Showroom Closed

Business today took me to the far NE corner of Colorado. Colorado 14 takes you through New Raymer, a once thriving town, where this sign survives. Nice building.

I'm a sucker for any and all steam engines. Another once thriving town has this.

There are a lot of missile silos along the route and extending into Wyoming. I'm sure the Russians (and maybe Chinese) can detect which ones are active, and which ones are closed with their satellites. If not, the Air Force makes it easy. The active ones all have Port-A-Potties.

Just for fun the Air Force should put one on every site.

A 312 mile round trip to visit one property to document, photograph, and submit a report. 

Profitable, for me, way to spend a Saturday and still get to poke around the Prairie National Grasslands. More, please! 

About To Get Real

Seems this travesty will soon be law in Colorado.

The majority of Colorado's 54 County Sheriffs have said they will not enforce it.

The 2nd Amendment sanctuary movement is gaining momentum. 

Several recall campaigns are underway.

Under the radar, a group I know of, but not as a member, is compiling a list of every person eligible to file a red flag petition on every legislator who voted for the red flag law. The criteria for who can file is extremely broad. 

The plan is for one or more petitions to be filed against every legislator who voted for this the day it becomes law.

It should be noted Gov. Polluted has/had a restraining order before he changed his name some years back.

What say you? Is that a plan or what?

After Action Report

You know you are in the South when you have an entire store aisle devoted to spices.

Back home  and looking at all that was placed on hold. Little stuff, unload the dishwasher, do laundry, visit the post office, and put away luggage will keep me occupied.

My appreciation for all you kind thoughts, and prayers, is profound. Please understand why I’m not responding to individual comments. 

In our community there is a grief center (my sister is on the board – is there a health related board she isn’t on?) and both my sister and niece want me to use it. I will. I think I’m doing ok but my niece has threatened grievous bodily injury if I don’t.

Several of you have recommended a National Service Officer’s assistance for my daughter in law. She will, in due time, get in contact with one. Her first meeting, Monday morning, was with an attorney specializing in probate.

The preliminary corner’s report was inconclusive. My immediate thought of a blood clot wasn’t supported. Toxicology reports will take time. As with any veteran, especially one with CRPS, suicide is the elephant in the room. There is zero evidence in his behaviors the day before. He and his wife had been at Cabella the afternoon before where, among other things, he bought a fishing pole for their youngest son and a replacement trigger for a .22. Probably within four to five hours before his passing he had sent me one of his typical obscene texts.

The coroner report will be crucial. Death caused, in part, by his service injuries keeps his disability income in play for his family. A National Service Officer will be helpful in this area.

One of his Afghan medic brothers gave a stirring eulogy that touched me deeply. A parent’s natural pride means you know your child is special. His eulogy expanded that. Travis wasn’t just a good medic and soldier, he was a great one and one the other medics looked to for help and inspiration.  One story  he told brought this out. Travis was in the shower when their position came under small arms fire. Travis arrived in their defense position with his rifle and nothing else. When some officer questioned his nudity, Travis told him if there was a fight he was going to be with his ‘buds’. Seems his three row “brick” with clusters was well earned.

My trip was uneventful. Enterprise didn’t have my vehicle ready so ended up with a Dodge Caravan. That came in handy for the funeral transporting people around. Comfortable, just over 25 mpg for the trip and a reminder of my long term complaints about Chrysler production. Great designs, great styling, and the quality comes out before the name goes on. Seriously, the windshield molding on a 25,000 mile vehicle coming off?

I doubt there are many straight streets in the Spartanburg area. Old wagon trails that grew. My GPS got a workout. Having I-85 under destruction for miles and miles didn’t help.

Making the loop on I-26 and I-40 though the Great Smokey Mountains reminded me of driving I-15 through the Virgin River Canyon between St. George and Las Vegas (except for the vegetation). Once again I was reminded, while we have mountains, the South has rivers that make ours look like irrigation canals.

One interesting experience was on I-70 headed West just short of Abilene. All traffic stopped and the line miles long due to an accident. A pickup/trailer combination with contractor equipment made a U turn across the median. I followed. Four miles East he turned off and I followed. Shortly, we were headed to Abilene on a two lane road.

One thing my daughter in law requested was for me to handle my ex-wife. That I was willing to do and it was an ordeal. The woman is ten months younger than me and looks twenty years older. Material for a future blog post probably.

One more ordeal to face is telling my oldest, autistic, son in Seattle the news. It will be by phone.  I deliberately haven’t told him. My decision, for my reasons. It is set up with his case manager for tomorrow. If possible, I will have a deacon from his church on standby.

 My middle son took the news hard. Who expects to lose your 40 year old younger brother? For a complex set of circumstances he wasn’t able to come to the service.

How am I doing? Breathing air and taking nourishment. Life goes on and quitting isn’t an option for me.

I don’t own a TV. In the motel I watched the coverage of the Mueller fiasco, switching from Fox, to CNN, to MSNBC. All those talking heads. None seemed to be ‘reporting’ on the same story. Spin, spin, spin. Haven’t seen such (P)regressive angst since Shillary lost.

Close to home recall is the story. One Facebook page to recall Gov. Polluted has 65,000 followers. With a state population of 5,000,000 I’m not holding my breath.

Warrior Gone III

Service over. Honors rendered. Went flawlessly. I will be back home Wednesday and will have something up later this week.

Your support, prayers and well wishes are most appreciated.

Now all of us are embracing the suck and moving forward. Potential Veterans Administration battles ahead. We are already lining up resources.

To those for whom it matters, Travis died a devout Christian. His minister was also a close friend (and had some difficulty conducting the service). 

People he served with in Afghanistan were there. His closest friend, also a medic, gave a stirring eulogy.

As I type this the thing welling up inside is a shout.
FUCK!!!!

Warrior Gone II

Thank all of you for your kind remarks on the original post. They have been a comfort to my extended family and myself.

I'm in South Carolina with his wife and children. The service is Saturday. His wife has chosen having him dressed in his Army blues and a military funeral with honors will be held.

Will return to Colorado next week and will get something up then.

Haven't used this laptop in eleven months - hence the briefness. Again, your understanding of a lack of responses to your comments will be appreciated. 

Warrior Gone

With infinite sadness must report my youngest son, Travis Robert White, died last night.

While we wait for a coroner report, the most likely cause was a blood clot from his bad leg causing a stroke. Travis suffered from Chronic Reflex Pain Syndrome, a horrid affliction, and was a 100% disabled Army medic and Afghan veteran, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. 

A warrior to the end, he had returned home from a work road trip. Disabled or not, his family and their needs came first.

He leaves a wife and five children, two adopted. Knowing him, I'm sure he was prepared for this and arranged for their welfare and future.

Please understand I won't be blogging in the near future nor responding to comments on this post.

Prayers will be appreciated.  

Loathing

Do (P)regressives get off on knowing a large portion of the electorate loath them? Do they take perverse pride in shoving their agenda up everyone’s ass? Ah, WSF, rhetorical questions. They are mean girls and bullies (or bullied) grown into adulthood, IMO.

Looking ahead to 2020, some painful lessons can be drawn from the recent Colorado elections where the (P)regressives took every, repeat every, state office. True, Polis spent $20 Million of his own money. True, outside PAC monies flowed freely into the state. What no one seems to talk about is the (P)regressives out worked the staid, set in their ways, Republicans. OK, they were being paid. I get that. Doesn’t mean the GOP wasn’t out hustled.

Look for the ‘Colorado Model’ to be implemented nationwide for the 2020 elections. Want proof? What party controls the House of Representatives.

Where the citizens of Colorado did get engaged was defeating Propositions 112, the move to stop drilling in Colorado by means of oppressive regulations. True, the petroleum industry put up money for yard signs and advertising but the opposition was a grass roots effort. The vote, statewide, was 57% against. IMO, this shows the (P)regressives can be beaten.

Three Boulder Democrats have sponsored legislation that will certainly pass and Polis will sign into law that is Prop 112 written large. Their position? We have the power and we are going to use it. Where have we heard that before?

Jon Caldara nails it down. Courageous man, he lives in Boulder.

https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2019/03/13/caldara-the-arrogance-of-colorados-one-party-rulers/

Do these three Boulderites care what happens to the rest of the state? Hah, trust funders to the core, the lot of them.

https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2019/03/16/oil-and-gas-legislation-likely-to-have-damaging-effects-on-weld-county-economy/

Also on their agenda is “Red Flag” laws. Already the 2^nd Amendment sanctuary movement is sweeping rural Colorado with most sheriffs vowing to not enforce those laws.

6^th Amendment? Just words on paper to the (P)regressives. They have a “higher” moral calling. Just ask them.

Folks on the right like to make noise about who has the guns, etc.  Do you have the will to use them? Are you organized? You have the entire deep state working to insure you can’t. Get real.

Will the GOP get their shit together? The Jeb!s, the Romneys, the McConnels, etc., will stand for decency, honorable debates and the rest of their excuses. Not a warrior in the bunch. Meanwhile, the (P)regressives are channeling their inner Al Davis ghost, “Just win baby, win”.

At the national level there is one warrior standing against the (P)regressives, President Trump.

So what can one citizen do? Try this. Become an election judge. Find out how. If most precincts have one or more honest election judges, some of the (P)regressive’s efforts will be nullified.

I’ve been there. It is a grueling day filled with conflict and unpleasantness but it is a way for one citizen to make a difference.

Take the fight to the bastards!