Big Country Expat

Greetings and Salutations!
OK
So
Been getting a LOT of DMs from a LOT of you all who have had comms with me in the past, and are concerned that I might be reaching a ‘breaking point’.

It’s understandable.

The reason being is that most ‘normal’ folks would have collapsed/curled up into the fetal position, or just flat out died in wake of this unreal situation. I mean FFS, even Hallmark couldn’t cook up a made-for-TV drama with this much bullshit without being called out on it. It’d be labeled as “completely unrealistic” and yet….

Here I am…

The only thing missing from this shitshow/drama-festivus is someone stealing my pickup or raping Stella the Sausage Princess, and writing an unaccredited coutry song about the whole fucking shitshow right?

Go figure.

So yeah, as shitty and as tough as it is…
I dunno…
maybe it’s because I’m a superior hoomon?
I mean fuck…
How else do I explain it the way as I’ve jokingly referred to it in the past as “…something you stinking puny humans wouldn’t understand!” I mean I ‘cored’ out on my IQ test when I was a kid as above Einstein.

I’m WAY bigger than “the average bear/hoomon”…

Believe you me, I wish I was average.
I’d prefer it.

However, life/circumstance(s) has made it where I seem to be a shit-magnet… NONE of which was by my own choice.

Case in point:
Be me, Baghdad 2004:

Yep
That was the direct hit, and I’m standing where I should have been in front of my wall locker IF I had been on my ‘normal schedule’

Instead I’m still alive

And for those who say I did so by getting w/G, let me tell you, the first three years were GOLD before DC showed up preggers with the Nukular Powered Red Head…(now more Strawberry Blonde). In fact almost ALL of the drama in my life can be connected to G trying to “rescue the unrescuable” so to speak… trying to “salvage the unsalvageable.”

In fact, I did a spreadsheet.

Every. Single. Time. Dumb Dead Cunt did something fucked up, G had an equal and/or fucked up reaction to it… to the point that what she did to Stella? Well… looking back at it, G was fighting with DC, and I -think- ostensibly it was a reaction to her saying “No, don’t do it!” to the interaction she had with DC… you’d have to be here to understand…

The thing of it is?
Stella adores G…
STILL
ZERO animosity.
Not sure if it’s “Pittie Blockheadedness” or what…

Thing is, Stella remembers some of the local dogs she tangled with back when she was younger, and she STILL holds a grudge. Whereas, with G, well… she’s crawling up onto G, and Muldoon’s lap, loving on being the Doggie Mama to BOTH of them… as G was the one who brought Stella a ‘new baby’ to protect…

Best Baby Doggie-Mama EVVAR!!!
(Stella that is)

That’s almost good enough for me.

So yeah… Not sure what to say about it.
Like I said, NO ONE in this life is without sin, not fault.
WE ALL FUCK UP

I’ll work on my faults, and G is working on hers.

Thing of it is, that spreadsheet? And the shit G and I have found out? Hoo-BOY! Well… this’s “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” with the first two, the Good and Bad, being left out, ‘cos allllll we got left is a whoooole lot of Ugly.

I got to get this out there as, well….. I dunno… when I stated in last nights post, that the one good thing that came of this was Dumb Dead Cunt being an organ donor?

Unfortunately, it’s faaar closer to the truth than I like.

It bothers me as I’m a good dude, and try like Hell to see the good in a person… in this case? Notsofuckingmucho…

I just hope her organs don’t infect the recipient with ‘teh stoopid’

To start.
90% of what I got is from G and I finding not one, not two but four cell phones. Now mind you, DC usually claimed (and even came at me on the regular, asking for ‘help’ ‘cos her mom was ‘being mean’…) that she didn’t have a pot to piss in, i.e. NO money (to buy formula for the baby and the like) despite having ALL the welfare/bennies and shit, and yet had, not just 4 cellies but three of them were the ‘latest and greatest models’ so to speak, like a Google Pixel 10 (retail $550+ used) or an Apple iPhone 16 (current used valuation is $800+) as well as two others.

What we found on them phones?
I’m not going to go into it.
To a point.
Needless to say, one overwhelming pattern I found was that DC went WAAAAY out of her way to play BOTH her parental units off against each other… like in an evil/sadistic way.

Now to explain in a quick manor.

DC was primarily responsible for G and her 1st Husband for getting divorced. She was such an unbelievable nightmare the very fact these two stayed together as long as they did is a testimony to enduring the unendurable as far as I’m concerned. Lord knows, they tried, but in the end, it all collapsed.

A big part of it was that DC as the years progressed learned how to manipulate the two of them, Mom and Dad AGAINST each other for her own malignant benefit. Which tells you what sort of insane evil narcissist DC was, piss be on her name <hawwwwwk-spitoo!!>.

As I’ve found, she continued this behavior, spinning INSANE stories of how G was essentially a complete Piece of Shit, to the point that when G and I split, G didn’t help things by telling the OtherGrans some bullshit about me when we seperated…

There’s ALWAYS been some animosity between “Papa” (G’s ex-hubs who I consider a fren, much to G’s horror LOL) as I still have some with MY Ex (to a point… TBH I’m beyond any of that NOW as I have enough ‘new shit’ on my plate than to worry about what my Spawn and Ex think of me… no offense gang, Dada has enough on his current plate, Thankee Very Mucho LOL)

But yeah, there was the normal shit.
It’s expected

When Kylie, the Nukular Redhead showed up, -I- was able to bury a few hatchets so to speak between the two of them, as hey… it’s a Grandbaby… we need to work together. I had NONE of the baggage THEY had from all the shit from before, and I thought I’d settled that shit, even with “Papa’s” new wife…

Thing is… over the years, I got ‘complacent’

DC was an evil that even -I- who’ve seen evil up close and personal… true evil… didn’t count on…

Not sure if I ever mentioned it, but there was a Chinese student kidnapped in Baghdad in and around 2004… you won’t find it on the web per se… it takes a bit of digging.

It was when the Haj were snatching/grabbing civilians ALLLL over Iraq, and then beheading them either on video or streaming. In this case, late 2004, Lil Country and I were headed down Route Irish towards Baghdad International Airport… it was our weekly ‘reload’ for booze run… the van that was about 400 meters in front of me, on the overpass headed to the airport, suddenly braked over the top of the overpass, stopped, and two dudes hustled out what looked like a heavy parcel and a smaller package…

They threw both items down the hill on the overpass.

Lil Country and I went to ‘full alert’ as ANY shit like this was ‘questionable’ at best, and we practically crawled up that overpass… no more driving like normal… I mean WHAT did they throw? A bomb? or what??? When we got to where the van had stopped, we noticed there was a significant blood stain on the concrete….

So, like dumbasses, we stopped.

-I- found Joe Chinks nugget
Halfway down the hill… the matted grass gave it away…
I found it, picked it/him up by his hair, and brought it to the truck…

LC found his carcass.
About 40 meters away from his squash.
Blood soaked orange jumpsuit and all…

All we could do was call it in…

We let the Army do the ‘heavy lifting’ there
We ended up missing out on getting to the duty free that day to get out weekly booze ration dammit.

Yeah…
THAT was ‘true evil’ as I and LC knew this kid was a student, just trying to study the Jihad and whatnot, and paid for it with his life…

And back to the original shit:?
DC was that evil
Wish I could put it otherwise, but nope…
Pure Dee Evil
Undiluted hatred of anything good, cool and righteous…

So, DC went way the fuck out of her way to portray G in the worst possible light with her father. ESPECIALLY after she and I seperated. I mean there’s shytte, and then there’s fookin’ shytte’
This shit?
OMFG.
There’s a HUGE part of me that does not want to go into this

BUT

There’s also a HUGE part of me that wants to ‘set the record straight’.
G deserves it.
Papa deserves it.
The Nukular redhead deserves it

However that being to a point as I really do NOT want her aware as to HOW fucked up her bio-mom was… Papa’s new-wife has done a magnificent job being “mom” for the Redhead, and I got ZERO complaints… she’s a good woman, despite being a bit ‘anal retentive’ for my own liking… not a “dis” on her… she’s just too ‘straight’ as most normies are compared to my psycho self LOL…

BUT

All of this being said
DC did cause a LOT of ‘bad blood’ between G and her X…
Like epic levels
ALL for her own crazy self satisfaction

And man, believe you me, I’m the first to call out bullshit…
I’m what Heinlein would have called an “Absolute Fair Witness”… I got no axe to grind. Literally or figuratively. I just want ALL the parties to understand just what we were all dealing with.

Case in point:
Dave the Carcass Clean Up Dude.
Retired Master Sergeant, 92M, Mortuary Affairs Specialist (leader) turned his DotMil experience into a great paying job. I mean it was 2 hours of work to get DC’s brains and spatter off the floor/walls. He billed us $5020.00. He gave me a $1000 discount as ‘professional DotMil’ courtesy…

Almost $3K an hour?
Great work if you can get it amiright?

So yeah, when I got there on Tuesday night, Dave was already there… he was amazed at the lack of exit-wound damage and we went over the WHOLE area of operation to check for spatter and ‘other things’ which included ‘blue lighting’ almost the entirety of her bedroom…. TBH we both, being from a similar background, we were cracking each other the fuck up (for me it was a cope for the fucked-uppedness of what I was dealing with, having to step over DC’s brains-on-the-floor) and it kept me relatively, while cold, but sane…

But yeah…
Blue Lighting her bedroom?

Bad Idea that…
We’ve subsequently found she was doing ALL sorts of fucked up ‘things’ in that bedroom… I’m NOT going into it, but suffice to say, it can’t even become a reality… as in NO ONE would EVER believe what we’ve found out since then…. for a parent, well…

Let’s just say these ‘reality checks/revelations’ have helped

As fucked up as that sounds.

It’s keeping her (G that is) from ‘falsely memorializing’ DC as if she was some sort of redeemable or tragic ‘victim of circumstance’… if anything, it’s hardened her heart, which TBH is making the whole grieving process be accelerated, and with less snivveling and/or sorrow.

Make of THAT what you will.

And since I started ranting about this last night (I needed to get this shit off my chest) The shit we’ve found out since then???

I’m now officially numb

As in done
Over it
Fried
Cooked as the current vernacular holds.

So on that note?
I’ll just say I’m happy Muldoon is doing well… we’re slowly modifying his behavior to go to sleep at a normal time (DC would let him stay up until all hours while she played VR Games) which is desperately needed.

Tomorrow G has to go to the courthouse to drop paperwork, and I’ll be babysitting. The lil booger is doing well, and grins like a fool when he looks at me. So at least I got THAT going for me…
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
So the gig with GunGal is not happening.
Not enough biddness to justify hiring me.
Damned shame that. She -is- selling the place, and doesn’t know if the new owners are going to keep the staff on, however… Sapper is the only full-time paid employee, and the others who work there work for the discounts on the weapons.

If the new folks want to have a master gunsmith/DotMil qualified Depot Level Smol-Arms repairman on hand, who ALSO could sell damned near any weapon to anyone, I’d be the go-to-guy IMO.

Either way, I have other ‘fish on the griddle’ so to speak.

“I’m not ded yet!”

So… either way I went down to see about a job there as well as putting one of the Lee Enfield rifles on consignment. Only to find out she’s so close to a sale of the biddness, she’s no longer getting or doing consignments. Meh. Not a biggie. Gunbroker is a thing if I need to.

I mean I still have all my vay-kay (50+ hours) to be paid out, plus a month severance. Add on I had to cancel the Mexico Cruise (dammit!… DC did get one more ‘fuck you’ in on me the fucking bitch <hawwwwwwwk-SPIT!) Which ALSO means the $200 in Pesos I got BEFORE the trip (to avoid the usual ruinous tourista exchange rate when I was there) I can turn into the bank and get back some of it for a smol fee…

The cruise company DID fuck me however.
I got only a 1/3rd of the invested $$$ refunded…
Fuckers.
That’s what I get for declining the travel insurance amiright?

Some is better than none…
“It is what it is!” as I’m so fond of declaring.

Now, to the title.
Today at the Gun Shoppe, Sapper started showing me some of the new toys that came in. One of which is a Daniel Defense Short Barreled 9mm Carbine. At first glance, it’s kind of cool looking:

It takes CZ Scorpion mags, as well as a bunch of other aftermarket mags. Officially it’s the DD-PCC-SBR, which stands for the Daniel Defense Pistol Caliber Carbine, Short Barreled Rifle, which is a fucking mouthful. It retails for about $1800 and change. That being said, on my handling and inspecting it? Let me ask: can anyone tell me what -I- saw that made me go “Oh HELLS No!”?

Here’s a close up of both sides of the upper and lower receiver and functional switches so to speak:

Anyone? Anyone?
Bueller? Bueller?
The Magna Carta….

So… let me explain here. It’s got an ambidextrous mag release, as well as a bolt catch/release. If you’ll notice, to ‘lock the bolt to the rear’ you have to pretty much push down on the bottom part of the release, as I have circled here:

Guess what ELSE you’ll ‘hit’ while you’re trying to lock the bolt to the rear?
Yep.
The fucking MAG RELEASE!!!
Talk about a fucked up design.
Now, granted, this is a rarity, BUT having had a in-real-life OMFG Moment with an M-4 that required me to lock the bolt to the rear during a firefight, this is a thing of badness. See… I had a misfeed one time… meaning I had one too many rounds trying to chamber at once (caused by a bad mag with a cracked feed lip I found out later).

In the Infantry, we had a drill pummeled into our heads when you had a jam. ‘The immediate action drill to clear a jam on an M-16/M4 platform is SPORTS (Slap, Pull, Observe, Release, Tap, Squeeze), designed to fix 99% of stoppages. The “Pull, Tap, Release” segment refers to pulling the charging handle, tapping the forward assist, and releasing the bolt (if locked) to chamber a new round.’ (H/T goolag AI)

So… when the weapon misfed, I looked,(observed) and realized that I needed to lock the bolt back, so as to shake the ‘extra’ misfed round out of the chamber. I did so, and was able to shake the round out, release the bolt, and Charlie Mike.

With this thing?
Under pressure?
You’re going to 90% if the time is my guess, drop the mag while trying to unfuck a jam, and leave you with your dick in the wind.

0/10 Would NOT recommend.

Not sure who came up with that, but it’s obviously someone who’s never been ‘in the shit.’ I mean the idea is sound, but the placement? That’s about as wrong as two boys fucking, with a third waiting in line. I mean people talk about KelTec… sheesh… And as far as the placement, they have no other place to put it… although I do have an idea… it would involve turning the release 90 degrees to either the front or rear, away from the mag release, and leave it on only one side. Enlarge the locking paddle juuust a wee bit, and have it completely away from the mag release. Here’s a crude quick photoshop of what I mean:

Make it so it’s a larger button that can be depressed so as to allow a quick and dirty bolt lock. YMMV…

So yeah…
Then, on other fronts
G is doing OK. Not as haunted, but I think that’s because the both of us are exhausted. Poor Muldoon is so used to being picked up the second he starts crying, we’re in for a few loooong weeks with breaking him of that… just like how he expects to be fed every. single. time. he throws a fix, hence why he’s the chunkiest monkey -I’ve- ever seen:

Makes me feel better about my own beer gut lemme tell ya…

Now to be fair, I took that right after he’d torqued down his lunch, hence the insane gut… which also covers the drool factor.

Blonde and Bloo-eyed… the same hair color as the Nukular Powered Red/Strawberry Blonde Gran. He’ll get back in shape eventually (round is a shape innit?) and he IS good natured and smiles and giggles a lot. He does seem to know that DC ain’t around anymore, but as he’s so young, it’s not a big deal as she’ll fade with time. Right now he’s grooving to having me around, as I can tell he knows that a male figure is here, which has been absent from the scene since the get-go.

And G is completely focused on him, so as I’ve been telling her, focus on the future, and not the past. “Just keep Swimming” as Dory said… which also brings to me the realization I’m going to be rewatching a LOT of Pixar animation over the next few.
Pray for me
That being said, I do want to thank ALL of you, the Studio Viewing Audience for all the kind words, both positive and negative so to speak, when I needed them. It’s why I haven’t either gone on a Crocodile Dundee “walkabout” (i.e. disappearing into the woodline forever) or suck started my gauge, not that I’d be apt to do that having seen what I saw this week… It’s been since 2006? 2007 since I’ve seen brains like that, and I’m good for another 10 years thanks very much. I’m also sure G has seen enough too…

But seriously… I appreciate all the support… Tactical Hermit, Concerned American, Mike Hendrix, Phil from BustedKnuckles… all sorts of weird and wild fuckers have been calling me and making sure I haven’t lost my shit, as this sort of shit would break lesser men. TBH, at this point in my life, this’s just another “Tuesday” amiright?

Best to keep a sense of humor, even a dark black one.

So More Later
Big Country

Everything y’all have said is being taken into consideration

I’m not a moron FFS

I am however a ‘Paladin in Hell’, making the best of it.

SOME of YOU are fuckin’ morons…
Y’all know of whom I speak.

Unhelpful rants about me, about my choices w/out KNOWING me, OR my fam from now on earn a “Go And Get Fucked Off” level of ban-hammering. I know what I’m dealing with. MOST of y’all have no idea -who- or what I really am, (and capable of) and wouldn’t have the balls to say it to my face…

Make of that what you fucking will…

So anyways, thus far?
The total financials on this?
$5020 in Biohazard Cleanup.
$1890 in Cremation
$500 in filing paperwork w/the State for Emergency Custody (of which I am not on)
NONE of which have come out of MY pocket.

Baby “Stuff” to include onesies, and a new bassinet? $169.00

THOSE I paid for, as it’s the least I could do, as the bassinet that the kid was in? Jeebus Christo…. it’s less than 4 months old and it’s already ripped, broken and decrepit like it came out of a shithole trailer park. I am NOT allowing THAT in mi Casa.

It’s a safety issue.
Cleanliness thing too…

HOPEFULLY I can recover the Taurus Model 65
Hate to see a good weapon with a proper kill count got to waste… Jes’ Sayin’

And despite what everyone is saying about G… Let me tell you

It’s REAL Easy to talk shit when you have no idea the sit-rep.

REALLY easy to pass judgement.

She fucked up

WE ALL fuck up
Anyone who states otherwise is a fucking liar.

She however did save my ass when it really counted.
Even Sapper, who utterly loathed her from the bottom of his blackened female-hating soul has seen a bit of her redemption.

I mean FFS, the Sausage Princess ADORES her.

In fact, not for nothing, Stella has a thing for babies. BOTH previous Grand-Daughters, the Nukular Redhead and Addy, Stella was the ‘self appointed doggo-mama’

Meaning she’d wrap herself around said aforementioned grans, and guard them with her life.

Last night, the first night of Gran #3, a baby boy named “Axel” here at the house in his new bassinet?
Yeah…. quick aside
Trust me….
NOT my idea of a great name either… I’m calling him ‘Muldoon’

Anyways
Stella last night? She wrapped herself in one of his blankies he wasn’t using, and then proceeded to lay down in front of the bassinet, and check every. single. person/animal that came by…

Like MASSIVE protective mode.
Even snapped at Chili when Chili came in and tentatively growled at the smol-hairless ape… rocked Chili back on her ass… let her know that “That’s MY baby BITCH!”

So today we had to go to have G turn in her gear at the Prison

That’d be the Florida Womans Reception Center in Marion for all the fuckwit know-it-all tardos who think they know their shit… In the future, sit the fuck down, mind your manners, lest things get ugly.

Oh yeah forgot to mention… G got fired on Tuesday.

For those of you following, they started fucking with her over a sexual harassment report she filed. This was the culmination, and I’ll leave it at that on advice from Counsel. Yeah… we have a case… that’s all I can say…

And yes, this’s been a week the likes of which couldn’t even be scripted in Hollyweird TBH… what a shitshow!

So while we were loading up, Stella The Sausage Princess refused to NOT go with, despite it being a total of a 6 hour drive round trip with very short potty breaks. She spent the time either checking to make sure Muldoon (who slept the entire trip (great kid for road trips let me tell you) was OK, or just laying her head in my lap, as she IS getting older… the sunlight showed just -how- much gray she has… dammit.

So to end on a funny note tho, after dropping off the gear, and letting Stella take a BIG ole shit on the front grass of the Admin building (Good Girl!!!! Good Dog!!!! and YES it was a MASSIVE stinky pittie-poop) a fren from the People’s Glorious Tractor Factory called to see how I was doing.

Mind you he and I spoke on Monday AFTER I was ‘released’

He’s an older guy, gay, and ‘married’ so to speak.
One of those really cool gay dudes who’s comfortable in his own skin, and that I’m free to joke with. We share an enjoyment of 80’s comedy, and frequently use quotes from movies in our conversations… After he’d gotten caught up on the litany of my bad luck this week, he was all apologetic and I told him “It’s all good… but the only issue I have is I sure picked a bad week to quit sniffing glue!”

His reaction? He started by apologizing for my troubles, and quickly cut in, with the proper lispy-intonation “Look! There’s a sale at Penny’s!!!”

I almost crashed the car I was laughing so hard.
I appreciated it
I needed that.
ADDENDUM:
I -just- found this
Couldn’t do any better myself:

You're on a whole different level when you become unbothered 😂 I’ve Been at this level, have you? pic.twitter.com/vzLdhXQQG2

— G-MA & G-PA (@GPAIndiana) April 18, 2026

So More Later
BCE

OK
Well THIS has been a three-ring-Circus From Hell

I mean where to begin? I’ve been in ‘mission “on” mode’ now for whazzat? 24 hours, no sleep, 2x Adderall for funsies and a couple of Monsters for good luck?

Oh yeah baby!

The drama as it were started on Monday night.
Gretchen had gone to work at the Woman’s Prison (her job is as a C.O. which paid better than the People’s Tractor Factory for damned sure!) and came home to her parents where she’s been living since our separation. She got in early. Since she was unexpected, she popped into her daughter’s room for a surprise inspection so to speak, only to smell a stronk odor of weed.

Now since our separation, I’m not sure if I mentioned it, but I may/may not have, there was a BIG change in her/her daughter’s and G’s lives… See, DC was getting up to her usual misbehavioral shenanigan’s to which I told everyone involved, “I you so!” (that THIS was going to happen) and “Not my circus, not my monkeys!” and proceeded to buy moar guns and take more trips all over CONUS.

<Le Sigh>

The days of wine and roses.

And yet, both Gretchen and I maintained a civil repartee, as I’m not a totally callous asshole. She started coming around to pick up stuff, and I could see she was frazzled, and hey, Stella (despite previous injury) fucking loved having her back… the “Pack” being back as it were. Even Sapper was relatively cool w/the situation. So we didn’t get funky, but I did let her retreat and recover from the slings and arrows of her demented (literally unfortunately) parental units, and her fucking luna-chick daughter.

As said-shenanigans were leading to a eviction.
Meh
Like I said, not my monkeys, and was happy for it.

The response to the (potential) eviction was for her (DC) to go out and get rando-inseminated by who-the-fuck-knows. Like literally. No father on the birth certificate. A baby made out of necessity to avoid homelessness… she never gave a fuck about the first two kids, so why should she care about this one?

DC preggers?

I told Gretchen, “Rots O’Ruck Raggy” and peaced out on that shit.

Circus \neq Monkeys again. (does not equal if the symbol failed to show.)

So the kid was born in December. A baby Boy

Roly Poly fatboi that I could tell, good natured, all that jazz.
I will give that fucking whore one bit of credit, she makes correction, MADE great kids. Otherwise? Whoooooo-eeeeee….

So cut back to this week
Seems she was smoking a weed-vape in the room, while the kid was in there. G, of course went bananas. Took away all her vapes, threatened to call CPS… the usual shit that’d happened at least 6-7 times before. Not that I cared one way or another, except to tell G multiple times that the BIGGEST cause of our separation was her constant need to salvage the unsalvageable.

I told her, the bitch or me, and well…

Guess I won by default as it were.
Not sure if this’s a win to a point… anyways…

So, Monday, DC was stewing and ‘saving up spit’
I warned G to watch her back…
I had a feeling, although I was wrong on the ‘how’ of it

Tuesday things seemed back to normal
G got home, went in to talk to Mom and Dad after a day of working in the Prison (lots of fun stories there that I’ve heard… they have her on the ‘badass’ ward with serial killers and whatnot ‘cos she’s a big ole amazonian bitch) and while talking, DC asked for her weed vapes back

G of course told her not just “No” but “HELL No with bells on”

This’s when it went full retard
DC snapped, jumped G, started beating on her.
Mom tried to intervene (stupid AF as she’s like 82) and she got scrummed by DC. All Hell broke loose, Dad called the cops, and DC ran out of the room. G and Mom pursued her, when she stopped at the front door, whipped out G’s .357 and well…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

To Infinity and Beyond I suppose.

I got the call at 21:00+/-
Had to have Sapper drive me up there as I’d already self-lubricated. Punched out the quick update, and then got the ball rolling on the other aspects of shit that needs to be handled in an emergency. First thing I did was call a Casualty Cleanup Company… told the old man his insurance would cover it. In Florida, when -something- untoward like this happens, if you don’t have a professional clean up happen, the house can’t be sold… there’s a metric fuckton of issues…

So I made a ‘dinner reservation for one’ so to speak.

TBH, it was a lot like that…

Dude was a 20yr retired Vet w/a Graves Registration background. Except his name is Dave.

Dave showed up, and checked things out…
Surprisingly, no major exit wound…
Still horrific but I can say without a doubt that the Hornady 158gn XTP hollow points work as advertised, without -any- overpenetration.

Dave and I went over the scene last night, and he was as surprised as I was, as he told me, when he heard it was a .357, he was all “This’s gonna suck….” until he did the walkthrough w/me. I’ll leave it at that… he was an absolute professional in dealing with G and her ‘rents, but was cool with me when he realized this wasn’t the first ‘elephant’ I’ve seen…

LOTS of seriously inappropriate humor

What else am I supposed to do?
Act all somber and shit?

They did the cleanup at oh-dark early in the AM, and then we had to fend of the nosey fucking neighbors, all who wanted to see wtf had happened. During this I started getting other shit in place to get us the fuck out of the house as I knew G wasn’t doing well mentally with replaying the scene over and over.

PTSD is real man…

Add on Baby Buddha needed full time care.
Yeah… I’m torn between calling him Buddha (chubby boi) or Mountain Man Muldoon… he’s a BIG fucking kid. Part of the problem was DC tended to just shove a bottle in his gob anytime he cried rather than be a mother, so at 4 months, he’s like 22 pounds. He IS big but he’s also fat-fat-fat.

Add on CPS showed up to do ANOTHER full recap of the story, and thankfully, they gave G (and by way of her) me custody. We have to do paperwork, but that’s depending on how long the death certificate takes (I’ve been told up to three weeks for the paper-yeah-it’s-a-stiff-confirmation… fucking bureaucrats)

Same goes for getting my .357 back.

So now…
Home
With Beer.
I managed to pack up ALL the baby-stuff and move it in one trip, and reestablish here, for now, as I couldn’t handle the filth, the parental insanity, and seeing that haunted look on G’s face.

Lord knows I had plenty of practice with Adriana.
And in this case, there ain’t no babydaddy

When I say he was a rando, even DC had NO IDEA who the dad was, so like I said, the birth certificate is blank under “father”. This puzzled and perplexed the CPS kid when I had to explain that in order to –try- and track down who the potential father was, they’d have to roll the clock back to February/March of last year, get a subpoena for her tinder, onlyfans, who the fuck knows what “Dating” App, and then sort through the myriads of potential babydaddies… I told him the same “Rots O Ruck Chuck” and so, it looks like this’ll be uncontested.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
I’ll unpack more random factoids as I remember them… I appreciate all the kind words and shit… TBH, I just feel a sense of relief right now… and I think G does too…
Pretty fucked up to a point Aye?

So More Later
I remain, Insane in The Memebrane (yes, that’s intentional)
Big Country

$$

Even Dead, DC makes life difficult.
She took her own life tonight…
In front of Gretchen…

I’m cold, but not that cold.

So I got shit to do.
Save any criticism for later, I don’t have the bandwidth to deal with any more bullshit right now. There’s also the matter of a 4 month old baby boy who’s now an orphan.

I ain’t got time to deal with anyone coming at me with unnecessary critical bullshit
‘Cos yeah, I’m a fucking white knight, much to my own horror and detriment…
More Later
BCE

Greetings and Salutations!
So I got let go from Ye Olde People’s Tractor Factory today. And before anyone gets all “harrumphing” in my direction, let me tell you, I’m not hurting nor upset… for that matter, you know that it’s a good thing that when you let go, that your response is relief.

As in “Ahhhhhhhhhh… now I no longer have to deal with THAT asshole anymore!” In this case, and out of respect for the company itself, I’m not naming names per se. That and my ‘termination/resignation’ has a clause that states I won’t disparage the place.

Which is fair.
In fact the place? I loved working there.
The majority of folks?
I really liked them.
As much as I’m capable of liking a civilian…

That of course was to be the case up until the new Manager for my department came in and got hired 18+/- months ago… A fucking British National on a 90-day Marriage Visa. Lord knows I –tried– to be cool with him. And then I got backstabbed by him, and I realized he was like every other mid-wit (compared to me) manager with an overwhelming need to ‘dig’ and ‘pick’ at shit.

Now granted, that yes, as my direct supervisor, while it was his job to make sure things were working well, there gets to a point where the term “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” comes into play.

Namely he wanted me to do worthless, shitty, busy-work while I was ‘on the clock’. That sort of shit is the bane of my existence. And in my role with the company, well let’s just say that if I had say 15 taskers for a particular day, that I could knock out what needed to be done in less than an hour. Two at the absolute max.

Which means making the required phone calls, sending out emails and the like, requests for reports and/or information, as well as insuring that I catalog all of these attempts and whatnot so we have a solid track on me doing my job.

Which became the problem.

I am capable of doing the entirety of the days work in and hour or two. That subsequently left me with remaining six hours on the clock to stick my thumb in various orifices… Add on that I positively hate busy work…

I don’t do well with that sort of “Look busy, Jeebus is watching!” crapola.

If your numbers are great, if your production is stellar and you have ZERO customer complaints? Leave the fucking guy/gal in question the fuck alone!!!

When I was a Call Center Supervisor with a team of 40 under me? I had one or two folks like that… I left them the fuck alone. And what I told them my only requirement was that when they were fucking off (i.e surfing the web and/or watching videos and the like on OiTube) that they keep it to themselves, and not upset the rest of the workforce.

ESPECIALLY the retarded blaq folks.

ONE of them was a black chick who was a fellow vet, who also happened to be an AWESOME Hoomon Bean… I might be biased but the fact that she also was a combat medic with a Bronze Star w/”V” for pulling dudes out of a burning truck under fire absolutely factored in. “Doc” is still one of my favorites from back then… Wherever she is, I hope things are cool… she deserves it.

Anyways…
THAT was the excuse to can me.
The fact that I fucked off on the clock.

Mind you I’m the only one who was picked out for this tracking. I know for a fact that almost ALL the others on the team fuck off as well… it’s just that no one else was subjected to the microscope factor.

Not that I’m concerned.

One is because they’re paying me one months’ severance, all my remaining vacation time (almost 50 hours) is being paid out, and my earned bonuses (for reviews on Google and what) as ALSO being honored. That and that my ‘release letter’ states plainly that I resigned LOL. Hell… I got to ‘twist the knife today’ as at 13:00 before the fateful meeting, I got ANOTHER 5 star Goolag review… the Client in Question was so pleased that they asked my opinion of what they wrote while I was on the phone LOL. My understanding is that I was one of the absolute top tier performers… so anyways….

Two is because I’ve already got like three fallback positions, one is going tomorrow to work for GunGirl as the in-house gun guru. The other juuuust fell into my lap, but it has MAD potential… More intel on that as it develops…

And third and lastly?
Instead of being all upset and butthurt, I’m chill AF about it.
Like strangely relieved and happy. Everything else is just icing on Ye Olde Cake. One of my frens that I talked to today about said-subject, when I told him about the severance and other parts of the package, told me he thinks it’s the “Please don’t come and shoot us” Severance Plan. I LOL’d!

Not that I’d ever do anything like that.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Amen to that Aye?
So now?
Time to Chillax.
And this means y’all will be getting a LOT moar gun restoration poasts and projects. I have that .22 Bolt Action that I need to refinish, and then finish up the long-suffering SMLE that my fren helped me out with getting the barrel fitted.

The future’s so bright…
I gotta wear shades…

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
So, I appreciate all the congrats and thumbs up y’all have had for me and my project. I’m now in the home stretch if you will, and have been (again!) making MOAR! belts.

On that note:

…with the understanding that the two times there IS such a thing as too much is when you’re swimming in deep water and/or if you’re on fire….

Jes’ Sayin’

So I had a coupon from ammocanman dot com. 20? 25% off or something like that. I got it for I think buying a PILE of MREs from there during that time when the market was positively flooded… either way, when I get those ‘save on your next purchase’ cards when I receive a new toy that I’ve ordered, I have an envelope I stash them all in for a “just in case/later” sort of thing.

I realized I wanted some ammo cans to stash the SAW belts in. SO I got a 4-pack of what are most commonly referred to as “M-60 ammo cans”… the correct nomenclature being the M19A1. They were about $15 a piece, but with the coupon and free shipping, it worked out to $12 a can.

So that’s been my Sunday Project.
Cleaning up and painting the cans.

….and yeah, the paining area IS a shitshow. I mean it’s easy enough to clean up, but for now, there’s nothing that -I’m- worried about.

The cans for the most part are rust free, which is a plus, and I hit them with the proper OD Green (literal US DotMil issue) so I didn’t have to pain the entire can:

The color appears to be ‘off’, but I think it’s the lighting and that the paint was still wet when I shot that pic. I then laid them out in the sun to dry and get a sort of ‘baked’ dry if you will.

As you can see, the color is a ‘trick of the light’ as I stated before. Then I moved them inside.

After that, and once they were good to go, I broke out my stencil, taped it down and hit it with the yellow paint:

Now, THIS one is attempt #2 as attempt #1 for whatever reason ‘bled’ allllll over the place. I think it was because the stencil wasn’t flat enough to the can, and when the paint sprayed on, it went UNDER the places where it shouldn’t have, leaving a bled-over mess. I repainted the can, and this time I was faaar more careful in ‘laying’ the stencil down, as you can see in the pic.

And it worked out nicely:

The ‘roughness’ on the pain I think is pollen. The Lanai is positively covered in the stuff. Only this can seemed to get hit with it, so no big deal. I mean it IS an ammo can after all. It’s like going to be used and abused right?

Now since it IS a can designed for 7.62mm, I filled in the interior and bottom with some cardboard. Times like this make me thankful for the Zon and the copious amounts of cardboard they ship their ‘stuff’ in:

This alleviates the belt from banging around and getting all twisted and whatnot as without the cardboard spacers, the belt has waaay too much room to flail around in, and it’s also noisy as all get out. By putting the spacers in, it comes out like this:

I might add another layer on the next can… I mean cardboard? I have plenty!

You can also see the starter tab (the brown plastic plate) on the right side of the can as well. Over all, I’d say it worked out quite nicely for a weekend project.

And per my response to a comment: The overall weight of this, WITH an Optic and a 200 round drum should be about 23.5+/- pounds, which is 2 pounds lighter than a DotMil Issue M249.

Now the optic in question?
I found it on Palmetto State (of course)
Where in a Month or Two (after I pay off my current layaways) I’m looking at dropping MOAR coin on the sight for this. Namely:

FULL RETARD Mode ACTIVATED!!!

Why not right?
Seem to be my favorite phrase these days…

So other things:
Does anyone want/need 3 AC-Unity Windowed 30 round magazines for a VZ-58? My bro Cowboy came over yesterday in the A.M. to do a buffer tube swap-out on his Grandsons AR. A somewhat odd thing this was… The lower was a CMMG AR lower… everything mil-spec, except for the buffer tube.

For whatever reason it had a ‘standard size tube’. Meaning that mil-spec stocks couldn’t fit on it. The kid had bought a Magpul stock, but it wouldn’t go on ‘cos the ‘standard’ size diameter on the buffer tube is 0.05 of an inch larger than mil-spec.

This thing must be much older than I thought as ‘standard’ spec’d pieces-parts have pretty much went the way of the dinosaur. Sort of like AR-15 Bolt Carriers with that cut-out…

The primary difference between an M16 (full-auto) BCG and an AR-15 (semi-auto) BCG is that the M16 carrier has more material on the rear underside to actuate an auto sear, making it heavier and more robust. M16 BCGs are the industry standard for most AR-15 builds, offering better reliability, while AR-15 BCGs are lighter (H/T the Goolag AI).

It used to be as I recall illegal to have an M-16 BCG.

Nowadays?
I think 98% of ALL ARs built now have the M-16 BCG. And the same with buffer tubes and whatnot… so I switch out the tube. Now since I’m his so-to guy, he’d told me he’d picked up some extremely cheap mags for his AK. Problem was, they weren’t fitting at all. I told him to bring them along…

At first glance, they look OK.

Then on closer inspection:

Yeah… the spine is on the far right instead of centered, and the locking lug is on the far left instead of being centered.

The VZ-58 looks like an AK, and fires the same round, but is almost a completely different beast, as it uses a short stroke gas piston and has a bolt-hold open function. Looking at it up close, you can see the differences:

Seems Cowboy got 3 of them by accident…

Anyone want them?
Let me know in the comments or DM me.

So otherwise, like I said before, I’ve ‘tuned the static out’ from my headspace and timing. The only thing of note to me leastways was that it seems in Dublin, according to sources, the Gaurda (the cops) had a BIG ‘sick-out’ with over 400 fuzz calling in rather than face the wrath of the public.

Not sure which way it’s going to swing, but Ireland is over being told how to live by a bunch of unelected dictatorial beaurocrat scumbags from Brussels. Meh… let me know when they start killin’ politicians/traitors. Then I’ll start paying attention…

Speaking of which: Last thing for tonight.
New files added to the Library of Mayhem:

I loaded the files and are as complete as I can make them. The M1337 folder has the link in word format to go to the primary website, and buy some of the parts that you need over and above. The M1337 BTW, looks like this:

I have to get the 3D Printer back up online.
MAYBE this summer?
We’ll have to see.
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
OK
First off, I’m waiting for my upper. It has/had an 8 week lead time to a 16 week lead time in a worst case scenario. I was willing to chance it, as… I dunno… as reader Jay Dee commented “investing in functional metals.” is a perfect description of what I did.

So I figured I’d break it down like Barney so y’all can see what I’ve gone with. I do have to say that this’s the most expensive build I’ve ever done hands down. I thought the $2200 for the National Match M21/M1A was pricey…

Whoo-wee! I knew not of what I was getting into.

Now… firstly, when I started this project, I knew it’d be spendy. Most good/great toys are. When I initially went to the Lima Six website, almost everything was sold out. Like nada-nichts-neinte. I signed up for the “Notify Me” when back in stock, and let it go. That was mid January.

Mid February, I got notification that a bunch of the cool kid stuff was back in stock. One of the things was a $99 buffer and tube kit. I bought it, as I figured this would mentally ‘lock me in’ as it was the correct tube and buffer weight for the Lima Six upper.

Sure, I could have probably gotten it cheaper piecemeal, but I wanted to know I had gotten the name-brand so to speak exact right tube, spring and buffer, even if it was slightly overpriced… It’s a ‘my mental thing’ so you’d have to be inside my head to ‘get it’. It meant I had committed building this fucker.

And Lo and Behold.
I managed to ‘choose wisely’ in the Silver Market, and liquidated at a price that made me happy, and also allowed me to buy the upper, completed, with the Inconel gas tube, which according to my intel, a high-strength, corrosion-resistant nickel-chromium superalloy which for a Belt Fed is a great choice I’m thinking. It raised the price to $3074.98. Call it with shipping $3100.00 roughly.

Then came the lower.

Now, this thing can clip onto ANY AR lower, which gives it it’s appeal. Turn any baseline AR into a belt-fed Squad Automatic Weapon… what’s not to love?

Well… my own research made me realize I didn’t like the distance the ammo bag/box would have using the standard adapter. The adapter:

gets inserted into the magwell, and then the ammo bag/box adapter clips onto the bottom of that:

Now, to me?

That’s quite a distance for the belt to travel. This (to me) is a bit far… lots of chances to snag the belt or allow shit to get in there as if one is ‘running and gunning as opposed to a situational dug-in defense…

That happened one time during a CALFEX where we were running through the woods, and when I ran through some particularly thick brush, the branches ‘grabbed’ my ammunition belt, pulling it out of the box… the belt didn’t snap but a bunch of the rounds got all fucked up, and I had to re-align them to make sure I didn’t have a jam, as well as re-stuff them into the box.

That took time to fix.

Plus, the adapter is 3-D printed.
I’m all for 3-D printing, but I know that the PLA does have long term issues with use, UV breakdown and the like. Granted that Lima uses SLS Nylon, I’m still very wary.

So… because of this, I started researching.
And found a Lower specifically designed for Belt Fed ARs

Link to it is HERE
Yeah
A bit pricey… but hey, If you’re going to go Retard with Weapons, You Always Go Full Retard.

Now… this was originally made for the FlightLite MCR series of belt-fed uppers. Thing is, the MCR STARTING PRICE is a grand more, with the higher end models starting at $7000.00!!! Like Holy FUCK!!!

Considering a military contract FN SAW costs only $4100?

Yeeeeeah… porking the consumer IMO.
ESPECIALLY that the reviews on the MCRs in general are VERY metsoo-metz. Lots of complaints about tuning it, lots of complaints that the belt has to be practically soaked in CLP…
Yeah… to an old SAW Gunner like myself?
Hard Pass
Even if I had “Fuck You” Money.

So…
I got the Black Widow lower, as well as an adapter specifically designed to move the ammo box/bag to it’s ‘proper feeding’ location. Seems the MCR (which the BFAR was designed for) has a different feed distance and angle. That adapter moves the ammo forward about 1/2 an inch, which allows the Lima Six to feed without having a minor ‘twist’ in the belt:

When installed, well… it works beuatifully.
And so here’s the Reveal:

I went with a Tapco SAW Grip. Tapco got bought out back in 2021, and most of their ‘stuff’ is now just a memory. This one is the real deal that I found from a guy on Reddit. Link is HERE.

He apparently has black AND tan CAGE stamped genuine SAW grips, as you can see on mine. The SAW grip is a chonky-boi compared to other grips, which allows big pawed dudes like me to rock on a SAW or equivalent. Love me that grip IMO.

The Adapter for the nutsack, when installed looks like this:

It slides in, and locks in with a set-screw, which I squirted with some Locktite 222 as I don’t want it coming loose. The trigger assembly is a standard AR until I can figure out the FRT side of things, as the legality here in Florida is retarded. I’m also waiting on the bolt catch/release as you need one that will fit, as the upper sticks out over the edge of the lower, so a standard paddle release gets in the way and needs to be either cut, or in this case, a proper flatter longer turned release is installed.

Without the nutsack attached (that BTW is a 200 round DotMil Issued bag, $150.00 retail) looks like this:

The rear stock is the highly adjustable Magpul LRS.

Adjustable comb, as well as length and even the recoil pad is adjustable. My only complaint about it is that it doesn’t come with instructions, so I had to youtube the vidya to get the intel for installation and function. $99.00 on ar15discounts dot com.

Add on the 1500 in M27 links, the ammo and whatnot ‘stuff’ like a good bipod (which is an absolute necessity) that’ll eventually get added, it’ll break the $4500 level in the end.

Which I’m comfortable with.

So that’s my night.
Hope everyone else is cool.

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Nope… I’m still alive.
My hands have just been beat on just a wee bit.
I bought a BIG pile of M193 5.56mm. Then I got a bunch of M27 links… The past few days have been me, manually loading and building 200 round belts.

It’s been relaxing TBH
No news
No bullshit…
I just pull up Netflix, throw on a couple of old James Bond flicks, and spend the night building a 1-5 Tracer (M856, which is running low… I need to source more) Mixed Belt with the M193 Ball. The markers are to re-do the color coding as a lot of the original green/orange is worn off from banging around loose in an ammo can…

I’ve done 4 belts now…

So between burning out my hands with the arthritis and loading 800+/- rounds into 200 round belts of hatred, I really couldn’t get into the typing thing that much.

I got one (so far) 200 round soft drum for it:

I got one 100 round ‘nutsack’ floating around in my gear -somewhere- but I haven’t had much luck finding it so far. These things happen when your house resembles a Army Surplus Store amiright?

Tonight tho, I’m pretty much done, and have recovered. Between a fuckton of Voltaren and arthritis Tylenol, I’m surviving.

This lack of painkillers is beginning to seriously cramp my style however. EVERYTHING hurts. Meh. I’ll live, but I’ll be bitching about it.

As far as the Middle East?
No longer care.
EVERYTHING is Fake as Fuck and Ghey.
I no longer have the ‘bandwidth’ to care about it. Yeah, I’m watching it, but purely as a disinterested JAFO. Just Another Fucking Observer. Commentators, we got plenty of in the Blog-O-Sphere.

I’m watching to see just how fucked we might be.

Hence my focus on BLOAT (Buy Lots Of Ammo Today) and stocking a deeper larder. Things like watching the Zon for canned foods on sale. I got a case of one pound canned hams for $5 a can. With an expiration date of August 2030.

12 pounds of ham for $70 for the deep storage?
Not bad right?
So yeah. Part of it is that I know waaay deep down that the DotGov is covering up what have to be MASSIVE casualties. The BDA (Battle Damage Assessments) of some of the places in Kuwait I know personally… as in I used to work in those buildings… Arifjan, Buehring, Shuaiba… all of it blown to fuck all… and yet not ONE casualty/fatality outside of the first five that they put out there…

It’s the reaction to those first five dead that caused this… the hiding of the rest of the dead and wounded like the Krainians. The “Krainian Klownshow Kasualty Kount” is in full effect. Lie, lie, lie some more, and have a non-extraditable country to run to when the truth comes out. Those 5 poor bastards who got hit? Instead of “Rallying the Country Around Old Glory” the reaction was why the fuck did they die and what for? That and a concentrated “Fuck Israel” attitude.

Which is oh so prevalent on Twitter, Reddit and Facebook even.
EVERYONE now hates the Israelis.
And they keep trying to make it that “You’re an antisemite!!!” which no, that’s not it… I’m NOT an anti-semite.

I’m anti-Israeli.

Most people don’t have a problem with Jews in general. It’s the people actively murdering women and children, raping men women and children and having the audacity to laugh and brag about it. I.E. the fucking Israelis.

I’d personally say I HOPE Iran has a nuke and fucking uses it on Tel Aviv. If they won’t go in the oven, well then… bring the oven to them… Nasty fucking Ziococks.

So that’s where I’m at tonight.
Hope everyone is well!
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Just a short one tonight.
In addition to the Challenger Disaster and my slight connection via my fren in High School and his cousin and the absolute horror that he saw while being a Coastie Rescue diver on that mission… there’s another close connection I have.

In this case it’s from Little Country, my partner in crime for about 20+ years. Unfortunately due to circumstances and some other stuff I won’t go into unfortunately we’re no longer on speaking terms. Middle Country and I are still tight, but L.C.? Notsomucho.

An interesting fact or two to begin with. L.C. was born and raised in the Bayou in Louisiana. Half Cajun on his pappy’s side, when I first met him, at Christmastime First Wife and I went over to his rented house in Copperas Cove while we stationed at “The Hood”. His front lawn had, no shit, a pirogue with Santa in the cockpit, being pulled by 12 little wooden cutout Gators, all painted up with lights and the whole nine yards.

Middle Country is ALSO a ‘ragin’ Cajun’ from Louisiana… he’s a retire Command Sergeant Major who used to run the NCO academy for the Guard and Reserve back in the day…

No idea why, but two of my closest brothers in arms for the Afghanistan/Iraqi time, were both Cajuns…
Worked for me…
Fuckers know how to cook that’s for damned sure…

Yeah…
Anyone north of I-10 was a goddamned Yankee.
Me?
Despite my extreme Northern birth both Middle and Little took me for what I was, which according to Middle was “”Welllll Big Country, when he was born, it was like that ole looney tune cartoon with that drunk stork… a good ole Soth’ron boy got unfortunately dropped up off in the North, and some poor damned Yankee-baby was prolly dropped in the deep south… B.C. is just here reclaiming what –should– have been his birthright!”

I’ll have to agree.
Never did fit in up there, and down here?
I’m definitely home if’n you will.

So here’s the thing about L.C. His dad? Well to look at him, he’s a short, white haired, bowlegged, bum-looking ‘old dude’ who gives off a vibe of ‘too many years/too many beers’… Cigarette stain ‘stache… hard hands with a lot of callouses… a man who know and appreciated hard work.

Now… here’s the kicker.
NEVER judge a book by it’s cover.
The man had more doctoral degrees than I can even count, and knew Dr. Willy Ley… Yeah… that Dr. Ley… the guy who helped essentially (pardon the pun) the modern space age via his writing and research. He also worked with Werner Von Braun, and I’ve seen a pic of L.C. being held by him when he was (L.C.) a toddler around 1973+/- from back in the day…

Wild right?

I once sat down with Scottie and he blew me away. I mean the guy looks like a dude who’d be asking you for spare change on a subway right? Ball cap… torn up jeans that’re ripped all-to-Hell… the guy just ‘didn’t look the part’…

At L.C.’s wedding in Costa Rica I got quite a few stories about the various “Oh Shit” incidents that NASA had during the Space Shuttle program, as Scottie was one of their -go-to’ guys for problem solving. Like how he had to go on eBay to find pieces/parts to ‘upgrade’ the remaining shuttle fleet after the Columbia Disaster…

Seems that was actually S.O.P. as the means of printing a board, or I should say the equipment that the company who originally built the Space Shuttle(s), namely North American Rockwell had, after completing the ‘run’ of the build(s), had shut down and sold off the ‘stuff’ you needed to make replacement parts.

Scottie used to have to chase down pieces/parts to do upgrades and whatnot. He worked out of Stennis and Huntsville for the most part, trying to “…avoid that damned Florida pestilence!”

Guy is (was? not sure since I lost contact if he’s kicking) one of the more fascinating Hoomons I’ve ever met. An absolute case of not judging a boot by it’s cover for sure.

So otherwise, just a wee bit of a wander down memory lane.
I’m still trying to make sense of the “rescue” (which is most NOT making any sense) so we’ll see

I have that detector that’s positively screaming at me:

DEEP in the red..
And as I get more intel, and chew it over, we’ll talk.

So Happy Easter!
More Later
Big Country