun control fanatics love saying things like, I have a right to feel safe.  Well sparky, actually, you don't have a right to "feel" anything.  Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are all well and good and will work wonderfully when the government stops trying to regulate what they think it should mean but remember, it says, pursuit of happiness.  You can chase it all you want but nothing guarantees that you're going to catch it.  Along with a right to life comes a responsibility to defend said life.  Liberty has almost always had to be defended with guns.

You want reasonable?  Then let's get the federal government reigned back in so that it has only it's constitutionally provided powers.  You gun control people?  If you think you'd be happier in a world where guns are outlawed, there are several countries on earth that do that now, move there for your pursuit of happiness and leave me the hell alone.

Snyderholes

This is a little phenomenon that I've been seeing around my home state of Michigan for a while.  I was hoping to calm down before I posted something but every time I see one of those damn signs about it, I just get madder.

The local libtards have put up a website about this and have little signs all over the place saying "Thanks for the potholes Gov. Snyder".

I'm going to make this as simple as I can, knowing that should a libtard actually read this, larger construction paper and brighter crayons or it's just going to thunder over their little heads like the Blue Angels on a flyby.

YOU LIVE IN MICHIGAN YOU STUPID FUCKS, WE GET POTHOLES EVERY YEAR!

It's not Governor Snyder, it wasn't Governor Granholm.  It's Mother Nature dumbass.

You can't politicize a normal event.

Fred Phelps

Well, he died today.  I guess he'd been sick for a long time and it finally killed him.  That leaves me with only 1 thing to say.

BURN IN HELL YOU VILE HATE MONGER

Spring...Kinda

Well, meteorological spring anyway.  This means it's about time for me to write the yearly readiness post so. here it is.

It's that time of the year to check all your batteries.  Not just the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors you may have but the portable radio you should have, along with the flashlights.

So many people think of preparedness in light of a zombie apocalypse but since we have already had that (how do you think Obumbles got re-elected) but it encompasses so much more than that.  Just ask the folks in Moore, Oklahoma. 

If you don't already have one, now is a perfect time to get a weather alert radio.  Now is also a good time to find your local ham radio club and get in to a ham in a day class and get in on the fun of amateur radio.

Don't wait, the weather certainly won't.

I Haz a Sad

I would have written this yesterday but, I couldn't.  I'm going to have some trouble with it today.  The best place to start is by reading this.  Yes, I posted a simple note with condolences.  I wanted to say something soothing and profound but I sat there looking at the blank comment box through tears.

The loss of your furry companion is something that no non pet owner will ever understand.  It's not just an animal.  It's a member of your family as much as a child or a wife.  In some ways, even moreso.  The loyalty, the companionship, no human can match that.  There's no judgement, no derision just love.

Reading something like that makes me contemplate the simple fact that I will lose my precious kitty Selena some day and that is a day that I dread because I know that I will not handle it as well as some might.

All I can think of is this:

"The past taunts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us and our lives slip away, moment by moment. Lost in the vast terrible in between. But there is still time to seize that one last fragile moment." Emperor Turhan - Babylon 5

All we have are moments and we have to luxuriate in each one of them because they are precious and they will never happen again.