Say Her Name

Aubrey Ashleigh Premo

Let me explain....

Yesterday was day 2 of my normal two day off rotation at the FD. Since I took care of half the yard work and some other errands on Wednesday, Thursday was going to be a motorcycle outing again this week. The plan was to prep the yard for mowing later in the day by blowing off the leaves that are already starting to fall, allowing the grass to dry completely. Then I could head out to see if I could convince one of my co-workers to hop on his bike and go get some lunch. I find that I have been more successful showing up at peoples door on my bike than making a phone call or sending a text. He wasn't home but I found his car parked at his town firehouse. I called him thinking he was inside, but he was out of town working a dive recovery from a weekend boating accident. So I was on my own. I decided to once again head for the shoreline, heading for the CT/RI border town of Pawcatuck, where I could pick up U.S. 1 and head west to Mystic this time. That would take me past the roadside seafood stand called The Sea Swirl for lunch. $22 and change for a fish sandwich, fries, and a large drink, but boy was it good! The only thing I don't like about that place (which I had forgotten) is there are no restrooms, not even a porta-potty. Kind of a necessity when stopping for food especially on two wheels. I hate eating with a full bladder but what could I do? As I was finishing my lunch a car pulls in and parks head in near the table I was sitting at. The male driver was drinking a fucking beer. He knows I saw him but he must think since I am a biker, I'll just be cool about it so he downs the rest of it. I decided to delay my departure to see what these people were going to do. Driving a bike can be hazardous enough without a known intoxicated driver being on the road in the vicinity. They got out to order food and it was obvious that the female passenger was drunk as she stumbled over to the outdoor sink to wash her hands. They order food and knowing they would have to wait for it, that's when I started getting ready to leave so I could be well away from them. She sits on a bench and he goes back to the car, opens the trunk, and grabs another beer. Busch Light... and I see he is wearing a casual shirt that is imprinted with the Busch Light logo all over it. What does that tell you? I know what it tells me, this guy is a functional drunk with a beer in his hand all the time. And these two are not young dumb teens, they are in they're late 40's or early 50's! He gets in the car and sits in the passenger seat to drink his beer, kinda eyeballin' me. I was so tempted to report them, but that would take time and I.... looking out for NUMBER 1 (me) decided to just get the hell away from them. I headed west on U.S. 1 and turned north on RT. 27 past Mystic Seaport and The Mystic Aquarium. There is a large Shell station with a mini-mart and restrooms just before the aquarium access road, so I stopped to perform some hydraulic recycling. I continued up RT. 27 to the end and took some very nice back roads I know through Ledyard and Preston heading north toward the Norwich area and then on to home.

In my travels towards home I passed the road side memorial for Aubrey. I drive by it regularly and have noticed recently it was overgrown, and the cross had fallen over. I had planned to grab some yard implements and make a special trip to clean it up, but on impulse I decided to stop and see what I could do. Here are the results.

Click it to big it

 

I cleared the overgrowth by hand. The weeds were easily moved/removed, but the mushrooms and toadstools looked nice in place. The cross is made of steel painted white with decal letters spelling out her name. Most of the decals are gone, so later I will come back to clean off the old adhesive and replace them. I found a rock 3X the size of my fist which worked perfectly to hammer the cross back into the ground, The sign with her name and picture was bent over so I straightened it back up. The sunflower ornament had fallen over as well, so that got put back up.

Here is the back story of her accident that I found out through my FD connections. She was working at Day Kimball Hospital as a PCT (patient care technician) while attending nursing school to become an RN. She was engaged to be married, had a brand new 2019 Harley-Davidson and was out for a nice September afternoon cruise with her fiance'. He was following behind her on his bike when the accident happened right in front of him. According to my sources in EMS, she was killed instantly. There was nothing anyone could do to save her. I had been out on my bike that Sunday as well, and drove right through there going the opposite direction less than 2 hours earlier. When I was at home, I heard on the scanner that there was a motorcycle accident on RT. 89 in Mansfield, but did not closely listen to the call. After being home a few hours, my wife and I were headed out for dinner going out that way. When we got to Laurel Lane, the road was closed and we turned around to take another route. I could see the scene from where we turned around and it just looked like a tree down across the road. I didn't put two and two together. It was only later that I found out that it was the motorcycle accident and that it was a fatality. The news reports said that Aubrey was "struck by a tree branch." Bullshit, she was crushed to death by a whole large tree. Interestingly, tree crews had been working in the area, removing and trimming trees that could take down power lines the previous weeks. Did they miss taking down this tree or somehow otherwise cause this accident? Who knows.

As a biker with The Patriot Guard Riders, I know how important memorials and services are. It is sad that Aubrey's memorial has fallen to the wayside but I understand people move on with their lives. As a fellow biker that works in emergency services I feel a special kinship to those who meet their end while out enjoying God's Creation on two wheels. I guess I will take on the role of maintainer and try to keep her memorial visible and fresh anonymously. Only my blog and X readers know about this, no one in meat space does.

Oh No, Not Another FUDD!

This past Saturday evening we had a bonfire at my house and had several friends over. Because of work, weather, wildfire conditions, and activities requiring us to get up early the next day, this is the first one we've had all year. I started burning late morning, by lighting off the brush pile that has filled my fire pit since last fall. I continued to feed the pit with downed tree limbs supplemented by firewood. My stack of firewood was pretty wet, forcing me to place firewood standing on end inside the rock fire ring to dry out before being placed on the fire pile. As the firewood dried out and put on the fire it was replaced with more wet wood. Every now and then a few seconds of forced air with my hand held leaf blower turning it into a blast furnace ensured the fire kept burning well all night long. I'll pre-dry a quantity of firewood before the next fire.

What prompted this post is finding out someone in the fire service I have known for 40 years is a raging FUDD and a BUTTER and I never knew it. In case you're new to my blog, or firearms, or The Second Amendment, here's a couple of definitions:

FUDD:  Especially those veterans that spout their anti-gun views because "muh service"

BUTTER:  "I believe in The Second Amendment, BUT nobody needs/should have ______"

I am a Second Amendment absolutist, meaning if you can afford it, you should be able to purchase it, straight from the manufacturer WITHOUT ANY GOVERNMENT KNOWLEDGE OR INTERFERENCE. And I do mean EVERYTHING! F-15 fighters, nuclear powered submarines, M1 Abrams tanks, Blackhawk helicopters, etc. Every single federal, state, or local gun law that prevents, prohibits, or otherwise restricts ownership or use of ANY ARMS is an infringement. PERIOD. FULL STOP. The ATF should be immediately disbanded and dissolved, and every employee from the janitor to the director should be put on trial for crimes against American Citizens. And no, The Second Amendment wasn't written to protect hunting and target shooting, but to prevent a tyrannical out of control government. All enemies, foreign and domestic so The Oath goes.

We were seated around the fire and there were several conversations going on. The individual that is the subject of this post was seated next to me. His wife usually comes but she was under the weather. All of a sudden I get a text from a member of my sportsman's club that lives in town. He had fallen at his house and injured himself earlier in the day requiring EMS transport to the hospital. He texted me and asked (jokingly) why I wasn't there when he needed me. I explained I wasn't on duty, but as a joke I would send him my schedule so he only hurts himself when I am working. A guy sitting across from us is also a member of my FD and my sportsman's club. I told him who got hurt, which prompted my friend next to me to ask "Oh, you belong to a shooting range?" I told him I did and that I am the club secretary. He starts telling me he had bought a 9mm pistol years ago but hasn't fired it yet. I asked him if he was carrying it (bad idea if you are not intimately familiar with a firearm for EDC)? He said no, he never would, it's just for the house. I told him he should join me at my range and shoot it, and that I carry all the time. Oh boy, that's when all the FUDD rhetoric spewed forth. He said he'd never carry because it is so restrictive. I told him we live in a stupid clown world and the stupid can find you anywhere, so I carry everywhere regardless, including across state lines. Then he voiced his support for a total "assault weapons" ban because "nobody needs such a thing." I told him no one should be determining the needs of others. Boy he really lit up at the mention of infringements against The Second Amendment, and said something like "screw the Second Amendment it was written for muskets and I am sick of hearing about The Constitution." Wow.... I knew right there that this conversation was potentially not going to remain civil, and used the pause to get up and add firewood to the fire, just dropping the whole subject. I value his friendship more than trying to convince him at 77 years old how wrong he is. The rest of the evening was enjoyable and he actually left the gathering first.

This is the root picture used on X to create FUDD memes. Ol' Pop-Pop wearing a blaze orange hunter cap. The number of firearms I own would be derogatorily called an "arsenal" and the several cubic feet of ammo called a "cache" by such an individual.

 

"I have a .22 rifle, a bolt action .30-06, and a shotgun. That''s all that anyone ever needs. Concealed handguns are the tool of the criminal"

I actually had a FUDD (a former chief of my department) say those very words. But then he would go on to say that a .45 ACP 1911 was the best handgun because he killed a guy in Vietnam with one, and 9mm anything was crap. I tried to explain modern 9mm ammo and handguns are nothing like what the Germans used with their Lugers. He didn't care to discuss it so asked him if I could just shoot him with the 9mm I carry. He was not amused and called me a fucking idiot for carrying a gun all the time. I told him maybe he was the fucking idiot for not carrying a tool to defend himself, because a concealed firearm in a proper holster harms no one. Another conversation ended by me walking away.

A Kayak & Beach Outing

My wife and I were both available for some fun on Sunday and she really wanted to go to the beach. Kommiecticut beaches SUCK because they are in Long Island Sound which is the sewer outlet for every Kommiecticut city along the shore, and especially NYC. I only go to ocean side beaches of RI or MA. RI is closer so that is where we usually go. Normally we would go the Charlestown, RI and put our kayaks in at Lake Quonochontaug at the boat launch by the breachway. A 1 1/2 mile paddle to an area where you can go ashore and then a quick hike over the dunes puts you on beautiful West Beach. Because that area is reached only by boat, there are very few beachgoers there. Last year we discovered the the state of RI eliminated more then half of the parking there, making a weekend trip out of the question, but we decided to go anyway and see how bad it was. We got there at 08:30 and it was worse than imagined. People were dumping their vehicles wherever they felt like, blocking access to the one small parking lot and blocking in other vehicles. A perfect setup for a road rage incident. We left the area and pulled into the parking lot of the bakery on the corner of US RT. 1 to lookup some place else to go. While there were several, only one nearby put us at an ocean side beach... Ninigret Landing Marina on Ninigret Lake. It was a short drive further north on RT. 1 to the marina access road. It is a small marina with a decent parking lot and a concrete boat launch. $10 just to park and $20 to park and launch a boat. I went inside the office and found a gorgeous young brunette with a laptop sipping her coffee running the place. She took my $20 and said we were all set for the day. She said friends of hers take their boat across the lake to the dunes to get to the beach, but she did not know where they land. I told her since it was our first time there we would be exploring the right shoreline to look at all the big beautiful homes, and circle around to the dunes to find beach access.

We left the truck parked about 40 feet from the boat launch and carried our kayaks to the ramp. We set the kayaks side-by-side, load and stow everything in the boats, and then she grabs both front carrying handles and I grab the rears and we walk the boats to the waters edge. She gets in first so I can shove her off, then I get in. At my age, my knees don't work like they used to. I cannot enter the cockpit without the kayak floating in knee deep water so I can step up and in. With that we were under way. The sky was overcast with a slight sea breeze, and temps were not quite 80.

Our excursion plotted on Google Earth manually by me

We stopped at the East Beach Landing twice. The first time was to check it out and we spoke to the young man that was the park ranger. We then walked out to look at the beach and it was more crowded than we were used to, but nothing like the mad house crowd at Misquamicut State Beach to the west. We decided to explore the shoreline along the dunes to the east, and come back if nothing panned out. As you can see on the plot above that is what we did. We stopped to check out a couple more landing spots, but the path dead-ended into woods, or on the road with no visible way to get to the ocean. It was only when I viewed this satellite image on Google Earth did I see where we should have gone which we will know for next time. We paddled back to the East Beach Landing.

I learned from someone else's bad experience to tie up your kayak in tidal areas, not to simply beach them. You will find your kayak far from shore after the tide takes it away. I carry a length of 1/4" nylon rope and an auger style anchor like you'd use to tie up a dog. The anchor gets screwed deep into the sand and the kayaks are securely tied up. We haven't lost them yet. We take EVERYTHING of value with us, and stow anything else out of sight in the trunks. I insist on taking our nice carbon fiber Aqua-Bound Sting Ray Hybrid light weight paddles for two reasons. First, leaving the paddle is like leaving the car keys in the ignition. It lessens the temptation and ability to "borrow" our kayaks. Second, it prevents some asshole from getting a free paddle upgrade and leaving us junky heavy paddles. We have never had a problem.... yet.

We walked through the parking lot and over the dunes to find a nice spot on the beach. It was now lunch time so that was the first order of business after setting up the beach blanket. Then it was time to succumb to the food coma and nap. With the sea breeze stronger on the ocean side of the dunes, my wife was all covered up with another blanket at towels because she was cold. I thought it felt refreshing and zonked off uncovered. We slept about 45 minutes and then got up to use the bathroom and go for a walk. While the water temperature was nice, with the breeze and no sun neither of us went for a swim, but I did go in up to my knees. There were not many other people in the water either. We hung out for another hour and then decided to pack up and paddle back, going in a straight line across the lake to the marina. Upon arrival, my wife went to change clothes while I got loaded up. We headed out and actually beat all the beach traffic headed for Kommiecticut. Getting caught in the mass exodus on the bypass road RT. 78 is a nightmare we are familiar with from years ago. We stopped for ice cream closer to home. At home, I got everything unloaded and rinsed our kayaks off in the yard. I only do this if we go somewhere muddy or swampy, or in salt water. Because the sun was out at home, the kayaks dried off and I was able to hang them up in the garage where I store them.

7 Days of X Jail

 Earned by this simple little post:

Which has been deleted in order to start the clock to have my account unfucked. But it will live on forever here thanks to me screenshotting it before deletion. It will end up back on X as a photo in a post when I am back on.

Can you imagine... being suspended for simply advocating what was once U.S. Military doctrine and the stated position of the United States? Even though I was in the Army Reserves assigned to a rear echelon medical HQ unit, everything I was taught or did was based on the destruction of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact and the killing of Commies. Had the Soviet armor rolled west through the Fulda Gap towards western Europe, we were to be deployed to England to coordinate front line field hospitals and all other medical facilities in our A.O. Across the globe on the Korean Peninsula, my brothers in arms were keeping Kim Il Sung in check at the 38th parallel, but still on alert and ready for killing Asian Commies.

Oh well, fellow blogger Matthew W. at the Bacon Time !!!!!! blog will be glad I'm gone for the 7 days so he doesn't have to endure my pro-Miracle Whip postings. 😂  I have another post in progress that will be up in the next day or so about a kayak outing with My Honey.

Three P.G.R. Funeral Flag Lines

Yesterday I reported for Patriot Guard duty at the CT Veterans Cemetery in Middletown for two funerals back to back. Staging time for the first one was 12:00 and the second one was set for 13:00. I arrived on "The Beast" early as usual, with my first stop at the admin building to use the restroom. I spotted the area in the cemetery where the others were gathered and moved over there to park. There were three freshly dug and readied graves for cremains right in a row nearby. While we were just hanging out the funeral director shows up and informs the Ride Captain that there is a funeral prior to the two we are there for, and the family is asking if we would stand a flag line for their loved one as well. Now the P.G.R. will never just show up, or come on hearsay, we must be officially invited by immediate family of the deceased. Since we were already there and the mission kinda met the criteria, we assembled our flags and got in place just as the procession was arriving. There were only 12 mourners but about 20 P.G.R. members, and the family was extremely happy with what we did. It was a little unusual because the urn was a his & hers side by side holding two sets of cremains. Therefore, because the husband was the veteran but the wife wasn't, no military honors were performed. It was a simple burial.

The next two burials proceeded as usual, with an honor guard rifle team firing 3 volleys, a bugler playing taps, and two Army soldiers doing the flag. When there is a casket, the casket is draped with a flag right to the grave. That flag is 5' x 9' and specially made for draping a casket. It is never meant to be flown on a flagpole. It is lifted from the casket and folded 13 times into a triangle for presentation to the family. When there are cremains, the flag arrives already folded and placed with the urn. The military honor guard then picks up the flag, unfolds it, smartly snaps it open horizontally, pauses, then refolds it into the triangle for presentation. I have heard it so many times I know it by heart:

"On behalf of the President of The United States, The United States Army/Navy/Air Force, and a grateful nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for your loved one's honorable and faithful service."

The Marines (fucking crayon eaters 😆) have their own version that goes like this:

On behalf of the President of The United States, The Commandant of The Marine Corps, and a grateful nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for your loved one's honorable and faithful service.

After military honors are rendered, religious burial services are then held. It seems all the ones I've ever been to were Christian or none. Raised a Catholic, I know that one really well and usually includes "The Lord's Prayer" and the 23rd Psalm.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. (Catholic prayer ends here) 

For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever. (Other Christian denominations)

Amen.

 

The Lord Is My Shepherd

A Psalm of David.

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
³     He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.

⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

 

One of the final prayers is called the "Eternal Rest Prayer" and goes like this:

Eternal rest grant unto him/her, O Lord,
and let Your perpetual light shine upon him/her.
May his/her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed
rest in peace.

Amen.

While it is entirely recited by the priest, the second line is said by all in attendance.

 

Over the past six years of Patriot Guard duty, I have learned more about funerals than I ever thought possible. For someone that deals with death on the job regularly, attending all these funerals seems to provide a sort of closure. Most of the people I deal with that die are strangers anyway, just like the funerals I go to. It kind of evens out.