Friday's Dispatch/Old Draft Clean-Up (on aisle 7)

• Texas DPS has been conspicuously absent for months on my commute as they have as I understand been sent South to protect us from potential roofers and landscapers. If speeding is the killer they say it is and their ticket writing is not a money making racket as they say it is not- my drive time would have been a Mad Max style death fest every single day for the past several months.
• If you drive the posted speed limit (without or without cops along the way) you will absolutely be a road hazard. At about 10 miles per hour over you will still be getting passed by everybody but at least you may not get yourself killed. Most people drive about 15-20 MPH over. The only wrecks I have ever seen commuting over many years and hundreds of thousands miles over the same route were cars rear-ending each other while  rubbernecking cops stopping people, several that were weather related and 2 that were probably caused by somebody texting and randomly rear-ending other cars.
• Regarding a Nepali born business acquaintance somebody said of him, You know, it was the craziest thing. Another Nepali guy he had never met- never even seen before came into the office and told him he had locked his keys in his car. Without missing a beat Arjun gave the guy his keys- to his rental car so he could go home and get his extra set of keys.
• Listening to sports talk radio is so mind numbingly boring I tune it out while waiting for the Observation Deck with Gordo in the TICKET and it becomes sort of like background white noise.
• When a pro sports team talks about rehab, counseling, mentoring.. for a player who has committed some heinous crime as opposed to firing him immediately; I know the guy is not only capable or average and he is sure not borderline in his talents- he is a star performer and the team has sold their soul to the Devil to keep him- no matter how awful he is and terrible his crime(s).
• The news this morning (04/17/2015) was about the fall of towns to ISIS near Ramadi in Al Anbar and the threat to Ramadi itself. It specifically mentioned 3 small villages near Ramadi. There were 2-3 small villages toward Ramadi that I dealt with during my tenure in Iraq. Interestingly, in one the people there seemed to like us (or at least tolerate our presence) and the other just down the road hated our guts with a purple passion. Anyway, I thought of them and wondered if the villages mentioned were the ones with which I was familiar.
• Update: After a map recon, I'd nearly bet those villages were the ones with which I was thinking of as they dominate the route between Baghdad and Ramadi.
• The red tailed hawk is now the official raptor of This Week Tonight. To the hateful politicians highlighted in the piece: Take a break- you don't have to be awful every day of your life you jackwagon. Bonus: You do know you do yourself and your party no favors right?!
• PS to my dear reader: That guy is literally, obviously and demonstrably mentally ill. His response from that floor was not the response of a  normal and sane person.

Consider Your Mind Blown

Thursday's Thoughts

• A rather cute friendly aquaintance hates having her picture made and considers herself very un-photogenic. It is funny how we look at ourselves- she is actually very pretty,  quite photogenic and almost always takes nice pictures.
• It is 0648 on 03/22/2015 and pouring rain outside.
• My eldest son is a taller, more muscled up, smarter and better looking version of me. 
• 5: the number of fish my children caught today- one cat and 4 sunfish.
• We set the remaining worms free under some leaf litter near Holland's Lake.
• My 600 Pound Life is a very well done, interesting show.
• Across The Great Divide is so far a cute movie I somehow missed all my life until this evening. So far the most memorable scene had the main character rolling down a hill wrestling an apparent live mountain lion and then free falling with an apparently live mountain lion into a river. Well, most memorable that is until a pack of real wolves (or very wolf looking dogs) is being shown attacking a real dog and real people are whacking the wolves with real sticks.
• I am serious- some things I don't think you can fake.
• Give Danger 5 a chance. You'll find it in Netflix's awesome section.
• At work yesterday (03/25/2015) we had a lunch for a coworker who is leaving. I made a plate for one of the evening people and sent her an Email to tell her it was in the fridge. She came to my office and asked where it was. We went to the kitchen together and emptied half the fridge looking for it as I couldn't believe it was gone. There was a plate similarly packaged but it wasn't the one I placed in the fridge. I was furious and this morning told a few people about it and how sorry the person who jacked that food was etc. A coworker looked in the fridge and pulling a plate out said, Is this it? Oddly- it was. Somebody took it home thinking it was theirs then realizing it wasn't brought it back this morning.
• Faith. In. Humanity Restored.

May The Fourth...

be with you...

Gitchie Goomie An Original Poem By el chupacabra

By the shores of Gitchie Goomie
A singular line of verse
and that is all I know- so why don't you sue me?

It was used on some old TV show
I've heard it from people from Michigan
wherever I go

There may be a line to the effect: On the shore did mighty ______
stand
That might be a product of my fertile
mind-land.

It may be an Indian name
At least if I didn't have a lifeline left
that is what I would claim.

It is starting to come more clear
A neighbor to the North who is Light of Foot mentioned it in a song
about a ship that was lost on a night so drear.

Thats it. I've got it!

Lake Bridgeport

Refrigerator

TOW Talk Tuesday

• War pron: TOW missile compilation. Man- some of those shots show some talent, experience and training. Missiles are being bent around obstacles and leads made around obstructions and terrain. I mean- holy smokes some of those guys are good.
• 3750 meters: if I recall correctly the maximum effective range.
• When I first qualified with the TOW2 the max effect range was classified.
• 12 pounds of Octom: if I recall correctly the amount and type of explosive.
• It is pronounced, toe and stands for Tube launched Optically tracked Wire guided.
• The smallest tank turret might weigh 20 tons and could be blown completely off a tank by the force of a TOW detonation.
• Why would a crew not see it coming or hear it launch you ask? Well, they might see it launch if they are looking at the launch site at the exact moment one is fired- maybe but they would have to process the launch as a launch in the first place and not a mortar strike or whatever on the launch site itself and then act appropriately. Wouldn't you see fire and smoke from the rocket? No, it doesn't shoot flames out and leave a smoke trail like a bottle rocket. As for hearing it- it travels nearly the speed of sound. It travels slow enough to not make a big sonic boom as it passes the speed of sound but fast enough for the detonation to reach you about the time the report of the launch does,
• It is nasty is what I'm saying.
• It is nasty and cheap as missiles go and is nearly 50 years old,
• People  like to gloat that the ones being seen used in the M.E. these days against forces ostensibly liked by the US are being killed by a US made product. Easy there tiger- a lot of those are reversed engineered Iranian products.

Monday's Missives

• Something I have done that you have not: Jimmy open the door of a primate house of a zoo with a pocket knife and step inside and look around. It was stinky and unnerving.
• Yes- and stupid and incredibly irresponsible.
• I mean that was 30+ years ago. What if they had gotten out? They would have evolved into being our masters and we would be in cages and doing odd jobs for them by now.
• Longmire isn't awful but is a bit simplistic and predictable for my taste.
• I love driving in the rain.
• A friend was in a car that was struck by a drunk driver. Her sister was killed. The drunk went to prison for what I thought was a shockingly long time. It was such a long time it caused me to ask (or really more or less state) So, I can guess it wasn't her first DWI?! My friend replied, No, no it was her first offence. It wouldn't have been so bad for her except for the way she acted on the dash cam. She was screaming at the cop who responded and cursing him and calling him all kinds of nasty names.  Is it just me or did that scenario ( which I am sure is both true and correctly related) not make any sense? She just killed someone and we're freaked out over her being unlady like?! Was it her attitude that bothers us? What if she was bawling her eyes out saying she was sorry and fainted-  would that somehow make it better?! Why would we then presume some kind of sincere remorse instead of assuming she was just well- drunk but was still aware she had just ruined her own life and ended another?
• Today is 10/27/2015. Man, the moon has been big the past couple of days.