New Years

 It's New Years Eve and I've been doing all manner of year-end chores.  The tax year ends at midnight.

I had a pork tenderloin in the smoker for a few hours.  It's resting now, and I'll slice it in a little bit.  It will become part of lunch tomorrow, along with blackeyed peas and cabbage. Cornbread, of course.

That reminds me, I need to change the battery in my red dot sight. I do that once a year on the New Year.

Tomorrow starts 2026.  I'm looking forward to a splendid year.  I hope all of you can say the same.

Remembering

 If you were an Armor of Caverly Officer in the70s or 80s, there were three places woven into the knowledge base of those who served.  Grafenwoehr in Germany, Camp Casey in Korea, and Area 5 North at Fort Knox.

I didn't know Belle when I was a soldier.  We met after I had retired.  I was reminiscing tonight about the times I spent at Knox and she commented that the next time we were in Kentucky, we needed to take an extra day and visit the post.  Knox is no longer the home of Armor and Cavalry, it is now some sort of Finance Center.  I pulled up Google Maps and started looking for places that were instrumental during my younger years.

My basic training barracks is gone.  The place where I billeted the company I commanded is gone. The housing area where I lived has been bulldozed. The one place that the Army could not bulldoze is still there.  Area 5 North, a maneuver area thoroughly revied by everyone who spent miserable weeks on that piece of ground.  The scars are still there and can be seen from space.

That is one small portion of it.  A platoon-sized maneuver area where I spent many a miserable day learning the trade.  About four grid squares in total, Big enough for a young officer to screw up, mire his tank, learn to recover it.  a joyous place of mud and cold and diesel fumes. Did I mention mudholes? Fond memories.

This was only one small portion of the training area, which encompassed several dozen square miles.  Still it seemed that this portion is the one I recall most vividly.

Winter is Back

 Awoke this morning to a chilly north breeze, requiring that I break out the flannel.  Yesterday, the high was close to the 80s.  Today, the high will stretch to make 50.  Belle has turned off the AC in the house and has lit the heater. We're expecting a frost tonight.

I know that up north, the Midwest is facing a severe winter storm.  My thoughts are with y'all.

We're in the slack time between Christmas and the New Year. 2026 is going to jump off busy, and I'm enjoying the down time. It's time to consider the piddling projects that are best done in the wintertime.

Diamondback and Wood

 Couple of months ago, I started looking for my binoculars.  I, at one time, owned a nice Japanese binocular. Back in the 80s, I paid about $100 for them. They went with me to the woods, and to the training fields.  10X, bright and clear.  The last time I recall suing them was on a deer lease in LaSalle parish, sometime after the turn of the century. I can't lay hands on them now, they seem to have gone away.

On Thanksgiving, I ordered a new set.  This time it is Vortex Diamondback.  For a bit over $200 from Optics Planet. They came in yesterday after Optics Plante's deplorable shipping methods.  We found them shortly after dark last night when checking the mail.

I was sitting on the back patio, playing with them, when I noticed what I thought was a planet in the southeast sky.  About 8:30 pm.   Sure enough, it was Saturn.  I could see the rings plainly through the lenses.  Neat!  They seem to have good glass at a fair price.  Not as good as the Steiner binocs with the artillery reticle, but good enough for my uses.

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Surfing the YouTube, I happened to see the noted English physicist Brian Cox talking about astronomical things.  He was saying that gold and diamonds are fairly common in the universe, but somewhat rare on Earth.  He thinks that one of the rarest things in the known universe is weed. Earth is the only place in the solar system that has wood, and he suspect that it is uncommon in the broader universe.  Interesting.

NO MAN’S LAND | Louisiana Public Broadcasting

This is interesting.

Louisiana is a blend of cultures.  Many people recognize the Cajuns in south Louisiana and the Creoles of New Orleans, but it is more than that. Western Louisiana represented a clash of cultures, from the Spanish, the French, the native tribes and the early Americans.

For a time in the late 1700s until the early 1800s there was a strip of ground that was not claimed by anyone. Under a gentleman's agreement where no government encroached and separated the land that Spain claimed and the land that the US claimed.  This became known as the Free State, or the No Man's Land.  Yet people lived there and because of the absence of government, banditry flourished.

This is the story of those people.

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas morning, Belle and I are alone.  Not by chance, but by design.  We had our family celebration yesterday and today we're kicked back, enjoying life and a quiet day. For myself, I'm processing the carcass of the turkey for a gumbo this weekend, and trimming the remnants of the ham for snacks the rest of the week.

Lots of leftovers.  I won't cook this week, unless I want to.  This morning I stumbled on this video where the guy is telling us the difference between country ham and everything else.  I like his production style, so I thought I'd share it.

Y'all enjoy the rest of your day.

Dispatchers

 Ya gotta love a good dispatcher.  As a long-time street cop, we depended on dispatchers to tell us what was going on, and those folks could make or break a shift, simply through their ability to communicate and their knowledge of what we needed on the ground.

I worked the road before data links in the vehicle.  I didn't have a computer, only a radio. I couldn't see patrol notes or call volumes. All I knew was what the dispatcher told me.

So we come to this little lady, who professes to being a dispatcher.  And that's funny, right there.  Go ahead and click on it.

I never knew anyone who kept and alligator in his shop, but I did know one guy who kept a big, nasty gnarly cur in his shop.  During the day, the dog slept on a cushion in the office. During the night, the dog had the run of the place. Sometimes the owner would come in in the morning and find blood on the floor near an open window.

The yeast rolls are rising in the oven, and I have a ham in the smoker.  Family will start showing up closer to noon.  Y'all have a Merry Christmas.

Smoking a Bird

It's the 23rd, which means that our Christmas celebration is tomorrow.  It's been a busy season so far, and I haven't really gotten into the spirit but that will change soon enough.

Belle and I have for years hosted a Christmas Eve lunch, where we cook big and have family and friends over.  This frees up the kids to do whatever they will on Christmas Day.  It works for us.  Today, I have a bird in the smoker.  The smoker is running about 240F and I'm not going to mess with it.  The smoke is coming out of the seams of the box, and I have learned to trust the process.

One of my favorite carols is Allson Kraus and YoYo Ma playing the Wexford Carol.

Merry Christmas, y'all.

Trip Around The Sun - Martina Mcbride Jimmy Buffett

Well, I've done it again. By my count, this is 72.

Brown Shooter Found Dead

 Everyone is reporting that some homeless guy gave police enough evidence to identify and begin tracking the Brown University shooting suspect.  As they closed in, he was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The same guy is also suspected of killing an MIT professor on Monday.  The police are trying to unravel the various threads that hold this case together.  It's a sordid tale.

This shooter, like many others of his ilk, was an execrable coward.  He is worth neither comment nor memory.

University Police

 The first 20 years of my career, I was based in Natchitoches, LA.  Natchitoches is the home of Northwestern State University, a state college that, at that time, educated approximately 5000 students. It was mainly a teacher college.  It is also my alma mater, where I did both undergrad and graduate work.

During the late 80s, I was asked by the Sociology Department to adjunct a class on Tuesday evenings.  Introduction to Probation and Prole.  One Tuesday I was working an investigation, probably a Pres-Sentence investigation, and realized that i had to go over to the college to teach.  I grabbed my lesson plan, went over, climbed the stairs to the third floor and started the lesson.  

In just a few minutes, I glanced toward the door and saw the Deputy Chief of the University Police in the doorway.

He looked at me, grinned, and said, "Oh, it's you."

I asked, perplexed, "Who are you looking for?"

"We got a report of some guy in a white shirt and tie coming in here with a big magnum on his hip."

University Police, in Louisiana at least, a fully trained, certified law enforcement officers with the same standards of training as the local, parish (county), or state police. They have a tough job on a very narrow beat. In this case they got a report of a man with a gun, rolled on the report and satisfactorily concluded it within minutes.

I don't know what standards Rhode Islan has for their University Police, but the Brown shooting does not engender confidence. There are a lot of questions being asked, with very few answers. Law enforcement is tougher now, simply due to the amount of technology available. Security cams, dash cams and vest cams are ubiquitous, but require funding, maintenance and monitoring.  Equipment and manpower costs. These are challenges that every police agency struggles with. These are challenges that every police administrator has to deal with.

The Brown Shooter

 Like much of America, I'm watching the manhunt for the lizard who shot up the students at Brown University over the weekend.  We're on day five of the investigation.

I've worked a few murders and if you don't catch the guy in the first 48 hours, you are in for a slog.  Investigators get tired, leads fissile out and at some point, you get some sleep and start over.

I'm not convinced that the local cops are up to this investigation, and that is not an indictment on their competence.  Sometimes we just need help and the sooner you ask for it, the sooner you get it.  If I were running the lead at this point, I'd be looking at geofences and seeing if the digital gurus could help me with digital identification.  That takes time, but there is no better time to get started than right now.

What we know right now is that the shooter appears to be a stocky white dude, which doesn't narrow the suspect pool much.

The longest murder I worked took about two years to run the guy to ground.

Aussie Madness

 It seems that in the wake of the Bondi shooting over the weekend, where Muzzie gunmen went berserk on a beach where Jews were celebrating, the Australian government is considering stricter gun regulations.

ABC News reports:

State and territory leaders have agreed to strengthen Australia's gun laws in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.

One of the two shooters had held a gun license for a decade and possessed six firearms. 

 Odd, I thought that murdering people was already against the law in Australia.

Optics Planet

 In 2007 I ordered a rifle scope from Optics Planet.  It took about four weeks for trhe scope to hit my mailbox.  I thought that was odd, but I wasn't that concerned about it.

I admit that I have been spoiled by Amazon. If you order something, it is dropped off three or four days later. Amazon has really revolutionized shopping in this country.

So, on November 28th I was looking for some optics and when to Optics Planet.  They had what I wanted at a good price, and their Black Friday deals were happening. The website claimed that the item was in stock. I ordered my product and went on to other things.  Today I checked and they don't expect to shop until December 18th.

In 2025 it takes 20 days to ship an item that is in stock?  I don't know about that. It seems to me that Optics Planet needs to step up their game on shipping orders.

Lepage Wax-Bullet Dueling Pistols

Surfing the net this morning, I found this video from Forgotten Weapons, talking about a French dueling pistol from the early 1900s.

As you know, I participate in the sport of Cowboy Fast Draw, which uses wax bullets against steel targets.  I had no idea that the French dueled with wax bullets.

Our club had its end-of-year banquet today where we gave away end-of-year awards.  We will start back shooting in January when we begin our competition season.

Thursday Thoughts

 Surfing the Net, I came across this poor woman counting her blessings.  She doesn't have earthquakes, hurricanes or alligators, but damn, she has snow.  Both Belle and I lived up north during our younger years.  She in Missouri, me i Kentucky.  As far as we're concerned, that is the Frozen North.  If I ever hit the Powerball and am burdened with uncountable cash reserves, I might build a small house in Missouri near an airstrip, but I will charter a flight out before the winter starts and return to the mud in Louisiana.

My Dad kept bees, so we stole honey from the hives.  I have probably slipped in more honey than many of you have eaten in the past ten years. Honey never goes bad if it is properly stored.  It may crystallize, but can be recovered by simply putting the jar of honey into a warm water bath.

This guy found some old honey and was surprised that it is still good. I can tell by looking at it that it was winter honey.  Winter honey is much darker than spring or summer honey. Honey does not normally take a flavor from the flowers used to produce it but we learned that honey made from tallow blooms is almost as clear as spring water.  Dad once put some hives in a field of jalapeno peppers.  The farmer asked Dad to bring the hives out to help pollinate the pepper plants.  We got about six gallons of honey from that crop and the honey was very clear and had a really surprising "kick" from the peppers.  No heat, just a little bite on the back of your tongue that made the honey really special.

Watching the News

 This whole Somali welfare scandal in Minnesota has me intrigued and amused. It seems that the Somalis looted the welfare system while the elected officials looked on with disinterest.

Ilhan Omar thinks it is racist to point out that the vast majority of those involved are Somali immigrants.  Whatshisname Walz seems to think that he is blameless in this whole thing.  He's pathetic, he really is, both as a governor and as a man. The guy is a caricature of himself.

We really need to re-do the immigration system.  I would like to propose a few rules.

1.  Have a working knowledge of the English language when you cross the border.  Don't learn it here.  Learn it at home before you come.

2.  No government benefits or government employment for ten years. None, not rent assistance, ot food stamps, not a cell phone.  Either make it on your own or starve.

I think those two would be a good place to start.

Tuesday Tidbits

 We went to my friends memorial service today.  He was cremated, as is fashionable these days, and I'm not sure what the final arrangements will be for his urn, but we went to the memorial service.

He led a full life, mainly making his living as a helicopter mechanic and much of it overseas.  In his younger years he worked in Egypt, Chile, Peru, Brazil and did one tour with the Chilean government in Antarctica.

One of his more memorable photos comes from Antarctica where penguins were a contestant companion.

Yep, that's my buddy, peeing on a penguin.   Not many men can claim to have done that.

He was an avid water skier, having skied both the Amazon and the Strait of Magellan.

While working in the oil field in the Gulf, he started making tools for his own tool box. This parlayed into a company, Helicopter Work Aids which makes tools for the aviation industry.  His sons have ben running it for a couple of years and are taking it to whole new levels.

We're going to miss him.

Cloudy, Cold

 It's cloudy and cold in central Louisiana this morning. Not a s cold as way up north, but for us, cold enough. In response to the weather, I needed something heart and robust, so I decided to make a poot of taco soup.

Taci Soup

1 lb ground beef

1 lb bulk sausage

2 cans red beans

2 cans pinto beans

1 can whole kernel corn

1 can petit diced tomatoes

1 can original Rotel

1 can diced green chilis

1 pack taco seasoning

1 pack ranch dressing mix

Brown off the meat and drain the grease.  Dump everything into a slow cooker and put it on high for an hour or so until it is heated through and the flavors get acquainted. Serve over corn chips, garnish with shredded cheese and sour cream.

Taco Soup.  It's what's for lunch.

More Grief

 This week, we're going through Mon's succession and on Wednesday we got news that a very dear friend of mine had died.  A close friend, the shot with us and would come over occasionally just to hang out in the club house.  He loved Belle's red beans and her dumplings.   When she cooked those, he got an invite and he would come eat lunch with us.

His sons report that he went to bed on Tuesday night and failed to wake up on Wednesday.  Just like that. Gone.

He led a full life.  He was a mechanic, a tinkerer and an entrepreneur. He left a thriving business in his sons hands, and by all accounts, it's doing fine. He started to back-out of the business a couple of years ago and the kids were doing well with it.

In his early days he worked a stint in Antarctica as a maintenance guy.  He had photo evidence that he once peed on a penguin.   The penguin was curious and wandered in too close. He commented that may be the only penguin that had ever felt warm water.

We're going to miss him.

Venezuela

 What the hell is going on down there?  I'm seeing reporting that Trump has closed the airspace over the country and that there is an aircraft carrier battle group steaming close by.

Also, the Seditious Six are going crazy. Something about a drug boat that took two strikes to kill.

I also heard one report that Maduro has un-assed the country, heading toward Brazil, but that was unconfirmed. I also heard reports of B-52s and B-2s sortieing.   Seems like it is getting kind of  sporty down there.

It reminds me of the runup to Panama back in 1989.  That was in December, too, come to think of it.

Sucession

 It's a legal tern where we clean up the property of a deceased person and distribute the proceeds to the heirs.  I had offered, several years ago, to take that on, but Mom wanted someone else to handle it.  She made a good choice, as was her prerogative.  Another of my siblings is handling it and doing a fine job.

I spent most of the day filling out forms, responding to emails and getting folks the information they needed.  All this has to be done legal and proper.

This makes me think about things that I need to accomplish before my time is over.