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.

 

 

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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.

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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.

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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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IMO the greatest ad campaign I have ever seen

was by the Dos Equis beer people when they came out with 'The Most Interesting Man in the World' ads.

It hit a spot in my mind because I have always kept my eyes open for interesting people. Not cool, not rich, not famous or sexy, just plain interesting.

It's kind of an intangible. Interesting. 

What makes a person interesting? 

Who knows? For different people I guess it's things.

One young man I found interesting was a village idiot type that one could describe as being mildly retarded which I suppose was an accurate description. However he was not a retard. An actual retard is different from a special needs person who is generally far more intelligent so I guess I can describe the man as being a little slow. He was clearly NOT a retard.

What I found interesting about him was that every so often he would belt one out of the park. One time an engineer turned fisherman was setting up a small pump to feed a stove on his boat. Tommy was watching him and asked him, "Gee. You must be pretty smart. I would have put the tank on the roof and let the oil run down to the  stove."

Duh.

The poor man's jaw dropped, he tossed his wrench into the tool box. I bailed out MOST Riki-tik. I didn't want to see the aftermath.

Call him slow, call him whatever you want. He didn't bore me. That says a LOT. 

Two days later I saw stove smoke coming out of the stove's chimney and a 15 gallon tank mounted to the roof of his cabin.

Another time one of the Filipinos I knew had me over his place and I met his aunt, an older woman and we discussed living on a trade/barter economy. She pointed out that not only could one often get a better deal, but it was tax free. She was pretty sharp and knew all the angles. The woman was interesting. I figure that if the woman had gotten a better formal education she could have gone to New York and gotten rich in real estate or something like that.

On the other hand, maybe she was smart enough not to want getting involved with that type of people. Still, although I was also heavily into trade/bartering I learned a few things. I actually still am. 

One deal I made is the time I helped a guy sheetrock a bathroom in exchange for a sail he had in his garage. It was practically brand new and was worth about $900 from a sailmaker. The job took about 3 or 4 hours and when you figure it out the deal net me a $900 sail. The pay rate would up being between $225-300 per hour.

Still, I do admit I like interesting stories and interesting people.

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the difference between sunrise and sunset is now 11 hours and 59 minutes

where I live today.

it's time to start watching the deer a little more carefully to see what kind of winter we are in for. If I see a lot of white in their coats it's a better than average chance we're going to have a snowy winter.

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Jumping through my a$$ today.

Helping out at a club gun bash today. 

I'll be busy most of the day.

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Scars and all...

This is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life. 

Oh yeah. I caught hell from someone when I suggested they take their brat kid to the Lindsay Clancy Day Care.

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Another sea story about my understanding of sailboats.

Early on during my Ordinary Seaman years I was given the opportunity of being a helmsman for a tug and barge that was as big a a ship. It was a HUGE barge and held 400K+ barrels of oil.

While we were coming up the Delaware River with a load of crude a sailboat crossed the bow and I sat the skipper look pretty concerned.

Most tug skippers hate sailboats and in many cases with good reason. Weekenders are often a royal PITA. However most serious cruisers know their $hit. Unfortunately the weekenders outnumber the cruisers.

Anyway I said to the skipper "He's going to cross our bow cleanly and then if he thinks he has enough water he'll leave the channel and either keep going or just luff until he can time crossing our stern."

He told me to watch my helm because he was calling the shots. I noticed I was about a degree off course and corrected. The AB who was actually supposed to be on the helm smirked.

Sure enough the sailboat left the channel a bit pointer her bow into the wind and luffed until he figured when to continue his tack. When he started his tack the skipper expressed concern.  He then filled his sails and continued his tack and crossed our stern as pretty as you please with about 100 feet to spare. The sailor was pretty good.

Later the skipper asked me how I knew what the sailboat was going to do. I told him that I've done the same thing any number of times. It later surprised me when I discovered most tug skippers and ship masters don't know much about sailboats. One would think otherwise and I was pretty surprised when I figured it out.

One tug skipper that did know owned her own sailboat. She was one of the few female tug skippers I sailed with and when she was a mate she saved my bacon by storming into the office and telling the fleet manager that the captain that reported my shipmate and I for talking trash to a dock man was FOS. She pointed out that we had been working with those guys for years.

I told the skipper about the time I had to deal with 4 ships on the Fraiser River in British Colombia. When I saw the first ship coming up on me I simply got on channel 13 and told him my plan. He said he was good with it and commented I was the first small sailboat to use channel 13 to call him. He wished everyone did.

He later called the next ship coming and said I knew what I was doing and to give a shout which the other three did as they came upon me. The third ship asked me if I had sailed my boat all the way from Kodiak. I had and told him I did because Canadian parcel post rates were too high and I couldn't afford them. He laughed.

The skipper was pretty impressed with my experience under sail but I cautioned him that there was a big difference between a competent cruiser and a weekender idiot and that it was hard to tell the difference until things got interesting. I also pointed out that most sail boaters don't monitor the VHF as often as they should.

Later the skipper gave me glowing report which helped me with a promotions further down the line..

 

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