Everyman's Evening Eyeful

All the best,
Glenn B

As A Kid Always Tried Putting Square Peg In Round Hole

All the best,
Glenn B

Justifiabe Firearms Arrest Or Not?

I think not but I will leave it to my readers (and if it comes to it to a judge and or jury). I encourage you to chime in with your comments to what your think happened. I, for one, would love to see the reactions of both LEOs (current and retired) and non-LEOs to this arrest but please if you do reply do it respectfully.

An off duty Houston PD officer claims a man pointed a gun at him twice while in a gas station and arrested the guy at gunpoint. The guy claimed his gun fell out of the side panel of his vehicle as he rushed out of the vehicle to go to the rest room. Sounds like a pretty lame story,  on the guy's part, doesn't it!
 
It seems that there may be evidence that the officer was the only one violating rules or regulations. What it says near the end of the article makes me wonder if anything else, other than the guys gun, influenced the officer to make that arrest. Well, watch the video at the below link. THEN and ONLY THEN, read the accompanying article.
 
http://www.khou.com/news/local/man-claims-he-was-wrongfully-arrested-for-pointing-gun-at-off-duty-officer/126858009
 
I  watched the video about 20 times, and froze it almost as often at the point where the guy's right hand moves over the steering wheel as he exits he vehicle. I did that mostly to look at the 'suspect's" right hand to see if it was holding a gun. I cannot see a gun in that hand. The door latch was evidently in his other hand. Thus I did not see any chance for the 'suspect' to have pointed his gun at the officer once as he exited his vehicle, let alone that he got out of the car holding it and pointing it at the officer, then dropped it, then picked it and again pointed it at the officer (as the article says is claimed in court documents). To me, it sure looks like what the 'suspect' said happened is what really happened. What do you think?

On the other side, maybe the cop actually saw it or maybe he truly believes he saw it that way after the fact of it really having been otherwise. What I mean is that maybe he did not see the gun pointing at him but as the guy picked it up the officer's mind played a trick on him. It happens, and in the current state of affairs with all the anti-cop sentiment in this country (real or imagined), maybe he saw it that way. Of course, it could be he is just rabidly anti-gun for non-law enforcement and lying his arse off - who can tell. A video from another angle might show that when the guy picked it up, it was pointed at the officer but the video we can watch, at the provided link, sure does not seem to support the claim. The claim reportedly was that the guy pointed a gun at the officer as the guy got out of his vehicle, then dropped it, then picked it up, then pointed it at the officer again. Once more, I just don't see that in the video. So, is there anything else, even something possibly just hinted at in the report, something that possibly could have influenced what the officer saw?

I have to wonder about the actions of the officer right before the incident since he reportedly was shown, in the store video, buying beer just before it happened. I don't think they meant root beer. If buying beer is it also it possible he had also drinking before the incident? It certainly would be something for the PD, if truly being objective, to look into. Had he been drinking before the incident it could put this in a whole new light.

Regardless of whether he was drinking or not, what goes against the officer, besides the video and the statement of the guy who was arrested, is the reported violation of departmental policy/regulation for buying beer while in uniform. If he can violate one regulation, as was reported, then why not another. This possibly will all be brought to the jury's attention, if it goes to trial, in the form of a rebuttal to any testimony by the officer or as a way to discredit the officer's integrity. I will guess that, in the absence of any other video evidence or witnesses, if this goes to trial by jury, the 'suspect' will be exonerated of an assault charge or any lessor charge related to pointing a gun at the officer.

Of course, if the 'suspect' has  prior conviction and lied on his permit application that will go against him and his integrity; however, that already seems to have been addressed in as much as it was reported that those charges had been dismissed. Then again, that is giving a lot of credit both to the media and to the defense attorney. I mean, when have attorney's or the media ever gotten it wrong, right!

However it winds up, it goes to show you need to really give some thought to where your gun is located, why it is there and if it could be better positioned. It may also well go to show that if you are a LEO, you really need to be sure of your probable cause before making an arrest and before swearing to it in court or on an affidavit and you had best follow departmental policy instead of being seen violating it immediately prior to an arrest.
 
All the best,
Glenn B

Everyman's Evening Eyeful

All the best,
Glenn B

Everyman's Evening Eyeful

Yeah, I am late with this, hell it's already morning kind of late. So here are a few extras.

 

All the best,

GB

 

Everyman's Evening Eyeful

All the best,
GB

I've Heard it Said - Guns Are A Poor Investment

I was reading a post in a gun forum today wherein the poster stated that guns are not a good investment. I agree whole heartedly that guns are poor investments but only with it being contingent that you plan to sell them to someone like an FFL dealer and the poster in that forum used an attempted sale of guns to an FFL dealer as an example to back his claim.

You rarely make even a decent profit when selling to a dealer of any sort (unless maybe the dealer is buying for his personal collection), let alone a gun dealer. Dealers are dealers, after all, and are in business for the purpose of making money, not giving it to you or at least giving as little as they can to you so they can profit off of the deal. If they can low ball you, they make more money. It is like that show Pawn Stars, they often offer what seem to me to be lowball prices. Then the arsehats selling the item accept those offers
(many probably just to get on TV). To tempt the seller to take a low offer, the pawn shop dealer gives every reason as to why he cannot pay more, such as: there will be too much work and expense to restore it, he will hold onto it for a long time before it sells because it is not in high demand right now or there are limited buyers for that type of item, it is only worth precious metal content instead of appreciated value (for things like jewelry or decorative items made from gold or silver), my price is better than an auction house because if you try to sell it at auction they take a 25% seller premium (no auction house or online auction I have ever been or used have seller fees that high, in fact the online gun auction site - GunBroker.com - takes much less, only about a 3% final value fee plus any listing extras, a basic listing is free). You get the picture, a dealer is a person who wants to get an item for the lowest price possible and then sell it for the highest price he can get. Well, firearms dealers are much the same - maybe worse - friggin tightwads at best. That is, I suppose, how some stay in business or at least how they wind up laughing all the way to the bank.

I have bought several guns that I have later sold. I will estimate that at least 90% of the ones I have sold, sold for a tidy profit and that means a net profit. That has been after me using them for some time; I have only sold a few guns without either firing them first or only firing them a time or three. Some have sold for almost double what I paid for them. Someone, quick, please tell me again how guns are good investments - and figure out a way to make me believe it. There is no way that me putting my money into an interest bearing account is that good of an investment nor as safe of an investment.

If you want to invest in guns, with the idea of maybe selling some of them at a future date for a decent net profit (such as a collector might do to augment his collection), as opposed to selling them at a loss, then you need to follow pretty much common sense rules. Now, mind you, I don't buy guns with the intention of dealing in them. My purchases are more in line with a hobby, or hunting and for self defense. Every now and again, I will sell one or more with the intent of at least breaking even so I can put the money I get into buying more guns. The thing is, I usually net some cash when I do that because I bought smart (although I must admit some stupid impulse purchase son my part) and followed some rules.

 

So yes, most times I have sold a gun, I have netted a profit and it is better that many other investments would have been, especially short term investments. Sure, you can always damn the rules and then get lucky and buy something you later sell for a profit but to sell for a net profit consistently is another thing. Note here, I am talking about any kind of gun too – not just ones that may be in vogue when you buy them and that you hope will be in vogue later. So what are those rules?

First – make sure everything you are doing is legal. Then buy quality firearms. I am not talking about expensive firearms, just ones that are made well and the makers of which have a good reputation. Make sure they are in very good or better condition. Know how to determine condition. Buy at the best price you can get them at and don’t impulse buy merely because you want a certain firearm and then maybe wind up paying way too much for it. Know when to buy. There are times of the year when guns, at least certain guns do not seem to sell as well. Late spring into summer come to mind for hunting rifles. Look for them then at a better price. This does not hold as true as it once did because of the current/recent politically fired gun buying frenzies but it still holds true sometimes. On the other side of that same coin, know when to sell. Sell a hunting rifle the month or two before hunting season opens. Sell any type of gun right after another anti-gun law or action has been proposed, or an anti-gun politico type has been newly elected, but this especially works for guns that politicians want to ban.

Not only do you want to know when to buy and or sell a quality firearm from your collection, but you need to know the costs and other conditions that go with selling it. Learn how you can legally buy or sell firearms, there are varying laws in all 50 states plus federal laws and regulations you must follow (remember that was the first rule above). Once you get the legality figured out for your personal situation - and note I am only talking about personal sales of firearms not commercial sales because I only make personal sales and am not a dealer - you need to know how much it will cost to buy and or sell a gun. Here in NY, if I buy a pistol I have to pay $10 to have it added to my license. If I sell it, it cost an additional $10 to take it off of my license. If I buy it from a dealer in upstate NY, and this is only for handguns, I have to pay to get there, pay for the handgun, pay to et home, bring the receipt to my county PD, have them give me a purchase document, pay to return to the dealer, give the dealer the paperwork and take the gun, pay to get home, then go back to the PD to have it put on my license. That could cost me well over a $100 in addition to what I paid for the pistol and the $10 fee to add it to my permit. The only legal way around that is to have the dealer ship it to me at a local FFL but that will cost at least $40 just for the FFL transfer. Rifles and shotguns have no such expense – for me here in NY. As for handguns, it used to be my county PD gave you a purchase doc beforehand and you filled it out wherever you bought the handgun, gave a copy to the dealer and took possession of your gun then and there, it was a lot less expensive that way. Now the expense of going a distance to buy a handgun can be super expensive and thus I anticipate buying very few handguns outside of my local area; unless, of course, I buy several at one time at an upstate auction or want to use the excuse of going back and forth as a chance to get away from home.

The word "auction" as reminded me there are the other fees to sell or buy a firearms, if you do so at auction. For instance GunBroker.com does not charge a fee to register. Nor do they charge to list an item with a basic listing but they do charge for extras relative to your listing. So, for example, if you want you item subject line to appear in boldface or color, there are fees for each. After your gun gets sold, GunBroker charges about 3% as a final value fee. That is how they make there money. It is nowhere nearly as much as the bald headed dude from the pawn shop show would have you believe it costs to auction off an item, at least when he is the one trying to lowball you for whatever you are selling. By the way, GunBroker has a pretty decent amount of reference guide material on how to do buy and sell guns online.

Some other things that will assure you continue to be able to sell for a decent profit, or to even continue to sell at all, are that you need to be honest in how you describe what you are selling. Likewise, only buy from dealers or individuals with an honest reputation. Sites like GunBroker have a feedback capability whereby you can rate a buyer or seller and they can rate you too. Works great for the most part but depends on people actually doing it and being honest. 

You can also browse a site like GunBroker to see at what price what guns have been selling and if they have been selling at all at the time you are considering selling them. If not selling, or selling way below what you thought they are worth, hold off and wait for better times. If you must sell something, say you are short of cash (which is the worst reason to sell a gun)then sell a different gun that is in higher demand. Same thing with buying, I look to various references to determine what a good buying price would be and then buy only if a good price is offered (took me a long time to learn that). Some of those reference materials are: 'The Standard Catalog of Firearms – The Collectors Price and Reference Guide' and 'The Blue Book of Gun Values' (I signed up for that one online).

Be extremely careful about stating the condition when selling. Try not to let it be subjective but determine it through your use of a grading standard. Ask which standard was used to grade it when purchasing and state the standard used by you when listing the item. The NRA has one standard and some firearms reference books use their own. Remember – be honest regardless of which grading standard you use. I go as far as trying to offer only a very conservative estimate of a gun’s grade when I sell it. The result has been that many of the feedback comments reference my sales state the items was better than described. A happy buyer means future buyers. One buyer did not leave feedback for me because I used what amounted to a subjective description of pitting on a gun (he felt it was more pitted than I had stated despite me stating, in my item description that  it had extensive surface pitting). We finally agreed to disagree and he kept the gun and did not accept my offer of sending him his money back and him keeping the gun. That will not happen again because of any misunderstanding based on my idea of surface pitting and its extent as opposed to what a buyer's idea of the same would be. Next time I will not "over" describe an item; I would just say it is pitted I there is pitting. Sometimes, when you try to be blatantly honest and give what you think is a very conservative description, it winds up your buyer disagrees and says it was worse than you said. You just cannot please everyone and a buyer may think your description was deceitful even though you were being honest. In such cases, offer the money back for a return - even if you have a no returns policy, that is what I did. It just pays to eat the sale so as not to have someone screw with your reputation. Then just offer it for sale again.

Just one last thing, this about the prices I sell at. When I sell via an online auction, I do not set a reserve bid price. Reserve bid price means that you can start bidding at any price but the item will not sell unless you meet or exceed the reserve (which is usually kept secret). However, I do sell at a minimum acceptable bid. So, I set a minimum bid that I will accept for the item and in order to bid on it at all, you have to bid at least that much. I almost always set it at less than I want for the gun but still at the bare minimum I am willing to accept – which by the way is virtually never at a loss.

Sure, there are others things I do, when buying and selling guns, that I could have included here and probably yet other things you could think of in addition to them that would help assure a purchase at a good price or a profitable sale. What is here though should be more than enough to get you pointed in the right direction and help assure you do not get screwed when buying a gun and that your investment is a profitable one should you ever decide to sell it. 

 

All the best,

Glenn B

We Brew Excellent Tasting Coffee At Our House Too

It's not that we have a lot of guns, we have one or two around here someplace, but that we profess our God and or Natural given rights, our liberties to enjoy them and thus freedom itself.

A hat tip to The Miller, from whence I stole borrowed this comic.

All the best,
Glenn B

Willkommen, Welkommen, Velkomst, Välkomna, Bienvenue, Bienvenido...

...Benvenuto, Dobrodošli, I mirëpritur, Vítejte, Tervetuloa, Tere tulemast, Üdvözöljük, Laukiamas and Come For Tea, among many others.

 

 

The whole world needs to wake up before the wake up call is the blade cutting into your neck or the bomb blast filling your legs and guts with shrapnel.

 

A hat tip to John B for having this on his FB page.

 

All the best,

Glenn B (anti-jihadist)

You Really Should Stop And Wonder Now And Then

 

All the best,

GB

If The Punishment Does Not Fit The Crime - Cut It Into Pieces...

...and then feed those pieces to the criminal. That is reportedly just what a woman did to the man who allegedly abducted her. She reportedly cut off his manhood, then cooked it, cut it up and forced him to eat it. Read it yourself here. Mind you, I find it hard to swallow that such is factual but who knows.

All the best,
Glenn B

When Will Europeans (The Real Ones) Get It?

Really, when will the Europeans realize that they are being invaded with the destruction and conquest of all European nations as means to achieve the goal of a global caliphate! Even though faced with overwhelming evidence that such is the case, Europeans seek better ways to allow in Muslim refugees. For instance: "The Commission on Wednesday proposed activating a "distribution key" to spread asylum applicants around the EU. That means each EU nation would have to take a set number of asylum-seekers, according to a quota devised by the bloc" (source). So, in effect, what they will be doing if they implement that is to doom themselves by distributing terrorists more evenly throughout Europe.
 
They need to realize, those bastards who leave Europe to join ISIS or al Qaeda are not true Europeans, they are Muslims and consider themselves part of the Islamic or Muslim Nation. They hold absolutely no allegiance to any European nation. When they reenter Europe, they, like any others who enter Europe with the intent of jihad, are members of an alien nation consisting only of Muslims who seek to conquer the rest of the world and kill as many nonbelievers as they can kill. I think they should be treated as such, as enemy combatants and the best recourse to assure they fail in their quest might well be to execute them since they are entering covertly and thus should be considered not only as enemy combatants but as spies and, of course, as terrorists. I believe that in addition, anyone else who is a member of the same state (the Muslim religion, for it is indeed a state portraying itself as a religion and the historical record of the conquests of nations by Islam, I think, should be proof enough of that) must be held highly suspect until proven otherwise.
 
All the best,
Glenn B

My Name Is Talking...

I don't give a shit what the doll's name is, I would not buy a doll that looked like that with your money (unless maybe I was going to give it as a gift, say maybe to my worst enemy). Reminds me too much of the one in the below video and I am sure that is what the doll pictured above was based on.



That had to be one of the creepiest of the Twilight Zone episodes . It's one my wife will not watch.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Truth

 

 

Sad but evidently true. Even sadder yet that she is the best the dems have to offer.

 

All the best,

Glenn B

Everyman's Evening Eyeful

The News That Made Me Happy But Feeling Old..

...is finally no longer Top Secret and as of today I am at liberty to share it with you. Come September, I will be a grandpa, or Grandpa Klump as some around here will no doubt call me. 

My daughter is well into her first pregnancy and all is going well. Both Celina and her hubby, Phil, are ecstatic. Really, they are very happy about it regardless of the hormone swings. Phil is also very happy that it is going to be a boy, Celina wanted a girl - maybe next time. Anyway, she is quite happy regardless.

Of course my wife, son, Phil's family and all all our other relations are as joyous as am I. That stands for me even if it means being called gramps or Grandpa Klump or whatever. Yes, I am very happy indeed but suddenly feeling older than I have ever felt - almost old enough to grow up. Note, I only said almost. Life with a grandson would be no fun if I decided to grow up now.

All the best, 

Glenn B

Finally Shot My Mossberg 44 U.S. (a)

After months of owning it (I am The Great Procrastinator), I finally brought my Mossberg 44 U.S. (a) to the range for a test drive shoot. To get right down to it, I am happy with the results or in other words I LIKE IT! Along with it, I also took my older (for my collection) Mossberg 44 .S., also marked U.S. Property and my Henry U.S. Survival rifle to the range for some shooty goodness this afternoon.

Now, for some photos, bearing in mind I was firing at an indoor range, longest distance 30 yards, standing bent over and supporting my elbows on the bench (weird height bench, to high for the chairs they have or for kneeling and just low enough to be a pain in the neck, back or both if you bend over to use it for support). Here are the pics of my targets:



I fired the first seven shots from 50 feet,
not so great but not so bad either.

After seeing what it could do at 50 ft., I moved the target to 30 yards.
I was not very impressed but certainly not disappointed by the group.

Somewhat better than the first one shown at 30 yards but
the group is spread left to right too much. Was it me or was
it the rifle or was it the ammo or a combination of any of that?

I fired only one magazine full, seven rounds, from my
Mossberg 44 U.S., U.S. Property marked, also at 30 yards.
Without that flyer, I almost would have been impressed.

While shooting both the new Mossberg 44 (a) U.S. and the Mossberg 44 U.S. - U.S. Property marked rifles, I was using the same ammunition in each. That was Federal Value Pack 22LR, high velocity, copper plated, 36 grain, hollow point ammo. It is 1993 vintage, I got two boxes of that last year in an excellent deal. I did not fire fouling shots, just started shooting. As for the ammo, it shot just fine even though it is 23 years old. I am sure had I tried different brands of ammo, I would have gotten different results across the brands.

When I fired the newer of my two Mossbergs, the 44 (a), I fired four 7 round volleys from 30 yards and had to adjust the sights twice, since it had been shooting high and to the right at that distance. The result of the adjustments was getting it to shoot where it did on its two 30 yard targets shown in the pics above.

There was one disappointment, maybe a major one or maybe a minor one. The trigger guard came loose at the rear screw and it would not hold well when screwed in again. Examination of it later showed the wood in the screw hole is stripped away (maybe even a good sized chip missing), probably from someone screwing and unscrewing the screw way too many times. I think I can fix that with a fairly easy fix but time will tell and it may be a long time before I get it done. Did I mention that I am 'The Great Procrastinator'?

Anyhow, I like how it shoots. I certainly fired well enough out of the newer (newer in my collection) of my two Mossbergs to convince me it is good enough for plinking and or small game hunting, at least with the Federal ammo I used on this range trip. When I have more time than the hour I spent at the range with it today, I will try various other brands and types of 22LR ammo through it to see if I can better what it did today.

Oh, as for my shooting with the Henry U.S. Survival Rifle, it did not like the Federal ammo; it shot it pretty widely dispersed. You need to realize it does not have the inherent accuracy of either of the Mossbergs but all I will say is that I know I have shot much, much, better groups with it using different ammo. In fact, after firing some of the Federal 22LR through it, I fired  some CCI Mini Mags down range with it. It did much better with the CCI ammo, probably good enough to think of it as a survival gun for rabbit sized game within 15 to 25 yards and certainly good enough to put down a whitetail deer within that distance (in an emergency survival situation as 22LR is usually if not always illegal for deer hunting).

All in all, it was a short but fun range trip.

All the best,
Glenn B

Everyman's Evening Eyeful

All the best,
Glenn B

Know Your Firearms

Look at the pics and tell yourself what is indicated in each of them. There is nothing hidden, the indicators are obvious - I just want you to look at them and tell yourself what condition the gun is in in each photo and yes the lever is fully engaged in each image.

The photo at top shows the rifle is ready to fire. The photo underneath that one shows the rifle is on safe. Is that what you concluded? Not me, I thought it should have been the other way around. I will explain why I thought that way in a bit.

First, let me say: I virtually always do not rely solely on a gun's safety to assure me that it is either in the fire or safe mode, nor to assure that the gun will not go off if actually in the safe mode. In other words, I handle a firearm while regarding all of the rules of firearms safety, like keeping a firearm pointed in a relatively safe direction, keeping my finger off of the trigger until ready to fire (with some exceptions such as disassembly but even then the gun is pointed in a safe direction), not relying on the safety alone, and so forth. Yet, many guns do have safeties so it pays to understand at least the basics about how they work. For instance, on all of my pistols, that have a red safety dot, when the red dot is covered it means the pistol is in safe mode and should not be able to be fired if the trigger is pulled when the pistol is in proper working order. The same holds true for all of the shotguns that I own, if red on or near the safety lever or button is fully exposed it means the gun is in the fire mode. I thought it held true for all of my rifles too and it is true for almost all of them that have a red indicator.

So I was surprised today, to discover, that such is definitely not the case for all of my rifles. I own two Mossberg M44 rimfire rifles. One that I have owned for years is missing both the red and green safety indicator pegs that originally came with the rifle. No big deal, mostly because as already explained, I do not rely on safeties alone. I bought another M44 recently and this one came with both the red and green pegs installed. After getting that gun, I figured it would be nice if I got a pair of pegs for the one I own that did not have them. I got them at the end of February and only decided to install them today because I was finally going to take the newer M44 to he range to shoot it for the first time. Since I had decided to take the new one, I thought why not take both of them. I also decided it would be a good idea to install the pegs, before I lost them, it the one I had that did not have them.

I took out my newer M44, the one with the pegs already installed and took a look at how they were installed. I immediately noticed something odd. When the red peg (the one on the left on this gun) was partially obscured/covered by the safety lever, the rifle was in fire mode. When the red peg was completely exposed and the green peg (on the right on this gun) partially covered, the gun was in safe mode. That went against everything I have ever seen on any gun I have ever fired. On all other guns, with which I have experience and that have a red indicator, when the red indicator is fully exposed - the gun is ready to fire. That is because red showing is universally considered to mean danger. Green showing universally means safety and thus if the green is completely exposed it would seem it means the gun is safe. That is not the case with my M44 that already has the pegs installed, it is just the opposite.

That got me wondering if Mossberg actually set it up the way it is on mine that already has the pegs installed or if someone did it wrong after getting that particular Mossberg M44 with no pegs and then installed after market pegs in the wrong holes. I went online and searched out photographs of the Mossberg M44. I only found three that clearly showed the position of the red and green indicators. All three were set up exactly as is the M44 that I own that has the pegs already installed.

 




 

Even though this rifle is missing one peg, the red peg is in the
left hole just like on the other pictured Mossberg M44 rifles.

That I found these three images, that match the way the pegs are positioned on my M44, it does not necessarily mean that is the way they originally came from the Mossberg factory. While it leans in that direction, it could be that Mossberg installed them the other way around so that when red was completely showing it meant the gun was ready to fire. Since most M44s seem to come without the pegs, maybe someone put them into his gun in the wrong and opposite positions and it caught on when other installed the replacement pegs simply because a photo of it went around on the Internet with the pegs in the wrong positions. Mind you, I don't know which it is.

I sent an email to Mossberg about this but as I recall, the last time I contacted them with a question about an M44, they told me they had no information on them. That though was years ago so maybe this time they will come though with some info. I also am checking with someone who is considered a Mossberg M44 expert and am awaiting a reply to an email I sent to him.

Regardless, it just goes to show you can not assume anything about a firearm you own or handle based on other firearms you own or have handled. Some folks might have assumed that the red dot being exposed meant the gun was ready to fire and the green dot being exposed meant the gun was on safe. They would get quite the surprise, at least with my pegged M44 or with those I have seen online where the relative exposure of the dots means exactly the opposite, at least if thy decided to pull the trigger on a loaded one when they thought the gun was on safe.

All the best,
Glenn B

What Is Amazing Is Not That...

...this woman reportedly  was charged with robbing a 103 year old lady of her money, shopping cart and meals because that I find believable.  That she reportedly was arrested as recently as 2013 on prostitution charges (source) I find unfathomable - who would pay for that.

There definitely is not enough gold in Fort Knox or money in the treasury for her to have paid me to have sex with her!

All the best,
Glenn B

Everyman's Evening Eyeful

All the best,
Glenn B

Galloping Gazebos

Our gazebo used to be on the opposite of the shed, standing upright.

I had just gotten back to sleep this morning, on the couch in my basement, I am guessing at just about 0800 or so, when I was startled out of my dreams by my mother-in-law screaming "Linda Look..." or something like that. Then a second or two later, my wife loudly exclaimed "Oh my God..." and a moment later something about getting me right away because maybe I could do something. At first I thought one of the dogs just peed or crapped on the floor but when I heard my wife I thought maybe something bad had happened to one of our hunde. I had pretty much been out cold trying to catch up on the sleep I lost last night because the dogs woke me a couple or few times to go outside. With the ruckus upstairs, further sleep wasn't about to happen. I jumped out of bed, rushed upstairs and once there my wife told me the gazebo had blown away.

I ventured outside and took a look. Apparently, the winds  had howled and huffed and puffed and blew our friggin backyard gazebo away, either that or a giant (or maybe aliens) had come by, picked it up and moved it. It had blown so darned hard that it blew the gazebo right over the top of our backyard shed. Yet, somehow 
things that weighed less than a pound, maybe 25 feet away from the corner of the yard where the gazebo had stood, did not even budge as far as I could tell. A plastic table, only a few feet from the gazebo was knocked over but otherwise unmoved. Of the furniture under and within the gazebo, a small sofa was upturned but the other chairs still all where upright when I went outside to survey the damage. While I have not counted the cushions that had been on the sofa and chairs, at first glance it looked as if they were all there. They weigh a whole lot less than the gazebo but the gazebo is what went waltzing. I don't understand exactly how it happens but the wind is fickle and things like that do happen. I have seen wind damage where the winds had been strong enough to knock houses off of there foundations, destroy other houses completely, but a house next door to those destroyed was standing with almost no evident damage (saw that down in FL after hurricane Andrew 
many years go).

The gazebo got impaled on a tree that my son and his friend just trimmed 
about a week ago. Made it a little difficult to get it free but we managed
to push it up, over and free of those two stubs and moved it over the fence.

Right after that cursory initial look, I went inside to get Brendan to give me a hand and he spoke some words of wisdom when he told me: "I'm eating breakfast first". I sat down and joined him, Linda and Oma for breakfast before doing another thing. After that, I went outside and assessed the damage a  bit more and figured out what needed to be done.

As for the damage to the gazebo, it was totaled. There was also damage to some other things. Our garden fence also had three post caps cracked, evidently as the gazebo galloped in the wind. I am pretty sure the gate latch was also bent and there may be some other damage to the fence itself. I am ever so happy that the thing did not do much more damage to the fence, we just had it installed last year. A couple of ornamental flower pots were destroyed, a small tree damaged, and our shed may have been damaged too (waiting for the winds to die off before I get up on a ladder to check the roof). There also may be other damage to things as yet unseen.

I took a lot of photos to document it, then Brendan and I moved it off of the shed and off the tree on which it was impaled. Then up  and over and away from the garden fence it went so I could work on it without fear of it doing more damage. I hauled out some few 
tools and disassembled the darned thing. I did not need it blowing into someone else's yard and hurting them or dancing around more in our yard and hurting us or breaking more of our stuff. I was too busy with all that to look around much more for additional damage. Somewhere in there, Brendan brought me out my second cup of coffee for the day, that was a nice and made me happy. I must say, I also was quite happy with myself for having thought to use a power drill to take out the screws instead of doing it by hand with a screwdriver because they was a damned lot of them and it would maybe have tripled the time for me to take it apart.

I kind of always thought it would blow away sooner or later. Even though we had it anchored on all four corner posts and had the nylon side panels furled, the wind was able to lift it like that. I guess the wind going under the top plastic panels created enough lift. As you can see in the top photo, one of the side panels got unfurled by the winds and another was ripped off entirely (it is up against the white fence, bottom center of the top shot). The other two remained furled. In the bottom photo you can see it impaled on the tree and also see that a lot of the roof panels got knocked out. If you enlarge the bottom pic and look close, you can see some of the metal was cracked and twisted.

I have placed an insurance claim and want to see what they offer, We paid almost $2,000.00 for it less than two years ago. We have replacement value on our homeowner's policy and a $500 deductible but I just saw there is also what they call a wind damage deductible of $500. I am not sure if that is in addition to the regular deductible or not; I am hoping the total deductible will be only $500. Anyway, I guess we might get at least a few hundred toward a new one, maybe even about 3/4 of what a new one would cost if there is only one $500 deductible.
 
Yeah, that means my wife is already talking about getting a new one! She said I should shop for it and maybe we will wind up with a better one that she had selected. I thought it was a decent one, hell at least it was made in North America, up in Canada, and that beats China. I would rather not get a new one at all and have this happen again but I suppose it was a nice amenity to have in the backyard. It certainly was a great place to sit outside, on a summers evening into the night or wee hours, while sipping several a couple of beers or cocktails; heck, I even did that out there on a few rainy and snowy days but when it snowed it was a glass of whiskey I was putting to my lips.

All the best,
Glenn B

Everyman's Evening Eyeful

All the best,
Glenn B

My Neighbor Asked If I Would Help Adjust Her Belts

So, I went over to her place with my tool box thinking she wanted her fan belts adjusted. Oh man...was I ever so wrong!

All the best,
GB

I Kind Of Think They Already Know The Motive In General...

...but I am sure they want to find out exactly why the shooter opened fire on and fatally shot Virginia State Trooper Chad Dermyer, at a Greyhound bus terminal just the other day. Knowing exactly what set Brown off may help avoid, or at least anticipate, 
future confrontations of the same sort and thus increase officer survival.



Trooper Dermyer left behind a wife and two children.

It has been reported that the suspected shooter, James Brown III , who was subsequently shot by other troopers and later died, had 143 rounds of unspent ammunition on his person and an arrest and conviction record for violent crimes.

As to Brown's motive(s), I think his mother probably made a lot of them quite clear when she reportedly told a reporter:

"He had a lot of anger about the police in the past,"

and:

"He said he would never go back to prison again... he would fight it out with them."

and:

"He pretty much thought he wanted to be infamous... in terms of having a showdown,”

and:

“He always praised those people who got into shootouts with police."

Brown reportedly had a long arrest record (source).

Besides those statements being evidence that Brown was apparently no choir boy, it was reported that:

"Brown previously had been charged with crimes ranging from cocaine possession to murder, serving prison time for domestic battery and aggravated battery of a pregnant woman."

Trooper Dermyer had been at the station while taking part in a practical training exercise. Brown possibly engaged Trooper Dermyer in casual small talk and then pulled out a handgun and shot him to death. Trooper Dermyer, for whatever reason, was reportedly not wearing body armor at the time. (Source for all of above except Brown's photo.)

One never knows when one's time is at hand and it pays to remain alert. Yet, even if Tropper Dermyer was on his toes, it is easy to get the drop on someone in a situation like that. To me it seems as if Brown set out that day with the execution of a police officer on his mind but unless he left behind some sort of evidentiary documentation to that effect we may never know.

Of course, the shooting could have all been coincidental to the police training and incidental to Brown being up to other criminal activity. I imagine it quite possible that when he saw the troopers at the bus station, he may have believed they were there to arrest him for criminal activity he had planned to commit, or was engaging in at the time, and had no clue the troopers were there only on a training exercise. Combine that with the reported statements from his mother, especially this one: "He said he would never go back to prison again... he would fight it out with them." and you can easily see  his immediate motive. It is sad a sad truth that those in law enforcement face the potential of unexpected threats like this each and every day and that things like this happen, so looking into the shooter's exact motives, possibly may help prevent another such tragedy.

If the shot that killed Trooper Dermyer was to his torso, then it is a pity if he in fact was not wearing his body armor as reported. Not knowing where he took the fatal shot one cannot determine if that had any part in his demise but if it did then all others in LE should heed a lesson from it: your body armor is a crucial part of your equipment - wear it. Those in LE need to take every reasonable and practical legal precaution to protect themselves. Please understand, I am not faulting Trooper Dermyer - it was in no way imaginable that anyone was in the wrong except Brown; I merely am reminding others in LE that wearing their vests could be lifesavers. 

Trooper Dermyer had recently been transferred to an anti-terrorist unit. He was a trooper of some renown despite his way too short career. In 2015, he stopped a woman for a traffic violation and although he believed her to be acting normally, he had what amounted to a gut feeling that something was very wrong during the stop. He eventually searched the trunk of the woman's car and discovered the body of her long missing son. She eventually was charged with murder. Then, earlier in 2016, Trooper Dermyer and another trooper "...became mini celebrities when they helped rescue a lost dog running through interstate traffic in Hampton. Jeffrey Corbin, the dog’s owner, said Dermyer’s easy going personality helped reshape Corbin’s view of police" (source).

The words 'Good Cop' seem to fit him well. Sadly he no longer will grace the citizenry of Virginia with his good ethics and determined excellent police work.

My heart felt condolences to the family of Trooper Dermyer.

Two other people were also wounded because of this encounter and I wish them full and speedy recoveries.

As for Brown, if he was in fact the shooter who killed Trooper Dermyer, I think the only good side of this is that Brown was killed and thus he never again will be able to commit acts of violence.

All the best,
Glenn B