Conversation…

And stimulation…

JD and one of his friends flew over for lunch earlier this week, so Lawdog, Phlegmmy, Peter, Dot and I met them at our favorite BBQ joint…

We DIDN’T do this…

conversation

We actually talked about a variety of subjects over lunch, came back to the house and chatted some more…

These stimulated the conversation…

Show and tell

We talked writing, shooting, law enforcement, movies, military, families, told jokes and killed a couple of hours…

It was refreshing, we laughed a lot, and we will do it again. This is NOT something you can do over a cell phone or on facebook…

Of course all of us are ‘old farts’, so we’re not afraid to actually hold real conversations. Matter of fact, we ‘probably’ prefer that, rather than hiding behind a keyboard…

 

TBT…

Some more from my step-grandfather’s stash of magazines…

I love this cover, not only for the old school art, but for the ‘theme’. Once again the cowboy saves the day, and gets the girl! 🙂

Auto trade cover Oct 1935 1

The article on the ’36 Caddy is pretty interesting, and in depth for the day. Of interest, all the articles contain drawings rather than photos.  This was also the first year of the “L” head V-8 for Caddies and came in two displacements and two HP ratings. 322CI/125HP, and 346/135HP versions. That wasn’t much oomph to push a 4200lb car back in the day, but they weren’t speed demons either, with a top speed of  90 MPH.Caddy ad 1936

The two door on the right side can be turned into one helluva hot rod, as a friend of mine did in California… I don’t have any pictures, but it’s a beautiful black 36 with a 510CI Chevy Rat Motor and all the tricks…

Posted in TBT

Book pimping…

DaddyBear has another book out!

Click the link to go to it, for delivery on the 26th!!!

As one of his alpha readers, I really enjoyed the variety he’s got in this one!!!

Tom has a gift for storytelling, and puts some nice little ‘twists’ into his stories. I think y’all will enjoy them as much as I did, and it will ‘encourage’ Tom to finish the follow-on to Via Serica, his second book.

Hint, hint, Tom… 😀

Plus Tom is just flat good folks. I know him and have enjoyed a number of conversations with him over a number of topics, his interests are wide-ranging, and on point. He’s another veteran who, contrary to the mantra of the left, is quietly successful, family oriented, isn’t going off the deep end tomorrow…

Sigh…

A little humor…

Since everything appears to be going to crap, and I don’t feel like jumping into those frays… My BP and all that…

MURPHY’S Other 15 Laws

  1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
  1. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
  1. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
  1. A day without sunshine is like, well, night.
  1. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
  1. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don’t.
  1. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
  1. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something  right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it  wrong. Oh HELL yes… sigh
  1. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end, someone from Texas would be stupid enough to try to pass them.
  1. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.
  1. The things that come to those who wait may be the things left by those who got there first.
  1. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
  1. Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.
  1. God gave you toes as a device for finding furniture in the dark.
  1. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of twelve people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Survived…

The party and Phlemfest 2016!!!  Peter has been commenting on it when he had time, HERE. And so has Lawdog, HERE.

Me?

I’ve been slaving over a hot smoker… starting at 0610 Saturday morning…

PF 1

1500 Saturday afternoon… FINALLY done…PF 2

The last slice of  brisket… It lasted all of about 15 minutes…PF 3

Remember all that food from Saturday’s picture???

We ran out… AD and his lovely lady made a food run and she kicked me out of my own kitchen and made this lasagna appear! 🙂

Which lasted about 20 minutes…PF 4

People were down to scrabbling through the desserts, munchies, etc. for food…

I can now say the house has been well and truly broken in! And not a single visit by the local constabulary…

🙂

I’m gonna go take a nap now…

Aviation Art…

2

Flight Lieutenant Donald J. M. Blakeslee of 133 Eagle Squadron exits his Spitfire MkVb at the Lympne airfield after his fourth mission of 19th of August 1942. On this date, during Operation Jubilee – the joint British-Canadian amphibious assault against German forces on the French coast at Dieppe, RAF Fighter Command flew hundreds of sorties in support of the landings.

Among the RAF units active during the day were the three all American volunteer Eagle squadrons, who between them accounted for 10 enemy aircraft destroyed, 5 probable and 12 damaged, Blakeslee himself being credited with two destroyed and two probables.

I’m not sure…

There is enough food to feed everybody tomorrow… The gang isn’t all here yet, and stuff is disappearing! 🙂

Food 1

Already had to make a run to the store for more bread and sandwich meat and cheese!!!Food 2

And the party’s not even starting until tomorrow…

By the time you read this, the brisket will already be on the smoker, and I’ll probably ONLY have 7 or 8 hours to go…

Thanks to Phelgmmy for pulling us together!!!

The Code…

We were taught this during SERE school in 1973.

 Click The Code link below for the video…

The Code

Col. Carlyle Harris was a prisoner of war for 2,871 days during the Vietnam War.He is credited with introducing ‘tap code,’ a form of communication that he and his fellow brothers in arms used to relay secret messages.This is his story as told by Airman Magazine

Posted by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday, January 29, 2016

The actual code was a 5X5 square of letters. The missing letter was K, for which C was inserted.

David Pride has a page that discusses it HERE.

And our folks are still taught this today…

TBT…

From the WAY back machine…

My step-grandfather was an auto mechanic for about 50 years, starting in the early-20s… 1920s…

Chevy dealer cover Nov 1928 1

He worked for a dealer out of Chicago for about 10 years, then ended up at Studebaker, working in the factory as a ‘check’ mechanic.

Bling ad 1928

Who knew they had ‘bling’ back in the 1920s??? 🙂

And your ‘new’ car didn’t have a heater, but they’d sell you one…

losee heater ad 1

Back in those days you could actually WORK on your car… Grandpa wouldn’t touch a car newer than 1967, he said they’d gotten stupid with all the ‘crap’ on them.

Of course at that time, he was in his 90’s and still puttering with cars. He was still driving and loved his 1954 Bel Air…

It looked like this one, and was the same color. It had a 283 and a Powerglide transmission in it. His favorite saying when I’d ride with him and complain about the heat in the summer was 2-55 was good enough…

Anybody old enough to know what that means???

Continue reading

Posted in TBT

Hmmm…

One wonders why THIS hasn’t gotten any MSM coverage…

Gen. Joseph Votel, the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and future commander of U.S. Central Command, sent a letter in early December to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter requesting that the executive branch stop disclosing details of special operator missions for political gain.

“I am concerned with increased public exposure of SOF activities and operations, and I assess that it is time to get our forces back into the shadows,” Votel wrote, reports Foreign Policy. Votel added that discussing operations makes it more difficult for commandos to conduct those missions, and he “requested the department support him with an approach to avoid public discussion of SOF activities,” the official said, paraphrasing the brief memo.

Despite the fact that publicizing special operations mission details and tactics can get operators killed and risks mission failure, the Obama White House has been quick to release details of SOF activities. The most famous example is the raid to kill Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Then Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, severely criticized the White House for releasing details about the raid.

Gates, in his memoir, blasts the administration for discussing “techniques, tactics, and procedures the SEALs had used” in the raid that killed bin Laden — despite promises not to divulge details of the operation. The White House and CIA “just couldn’t wait to brag and to claim credit,” Gates wrote in “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.”

Recently, the White House announced that approximately 200 special operators were being deployed to the Syrian theater to fight the Islamic State. Secretary of Defense Carter stated to Congress, this “puts everyone on notice. You don’t know at night who is going to be coming into the window.”

Congressional leaders heavily criticized the Obama administration for leaking classified material to Hollywood for the production of the film, Zero Dark Thirty, which detailed the Bin Laden raid. The White House said they would ‘look into’ these allegations but no public conclusions regarding this matter were made. Former CIA Director Leon Panetta was accused of publicly released classified information about the raid during a private awards ceremony.

Couldn’t agree more… The administration AND DOD need to stop putting this crap out there. And people need to stop writing books about what they did. They are giving away the keys to the castle, so to speak…

h/t JP