There is…

A right and a wrong way…

Oil Change instructions for Women :

1) Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3000 miles since the last oil change.

2) Drink a cup of coffee.

3) 15 minutes later, write a check and leave with a properly maintained vehicle.

Money spent:

Oil Change:              $20.00

Coffee:                     $ 1.00

Total:                       $21.00

Oil Change instructions for Men:

1) Wait until Saturday, drive to auto parts store, and buy a case of oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner, and a scented tree, write a check for $50.00.

2) Stop by 7/11 and buy a case of beer, write a check for $20, drive home.

3) Open a beer and drink it.

4) Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.

5) Find jack stands under kid’s pedal car.

6) Jack car up.

7) In frustration, open another beer and drink it.

8) Place drain pan under engine.

9) Look for 9/16 box end wrench.

10) Give up and use crescent wrench.

11) Unscrew drain plug.

12) Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil:  splash hot oil on you in process.  Cuss.

13) Crawl out from under car to wipe hot oil off of face and arms.  Throw kitty litter on spilled oil.

14) Have another beer while watching oil drain.

15) Spend 30 minutes looking for oil filter wrench.

16) Give up; crawl under car and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off.

17) Crawl out from under car with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes.  Cleverly hide old oil filter among trash in trash can to avoid environmental penalties.  Drink a beer.

18) Install new oil filter making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to gasket surface.

19) Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.

20) Remember drain plug from step 11.

21) Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.

22) Drink beer.

23) Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now on the floor.  Throw kitty litter on oil spill.

24) Get drain plug back in with only a minor spill.  Drink beer.

25) Crawl under car getting kitty litter into eyes.  Wipe eyes with oily rag used to clean drain plug.  Slip with stupid crescent wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame removing any excess skin between knuckles and frame.

26) Begin cussing fit.

27) Throw stupid crescent wrench.

28) Cuss for additional 5 minutes because wrench hit bowling trophy.

29) Beer.

30) Clean up hands and bandage as required to stop blood flow.

31) Beer.

32) Dump in five fresh quarts of oil.

33) Beer.

34) Lower car from jack stands.

35) Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during any missed steps.

36) Beer.

37) Test drive car.

38) Get pulled over and arrested for driving under the influence.

39) Car gets impounded.

40) Call loving wife, make bail.

41) 12 hours later, get car from impound yard.

Money spent:

Parts:                         $ 50.00

DUI:                      $2,500.00

Impound fee:              $75.00

Bail:                       $1,500.00

Beer:                           $20.00

Total:                     $4,145.00

But you know the job was done right!

Of course the wife may have a ‘few’ issues… Just sayin…

Unintended consequences…

Strike once again in where else…California…

A new “Hero Pay” mandate in Long Beach, California has inadvertently cost some frontline grocery workers their jobs. 

“Ralphs and Food 4 Less, both owned by the parent company Kroger, announced Monday that they will be closing 25% of their stores in Long Beach after the city council passed an ordinance requiring companies with over 300 employees nationwide to pay employees an extra $4 per hour,” local news outlet Fox 11 reports. Two stores in the area will be shut down.

A company spokesperson directly cited the city council’s ordinance mandating higher wages as the reason they are closing down. 

“The irreparable harm that will come to employees and local citizens as a direct result of the City of Long Beach’s attempt to pick winners and losers, is deeply unfortunate,” the spokesperson said. “We are truly saddened that our associates and customers will ultimately be the real victims of the city council’s actions.”

Full article, HERE.

Grocery stores are NOT a huge profit center, making on the average less than 3% profit year to year. When you look at the average pay, a $4/hr raise is a huge impact and probably puts most of those stores in the red, especially in California with the cost of rent, power, etc. out there.

The ones that will suffer are the local employees, now out of work, and the local consumers that probably counted on those stores. Anybody remember the term food desert?

If you don’t here’s a quick reminder… A food desert is an urban or rural area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food.

In the urban world, it is considered to be 1 mile from a grocery store (assuming inability to drive to stores and/or limited public transportation).

In the rural world, it is considered to be 10 miles from a grocery store (assuming inability to drive to stores and no public transportation). Depending on which report you read, 20% or more of flyover country is considered a food desert, primarily due to the big box stores running all the small, locally owned and located stores out of business due to profit margin (or lack thereof).

What really hurts is when the big box store(s) close in a rural area, meaning people may have to drive up to 50 or more miles to find a grocery store.

All this does is build on existing health problems, with a lack of fresh vegetables and fruit. What IS available is mostly fast food, which we know isn’t all that good for us, even if we like it… sigh…

Listen more, talk less…

From Nick Saban… worth listening to…

The past is past, learn from it and move on…

We’re back…

We restarted our weekly dinner last night, and it was obvious people were starved for companionship! An even dozen folks showed up…

And it was my turn to cook, so they got southern comfort food. Jambalaya, southern green beans, bread, and caprese (okay, I know it’s not southern, but…) Well, southern Italy…

And before you ask, here’s the recipe. My grandmother wrote this out sometime in the 1940s.

It will feed 15 hungry people or 20 normal people… LOL

Random things…

As a Neanderthal-American, I’m perfectly happy to be living in Texas… Just sayin’

And Toyota just keeps teasing us…

If they ever sold the Hilux here, they would fly out the door!

And for those who are ‘victims’ of Lucas wiring… The elusive bottle of blinker fluid is now available again!!!

And if you believe that, I’ve got this bridge…

Yech…

Got the WuFlu shot on Wednesday, felt like crap all day yesterday. A little better today.

Problem is I can’t brain for anything, so you get ‘humor’…

Except this one is oh so damn true…

And this graphic is rather ‘interesting’. The sad part is they are bringing their crap politics with them, as we’ve already seen down in Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

And anybody want to guess where this ad is from?

Continue reading

TBT…

The more things change, the more they remain the same…

Got these from some old shipmates. In a way, bookends for my deployments PI in the early days, Sigonella was my last one.

A menu from back in the day in the PI. Frequented this place quite a bit as the food was ‘decent’…

Before you wonder about how expensive it was, the P was 40:1 back in the day… So a San Miguel beer was about 15 cents…

And then there was this sign…

I saw this posted in more than one AW shop and we had a framed version in the Tactics office.

And last, but not least, Mt. Etna blowing her top yet again. It was sometimes ‘exciting’ to come flying in at night when she was going off,

Mt. Etna was only 20nm from Sig, so it wasn’t unusual to get ash plumes coming down on the base. Occasionally we had to fly around the plume or land in the opposite direction to stay out of it.

Just for reference, Mt. Etna is probably the most active volcano in the world. Here’s hoping the folks over there are safe and both they and the locals are okay…

Posted in TBT

Interesting read…

Remember the Times article about the ‘Shadow Campaign of 2020?’

On February 4, 2021, Time published “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election.” This report described what the author herself called a “conspiracy,” a “well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information.” 

Full article, HERE. From Capital Research Center.

THIS is just…chilling…

SECDEF down, view it as leadership but this isn’t.. It is intimidation. 

There is no  widespread systemic racism in this country, just as there is no systemic extremism in the military. IMHO, this is just an action taken to stifle the 75 million and “modify behavior”.

 An over-reach. A Witch Hunt. Beyond cultural PC:

 R 192207Z FEB 21 MID600050295537U

FM CNO WASHINGTON DC

TO NAVADMIN

INFO CNO WASHINGTON DC

BT

UNCLAS

NAVADMIN 044/21

PASS TO OFFICE CODES:

FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1//

INFO CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1//

MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N1/FEB// SUBJ/STAND-DOWN TO ADDRESS EXTREMISM IN THE RANKS// REF/A/DOC/SECDEF/MEMO/05FEB21/ REF/B/MSG/SECNAV/121644ZFEB21/ REF/C/DOC/DODI 1325.06/27NOV09/ REF/D/DOC/NAVY REGULATIONS ART 1167/03SEP97/ REF/E/DOC/OPNAVINST 5354.1G/24JUL17/ REF/F/MSG/COMUSFLTFORCOM NORFOLK VA/131415ZFEB20/ REF/G/DOC/OPNAV N1/23OCT20/ REF/H/MSG/OPNAV/092219ZFEB21// NARR/REF A IS SECDEF MEMORANDUM DIRECTING DOD-WIDE STAND-DOWN ON EXTREMISM IN THE RANKS.  REF B IS ALNAV 010/21 ON STAND- DOWN TO ADDRESS EXTREMISM IN THE RANKS.  REF C IS DODI ON HANDLING DISSIDENT AND PROTEST ACTIVITIES AMONG MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES.  REF D IS ALNAV 053/97 INCORPORATED AS NAVY REGULATIONS ARTICLE 1167 ON SUPREMACIST ACTIVITIES.  REF E IS OPNAVINST ON NAVY EQUAL OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM MANUAL.  REF F IS 12-STAR MESSAGE PROMULGATION OF SIGNATURE BEHAVIORS OF THE 21ST CENTURY SAILOR, VERSION 2.0.  REF G IS NECESSARY CONVERSATIONS GUIDE 2.1. REF H IS NAVADMIN 032/21, CNO MESSAGE TO THE FLEET ON EXTREMIST BEHAVIOR.// RMKS/1.  Sailors live our Core Values every day.  However, recent events highlight that the U.S. Armed Forces, including our Navy (service members, civilian personnel and all those who support our mission), are not immune from the corrosive effects of extremist ideology and conduct.  Extremist behaviors and conduct, even if from only a small percentage of our force, violate our Core Values, are detrimental to good order and discipline, reduce warfighting readiness and degrade the toughness, trust and connectedness we are building in our Sailors and teams through our Culture of Excellence campaign.

As an initial step in what will be a continuing and focused effort to address this problem, Commanders and Commanding Officers will conduct a stand-down prior to 2 April 2021 for all military personnel and Department of the Navy (DON) civilians to address extremism in the ranks in accordance with guidance contained in references (a) and (b).

2.  The intent of this stand-down (which may be conducted virtually or in-person with the appropriate COVID-19

mitigations) is to ensure service members and civilian personnel clearly understand the damaging effects of extremism and begin developing more effective, sustainable ways to eliminate the corrosive impacts extremist activity can have on our Force.  As public servants, we took an oath to the Constitution and we will not tolerate those who participate in actions that go against the fundamental principles of the oath we share, particularly actions associated with extremist or dissident ideologies.  Service members, Department of Defense civilians and all those who support our mission, are entitled to an environment free of discrimination, hate and harassment.

3.  A discussion guide, supplementary slides, and additional resources to assist Commanders and Commanding Officers with the conduct of this stand-down are posted at

https://www.navy.mil/Leadership/Chief-of-Naval-Personnel/CNP-

Department-Exclusives/ .  Commanders have the discretion to tailor discussions with their personnel as appropriate, but at a minimum the stand-down will include:

    3.A. A group re-administration and reaffirmation of the oath of office/oath of enlistment;

    3.B. Remarks from the Commander/Commanding Officer;

    3.C. Division/Work Center training/facilitated discussion

addressing:

        3.C.1. The meaning of the oath of office/enlistment including what we protect (Freedom of Speech/Assembly) and the limits on these rights for service members (what we sacrifice in order to protect and build public trust);

        3.C.2. Actions that betray the oath per references (c) through (e) (prohibited activities, UCMJ direction on extremist activities, review of political activity and social media dos and donts);

        3.C.3. The responsibility of leaders at every level (obligation to report, obligation to investigate, remaining alert for signs of extremism and then intervening);

        3.C.4. Listening sessions focused on our Core Values, our Culture of Excellence and the Task Force One Navy report.

4.  We have been emphasizing the importance of listening sessions since the establishment of Task Force One Navy last summer.  Some commands have leaned into this while others have not.  CNOs direction is that every Commander or Commanding Officer will continue to conduct listening sessions and get it into their battle rhythm.  This is where the hard work of establishing trust and connectedness starts.  Reference (g), the Necessary Conversations Guide 2.1, is a great tool to use to conduct listening sessions.

5.  Echelon 2 Commanders shall track subordinate command completion of the stand-down using Fleet Training Management and Planning System (FLTMPS), Course Identification Number SDTAE-1.0, STANDDOWN TO ADDRESS EXTREMISM IN THE RANKS.  The Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education) (OPNAV N1) will promulgate procedures for Echelon 2 Commanders to submit stand-down completion reports (including lessons learned and recommendations) via a Department of the Navy Tasking, Records and Consolidated Knowledge Repository (DONTRACKER) tasker.  In order to support the requirement for the Chief of Naval Operations to report completion to the Secretary of the Navy by 6 April 2021, the suspense for all Echelon 2 Commanders to report stand-down completion is no later than 2 April 2021.  In the event operational requirements prohibit the conduct of the stand- down by this date, extension requests must be submitted through the first Flag Officer in the chain of command, via the Chief of Naval Personnel, and ultimately to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) for adjudication per reference (b).

6.  As Sailors, we must strive to be inclusive, creating an environment where every individual understands that they are a valued member of the Navy team.  This is an All Hands effort.

As we begin to implement the work of Task Force One Navy, I remind you of the Signature Behaviors promulgated in reference (f).  These behaviors include:

    6.A. Treat every person with respect.

    6.B. Take responsibility for my actions.

    6.C. Hold others accountable for their actions.

    6.D. Intervene when necessary.

    6.E. Be a leader and encourage leadership in others.

    6.F. Grow personally and professionally every day.

    6.G. Embrace the diversity of ideas, experiences and backgrounds of individuals.

    6.H. Uphold the highest degree of integrity in professional and personal life.

    6.I. Exercise discipline in conduct and performance.

    6.J. Contribute to team success through actions and attitude.

7.  As CNO stated in reference (h), today, and every day, our Navy must be a shining example of an organization centered on respect, inclusive of all.  Simply put, we must demand of each other that we treat everyone with dignity and respect.  That is how we will become a stronger Navy.

8.  Released by Vice Admiral John B. Nowell, Jr, N1.// BT

Sigh…

No matter how bad your life is, it’s still not as bad as a person who sits around worrying about the gender of a plastic potato…

And for you old farts, a Burma Shave.

And I’ll leave you with this…

An incorrect use of words – articulately replacing one word with another word that sounds similar but has a diffident meaning – possibly fueled by a deep-seeded desire to sound more educated, witch results in an attempt to pawn off an incorrect word in place of a correct one.
In academia, such flaunting of common social morays is seen as almost sorted and might result in the offender becoming a piranha, in the Monday world, after all is set and done, such a miner era will often leave normal people unphased.
This is just as well sense people of that elk are unlikely to tow the line irregardless of any attempt to better educate them. A small percentage, however, suffer from severe acyrologiaphobia, and it is their upmost desire to see English used properly.
Exposure may cause them symptoms that may resemble post-dramatic stress disorder and, eventually, descend into whole-scale outrage as they go star-craving mad. Eventually, they will succumb to the stings and arrows of such a barrage, and suffer a complete metal breakdown, leaving them curled up in the feeble position.

It’s called Acyrologia…

And then there’s this, depending on which state you live in…