Chi-Com Xi Flu - Still Out There

Against my wishes, my beloved wife threw me a surprise birthday party. She has done this on every ten year "milestone" since I turned 30. I told her not to do it this year and she didn't. My birthday came and went with my wife, her Dad, and I just going out for a nice seafood dinner at Sturbridge Seafood. I thought I dodged the bullet. This past weekend was my sportsman's club annual clambake. It is our largest event of the year and biggest fundraiser. I was going to be tied up at least the first half of Saturday and all day Sunday, never giving a surprise party a thought.

So I got to the club a little after 8 AM Saturday and was busy as a beaver the whole time. I always work in the kitchen, which is ironic since I hated nothing more in the military than pulling K.P. But I have skills... culinary skills... and they are much appreciated by the kitchen chairman, other kitchen help, and the club in general.  My phone kept alerting me that my Blink camera was detecting motion and recording videos. I didn't pay attention at first because sometimes people bring their dogs to my wife for grooming, or she lets our dogs run loose in the yard and they trip it off. When I had a few minute break, I looked at my phone and the videos. I refuse to pay Amazon for a Blink storage subscription, so I store them locally on a USB drive. Unfortunately, that means I have to view each one in order to delete it. There were like 30 video clips! I start looking at them and see my wife and her father coming and going. Then I see them unloading his pickup truck with tables and coolers, and now my niece is there. What the fuck... ? Don't look now Glypto, but there's somethin' funny goin' on over at your house. I never really seen one before but that's got all the earmarks of being a party! Reminds me of this scene from one of my favorite movies, "It's A Wonderful Life" and the run on the banks. 

Oh yeah, she's putting together a party. I show one of the guys in the club kitchen and he cooks up an idea... send her a text saying something happened and you won't be home. Oh how perfect! I send her the following text:

"Hey, not many guys showed up and we have had some difficulties. I may not be home until after 9 PM."

Me and the other guys are giggling like schoolboys looking at pictures of boobies, anxiously awaiting a reply. Several minutes go by and nothing. Now I am trying to figure out; is she so busy she doesn't have her phone on her? Or is she making a mad scramble to call other people and cook up a plan to drag me away from the club. After another 15 minutes or so it is obvious, she doesn't have her phone. We finish our prep work and I head home about 1 PM. Sure enough, they are setting up a party and the jig is up. Oh, my wife tries to lie and say "it's just a little BBQ" but that is obviously bullshit. Especially since the turkey fryer is set up and full of corn on the cob. Guests start showing up around 5 PM. We have a good time ending with a bonfire and everyone had gone home before 11. The next day at the clambake, I worked like a dog from 8:30 AM until 6 PM. I got home and collapsed in a chair for an hour or so, then got up to do the evening work night routine before bed. I was pretty sore so a couple of Advil PM before bed did the trick.

So what exactly, you might ask, does any of this have to do with Ch-Com Xi Flu? First off, a couple we are friends with that came to the party are true-blue Branch Covidians, both double jabbed and boosted. I caught them off-guard by ignoring his "fist-bump" and shaking his hand, and just giving her a full embrace. Second, both of my sisters-in-law didn't come, because being double jabbed and double boosted, they are both at home COVID positive. My brother in law's wife is really miserable. She described her sore throat as feeling like she was swallowing broken glass. I didn't talk to my brother's wife, but she does have a compromised immune system from previous cancer treatments, and he stayed home because he was exposed. Also one of the guests that was there, got over it herself a week earlier that was also jabbed and boosted. Again... not ever having a drop of that poison shit squirted into my body, and since I was really sick with an unknown upper respiratory crud in March 2020, I have not been sick. But I'm sure as soon as the evil little Dr. Fraud-Xi says to get another booster, they all will run out to get one. Thankfully, my wife that got the "one and done" J&J clot-shot, has not succumbed to any more external pressure to get boosters and has stated she will not in the future. The bug-eyed director of DPH and shill for big pharma jabs for the state of Kommiecticut is campaigning hard to try and get parents to jab/boost their kids before the beginning of the next school years because...

 

OMG... WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!

DMV Nightmare

I hold a current Class B CDL, and have ever since the early `90's when Kommiecticut finally decided to get on board with the rest of the country. I previously held a state Class II, which meant an easy conversion to CDL B with a written test and $10 fee. It was during this conversion, that the state DMV, without even a learners permit or driving test, accidentally added the "M" motorcycle endorsement. I had ridden motorcycles without a license for years, and actually attempted to get it twice before. Unfortunately both times, the dude whose bike I was going to use to take my test was no longer around and the learners permit expired. 

I received the following notice in late May, but misplaced it in a pile of papers. I found it as the expiration date approached and Saturday the 9th was the only day I could get to DMV. You see, when the DMV started letting you do transactions on-line, they cut back their hours. They used to have a late day on Thursday, being open until 8 PM, but not any more. Someone like me that works 6 AM to 6 PM every weekday, means I am screwed and can only go on a Saturday.  In Kommiecticut, if you are a AAA member and have a standard drivers license you can renew at the local AAA office. Not if you have a CDL... as the notice says; "YOU MUST APPEAR IN PERSON" and "** YOU MUST GO TO DMV OFFICE TO RENEW **"

DMV license renewal, personal info redacted

Okay, so I made the following plans for Saturday: the weather will be beautiful so I am taking my bike. First, go to DMV and be there when they open. The process is simply to verify my records are in order, take a picture, and pay the fee. Done in 5 minutes and I don't even get the new license, they mail it to you. Next, go grab breakfast somewhere close by the DMV office. A quick trip to get some essentials at Wally World, and then go do a Patriot Guard mission in the next town over. It was a cemetery flag line only; no funeral home, procession escorts, or church service. I'd be home by 12:30.... HA!

Imagine playing a baseball game against state government. It is the bottom of the sixth inning and they are up by one run. Before anyone takes the field to start the seventh, they get the umpire to change the rules, call the game, and declare them the winner. That's kinda what happened here. Apparently, the Kommiecticut DMV is still operating under Chi-Com Xi Flu lock-down rules. You need to make an appointment ahead of time for everything. Unless I am blind, NOWHERE on this notice does it say such a thing, just that I have to appear in person (notice the language sounds eerily familiar to a criminal court summons). We were lined up outside waiting for the door to open, not a very big line. When I got to the door, the hefty bull-dyke DMV cop (she was actually very nice and helpful) asks to see my appointment confirmation. When I tell her I don't have one and nothing told me I needed one, she says she is sorry but I can not proceed in, and then assisted me in going to the DMV website on my phone to try and get a later morning appointment. I request earliest available appointment at the Willimantic office, and it tells me late afternoon Tuesday July 12th. SHIT! As the notice states at the bottom. a $25 fee will be charged for renewing late, no grace period, and I can't take that hit. She suggests trying the next closest office in Norwich. I try the same appointment request and BINGO! there is one available at 10:40. Unfortunately, that blows the Patriot Guard mission which takes place at the same time. I hop on the bike and head for Norwich.

Because it was a little after 8 AM when I hit the road, I decided to go to the McDonald's just across from DMV. The only thing I ever get at Mickey D's is breakfast, specifically the #5, a bacon-egg-cheese McGriddle with a hash brown and medium black coffee combo. I ate it inside the dining room, hit the restroom and saddled up to head to Norwich.

I next went to Wally World before the DMV since there was one in Norwich across RT. 82 from the DMV office and I had plenty of time before my appointment. I got my purchases quickly and moved my bike to the far end of the parking lot where there was a large shady area. I hung out for the next 50 minutes in the shade listening to tunes on the bike. At 10:30 I saddled up and drove the mile or so to DMV. I walked in, showed my confirmation on my phone, and had a seat. I waited about 5 minutes before I got called to the window. The office is still set up for Chi-Com Xi Flu lock-down with decals on the floor, separated chairs, and Plexiglas guards everywhere. Great... the window I get called to is staffed by the only dope in the whole place wearing a fucking face diaper behind her Plexiglas bubble. I can't hear a fucking thing she mumbles so every time I make her say it again... LOUDER! sometimes twice. The transaction went exactly as planned and lasted 5 minutes. I was out of there with a paper copy of my new license to carry as a temporary until the permanent card arrives.

On the way back I stopped to get gas at a station that has the lowest prices in the area. $4.16 per gallon, still $2 too high (FUCK JOE BIDEN!). I spot an opening and weave my bike through the cars at the pumps. Unfortunately, an older couple was coming around the island as I threw down the kickstand. She starts screaming and pointing because I got there first claiming I cut her off. I told her to calm down and stay where she was, I will be out of there quick and she won't lose her place. It took me about 4 minutes to grab a quick fill-up and I pulled out between her and another car and she was able to pull forward to the pump. I pulled into a parking place away from the pumps to put my helmet and gloves back on.

So the morning was a bust as far as doing the Patriot Guard mission. I feel kinda bad since I have not been able to do a PGR mission since last October. I work so many more hours I rarely have a weekday off and when I do there is no mission. Then if there is one on the weekend, I can't go because I am catching up on yard work or other chores. However, I did end up spending more ass time in the saddle of "The Beast" getting a much longer ride on a gorgeous sunny day.

78 Years Ago Today

The Hartford Circus Fire - July 6, 1944

6,800 souls were in attendance inside the Big Top when it went up. 168 perished, and approximately 600 were injured.

The canvas was waterproofed against rain with a mixture of paraffin wax and gasoline.

It is thought the fire was been started by a careless smoker, but no one really knows.

The absolute best resource, including color movie of the Big Top going up in flames.

My dearly departed Father was 10 years old at the time. He lived 20 miles from the site of the disaster in Willimansett, MA. All he would ever say about that day was "it was the day the clowns cried" and nothing more. I mean go silent and kinda walk away.  I don't believe he was there because I am positive I would know about it. But I am sure he knew kids that were there for the show, and between news accounts and their tales of the horror probably frightened the living shit out of him and scarred him for life.

On WTIC AM 1080 during the 11:30 newscast today, they played a recording from the radio broadcast about the fire from that fateful day. Afterward, they interviewed an elderly survivor, who said his uncles were there as well, and knew how to unfasten and drop the sides of the tent, allowing hundreds to escape.

As a firefighter, this is one of those historic deadly fires that we study, because they are the reasons for most of the life safety codes we have today.

True... Believe Me

 

Most of the guys I serve with (myself included) look like Kevin Heffernan's character Chief Terry McConky from the hysterical hit TV show "Tacoma FD." We like to say we're in shape because "round is a shape." Another one is that we're all on the raccoon diet because we eat a lot of junk.

I made this meme to reply to a tweet on Twitter that contained the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My reply with my meme got a bunch of likes and follows. After sexy french maid, sexy nurse is probably just about every guy's bedroom fantasy fun time. Of course, don't leave out sexy kitty or throw on a pair of eyeglasses for naughty teacher.

Happy Birthday, Cassidy

July 5, 1988  

Today would have been Cassidy Wofford's 34th birthday. She tragically ended her own life on My 28, 2011. I detailed more about her life and my encounter with her in this post on the anniversary of her suicide. I am just trying to keep her memory alive in my own small way. It is easy for someone like her to be discarded and forgotten in the history of the universe.

Coincidentally, I ran into one of the other EMTs from the call where I assisted her this past Saturday. I hadn't seen him in a long time so we BS'd for quite a while. I brought up the subject of that call we were on because her birthday was approaching and he remembered it well from at least 13 years ago. I think he was a little surprised that I remembered her birthday, but at least I got someone else thinking about her. I will see the other EMT from that call tonight at my sportsman's club meeting. I'll see if I can get him aside to talk about her for a few minutes.

So Happy Birthday Little One. May you be spending it in the peace you deserve.