Some days…

It just doesn’t pay to chew through the straps…

Planned to get stuff done yesterday, and that went straight south. About the only thing I accomplished was to finish getting the back yard mowed. But of course I ‘missed’ a Obi-bomb… So had to wash down the lawnmower and the tennis shoes. Dunno ‘what’ that dog has been eating, but dayum!!!

Talked with an old shipmate today, and we got on the subject of ‘odd’ habits… One does develop some strange ones in the military. Since we were both flight crew, and stood ready alerts, we laughed about the red (hot)/blue (cold) bags for TADs, and keeping them basically packed all the time. Then there was always keeping the flight suit ‘loaded’ when we had the ready. Nothing like getting to the base and NOT having your ID card to get your attention… Especially when you were supposed to be in the air in 45 minutes.

Funny how some of those carry over, depending on where one lives. Being in North Texas, and on the dry line, I keep a pair of pants ready to go with everything except the phone and pistol, when I go to bed. One never knows when one will have to get up/get out in a hurry. And those other items are in a specific place, ready to hand.

That’s one ‘trick’ I picked up back in the 70s as a volunteer firefighter, after I drove a fire truck to a fire in shorts/T-shirt/bunker gear, with no license in sight. It was still sitting at home, along with my wallet. Of course that was the night we got followed back to the station by a state trooper… Sigh…

That goes to food choices too… Emergency foods are always stuffed back in the back of the pantry and there are No Ramen noodles… NEVER… But vienna sausages are fine, as is chunky peanut butter, crackers, and plenty of rice and dried beans. I think there is even a can of Spam somewhere in there… 🙂 And plenty of coffee!

Any ‘odd’ habits folks are willing to own up to? 🙂

Comments

Some days… — 28 Comments

  1. Yup. Always have the pants to hand, in the same place, next to the bed. Learned that one after a mortar attack, when I showed up at headcount, in full battle rattle, wearing my shorts backwards. Wallet, keys, multitool, and lighter always go in the same place on the dresser for the same reason.

    Always shut all the blinds/curtains when it starts getting dark. This is from a serial killer stalking the rural area where I grew up. The “.22 caliber killer” was shooting people through their living room windows at night from the roads back in the 70’s. I will admit that the light discipline came in handy later (deters rocket/mortar targeting), and I absolutely hate it when I can’t make the house look completely dark from the outside.

    • > showed up at headcount, in full battle rattle, wearing my shorts backwards.
      Heh. We had a guy who became legend because of doing an emergency heart catheterization wearing only wet jockey shorts (and lead). This guy rode his bike everywhere and all the time. So one night he’s the on-call guy for the cardiac cath lab and it’s pouring rain. Our hero gets paged for a STEMI (major heart attack) en route to hospital. He hops on his trusty bike and arrives at the lab soaked to the skin. As the techs are prepping the patient our hero goes into the empty lab next door to change into dry scrubs, put on his lead-shielding smock, followed by the ritual of the sterile scrub, gown and mask, etc.

      Well, no one bothered to inform the patient about this nice orderly plan. Patient codes on the table, presumably from an acute worsening of his coronary blockage – they gotta try to get a wire past the lesion and stent the thing. Doc charges in from the next lab, wearing only wet jockey shorts. The nurse throws his lead vest on him and he manages to get sterile gloves on. No scrub, no gown nor mask, no lead thyroid shield, etc.

      The patient lived. Doc never did live down the story.

      Back to the topic at hand. I do the light discipline thing too, but only because I don’t like having people (that I can’t see) able to observe me without my knowledge). No serial killer (that I know of anyway!) where I grew up.

  2. I leave my previous day’s pants by the bed, fully loaded and ready to put back on, and change stuff over to fresh pants in the morning. If I were really with it I’d change them over before I went to bed, but [shrug].

    I walk out the door in the morning, I have my daily load-out with me. But I’ve seen people who came back home and proceeded to shuck shoes, keys, wallet, change, watch, and gun, then have to put it all back when they have to go outside again. I just never could see the point of all that extra work.

    Go bags are on a shelf by the door. Not in the basement, closet, under the bed, or OMG WTF did it get off to?

    All my keys are on a keyring. Well, two of them, one for vehicles, one for buildings, so I can leave the truck running while I unlock a gate, etc. My wife keeps all her keys on a hook in a closet; I found this out when I needed the truck one day, and she’d driven it to work. So I swung by, got the truck, and parked her car in the same spot. Then I got a call that afternoon; she was stranded at work because she had brought only the truck key with her. She still insists on doing this sort of thing…

    • Yesterday’s pants, complete with load-out, on the floor by the bed is a habit that I developed years ago, living alone – my wife hates it. I am glad that I can now point to at least one other person on the planet with the same habit. 🙂

      My daily-use back-pack has at least two knives (in addition to the Leatherman on my belt), expansion tools for said Leatherman, copies of all the keys that I might need, emergency cash, a flashlight, a phone charger, energy bars, a bottle of water, and CDs of recovery, utilities, and documentation for all the computer hardware associated with my current contract.

      The hidden storage pocket in my car has all the above, along with a first-aid & trauma kit, and a persuader of the lead-launching variety. This is illegal in my locale, so pretend I didn’t say it.

      Most of my family think that I am nuts – until they have urgent need of something that I always carry with me.

  3. I still live like a minute man. I also stand-to before dawn as a matter of annoying habit.

    Keep the faith, live like a patriot and always keep a little extra (of everything) available.

  4. Pants are always on a hook in the closet, pockets loaded with wallet & keys, belt & holster in place. Spare keys for both trucks in my briefcase. Identical ‘go’ bags in both trucks.

  5. I am like most of the above. Pants pockets loaded with what ever, holster on belt and socks and shoes ready to slip on. When I change pants, belt and pocket stuff go on and in before I put them on. Just old habits from the Navy days. And I carry my bills in my pocket, not my wallet. Again, from the Navy days when you had to hang your wallet on your pants.

    • Speaking of the Navy. Watch out for the heavy rolls in the head. if you all flush at the same time you better try to outrun the brown wave of doom.

  6. All- Thanks! That makes me feel better! 🙂 And yes CP,I do that too…LOL

    Posted from my iPhone.

  7. Pants with keys/wallet/knife, shoes, weapon, flashlight, and a set of Howard Leight amplified range earmuffs next to the bed. The earmuffs (the kind that shut off amplification when triggered by sounds above 82dB) take about two seconds to don and activate; makes it very easy to hear any sound inside or outside the house plus provides “just in case” hearing protection if I ever have to discharge a weapon in the house.

    Bugout bag where I can grab it as I pass by enroute to door (and it goes with me on road trips) plus a “get home” bag is always in the car.

    • I also keep the range muffs & night glasses on top of the gun safe that is bolted to the nightstand which is bolted to the floor. Only would add that I have black tape over the on/off LED on this pair.

      Glad to hear I am not the only one.

  8. Back in college, I worked as a radiological control tech at a local nuclear facility. Occupational hazard when routinely handling radioactive contamination samples was occasionally getting radioactive “stuff” (hence the term “crapped-up”) where you didn’t want it, i.e.fingers. I (and everyone else) quickly developed a habit of washing my hands BEFORE I used the restroom. No one wants his junk crapped-up, nor do you want to decontaminate someone else’s junk. I got a strange look from my roommate when the habit carried over until I explained why I was doing that.

  9. Odd habit I picked up in heavy industry (I worked as an engineer in a foundry and years before that at a truck plant) – and nothing got the prickles up my neck going like thinking that there was 35,000 lbm of molten steel in a ladle that MAY be on the move behind you…
    So, factory or not, whenever I walk through a threshold into a much wider expanse, or come into a tee or + intersection in spaces of large racks of stuff (like at big-box stores or Home Despot,) I whip my head both ways left/right. “Where are the bridge cranes at work?” was from the foundry days, but I was also checking for forklifts in motion, or other machinery or obstructions. Is there somebody driving a ‘something’ who can’t see me?
    Walk, stop, left/right, we’re clear, walk across the corridor…

  10. Crackers, cheese whiz in a can, a jerky (lots of home made jerky). I used to stuff my locker on the ships I was on with them.

  11. Loaded pants on a hook by the door. Large caliber rifle at hand in the warm months in case the grizzly bear shows up. Go bag on the chest at the foot of the bed.

  12. From March through October, tornado bag loaded and ready. House-defense device beside the bed, so I can roll out (literally) and grab it but it is not in an obvious location. Always, always stop just inside an automatic gate and let it close before going on – so I don’t get screamed at by the airport manager, even if I’m not at an airport. Certain things in my work bag, always in the same relative positions no matter which work bag I’m taking in (waterproof or nice-looking). Pants left in the same place on the floor relative to the bed, so I can grab and go if needed.

    Always, always wear appropriate clothing for the weather, no matter where I am going. Yes, I have cold-weather dress-clothes, because (if the plane goes burp and we land out) if I’m in a wreck and have to walk or stand around, even my church dresses are warm enough and long enough that I won’t get into real trouble for a few hours.

    A week of non-perishable food divided into two cabinets.

  13. Did a lot of the ones listed above, plus I always recited to myself before I took off this old Navy mantra, “Spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch!” But over the last few years have had to add to that, “ears(hearing aids) and phone”! As an EMT/Vol. Fireman,The “uniform” was always loaded and hung on a valet chair by the bed.
    Only thing left to control after that beeper went off at 0230 was the sphincter!

  14. pocket knife, space pen and 2-3 tissues in left pants pocket, keys in right, and (large) pocketbook in front of dresser so it can be grabbed on way out door, if needed.

    I have a go bag in the car with some food and water in case I get stuck someplace, or if we are traveling, could live out of the car, (or camp) comfortably for a couple of days.

    Ya mean not everyone does this??? 🙂

  15. I keep a flashlight and a pair of sneakers by my bed ever since I deployed to the Arabian Gulf (and that was in 1996).

  16. I still get a jolt when I realize I don’t have my govt. ID.
    That I haven’t needed it since Nov. ’00 is irrelevant.
    Another jolt realizing I need to make a fast U-turn ’cause I don’t have that big gold shield with the blue enamel U.S. on it and can’t cross certain bridges.

  17. All- Thanks, and I never thought about ears/eyepro in the house… Adding that to the list! And I’m glad to see I’m not the ONLY one with ‘strange’ habits! 🙂

    Posted from my iPhone.

  18. I always park my vehicle by backing into space so I just drive off when leaving. Keep a string backpack behind my driver’s seat that has the usual kit I keep in case I have to hoof it. Windbreaker (ponchos offer more protection but they sure make you stand out), COMFORTABLE walking shoes, multi-tool, small flashlight, liter bottle of water, and a lightweight 8 x 8 plastic tarp in case it starts to rain really hard. A SAK knife is always on my person, usually in my front right pocket.

  19. Don’t do the pre-loaded pants thing (shorts or sweats, depending on temps) but there’s a fully loaded shoot-me-first vest hanging from the chair (IFAK stuff, spare AR mag, Surefire and a LED headlamp, set of keys to EVERYTHING, charged burner phone, usual EDC gear, etc.- I use it like quick-on loadout gear), a MURSE (like Tam’s TURSE) with a compact 9, mags, photocopies of DL, agency retired ID, insurance info, contacts, spare eyeglasses, some cash, etc. in it, the AR leans against the chair with the e-muffs wrapped around it, sling rubber-banded, mag in (check out the Hornady Rapid Rack – great accessory).

    Vehicles are always “combat parked” and never parked in front of or near a building entrance (took a while to teach my Willing Accomplice to do those). Bug-out bags are in the hall closet, on top of the bug out box (extra food, folding tent, folding water jugs, wool blankets, etc. to get through 5-7 days), get home bag in each vehicle,

    RE: comment from The Patent Guy – I learned early to NEVER go straight through a doorway – go through at an angle, immediately step to the side to get out of the funnel and survey quickly. You do wind up bumping into a lot of people when going into stores…..

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