so it looks like that this weekend I'll get it completed.
Monday, October 5, 2026
The last of the parts arrived for my radiator replacement
Sunday, October 4, 2026
My friend swung by today.
We grabbed lunch and we spent much of the time playing what happened to who and I really didn't have a whole lot of answers because I left the area in 1973 and rarely returned to visit.
I've lost touch with all but a few. The whole thing was rather bittersweet. He's a couple of years older than I am and not in the best of health. His son was doing the driving.
I didn't ask him much about how he managed to disappear and he didn't say much.
Of course we said we'd meet again but I seriously doubt it will happen.
We parted as old friends, shook hands and he was off to Ohio to visit his brother.
Saturday, October 3, 2026
Regarding yesterday's post. It's always something simple.
Last night I got a call from my childhood friend telling me he'll drop by tomorrow on his way to visit his brother in Ohio. The call turned into an hour and a half long chat partly about how he had managed to vanish back in the early 70s.
What is amazing was how simple it was. He simply changed his name a bit and moved to Oklahoma. Thomas Louis Martin, or Thomas L. Martin simply became T. Lewis Martin and went by Lou.
He simply filled out forms with T. Lewis Martin and it was unquestioned.
He said it really was pretty much that easy. His wife reported him as a missing person a few days later and his name was added to the list of missing persons. Thousands of people every year turn up missing and unless foul play is suspected the LE community doesn't do a lot about. They have better things to do than spend resources looking for someone that skipped town to avoid non criminal things.
He also told me he had an attorney on a small retainer that he quietly called annually to see what his legal status was.
Five years later his wife had him declared legally dead in Massachusetts and remarried. When he told me that he laughed like hell.
He said that when that happened the last person that wanted to meet him was his now ex because that would make her a bigamist.
While I suppose that could eventually get cleared up it certainly would have opened a real can of worms legally.
Anyway, he reunited with his family but never went back to MA while she was alive. She has passed a couple of years ago so everything is pretty much moot.
Shortly after she remarried he moved in with a woman and lived common -law and they raised a couple of kids.
This whole thing sounds pretty whacked out but that's what he told me.
Friday, October 2, 2026
I have no idea what is going to happen next.
I just got word out of nowhere that a childhood friend is going to drop by on me in a week or so. He's on his way to Ohio to visit his sister.
In itself this is no big deal until you add to the fact that he vanished for about 50 years and this is the first time since he left he's emerging.
When I say vanish I mean he outright disappeared off the face of the earth. Last heard from getting on a plane headed for London. I suppose he took a ferry over to the mainland and disappeared.
The first thing I thought about was the French Foreign Legion but in real life things generally happen without as much drama as people think of.
This was in the 70s. Pre computer. He had married a woman that after two years of marriage blindsided him with a divorce suit. Normally this would not have been too bad but her entire family was a ringtailed passel of lawyers and judges. He figured he would likely wind up living under a bridge. This was Massachusetts and it was as corrupt as it is now. Think Lindsay Clancy corrupt.
Anyway a few days after he got hit with the divorce he asked me for a ride to Logan which I cheerfully did. He said work was sending him to London for a few days. I dropped him off and forgot about it.
A few months later someone told me he was missing. I mulled over saying anything but figured it wasn't my place. I said nothing and nobody ever asked me anything. A few months later his absence seemed to be forgotten. I just wanted to give the man his privacy. He was committing no crime.
Vanishing back in those days was a LOT easier than it is today. This was long before airport security, picture IDs and that sort of thing. The easiest way to vanish was to become someone else which was not hard to do.
Move a couple of states over and establish an existence. Find a grave of a child that died in infancy that's about your age and write in for a copy of a birth certificate. If the grave was in a churchyard you could sometimes come up with a baptismal certificate that was almost as good and back them was generally proof of ID.
On the power of the birth/sometimes baptismal certificate get one's self a driver's license. This was before picture IDs. A driver's license and birth certificate could get you a passport.
It's entirely possible he took a round trip to London and back and returned and disappeared. No telling.
Anyway net week I should know and when I find out I'll post it. It might prove to be interesting or it may be a total bust.
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Someone asked me why I think that in many instances the threat of violence is a good thing.
Simply because it works.
If someone pushing a basket full of unpaid for merchandise out the door of some store catches a baseball bat across the face on the way out they will likely rethink there misdeeds when they come around.
Once that happens a few times word will get out. Once word gets out that that is the new policy then people will stop stealing from that store because nobody likes eating hickory.
A shoplifting conviction usually brings a small fine, often less than the value of the stolen goods.
What's interesting is that we can practically eliminate ICE agents with the expedient of enacting a law that says 90 days after enactment the federal government will pay a bounty on $50,000 on illegals turned in, dead or alive.
Contrary to what people will tell you it will not lead to a blood bath. People are not 100% stupid. This won't lead to a blood bath. What will happen is we will see the biggest mass exodus in human history.
You will see people that are covering for illegals looking at them in a different light. They will see the illegal family of five not as a family of five but as a new home and a new car they will change their attitude.
Unfortunately they won't be able to cash in because the family down the hall will be long gone. They will be gone like a shot the minute they find out that the law has been enacted.
I would imagine that there would be gang types that would think they could ignore the law (sold out by other gang types) and maybe a couple Darwin candidates but it certainly no blood bath. It would solve the problem with little grief.
The point being that until there are real consequences things are not really going to change. The way the system is running now nothing is getting done to protect society.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
I am gathering parts to put a new radiator in the Miata.
The current radiator has a plastic upper that was originally black and is turning close to yellow which means it's likely to spring a leak at any time.
It's a process and I have to do the best I can to make sure I have everything I need to hand over to me mechanic.
I think I'm squared away but time will tell.
Normally a lot of fasteners can be reused but on a 35 year old car it generally pays to spend some chump change and use new bolts as the old bolts are either rusty or in some cases rounded off. It also saves a little money in labor which compensates for the added expense.
Someone asked my why do it now and I explained that it is a lot cheaper than having to be towed from Erie or having it fixed someplace else.
You fix something before it breaks so you don't have to fix it when it breaks.
All in the part of maintaining a 35 year old sports car.
Monday, September 28, 2026
I'm getting sick and tired of the USS Abraham Lincoln suicide attempt publicity
Most of which is fake news or damned close. The Lincoln task force has 8 attempted suicides and no deaths. Say again. No-zero- deaths. Those figures sound a little below average to me for a group of that size yet the media is making a big fuss over it.
Back in the day my battery had one attempt. The soldier in question was a dud to begin with and was trying to get out of the Army. He cut his wrists the wrong way and although he bled like a stuck pig he was discovered and carted off to the hospital and then the booby hatch for a while.
When he returned to the unit to go through the separation process the supply sergeant made him sign a statement of charges for the bedding he had ruined by bleeding on. What a delightfully cold hearted thing that was to do! I admit it. I laughed when I heard that.
It should also be noted that we were in garrison in peacetime and the worst thing we might have to face was being told to pick up cigarette butts. The attempt, like most attempts was simply a cry for help.
The military suicide rate is comparable or even slightly lower than their civilian counterparts.
Looking at the 8 attempted suicides I am surprised the numbers are that low. Generally the attempts are made by sailors that have not been in the service very long and are having a hard time adjusting to military life.
When you consider that the task force has been to sea in combat operations for as long as it had, the low rate speaks highly for the serving sailors. They've worked their asses off day and night when they were in combat and stayed fairly busy afterwards because their mothers are not there to pick up after them.
You also have to remember that some of these sailors are newbies that came aboard straight out of Great Lakes. They haven't adapted to military life yet. While many of them (Like I did) take to it like a duck to water for some it is a major shock and hard to adjust to. For the latter some of them don't know where to turn.
I am not taking suicide lightly. I am pointing out that the military seems to have the same rate as the civilian populace. It's a problem and the military does what it can to prevent it.
This whole thing is just another case of the media creating a major problem out of thin air. One can't possibly hate the media enough.
If I were the judge on a case where someone bombed a television network and admitted it in open court i would probably punish him with a $25 fine and 15 minutes of community service.
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