Now You Know

If you weren't paying attention before you'd better be now. You should now know exactly what they think of you and are willing to do to YOU because of your political views. Think you're safe because you're not in the public eye like Charlie Kirk was? Think again. Voter records are public information. They list party affiliation and whether the voter record is active. All the deranged lefty loons have to do is look you up, see your party affiliation does not align with theirs, and if the voter record shows active, can easily assume the person voted in the last election and assume how they voted. Bingo... you are now a target.

Therefore, stay strapped, vigilant, and situationally aware at all times, even in your own home.

 

And if the need arises, respond accordingly and without hesitation.

These loons need to learn first hand the bible passage from The Book of Exodus Chapter 21: 23-25

23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

 

And the way I see it, they owe us our due. 

GoPro All Set and Tested

Tomorrow is the inaugural ride to test the camera while riding to see how steady it is and make sure I have it aimed properly. Probably go out for an hour or so. All this effort is because of my close call last Tuesday the 2nd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a windshield clamp mounted down low so it shouldn't get a lot of vibration, doesn't interfere with driving or controls, and is mostly out of my field of view. I did not want to use the stick on mounts and wreck the paint. It took an assortment of mounting arms and a 360 degree ball swivel to get it aimed and level. In the trunk are two spare batteries, the charger, necessary cables, and the waterproof back cover in case of foul weather. The standard back cover captures sound better, whereas the waterproof cover muffles it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gray disk on the inside of the windshield is a GoPro tether so in the event something lets go, I don't lose my camera and mount. I also shot a test video walking though the house to make sure I can play them back on my laptop OK. Works great. I have a USB connected adapter for all different size media cards and that worked fine too. The GoPro has a 64GB micro SD card for storage.

Once a year I make the trek out to Cape Cod with the MA Patriot Guard to perform a funeral flag line at the National Cemetery in Bourne, and that will be later this week. The GoPro will be used all the way out and all the way back. We meet at Cape Cod Harley Davidson which is a short ride to the cemetery. It takes me the better part of two hours to get to the Bourne Bridge but on a weekday traffic is non-existent. I head to Providence and jump on I-195 east through Fall River and New Bedford to I-495/RT. 25 to RT. 28. There are no graveside services, they all take place in chapels and are strictly scheduled so there is no dilly-dallying around a grave. The deceased are interred after the family leaves.

I don't plan on saving videos of all my rides. But if something bad happens I will have video. If there are items of interest I may edit them out into a smaller video or save some still pictures.

Two Good Scares This Week

Scare #1; Fire alarm at my house

I worked a 24 hour shift from the morning of Sunday the 31st until the morning of Monday the 1st, Labor Day. At 03:30 AM Monday as I was sleeping at the firehouse my phone buzzed. Then buzzed again. Then again. Then it started vibrating non-stop which meant I was getting a phone call. It was my alarm monitoring company telling me there was an active fire alarm at my house, and is everything all right? I told them I was not at home and I have no idea what the problem may be and to dispatch us immediately. Here's what really scared me... the buzzes were alerts from alarm system app; first reporting the alarm, then reporting a power failure. When an actual fire occurs the electrical system is damaged so my immediate thought was "Holy shit! There is a real emergency!!" I yelled to wake up my partner to get ready to go to my house. As I got dressed I called my wife and she answered saying she did not see anything and did not know why the alarm was going off. I told her we were on the way. We were dressed and had half our gear on before the tones dropped to respond. We respond with what's called "One and One" meaning one guy in each engine. We rolled out to my house lights and siren. My partner was in front of me and went up the driveway first and I pulled up behind him. The garage door was up so I grabbed my portable radio and the TIC (thermal imaging camera) from my engine and went inside. My wife was in the kitchen in her jammies with all four dogs with the alarm still sounding. I punched in the master code to clear the system and stop the siren.

There was no fire, just a faulty detector on the first floor. I have all my sensors tagged in the system with their physical location but the monitoring company said they did not have a specific sensor location. When I mentioned to my wife about the power failure, she told me she tried unplugging the base unit to silence it. Unfortunately, it has built in battery backup good for at least 48 hours so all she ended up doing was scaring the bejeezus out of me. 

I am not happy with the alarm equipment company. The smoke detectors have reached the end of their 10 year life this year, but have been rendered obsolete before they could be replaced. Like back in 2018! I found this out talking to customer service who told me I would have to upgrade my ENTIRE system at my expense to the tune of about $2000 to keep what I have. None of the sensors are compatible. THAT is not happening. So, I will eliminate the smoke detectors and the system will be a burglar/break-in alarm only since those sensors will work forever. I have the hard-wired smoke detectors that came with the house, which were all replaced in 2021 and still have 3 years of life left. They all have battery backup and are connected together so if one goes off they all go off.

 

Scare #2; Almost bought it on "The Beast"

Tuesday was a gorgeous sunny day with temps in the high 70's. I decided to go for a loop cruise late in the afternoon just before 3 PM. My security camera showed me pulling away from the house at 2:51 PM. I planned on heading north and east on the back roads of Windham County so I took a right out of my driveway. 

The speed limit on my road is 35 MPH and that's about how fast I was going until I locked `em up about 300 yards or so up the road from the end of my driveway.

I say locked `em up, but in actuality my bike has ABS which brings it to a quick stop without going into a skid and possibly laying it down. A jackass that lives a couple of miles from me drives like a raving lunatic on my road all the time. I had to jump out of his way at my mailbox when he went screaming by at 60 several months ago. I got his license plate while he was parked at the local convenience store so that if I observed him driving like a nut again I could report him. But in this incident I didn't know it was him because he wasn't driving his normal blue Chevy Avalanche.

He was driving an older kind of beat maroon Chevy pickup with a roof rack. He came around the curve at a high rate of speed and overshot the curve putting him on a direct head on path to me. It happened very fast and I had nowhere to go but to sit stopped and brace for impact. At the last second he swerved and missed me, and then threw it in reverse to come back to where I sat so "I could yell at him" he said. That's when I saw who it was and I laid into that motherfucker without removing my helmet. I told him what a fucking asshole he was, that he drives like a fucking lunatic, that I know he drives the blue pickup and little white Nissan van, and where he lives. I told him he will be getting a visit from the state police, threw my bike in gear and took off. He continued on his way. I went up to his house to get his house number, but of course, an asshole like that doesn't bother having a visible house number. It was at that point I realized I was so shaken by the incident I needed to go home and park my bike. I actually had the shakes. I have other means at my disposal to get the guy's name and proper address, which I did and then called the state police routine number, not 911. I told the desk trooper what happened and he said they would send a trooper to my house to talk to me. The state trooper came by just before 4:30. Another young 'un younger than my own daughter. I explained the whole situation including the incident at my mailbox. He took me by surprise by asking if I thought he was targeting me. I told him definitely not. While I was at my mailbox he came speeding around a blind corner and probably didn't even see me. And on my bike I had on a full face helmet so he had no clue who I was. I was asked if I had dashcam video and I said I didn't. The state trooper left and said he may or may not get back to me, but there will definitely be a record of this situation in case there are any future incidents. I assume his next stop was to visit that jackass.

Because of this incident, I pulled my old GoPro Hero 3+ camera out of storage and will use it from now on as a dashcam on every ride. My wife ordered me 3 new batteries with charger, a windshield clamp, and a ball swivel mount off Amazon so I can put the GoPro protected behind the windshield without obstructing my view or interfering with the controls. People ask me how I can do something as "dangerous" as ride a motorcycle? I remind them what I do for a living, and that just going in to work each day could be my last. I tell them I thoroughly enjoy riding motorcycles, and WILL NOT deny myself such pleasure because of "what if?" I live my life.

Wednesday afternoon I ventured out again.... kinda like the "get back on the horse" ride. I did the 35 mile loop ride I attempted Tuesday. On the way back I stopped at the firehouse to speak with the Deputy Chief who was out front putting in some mums. I parked my bike near his SUV on the front ramp. As I was talking to him, that jackass drove by, saw my bike, stopped and turned around in the parking lot to drive by again. He didn't see me at first because I was behind the SUV, but I looked right at him and he knows he was seen. He doesn't yet know where I live or that I am on the FD, but he will definitely find out if he fucks around.

Not Happening I Guess

The new gig I referenced in this post that is. Sometime on Tuesday August 26th I was supposed to receive an email from one of the owners as an invite to interview. I had updated my resume' in anticipation of sending it back to her in a reply. Nothing. My buddy that would have been my manager there probably thinks I am pissed at him because he has made himself scarce. I'm not mad at anybody. I have a job. If they are not interested in my services, then once again as always.... their loss.

In the meantime, I will keep looking around for other employment opportunities. 

Patriot Guard Mission - By The Numbers

I did a Patriot Guard mission today at the CT Veterans Cemetery in Middletown. The weather was spectacular... bright sun, cool temperatures, and a light breeze. I rode down on "The Beast" and most of the others rode bikes as well except for a couple of much older guys. I composed this blog post in my head while standing the flag line as the family and mourners arrived.

12 CT Patriot Guard Riders stood in honor of the deceased, US Navy Chaplain Rev. Charles Clark who served in Vietnam.

1 of those twelve was the 12 year old granddaughter of a PGR member that performed her first mission. She did well and received her customary PGR "Mission Accomplished" pin when you do your first one. You can get them for milestones 10-20-30-40-50, etc. The "Mission Accomplished" pin is the only one I wear on my leather vest.

2 US Naval Officers in brilliant dress whites rendered honors with the folding of the flag.

5' x 9' Is the standard size of a casket flag, which is never meant to be flown, only draped over a casket.

13 The number of folds required to put the flag into the triangle for presentation. The flag is folded from the striped end towards the stars. The presented flag when folded is all blue with white stars. Each one of the folds has a meaning which can be found here.

3 The number of riflemen in today's rifle salute detail 

3 The number of volleys fired

24 The number of notes in a standard blowing of Taps. Double that when there are two buglers and one follows the other in a haunting echo from a distance away out of sight.

9 was the number of fired shells from the rifle volleys.

3 was the number of shells recovered and placed in a small velvet bag for presentation to the same family member that receives the flag, AFTER the flag is presented. 

ONE -- the number of military personnel that makes the flag presentation to the spouse, eldest child, or surviving relative of the deceased. I received my father's folded flag since my mother predeceased him and I am the oldest. Sometimes I am within earshot. I could not hear the naval officer today, but this is what he said:

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

 

After the service, I mounted up and headed homeward. The weather called for possible showers early this afternoon so I did not want to get caught in one. I wanted to stop at BJ's in Manchester for gas and I could grab lunch at Baja Fresh Grill in the same shopping center. This also took me right near wifey's work place, so I stopped in to see if she would meet me there for lunch. Alas, she had a noon time class she was leading so I went solo. I made it home dry and sure enough while at home a heavy shower lasting a full two minutes came by. Later this afternoon I will do some yard work.