- Kitchen demolition is a lot easier when you stop trying to be delicate and start using large muscle groups and foul language.
- Whoever put our kitchen together used more hardware than the assembly lines in Detroit used in a ’54 Buick.
- Somebody needs to tell the Postal Service that it makes the Baby Jesus cry when they lie about delivering my new toaster oven.
- If you’ve read Escort Duty, I’d appreciate a review up on Amazon. It helps to know what I’ve done right and wrong.
- Another batch of hard copies went out on Saturday. If you’d like one of your own, drop me an e-mail.
- The 20 foot dumpster arrives on Tuesday. We have it for a week. It has a maximum weight allowance of six tons.
- Challenge accepted.
All posts in category Uncategorized
Musings
Posted by daddybear71 on March 6, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/03/06/musings-182/
Today’s Earworm
Because this is how it’s supposed to sound.
Posted by daddybear71 on March 3, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/03/03/todays-earworm-691/
Musings
- Love – The ability of a married man to walk past a new-to-him gun store so that he can go into an appliance store to buy the stove his wife found on sale for the new kitchen.
- Most of the kitchen is in the dining room. Most of the dining room is in the living room. I don’t get to live until the kitchen project is over.
- There are few things more blood-chilling than hearing the sound of your wife’s voice saying, “Honey, where’s the reciprocating saw?”.
- If you’re ever feeling good about how well you clean your home, take an hour or so and clean out the dryer vents and the area under and behind your refrigerator. Boom – instant humility.
- A Cub Scout pack committee member shirt and patches costs a little more than a case of ammunition. That’s before I buy the hat, belt, pants, socks, and jacket.
- Give a Scout a pack, and he will fill it with semi-useless doodads and junk food unless you give him some very focused advice.
- Irish Woman found a novel approach to cleaning out deep cabinets that we are going to rip out anyway – rip off the side of the cabinet to get access to everything quickly.
- There is a fine line between “pick up the Legos” and “play with the Legos.” Boo has yet to find it.
Posted by daddybear71 on March 1, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/03/01/musings-181/
Attention to Orders
Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Edward C. Byers, Jr. will receive the Medal of Honor today. Like all men who have earned this honor, he is humble and gives credit to his comrades before himself.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Where do we find such men?
Summary of Action
Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Edward C. Byers Jr.: For actions during Operation Enduring Freedom on Dec. 8, 2012
Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Edward C. Byers Jr., United States Navy, distinguished himself by heroic gallantry as an Assault Team Member attached to a Joint Task Force in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM on 8 December 2012.
Specific accomplishment:
Dr. Dilip Joseph is an American citizen, who was abducted with his driver and Afghan interpreter on 5 December 2012. Intelligence reports indicated that Dr. Joseph might be transported to another location as early as 9 December 2012. Dr. Joseph was being held in a small, single-room building.
The target compound was located in a remote area beside a mountain in the Qarghah’i District of Laghman Province, Afghanistan. Chief Byers was part of the rescue team that planned to make entry into the room of guards where the hostage was believed to be located. Success of the rescue operation relied upon surprise, speed, and aggressive action. Trading personal security for speed of action was inherent to the success of this rescue mission. Each assaulter in the rescue force volunteered for this operation with full appreciation for the risks they were to undertake.
With the approval of the Commander of all International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan, the rescue force launched from its forward operating base. The infiltration was an exhaustive patrol across unimproved trails and mountainous terrain. After nearly four hours of patrolling, the rescue force was positioned to make its assault on the target compound.
As the patrol closed to within 25 meters of the target building, a guard became aware of the rescue force. The forward-most assaulter shot at the guard and ran towards the door to make entry as the guard disappeared inside. Chief Byers was the second assaulter in a sprint towards the door. Six layers of blankets securely fastened to the ceiling and walls served as the Afghan door. While Chief Byers tried to rip down the blankets, the first assaulter pushed his way through the doorway and was immediately shot by enemy AK-47 fire. Chief Byers, fully aware of the hostile threat inside the room, boldly entered and immediately engaged a guard pointing an AK-47 towards him. As he was engaging that guard, another adult male darted towards the corner of the room. Chief Byers could not distinguish if the person may have been the hostage scrambling away or a guard attempting to arm himself with an AK-47 that lay in the corner. Chief Byers tackled the unknown male and seized control of him. While in hand-to-hand combat, Chief Byers maintained control of the unknown male with one hand, while adjusting the focus of his night vision goggles (NVGs) with his other. Once his NVGs were focused, he recognized that the male was not the hostage and engaged the struggling armed guard.
By now other team members had entered the room and were calling to Dr. Joseph to identify himself. Chief Byers heard an unknown voice speak English from his right side. He immediately leaped across the room and selflessly flung his body on top of the American hostage, shielding him from the continued rounds being fired across the room. Almost simultaneously, Chief Byers identified an additional enemy fighter directly behind Dr. Joseph. While covering the hostage with his body, Chief Byers was able to pin the enemy combatant to the wall with his hand around the enemy’s throat. Unable to fire any effective rounds into the enemy, Chief Byers was able to restrain the combatant enough to enable his teammate to fire precision shots, eliminating the final threat within the room.
Chief Byers quickly talked to Dr. Joseph, confirming that he was able to move. He and his Team Leader stood Dr. Joseph up, calmed him, and let him know he was safe with American Forces. Once Dr. Joseph was moved to the helicopter-landing zone, Chief Byers, a certified paramedic and 18D medic, assisted with the rendering of medical aid to the urgent surgical assaulter. Chief Byers and others performed CPR during the 40-minute flight to Bagram Airfield where his teammate was declared deceased.
Chief Petty Officer Byers displayed superior gallantry, extraordinary heroism at grave personal risk, dedication to his teammates, and calm tactical leadership while liberating Dr. Dilip Joseph from captivity. He is unquestionably deserving of the Medal of Honor.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 29, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/02/29/attention-to-orders-13/
What Will He Do?
I’d like to reach out to the Trump supporters here, and I’d like to do it with respect. If you’ve read the position and policy papers on his website and you find that you agree with them, then this isn’t for you. You’re an informed voter, and you’ve obviously done your due diligence and still feel that Trump is the best candidate for your interests. I can respect that and I wish you the best.
This is for those who are voting for Trump, or any other candidate for that matter, because you’re mad as hell and you’re not going to take it anymore. If you’re supporting Trump in the primaries because you want the Establishment, in whatever form you want to describe it, to feel pain for their past transgressions, this is for you.
Here we go:
Mission accomplished. Time to declare victory and go home.
Bush, the favorite candidate of the Republican leadership, is out of the race. Yes, Rubio is snuggled up pretty close to the welcoming bosom of the party elites. But the Establishment has had its nose broken in the schoolyard fight that is American politics, and the guy they all stood behind and cheered has taken his ball and gone home.
Now, if you’re still angry and want to keep making that statement, more power to you. At least you’re going to the polls.
But before you pull that lever, fill in that circle, or press that button, please think about a few questions, because the things I’m going to ask about are probably going to happen in the next four to eight years.
What will President Trump do
- When some whackjob turns a school or office building into a killing field?
- When the stock market tanks and the official unemployment rate starts heading north again?
- When Justices Ginsberg and Kennedy leave the Supreme Court, for whatever reason?
- When China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran stop playing games and directly challenge us and our allies?
- When there is a terrorist attack or large-scale civil disturbance on American soil?
Please, think about what he will do, not what he ought to do, or what you think any President should or should not do. Consider the man’s history, both in actions and words, over the course of his entire, and quite well documented and publicized, life, and be honest with yourself about how you think he will handle these events.
If they give you pause, if you can easily think of ways that he will react to these events and harm you and your interests, then I ask you to do some more thinking.
And once you’ve done that thinking, please vote for the candidate that you think will do what you would want a president to do when these events happen, be it Trump or not.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 28, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/02/28/what-will-he-do/
Definitions
Here are a few phrases that I think need better definition:
Catholic KP – Working in the kitchen during a Lenten fish fry, or volunteering to work in the lunch room at your son’s Catholic school.
Catholic Kosher – Going to a Lenten fish fry when you are really craving a rare steak.
Self Control – 1. Not strangling your co-worker for sitting in their cube and chewing with their mouth open for an hour each day starting at 1:13. 2. Not strangling your co-worker when you learn that they made a significant error in a work request that will require you to have to ask your boss to talk to his boss so that you can fix it, on the last work day before you implement.
Stroke of Genius – That moment at your desk when you forget the awesome idea you had for a story while you were driving this morning.
Traffic – The phenomenon whereby I lose all my stored-up stress by screaming at other drivers, while getting all new stress to replace it.
Personal Fitness Plan – The lie I tell myself every morning when I walk up a flight of steps to get more ‘exercise’.
Canoodle – That thing the governor of New Jersey does to Democrats, be they from Chicago or Manhattan.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 26, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/02/26/definitions-2/
Escort Duty – On Sale Now!
Escort Duty went live on Amazon this morning. I’d like to thank everyone who pre-ordered. Having that dump of sales on the first day it’s generally available helps a lot in rankings, which can lead to more sales, which in turn leads to more coffee and ammunition, which leads to a happier writer, which leads to more books.
If you’d like a signed hard-copy, send me an email at daddybear@daddybearsden.com. The cost is the same as Amazon, $10, and I’ll cover shipping.
Escort Duty is a bit of a grab bag of stories, like I said in the announcement of the pre-order. There is fantasy, religion, suspense, and spoof. I hope there’s something in there for everyone to enjoy.
I can’t wait to hear everyone’s thoughts on this one, both here and on Amazon.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 26, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/02/26/escort-duty-on-sale-now/
100 Years On – Verdun
On the morning of February 21, 1916, German forces attacked the French fortress at Verdun. The German plan seems to be to have been to maximize French casualties by occupying territory their enemy would have to retake. While German soldiers sat behind fortifications, the French would impale themselves on the German lines and artillery. General Falkenhayn, the German high commander, planned to make the French forces “bleed to death.” He was very nearly successful.
From February to December, two and a half million men in 130 divisions tore at each other over forts, hills, and ridges around Verdun. Up to one million of them were either killed, captured, or wounded.
In the end, Verdun petered out and was over in December, 1916, with little change to the front lines. However, the massive casualties and futility of the effort contributed to demoralization on the French side, which would have grave consequences later. For the Germans, the loss of men and supplies would never be made up.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 24, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/02/24/100-years-on-verdun/
Musings
- I was thinking about the election the other day, and it occurred to me that this is probably the last time that a member of the post-World War II Baby Boom will have a decent chance of winning the presidency.
- The best thing I can say about a movie is that it ages well. Boo watched Raiders of the Lost Ark tonight for the first time, and we both enjoyed it, even after 35 years.
- The pre-order for Escort Duty is going well. For a while there, it was #36 on the Amazon short story sales list. Of course, #34 was titled “Light His Fire: Paranormal BBW Dragon Shifter Mail-Order Bride Romance”, so my ego didn’t have much time to inflate.
- I love living in the Ohio Valley. There’s nothing better for seasonal allergies and arthritis than having to sweep snow off the walk on a Sunday and wearing a tee shirt with the windows open a week later.
- I took Boo and Irish Woman out for lunch today after a Cub Scout meeting. Boo has finally hit the age where the kids menu just isn’t cutting it. My little man, who has precisely zero extraneous body fat, ate an adult lunch, half a basket of tortilla chips, and was eyeing my lunch hungrily. Guess we’re going into a growth spurt.
- Dear vendor – If the simple solution to my problem is to read a piece of documentation that is not available to anyone outside your company, then maybe you should make that documentation available to those outside your company.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 20, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/02/20/musings-180/
Please Help Out If You Can
From John Richardson, we learn about a bad situation for Paul Lathrop, host of the Polite Society Podcast:
Paul is being accused of making “terroristic” threats. Many of you are aware that that is one of the latest ploys used by ambitious prosecutors all over the nation. In addition, they included “Possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony”. Of course the “felony” is the trumped up charge of making terroristic threats. I find that to be a self-referencing, catch 22 type of charge.
A lot of people have gotten good information from Polite Society over the years, and I hope that this gets taken care of quickly and cleanly for Mr. Lathrop. In the meantime, his family could use help with bail and attorney’s fees. See John’s post for a link to donate.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 17, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/02/17/please-help-out-if-you-can/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 
