Things…

Posted on by May 10, 2023
Sailors don’t talk about-
The culture shock of coming home from the ship and having to relearn how to be a part of society.
The moments you spend re-examining yourself in the mirror because you forgot what you really looked like out of the uniform.
The bruises, cuts and scars from working in the harshest environments and conditions.
Wearing normal clothes is the most comfortable feeling on earth. Even the jeans you barely fit into anymore.
Getting sick every time you come home because you are able to eat civilized food again and drink your favorite drinks.
Getting dressed with the lights on.
Amazed at how you lose so much weight without trying.
Having to sleep with a fan on because the room you are in now is too silent.
Suddenly being thankful for literally everything you own and experience in a normal day.
Showering without shoes on.
The water is a normal hot, and doesn’t switch to ice cubes then to burning steam before losing pressure. And no water rationing hours!
Folding laundry while sitting on the bed.
General Quarters! Man your battle stations!
Not being able to sleep because we are catching jets and you have to make sure that you hear them catch the wire… retract. The pilot is safe.
Not being able to sleep because you’re no longer in rough seas. The bed is still and the room isn’t moving. Its quiet.
Man overboard. They didn’t say it was a drill this time. Everyone gets to their stations a little quicker to make sure their guys are good.
Evening prayer.
You probably don’t notice how often you hit your head anymore.
“Medical emergency in compartment…” silence. Do I know anyone in that compartment? I hope they are okay, nothing major.
I don’t remember the last time I was alone in a room for more than 10 minutes.
Fire, Fire, Fire!…. These things are always catching on fire.
Coming home in a different season. The grass is green now. They harvested all the corn fields.
Oh! She had her baby, bless her heart.
Wow. It’s been years…where was I?
“First call. First call to colors.”
Coming home from all of this is so hard yet so easy.
Author unknown.

16 years…

Posted on by May 10, 2023

Sixteen years ago I posted this-

I’m new to this whole arena, but thought I’d give it a try. I guess I fall in the “silent majority” as we have been deemed, I’ve never sought publicity, sued anyone for spilling my coffee, sure as hell ain’t a movie star; well, you get the drift…

I’m mid-50’s have a decent job, two decent kids trying hard to make their own way in the world today, and a lot of frustration with what is happening to the US of A. Being from the South, I hunt, fish, and shoot guns; so that immediately makes me one of those “rabid rednecks” to quote some out there. I did have a pickup, but it’s hard to park it where I work, so I drive a Pontiac… sure do miss the truck though… sigh…

As a retired military type, it really hurts to see the crap we are putting the folks in service through today. I lived through that in Vietnam, and I take the time to thank every Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine for their service when I get the chance. Most of the kids (I’m Southern so I can say that) are doing the best they can with what they have. They believe in the job they and others are doing in the Sandbox, and are pretty upset by the media coverage they get.

Anyway, I’m going to try this for a while and see what happens… thanks for reading and commenting…

Old NFO

Something over 5700 posts, 82,000 comments, and over 8 million views later, I’m STILL appreciative of the support from all you folks out there for reading my brain drippings!

THANK YOU!

The ‘joys’…

Posted on by May 9, 2023

Of living on the Dry Line!

For those that don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s the dividing line, also known as the Marfa Line, of hot/dry air from the west and hot/moist Gulf air meeting over the central US.

It runs from Marfa, Texas north through where we are, all the way up into Canada, especially in the spring. I haven’t seen it yet this year, but I did catch one shot of weather last year that was one continuous front from Marfa all the way up through North Dakota! And that one spawned quite a few tornadoes!!!

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So we get to ‘watch’ the weather form, a lot of the time either slightly west of us, or right on top of us. Last week, we got 2 inches of rain in less than an hour. But, the last couple of days have been ‘interesting’ to put it mildly. Severe thunderstorms were predicted to pass over us right at sunset to midnight with heavy rain/hail and gusty winds.

Welp, we certainly GOT the winds! SW at 25, gusting to 40, switching to SE at 15, gusting to 25. BUT, not a drop of rain! SSW of us got 3 inches of rain, west of us got over an inch, north of us by a couple of miles got 1-2 inches of rain.

I swear it parted and went around us, while the winds just continued to blow! And the lightning was impressive, to put it mildly. It was intracloud, and stretched at least 20 miles across the cardinal points of the compass for probably 20 minutes, alternating between east/west and north/south. Needless to say, computers and TVs were OFF!

And we’re supposed to get more ‘storms’ Thursday and Friday…

Heh…

Posted on by May 8, 2023

Maybe some folks are actually waking up to the get woke, go broke mantra…

Maybe the lessons of the Bud Light disaster are starting to sink in.

In a sign that American investors aren’t happy with the “go woke, go broke” ideas taking hold in too many corporate offices, Coca-Cola Co. shareholders last week soundly rejected three proposals pushed by leftist activists to push the company further into leftist causes.

And while Coca-Cola is hardly a paragon of conservative positions, the votes could well mean that even liberal-leaning corporations are seeing the costs to their bottom lines.

Full article HERE, from the Western Journal.

I just wonder how many other companies are now ‘rethinking’ their policies and procedures going forward after the SVB collapse, Disney’s situation, and now AB’s screwing the pooch.

More bank failures???

Posted on by May 7, 2023

First Republic (good sized regional bank) has been sold…

Regional bank stocks plunged heavily on Thursday as turmoil in the banking system continues after JPMorgan Chase’s purchase of the failed First Republic Bank.

First Republic Bank was seen as the most likely next domino to fall amid the chaos of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure about two months ago. On Monday, it was announced that the bank was being taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and sold to JPMorgan in an effort to calm markets, but now the stocks of other major regional banks are facing fresh turmoil.

From the Washington Examiner, HERE.

I know we’ve mentioned Central Bank Digital Currency before, and I’m really beginning to wonder if these ‘failures’ are a move toward 2-3 major banks that control all banking in the US…

I, for one, don’t favor that. I don’t want everything I do tracked by ‘digital’ currency, much less have someone ‘control’ what I can and can’t buy.

Am I overthinking this? What say you?

Gone shooting…

Posted on by May 6, 2023

Taught a basic pistol class yesterday, taking the folks to the range today…

Yes, at least a couple of them will probably go on to get their LTCs to be able to protect themselves, considering what is happening these days.

Gun control means hitting what one is aiming at!

Gone shooting 2

Go read the folks on the sidebar, they write GUD! 🙂

Re yet another ‘mass’ shooting in the past two weeks, does anybody beside me wonder ‘what’ is prompting these?

The ‘motivations’ seem to not get reported, screeds hidden, manifestos never published, etc. And depending on the ethnicity/background of the shooter, it quickly disappears from the media unless it ‘fits’ the left’s agenda…

Curiouser and curiouser…

Interesting take on ‘used’ EVs…

Posted on by May 5, 2023

This article comes from Britain, so take it with a grain of salt…

SOME electric vehicles (EV) models are losing their value at twice the rate of the petrol equivalents, it was claimed.

EV prices have plummeted by 39 per cent between 2020 and 2023, while petrol car value fell 30 per cent in the same period, according to Choose My Car.

Drivers have been pushed towards EVs by government initiatives intended to help reach net zero by 2050. But they risk losing thousands of pounds more than those who stick with petrol.

A driver who bought an electric BMW i3 in 2020 paid £39,000 but could only sell the car for £13,900 today, a depreciation of 64 per cent.

Full article, HERE from the Telegraph UK.

If you manage to ‘brick’ or completely discharge your battery, regardless of age, the possibility exists that it will have to be changed. How long does a Tesla battery last? Supposedly up to 200,000 miles in the US, from Motor Trend- HERE.

Now let’s look at battery costs… Found this on a Tesla site- For the Model S premium sedan, replacing a Tesla battery costs around $13,000-$20,000. Model 3 entry-level sedan and Model X premium SUV battery replacement can cost at least $13,000 and $14,000 respectively.  

And you have to add in up to $175/hr for labor… from 3 to 13 hours, depending on the car.

It may look like I’m picking on Tesla, but their information is the most available, and probably the most reliable…

When you add it the costs to charge it, both the modifications needed to ‘most’ home wiring, and now the charges being laid on public chargers and the time lost, I just cannot justify spending that much for one of them…

YMMV and all that…

Book promo…

Posted on by May 5, 2023

Grumble… scheduler didn’t again… Sorry!

First up is Holly Chism with The Schrodinger Paradox- Cataclysm

As always, click the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

The end is coming.

Unlucky jerk Tom Beadle was on watch at NASA when the collision alert sounded: a new asteroid, bigger than the dino-killer, headed for Earth. Big problem, but that’s why we have NASA, right? Except, after decades of budget cuts, NASA has no way to shove it off course. That job has to be contracted out. Will the private sector company his best friend from college works at succeed where the government option failed? Might be best to have a backup plan, just in case…

I was honored to beta read this one, highly recommended!!!

Next is Stephanie Osborn with the first book in a new series, Blood Brothers- Meetings 

The blurb-

A lone boy, orphaned by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp.

A dragon-like being, elected to the leadership of the galactic government.

What do these two beings have in common? Why would they meet in one of the most war-torn regions of Earth? And what does it mean for Earth, and the galaxy?

And last but not least, our Baen anthology is officially out! The Ross 248 Project.

The blurb-

HUMANITY’S HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE AT A NEW STAR

A bold journey into a future where humanity and its children travel to a new star where they must overcome the unexpected challenges on the exoplanets that await them—or die trying.

Traveling to the stars will be difficult, but not, perhaps, the most difficult part. What about when we get to another star? What then? Will the planets be immediately habitable? Not likely. Will those who undertook the journey be able to easily turn around and come home if they don’t find “Earth 2.0?” Almost certainly not. Therein the lies the challenge: Finding worlds that are potentially habitable and then taking the time, perhaps centuries, to make them compatible with Earth life. They will encounter mysteries and unexpected challenges, but the human spirit will endure. Join this diverse group of science fiction writers and scientists as they take up the challenge of The Ross 248 Project.

Contributors:

USAF General Steven Kwast
Patrick Chiles
Stephanie Osborn
Brent Ziarnick
Laura Montgomery
Daniel M. Hoyt & E. Marshall Hoyt
Matthew Williams
D. J. Butler
Robert E. Hampson
Monalisa Foster
J. L. Curtis
K. S. Daniels
Les Johnson & Ken Roy

I was Team And More on this one, but I have a story in it, along with some other NTTM folks and adjuncts!

TBT…

Posted on by May 4, 2023

Always a good sight! Especially after 7 hours of flying and ‘hoping’ the Nav knew what he was doing…

Bonus points if you recognize it from this perspective…

And this tool went in and out of ‘legality’ a couple of times over my career…

Answers below the fold…

Continue reading →

Posted in TBT

Good enough???

Posted on by May 2, 2023

This is always an ‘interesting’ question to ask in just about any undertaking, but I want to be a bit more specific this time.

What is good enough as a person that carries a weapon for personal protection?

I had a discussion with a friend yesterday about this. He teaches CCW classes on the east coast, and I’m an NRA instructor. We were looking at what would be the ‘basic’ competency that should be the goal.

Note- This is result of ‘our’ discussions, take this for what it is worth- e.g. nothing…

Have taken at least basic pistol classes to learn safety procedures, four rules, state laws, etc. Two recommended courses are Gunsite 250 or similar, and Mas Ayoob’s MAG 40. Attending state required concealed carry classes with certified instructors.

Actual proficiency boils down to these three things-

Being able to hit what one is aiming at; shot placement is key, regardless of caliber used. Knowing where your rounds are going, e.g. keeping them in the target… Taking a course and never going to the range will cause those limited skills to atrophy in a hurry!

Pistol drills- Reloads, malfunction drills, round counts, clearing/safing pistol. Can the person do those safely without muzzling themselves or anyone else? Again, practice is required to maintain that skill set.

Manipulation of the pistol- Safely drawing the pistol from how ever it is carried, in different environments e.g. summer, winter, with/without heavy cover garment/gloves.

  • Outside the waistband holsters, or OWB.
  • Inside the waistband holsters, or IWB.
  • Pocket holsters.
  • Shoulder holsters.
  • Ankle holsters.
  • Purses
  • Murses

Some people change their carry pistols depending on the situation/time of year/other. If you do that, make sure you maintain proficiency with ALL of them.

Knowing when/where to use your pistol. Just because you carry one, doesn’t mean every situation calls for it. Being a ‘smart’ individual, e.g. not being where bad things are happening, in the wrong places, with the wrong people, etc.
Practical means of defusing a situation, e.g. leaving the area, getting under cover (NOT just concealment), etc.
Of note- There are a lot of ‘higher end’ courses one can take to improve your weapons handling TTPs but the bottom line is you need to go to the range and practice or dry fire routinely to maintain proficiency! Annette Evans wrote an excellent book on how to safely practice dry fire at home. I have a copy and use it!
It can be found on Amazon, HERE, and it is aimed at all shooters-
Dry fire – practicing without live ammunition – is an essential tool for every gun owner who wants to learn how to handle his or her firearm more proficiently. It saves time and money while remaining an effective training method whether you are interested in guns for a hobby, for self-defense, or for competition. While there are many books that describe specific dry fire regimens, they don’t always give you the information you need to use them best. That’s where The Dry Fire Primer comes in. It bridges the gap between “I’ve heard of dry fire” and “I’m going to be a dry fire maniac and use it to its greatest potential.” Whether you’re brand-new to dry fire or just feel like you could be getting a bit more out of it, this book is for you.
YMMV, IANAL, and I sure as hell didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night… In other words, this post is supposed to make you think about where you are in your training/proficiency as you go about your daily lives and where you want to be.