Well damn…

Posted on by October 31, 2013

Got an email on Friday that my Doc was hanging up the scalpel (literally), he’s had enough and not willing to kowtow to Obummercare and the new rules…  This is a practice that’s been around since the late 70’s founded by he and another doc.  Now both of them are gone and they’ve turned it over to a younger generation (and been forced into a cooperative with the local hospital).

I had an appointment with the replacement doc this morning and Doc P dropped in to say good by, I’m gonna miss that grouchy ol’ sumbitch… He was Army/Army reserve for years, so NO bedside manner, but he was a damn good doc a listened. And he wasn’t into all the tests and hyper-expensive prescriptions for everything.

The new Doc seems pretty good, and listens but damn, he’s a bundle of energy (but the nurses seem to like him)!!! Quick worker, but tells me what he’s doing, and continuing the ‘tradition’ from Doc P (stop smoking, lose weight, less stress)… But I was in and out in under an hour, and actually spent 20 minutes with him.

On a side note, they’ve had to hire two more people to keep up with the new paperwork requirements, and I had to ‘verify’ my insurance this morning before I was allowed to see the Doc.  And there was an older lady there who was concerned, since she was scheduled for a procedure and had just gotten a letter from her insurance that she was being dropped, so they were trying to reschedule her to get her in before the cancellation (kudos to them for that).

The impacts are truly starting to hit, and I can’t help but wonder what the real fallout is going to be…

Hump day humor…

Posted on by October 29, 2013

A couple since I can’t find a damn thing GOOD to post…

This is a story about a couple who had been happily married for years, the only friction in their marriage was the husband’s habit of farting loudly every morning when he awoke. The noise would wake his wife and the smell would make her eyes water and make her gasp for air. Every morning she would plead with him to stop ripping them off because it was making her sick.

He told her he couldn’t stop it and that it was perfectly natural. She told him to see a doctor, she was concerned that one day he would blow his guts out.

The years went by and he continued to rip them out. Then one Christmas day morning, as she was preparing the turkey for dinner and he was upstairs sound asleep, she looked at the innards, neck, gizzard, liver and all the spare parts, and a malicious thought came to her. She took the bowl and went upstairs where her husband was sound asleep and, gently pulling the bed covers back, she pulled back the elastic waistband of his underpants and emptied the bowl of turkey guts into his shorts.

Sometime later she heard her husband waken with his usual trumpeting which was followed by a blood curdling scream and the sound of frantic footsteps as he ran into the bath room. The wife could hardly control herself as she rolled on the floor laughing, tears in her eyes! After years of torture she reckoned she had got him back pretty good.

About twenty minutes later, her husband came downstairs in his blood stained underpants with a look of horror on his face. She bit her lip as she asked him what was the matter. He said, “Honey you were right… all these years you have warned me and I didn’t listen to you.” “What do you mean?” asked his wife. “Well, you always told me that one day I would end up farting my guts out, and today it finally happened, but by the grace of god, some Vaseline and two fingers. I think I got most of them back in…

And in closing… 🙂

A secretary got an expensive pen as a gift from her boss. She sent him a ‘Thank you note’ by email. Boss’s wife read the email and filed for divorce.

The email says: “Your penis wonderful. I enjoyed using it last night. It has extra ordinary smooth flow, and a firm stroke.

Initially its tip had to be licked to bring it to working order. I loved its perfect size and grip.

Felt like I was in heaven when using it. Thanks a lot”

Moral: A “space” is an essential part in English.

h/t JP

PETA vs. Hunters (and the rest of us too)…

Posted on by October 28, 2013

Let the drone wars begin…

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has launched a project to use hobby-class drone planes to monitor hunters and capture any “illegal or cruel hunting practices,” the organization said Tuesday.

/snip/

So does all of this jibe with regulations around flying radio-controlled planes in public spaces and using surveillance equipment to snoop on people? The Air Angles project and its tactics are above board and in compliance with the law, PETA said.

“The drones PETA is selling will be flown recreationally (to protect animals), so no license is needed. Commercial use of this technology involves restrictions,” a PETA spokesperson told PCMag.

Full article HERE in PC Mag.

And to counter them… Drone Shield…

DroneShield is a low-cost, easy-to-use device that detects the presence of nearby drones (including RC helicopters, quadrotors, etc) and issues alerts via email, sms, and a flashing light. The goal is to help preserve privacy from low-cost remote-control air vehicles with video cameras.

The DroneShield device only listens for consumer-model aircraft like the hobby-class Air Angels drones PETA is now selling on its website to encourage surveillance of hunters. The device doesn’t scan for the type of aircraft used by law enforcement and it is a passive system-it detects drones but does “not interfere, jam, or damage the drone in any way,” the company said. 

Website HERE.  And they are crowd funding via Indiegogo HERE.

Frankly, I’m worried somebody is going to get shot trying to get these short range UAVs into hunting areas, because they are basically line of sight controlled (500-600 feet), and that will put the user IN the field with both the hunters and the prey; and when that happens it will blow the lid off…

And they only last maybe 10 minutes, so you can bet there will be a lot of claims about hunters shooting them down/destroying them…

Commentary from the Guns website HERE that disagrees with the legality…

This is NOT going to end well, IMHO…

In the more balls that sense category…

Posted on by October 29, 2013

We have the surfer bums…

largestwave

 

These idjits chase the big waves around the world trying (and sometimes dying) to surf them…  I’ve often wondered how they pay for all the travel etc. since NONE of them apparently have a real job…

Brazilian surfer Carlos Burle may have set the world record for the largest wave ever surfed after riding an estimated 100-foot wave off the coast of Portugal.

Full story HERE.

Back in the 70s I lived a mile South of Waimea Bay on the North Shore of Oahu, which gets record waves every January in Waimea Bay; often 50 feet or better…

On more that one occasion we had to pull bodies out of the surf there after they either hit the rocks on the left side of the Bay, or broke necks/backs falling in the waves, or getting hit in the heads by their surfboards (they used 9-12 foot boards in the big stuff).  Most of them were bums, and a couple of times we actually found surfers asleep on our Lanai!!!

All I gotta say is they have more Balls (or Ovaries, yes there is a female of the species too) that brains, and what few brain cells they have left they are probably smoking those away…

And I still wonder who pays for them to travel…

Sequestration just gets better and better…

Posted on by October 28, 2013

Everyone who’s knowledgeable about Navy operations has known this for a while, but now even the Submarine Commanders are publically admitting to the shortfall in US submarines…

There are not enough fast-attack and guided-missile submarines in the Navy’s arsenal to meet the needs of combatant commanders around the globe, senior service officials said at the 2013 Naval Submarine League symposium, Falls Church, Va.

“Combatant commander demand for these ships far exceeds what we can supply,” said Vice Adm. Mike Connor, Commander, Submarine Forces, speaking to audience members at the symposium.

/snip/

In total, the Navy has 73 submarines, including 14 nuclear-armed Ohio-class submarines, or SSBNs; four Ohio-class submarines converted to conventionally armed guided-missile boats, or SSGNs; 42 Los Angeles-class fast attack submarines, or SSN; three Seawolf submarines and 10 Virginia-class submarines, also SSNs.

/snip/

By comparison, the Navy operated many more submarines in the 1980s, operating a fleet of more than 100 SSNs, among others, Navy officials said.

Full article HERE from Military.com.

Based on the ‘goals’ of the administration, the Navy will be below 250 ships and subs combined by the end of this administration… A FAR cry from President Reagan’s 600 ship/sub Navy, but the interesting point is, although we did ‘win’ the cold war, our adversaries have NOT reduced their building rate on subs, and the Russians are now back in the game with newer, more capable subs and more planned…

The ‘other’ stuck in fork is the lack of $$ for maintenance, across ALL platforms; ships, subs, acft, and helicopters are all feeling the pinch of a maintenance shortfall that is estimated at around $750M.  Trust me that is a LOT of maintenance (and unlike the USAF, all these units are routinely exposed to salt water and the associated corrosion that goes with it)!!!

So in addition to the lack of respect, we have a hollow force; not enough assets to get the job done, and it we DO get it stuck in somewhere, not enough support to get our folks out of trouble.  At this point I think we’re on the verge of making our Navy ships/subs/airplanes the equivalent of sacrificial lambs ready to be slaughtered by a superior force.

Trigger time…

Posted on by October 27, 2013

Looking at the weather, and the fact it’s getting colder (did I mention I HATE cold)…

I decided it was a good day to go to the range.  Since I haven’t had the revolvers out for a spin lately, I decided to take them and just do a revolvers only range trip…

I’d been practicing with the SIRT pistol the last couple of evenings, and I wanted to see if it really made any difference in my initial shooting too.

pistolsI’ll admit I did start with the .22 Diamondback, and it is truly a fun little shooter!!!

I alternated shooting ‘good’ triggers e.g. Pythons/Diamondbacks, with the less good triggers 1917/Trooper; and boy can you tell the difference!  I shot at least 50 rounds through each pistol, and realized I’m about out of .45LC and low on .38spl all of a sudden.  And only had TWO boxes of .357… How in hell did I let ‘that’ happen???

Based on my few days of ‘training’ myself with the SIRT, I do believe it can make a difference in maintaining proficiency if you’re not shooting real pistols every day.  I wasn’t as ‘scattered’ as normal on the first few cylinders while trying to re-establish the sight picture, front sight, press sequence.

It was time to change out the self defense ammo in the Agent, so I fired that cylinder full of Gold Dots. And since I hadn’t done any speed loader or speed strip work in a while, I did 10 reps of each.  And boy did I SUCK for the first few…

agentPractice, especially at the ‘little’ things takes works and repetitions to get it right and I need to find some .38spl snap caps to do this drill at least on a weekly basis, if not more often.

Got home and cleaned everything, then put the ‘ready’ guns back in their ready positions. Now I’m tired, but it’s a good tired.  Now the search for ammo begins again…

Sigh…

Vito vs. Halloween…

Posted on by October 27, 2013

And the score is Vito one, decorations nothing…

Or, you could call it decoration by Vito…

Now you know…

Posted on by October 26, 2013

  Q. Why do Navy airplanes need tail hooks?

            A. After a tough day of flying on an aircraft carrier, the planes are always washed and they use the hooks to hang the planes over the side to dry out.

TF9F

And kudos to the pilots, they didn’t even punch out…

This is probably off the USS LEXINGTON back in the day, it’s a TF-9F and probably the result of the wire breaking at the end of the roll out.  Not enough airspeed left to go fly, not enough brakes to actually STOP before the deck edge.  The landing area is roughly 425 feet long in case you wondered.

h/t JP

Sometimes…

Posted on by October 26, 2013

Things actually work out…

Since I had some previously scheduled meetings down in Norfolk yesterday, I got a chance to have dinner with Daddy Bear and his co-worker Jeff yesterday evening, before the slog back to NOVA.  They were also in town for some work related stuff.

Took em to a ‘dive’, but DB wanted seafood…  His initial reaction was “Where in hell ARE we?”  🙂

Food was good, turns out Jeff is also former Navy, and had spent time in Norfolk back in the day.  As happens anytime you get military (or former military) guys together, the sea stories start (still don’t know what the Army calls em), and politics/treatment of the military- Consensus, the troops keep going in spite of the management, and the Marines WILL revolt if they get stuck with the ‘girlie’ hat…

And I’m firmly convinced the Army are the ‘champions’ at mis-use of personnel after talking to DB, Speer and others… sigh…

Really enjoyed the time, and it saved me from the dreaded HRBT traffic jams from hell in the afternoon, so I’m counting this one as a win all the way around!

I wish I had thought to try to invite the other folks in the Norfolk area that comment and are on GBC- Mea Cupla to those folks…