Nice Outing With My Boy

Gorgeous afternoon yesterday for a couple of miles on the Nipmuck Trail, and then off the side trail to Pixi Falls. My wife was out of town at a fundraiser for my niece's high school senior graduation party for this year (my niece is only a sophomore). I grabbed my trusty walking stick, packed a small backpack with water, snacks, extra dog treats, and emergency supplies and took my 23 month old male Rhodesian Ridgeback. I also strapped on my Ruger GP-161 loaded with Hornady Critical Defense .357 Magnums with two speed loaders. It was all carried on what I call my "Wyoming Deputy Sheriff Rig*."

My dog is smart enough to stay on and follow the blaze marked trail. Once we got a couple of hundred yards from the parking area, he came off leash. He will run on ahead and then come back when I call him for a treat. Later in the hike, not so much. On the way out we ran into an older couple with their two dogs. Because my dog has a growth on his left lower lip that is unknown (and will be surgically removed by the vet in the next week or so) my dog went on leash as soon as I saw them coming. I did not let the dogs come together, and their dogs gave my dog some growling, snarling, and barking. We chatted for a moment and then I continued into the forest, they headed out. Once they were far enough away, my doggo came back off leash for the rest of the hike in and out.

The falls were running nicely. At the top of the falls was an easily accessible pool where the dog got a nice long drink of ice cold water. When conditions are dry, you can hear the water under the rocks but that's it, nothing to see. I have also been there after a rain storm during spring snow melt, and if you get too close it will reach out and grab you. The ride down the falls would be like a frog in a blender.

 

I'm not sure why the video appears this way on the post, but click in the middle and it will play.

 

Here is a map of the area of the trail we were on. The yellow circle is our hike, about a mile in and back out on the main trail. Look at the contour lines, it is very hilly. This area of Kommiecticut is absolutely covered by glacial rubble (rocks from the size of a potato up to a compact car) and the terrain is torn up in places down to ledge from the retreat of the North American Ice Sheet about 12,000 years ago. This is not like walking down a dirt road, it is very rugged and uneven. My feet and ankles are still sore. Clicken the map to embiggen. The entire map can be viewed at https://ctxguide.com/nipmuck.htm and is broken into sections by URL on the main map. The one I have embedded is "RT. 74 To Hillside Road."

I have hiked most of it over the years from the MA border down to Mansfield. There are a few sections in Ashford and south of RT. 44 I have never done. Some day I will get to them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is lots of wildlife out in these forests. The bears are awake and looking for food and to deliver any cubs. Moose are around but infrequent residents. Coyotes are prevalent as well as bobcats, and the rare mountain lion. The state wildlife officials tell us the Eastern Mountain Lion is extinct so there are NO MOUNTAIN LIONS! But the dirty little secret is once in a great while, a male Western Mountain Lion will migrate east in search of food or mates, and end up in NY or New England. One was hit and killed by a car on the Merritt Parkway several years ago. My pistol is a last resort tool of defense. Clapping and shouting and otherwise making aggressive moves is first. My walking stick is second. When all else fails, I will do whatever I have to to save myself or my dog.

 

 

 

 

Wyoming Deputy Sheriff Rig*: The gun belt setup for my Ruger GP-161 is a Bianchi thumb-break holster, a Bianchi dual speed loader carrier, two HKS #586 speedloaders, a snap carabiner for my keys, and everything carried on a 1.75" Wilderness Tactical belt. I wear it over the belt to hold up my jeans, unlike my EDC holsters and mag carriers.

Thank You COVID - School Curriculums Exposed

First, I am really glad I do not have kids in any school system. My own progeny will soon turn 37. If she was still in school either my wife or I would probably be quitting our jobs to home school.

At the height of government imposed restrictions and lockdowns (I don't follow the media's line of "blame the pandemic" it was all government's fault), schools were shut down and learning went remote. Parents having to stay home with the kids got a good look at the garbage being force-fed to a captive audience that they were paying for. This lead to vocal protests at school board meetings wanting there to be curriculum changes, and the declaration by the Department of Injustice  of concerned parents to be "domestic terrorists." CRT and exposing young children to the LGBTQGJFDP1V3@&XZ0.... mental illness making these still forming brains susceptible to questioning who they are, WITHOUT the knowledge of the parents. Why does anyone think introducing young children to sex of any kind is relevent to their education or good idea? Wood chipper sales and rentals will soon be a booming business.

What prompted this post is this news story out of Hartford.

Hartford School Nurse On Leave After Posting Comments About LGBTQ Students 

The spin is "OMG! She said offensive wrong speak!" When in actuality, she blew the whistle on the indoctrination crap taking place in the Hartford schools. From what I understand she described in some detail the goings on with enabling what could be described as mental illness. This woman is a FUCKING HERO!! The following link is from The Blaze.

The Blaze - Nurse On Leave For Social Media Content

While it doesn't display the actual post, it details the context. Comments on this subject are encouraged below.

Fuckin' Home Depot!

Both of my garage doors have Genie screw drive openers. My parent's had one for their garage and replaced it once in over 40 years. When I built my house with an attached garage 17 years ago, there was only one choice for me for an automatic opener.

The original 2005 vintage Genie HP6000A-2K where wifey parks. It got lots of hard use.

 

When I bought my Goldwing in 2018, I knew I was going to finally need an opener on the other bay. When I had my classic car, it was no big deal to get out and manually lift the door because I hardly ever drove the car. The bike is a different story. First, I use it way more than I did the car, and second getting on and off to open the door is a pain in the ass.

In the extreme cold weather this past winter, the garage door opener where my wife parks started having issues bringing the door down. It would go down about a foot and then reverse back up. I quickly sprayed some silicone based lube on the screw drive and it started working again. Well, it didn't hold up very well, because we recently had a cold snap and the door was refusing to go down again. This time I put some Lucas Oil Red-n-Tacky #2 grease on the screw drive and tweaked the "close" reversing mechanism. It is working for now, but I believe I am on borrowed time so I wanted to secure a replacement.

I located the same model I have over the bike at Home Depot, a Genie Model #4063. Moves the door up and down fast and it is super quiet. Listed for $278.00 and plenty in stock. I boogied over to the store closest to home right after work to grab one. Found it in two minutes and headed for the register to cash out. That's when the problem started.

Genie model #4063. Wi-Fi capable, but not in my house!

The girl asks me if I would like to save $25 by opening a Home Depot credit card account. I pulled out my existing card I held since 1993 and said I didn't think so. The total came to $295.65 so I stick my card in the reader. It says "DECLINED" she says to try it again and I get the same result. She does an account lookup by my social security number that I punch in on the keypad. Now she tells me the account is closed and asks when was the last time I used my card? I said it's probably been a couple of years, and she tells me that's why. They automatically close accounts after 6 months of inactivity. Now I start to get pissed and tell her I think that's BULLSHIT! I had that account about 29 years with never an issue, and I probably charged well north of $50,000 in home renovation projects at two houses in that time frame. Fine... let's open a new account and I'll take the $25 off.

The process is done right at the register, by me entering data on the P.O.S. keypad. Well, something fucked up somewhere because now the girl has to call the Home Depot Credit Center... but she doesn't know how to use the phone system to call out. She asks for help, and another woman shouts over the simple instructions, but she still can't do it, and she's still carrying around my drivers license. I look over at the other associate standing there watching and loudly say, "You guys are NOT scoring any favorable points this evening!" THAT statement is overheard by and attracts the store supervisor who comes over to try and smooth things over. I tell her I am about 30 seconds from walking out the door without my purchase. She tries to convince me to be patient while they try to open my new account. I am starting to boil... and say "Forget the new account, gimme back my ID, I will just pay for it with another card, screw the $25!" I get my ID back and pull out a Platinum VISA with no balance on it, and the supervisor now sees how close she was to losing a sale AND a long time customer. She tells the cashier to give me the $25 off I would have gotten for opening a new account anyway in the interst of customer service. Finally, a break my way for a change. I got my receipt, thanked them both and got the hell out of there. When I got home, I promptly did this:

 

One less card to have in my wallet is fine with me. I will chop up wifey's card when she gets home.

Anecdotal Evidence To Be Sure, But...

 

At my firehouse (and at my home) we monitor 3 area dispatch centers on the scanner, our own and two others we sometimes deal with on a mutual aid basis. All day long, we hear the calls for chest pain, cardiac distress, and cardiac arrest (which usually ends in an on-scene presumption of death). Running a close second are the breathing problems. Today has been no different and is what prompted this post. So I wonder to myself... jab induced cardiac problems? COVID infections in immunological compromised jabbed individuals? I mean, after all... (p)Resident Joey Poopy-Pants told us this was going to be a winter of sickness and death for us jab-free pure-bloods. But not so much, huh? I remain happily jab-free and quite healthy, just having passed my annual interior attack firefighter physical and received a DOT Medical Card for my CDL. It seems every one of these patients I have dealt with are double jabbed and once boosted (and proud of it). To be fair, most of those patients I see have comorbidities that probably warrant them getting jabbed because COVID, at least the early variants would probably kill them. What I am going to try to pay attention to in the future are those with NO previous cardiac history all of a sudden having cardiac issues. Unfortunately due to HIPAA laws and department policy, I will only have direct knowledge of calls that I am actually on. Even those will be referenced in the vaguest of terms for discussion.

Another Conspiracy Theory To Come True?

OOPS! Accidentally dropped this post too early. It's up for good now.

 

Early on in the jab roll out, when I saw the immunity from lawsuits and prosecution given to all involved in every step of jab distribution excluding the recipient, I had a thought. Those willing to roll up their sleeves had to sign away their rights because they were not receiving a tested and licensed vaccine, they were (and still are) voluntarily receiving an experimental medical procedure. I wondered; what if they die, the cause of death is complications from the jab(s), and their life insurance company determines they did this to themselves causing their own death, akin to suicide? Well, stories swirl around the internet about the possibilities and unconfirmed reports that it happened. Of course, the "fact checkers" (meaning deputy ministers of state propaganda) are currently reporting that all as false. But as we've seen with many other facets of the Chi-Com Xi Flu dem-panic, things pooh-poohed as conspiracy theory and "fact checked" as false, turns out to be TRUTH!