So my Search and Rescue Team had training this morning. As I left the house, I about fell on my ass right outside the front door, EVERYTHING has a sheet of ice covering it. No problem, I have a big 4x4, with nice traction tires, and chains, (as if I'd need 'em!)

So, I head out. I got about two miles from the house, and noticed a yard sale, ON THE FREEWAY! Somebody rolled their SUV, and all their belongings that were in the car, are now scattered on the road. What's worse is, the wreck was so bad, it ripped the tires off the SUV. Not wanting to be part of the problem, I stopped long enough to make sure everybody was OK, (they didn't want my help as it turned out,) 911 had already been called, so I got the hell out of there! There was nothing I could do but be part of the problem!

Weather is rarely like this here, so very few people know how to drive in the ice and snow. How do you tell people that the WORST thing they can do is push harder on the gas when it's icy! All this does, is make you wreck faster!
Oh well...
Job Security is a wonderful thing...

Oh and by the way, we cancelled training for my SAR team.

Every Firemans Dream..

I don't know of a single firefighter who doesn't think about, even hope for, the chance to break out some morons windows when he parks in front of a hydrant. We have to do this. We need to be able to run our 5 inch supply from the hydrant to the engine, so the hose crew can go spray water. Our engines only carry about 750 gallons onboard. (That's enough for about 4-5 minutes of water on the nozzle end.)

Yes, this actually happens. Yes, we could go under the car in some cases. However, in some cases, there is just no other choice. I personally would never do something so blatantly evil and mean spirited.... OK, ya I would, and I'd enjoy it to! Firefighters (at least the few I know) just have this weird talent with breaking things. Don't ever take one of us into a china shop, good grief! So, when the opportunity presents itself for one of us to break things ON PURPOSE, whoa, it's GAME ON!

PIG Pic..

Keeping with the theme I kinda established last week, I am posting another "fun, everybody should own one" gun, the Browning Buck Mark.

The Buck Mark Specs from Browning:

• Caliber: 22lr
• Barrel Length: 5 1/2 inches
• Overall Length: 9 1/2 inches
• Nom. Weight: 2 lbs 2 ozs
• Magazine Capacity: 10 rounds
• Sights: Adjustable, Tru-Glo
• Grips: Laminate, Walnut, Rosewood
• Action: Straight blowback semi automatic
• MSRP: $390

These are seriously fun guns to shoot. I could sit ALL DAY at the range plinking with my Buck Mark. They are a little heavier than the Ruger Mark II, but that eats up any recoil from that little 22, making it one of the most accurate pistols I own.
If you don't own one, go look at one today, you don't know what you are missing. If you don't want one, well, let's just not go there!

Dead Goblin..

Now this really surprises me. Not just because it happened in The Peoples Republik of Kommunism Kalifornia, but because the NEWS agency even admits that "..No charges are expected to be filed."

Officers were responding to a 5:15 a.m. call of a burglary in progress at 1103 Herring Ave. when they found a man with multiple gunshot wounds lying in the driveway of the residence, police said.

But Wilson County authorities said no charges are expected to be filed against Watson.

What can you say? Nice. When the News start reporting things like the victim was actually committing a crime, the home owner defended himself, and "No charges expect to be filed" maybe there is hope for the wackos in Cali after all...

Pfffttt... Ya, right.. Who am I kidding!

DEAD GOBLIN COUNT: 13

Funny Story..

OK, I must be glutting for punishment. As if I haven't had enough abuse regarding my Dead Goblins posts, I am posting* a story here about a man, his 30-06 and a bank robber.

Nearly 36 hours after sheriff's deputies and officers began a manhunt for a Portland bank robbery suspect, an unemployed plumber caught the man and held him at gunpoint Wednesday night.

"I asked him what he was doing, and he said his truck broke down and then he kept walking. I told him 'I didn't think so' and that he better get down on his knees or this thing's going to go off. I meant business. I kept him down until the sheriff got there.

So, a guy holds a 30-06 on ya, oh ya, I'd get on my freakin knees too! The funny part is that his mother was ready to back him up with her pistol! Now I DO NOT advocate going out and trying to stop a fleeing felon. As the article says, the suspect DID has a 9mm handgun. This could have gone real bad, real fast. But our hero got lucky, (who was it that said "I'd rather be lucky than good?") and the bad guy gave up. All is well that ends well!

UPDATE: Turns out this bank robber may have been involved in a couple of other robberies too!


*Posting means I am merely listing the story on my Blog for my own/your amusement and/or comment. It DOES NOT mean that I support or encourage the behavior in the article. Please, let us be adult about this!

Snow Time!

I finally got sick of hearing about all the snow my Blog Momma, Margi Lowry, is getting, so we packed up the family and headed up to Mt. Hood to play in some snow!

We decided to head up and go Snow Tubing. For those of you who don't know, snow tubing is the fine art of siding down a large hill on a large rubber tube. It was one hell of a lot of fun. The cost was reasonable too! $15 for adults, $6 for the boy. We will definitely be doing this again!

Pin-up..

From a Bettie Page webpage, they say it all:

Bettie Page is the queen of the pin-up. She has reached a cult status far beyond any other glamour girl. With a coy smile and a twinkle in her eyes, Bettie embodied all the playful elements of the glamour era. In the 1950's you couldn't open a men's magazine without finding some picture of Bettie. Whereas other pin-up girls had other ambitions (dancer, actress, etc...), Bettie was happy just posing for pictures. In her early career she posed mostly for fetish photographer Irving Klaw and with him made the famous burlesque-on-screen movie "Teaserama" with stripper Tempest Stormm. Later in her career, Bettie became a model for fellow pin-up star Bunny Yeager. It was with Yeager that Bettie made her famous Playboy photos including a centerfold shoot used in a 1955 issue. By the end of the 1950's Bettie basically quit the modeling life and faded out of sight. Recently there has been renewed interest in her life story with many tell-all biographies available as well as some great coffee table photo books.

And so, without further adieu... Ms. Bettie Page!

For more of Ms. Page, try out here Shrine Website: The Bettie Page Shrine.

Just in case you were curious about how my lovely wife feels about these pictures, she picked this one out!

Now I am off to the bathroom for a cold shower..

Answers..

Okay.. About my DEAD GOBLIN COUNT.
It has been brought to my attention that people care about my welfare. These people continually remind me of the “rest of the story” in regards to a lethal force encounter. Things such as:

• You will be arrested
• Your house will be searched, including having your computer searched!
• Background investigated
• May not be able to get work with the City, County or State Government
• Your gun will be taken into evidence
• You may appear in court
• You may have to deal with relatives
• You may have nightmares
• Economic Hardship due to incurring court costs
• Social stigma of having “killed” somebody

Did I get them all?
So, let me set up the scenario:
Bad guy breaks into my house, and intends to rob me, and possible do my family and myself grave bodily harm. My plan, as it stands, is to run down the hall, grab my son, and run back to my room. With my family firmly entrenched in my room, I use my phone, (if that has been compromised, I have my cell phone in my room) and call 911, and wait for the cavalry. Now, I know that there is the possibility that they could take quite a bit of time to respond, so I am armed to protect my family. Now, you will notice that I have NOT gone charging down my stairs to confront the Goblin. Why? Because EVERYTHING of significant value is locked in our safe. All they could take is our $200 TV, our $69 DVD player, etc. None of those things is worth my life, or that of my family.
So, let’s take the scenario a step further. Our goblin is not satisfied with the TV and DVD player, he decides to head UPSTAIRS. Now our bad guy is forcing his way into my bedroom, my shelter, my SECURED room. He forces his way through our locked door, the police are not there yet, and my family’s only hope is for ME to stop the threat. I must protect them.
Now, because I take this responsibility VERY seriously, I train regularly. I also take classes on the Legal Aspects as well as the Psychological ramifications of a lethal force encounter. Will I be arrested if I am forced to shoot someone? Probably, it will depend very much on the situation. Will my house be searched? Almost certainly, but having someone paw through my underwear drawer is a very small price to pay for the life of my family. Will my background be investigated? Um… Again? I get my background checked about 3 times a year (6 times last year!) so that is no big deal. My computer checked, ummm, big deal, (the nudie pics are in the file called “Nekkid Gurls”!) I will not be able to work for the government… Explain this to me. I already work for the county, but I won’t be able to get another job, why? And, why would I have to explain myself to them? What would there be to explain? A man tried to kill me and my family, so I protected them, end of story. My gun will be taken into evidence. YES, and it should be. It is evidence, and was used to end someone’s life, so by all rights, it will be tagged as evidence. I will have to appear in court. This is questionable. Since the bad guy is going to have to break through my front door, come up stairs, and break in MY bedroom door, I think he has established that he is NOT there to sell girl scout cookies. I would expect to be interviewed by the Police, (fine) the DA, (yucky lawyers, but still OK) but a judge? Am I being charged with a crime? No, then I will probably never see a judge. I might get sued, um, yah, let’s take that to court.
Family: “Judge, my son broke into his house and tried to kill Rescue Mike, but he killed my son instead. I want the millions of dollars Rescue Mike cheated me out of.”
And my personal favorite..
”If the police/D.A./bad guy’s attorney finds your “dead goblin count,” the lawyers will crucify you. (You come across like a guy that wants to prove something.)”

Well, thanks! By the way, why would they crucify me? For reporting when a citizen exercises his second amendment rights and protects him/herself or their family?

By the way folks, I have been repeated accused, and indeed threatened on this blog. That is no big deal, but get this straight. In this country, when arrested, YOU ARE INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY! And it is the burden of the State to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. So don’t tell me I’ll be crucified, or executed, or hung out to dry for protecting myself. I hope and pray that this never happens. I don’t know what I will do if it does, other than keep my family safe and NOT leave the locked sanctuary of my room. I have been shot, I have seen others shot, I know EXACTLY the destructive power a firearm contains, and believe me, I NEVER want to be forced to pull that trigger.

So please, read some of my previous posts before you come off telling me I have something to prove or that I am just looking for a fight, or that I don’t understand what will happen if this occurs. Most of my readers are either firefighters, (who have seen some shit, I promise) or they are current or former military and Law Enforcement. Guess what, none of them have seen fit to tell me how I am going to rot in jail, or how the DA is going to “Crucify” me. Thanks!