Friday 13th

It's Friday 13th and there isn't much going on around here.  An old fried dropped by and we palavered for an hour. He's gone now, and I'm baking potatoes for our lunch.  Belle is at a beauty shop appointment, and when she gets back, I'm going to cook a couple of little ribeye steaks for our lunch.  

It's hard to complain when you have to make do with ribeye steak and potatoes.

I'm just about done watching the political process.  I am not undecided, and the basic insanity of this election cycle seems to be increasing toward crescendos.

Tomorrow, we pack for a trip up north, to Missouri to visit with family for a few days.  It will be a nice break.  This is small-town Missouri.  There is a little restaurant that will get a 2nd visit, and there is a cheese shop that we'll patronize.   How a gourmet cheese shop landed in Sweet Springs, MO is one of life's little mysteries.  Small town stuff.  

 

Wednesday 5pm Tropical Update: Hurricane Francine makes landfall as a Ca...

Francine made landfall this afternoon as a Cat 2 storm, down in Terrebonne parish.  This is the local news anchors down there reporting on the storm.

It is truly refreshing to hear people talk about this storm who know how to pronounce the place names.  Don't worry about PawPaw, as we're 200 miles northwest of the landfall, well out of the way of the problem.

General Warrants

 During my 37 years as a police officer, I asked for my fair share of search warrants.  Not a big deal, we all know the rules.  Most of my investigations were done prior to 1998, before the internet took over.  After 1998 I was a beat cop and I don't believe I asked for any warrants in this century.  That was a detective's job.

In the third decade of the 21st century, we have devices that our founding fathers could not have conceived in their wildest dreams.  We have cell phones and the ability to store lots of data that we might consider private.  There are some interesting cases winding through the courts that address this question.

I watch a YouTube channel, the Socialite Crime Club, where the moderators discuss crime and police work and all manner of things related to the digital age and how data is used to crack cases.  This weeks episode talks about a grisly murder, but toward the end of the episode they do a deep dive into data and warrants and the courts diverging opinions on what is good and proper.

The episode in an hour and a half, but if you want the discussion on the court, start about 54:30, or skip ahead even further to 57:00.  From the perspective of an old investigator, this was fascinating, talking about how our founding fathers crafted the 4th Amendment to protect us even today.

In short, if you are a private citizen who wishes to remain private, flush your cell phone down the nearest toilet.  If youare a cop who wants to break a cold case, learn all you can about Geo fences.  I did not know, for example, that when I take a photo, my phone turns on GPS to dry and locate the photo.  Likewise, your free flashlight app also keeps location data. The link above will take you to the video in question.  Be prepared to go down a deep rabbit hole.

Now, if you;ll excuse me, I have soup to stir, and a hurricane to track.

Hurricane Humor

 Seen on the Book of Face

Mais... dat's true.

Huge

 People who don't live near a hurricane area don't realize how big these systems are.  Check out this radar image I captured just a few minutes ago.

The center of circulation is down near the bottom left of the image.  My acre is easily 500 miles away, and we're getting rain right now that is associated with the system. These things are huge.

Right now, it's just rain.  No wind to speak of.  Francine is a disorganized mess.  If she gets her act together, she could be a real problem.  We hope that she stays a disorganized mess for as long as possible.

Belle and I are warm and dry with adequate supplies.  We'll be okay, but we won't be doing much except watching the weather for the next 48 hours.

Evaporation

 Watching Francine churn the Gulf reminds me of a story, from late in the past century.  Before I met Belle.  It was sometime around 1998 or 99.  In the little bar I frequented, there was a fellow, we'll call him Earl, who wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree, but he was a hard worker and dependable.

Earl had managed to get a job offshore as a roughneck, and he was excited about it.  Earl was excited, and a bit nervous, plumbing the patrons in the bar about what he should expect. There was a great deal of joshing and good natured banter, leading up to the day when Earl caught the crew boat.

Imagine my surprise when I came through the door two days later, and found Earl sitting at the bar.

"Earl," says I "What happened?  You quit?  Get fired?"

"No", says Earl.  "They had a sy-foon blow up, and they had to evaporate everybody off the rig."

I suspect that they are evaporating people off of rigs right now.

RIP

 Termite has just told me that Janes Earl Jones has passed away.

Damn.  Another one of my favorite actors gone.

TS Francine

 Checking with the National Hurricane Center at noon today, we find that the disturbance in the Gulf is now Tropical Storm Francine.  The track has shifted east a little bit, and it now looks like it will come ashore near Vermillion Bay in south central Louisiana as a hurricane.  Bad news for Acadiana and the Atchafalaya basin.

It may be prudent to run up to the store and get some gasoline for the generator.  If it comes across us, it will have degraded considerably, but we may be out of power for a few hours.

Potential Tropical Cyclone 6

 Meteorologist Kevin Sonnier does a great job with tropical cyclones.  His latest advisory on what the National Hurricane Center is calling PTC 6.

The National Hurricane Center has initiated advisories on PTC #6 in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. A general move to the northwest, followed by a northeast turn is expected within the next 72 hours. The National Hurricane Center is also going on the higher-end of the intensity spectrum, forecasting a category one hurricane at landfall late Wednesday.

 That magenta line goes really close to my acre.  We'll keep an eye on this thing for sure.  IT's a long time between now and Wednesday andd we'll learn nore as we get closer to landfall.

91L

 The weather-weenies are looking at something called 91L, a disturbance near the Yucatan peninsula. The model runs bring it over Louisiana.

This thing bears watching.  Not scared, just prepared.

Deception

 Watching a YouTube video today I was reminded of a Supreme Crout case that basically says that the police can use deception in the furtherance of justice. This sounds odd, until you realize that undercover cops very existence depends on deception.

Once upon a time, I was able to take a class on fingerprinting.  As past of that class, we had to learn to lift prints off of various surfaces and process them on a latent card for later analysis.  As part of the class, I made a latent card of my own fingerprints.  That card found its way into my briefcase.

When interviewing a suspect, I might lay that card on the table and make no reference to it. It was just there, along with case notes and a tablet for notes.  Invariably, the suspect's eyes were drawn to it, and as long as the suspect said nothing, neither did I.  If he asked about it, I'd dismiss it.  They were, after all, my fingerprints.  But he didn't know that.

The suspect would look at the latent card, and I'd notice him looking at it, and I'd ask if had anything he wanted to tell me.  I made several cases with that card laying on the table.

At trial, or an evidentiary hearing, the attorney might ask if we had collected any fingerprints, and I would always answer "No".  Because we hadn't.

Was that a deceptive practice?  Only if he was stupid.

Immediate and Overwhelming

I'm still trying to sort out the mess at Apalachee High School in Georgia, but a few things reveal themselves.

The school had two resource officers assigned, and by all accounts, they did a magnificent job.  Yes, four people were killed, but the shooter wanted many more victims.  We will be studying this shooting for years, just as we study Uvalde, Parkland, and Columbine, and hopefully we will learn lessons from it.  One big take-away is that Apalachee already had officers on the ground. 

In an active shooting, every second counts. Within minutes the resource officers had located, identified and attacked, taking the shooter into custody and beginning the life-saving response.  Tragically, four people died, but it could have been much, much, worse.

I spent 16 years as a resource officer.  I don't know how many lives I saved, because it is impossible to know how many bed ideas were thwarted simply because I was there.  It's impossible to know.  I do know that resource officers take a psychological beating, because hanging out at a school is not exciting, it's not "real police work".  I do know that I once put a step-counter on my belt, and that I was covering about five miles a day on my beat.  Yes, I did investigations, yes, I made arrests,   The thing that I am nost proud of is that no one died during my tenure, and only two people were tragically injured.  One, the result of an accident, the other  the result of a grab-ass incident that got out of hand.  

The resource officers at Apalachee did a hell of a job.

Daddy Charged

 Fox News is reporting that the father of the Georgia school shooter has been arrested.

Colin Gray was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). Investigators have yet to provide specific evidence related to the charges but have alleged that he knowingly allowed his son to possess a weapon. 

I'm still not ready to opine, but it seems that there were parenting issues in the house.   It will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

Shooting in Georgia

 I see that we have had a school shooting in Georgia today.  Four killed, several hospitalized many more traumatized.

I'm going to invoke the 72 hour rule.

In the meantime, I'll be praying for those affected.

That Reminds Me.

Twenty or so years ago, younger son was working at an historical site, Fort St. John Baptiste in Natchitoches, LA.  One of the ladies who worked there, we'll call her Miss Juanita, was of Creole heritage, predominantly Spanish.  She made tamales, using the old recipe where she would start with dry corn and lye to make her hominy.  It was quite a production, and the tamales were fantastic.

One day, Miss Juanita was out in the courtyard, with an open fire and a big pot, making hominy when her father stopped by to visit.  The old gentleman walked over to the pot, his daughter stirring it, and watched approvingly.

The old man stood there for a bit, then patted his daughter on the back.  "That looks good, Juanita, but you know, you can buy hominy in cans now."

That's the way the world is these days.  I did that post on block chili, simply as a blast from my past. That box of chili I posted isn't just exactly what I remembered, but it was close.  We make chili now in a variety of ways.  You can go easy and open a can of Hormel, or you can go old fashioned and slaughter a hog.  They both fill the belly.

Quiet

 It seems I'm not the only one who has noticed that the Atlantic basin has been quiet this year

The Atlantic has had no named storm formations since #Ernesto on August 12. The last time that the Atlantic had no named storm formations between August 13 - September 3 was in 1968. The remarkably quiet period for Atlantic #hurricane activity continues.

That's true.  The last named storm was Ernesto and that was several weeks ago.   

I remember the 2005 season plainly.  Katrina came ashore on August 29th, and Rita followed her on September 24th.  They are alphabetical you know, and there are a bunch of letters between K and R. That was a busy year.

A wise man once said that climate is what you expect, but weather is what you get.

It seems that we have a Hamas apologist in the comments section.  He disagrees with me that Hamas is s despicable.  

You were not there, you do not know that the Idf didn't kill them attempting their genocide on anything not bowing to the jews. You have no evidence except what Israel tells you.

Except that it is being generally reported that Hamas leadership has taken credit for the killings, and that Hamas has published orders telling its fighters to kill the hostages if the IDF gets too close.

The simple truth is that this horrible action would not be happening if Hamas had not launched their attack on October 7th.  They slaughtered civilians and killed innocent children.  They took hostages.  All in violation of international law.  Hamas is a criminal organization.  They deserve to be wiped from the earth and thrown on the ash heap of history.  Along with ISIS, the Taliban, and every other terrorist organization.

War Crimes

 During weekend frivolity, I missed it, but was reading the news this morning that Hamas has taken the art of war crime to a new level. Kill the hostages.

This is despicable. By extension, those mindless idiots marching around Georgetown University waving the Hamas flag are also despicable.  They have a perfect right to protest, and wave their hate-filled banners, but that makes them no less despicable.

Taking hostages is cowardly and atrocious.  Killing then when they no longer have value is evil beyond words, and anyone who supports that conduct is also evil.

Block Chili

 Belle and I were talking this morning over coffee and I asked about "block chili".  I used to see it as a kid in the grocery store.  It was wrapped in wax paper and was a hard, dehydrated block of chili.  Add water, heat and eat.  As I recalled, it was pretty good chili.

Belle commented that her daddy loved the stuff and bought it regularly.  But, shee continued, she saw it in the store last week.  They still make it.  She sent me to the grocers later and I asked the butcher about it.  Sure enough, it was in the shelf near the hot gods.

We cooked a bunch of sausage, bratwurst, and hamburgers yesterday and we were cleaning up leftovers, so I followed the label directions and heated it up while I heated the sausage.  We had good chili dogs for lunch, and the block chili was really nice..

Just in case anyone was wondering.

Questions Answered

 In the post below, Sport Pilot asks:

How much flame cutting did your M-66 have above its forcing cone

Hardly any.  Back in the day, flame cutting was a bugaboo that we talked about a lot.  It was generally accepted that the 125 grain loads were responsible for most of the flame cutting.  I carried the Federal 125 grain load for duty, but shot very little of it.  

My favorite, go-to load was a reload of mine that featured a .38 Special case, anyone's primer, a hard cast 158 grain semi-wadcutter and 4.3 grains of Unique.  That has always been my go-to .38 Special load.  It has accounted for dozens, if not hundreds of rabbits, armadillos, skunks, and raccoons.  That load probably counted for 99% of the bullets down the barrel.

When younger son sent the revolver off to be reworked, Smith and Wesson sent it to their Performance Center.  As far as I know, they were not concerned with the minimal flame cutting.  If they considered it dangerous, the gun would have been scrapped.

Next up, DreW458 asks:

Do you know the hardness of those RanchDog bullets?

Nope.  The cast recipe for them was 10 lbs of my wheelweight metal, with 1 lb of scrap linotype.  As soon as the sprue was sut, they were dropped into a bucket of water by my feet.  Then, they were dipped in liquid alox, run through a .358 sizer, and re-dipped in alox. I have no clue what the hardness was.  If I ever measured it, I'd have to look in my notes.

Younger son has that mold now, along with my Model 66 and m Marlin 1894C.  That Marlin had a 16" barrel, and I think that a 20: tube would detract from the handiness.

Oddly Enough

 That post last week about my old Model 66 that is starting a new life, led me to remanence a bit.  Back in 2010, I was a member of the High Road forum, where we talked a lot about firearms related stuff.  A bunch of us started playing with heavy bullet loads in the .357 magnum, and one of the members, who called himself Ranch Dog designed a bullet for the group.  It was a 180 grain wide-flat-nose bullet with Leen tumble lube grooves.  I talk about it here, and you can click over to read the post.

That load featured Hodgdon's L'il Gun powder.  I won't give you the recipe, because you need to do your own load work-up, but it was stiff.  And, L'il Gun has probably changed a bit over the years, so if I decided to use it, I'd have to do my own work-up.

I recall that when I did the initial load work, I had to seat that bullet a little deeper than the SAAMI specs, and the gun I used to finalize the seating depth was that Model 66.  That load would just barely fit into the cylinder of the 66 and required a heavy crimp to keep the bullets in the cylinder from backing out under recoil.  That load gave me 1200 fps from the 66 and was flirting with 1600 fps from my Marlin 1894C.

On a subsequent range trip, I took my Model 28-2 to see how they would chrony from the 6" barrel.  To my complete surprise, that cartridge would extend past the end of the cylinder and tie the gun up with the bullet hitting the forcing cone.  I was a bit surprised as the Model 66 is built on a medium frame and the 28 is built on the larger N frame, but the evidence was clear.  The Model 66 would feed and fire a longer OAL than the Model 28

I always thought that was odd.

It's Labor Day.  Y'all go have some fun.