09:18 – Barbara filled her gas tank yesterday morning, and will fill it again if she starts to see lines at gas stations or any other indication that fuel may be hard to come by. With the spate of bombings and attempted bombings in the NYC and NJ area, it’s unclear just what’s going on. She’ll be back Thursday. Colin and I can’t wait.
I’ve always favored proportional response, so it seems to me that we should trade them bomb for bomb. Any time musloid terrorists detonate one bomb in the US, we should respond by detonating one nuke over a musloid city, starting with Mecca. Tit for tat.
Colin and I ate dinner from long-term storage again last night: ground beef Stroganoff over rice. Tonight we’ll have a chicken pasta casserole. We’re finding that it’s not all that difficult to make tasty meals from long-term food storage, but it’s important to actually make those meals during normal times rather than just stocking up on what you think you’ll need. To get started, I’ll again recommend buying a copy of Jan Jackson’s 100 Day Pantry and trying out some of the recipes. And visit websites like Jamie Cooks It Up for more recipe ideas that use LTS foods.
One item that’s often overlooked in designing an LTS food plan is keeping the protein balanced. Grains provide a significant amount of protein, but the amino acid profile of that protein is unbalanced. One can literally starve to death eating only grains, even if you’re otherwise getting plenty of protein. The problem is the essential amino acids that are absent or present only in inadequate amounts in grain protein. You can supplement that with animal proteins, which are relatively expensive, but you can also supplement it with bean/legume proteins, which have the amino acids that are lacking in grain proteins. We store what most people would consider a lot of canned animal proteins, mostly chicken and ground beef, but we also store a lot of beans. Those two can also be combined in various recipes like chili, which include meat and/or TVP for flavor and beans for the bulk of the protein. Incidentally, the amino acid profile of beans is also unbalanced, so you can’t survive on just beans. You also need the grains to balance the protein there.
Another mistake that many people make in designing their LTS food plan is basing quantities on current consumption. In a long-term emergency, your food consumption pattern will change, probably a great deal. No more restaurant meals, convenience foods, ordering take-out, pizza deliveries, snacks from vending machines, etc. And you will probably end up eating much more of some items than you do during normal times. For example, Barbara and I both like pancakes, but we don’t have them very often because it takes longer than just cooking fresh foods and it makes a mess of the kitchen. But in a long-term emergency, we’d certainly be eating more pancakes–many more–and we need to plan quantities accordingly.
For example, when Barbara looks at a 10-pound bag of Krusteaz buttermilk pancake mix, she sees enough pancake mix to last the two of us a year or more. Same thing the other day when we ran out of pancake syrup and I opened another gallon.
But in a long term emergency, things change big-time. Instead of feeding just Barbara and me, we may be feeding Frances and Al, not to mention Colin. That means we’d need maybe 2.5 times as much pancake mix and syrup as we normally use. And instead of having pancakes maybe once every three weeks, we might be having them two or three times a week. And the pancakes would make up a much higher percentage of those meals’ nutrition because we might be serving them alone instead of with bacon and eggs or whatever. That means that what looks to Barbara like a year’s supply of pancakes may actually last us only a week or two in a serious emergency. And we need to stock accordingly, if not specifically Krusteaz pancake mix, at least the flour, egg powder, oil, and other items needed to make pancakes from scratch.
10:51 – Things have turned very bad very quickly in Sparta. Lori just delivered the mail and told me that she may not be able to run her route tomorrow because she’s low on fuel and all of the gas stations in the county are out of gas. I thought USPS would have its own fueling point, but apparently not. I immediately called Barbara and let her know what was going on. Gas stations in New Jersey are still open, and the guy told her yesterday when she filled up that they didn’t expect to be impacted until late this week. She’s going to take the ferry across the bay, which will save her about four hours of driving. She thinks she can get home on the full tank. I told her to fill up at every opportunity on the way home, even if she’s down only a gallon or two and regardless of price, and that if she does run out of gas to call me and I’ll come get her. I have about 22 gallons in the Trooper, which should give me at least 350 miles of range with some reserve if I drive at optimum speed. That means that as long as she can make it to within 200 miles or so of home that I can go get her.
I thought when I originally read about the pipeline problem that things were probably worse than they were admitting, and it looks like I was right. USPS being unable to deliver could be life-threatening for folks who get critical medications by mail. I just hope the supply situation is remedied soon. Once Barbara gets home, we can hunker down and await developments, but a lot of people are going to be seriously inconvenienced by this. If it goes on a few more days, a lot of businesses will have problems because key people can’t get to work. I hope that transportation will be okay for now with what diesel stocks they have or can obtain, but I’d guess that in a week or ten days transportation might start winding down. Let’s hope the pipeline is fixed before that.
Did Colin eat all his rice?
Yes.
So I’ve decided to alter my food prepping plan. I’m storing everything I need to make peanut butter cookies and oatmeal cookies. Of course with some milk or milk alternative to wash them down. With a healthy supply of vitamin C tablets so I don’t get scurvy.
So I have been thinking of dabbling with various electronic projects, and I have been looking at lithium ion batteries and the reports of shall we say thermal issues. The two biggest problems seem to be overcharging and overdischarging. Also there seem to be issues with packs made up of multiple cells when one cell goes dead.
There are circuits available to prevent overcharging, and there are circuits available to prevent overdischarging. Some lithium ion batteries even include the discharge protection circuitry. Anyone have any thoughts on the subject of lithium batteries?
Well, if that’s what floats your boat.
I remember doing a search for “hamburger cookies”. I was excited to see that Google turned up dozens of recipes. The problem was, none of them included actual MEAT. All of them just looked kinda like hamburgers. What use is that?
Ummm, they catch fire?
Whenever you have high energy density, you run the risk of that energy being released in a way that you don’t like. Some Li chemistries are more likely to catch fire than others.
I can’t think of a hobbyist application other than transportation where you would NEED Li batteries. (sure robot wars, drones, but those can stretch to transportation)
Especially for a beginner, I’d say stick with proven safe solutions.
nick
added- and if you must use Li, don’t try to roll your own, get a system.
I have several 16850 based FLASHLIGHTS and love them. I only buy regulated batteries for use in them. I use a Nitecore charger hooked up to my cheap ass Harbor Freight solar array to charge them. I’m not skilled enough, yet, in my electronics hobby to build a charging circuit. I would say they are a must for high energy uses as Mr. Nick says.
I’m being silly about the cookie thing, but seriously it would a pleasant change from all that rice and bread. Since most peanut butter cookies contain flour as well as peanut butter, they would provide all the amino acids you need.
I have been involved in the design of battery packs. We outsourced the design and testing, but owned the design.
There are a lot of considerations on Li-Ion batteries. The design should be customized for the exact cells used and the charge/discharge profile. Set points and temperatures are critical and getting it wrong can be exciting.
There are a number of charge and discharge controllers that can be used if you want to roll your own. Be conservative and do not take shortcuts. Quality and location of the temperature sensor(s), quality of the load sense elements, and interconnect design are important.
Lots of research is required. To meet transportation laws, there is a certain amount of independent testing required.
I would buy a solution before I spun my own.
I just posted an update to today’s entry. Things are getting pretty bad in Sparta.
I concur with Clayton W. on Li Ion batteries. I did the final edit and rammed through approval the battery safety document for the Orion spacecraft. Orion had a large Li Ion battery system, charged by solar cells. The safety requirements for the design ran to 40-50 pages. There are some really nasty failure modes for them that involve high temperatures, explosive venting, and fires. Mitigating them in multicell designs requires significant monitoring and a smart control system. Orion was going to have a lot of cells and had a significant control system to be able to drop cell clusters in and out of the system, to monitor charge/discharge curves to spot bad cells, etc.
WRT Lithium batteries (or any of the other new technology batteries for that matter): from what I read, all the problems with fire and explosion are really due to manufacturing sloppiness and shortcuts. The designs have very tight and exacting specs (as well as component purity) that seem to be beyond many of the low bid manufacturers. The companies, like Samsung, need too bear some of the blame because shaving that 1/10th of a cent off the manufacturing process is being the proverbial old “penny wise and pound foolish”.
“The U.S. government has mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 immigrants from countries of concern to national security or with high rates of immigration fraud who had pending deportation orders, according to an internal Homeland Security audit released Monday.”
And there is more in the whole article:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-800-immigrants-mistakenly-granted-citizenship-130452164–politics.html
Sorry to use a Yahoo link, but all the other sites that have the story are behind paywalls and/or will not work with ad-blockers.
This is just one of the factors of fraud that will make history this November.
“… we need to stock accordingly, if not specifically Krusteaz pancake mix, at least the flour, egg powder, oil, and other items needed to make pancakes from scratch…”
Robert, which oils do you recommend for LTS, and how best does one store them to prevent them becoming rancid, please?
I was in France a few days ago and very tempted to buy a 5-litre metal canister or two of nice local extra-virgin olive oil, but each would probably equal or exceed our normal total annual consumption, and I wasn’t sure about how to keep it fresh anyway.
We normally use extra-virgin (green) olive oil for most salads and seasoning, and regular (yellow) olive oil for low-temperature cooking. I generally also have rapeseed and peanut oil on hand for high-temperature cooking (wok), and usually also some oils of almond, sunflower, sesame, pumpkin-seed and hazelnut as condiments. For the couple of times a year that I deep-fry anything, I have a couple of kilos of hardened hydrogenated vegetable fat on hand (I would prefer to use beef dripping for the flavor,* but the smell is persistent and objectionable).
I am mildly allergic to walnuts, so I don’t use walnut oil or nuts, and I note that some of my family members are allergic to peanuts, so I couldn’t cook for them with peanut oil if they happened to be here in a pinch.
*The absolutely best fish & chips were those cooked in beef dripping over a coal fire at Leo Burdock’s shop at Christchurch, Dublin. I remember them from my childhood, piping hot, wrapped in newspaper and wafting of malt vinegar. Alas, I think even Burdock’s has gone over to vegetable oil and electric heating.
The hurricane country recommendation of storing enough gasoline to double the range of your vehicles comes to mind. Doesn’t help you if you are away from home like Barbara, but it would double your ‘white knight’ range….
I just checked and I have 27 gal of treated gas in cans. Both trucks have almost full tanks, but that is just coincidence.
nick
Just read the update. I hope Barbara can top off her tank and get home quickly and safely. Best wishes for the hunkering down.
Thanks for the Sparta, NC sitrep, Bob. I am notifying Mrs. OFD accordingly again, though I told her about this stuff last night and advised filling up her rental car’s tank and stocking up on food and water at her Air B&B cottage. She’s a bit to your southeast this week, in Charleston, SC. Double whammy of the pipeline and approaching storm, I gather.
I am not assuming that in light of these events her employer or the coordinating training organization there will cancel the class this week and let the two instructors go home.
This is worrisome; at roughly the same level of worry I had when she was in TX during the week of 9/11 and stuck there while aircraft were all grounded.
I found this free cookbook from the LDS web site.
Daughter 04 lives in the Philly area and I advised her to keep the tanks full.
I hope they get the pipeline fixed soon, but even if they do, I think there are going to be east coast supply issues for all petroleum products for a while.
“I found this free cookbook from the LDS web site.”
Yes, that’s one of the ones I’ve printed out on three-hole punched paper and put in our recipes binder.
Geez. Today’s Coffin Cankles video response to the terrorist attacks is worse than the weekends:
Say three words
Lift head, move head right to left
Say three words, move head right to left
Repeat through whole speech using monotone
End with gulp of szzurp
She is dead from the neck up.
Odooshnozzle’s Press Secretary Josh Earnest:
“We are in a fight with ISIS — a narrative fight. In some ways this is actually just a war of narratives so we want to make sure that we get out our counter-narrative against ISIL.”
WTF, over! How about “Launch Vipers!” against the bastards. Kill on sight! Drop some bombage on Mecca!
Fukstiks can’t even say TERRORISTS.
“Robert, which oils do you recommend for LTS, and how best does one store them to prevent them becoming rancid, please?”
The best oils/fats both for shelf-life and human health are the ones that are the most saturated. Unsaturated fats are less stable, and polyunsatured ones even more so. Fats that have been hydrogenated are excellent, because hydrogenation eliminates the double bonds in unsaturated fats, and those double bonds are where rancidity occurs.
Animal fats tend to be highly saturated, often 50% or more. That’s why lard or tallow has an extremely long shelf life, even stored at room temperature, as long as you prevent air from contacting it as much as possible. I don’t know about Europe, but in the US Walmart sells a 4-pound plastic tub of Armour Lard for little money. The tub I just looked at in our kitchen has a best-by date of May, 2018, or two years after we got it. And it says on the front “refrigeration not required”. I suspect it’ll be fine at room temperature for at least 5 years, if not 10. Something like Crisco shortening also has a very long actual shelf-life.
We also store olive oil and ordinary vegetable oil such as corn, sunflower, and canola (GMO rapeseed). Unopened and sitting on the shelf in their original PET containers, I’ve not been able to detect any degradation in them after three years. Even open, the large (10 to 20 liter) containers that Barbara gets for frying and so on seem to be fine for at least a year with no apparent problems. We keep 15 liters or so of Costco Extra-Virgin Olive Oil in our vertical freezer, where I suspect it’ll remain good for at least 10 or 20 years. Actually, it’s olive fat, because it solidifies in the freezer, always a good sign.
Hidden in plain sight. How many more are there?
http://www.nytimes.com/live/new-york-explosion/a-family-business-that-aggravated-neighbors/
ALL mooslems must be deported now!
Edit: best “oils” for LTS — on the hoof: pigs and cows, chickens too (schmaltz is very tasty).
“double your ‘white knight’ range….”
Or let me drive 175 or 200 miles out and refill her tank so she could drive back.
I actually thought about going out the other day and buying several gas cans, but I figured they were probably sold out already. Once things calm down a bit, I’ll probably buy at least three or four of the 6-gallon cans and keep them full and rotated.
Incidentally, Barbara isn’t coming home today. She originally planned to come home Thursday, and that’s what she’s going to do. It’d take more than this level of emergency to make her change her plans.
Want to know how to get MORE of something? Wage a ‘war’ on it.
War on drugs?
War on poverty?
War on illiteracy?
War on illegitimacy?
War on terror?
Pretty clear that the “war on x” concept is flawed in a significant way. Maybe because once you set up the infrastructure for the “war” everyone with a ricebowl has an economic interest in keeping it going? But then, maybe I don’t see the problem clearly. After all, I’m not a graduate of a prestigious East Coast university and not a member of any secret societies…..
nick
Wow. Thanks! In that case, I will buy a few cans of good olive oil at the next opportunity and freeze some whole, plus look out for hard fat for long-term storage.
Bet this guy gets in trouble for having a gun in a “gun free” zone:
http://bearingarms.com/bob-o/2016/09/19/man-shot-crossroads-mall-terrorist-uspsa-competitor-3-gun-shooter/
Bet this guy gets in trouble for having a gun in a “gun free” zone
Yep. The result of Libturdian “zero tolerance” policies. ZTP’s never work right. Look at our schools. A little kid brings a plastic knife to school in his lunch and he’s hung out to dry. The Principal can’t even say “don’t do that again.” Oh, no. Take away responsible decisions is the Libturdian way. The hero will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law unless ordinary citizens make an uproar about a no-brainer decision.
If he doesn’t get in trouble, it will be because he was an off duty police officer. I hope the fact that he was still a part time officer will be enough to keep him out of trouble.
@dadcooks,
Nope he’s a former cop/current reserve cop. Gets to carry where ever he wants.
His bio makes him sound pretty cool, and if he’s matched on a team with some of those pros due to ability, he’s pretty good at competitive shooting. I’m not a super fan, but I recognize several of the people he’s been teamed with.
I saw the speed loads in his picture in the reporting and knew that he was a competitor. I’ll take him as an anti- to the argument that if you train for competition, you’re just gonna get yourself killed in the Real World ™. [there may be some merit to the argument, and he’s clearly training more than just competition, but it is often used as an excuse not to train at all.]
One for the good guys, in any case.
nick
I predict that the fuel situation in the NYC area won’t start to get better until two weeks after they fix the leak. Everyone on the east coast will remember this come election day, the question is will it influence their votes and how.
I just called the Sparta USPS office to ask if they thought they’d be able to get enough fuel to run deliveries tomorrow. She said it doesn’t look like it now. I asked if they’d be able to run pickup requests for Priority Mail. She said they’d do their best, but she wouldn’t count on it. I asked if I had packages with postage labels with tomorrow’s date on them if they’d honor those labels even if they couldn’t pick up for a few more days. She said not to worry about that. They’d honor them until they were able to pick them up. At this point, they’re apparently not even sure if they’ll be getting the USPS tractor trailer delivering to the post office and picking up outgoing packages.
I suppose I could drive them down to the post office myself, but I really don’t want to use half a gallon of gas to do that, at least until Barbara is safely home.
One of my partners stores gasoline on two of his properties (TX and CO) in a 200+ gallon propane tank. He gets 100 gallons of gasoline delivered at time without alcohol in it. The gasoline is for off-road use only for his boat and snowmobiles. He has had trouble lately getting more deliveries without a special use permit which is not required in either location but the delivery companies are nervous. He keeps the gasoline in a large propane container so it will not off-gas and go bad.
Hmm, can’t just leave any old thing lying around these days:
“Did THIEVES keep a second explosive from going off in Manhattan? Sources claim robbers inadvertently disabled pressure cooker bomb by taking it out of rolling suitcase – which they stole
Two young men found pressure cooker on 27th Street , DNA Info reports
It was inside a rolling suitcase but they put it in a garbage bag, sources said
They took the suitcase and left having unknowingly deactivated the bomb
The two men are not believed to have played a part in the explosions
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3796930/Did-THIEVES-second-explosive-going-Manhattan-Sources-claim-robbers-inadvertently-disabled-pressure-cooker-bomb-taking-rolling-suitcase-stole.html”
And in NJ:
“Late Sunday, two homeless men found a backpack inside a trash can near the Elizabeth, New Jersey train station – about a mile from the Rahami’s fried chicken restaurant. The two men took the backpack to a train track underpass and opened the bag, finding five pipe bombs inside. The frightened men then ran to police and reported the bag.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3796411/FBI-hunts-armed-dangerous-man-28-Manhattan-New-Jersey-bombings.html“
One report says Tannerite residue on one bomb, black powder on the other.
Might be time to get ahead of the curve and stock up…..
n
USPS seems silent on the issue:
https://about.usps.com/news/service-alerts/welcome.htm
Re USPS:
Yep, I just checked that, too. I’m not sure USPS central has any idea yet how badly they’re being impacted by the fuel shortage.
And I just called Barbara to let her know of my concern, and suggest that she cut her vacation short and head home. She’s upset with me, claiming that I’m trying to ruin her vacation. Normalcy bias writ large…
There’s an equally sensible alternative. She could stay where she is until ten days after they fix the break. Oh, wait. We don’t know when that will be.
And things could get ugly any time. I don’t think they will, but they easily could if this lasts a lot longer than people are expecting.
I’m not sure how one would go about detonating Tannerite in an IED. It’s shock-sensitive to high-velocity rifle bullets, but unless you’re going to shoot it or have a supply of blasting caps it’s just going to sit there and fizzle.
A little kid brings a plastic knife to school in his lunch and he’s hung out to dry
I wonder if I can get into trouble by having a small pocket knife, blade 1 inch long, that I keep on my key ring when I am school property when I sub for a teacher? The prior SRO knew I had the knife on me and said no big deal. New SRO this year and I have not asked him. Maybe keeping quiet is the better option.
I suppose if they find that I have the knife they can slam me to the floor, call in a SWAT unit, couple of dogs, two ambulances, three fire trucks, all three local news stations and a partridge in a pear tree. I could get tazed multiple times, maybe even popped a couple of slugs in the rib cage as “I could be a threat”.
Then lawsuits from the parents who will say their little precious was traumatized by the event and can no longer go to school without fearing for the lives. Marked man that can never go near a school or be caught driving through a school zone. Bring in psychologists so that anyone that feels the need can color their feelings. Those that are not traumatize will be immediately counseled to make certain that it is OK to let out their feelings and be traumatized. The parents will apply for disability because the stress has caused them to have major panic attacks and they can no longer hold a job.
Meanwhile, I will be rotting in a jail cell.
Sparta USPS office to ask if they thought they’d be able to get enough fuel to run deliveries tomorrow
One of the disadvantages of a small rural area. Not a priority for any fuel delivery. I have not seen any signs of shortages in my area. All the stations have fuel. A couple of stations are limiting purchases at a time to ten gallons.
Have to travel to Atlanta on Friday and I don’t anticipate any problems.
Could Tannerite be used as a two stage explosive? A small initial blast (M80 firework??) creating a shockwave to detonate the Tannerite. Like a fission device setting off a larger fusion device. Seems like an overly complex way to make a bomb, though. Maybe that’s why some of the devices didn’t detonate.
IIRC, M-80’s (at least those available in the US) are now just a black powder charge. BP is not a high explosive, so it doesn’t detonate but merely conflagrates. Tannerite would require a first-order detonation to initiate it, although it serves as its own booster (2nd order) charge. Making an initiator doesn’t require a great deal of chemistry chops, but it isn’t trivial, either.
“One of the disadvantages of a small rural area. Not a priority for any fuel delivery. I have not seen any signs of shortages in my area. ”
That’s what I thought and why I didn’t suggest earlier that Barbara come home early. But today there have been several reports of gas stations in the Triad and Triangle running out of fuel. That concerns me more than a little.
If you need to pick up Barbara from further than 170 miles away, I’d suggest renting or borrowing a diesel car or pickup, since:
1) Diesel fuel supply seems mostly intact.
2) Much less dangerous to carry several sealed 3 liter bottles of canola than an equivalent amount of gasoline.
My understanding is that the distillate pipeline is now shipping the usual distillates (diesel, jet fuel and heating oil) plus gasoline, so if the leak lasts for any period of time, the east coast will have a less severe shortage of all petroleum products instead of a more severe gasoline shortage.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, the man suspected in the weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey, is in surgery after a shootout with police
Another moosloid sand monkey that should have been exported on the back of a cruise missile.
I question why even bother with surgery. Let the cretin bleed out. At a minimum use sutures made from pig gut.
“Normalcy bias writ large…”
Ha, I should be so lucky up here; Mrs. RBT at least goes along with the stockpiling and went along with the move out to west B-F. You want normalcy bias writ large, check out MY situation and even worse, those of my two married siblings down in MA.
“Meanwhile, I will be rotting in a jail cell.”
Good! Angry and bitter straight married Whitey veteran cis-hetero fascists like you should be locked up and the key thrown away!
Incidentally, I’ll be in the next cell down. We can do that mirror trick and trade in cigarettes and vending machine snacks.
Incidentally, I’ll be in the next cell down. We can do that mirror trick and trade in cigarettes and vending machine snacks.
Separate cells? I was hoping for some male bonding snuggle time.
I had a comment. But… No. Mr Ray wins The Internet today.
So that we can interrogate him? So that we can give him a fair trial before he’s sentenced?
DAVE says – “My understanding is that the distillate pipeline is now shipping the usual distillates (diesel, jet fuel and heating oil) plus gasoline” So maybe I am not the sharpest tool in the drawer but HOW do you get one 30 inch pipe to ship multiple products? I can’t even see how to do it serially (IE: one after the other). These products don’t mix well. Running one after another would require ( I am guessing) a mobile plug to separate one from another. Do we have that capability. Maybe I will google this.
I’d be lucky not to be thrown in solitary or shot out of hand “attempting escape.”
I’ve never been to jail because I’m afraid that I would find out that being dead and solitary confinement are very undesirable, but not nearly as undesirable as being in the general population.
HOW do you get one 30 inch pipe to ship multiple products? I can’t even see how to do it serially (IE: one after the other). These products don’t mix well.
You run a slug of water between each product. The end of the pipeline just does a aqueous liquid – hydrocarbon liquid separation and directs the liquid to the appropriate tank. Trivial if you have a three phase separator with a 30 minute residence time. Some of the more sophisticated operations use 2 to 4 hours of residence time. And the ultra pure use 24 hours of residence with yuuuuuuuge holding tanks.
And actually, the various hydrocarbon liquids do mix well. That is, compared to mixing hydrocarbon liquid and aqueous liquid. About 0.5% can go into each phase until they get very hot and vaporize together.
Don’t forget a hand pump to empty them. I thought about buying a five gallon can to keep empty in each of our vehicles, but then I realized that I’m not going to be carrying 40 pounds very far. So I’m going to buy a two gallon can for each car instead. I’m going to keep it empty in the car because gasoline is nasty stuff.
“PHMSA orders Colonial to shut Line No. 1 down, prepare restart plan”
http://www.ogj.com/articles/2016/09/phmsa-orders-colonial-to-shut-line-no-1-down-prepare-restart-plan.html
This will happen more and often in the USA. We are trending down to 100 refineries in the USA. About 15 ??? of them are in the Texas, about 5 ??? in Louisiana. In fact, Hawaii just shut down the last refinery there and converted it to finished products storage. I hope that the West Coast can continue to supply them as Exxon is desperately trying to shutdown their California refineries. Ten years ago, there were 150 refineries in the USA. We may be down to 75 in another ten years.
So I’m going to buy a two gallon can for each car instead. I’m going to keep it empty in the car because gasoline is nasty stuff.
Why ? An empty water jug can be used to temporarily hold gasoline or diesel. I ran out of diesel in Germany about 20 years on a Sunday evening when I was driving from Frankfurt to Esberg, Denmark. Germany has extreme blue laws and only one fuel station per state ? was allowed to remain open past 2 ? 3 ? pm on Sundays. Something that they do not advertise.
A guy was kind enough to stop and took me to the open gas station about 20 miles away. I bought a three ? four ? liter jug of water, emptied it outside, and filled it with diesel. The guy was very kind and drove me back to my car. I put the diesel and the self priming pump in the VW started after 30 seconds of turning over. I then drove back to the station and filled up. After that, I never let the fuel tank go below 1/2 in Europe.
AAA Automotive Club will jump start you, check your battery and replace it on the spot (additional fee), call for lockout service, and provide a free gallon (or 2) of gas. It’s one of the best values out there. (And there are AAA discounts on tons of stuff. I get my membership cost back in discounts if I even remember to do it a couple of times a year.)
Also, many credit cards have roadside assistance as a perk.
It might take a while for the authorized tow to arrive, but it beats walking down the road in the dark…
nick
Never let your car below half any time – my exception is if I’m driving a long ways I’ll go down to a quarter.
If you’re going to carry gas I prefer a HIGH quality 2-3 gallon plastic. Be sure you know how to seal it and secure it in the back or trunk. Any smell of fuel open all windows, stop and find the problem.
And yes I have AAA with extra distance towing.
A water jug is not an “approved container” for fuel. But y’all know that.
I have worked at U-tote-Em and Circle K. And HEB. At every location we would have a small loaner can. It only takes a couple of jerks to make that go away. As in, “don’t bring it back”. Then folks get pissy if all you have is a can for sale. Like I set the price? Hey, so trot yer ass across the parking lot into the HEB and buy a can. Aisle 8, all the way down on the left side, bottom shelf. Don’t come back with a gallon jug of water after you flipped me the bird…. I’m not turning the pump on. :þ I’m not the idiot that ran out of gas.
/I/ don’t have a problem with water jugs. I have used water jugs a couple of times because I have been an idiot.
Just saying… you can plan on using a water jug but eventually there will be a dick running the gas station.
Won’t be me. I’m DONE with retail.
Yes, and the gas can has the long spout which the water bottle won’t.
Please check to see if you could fill your tank from a gas can. I need a long neck filler funnel to do mine. And I need to bungie the filler in place and use 2 hands to manage the gas can….(5 gal) The new EPA spouts are a bitch to use on a car.
n
Lynn: Thanks for the explanation. We have a lot smarter pipe system than I would have imagined. Now if it could only detect 200,000+ gallon leakages. I guess you can’t have everything.
I’ve found a problem to which I have not identified the solution yet. I don’t want to be sitting in my car idling in a gasoline line for any length of time. The only thing I can think of that would be worse is standing in such a line of cars holding an empty gasoline can. The only solution I see is to be our host and keep it full all the time, and that’s not a very effective solution
I didn’t even realize there were any Kmarts left:
This is what happens when you start playing financial games. There’s a lot to be said for the strategy of “stick to your knitting.” In the case of Sear’s and Kmart, the guy who bought them did so as a real estate play, thinking he’d sell off the land to make more money than running the stores. Then the downturn hit, and he’s been stuck ever since. And no one seems to be interested in trying to run the stores, since he’s a real estate guy…..
nick
added- and it’s damn tough to compete with walmart on the low end. The only way to do that is to go lower, down to Dollar Store levels, and even dollar stores are closing in this economy.
added some more- and this is in addition to even more stores it already closed this year. Given that they want to be shuttered by December, they don’t think that this year’s holiday sales are worth staying around to capture. I think that’s pretty telling right there…
Well, I am here in north Mississippi on the border with TN. No shortages here yet but warnings. I keep a rotating store of 30 gallons of gasoline Just In Case. And always keep my vehicles topped up. I would brag about how I am so prepared but … when we had a 12 hr power outage last week, my brand new, 9000 Watt, Centurion multi-fuel generator was sitting on my loading dock in Oklahoma. Didn’t do me any good. One note for preppers, you may have it, but if you can’t get to it, it’s useless. Boy did I feel silly.
My gennie is still being reconditioned. When it’s done, I’ll have one for a fraction of cost for new, completely gone thru by factory authorized service. The main difference is that this one is commercial grade and water cooled vs. the homeowner grade air cooled. That’s a bit more complicated but it’s also better.
Would have been ironic if we got a hurricane while mine was being serviced.
n
AAA Automotive Club will jump start you, check your battery and replace it on the spot (additional fee), call for lockout service, and provide a free gallon (or 2) of gas. It’s one of the best values out there. (And there are AAA discounts on tons of stuff. I get my membership cost back in discounts if I even remember to do it a couple of times a year.)
I have to admit, I am thinking about getting AAA for my vehicles. I have never been a member but they send me an invite every couple of months.
BTW, one of the best places to keep an extra 20 to 30 gallons of gas is an old truck or SUV. When I buy a new Expedition in a year or three, I am going to keep the 2005. It is only worth $4,000 but it is worth that as an extra vehicle with gas to me.
And I just noted that the 2018 Expedition will have a new body made out of Aluminum with a new ten speed automatic. I am not sure that I am ready for that much change. I may buy a 2017 Expedition after all.
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/2018-ford-expedition-lincoln-navigator-25-cars-worth-waiting-for-feature
Speaking of idiots …
I went to Costco a couple of weeks ago. Bought a few things. A package each of canned chicken and shredded pork. Someone here said the stuff was good. I’m taking your word for that. Some microwave popcorn. “Some” meaning a box of 40 or 50 pouches. I wonder if it will freeze if vacuumed in a FoodSaver bag? A nice looking 2# block of sharp cheddar and a twin pack of mexican blend shredded cheese. Something else, I forget… the place was really on my nerves and wandering around shopping was not going to happen.
And butter. Two 4 pound packages. Eight pounds will fit nicely in the meat drawer of the old fridge. By memory almost a buck a pound cheaper than HEB. There were several varieties of butter. I just wanted to make sure I had salted. I don’t care about “organic”, it’s all organic. Can I read? Obviously not. I’m the proud owner of eight one pound slabs of butter.
Oy. This will work! I use a 2 cup Ziploc box for a butter dish anyway. Seals up and when you get a new stick, you get a new butter dish. Better than the butter dish that came with the dishes. I’ll just cut the slab in half and use two Ziploc boxes. Easy.
@dave, the solution is storage. Store enough that you don’t have to wait in line. Either a week’s consumption for your gennie, or double your likely bug out vehicle’s range is a good start.
I usually increase my storage for hurricane season and draw it down to normal levels after. This year I didn’t bulk up because the forecast called for a light season.
Prior to Ike, I’d added to my stores, so for the following weeks, whenever I went out in the truck I took empty cans with me. If there was a gas station open, with short lines, I would fill them… if not, I’d just keep waiting. I never had to stand in line, and I never got low on gas.
nick
@paul, I think the canned shredded pork tastes real good. Our HEB has the same brand in smaller cans, and singly. You can try that….
I usually freeze the butter. I’ve got a lot in the freezer. Now I just buy for replenishment as we use it. I don’t bother to vac seal it, or even bag it. The costco packaging works fine in the freezer.
I don’t know if the popcorn will freeze well. The kernels ‘pop’ when the moisture inside them turns to steam and breaks out of the shell. I don’t know if freezing causes enough expansion of the water to break the shell and keep them from popping later. If not, freezing should help keep them as it is the oil that turns and causes an ‘old’ taste. For a treat I put lime juice in my melted butter, pour that on the popped corn, and then sprinkle lightly with cajun pepper spice or chipotle powder. Chilli and lime, yum.
nick
I also recommend AAA; the cost of annual Premium membership for us up here has paid for itself multiple times over every year, thanks to, if nothing else, repeat problems with the Saabs that wife and MIL keep insisting on buying.
Gasoline storage is a problem here because there is the house, the studio/shed which has a wood stove in it, in use all winter, and the yard. When I get another smaller shed built for yard tools and mowers and snowblower and suchlike, I’ll deal with the gas and propane storage. Presumably for the two vehicles and a dual-fuel generator. I should probably keep a couple of empties in each vehicle. With a three-gallon pack of water. Watch Mrs. OFD toss them out of hers, though. More important to load it up with rubbish, laundry, horse stuff, etc. Princess vehicle a total loss in this regard. Again, Normality Bias writ very large. Extra-large down in MA.
“There’s a huge brooding swath of Americans out there who know that the media despises their very existence. Feeling shut out and ignored, these people have plodded along with a sense of learned helplessness and inevitable doom. These people also realize that the media’s relentlessly desperate attacks on Trump also reflect a near-sadistic disdain for all the alleged rubes and yahoos and throwbacks and inbred hillbillies who support him. What an increasingly disconnected and clueless media fails to realize is that they’ve flaunted their disdain of these people to the point where the blowback will be withering.”
http://takimag.com/article/smells_like_victory_jim_goad/print#axzz4KjtrUwoq
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx5N-4JvVyk
Here on the north coast of Florida, I haven’t seen any price spikes or shortages of gasoline. Pretty much all our fuels are barged in from coastal Mississippi.
WRT AAA: the big big difference with AAA is that the membership benefits are with you and not with your vehicle. Several times when my kids’ were out with their friends their friends clunker died or ran out of gas. My kids’ AAA membership came to the rescue and got the whole carload safely home. I have always had AAA’s top level of membership and consider it a necessity.
Do be aware that the different membership levels determine how far you can get a tow, so read the fine print.
And AAA works in Europe and you can get a limited amount of foreign currency from AAA before you leave at a very reasonable exchange and fee rate. You can get enough to have “local” cash in your pocket when you get to the country so you can pay for cab/bus/tips/etc. until you get to a place away from the tourist area to get some more local currency.
RE: Butter
When we visit Oklahoma, two or three times a year, I drop in the Sac and Fox Indian Grocery to stock up. Butter is always very cheap there and we usually find other bargains. We have 24 cases of tax free cigarettes vacuum sealed and packed away for barter goods. When I retire in a couple of years will move back there.
RE: Refineries & gas shortage
Tennessee is predicted to have a gas shortage. But Valero has a Memphis Refinery that runs about 200,000 bbl a day. I guess they have contracts to ship elsewhere.
until you get to a place away from the tourist area to get some more local currency
When I travel to Europe I usually get about $20.00 equivalent in the local currency to use in the airport when I arrive. Never turn it at the end of the trip, just use it on the next trip. Only time that did not work is when Germany converted to Euros. Gave my extra Deutchmarks to the kids we were visiting.
When I find an ATM I then use my debit card to get cash from the ATM. Best exchange rate. I do have to pay for foreign ATM fees but it is still cheaper than the exchange booths at the airports. That is only for small spending cash. Most of the time I use a credit card with no foreign transaction fees.
Only concern I had was when I bought train tickets in Norway at an unattended kiosk. Tickets were about $200 and the credit card did not require a pin or signature. Just inserted the card and got the tickets. Same thing in Germany buying train tickets. Yes, the card had a chip. When I got back I called the credit card company and asked what was going on. Turns out the card is chip and sign. Since there was no way to sign the transaction was authorized. I asked what would happen if the card was stolen. Credit card company said I would not be responsible for the charges. Still scary that a card with a $20K limit could be be stolen and maxed out in a couple of hours. Although fraud detection may have kicked in well below that level. I do have to call and inform the CC company that I will be traveling providing the dates and the countries.
I try to keep the tractors full of diesel and a couple of 5 gallon cans extra. I don’t know how the new tractor will act if it runs out. It’s a Mahindra Max (and some numbers). An Indian brand. It’s a small tractor, has a bucket and 4wd. Made in Japan. Mitsubishi 3 cylinder motor. (Man, it just gets better!) (I’m a fan of anything made by Mitsubishi.) (And Yamaha.) The bucket assembly is made in India. Looks like good stuff.
The other tractor is a 3 cylinder Yanmar. Japanese. Built around ’85. It’s a good Mule. <– yes, we named it. I ran Mule out of fuel ONCE. What a blankety blank pain in the ass to bleed the system. Mechanical fuel injection.
Both are good machines. It just depends what you are doing. Max sucks for mowing. The bucket is in the way. The roll bar hits tree branches. Yes, the bucket comes off. In theory. If remounting the bucket is anything like attaching the shredder deck, uh, gonna pass on that. The roll bar is next. One more whacking of my head on it and that effer is into the barn. Kiss me OSHA. Mule is better for mowing the Gobi because it has higher ground clearance. Better for shredding down a year's growth of cedar and mesquite trees.
I have a couple of 5 gallons cans of gas for the lawn mowers and the like. On no particular schedule the cans are dumped into the truck's tank and taken to be refilled.
Seems to work. If I think of it I give a squirt of gas treatment.
When we had the ice storm several years ago the generator was a 4k 8HP creature. Briggs and Stratton. Not an easy rope to pull. No wheels. Because why make it easy? So, I'd get it out of my garden cart onto the ground to run the house and well. While the well is running, the fridge and freezer are chilling, a fan is running to blow air around because all I had was an Earth Stove for heat, and I'd be out breaking ice on all of the critter waterers. Put it back into the cart, roll the distance of a couple of city (for real) blocks away, haul it out and run the EDC for a couple of hours. Deep freezers… Couldn't run it in the cart because of the size and muffler position. Cart had wood sides.
Repeat a few hours later. Tho, run the EDC again and then to the house. Break more ice so the critters can drink. Mostly microwave dinners for supper and TV for a couple of hours. 🙂
It worked. I could run /a/ small burner on the stove to do hamburger helper or mac and cheese. Something that didn't taste like plastic.
This went on for almost 2 weeks.
That generator wasn't a big deal. I was skinny and in enough shape that I had an eight pac. Still do. With a bit o' insulation now.
Hauling in firewood wasn't a deal. The pita was going into town for gas on very slick roads. Two wheels on the dirt. Might all be a big deal now. 20 years on in age, man, I can feel it. I'm not impressed with this pushing 60 thing at all. Even if I did get carded buying beer last month at Wal-Mart. Bitch with attitude was young enough to be my great granddaughter. Assuming I started all that spawning stuff while in high school. (oh hell no!!!) I not even talking about that Junior Small Head hanging out in Underwearaville seems to sleep all the time. Heavy shit I use to tote around is now really really extra heavy. When did you last tote a bag of concrete? 50# sacks of feed are still ok.
It's age. It's a weird thing: I use to be able to do this, it wasn't heavy or whatever a couple of years ago.
And by everything I've heard, it just gets worse. Yippie.
It could be worse Igor. It could be raining.
We’re all getting too old for this shit.
As long as we are getting old. Right?
I find it absolutely outrageous. I’m only 63! WTF!!!!! I used to run track, play soccer and football, hump rucks, walk foot beats for HOURS every night with a ton of gear on my belt, x-c ski all over hell, hike up and down both the White and Green Mountains, etc., etc., now I’m supporting myself on the walls going up the stairs, carefully, and carefully going back down the back porch stairs, having tumbled down them last week, and an hour of lawn mowing or stacking firewood does me in for an hour, until I can go out and do MAYBE one more hour.
I’m not fat but I have the gut, shit for flexibility and wind now, and could stand to lose 20-40 pounds, fix my back and sciatica situation, and get back in some kind of REASONABLE shape.
This SUCKS!
If this had to happen, I wish it had happened 40 years ago. At age 23, my body and mind were still at peak. Now I’m a pale shadow of that in both respects. I just hope I don’t get someone killed because I’m no longer hitting on all cylinders.
Well, I hauled 14 boxes of books to UPS today. Each box weighs 46#. Lift into Tacoma, lift out onto dolly, lift up to weigh station. My arms are usually sore after that. At least my back doesn’t give out. Only 61, but I’m whining to MrsAtoz tomorrow.
Off to Boston in a week with MrsAtoz for an overnight gig.
My dad a spell of that holding on walls shit. Some random checkup at the doc and they cleaned about a beehive of wax outta his ears. Got the old fart to being just as mean as ever.
Thankfully I was just visiting.
4k 8HP creature. Briggs and Stratton. Not an easy rope to pull.
When I was a youngen’ living on the farm I could do a lot more.
We had a New Holland baler that was self powered with a 20HP Wisconsin two cylinder air cooled engine. Only way to start that thing was with a starting ring. There was the power shaft coming out of the motor, on that shaft was a four belt pulley to drive the big baler flywheel, then a starting ring, probably about a foot across. You set the magnetos by turning off the shorting switch, set the choke, grabbed the wheel and yanked. First of the season took half a dozen yanks. Middle of the season usually only a couple of yanks. That engine worked hard while bailing, constant heavy load. Never had an issue in 10 years of operation. Well made engine.
For three years we had a 32HP diesel pump that we moved down to the creek to pump water for the irrigation system. Carrying 12 gallons of fuel twice a day about 200 yards was a royal pain. One six gallon container in each hand to balance the load. Lots of stops for rest.
That diesel was hand cranked using an output on the camshaft. You flipped a lever on each cylinder to remove the compression by holding the exhaust valve open. You then put on the crank and spun it as fast as you could. When you felt you were spinning as fast as you could you reached up with one hand and flipped the levers back to the closed position. The momentum of the flywheel you hoped was enough to start the engine. It actually worked quite well and would usually start on the first attempt if warm, a couple of times if cold.
What you did not want to do was run the engine out of the fuel. That required bleeding the system at the injectors as you had to get as much air out of the system as possible. Too large amount of air and it would simply compress and not move the fuel through the injectors. Once the injector lines were bled you then cranked the engine with the compression off to relieve the pressure so the fuel could move through the injectors. Generally if you got one cylinder to fire you would relieve compression on the other cylinder until it would also fire. Generally took about an hour to get it all done.
We generally only let that engine stop about once a week to change the oil. Other than that it ran 24 hours a day for seven days.
We also had a hand crank tractor that was left by the previous owner. That thing was dangerous. If it backfired (rotated backwards) and your hands and arm were in the wrong position bones were going to be broken. Hated that thing and was only used in an emergency and eventually gave it away for junk.
Dirty Harry Reid has the answer to domestic terrorism:
Congress can do more to prevent terror. We should close the loophole that allows potential FBI terror suspects to legally purchase weapons.
What a tool. I guess pressure cookers will soon be classified as an “assault weapon.” I wonder how big the *clip* is on those buggers.
I think I have this figured out. OFD is 63. I’m gonna be 59 in October. Born in ’57, right? Bicentennial Seniors and all that fun shit. Hey, it was important at the time. 🙂
I didn’t do military. The Draft went away a few months before I would have had to sign up. It came back a few months after I would have had to sign up. My dad, for all of his blah blaa hurrah Semper Fi noise, seemed happy about it.
I tried. Four 6 inch pins in the leg bone messed that up. Being 5’11” and 125 # after the wreck, from 150# well, I way too skinny.
Oh well.
Dave says…
“”I thought about buying a five gallon can to keep empty in each of our vehicles, but then I realized that I’m not going to be carrying 40 pounds very far. So I’m going to buy a two gallon can for each car instead. I’m going to keep it empty in the car because gasoline is nasty stuff.””
Beat ya to it! I have long kept a _new_ one-gallon jug in each vehicle, figuring I could even toss it after use. This was back when jugs were a lot cheaper. Still, even at current jug prices, I guess I could even donate it to help somebody who needs it (who seems to deserve it).
“…they cleaned about a beehive of wax outta his ears.”
Funny you should mention that; I’ve got something like that going but the medico’s method of fixing it was to drive an ice-cold railroad spike into my head, until I stopped it. Now I am given to understand that they can do what’s called a “lavage” and wash my ear canals out, so that’s on the burner. I don’t think it’s my balance or vertigo that causes me to hold the walls on my way up the stairs, but just some additional support to minimize the pain in my back.
“If this had to happen, I wish it had happened 40 years ago.”
+ a million
I was two years outta the military, working as a cop, graduated the MA State Police Academy, riding a bicycle for tens of miles every day, and well tuned on all kinds of firearms and explosives. Didn’t know how to read or listen to poetry, though.
“Off to Boston in a week with MrsAtoz for an overnight gig.”
O you lucky dawg (wiener?) you! My ancestors settled that mofo, too, 1630 on. It was a friggin’ island, then, basically, only a very narrow strip, the Neck, connecting it to the mainland.
If you get even a ghost of a chance, take MrsAtoz to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on one of the main drags, very near the Museum of Fine Arts. It will blow your minds. Check out the spaces on the walls where amazingly priceless paintings were before the Gardner Heist. But it’s a beautiful building with an interior courtyard.
http://www.gardnermuseum.org/home
“…The Draft went away a few months before I would have had to sign up. It came back a few months after I would have had to sign up. My dad, for all of his blah blaa hurrah Semper Fi noise, seemed happy about it.”
I had a low draft numbah and enlisted in the AF to go to Europe, learn a high-tech job and avoid ‘Nam. Joke was on me. Big-time.
Any actual combat-vet dad or granddad in his right mind and paying attention to shit would not want his children to go off and do the same stupid thing he did. Like I’ve said, if enemy paratroopers are dropping outta the sky above Saint Albans, VT, I’ll be the first mofo out the door with a rifle. Otherwise, count me and my kids OUT.
I’ve also said we fought the wrong enemy during the SEA period; shoulda been doing our job in Mordor.
One of my friends joined the army and went to language school to avoid being sent to Viet Nam. He learned Russian. So of course he ended up in Vietnam as a russian language interrogator. All he’ll say is that his time there was very different from most of the guys, and he wore civilian clothes…
nick
Situational awareness, he ain’t got it:
“Terrifying moment a Pokemon Go player is violently mugged as he live-streamed his game from Central Park
Robbery occurred at 12.30am Monday in Grand Army Plaza
Blogger Rickey Yaneza, 43, was streaming live on Twitch
The robber hit him in the head and stole his phone and possessions
Police are now using the video to try and find the man
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3797213/Terrifying-moment-Pokemon-player-violently-mugged-live-streamed-game-Central-Park.html“
I’ve known smarter turnips.
I spent one Summer in College staying at mom and dad’s house. Because the dorms are “closed”. That is all I ever lived in that house.
So, from seven miles out out of Edinburg, towards Edcouch/Elsa, through Edinburg, make the turn towards McAllen and go to La Plaza Mall. Dunno if the mall is still there. I rather hope it is some sorta OSHA condemned pile of shit.
It was about 25 miles to work. Me and my 3speed bicycle from JCPenny. Yes, a step down from having a 100cc Yamaha. But I was sorta spooked on bikes for some reason, and broke, too. Paying for school Er, Dad borrowed almost all of my insurance payment to build the house. Tho… all that shit took almost two freaking years to settle. WTF? Anyway, he built the house and I suppose he paid it all back. I really didn’t give a shit about the money. I had issues.
And somehow, along the way, what was my 100cc 2 cycle bike that cost maybe $600 turned into something that cost $1800. Kind of priced me out of the market.
So, yeah, I spent the only time I lived in that house in the summer. Ride my bike to work, ride home when the bar closed at 2 am. And get my ass chewed out because I was still asleep at 10am.
Hello? Asshole.
Then I found the dorms were not really closed…. you just didn’t get fed. Well, the kids from South Africa and Europe are gonna do what?
I never went home again. Not that it was “home” ever.
“Any actual combat-vet dad or granddad in his right mind and paying attention to shit would not want his children to go off and do the same stupid thing he did. ”
Bingo.
As for my bike? I had to replace the back wheel a couple of years later. Wore out the transmission. When I was 10 or so, all of us boys were into “fixing” our bikes. Packing bearings and stuff.
Well, it might be nearly time for me to discuss
my military experience during the Vietnam era…
Well, it might be nearly time for me to discuss
my military experience during the Vietnam era…
If you do, sir, I’ll discuss my REMF service during the Gulf War(s).
My military experience during Viet Nam consisted of being born in a military hospital. No, I don’t have a whole lot of stories I can tell about it. Sorry.
lol! The Taiwanese animate Coffin Cankles “fainting” episode.
I’ve got friends from the era, but I was born near the beginning. Came of age and registered for the draft during our ‘peace dividend.’ Took the test for the Navy, they were very interested until the interview. Argentina had just sunk a British ship with a hand carried missile. I had some questions about where you ran to when they were shooting at your boat… and they stopped calling after that.
A roommate was ROTC and wanted to be a tank commander but the RIF got him. Here’s your college, thanks for getting trained, but we don’t need you. Don’t call us, we’ll call you. Worked out for him with a free education, but he REALLY wanted to command a tank.
War on terror came too late for me, even if General Michael W. Hagee* personally asked me why I didn’t join up. I looked at him and said, “Sir, I’m over 35.” Guess I looked a lot younger. Did what I could building things on bases for different groups. Like to think that might have helped a bit. Did some cool rooms and sims….
nick
*Commandant of the Marine Corps, January 13, 2003 to November 13, 2006 Guided the Corps through the initial years of the Iraq War.
Yeah, Mr. Spook, why should I have all the fun?
And I was born around the same time the Korean War armistice was signed by the opposing parties, lol. Koba the Dread died that year, too, probably poisoned by his rivals, and went straight to Hell, I’m pretty sure.
“…I’ll discuss my REMF service…”
REMFs took care of us, usually, and I mainly mean the air crews, cooks and medics. Sometimes the clerks and supply. I got nothing against REMFs, per se.
Mrs. OFD called earlier and informed me that rain sprinkles lasted a few minutes and that was it; no apparent problems finding gas for the rental car, and no hurricane. But they’re gonna have rain and t-storms the whole week she’s down there. No venomous reptiles on the back steps, either. So fah, so good.
Next week she’s doing a three-day gig in Montpecular, Capitale du Vermont. We lived there for fifteen crummy years; I hated that fucking town and still do. Bunch of arrogant, spoiled, weird-ass fruitcakes and poseurs who thrive on always striving mightily to be DIFFERENT, which is roundly celebrated and adored by one and all. A small-yield tactical nuke would be just the thing.
. Bunch of arrogant, spoiled, weird-ass fruitcakes and poseurs who thrive on always striving mightily to be DIFFERENT
Sounds just like Austin, TX!
I was just thinking the same thing. Weirdos.
n
Yeah, y’all got bumper stickers from down there that say “Keep Austin Weird.” Don’t feel alone; we got ’em for both Montpeculiar and Vermont in general. And the weirdness is pretty much exclusive to the “cities,” i.e., over 30k pop., and the college towns, often the same. Buncha lefty cocksuckers, perverts and lawyers, but I repeat myself.
I left high school in ’69 when Viet Nam was going full steam. Draft was full bore. My birth date was number 6 on the lottery. No question I was going to be drafted, bad eyes and all, they were taking anyone that was vertical and breathing. I desperately wanted to avoid the army so I enlisted in the USAF. Well at least I was not stuck in a tank.
My older brother went into the army, drafted. He was living in Canada when he got the notice and came back to spend his two years. He was a year older than me and his birth date was way down on the lottery the first couple of years. He entered the service a year after I did.
My younger brother enlisted in the USAF because he wanted to fly planes. He had dropped out of high school. Got his GED while in the service. Used the base flying club to get some experience in flying and transitioned into air traffic control. Got out after 14 years (I actually think they would not let him reenlist as he had a couple of article 15’s).
All three of us spent time overseas in that mess that Kennedy started and Johnson continued. Johnson so that his buddies could make a lot of money making war stuff. Did everything in his power to extend the conflict in exchange for kickbacks. That bastard Johnson was corrupt as they get.
lol! Comment from another site:
The only thing Hillary is “powering through” these days are boxes of giant diapers…
She needed help up the stairs at an event today. What is she going to do at the first debate? Come in a power chair?
“That bastard Johnson was corrupt as they get.”
One of our worst and most corrupt National Administrators EVER, and that’s including Larry Klinton and Obola. In modern times, that is. LBJ was responsible for at least several, and probably more, murders, and spent every waking moment thinking up ways to rob people, make tons of money, and disgrace any public office he ever held. I’m pretty sure he also went straight to Hell when he finally croaked; incidentally, the evidence gets stronger by the year that he had JFK whacked, in collusion mainly with rogue Deep State operatives. RFK and MLK also got whacked by the Deep State, none of this lone psycho gunman bullshit.
“What is she going to do at the first debate? Come in a power chair?”
They can always say she’s getting picked on for being a disabled woman when JFK and Pharaoh Roosevelt II got free rides. The real question is will she actually survive until November??
I was listening to an hour-plus audio interview with Ann Barnhardt earlier and I haven’t heard it all yet but I did get to the part where she discusses this election:
She says that Trump does not, no way in hell, really want that President job. Who in their right mind would want it as the country blows up and we have global war, possibly nookular? If he took it, they’d blame all the bad shit that ever happened or happens on him, when it’s actually Obola’s fault, mainly, at least recently. She thinks he’ll find some way of getting out of it before November or otherwise losing to Cankles. That way he can finish raking in more billions for his increasingly marketable brand and enterprises and disappear overseas somewhere. When bad shit happens he can blame it on her or whomever, and say, gee, if you’d voted for me I woulda done this and that and fixed it all, you losers!
She really thinks we’re gonna have a spectacular crash and sooner rather than later, and that there will be another world war on top of a civil war here at home. And she does not expect to survive it.
Let’s really hope really, really hard that she’s wrong, and a wacko nut job and religious nutter and that the other religious nutter, Gary North, is right, and we shouldn’t listen to her. Hardcore traditionalist Latin Rite Roman Catholic (who dumped her career and job and won’t pay taxes or vote) versus the hardcore Protestant fundamentalist via Old Testament justice and punishments.
And hope, actually, that RBT is right and it’s gonna be a long slow slide rather than anything so drastic and terrible.
Gotta come clean…
My military experience was figuring out to skip ROTC drill (required at my college) and just go to the lake on Thursdays. Got 4 demerits for skipping drill (and it might rain anyway, or otherwise be cancelled) and I was gonna get demerits for hair, brass and shoes (and for not following haircut orders) anyway, so it was actually fewer demerits (which were points off my grade, and I had to pass that “Military Science” course) to just skip drill.
Sorry. I knew a guy who showed pictures of himself with lots of medals on and I strung him along, nowhere near long enough — since he turned out to be a total fake! He was definitely hoping to use my stories for more of his lies.
Ain’t gonna do that here. No draggin’ you guys along for the punch line.
I’m a legit draft dodger, II-S deferment for the most part, and a I-A which became I-H after I was out of school for 6 months… with a plenty low lottery number, but I was 20 or so at the time, and they were taking the younger cannon fodder first.
Full respect all around. Thanks for your service.
I do feel guilty for not doing more to try to end that damn war, like I coulda made any difference against the war machine.
And, to my credit, I finished my BS and had a career that involved public service… not unlike the guy who found the gasoline leak, I guess.
[ Big question: How the hell did the pipeline operators not notice!?! ]
“I do feel guilty for not doing more to try to end that damn war, like I coulda made any difference against the war machine.”
As Mr. paul said earlier, Bingo! Pretty hard for just one person or even thousands to make a lot of difference against our Empire’s war machine and War Party. And it’s been going on a very long time.
Just think: the Vietnamese are our bosom buddies now; as are those formerly hated and reviled and loathed Germans and Japanese. Whereas the new kids on the block getting all the hatred and loathing are the Russians: our former allies and bosom buddies during the Good War. Also the Iranians, in whose affairs our Empire has interfered repeatedly over the course of the last century. Why not cooperate with them against ISIS and the musloid terror networks??? Nope, no can do; that would probably cut into somebody’s greens fees and yacht berth costs.
And the Sandbox and the Suck; bloodsuckers of empire, for many, many centuries, not just the British, Russians and us. Why not leave those fucking hornets’ nests alone??? Let them slaughter each other, their favorite pastime, evidently, and rot over there.
Don’t. We. Have. Enough. On. Our. Plates. Here???
Blood and treasure, wasted.
Every fucking generation since the beginning. And by “beginning” I mean Cain and Abel. In human terms, anyway. Before that, Lucifer’s disobedience (“non servam”) and fall.
Hey kids: what’s a “clover?” OFD just found out:
http://ericpetersautos.com/2016/06/24/whats-a-clover/
Sound all too familiar??
And hope, actually, that RBT is right and it’s gonna be a long slow slide rather than anything so drastic and terrible.
That is what I think. Unless we get hit by an EMP (or 3) from Iran or Nork. Or a comet its us. Or …
I know that pushed it before but “Soft Apocalypse” by Will McIntosh is a good 20 year dissertation on the slow slide into barbarism for the USA.
https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Apocalypse-Will-McIntosh/dp/159780276X/
“What happens when resources become scarce and society starts to crumble? As the competition for resources pulls America’s previously stable society apart, the “New Normal” is a Soft Apocalypse. This is how our world ends; with a whimper instead of a bang. New social structures and tribal connections spring up across America, as the previous social structures begin to dissolve.”
“I had a low draft numbah and enlisted in the AF to go to Europe, learn a high-tech job and avoid ‘Nam. Joke was on me. Big-time. ” Yep, joined the Coast Guard to stay home; no joy there either, turned out the Navy needed help with a coastal blockade.
“Yep, joined the Coast Guard to stay home…”
I wish I had a buck for every swinging dick I’ve met over the decades since coming back who told me they were drafted into the Army or Marines and spent their whole friggin’ enlistment at whatever base nearest their home. Or the ones who were drafted and spent it all in Germany.
I’ll never criticize a man for that. The very idea of slave soldiers disgusts me, on top of questions about just what vital national interest required sending waves of slave soldiers to fight in a pissant country in a meaningless war we weren’t trying to win anyway.
The means used in dodging the draft may come under criticism. Such as using family connections to get a sweet gig in the Texas ANG with no chance of being sent overseas.
I was going to be drafted, so I joined the Marines. They made me a data entry operator, for one day, after which I was made a computer operator, because of my data entry skills. That lasted for about 6 months, but I hated North Carolina (sorry, but it was no fun during the Vietnam era) so I begged for orders, anywhere. They sent me Japan, where they needed a programmer, so… The barracks were full, so they let some of us live in town… Somehow the Data Processing outfit got lost off the base’s duty roster, so with every night off I couldn’t spend all my time in the bars, so I taught some English classes and had fantastic time, seeing Japan that tourists never will. I got back, got a job in IT, and have been working in it ever since.
Someone wins the lottery.
I just wanted to make sure I had salted.
I always buy unsalted, because I cook with it.
I wonder if I can get into trouble by having a small pocket knife, blade 1 inch long, that I keep on my key ring when I am school property when I sub for a teacher?
Depends on the district. The Houston district, as of a few years ago, won’t be upset unless it is an illegal knife, or you brandish it as a weapon. I looked into it because I had a small Swiss Army knife in my daughter’s car. Didn’t want her expelled if someone saw it and got the vapors.
No one in Spring Branch ISD has ever commented on my obvious clip knife or my much less obvious neck sheath. But this is TX. The only place I’ve had an issue with carrying knives is the NASA facility and prisons and courthouses.
nick
Frank Snepp wanted to avoid Vietnam so he joined the CIA amd was sent for two tours of… Vietnam.
His Decent Interval tells the story of the CIA’s, US ambasador’s, Nixon’s, Ford’s and Kissinger’s incompetence.
I still don’t understand how Kissinger avoided being tried for treason and dangling at the end of a rope.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Snepp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trial_of_Henry_Kissinger