CIEMR

[Bob Smith]

Early in September, I'm in the parking lot talking with a colleague 15 mins. before the end of the school day and it starts raining.  So I climb inside to wait it out; so I think.  It starts pouring about as hard as I know it can rain- after 5 mins. I concede that I'm NOT going back in and leave heading for home a bit early on a Friday.  No, I don't have a class last period, so there were no misguided youths left alone on my watch.

The whole way home, sheeple are driving like the concrete is about to dissolve beneath them, interstate becomes a rehearsal for SHTF scenarios.  I do notice that some construction barrels have floated into the lanes somewhat, or a Prius owner got smart and left his bright orange battery mobile where it shorted out.  Same size obstacles either way, so I easily make my way the 17 miles to home.  Exit before mine, I see multi-colored lights indicating police action ahead........oh goody, all these drivers don't have TV evidently, and don't know that watching "Cops" is far more entertaining than watching it live alongside the roadway!  I make out the outline of a Semi with trailer on the overpass above me laying flat on the driver's side; Now THAT had to be a change of shorts moment!

In my mind, it was going to be a perfect time to stop at Cabela's which is right off my exit, to make my standard "provision" stop.  Discovering that power is out, traffic lights out, people have no clue how to drive when lights don't tell them what to do, I bale and head home to see what's the condition of the humble abode.  Thankfully, we have power, and there's no obvious damage that I notice.  Check the sides of the house, roof from the street and side yard, sight down the fence line on each side- I'm good!  Get a text from neighbor- don't let out your dogs, fence is down.....what?  Inside now, I look out to find the backside blown flat, posts snapped off yet still intact!  Oh goody!  I figure, I can lift it up and brace it......right!  Who am I kidding!

Call insurance agent.....no answer.....classic!  I answer the phone when they call, but can I ever get service from my supposed agent!?  Luckily, I call the national claims number and get WONDERFUL service!  Get the green light, take picture, save receipts and we'll settle up online when it's complete!  Also get credit for MY labor since I'm doing it myself!  Luckily, my brother is available to assist the next morning, LOWE's pulls my order over the phone for pick-up the next day, the rental place next to my house has what I need and open at 8am!  Brother says he'll be there, but not before 9am.

Ok, why the rush?  I've got 3 dogs, Brittanys who I hunt and Field Trial- no fence means I've got to WALK THEM...they'd escape from my wife and daughter, get hit by a car etc. and with one of them a National Champion, I can't allow any of the above scenarios to develop......well except the walking on a leash......ugh!  I immediately pound stake-outs in the yard to tether the dogs for feeding and "business" until the fence is completed to the point they can't escape.  Start pulling tools etc. for the morning and finish the plan of attack for the next day.

Up early, with a beautiful forecast for the next 4 days I make coffee, finish prepping things on my end until the rental place opens.  When I get there- 5 mins. after opening, they're OUT of generators, which thankfully, I don't need.  I survey my options and settle on a "Dingo" which is a walk behind TORO product with a bucket and auger head.  They load it, hook it on a trailer and hook it to my truck and I'm put the door and home with my brother having just arrived.  Off to the Lowe's which is 15 miles away- won't shop elsewhere due to politics of places like Home Depot - embracers of the "Rainbow" and the rest of the Liberal agenda!

Pickup the order while my brother picks-up other necessities like twice the screws the guy pulled as we'd have been dead in the water just putting up forms for pouring the posts!  The Lowes boys sneer saying "looks like your making two trips".....They don't know that the Poehler boys have their PHDs......Pile it Higher and Deeper!  We layer it all into his pickup with 28 bags of concrete and enough posts, pickets and stringers for 100 linear feet of Cedar, board on board fence!

Now upon arrival back at the house, the 8 year younger version of me scrambles to work digging posts while I fire-up the Dingo and work it down to the far end of the yard with my logging chain as we proceed to pull 10 concrete posts, most busted below grade.  Even WITH power equipment, this takes serious time and effort, finishing pulling them around 12:30. We were treated to Portilo's Beef sandwiches and chocolate cake and cold beer by my wife as she shuttled my youngest daughter between church outings and a birthday party!  We were OUT of beer, so you know work stoppage was a serious concern as my brother is a Union Plumber!

Working until 7pm, we got all of the posts braced plumb, 8" post tubes for the top 18", set in concrete with the tops crowned for drainage and all of the old concrete and posts humped to the curb.  Rental equipment returned on time, and 10 bags of concrete left over and lumber unloaded inside the garage.

The next day, my wife is the lone helper on my crew.....now I LOVE MY WIFE, but we don't even hook-up the camper together!  Let's just say that "back-up cameras" are a SERIOUS marital aide!  Working together from 8am until 2pm things go wonderfully, we get almost all the runner boards cut and screwed in place, the outside boards on two sides of the 3 to repair, a gate built with all hardware in place!  We stopped for a long lunch/dinner with my oldest daughter, her boyfriend and their puppy; truly enjoying our time.  When they left that evening, my wife and I hauled ALL the scrapped panels to the curb, cleaned up the worksite and called it a night to return to the real jobs on Monday.  After work the next day, I run home to return the dirt around the posts and concrete as rain was forecast the next day or two.  Now everyone knows, when you dig a hole, somehow, the dirt multiplies.....it's a given!  Well, SOMEHOW I return all the dirt to the new holes and I'm actually a bit SHORT!?  Grab the potting soil to dress up the mess on the neighbors sides of the job and finish the outside of the fence, and half the inside, before sunset.  The next day, it POURS settling the fill and washing away the mess etc.  well fast forward to this evening and the fence is finally finished!

Reflecting back upon the entire experience, I cannot believe the number of BLESSINGS throughout this entire process!  This is clearly, from The Lord......I'm amazed out how his handprints appeared at every turn of the process!

Timing- happens on a Friday, when I've got NOTHING planned for Sat./Sunday, and my brother is available to assit.  Normally, traveling on weekends to Field Trial the dogs- so this was the only open weekend for two months!  Micro burst could have easily damaged more of the house, instead, only a superficial structure, though essential to our daily lives with our dogs.

Instead of church (normally there when home), I spend a day working with my wife ENJOYING the process and each others company.  Same enjoyable time spent with both my daughters, and the eldest's boyfriend and dog, while resting the aches of a 51 yr. old body not usually doing hard labor!

Supplies and equipment are available and waiting when I needed them , insurance gives the go ahead without "visit" so there's no delay!  Brother is available and WILLING to assist at this drop of the hat! 

I actually complete the process, without any major problems and even when something comes up, it's calmly resolved without anything "exciting" happening.

I was further blessed by being able to help a new neighbor by trimming their damaged tree, halfway up, like a Monkey with a chainsaw, finishing unharmed!  I actually was thinking, if this slips, my guts are "at the chain" and it'll really make a mess!  The guy wanted to pay me.....no, pay it forward.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your blessings and providence throughout this somewhat comical escapade!  Your presence is awesome and I thank you for an enjoyable calamity of the smallest variety!

Nice that things fit together so well and you were able to repair/rebuild the fence for the dogs so quickly. It means so much when people come to the aid when needed. I was waiting at the end for the statement about the school HR department wanting to talk about leaving early with out permission or leave slip. Glad that wasn't part of the story.

[KensAuto]

Here's one of Don's CIEMR's from the CMAX build, 9-08-12: (it's so long, I had to split it into 2 posts!)

I woke up thinking about this thing that follows and decided to write a short essay on the subject.
I call it, "Who Cares?"
Who Cares?
All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing. Take a moment and think about that. We are going to talk about that for a few minutes
We are probably living in the last days of any form of free America with virtually everything in shambles but we don’t seem to be willing to do anything about it, who cares?
Our moral compass is so far out of whack that most people don’t have a clue about what is right and what is wrong. The bible says we can live according to its rules or we can create laws. Two years ago I believe we wrote around 100,000 laws in America, nuff said! People seem to only loosely follow the laws and only because they are sometimes caught for breaking them and held accountable. So where, exactly, is the self control and morals in any of that? What happens when suddenly the people who enforce those laws are not around any longer? Mayhem?? Most likely, and all because for some reason we no longer have a clue about what is right and wrong or we don’t care. Look at New Orleans after Katrina. Did people work vigorously to help one another? Or did we see the same rioting, stealing, and crime we see with every event of this sort in population centers? I was disquested by that, but the language coming out of mayor down there, and out of the actions of the people of the ninth ward, the welfare, crime and drug ridden part of town.
I can’t imagine my father’s generation doing things like that, although to a lesser degree I know it did happen on occasion. But a much higher percentage of them would simply admit they had a problem, dig in their soles and start working. Back then they didn’t have much. An old Savage Stevens 12 gage double barrel twelve gage sitting in my gun case once provided food for my father’s childhood family in the form of squirrels and most anything else for that matter. That’s all they could do, to put meat on the table! They didn’t have the time to complain, they simply did. Those folks weren’t fat either, and I suspect it was because they worked, as in actually did something.
Then I think about a recent visit to the local mall. Know what I saw? Morbidly obese teens and twenty something’s wallowing all over, wearing ugly clothes, dyed hair, displaying tattoos, and with just an air of disorder about them. But they were shopping! They were spending money, probably someone else’s money or buying on credit. For all of these gigantic people I saw, I saw only a fraction of what I would call more normal kids, the kind I see in Sunday school and church.
That made me think about our society as a whole and about the ratios. You didn’t see most of the “church kids” because, well they weren’t there. I wonder what they were doing? I knew what mine were doing. First homework, then 20 minutes of reading, then chores, then they would get some free time. They learned to work through everything they have to do so they can “Earn” that precious free time. Then there were these human blivets, what were they doing other than existing, I mean give me a break, but what can a three hundred pound child do? Were they future surgeons who I might have to rely onsomeday to remove a cancerous tumor thereby saving my life? Personally, I really doubt it.
Isn’t that how the welfare society appears as well? Isn’t it a growing number of non contributing people who are solely dependent on the efforts of a dwindling number of workers and doers for their subsidence? And where exactly are their parents? There is no way on God’s green earth I would ever allow my children to turn out like these people. Allow them to get that fat, I mean you think the parents would have noticed about a hundred pounds ago! Would I ever allow my kids to dye their hair pink? The simple redneck answer is NO, of course not. But I’m not stopping with accepting the argument for kids to have free expression! Anybody with any sense what so ever knows that is bull and a cop out to actual parenting. I mean looking at it from an intellectual standpoint, what is to be gained by dyeing your hair pink? Camouflage? No probably not. Give one a better chance at getting a job or getting into a better school, nope don’t think so. In my mind if something doesn’t make sense it’s just a bad idea or a stupid one, either choice, take your pick. Frankly in a morbid way I am thankful for all these idiots wallowing around aimlessly because unlike a culture like, say, the fiercely competitive one in Japan, there are so many fewer folks for me and my kids to actually have to compete with. They have deselected themselves from most good jobs, and a promising future and have also opened themselves to the seedy and criminal element of society which will devour the vast majority of them. For a lot of them reality will set in at age twenty eight when they finally wake up near the end of serving a jail sustenance only to realize they want to change but that all their best years have been wasted and now they have this huge ball and chain around their neck to be carried the rest of their lives.
I don’t mean to demonize fat people, not at all, I myself currently carry some extra weight that I struggle with during my daily workouts, but I’m trying, and that’s the point. I have something inside me that tells me that something is just not right, and motivates me to do something about it.
I remember a day when I was flying commercial jets and had a trip up to Binghamton, New York. Flying a 70 seat regional jet, we were full coming out of there on a shorter runway than I liked. While I was sitting up front sipping my nasty coffee and working out the weight and balance form, the gate manager steps into the horsepit and says, “I can’t fit all of them!” Confused I asked, “You trying to load more than 70?” “No, we have a full boat at 70 but they won’t fit, you’ll have to do something.” OK, I just didn’t understand, did I have some seats that broke, seat belts not working, something like that? Nope wasn’t that at all, we had about eight “giant people” the ones who take up two seats instead of one.
I looked over the confusion in the back and told the gate manager to handle it, but do it quickly; I wanted to make our scheduled take off time. He simply said he wasn’t going to do anything and walked off the plane. OK, there is a problem in itself, a lack of moral courage (cultivated by our PC world) to do the right thing. He should have seen these three foot wide people and told them there wouldn’t be enough room for them. Or charge them for two seats where they could sit comfortably, either way. So the task fell to me, so I made my way to the back where one giant person was taking up two seats and the other passenger was standing with a hopeless expression on his face.
I don’t know what they are eating in New York but on that flight we had used up every extra seat belt extender and the gate had given up all of theirs as well! I asked the giant woman if she could collect herself somehow into her seat. She said the plane should have bigger seats. I answered flatly that they are industry standard for standard size people. She said she couldn’t and seemed done with the matter. I am and always have been a person who can see clarity and I can make a decision with no problem. So I told her if she or anyone else on that plane that couldn’t actually fit in their seats would have to get off. That’s what I did, I kicked all of them off.
Later during the takeoff, I performed what we call a maximum performance takeoff, That means instead of smoothly rolling the throttles on, you stand on the brakes, then push the engines up to full thrust. You hesitate while the engines build thrust and when the N1 needles settle “into the carrots” you let the brakes go and rocket away. It’s about like popping the clutch in a SS Camaro while revving the engine. The slugginess of that takeoff roll told me instantly we were carrying a few extra thousand pounds of weight, no doubt in the body mass of those well fed New Yorkers.
This is just one of our problems, the fact that America is fat. I’ll say it because it’s the truth. But you know what I think is a deeper problem? I think it’s the fact that we got that way! Now if we know being overweight makes life more difficult, shortens lifespan, costs more over a lifetime, makes you ugly and has no benefit, then why would a rational person allow it to happen? I think it could bethe loss of self control, ignorance and, a lack of personal courage to face up to one’s shortcomings.
I think these are only a couple of the obvious symptoms of a society in moral decay and on the verge of collapse. I think things like God being booed at the Democratic convention is a huge indicator of just how far we are removed from a state of goodness and righteousness. We care more about how Arab Americans may feel threatened by the Christian faith than we care about the vast majority of actual Christian citizens. I am not one to mince words, so it’s easy for me. I don’t care how much the Arab Americans are offended by my faith. If you come to a country that was created by Christians for Christians to openly and freely practice their beliefs, then how exactly is it, that you expect your Muslim practices to fit in with the fabric of the non Muslim society? Man in my view you’d have to be pretty stupid to expect anything other than problems.
But in my military mind if you still persist in pressing for accommodation of your Muslim beliefs, then there must be a something else going on, and (wake up America) there is. The mention of God was removed from the platform of the Democratic Party through an accommodation process called being politically correct. More than being polite, being politically correct, turns, well bends and stretches facts to mean something altogether different. Then after some time with this new understanding of basic truths, people get confused and the stronger opposing elements steer and vector the masses to gain political, social, and moral ground. But the process is perverted against the truth and therefore destined to be evil, by definition and is set on a course to some bitter climax, and all because people allowed it to happen, Who Cares? Herman Gobles, the propaganda minister for Hitler in the 1930’s had a name for these people. He privately called them “Useful idiots!”
Perhaps the problems with America are just too big to face. There is truth in that statement. I once read a study that might explain what is going on with us. Psychologists surveyed a few thousand people living downstream from a dam which was in danger of failing. Three miles downstream the residents were very worried. Homes were for sale, some residents had moved and everywhere preparations were underway for a possible flood. Anxiety attacks, heart problems and the like were occurring at a much higher rate than the norm........

[KensAuto]

.............Moving closer to the dam at two miles, much the same was revealed through interviews, questionnaires and studies. Oddly, however when the psychologists moved to within a mile and within actual sight of the dam they discovered a more or less normal residential setting. Anxiety was not apparent, nor were home sales or preparations for the possible collapse of the dam! It appeared as though no one really cared about it at all!
You see the people who were a few miles away from the day thought that they had a chance at survival but were worried, They figured the widening flood waters might not be as destructive as a more concentrated flow. However, the folks living in the shadow of the dam felt that the problem was just so huge, that there was simply nothing they could do, so they just threw their arms up and gave up. If it broke, oh well…
Isn’t that how we are acting as a society today? This 16 trillion dollar debt is just so big, that there is nothing we can do! If the economy collapses then there is nothing we can do, the government will just take care of us. Right? Well I hope so, but common sense (there’s that concept again) suggests otherwise. Again. Who cares?
And here we are, with a never ending calliope of crap coming down the pike, we are just so inundated that we apparently are just throwing up our arms in resignation. Sorry folks, I can’t join you. I am a soldier. I have flown into an LZ where intelligence reported there were 51 armed hajjis waiting for me, but I went anyway. Am I brave? Foolish? Does that make me anybody? Nope, not really, and this is not about me. It’s about the tens of millions of good people that are standing by and allowing this travesty to unfold and change our culture. You allowed one of our two political parties to remove references of God from their very party platform? What the HELL, am I the only American that realizes that the Democratic party has been taken over by lobbies, socialists, special interests, unions, and freaks? How is it that my kids have to accommodate and perhaps have to learn about some gay persons behavior while not even being allowed to pray inside the very school that I pay taxes to support? That pisses me off! That is absurd! That is crazy! That is so unbalanced that it either says most of us are gay, or that most of us don’t care enough to say anything about it! Who cares?

After thinking about this general malaise that seems to be doping America like some massive sleeping pill, I am led to the conclusion that the reason we as Americans allow stupidity to have its way is because we must be pretty stupid. Sadly, I more than just think it, I believe it. I see it and have seen it through observation. I have been all over the world and worked with many cultures. Americans like Muslims are lazy, and still, we think we are somehow privileged and endowed with some special blessing. Regarding the last item, we were blessed once, and perhaps are to some lessening degree. We once upheld God, our creator as the central belief from which our constitution sprang forth. We believed that we as the gentiles were the protectorates of Israel. Now we seemed to be abandoning those tenants and therefore have set ourselves on a path of destruction. That is my belief, and we all have to have them. If you don’t then you are as a leaf blown about in the wind. If you don’t believe me, just take a closer look at the artificial shallow lives of our Hollywood celebrities that most Americans idolize, nuff said!
I think we have become anesthetized by way of our public education system. That system routinely creates hoards of uneducated people. Don’t believe me? Test some for yourselves. I asked one graduating senior to name the big island just south of Florida. He answered “The Philippines!” I asked another to name the countries that border the US. He answered “Canada, Mexico, and New Mexico!” I asked Still another what are the prime numbers. He quickly answered, “three point one nine!!!!!” What the heck is that”, I asked not even knowing where he was going with that answer, He explained when you borrow money you get a prime interest for your house loan…!!!
Like I said we are pretty stupid, and like I said that’s good and that’s bad. Good because for my friends and my children it is making it all much easier for them to succeed with not having to compete as much against so many idiots. Bad because the idiots crowding the malls aren’t going to be capable to do anything that isn’t spoon fed to them.
Public schools are so burdened by rules and regulations telling them what they can and can’t teach that the truth has been lost. It’s not popular to read “Uncle tom’s Cabin” any longer, and why not? Some (idiots) see it as racist. Of course it isn’t, it’s called history. Testing standards have gone through the floor, because kids aren’t held accountable any longer. No courage in that, and this lack of our cultural courage has dumbed down our culture to the point we think New Mexico is a country! With graduating idiots like this, how can a complex governing and business system actually work? Well the short answer is that it can’t. Without the moral culture to stand up and say you as an individual have failed, or this as a system is not working, then we have indeed given in. We hand out trophies for participation! Rubbish, first second and third place gets trophies, the rest get nothing. You want a trophy, then work your butt off to earn it. Isn’t the new failing numerical grade in some school systems in the 50’s? Fifty? Are you kidding? It’s something like 70 in places like Japan and those kids are way smarter per capita than ours are.
But, sadly, Who cares?

So what can you do about it? Well nothing if you continue to sit on your out of shape butt and allow idiots to have a say. So, start with 10 pushups and the same number of sit-ups. You’ll quickly see just how out of shape you are. A weak body engenders a weak mind. Next grow a pair. When you hear someone saying something obviously wrong, speak up. Confront them, show some moral courage. Next, read, listen, and learn. Get smarter. You are not pulling your weight if you don’t know the facts. I’d suggest you read the Constitution today, right now, goggle it and read the darned thing. That way when the idiots start spouting off their drivel, you will be armed with facts. I have always found it easy to argue and defeat liberals simply by going to the facts. Through this process of dumbing down America and acceptance of political correctness (changing the truth) liberals create supposition then somehow assume that it is fact. That’s where the lie take place. They then come up with a baseless argument based on this fact which isn’t fact at all. Point out the truth and watch the hate in their eyes as they realize they can’t change you.
I once debated a political science professor over at USC via the inter web ( ;-) ) for a month or two. I smacked down this PhD holding idiot so many times, I simply tired of doing it. He hated America, loved the devil and twisted facts better than the bag of twisters I caught my girls with! All I did every time was take him to facts which destroyed him every time then stood by and watched as he moved to name calling, and throwing his degrees around. That one hurt him, when I would turn it around on him. “So you have a PhD and I only have a Bachelors, yet I prove you wrong every time, dude, I’d get my money back from whoever you got that degree from because it isn’t helping you much!”
So getting back to you, Vote, Think, Listen, Read, Learn about the founding fathers, and above all, get to know your creator who can do a pretty good job of clearing all this up if you ask him to.
Who cares? I do!
I have the courage to lead.
I have the belief system in place that allows me to look at a thing and determine if it’s right or wrong.
I step up and volunteer. I contribute to causes I believe in.
I try to help people really in need, not the pan handlers crowding the highway exit ramps.
I call people down, immediately when I see them doing something obviously wrong or saying something which isn’t true.
I look my enemies in their eyes straight up. I want them to see the resolve in mine!
I don’t care if you think it’s your right to burn a US flag, after seeing many of my fellow Americans draped in those colors, carried out of the Godless, YES GODLESS, Islamic nations we fight in, I just can’t stand by and do nothing. If you burn a flag, you are an idiot. You think I will not react because of the very thin veil of law which you mistakenly feel protects you. You are very wrong. And I feel I am right, and I am stronger than you because I believe all the way to the bedrock of my very soul. I really don’t care that I may be alone, because if I have to I’ll do it by myself. But, experience tells me I won’t have to, every time I have had to make a stand, inevitably, there is a Marine or an old soldier or even an Eagle scout who joins me, every-single-time!
Who Cares? I care,
and you better start caring! Starting today!