Big Country Expat

Greetings and Salutations!
And a Happy New Year to all of y’all who survived this current shitshow we call the FUSA. As they say… get ready ‘cos you ain’t seen nothin’ yet me boyos and devotchkas. Had a very interesting and fun afternoon with an unexpected visit from Concerned American from WRSA in this here Meatspace Environ.

Not our first meatspace meeting mind you. In general I keep intel like that when we ARE going to meet up on the DL for OPSEC reasons except until AFTER the get-together. He was well, and as we’re both, well, truth be told, Sapper as well, the three of us are serious autists and literally we lose track of time while we gab away.

We went and had a fantastic lunch and shot the shit and traded stories for a while. During our discussion, a serious item came up on the Radar, and I need to go into that in a bit… HOWEVER:

I have to get this bit out in the open.

OK: First off… I’ve gotten about two dozen DMs and other messages/emails and the like from a few of y’all asking if’n I done went and kil’t our famously contrarian and utterly ruthless fellow blogger Aesop when I went out and met up with him in Califrutopia.

I mean the man has not poasted since October 10th, shortly before our meet up.

Well… yeah….

I mean I suppose it is natural to maybe think I wasted him, but sorry Filthie, I got “Proof of Life” today:

Of course redacted in the proper places… He’s just out being a Marine, doing the “Jarhead with a fistful o’pesos” Liberty Party Time Mode thang.

Sorry to disappoint you Glen!

Of course it took me threatening him in the messages before that response that I -was- going to take credit for killing him, and dumping his corpse in a convenient quarry or the La Brea Tar Pits or some shit like that…

When I relayed that at lunch to CA (who’s also met Aesop) He almost spewed his iced tea out his nose on that one.

So yepper.
Now:
New Years Eve:
I looked like utter dogshit.

Yeah, I look like a troll who’s bridge is missing him…

Soooo… since I had to work a Half-Day at Ye Olde Tractor Factory after work, I went out and got into ‘sharp dressed man’ mode:

Now
Funny/Sad thing.

The chick at Supercuts who done did the chop? Well my ‘preferences’ are in the computer, but she wanted to know exactly what look I was looking for… she was a few years younger than me, not bad looking, vaguely reminded me of Gretchen… in that hot/older thing… I then said (before thinking about it) that I was looking for that Waffen SS look… circa 1943…

My initial reaction was “Damn! Did I just say that out loud??? OOOOPS!” then I was like “What the fuck do I care about saying that to some fucking airheaded hairdresser thinks?”

Killer thing is she knew exactly the reference.

Then came the obligatory bullshit flirting, her to me…

FFS.
I even TOLD her I was in the middle of a deee-vorce with a former Hairdresser! Hello? McFly? Anyone home? Sweet Jeebus! She was bemoaning how she was going to be “….home alone for NYE with her cat and a bottle of wine!”

Again… REALLY!?!

Maybe I attract the nutters…. I’m wondering now for really-reelz. I mean my counter was that I was going home to get treatment for my genital herpes, then drink myself to sleep b/c the treatment sucked so back and my junk was so inflamed…

No… sorry… OMG I wish I had said something like that
If ONLY to see the look on her face.
Nah… I sort of gave the noncommittal “Uh Huh…. I hear that!” and left the whole thing ‘hanging’ when she asked what I was doing…

Now…
IRL?

and…

Yeah….
No cray-cray strange.

I prefer High Explosives if available, but in this instance, I’ll take home rolled fireworks, which BTW I HIGHLY recommend as a necessary survival skillset and fun hobby all around. LOTS of intel on the webs of “how to” and it’s all legal and right now? The ingredients so to speak are cheap and WIDELY available.

Make of what you will about that advice
Yer never too old to lern’t sumptin’ new Aye?

Now, the “just a flare” one was supposed to have a ‘whistler’ or ‘screecher’ in it if you will, hence my befuddlement. I spent some extra for those to add to the flaring, which makes me wonder if -I- fucked up or if Joe Chink in Quangchi Province fucked up whilst manufacturing it. Not a big deal, just an annoyance.

So yeah… CA asked me about possibly planning a meatspace meetup for a BUNCH of folks… not sure of the logistics but we were discussing a “mutual aid society” sort of thing as in WHEN shit does eventually go sideways, that those of us in the bleggosphere to include this here readership (not you Fedboi, sit the fuck down and file your report thankee very mucho!) to try and assist and support each other because the ONE MAJOR THING we can take this ENTIRE bullshit Somali thing is that the FedGov is complete fake and ghey AF and as stated WHEN shidd (to use the chan term) goes COMPLETELY Pear Shaped, much like the BritCops, OUR DotGov and their various minions of Leviathan are going to be going after the ‘low hanging fruit’ so to speak… Ain’t no one coming to save us EVER and you’re delusional and retarded if you think they are…

I mean I fully expect the wheels to come off, and my prediction?

Given the propensity of need for significant dates and whatnot, the pervasive (and perverted) nature of our intrusive and self serving Masters? I’m calling May 1st, 2026

You heard it here first.

Maybe I’m wrong, but that The close of the first quarter (Q1) of 2026 is March 31, 2026, it gives them a month to ‘wind things/toys/people up’ so to speak either by legit financial crashes (see what Silver is doing and watch that motherfucker… the current bifurcation is insane) as well as April pretty much is good weather for protests and the beginning of “Riot Season” and that May 1st is May Day for the communists who just so happen to be Socialists, Bolsheviks and Mensheviks (most of which if you know real history were ALL of Jewish descent).

That and May Day falls on a Friday?

Oh yeah… it works for me.

Good weather, a few false flags, maybe an assassination attempt (successful or not) either way it’ll get shit rolling for real. Now I’ve been wrong before, and hope like Hell I am again BUT

The whole silver/gold and new ceiling(s) that have yet to be discovered? That ONE needs to understand is China just had a new law kick in. China, which produces 1/3 of ALL global output (+/-) of ALL available silver mined yearly, (roughly 800 MILLION Oz every year, currently running at a deficit mind you) which BTW has been on watch b/c of industrial depletion going on, has made it that you need to get an export license from the Chinese DotGov order to move any amount of silver OUT of China in the future AT ALL.

They turned it into a ‘strategic defense item’ essentially.

Guess what needs a whoooooooooooooooole lotta silver?

AI Chips.
Solar Panels.
Electric Car Batteries.

All pretty much not economically recoverable after use (for now) which means once them ounces are ‘burned’ so to speak, that be it.

Yepper.

Asian Guy on Twitter is an A.I. Based IRL financial analyst, who uses A.I. to project an artificial dude telling the tale so to speak. His link ias here: https://x.com/AGAsianGuy

He’s saying that right now NO ONE IRL has ANY idea how bad the market contagion is going to be, and how silver has, despite the big bank and COMEX interference, is poised to moon-shot. 1/3rd of the planets most needed and valuable (one could say severely undervalued commodity) just got locked the fuck down in perpetuity.

Silver hit $84 and change when the bots kicked in back a week or so ago. At the time of writing tonight? $72.23 USD NYC.

They smashed it down quite a bit, but it keeps rebounding, and even then, the disconnect is pretty profound over the Shanghai versus NYC Exchange prices…

So yep
Make of it what you will.

Best we ALL try to do our area studies and maybe have a larger-ish meetup(s) by either region/state or something, but I’d rather make sure we know who we can count on when the chips are down, and Ye Olde Rubber is Grinding on Ye Asphalt.
Bah
What do I know tho right?
I’m just some asshole on the interwhebz who’s a wee bit louder than others. And the raffle winner will be announced after I get confirmation from the individual if they want to be called out.

So “Merry New Year!”
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Maaaaan I don’t deserve y’all.
I’m seriously thankful for each and every one of you who’ve commented, offered direct support via DMs and emails… you leave me stunned and humbled. Like from the bottom of that blackened and charred cavity where a heart used to reside, I thank you most implicitly.

And now that the weepy hand-holding is over, back to the regular dose of spite, acidic observation(s) and a funny story, maybe two if this keyboard cooperates…

Now… the “Minute of Hate”…

The fuckin’ Skinnies man… fuck them ALL.

God damned worthless scum. I missed out on “the Mog” thank fucking God for real… that’s a shitshow that I wouldn’t have wished on ANYONE. I will relate ONE very interesting fact… I met one of the kids who was there when I was at the replacement detachment in early 96? I think at Fort Hood…

I had ‘partnered up’ with a bro who was cool, a fellow SPEC-4 Mafia member were hanging out when we spotted a “newly minted” PFC walking around the A.O. As many replacements didn’t have their wheels yet, the majority of time was spent there hanging out, dodging bullshit work details and shamming like motherfuckers. -I- had my car with me as me and the newly married wife were ensconced in off base housing, but I still had to report every. single. day. for the two or so weeks every day for all the usual Big Army horseshit that went along with it…

Hence why my bro, who was waiting on HIS shit to be transported down from Alaska (which he said sucked ASS) had buddied up with me. I had wheels, he didn’t. We ended up pretty good bros for a long time until his missus and he split. Gina (X#1) and his wife had gotten pretty close so… Adios Bro… So Sorry! Anyways… this was like waaaay before that shitshow… like in May 1996…

The way we could tell he was a new PFC was that he had pin-on rank, rather than the sew on. That wasn’t what stood out however. It was that he had a combat patch on his shoulder. A very unbelievable combat patch… not as much as a patch, as a scroll:

Now, Rod (my new bro) and I?
Far be it from us being assholes…
Seeing a kid that young wearing a 2nd Batt scroll?
On the Combat (right sleeve) Side???

Uhhhhhh… Wait One….

So we went over and kind of sidled up to him… we weren’t trying to be dicks or anything, but hey… as we said to him “Dude… you know that wearing unauthorized badges/patches like that can get you freeze dried, and buried under Leavenworth right? Never mind if a real Ranger sees you sporting that fucker?”

He sighed…
Looked at us and thus told us the story behind the patch:

Seems during the whole “Blackhawk Down” situation, In Real Life mind you, he was a PV1 (Private… point blank period Private E-1) who’d –just– gotten out of A.I.T. (Advanced Individual Training) as a cook…..specifically a U.S. Army cook: Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 94B (Food Service Specialist) and got assigned to the Regimental Support Battalion (75th RSB back then) which just so happened to be supporting Operation Gothic Serpent (who comes up with these fucking names anyways?) that the Rangers already Balls Deep in back then….Now as an aside back then? Being a support puke might mean you need to go to Airborne school or something, but the cooks? Notsomucho…

He was literally in “Cook Whites” which for the cooks back in the day was the standard uniform, cooking/brewing/reconstituting whatever the “Spoons” (as us grunts called ’em back then) were wont to do…

that, was when according to him, a blood covered and crazed Ranger burst into the tent, told everyone to grab their Battle-Rattle, and get outside and on the fucking trucks “Right Fucking NOW”.

Per history, this was Staff Sergeant Jeff Struecker who had taken back a severely wounded ranger in a HMMWV and grabbed ANYONE and EVERYONE who could hold a weapon and ran back and forth multiple times, under fire, to keep and attempt to save the situation, earning himself a Silver Star w/”V” device (valor) in the process…

The Head Spoon apparently objected and said something to the effect of “….But… but… we’re only cooks!!!”

To which the NCO yelled back “Well, you’re fucking Rangers now, get yer shit and get on the fucking trucks, we got shit to do, and Skinnies to kill!” Our dude, PFC Snuffy as I’ll call him now, he grabbed his shit, and went out, and then spent the next 12-18 hours in for-fucking-real toe-to-toe combat against the fucking skinnies, the whole time in cook whites, and according to the citation I read (his Bronze Star with “V” device award for record) he slaughtered quite a few bad guys….

Hence our young friend being officially awarded a 2nd Batt Combat patch. His newly Minted PFC rank? Well… that was Army Fuckery for you. Seems after “the Mog” when all was said and done, our young friend had been promoted almost directly to SPEC-4… I mean he went to PV2 that day after shit settled, and he was being treated for minor wounds (1x Purple Heart BTW), after they awarded the Scroll, PFC, and shortly after, SPEC-4. Then, it was PCS time, and he left that battalion, and got sent to essentially Hell AKA Fort Stewart.

Seems the new Support Battalion Scumbags purely hated a combat scrolled Honorary Ranger… nevermind the medals for valor and wounds… they busted him two times, back down to PV2 for the most minor of offences… shit that wouldn’t even need nor require a Article 15 (A-15 non-judicial punishment). I very much experienced the same. exact. thing. when I got moved from Infantry to Armor, with Airborne and Air Assault wings… fucking the 1st Sgt was a fat fucking jealous prick… and that happens a LOT in the military back then…

So it seems the fat fuckers in his Battalion were VERY content to fuck with “Ranger Snuffy” if you will trying to fuck him up professionally, and it seemed to be working until he ran into one of the Ranger NCOs who he personally knew from falling under him so to speak in “the Mog”… as in he filled in for a wounded dude who got evacc’d… The Ranger in Question was on a detail/mission at Fort Stewart where Snuffy was getting fucked with…

When he found out what was going on?
Ohhh boyohboyohboyohboy….
Phone calls were made.
Shit started ‘moving behind the scenes’ very quickly
The Chain of Command at 2nd Batt understanding well full and able as to what sort of shitstorm was inbound… they feared not for Snuffy, nor themselves nor their Rangers… it was the Retards who were about to die, and hoooooooboy-howdy…

Per Snuffy…
There were several “Personal Visits” by some insanely hulked up For-Fuckin’ Really-Real Dual Scroll Rangers (who drank a quart of blood daily according to RUMINT) showed up at the kids Company first to “meet and beat” the kids entire chain of command. This was followed by a visit to the kids Battalion Commander, who had ALREADY gotten a call from the five-sided puzzle palace on the Potomac questioning his command, his brains, and how long he might live after what was headed his way. The MPs?

They stayed the fuck out of the way. It was vaguely reminiscent of the story of when the Gangbangers fucked with a bunch of 2nd Batt kid who were having a BBQ, and got shot the fuck up for their troubles AKA The Ash Street Shootout (And yeah, I got the inside on that one too… might share later)

Needless to say, they practically threw the kid off base in a limo to “The Hood” AKA Fort Hood until they could hide him and unfuck the whole mess… the kid himself told me his Platoon Sgt was looking at a medical retirement due to the (multiple) ‘fall down the stairs’ he took when his Brother Rangers showed up…. and the Platoon Sgt was NOT properly repentant in his petty bullshit… this defining ‘falling down the stairs’ means being beaten until you NEED medical retirement… I also understand that being thrown off the third story of the barracks is bad for your health too… and because of this, it was not an option to not medically retire… I also understand his Company Commander needed to be fitted with Dentures, after running into a door multiple time(s) (what a clumsy dude eh?) apparently and his 1st Sgt?

No idea.

Guy I think is still officially listed as AWOL.
Since late 1995 early 1996

Never fuck with the kids from the Batt.
It will not end well.

So needless to say, Rod and me?
We bought the kid MANY beers that evening.
He earned them.

Sorry about that, I tend to do that.

So… back to the Skinnies

Round ’em up.

Don’t give two fucks Chuck as to how long they’ve been here as they breed like rats and rabbits. Round ’em up. Send ’em ALL fucking back. Fuck them scamming motherfuckers.

That… just because I’m petty

Afterwards? Drop an entire B-52 ARCLIGHT of VX Gas on the ENTIRETY of Somalia. Gas them like the fucking infestation that they are. I mean for real… name one Skinny who’s EVER DONE ONE FUCKING POSITIVE THING FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND….

I’ll wait …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

That’s what I thought.
Nothing
Vermin

Cock-a-roaches as Tony Montana would say…

Gas all of them. Carpet bomb them. Turn that part of Africa into a piece of territory that when/if Jesus H. Christ himself shows up back to walk the Earth once more at the End Times and looks at Somalia, and goes “Uh nope… fuck that place and them retards, now and forevermore, Amen.”

For real.
They mock us.
They hate us
They steal from us
They murder us
They think it’s funny

Why we haven’t started firebombing their ‘daycare centers’ are beyond me. I mean the Irish and the English (in certain news circles BEFORE they get censored into oblivion) have shown that they hit places with these fucking scumbags still living in there with Molotovs… So far as far as I’ve heard, no fatalities, BUT

Not that I’m making ANY suggestions BUT if You go out and burn a few of these quote “daycare centers” unquote at say at 0200am (when there can’t possibly be anyone in there), and make sure to burn the fucking place to the ground? With a warning for them they need to go the fuck back to Somalia now or else?

I’d be interested to see how that works out (in Minecraft of course).

OK… spite and two minutes of hate has ended.

Story told too… not necessarily funny per se, but I’ll lay one on you tomorrow. So Much Love to You ALL and best of luck on the Raffle (yeah I haven’t forgotten you fuckers LOL)
More Later
Big Country
Oh… and BTW: Happy New Years You Degenerate Bastards and Bee-atches! I love you all!

NGL…
This’s been a stone bitch of a “holiday”
Too much to process.

Too many things found out…
about Others…
about Myself…

Everyone hits a point in their life when it becomes… life itself that is… becomes just -there-.

Men,
Drop 💯 if you feel the same… pic.twitter.com/YiMPq9bawO

— Manly Mentor (@manly_mentor) December 30, 2025

Yeah…
I’m still swinging…
Delving deep into this was not good for me to a point. Darkness overwhelming… really down. Still down. But I’m getting better…

I hope.

I appreciate all the thoughts and apologize to have set off so many alarms and worries. Sapper’s got my back per usual… he’s been making sure I’m still here, God Bless him. Took me out to go shoot up the woodline the other day. Pulling a trigger helped a lot…

The fact I didn’t eat my piece means I’ll be around for a while… just needed some time to try and reset my “timing and headspace” on my own terms and try and find some peace.

Sure wish I was back in Nawlins to go to that Cathedral again…

Might have to plan that ‘cos the churches here are for shit.
So thanks again for standing by.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Well I did not see this one in Ye Olde Majik Eight Ball:

No word if Junior was an OrangeBadMan supporter, but damn!

Knifing your folk to death is really up close and personal by any one’s perspective… (and yes, this’s another ‘Commando’ quote) It’s like Matrix (Ahhhhnuld) is baiting the bad-guy Bennett (best known for playing ‘Wez’ in “The Road Warrior”) telling him he’d be depribing himself some pleasure by using a handgun… “…you don’t just want to pull the trigger, you want to put the knife in me, and look me in the eye, and see what’s going on in there when you turn it.”

At which point it goes the way you expect.
Matrix wins after a pretty brutal hand-to-hand fight with Bennett and everyone lives happily ever after…

Unlike Meathead and his Spouse

Happy Hanukkah there Meathead!
Give Satan our regards!
You must have really pissed off Junior is all I can surmise…

And Internationally, another Happy Hanukkah to our Smol Hat frens down in Oz, who happened to be hanging out at Bondi beach. In this particular shoot’em up, I literally have not one fucking clue as to what went down, except to say for a County that pretty much eliminated damned near ALL private ownership of weapons, they sure as fuck seem to, on occasion, have a body count that could compete with a few of my Ex-Girlfrens….

Bad-Dum-Dum <TING!!!>
Thank you, Thank you, I’ll be here all night and don’t forget to tip your waitress… AGAIN!

And no, I was not referring to any current GFs or X Wives
I had one ex that when I found out JUST how run thru she was, I was more upset that I didn’t put a turnstile outside of her suite in the dorm… at least then I could have made some beer-and-weed $$$….

Seriously tho, New Zealand and Australia?

When they have mass shootings, they generally get filed under “MASSACRE” b/c for the most part, due to their utter incompetence and fear of their own subjects (and yes, INTENTIONAL USE of that term)…. they ain’t citizens…. they’re fucking tax slaves/serfs/subjects, as NO ONE has a weapon NOR IS ALLOWED TO HAVE ONE readily available to stop a fucker or fucker(s) like we do here, a’la “Boom-Boom-Pow! CLEAR!!! Another one DRT!” (DRT = Dead Right There)

“Dirt Nap for one, Satan Calling!”

I mean FFS, me going to grab a 15 pack of pounders (16oz Bleers) these days? Even I take at a minimum my Bond Derringer loaded with .357 Hornady Critical Duty 135 Grain JHP?

I mean that’s if I’m pretty much ONLY in my gym shorts, t-shirt and slippers… otherwise, w/real clothing, I roll even heavier… and mind you this’s my neighborhood… when I’m dressed half-assed, I tuck the derringer in it’s sticky holster under my armpit, and try not to move that arm unless I need to…. what with ‘open carry’ being cool here now, I ain’t worried….

Until the Aussies re-discover their own individual, internal ‘Ned Kelly’

They’re fucking doomed.

So moving on to Oddity #2:
The Brown University Shoot-em Up….

The Brown Shooting is weird AF to say the least…

It happened INSIDE A CLASSROOM during fucking FINALS.
The End of the semester sort of stuff… WHOEVER the fuck it was, He KILLED two and WOUNDED Nine and somehow they’ve now said that they got the wrong dude? Like for real, can I get a bump offa that bong ‘cos whatever they be smoking at Brown University is the Fo’Sho’Doh!Poppin’HizzleWhizgrizzle that makes even as hardcore a Shmoke-Pope like His Highestness, Snoop Dawg the First ask for seconds and to puff-puff-passssssss biiiiitch…

The only thing we have solidly about the initial suspect is he’s a former Airborne Infantryman who supposedly went to Sniper School. Too easy to check that. Plenty of folks have vetted my boner-fides and found out I’m straight up about my background… the thing of THIS case is like “they” for the lack of a better definition, “they” went FULL BORE after him BECAUSE he was a former grunt… like as if he’s a barely restrained baby eater and rapist, they went ALL IN after him on ALLLLLLLLL sorts of social media, to include newspapers and such whatnot. I commented on the Daily Fail as the article in particular stuck in my craw as the author (who’s worst life experience they’ve ever has I figure is they accidentally got a latte with the wrong milk in it, the fucking queer…)

Right?
Add on that shortly AFTER the article named/shamed/blamed dude came out, we got THIS gem:

ALL INVOLVED better pray to whatever fucking God, Goddess, Elemahphant or Eight Armed Supermutant that they consider their fucking Deity that this guy IS the right motherfucker in the long term, ‘cos if not?

OTHERWISE I think we have a new winner/member of the “Let’s Sue The Ever Loving FUCK OUT OF EVERYONE Involved in Defaming Me!” Club.

My understanding is that kid that the toothless wannabe Injun Joe scumbag who faced off against him banging a fucking tom-tom in his face? Remember him? Yeah, well he’ll never have to work a day in his life again… Remember him now? That poor fucker got crucified in the media and maaaaaan… Despite the NDAs and shit, someone a few months back on Reddit said they knew the kid IRL, that he was a decent enough and private dude, but was sitting on upwards of almost a billion and a quarter to a billion and a half and even then SOME of the cases are stilling being argued…. A billion is 1000 MILLION $$$!!!!

Any wonder why shortly after THAT fucking fiasco some of the Major Mass Enemedia Groups folded/sold and restructured? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah… when you fuck up that badly it’s the ULTIMATE FA-FO moment.

Even Kyle got a giant payday, but how much? Not as much as that much I’m sure as he’s now grifting professionally… The other kid? He silently slipped into “Fuck You Money” Obscurity….
Nothing wrong with that…
Nothing wrong with that at all…

And oh Holy Hells!!! it’s 0335…
OOPS!
BEDTIME!!! I gotta work dammit!!!
Don’t forget the Raffle!
It’s been a slow start so far, but as stated before:
Here’s the Deal:
$5 Fiatbux: 1 Entry
$10 Fiatbux: 3 Entries
$25 Fiatbux: 10 Entries.
Keep on keepin’ on!

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Yannow, I woke up this early A.M. (for me that is… Saturdays are usually ‘catch up on the ZZZs sort of days) BUT I did have to go out and run some errands.

OMFG

I forgot… 11 Daze Before Christmas!

The next time I go out to go even bare-bones shopping, I’m going to prep like I’m going downtown in Baghdad to pay the cable and internet bill. Not sure if I ever related that particular story, but every three months I had to go into a really sketchy alleyway in Baghdad and meet up with our Internet Coordinator “Abdullah”…

I say his name in quotes because that’s what he TOLD me to call him, and I have no clue if that really was his moniker or not. Back in 2004/05 Baghdad was sketchy and sus AF 24-7.

Now officially I was not a ‘legally armed contractor’. I was JAFO. Just Another Fucking Observer. Officially that is. But as stated in Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, “Full Metal Jacket” only “…the phoney-tough and the crazy-brave….” ran around Baghdad unarmed back in those days.

Add in the fully mentally retarded as well, ‘cos I did run into some contractor folks there that I genuinely wondered if they hadn’t been recruited from some home for the mentally retarded or something… Like sub-60 IQs… guys that made Indians and Somalis seem genuinely intellectual…. one guy I knew of who worked for us? He actually climbed into a car at the height of the Insurgency, left the base unarmed, and went on a ‘driving tour’ of the sights in Baghdad when he got grabbed by a patrol of US Troops. They pretty much brought him back, and told me (as I was the Operations Manager) they thought he was brain dead or something, and that we/I needed to get him the fuck out of their AOR (Area of Responsibility) as he was going to get himself and possibly OTHER people killed with his stupidity… we ended up shipping him home two weeks later after some other dumb shit he did involving ‘collecting UXO’ (unexploded ordnance) Yeah… this was a truly dumb motherfucker…

So anyways
Me being ‘none of the above’…leastways in relation to my combat skills/ethics/and survival capacity… I mean with wimmen, I am fucking retarded as y’all have seen up close and personal on Ye Olde Blegg. So while I didn’t necessarily go ‘strapped’ on base that frequently, when I went off base to pay the bills?

Well…. let’s just say this. I’d pull up to the Gate that led into downtown. I’d park my pickup near the Bradley at the gate, and then I’d break out a BIG parachute storage bag that I kept my gear in. The guards there knew me on sight, and knew what I was doing. I’d then go to the back of my pickup, drop the gate and get ready, which was sort of like this:

Now, I was not as nearly in as good a shape as Ahhhhnuld, but it was a lot like that…to include the M-67s and all… and yes it was necessary as the bills?

For whatever fucking reason, they had to be paid in cash. US Dollars only. Like $30,000.00 USD which made me a prime target for both straight up Ali Baba Thievery OR a Kidnapping/Head Chopping with the added bonus that that fucking Infidel was packing quite a o’pile of loot…

SOOOO to insure ‘best business practices’ I made sure I was insanely heavily armed as well as attitudinal as fuck. Like mentally chuffing myself up, and projecting “Murder Death Kill Rape and Pillage” vibes off of myself to where even the local dogs, who’d normally approach an American ‘cos we were known for being kind to the local doggos (as opposed to them Islamic Assholes) the local dogs would take one look at me, and haul ass aways away as I was in a “Killin’ Mood” so to speak.

It apparently worked as I’m still here amiright?

So it seems today made me long for “the good old days in Baghdad” whilst oot and aboot… even the fucking Dollar Tree was insane. I wanted/wished for a fuckin’ machete at one point I swear… I’m worn the fuck out I swear to God… from dodging shopping carts, trying to ignore pissed off “I want to scream at the Manager” Karens, to the ever-present obese and foul smelling Shaniquas who’s sole purpose in life seemed to be to cut the line(s) wherever I ran into them, ESPECIALLY if it was a white person they could do it to…

Like I said, I’m fucking exhausted.

Add on I went down to see GunGirl to do a 4473 for Sapper’s Christmas gift… I got him a neat lil toy that I’ll reveal later ‘cos on occasion, he does read this, and I don’t want to ruin the surprise. GunGirl’s place was a wee bit busy (which is a good thing IMO), and somehow I got roped into helping out mounting a Red Dot on a brand new Canik TTI Combat pistola:

Dude at the store had no clue how to do it…

So Since I was there, and able to, I mounted it with no problem. This of course in turn led me to another person whose having problems with his Turkish “Space Shotty” which is what -I’m- calling it ‘cos it’s covered in wannabe bullshit unneeded plastic doohickeys that make it more attractive to folks who don’t know any better… It looked like a Prop Gun from a bad sci-fi flick I swear.

I told them to bring it by the shop next Saturday, and that I’d check it out then. I also told GunGirl that the transfer fee she normal charges me is null and void this time around, so that’s a plus. The whole gunsmithing thing… I’m going to seriously have to look into what it takes to do it for-really-real as it looks like I’m one of the only professionals in the whole area, leastways south of Tampa proper who actually does REAL Gunsmithing.

That shithole local chain store ‘Shoot Straight’ supposedly offers gunsmith ‘stuff’ but from the reviews and personal anecdotes I’ve gotten, they’re pretty much limited to minor ‘stuff’ like switching out muzzle brakes on ARs for folks who want to suppress their toys, and need the proper brake to use w/the hush-puppy. MAYBE the occasional installation of a new trigger or spring, but beyond that? Notsomucho.

Now, with all of that being said:
IT’S RAFFLE TIME!
THIS one is for one of the Fully Restore Lee Enfields.

In this case:
The 1942 Canadian Long Branch Number 4, Mark 1:

This one was restoration #3 (third rifle) and I really got it right so to speak…

Now as to specifics aboot said-item:

The serial numbers do not match as the Canoeheads did something -I- consider rather odd, which is when they shipped their Enfields to England during the War, they pulled ALL the bolts out of the rifles, threw them in one BIG box, and then reassembled them in England, thereby mixing up ALL the serial numbers…. like terminally so. ALL the Long Branch Manufactured overseas shipped-in-bulk rifles had this happen UNLESS they had been hand carried from point-of-issue to England itself… HOWEVER: IF they got boxed up? Yeeeeah… Good luck on rematching the bolt to the original weapon.

The odds of finding a matching number Long Branch Lee Enfield are positively astronomical if they were shipped overseas. The only matching number Canadian Mark 4s (bolt/barrels and receivers) were the ones issued to the Home Guard (who’s bolts stayed with their original rifles).

Also, a negative? The bore on this thing is pretty bad. It shoots, just not well. This is NOT a M.O.A. rifle, but a BASIC “Hey! Watch me hit that Barn Door!” kind of shooter. I mean what do you expect from a 84 year old heavily used rifle that used primarily corrosively primed ammo? It HAS been headspaced and it DOES safely shoot. I’ve put about 120+ rounds through it, as has Sapper and even Gretchen at one point.

The finish on it, both wood AND metal, as you can see is great. I tried to keep it (the metal) to the original coating, or as close to the original coating that it had. This was an early 1942 model, so initially it was blued, but poorly done at that which I found when I stripped off the secondary coating. The secondary and more common coating was called ‘Suncorite’ which is no longer made, as it’s apparently “tumor in a can” in that if you use it/get exposed to it/inhale the fumes/and/or look at it wrong.

I used black DuraCoat as the new coating… AFTER doing a very light ‘cold bluing’. Then I did a very light coating on and around the chamber and bolt, as I had discovered on the FIRST restoration (my MkIII), too thick a coat of the Dura on the bolt makes it almost inoperative, and I had to strip it and start from scratch. THIS one’s action is as smooth as soft butter. After doing the bolt, I then did the ‘normal’ coatings using black DuraCoat, which is a really good reproduction of the original Suncorite.

I found about these from the dozens of Lee Enfield board I went on while learning just HOW to restore these things the right way. Now some folks will say I’m a Philistine for restoring it…

That I should have kept it original (beat to Hell with rust and missing parts)

My own reaction is FUCK THAT NOISE!
Doing what I did? I just gave this thing another probable 80 or more years of life (depending on the barrel) and IF as rumors have been flying around are real, that as was Geissele recently teasing new barrels for No.1 MkIII SMLEs and Mark IVs is true? (It seems the founder of Geissele is (or as… not sure if he’s alive or what but it was on the Geissele Fecesbook page) it seems he is a rabid Lee Enfield dude like me, so his guys did him up a few new-barreled old rifles for him out of his collection…)

Well you can guess just who one of their first customers is going to be, no matter what the cost is. PLEASE God let these rumors to be true!!!!

A Geissele Barreled Lee Enfield Mk III or IV?
O.
M.
F.
G.
They’d be Sub-MOA shooters is what I’d guess.
Anyways… to continue….

(wipes drool off of chin)

Another issue was I had to replace the rear stock. The CURRENT rear buttstock? It’s new. You can see int he pix… no dents or dings really. One of you awesome guys actually sent that to me a ways back when I was restoring like ALL the Enfields, saying he’d found it with his Granddad’s ‘stuff’… And that he didn’t need it (Thanks Bro again!) It was a brand new Mk IV butt, but just a wee bit larger, as they (the Lee Enfield series) DID come is small, medium and large sizes on the butt, hence why the brass butt plate is a medium (as was the original stock) and the new stock is a bit oversized, as it’s a large. You can see it in the pic. I did trim the wood down to fit perfectly however, as well as matching the color, which, personally, I find AMAZING that I nailed it so well. I mean that was a bitch getting the wood stain to match… I mean really… getting the 80+ year old forends to match a 80 year old-but-new-stock? Yeeeeah… quite a bit of work. It was a stone bitch TBH.

The reason for the replacement was the original buttstock wood had been completely termite infested and ate up… like it was a Religious Relic.

It was ALL sorts of Holey.

Bad-Dum-Dum <TING!!!>
Thank you, Thank you, I’ll be here all night and don’t forget to tip your waitress…

Damn… I think I’ve been under the influence of John Wilder on that particular one right? Him being the reigning King of Pez and Bad Puns.

OK… all bad jokes aside. The rear sights and front sights are perfect, and I added just a wee touch of red paint to the front sight blade. It helps with the sight picture, and is easily removable. It comes with a VERY GOOD 10 round Mag, and Hell, I’ll throw in 20 rounds in 5 round stripper clips for the winner, as .303 is sort of on the pricey side. The stripper clips are handy too. The ammo in question I have is 1974 NONCORROSIVE 174gn FMJ that Borepatch gifted me as an early B-Day gift last year… they’re great.

See, back in the day, Corrosive Ammo (from the early primer chemistry) is why a LOT of these older weapons bores are so fucked up… too much shewtin’, not enough cleaning.

Overall, it’s a sweet weapon. So, if you want it?

Here’s the Deal:
$5 Fiatbux: 1 Entry
$10 Fiatbux: 3 Entries
$25 Fiatbux: 10 Entries.

And I’ll give it say… until New Year’s Eve to do the Drawing.

That way people who want to snail-mail me their entries have plenty of time to do so. I’ll give out the Snail-Mail Addy to you who want to go that route IF you DM me on Gab or Twitter! On Both Sites I have the same handle which is/are @BigCountryExpat on Gab
and as well the same on Twitter. THESE are my Profile shots so you KNOW you got the right guy:
GAB First:

and then Twitter:

The PRIMARY PREFERED means of paying for Entries for this is PAYPAL. The paypal email is [email protected] OR the username @CountryOfBigExpat

I CAN do Venmo.
It’s @William-Coughlin-2

Venmo is actually a bit better as they don’t pork you as much on the fees.
Just sayin’.
And I’m NOT worried about DC doing anything again, as right now? I have a Federal Indictment for that last stunt hanging over her head, and IF she fucks with me, I’ll have her freeze dried and buried UNDER the jail… I already talked to the persecutor who told me that IF I want to drop the hammer, to just let her know… I let Gretch know about this, so she’d keeping an eye on things as we’re NOW trying to keep it civil…

Anyways
NOW: ALL the entries NEED TO HAVE A MAILING ADDY OR AN EMAIL ADDY SO I CAN CONTACT THE WINNER and arrange a FFL Transfer. The FFL fees on YOUR End are on YOU. All Entries HAVE TO BE RECEIVED BY December 31st. NO LATE POSTMARKS. If I don’t have it IN HAND by the 31st, well tough noogies. Plus YOU HAVE TO LEGALLY BE ABLE TO POSSESS THIS THING. NO FELONS WIFEBEATERS OR SCUMBAGS ALLOWED.

And what the Hell… I’ll pick a second place winner. They’ll get a case of MREs, either Case A or B… Because why the Hell not?

SO I think that wraps it up for tonight…
More Tomorrow
May The Odds Forever Be In Your Favor!
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
My word… talk about being beaten on.
Take a few days off and it’s like the world just -stopped- at People’s Glorious Tractor Factory and waited until I came back, and then they/it threw me into the deep end, with weights tied around my ankles. And beat on me when I came up for O2.

No matter.
I persevered. Prospered even
Made some good networking connections this week, and solidified some business ties that will help both myself and Ye Olde Factory in the long run, but mostly it’ll help me ‘cos at this point, that’s the only mo’fo I’m looking out for.

Numero Uno.
Moi

So I got that going for me. (at least for now) So because of this. I’ve been so busy I actually haven’t really been keeping up on current events. OrangeManBad and VodkaManBad are still doing ‘the usual bullshit’ over the Krain, and it’s becoming moar and moar obvious that the Universal Financial House of Cards is teetering dangerously right now if the parabolic climb of Silver is any indicator.

Add on that ‘King Copper’ as it’s known has also been shooting up quite radically, this after a significant dive during the Covid Dumbasshattery. As the trend for the past 5 years shows:

Key Price Points & Trends (Approximate)

• 2020: Around $2.80 – $3.00/lb (Low).
• 2021: Averaged over $9,300/metric ton (Peak).
• 2022: Around $8,800/metric ton.
• 2023: Around $8,490/metric ton, low point around $7,900/ton.
• 2024: Rose significantly, averaging over $9,100/ton, reaching near $10,100/ton by May.
• 2025 (Early-Mid): Continued strength, hitting highs near $10,700/ton (October 2025), generally above $9,000/ton.

BOTH Copper and Silver are critical elements for the bullshit A.I. ‘revolution’ and all the data centers that they’re ‘supposedly’ going to build… the reason I say supposedly is while they’re talking a great game of building up these Skynet-Level A.I. data centers, I’ve noticed a distinct lack of discussion on just just how in the Hell are they going to power them!?!

I mean I don’t know about y’all, but I haven’t heard anything about any new power plants or any new energy producing breakthroughs or anything… I mean the newest Nuke Plant we built, the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia just went online with one reactor in July of 2023, (called Unit #3) and then the latest was at the same plant going online in April of 2024….

Per the Goolag:

As of mid-2024/early 2025, the United States has 54 commercially operating nuclear power plants with a total of 94 active nuclear reactors across 28 states, providing significant baseload, low-carbon electricity, with Illinois having the most reactors and Georgia’s Vogtle plant housing the newest additions. 

Now, considering just how much power these data centers are supposed to use, methinks we’re being sold a bill of goods, i.e. a pile o’shytte in that there’s no way we currently have the power generational capacity to run as many of these data centers that they claim to be planning on building.

Personally, I think it’s all vaporware.

Hype
Bullshit
Ain’t gonna happen.

Hell… Never mind the cooling factor… My gaming PC is liquid cooled in a closed circuit cooling loop so to speak… the PC generates quite a bit of heat…

Multiply MY lil PC by say 100,000 and OMFG…. talk about needing coolant!?! I mean the amount of H2O it’ll supposedly take to cool one of these A.I. Supercenters? Utter Insanity IMO. I mean take a look at the map above again… there’s like what?

Like only two or three operational nuke plants out west towards Silicon Valley? And the whole “green energy thing” we figured out and already know that’s one giant money laundering scam that ‘shit the bed’ so to speak… And when you figure in the cooling needs, you’re talking about billions of gallons of water…possibly TRILLIONS with how the talking right now…

Which is a BIG reason I’m throwing the bullshit flag.

Case in point: For 2023, the current data centers we have in the United States right now consumed an estimated 211 BILLION GALLONS OF WATER JUST for cooling in 2023 ALONE…. And in that time? Back in 2023? There were ONLY approximately 684 large data centers in the U.S. nationwide according to ABI Research. And the locations of these DCs (shortened for brevity) are primarily located in Northern Virginia (Duh! that of course, would be the CIA/NSA gathering ALL the info… like all of “the everything(s)”, all the time, constantly nonstop, forever) with California and Texas being the next two largest conglomeration/centralized areas of DCs.

Now, as to those two other states?

They’re not exactly known for having VAST quantities of water… and as already stated, they need a lot of good power sources…. and since the cooling of ALL of them expensive chips, doohickies, whatzits and thingamabobs is an absolute necessity…. that means GIGANTIC AMOUNTS OF WATER NEEDED…. so we’re talking (potentially) about complete and utter aquifer(s) collapsing allllll over the place… I once read somewhere that if the water flowing from Oregon to California were to suddenly and dramatically stop, LA and a whoooooole lotta other places would revert to straight up desert again.

In fact there’s quite a few post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction novels that discuss that very thing happening… that the water runs out, and Cali goes all “Desert Mad Max”.

MY personal opinion?

A.I. and ALL these data centers are just another grift in keeping with the pattern of a long line of Psyops and grifting cash from the Ignorant Rich, and labor out of the Slave Class (i.e. folks like us.)

I mean they’re using the ‘threat’ of A.I. to keep us all hard at work, willing to work harderer and for less money, to show we still have value because they’ve got the majority of Joe and Bobbie Sixpack, “The Northern Boobus Americanus” scared to death that their jobs are going to be eliminated by this mysterious Computer Based Overlord and Sooooooopergenius A.I. whatchamacallit….

I mean think about it

It’s kind of brilliant in a sick, twisted way.

Shit like this is right up their alley so to speak…

Get everyone to ‘invest’ and go BIG into A.I.
Then they use the threat of A.I. to keep the Wage Slaves in line, ‘cos “You can be replaced by a faster, smarter computer program that we don’t have to pay!!!”

Mind you, they had to do this mind you because the big ‘Hindu Threat’ of them replacing us with the Ganesh Worshippers quite literally and figuratively shit itself to death and brutally backfired… it’s because that we, as a whole, found out (very quickly mind you) that the only group stupider than Somalis are the fucking subcontinental Indians.

I mean I’ve NEVER seen a group that went from being touted as our “replacements” to the ONE GROUP that’s actually become hated more that the blaqs and the Jews, and that’s the fucking streetshitting Hindu-Dindus.

In fact the HinduHate that’s out there? I think they (the Indians as a whole) set a new speed record for creating absolute racial animosity towards themselves…

I don’t know anyone who actually likes them… in fact I think it’s one thing that the Jews, Blaqs, Whyttes, Mex-Hee-Cans, and Squatemalans can ALL agree on and that’s we cannot stand those fucking people… I mean when you get a Jew and a Nazi in the same room, with them looking at (and smelling) a Hindu and then they look at each other and say “What the fuck man!?! Those are nasty motherfuckers!” you know you got a problem… and the Indian? He’s fucking OBLIVIOUS to it ‘cos as far as he’s concerned? He’s the smartest motherfucker in the room….

And that right there? That’s a BIG reason for the how/why of why almost EVERYONE cannot stand them… it’s their fucking arrogance. Fuckers are just WAAAAY too arrogant for their own good… and LOUD about it too…

If they had kept their fucking gobs shut, we might have overlooked their shytte, but because of the unwarranted and undeserving sense of superiority which they positively LOVE to rub in our faces (along with their feces), they fucked it up, the mask fell off, and now?
EVERYONE fucking hates them.
Fuck those guys.
Seriously.

So food for thought right?
As far as other more pleasant things….

The raffle I’ll be announcing OFFICIALLY tommorrow.
With Pics of the Prize.
And where to send entries.

Big Papi needs some $$$ to get the Grans some Christmas Gifties… Oh…. and speaking of which, DC popped out Gran #3 (a boy) via C-Section on Monday. 8 pounds, 6 oz.

Dammit.
FML.
I’m staying stronk, but maaaan… the one thing that stupid broad (DC that is) does do right is she makes great kids… which is a fucking shame… and in this case, I’m doing my damnedest to stay the fuck away ‘cos babies are my Kryptonite. After all, it’s not HIS fault his momma is a worthless retard…
Like I said
FML
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
So there’s going to be some re-dos of the pics (the very few I was able to get to upload during the trip) but it’ll at least give some perspective and some of the sights I saw whilst on my possibly last for quite some time “oot and aboot trip”.

It started with me ‘mounting up’ on the Margaritaville Islander, which is a 26 year old cruise ship and the newest of the Margaritaville line.

My bunk was an inner cabin on the 9th Deck “It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere”

My A.O. was 9012, juuuust a wee bit forward of the red dot on the upper right corner of the map. Desk 9 was where ALL the pools and hot tubs were located, as well as all the chow and the majority of bars. The casino was on Deck two, as was guest services, and the main atrium, which ran 3 glass elevators top-to-bottom:

There was quite the ‘holiday vibe’ kicking as Christmas (in theory) is around the corner… Funny thing is I kept having the term “The Great Glass Wonka-vator” from the second Charlie and the Chocolate Factory running through my head whenever I climbed in one of them.

I then had to hunker down for about 2 hours while the room got ready in a piano bar, which wasn’t that bad….

They did a few drawings for some free shit, mostly inconsequential cheap assed sunglasses and/or hats… stuff that appealed to the 70+ age crowd that seemed to make up the majority of this bunch I sailed with.

The breakdown of demographics was mostly 85+ % white, 10% black (and NOT the hoodrat persuasion) and then about 5% VERY young families with rug-rat kids. A further breakdown on the whypeepo is that 40% of them were old-old. Like mobility scooter/wheelchair old, which meant learning what the best time to dodge the lines at the buffet were, as they tended to ‘gum up the works’ if’n you will.

There were three pools on board, as well as three hot tubs.

and then:

Lastly:

And a smol pool w/Hot Tub on the fantail:

Where you could see the water slide:

A very well set up boat for R&R to say the least.

And no I did not go down the waterslide.
Too fat, Too high. I’m Airborne/Air Assault.
Not retarded.

The last time I ‘did’ a waterslide was my sophomore year in high school and ended up with a broken wrist. I lern’t that lesson early, AND cheap at the cost IMO.

On the way out of town, we went under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge which was pretty damned cool. I was a bit slow in getting outside to get pics from UNDER it, but either way….

It was nonetheless Very Cool
So it was off to the races for the night.
I tried my had at $5 Blackjack and realized that the JuJu was ‘off’ so I avoided the tables after the fact…

Best to lose $20 than my ass.

After a night at sea, and some drinking and carousing,

We hit the Yucatan:

We then travelled downtown, and went into some of the ‘shadier’ non-tourista areas, primarily so I could find an ATM that spit out pesos as opposed to USD.

This from experience that paying in the local dinero, it’s harder to rip off us Gringos as exchange rates fluctuate, whereas what’s printed on the menu is printed on the menu, and harder to not fuck around with (in my experiences). Because of this, like I said, we got off the beaten path and well, it was cool AF in my experience.

MY travelling companion was a bit weirded, but trusted me as I had spent the night before regaling her with some of my adventures in Baghdad and other points of dangerous interest I’ve been in in the past. Egypt in particular…

I told her worse comes to worse, hide behind me as I absorb knives and bullets (albeit for a short time) pretty well. So we hit the bazaar:

They sold EVERYTHING there, from sandals to bedsheets and everything in-between. By that time, we were hangry, so
we plonked down for chow

As I had mentioned, it was dirty, dingy and not up to the usual ‘Murican Tourist thing, but ALL the locals were eating like mad, so I figured it had to be some good grub.

As I stated before, brekkie was Empanadas and a Coke

The Coke(s) there were WAY better than the chemically made crap we have stateside… the real deal if you will. A bonus was that the waiter (or whatever he was) told me that the ice was from a purifier, and considering we didn’t shit ourselves to death, good on him! The chow was good/great, and as I mentioned the other day:

“The Green Stuff/Sauce”

OK
An explanation is in order.
Here in The US we have Habanero.
Leastways what WE call Habanero.
Then
In Mexico, THEY have Habanero.
The Real Fuckin’ Deal apparently.
Outside of the name, that’s about ALL they share.

Now… let me tell you… it was delicious.
It was the ‘afterburn’ that got me… a slow, creeping burn that in the end felt like I had called in a “Danger-Close” ‘Snake and Nape’ airstrike on my tonsils… I just had to ride it out but damn if it wasn’t hotter than the norm. And I positively enjoy a good hot meal. There’s a new definition in my book as to my rating of heat, and it ain’t scovilles… Nope… it’s going to be “Local Hot” or “Mexican Hot” with the “MH” meaning the real deal.

My poor asshole took a few days to recover from it let me tell ya.. The songs that kept being replayed were “Ring of Fire” and “Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love” came leaping to mind when I had to do a ‘download’ so to speak. Ice cream wasn’t touching THAT burn let me tell ya…

So…
After lunch we wandered around a wee bit. The exterior of the Marketplace/Bazaar was at that point getting set up, in all it’s glorious veggie and fruity glory:

A positive riot of color…
Look but no buying as the strict rules about bringing fruits and veg back on board were in place per usual. I also saw them roasting some questionable ‘street meats’ as well:

….which just so happened to be across from the yet-to-be opened Chinese food place:

The name alone cracked me the Hell up… That and to come alllll this way to find Chinese Food in the Yucatan amiright?

I also found a place named after Frida Kahlo, apropriately named “Frida’s”:

A wee bit of a bougie upscale eatery, with the prices to match.
The artistry on the building however was great.

I also, as per an earlier poast interacted with the Yucatan State Police, and while I couldn’t take any pics of them, I did get a pic of their recruiting poster (I think):

So I dug the Yucatan.

I’d go back for another longer visit given the opportunity.
The local State Police sure enjoyed hanging with me it seemed…
It’s always nice to interact with fellow professionals…

The last thing I took of in the Yucatan was this weird assed sculpture of what appears to be a stylized heart that has some ‘stuff’ airbrushed on it:

The very bottom having what appears to be a Mayan Pyramid.
What’s unsettling is that a culture that literally sacrificed hoomon beans has a sculpture of what appears to be a heart, with a pyramid painted on it where the aforementioned hearts would have been ripped out?

Maybe it’s just me….

So onward back to the Boat, and I got ready for dinner. Said-dinner being part of my prepaid dining packages, and after a GREAT MEAL in the on-board steakhouse:

We went to a comedy show with Edwin San Juan,

He’s a Filipino comedian who was funny AF. Seems he’s been on Comedy Central, leatsways my dining companion told me this… It was a great show, and my sides hurt by the time I got to bed.

By First Call in the AM it was time for Cozumel.

And as far as Cozumel?

Unfortunately, it was WAY too crowded and commercialized and expensive.

“Thank you for coming Mr. Big Country, your total comes to one arm, half a leg, and your third born grandchild, payable on demand!”

Needless to say I hit the pharmacia, and chilled out by the pool for the rest of the trip, getting burned even more. At least I got a great base for a tan out of my efforts Aye?

So… I’m done.
Leastways for a while. It’s been 9 states, and two countries over the past 60-90 days. I’ve seen my Gran in TN, re-connected with old frens, connected with new frens, gone deep sea fishing, gone to Naw’lins to see the infamous Bourbon Street, went to California for a movie, met up with Aesop IRL and some excellent readers, plus done two cruises.

I’d say it’s been a lot of living packed in that timeframe.

No complaints.
No regerts either.
I only have One More Thing I want to get before the End of The Year, and this’s courtesy of WiscoDave:

I NEED THIS TAT
Right shoulder or right forearm… not sure which, but I am getting this inked come Hell or High Water! They had a tat place on the Boat, but they wanted $400 for it, and I was like ‘hard pass’… I’ll go down to Ybor and see, as MY tat place went out of business a ways back, which is a bummer ‘cos the guy did good work.

So… that’s pretty much a wrap for this trip. I’ll announce the raffle by weeks end, and yes, it’ll be for an Enfield.
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
A gorgeous day in Cozumel. Again -I- was one of the first off the boat (On the bounce Cap Trooper!)

One of the kind folks on the dock took that pic of me.

Cozumel: The best description I can have of it is that it’s waaaaay overly-commercialized. I was not impressed. LOTS of the usual crap, Senor Frogs (cheap drinks and obnoxious tourists) TONS of bogus souvenir shops and obnoxious locals (hustling a buck) and the only thing of not was the Pharmacia… wee that there are three of them right outside the tourist trap area.

The pyramids (leastways the one I saw) was cool but TBH meh.r

….and of course Iggy was out and about:

THAT BTW is a stock pic as NONE of the Iguanas would sit still long enough to get a pic of… better either way as they tend to be ornery critters at best in my experiences from Guantanamo.

Now I’ve had a Hell of a time getting my pix transferred over to the lappie. The amount of time to do just ONE picture is insane, so yeah, Stock Pix (with the exception of the one of moi)

So I was able to stock up on some good meds at least.

Otherwise, when I get the pix I did get downloaded, I’ll share my observations and stories… one of which is “Never trust the Green Stuff”…

I’ll get into that later…
So off to dinner w/my Fren
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!

Progreso!
The Yucatan (as you can see)!
Chichen Itza!
Which I unfortunately couldn’t hit. $$$ issues doncha know?
HOWEVER!
Cozumel and it’s ‘stuff’?
No problema.
Payday is overnight tonight.
Either way, the Enfield is going to be raffled off when I get back. I’ll poast pictures up of which on it’ll be. Understand the bore on it is shytte. Damned near shot out but it does fire and is pristine.
Soooo… dinner last night with the Tall Brunette went well…

The food was 5 Star.
The company was about the same, 5 Star as well…

Other than that, I’ll leave it at that, and I’ll poast the touristy sites as my internet is sporadic at best… utterly shitty at worst. Hopefully in Cozumel I’ll be able to get the pics onto the lappie and poast from there. The only pic (besides these two above) was the one I took as I/We were being taken downtown to check out the scenery:

Now, the Progreso pier is the worlds longest pier according to all the info I got on the boat, and even the Google agreed:

5 Miles long.
With all the security on it (backscatter x-rays and search points) it took almost 30 minutes to get downtown. Once there, We did the slow-exploration, after I pinned the “Evac Point” on my maps. The bus ran every 30 minutes, so getting back to the Boat wasn’t an issue. Since we left early, the town really wasn’t fully open yet, but this was a plus, as we were like the only folks out and about, and it was still cool temperature wise. It got as how as Iraq it felt like as we’re straight up on the equator, and that sun was physically beating down by noon….

Now, the bus was exactly the same model busses we had in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. Chinese made and your basic ‘tour bus’ with seats that were seriously undersized for my Large Western Frame… and add on the pic above?

Those big stones are part of the breakers for the waves that hit the pier… at first, I thought they were HESCO barriers, as they sure as hell LOOK like HESCOs. Between being on the same type of bus, and what appeared to be HESCOs? Yeah, mad flashbacks. In a cool way that is.

For the uninitiated, HESCO barriers were the DotMil answer to a shortage of sandbags and such. They were 5 foot? by 5 foot? (I think) by 5 foot deep metal frames (like a heavy chicken wire but waaaay thicker) and a burlap bag, which was then filled with dirt and rocks to make BIG shrapnel-proof barriers which were then put ALLLLL around various buildings in the Area Of Operations.

Then downtown, we went to what was a bazaar…

Like LITERALLY a just-like-in-Kuwait and baghdad… A souk as the Arabs call them… a roofed over open air market selling everything from hot food to household cleaners to fresh veggies… pics to follow as I said.

I stopped into said Souk/Bazaar with my companion and we went to a smol cafe… She asked “Why are we eating here? It looks dirty…” To which I pointed out that it, compared to what were obviously tourist oriented places, the fact that it was positively packed with the locals who were obviously getting their ‘eat on’ before they opened their little stalls and/or businesses, and that was proof enough to me that the chow would be first rate.

And maaaaaan
I was right.
The empanadas were off the chain, and the cokes were ice-cold and REAL Mexican Coke. No chemistry and tasted magnifico…

And was it dirty?
Fuck yeah.
This was Third World Dining at it’s finest…. I was in my element however… “Back in the Saddle” so to speak… Eating in strange local places, keeping my head on a swivel, and being left the fuck alone as I had turned up my ‘vibe’ I was projecting to “lethal” so almost everyone was smiling and friendly, as they sensed it’d be a BAD IDEA to piss off or fuck with the HUUUUGE Gringo and the chick who was with him….

GOD I love doing shit like that!!!
I missed this shit man!

And then, (no pics allowed due to security) I found a Yucatan State Police Checkpoint with a whole crew of cops…

The town was positively crawling with Fuzz… (a good thing IMO) both state and metropolitan… The State Police were something right out of “Sicario”… Ford F-250s with mounted M-240Bs or M249s. I went over and talked to El Sargento in charge, and explained (and showed my ID) that I was a former Soldado americano, and just wanted to talk guns and maybe get a picture or two?

He apologized, but no pics allowed (OPSEC, which I dig what w/cartel bullshit) but we talked guns… ALL of them were running Sig P226s in low slung cowboy style Blackhawk leg rigs, with M-4A1 (full auto able) and the aforementioned Squad Automatics… I was able to get across that I was an Experto en armas i.e. an armorer and they dug the fuck out of that.

I got to get an up close check of the squad weapons… Their gear was in pretty damned good shape… used but not abused and El Sargento said that on occasion the weapons got a lot of use.

I wish them guys good luck man… they’re on the pointy end Aye? So that was cool. I picked up some tchotchkes for some frens and the usual, and then we went back to the Boat early to hit the pool. Tonight is the Adult Comedy show… I got a taste of the PG side of it last night, but tonight is the Adult Only show… it should be good as the guy was funny AF even tho he was stuck doing a PG version…

So I’m off to meet up with my frens…

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
….and you know we don give a fuck it’s not my birthday!

Yes
In Da Club Yo!!!!
Fo’ sho’
LITERALLY it’s been since Iraq when I last went to a club… which was actually a MWRO Tent with dancing and lights and such whatnot…. Now as far as my outfit?

‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man!!!

My Hawaiian shirt is a 1944 Marine Frogskin Camouflage:

Amazing how many Marine Vets have come up and asked either where I got it, or how cool it is…

Had a good night last night.
As you can see…
LOTS of dancing and carousing.
Had a bump and grind w/a couple of 20 something hawties…
LOVE dancing… don’t get a chance to do it too often
And yeah, I’m a damned good dancer from what females have told me… anywho…

One of which I noticed when one of them (a tall blonde) was jumping up and down, and her tube-dress, well….
Her boobies done fell out, or I should say, her dress slipped down, unleashing the bewbage…

VERY Nice Hooties mind you…|

Me being me, I started cracking on her, and joking and whatnot… BTW: Note to y’all… If you can get a chick to laugh and keep her laughing? Yeah, it’s a great start.
We’ll see where that goes.
Her fren, a TALL Brunette seems very innerested!
Me? I just enjoyed the dancing and the fun of it all.
Truthfully, I’m not interested in anything myself

My God, it’s official
I’m old.
Get the fuck off my lawn.

So no partying right now… for tonight is a scheduled ‘quiet night’, as I’m a wee bit sunburned (again) from my post-breakfast hot-tub soak (ahhhhh my back needed that!) and post-soak pool time so I’m wiped…

And burned AF on my face and shoulders and back….

So in the AM, we hit Progreso, which is where the Mayans were running the show so to speak back in the day, and the ruins of Chichen Itza and ‘other’ historically significant ‘things’ are located. I’m not sure if I can hit those however as the cost of the excursion(s) there are retardedly expensive, so I just might settle on hitting the town, and then heading back to be chillin’ on the Boat whilst evvabody is oot and aboot so to speak…

Unlike the Margaritaville Paradise (the last cruise out of Palm Beach) the Tampa based Margaritaville Islander requires cash up front (which I did not know) for a LOT of shit, and I thought the tab would be settled at the end like it was w/the Paradise. On the Paradise, I could run a tab, whereas this place? Not so mucho. A wee bit pain that Aye? Soooo, it is what it is… the more you know amiright?

I do know I’m ‘reloading’ the Isopropyl and the Pharmacia is on the list of ‘must do/have’ to handle while in Mex-hee-co. As well as some Aloe ’cause I’m a wee bit torqued.

And going back to Ye Olde Boat? An empty Boat = No full pools and whatnot so a bit of quiet.

Cozumel? Now there I’ll be able to do something as payday hits on Thursday night so the account gets a ‘refill’ so THERE I’ll have some ‘stuff’ to show from there.

So More Later
Big Country