Random Thought Thread

[Deaf Bob]

Always hard for a man to accept his own "not able to" condition... Me? Took the fall on the hood of a hot sharp derby car, burns and cuts gashed, bleeding, unable to stand, rolling off.. Eye opener to see helpers and children staring at me.. Took 3 able bodied youngsters to stand me up.. Saturday before Rich (DIGLIF) showed up, I was walking in the field with my dogs, fell, no stick to help myself up.. Nobody knew where I was.. Stood up after a good hard try.. "gotta carry stick"

[tedly]

Always hard for a man to accept his own "not able to" condition...

Tell me about it Bob. We are large semi-evolved primates with opposable thumbs and an overdeveloped frontal lobe though. We can adapt, and we will.

[Barry Donovan]

Always hard for a man to accept his own "not able to" condition... Me? Took the fall on the hood of a hot sharp derby car, burns and cuts gashed, bleeding, unable to stand, rolling off.. Eye opener to see helpers and children staring at me.. Took 3 able bodied youngsters to stand me up.. Saturday before Rich (DIGLIF) showed up, I was walking in the field with my dogs, fell, no stick to help myself up.. Nobody knew where I was.. Stood up after a good hard try.. "gotta carry stick"

having fun and hurt.. you reflect right away.

on war time orders chunks getting blown off..you keep going with ghost limbs and figure it out later. If you can.

I remember once on a wet runway. plane was full of people. We were in england. the 48 hours prior had us in texas, maine and delaware..and here I am in on a wet runway in england. jet lag is not the word for where my concept of time was. I am outside with the headset on, calling flight controls.

there was a pause, the pilot was wondering if I was there. I would have spoken if that electric current left my jaw muscle alone.

came right out of my left foot with the stainless steel plate. My sweaty 48 hour boot feet.
I don't want to smell death bowel coming out of my mouth again. That trip turned into 72+ hours, thousands upon thousands of miles.

found an old A model video, gun cart starts...
those are fun to witness. Explosive whistles and smoke.

found a 32 year veteran in the comment section, we got a little conversation going:

[Casper]

Dead rat in the backyard today.... Probably died of heat stroke.

[Casper]

Then there's the storm from hell that's rolling in tonight...

Had to pull the Stang in the garage... wife said it wouldn't fit... told her I've heard that story to many times before and proceeded to cram it in anyway.

[Casper]

Tight squeeze but it always works out in the end.

[Barry Donovan]

I left off with my previous landlord:
"I have got a bad premonition about this place."

Now, two gas leaks in less than a week.

this in the local paper, exactly as it appears:

“Natural gas is explosive,” the assistant chief said.

“Everything is safe,” Barrowman added.

which one is it assholes?

in other news...
I never forget a face. just names.
one of my first nights here, elated to be here. I get a knock on the door, and got handed a bag of popcorn by a couple - man and a woman. That was very nice of them. He said they hand out surplus stuff sometimes...or to that effect.

I learned just today, the man that was with the woman was in the shootout here in this little town. Somehow that story has a noble thread in it. "Better off dead" is a trait here sometimes. I would have thought the same for myself a little more, until realizing, my extremely bizarre outcome is not alone. Nobody is...no matter how bizarre.


Rest In Peace, whatever the life choice is..

[Runner1972]

A talk about fixing the t.v. after dinner cause it's getting worse my mom told me to basically get out cause I'M driving her crazy.

All over a t.v., you know. I'm trying to keep myself busy while i'm going though this phase in my life right now and this is what has been going on for the last few months. I want to fix the house up and get it nice again,I could not do it when working cause of no time, now i have time and they do not want anything to be done around here.

I'm not comfortable with the t.v. looking 3d, the tape on the stairs or the nicotine dust bunnies from the ceiling, the tint on the SS is shot and a hazard and so is the 72's it does not look I have tint on the windows.

I'm cleaning the house, doing the tint, getting carpets and a painter in this place. I don't care of the cost, i want this done.

[Barry Donovan]

my veteran babble lately, its a bubble..as trained to know already.

I wonder if bob would have joined:
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...=airforce-a.nl

they are attempting a bill for hearing impaired to join. Of course they can. Basic training might be a difficulty, alot of yelling.
I wanted to initiate a ruling that no one with metal attachments under the skin can fly or work air force aircraft.

I am the example. To know now more than ever, even with metal ionized salts squeezing out of my head, including teeth, I just went on like some nordic rockhead would. A lot of people would not. Safety is for everyone...

if to demand a standard, us disabled need to accept where we are placed. Let the true nobility go on without us.

Found an amazing award recipient...

a very young airman, gaining a very tall award:

http://www.afisr.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123144112

I am remembering what embarrassed me now...
the award conversation for the work and circumstances. Nothing ever came of it. I was almost relieved. The same year I got an AF achievement, the public stuff with chuck yaeger for "being handsome" ..and then to add on a night off, still on active duty orders, I was given credit for saving someones life after witnessing a bad wreck. This is all in about 6 months. The 73 hour flight and 6 destinations.. an electrocution.

The accident is vivid today. We simply stopped. Gathered the wanderers. I found a dead person. The guy I was yelling at, for walking into the dark woods instead of back to the road.. still lives in this town, I have heard.. might go find him some day. Very badly mangled leg, hinged in a few spots. My car got to a phone. The tear jerker was when he told us the reason he was walking off into the woods...

I am the same.

the facts rambled on..to the point, "there is no medal fitting the bill."
2nd coldest state in the nation..24/7 crew chiefs. Non-stop. You might figure it out... It will never be replicated.

I volunteered for the very last A model kc135 to come through, bent old plane. A gun cart start, alert scramble (I babbled that stuck tailstand story in a previous post), assigned to an E model, and was jealous over the kids and their R model. I had to learn those too..the basic post flight, preflight. The engines on their cute hydraulic cowl that lifted up nearly by itself.. Kids. We may have been a few years apart, I looked middle age by 22.

p51, a10, t37-38, b1,b2, 15, 16, 18, b52, the canadian vists.. they had old relics. kc10, p3, 131, 130, 17, c5. the c141. the stealth..no one was allowed up close beyond the ropes. Guy with a gun there. Serious guy with a gun.The concorde with the swedish supermodels..yes, in bangor maine. We walked right up to it. The russian big bear ( a nickname my boss gave their big cargo plane - not the propped big bear).. some english stuff, not good with model numbers, mig something...some cargo and passenger. My transient crew chief boss said there was no plane I have not approached. One was with him personally, as it was top secret at the time. In tech school we saw the last of the voodoo take off. I watched in another visit to texas an old air force one 707 compression stalling on purpose "to blow out the cobwebs"...headed to a museum.

Another factor that got documented. .. 72 mile round trip. every day. No housing, on active orders or not. That part made me mad.. I did not want to travel that much. Neither did the official who got us all gas money...trying to make up for it.

it is just not possible to replicate. You would be red in the face too... someone riddling off your work record that went way beyond. My first heart stumper... realizing I wore the clog hopper boots to no tread. That takes a hundred miles or more...3 pairs of boots later, after that one, and the finally permission to get my own for the metal plate in my foot..

I hope this all goes to a formal end, no more hauntings.

my foot doctor after my own wreck..1995. He said my foot was way too shattered from this one wreck, he thought I broke it previous. I did. Kicking a chock at about 10F outside. Frozen to the ground, I kept kicking. I ignored that sharp pain. Wrapped my foot, kept right on working...I only told my immediate rank up, a fellow crew chief. We opted not to say anything. Air Guard and medical is a flunk...not ours to be flunking with. It was from that point on, we were both running (pun) on civil war ethics..in 1994.

another funny thing is in place today. the budget crunch was evident, way back when, as my sister enlisted under my influence.. I guess there used to be a recruiters award. Never got one. Recruiter was honest in telling how the old system worked though. Still a cool retired guy today. It has been 20 years, my sister is a senior master seargent. I guess I earned the recruiter bonus..that I never got, after all.

[Deaf Bob]

Barry, when I signed up for the draft back in the 70's, they classified me 1-H which means I could serve stateside.. Deaf school (think insitution) asked me if I signed up, I proudly showed my 1-H classification, got "drafted" before the school got it changed to 4-F (not desired for service). Things were confusing, when I reported, they told me "GO HOME" .... Would I if given the chance, not knowing how bad most veterans were/are treated???.. IN A HEARTBEAT! ... The Isreali Army requires the hearing impaired to serve.. We cannot use radios and phones.. Maybe others can.. I'm told you have to relearn sounds when switching from aide to implants.. ....for me to hear and enjoy music on my home made 75 watt speakers headphones, nobody/nothing is in the room with me too loud or just right gor a party..

[Barry Donovan]

Barry, when I signed up for the draft back in the 70's, they classified me 1-H which means I could serve stateside.. Deaf school (think insitution) asked me if I signed up, I proudly showed my 1-H classification, got "drafted" before the school got it changed to 4-F (not desired for service). Things were confusing, when I reported, they told me "GO HOME" .... Would I if given the chance, not knowing how bad most veterans were/are treated???.. IN A HEARTBEAT! ... The Isreali Army requires the hearing impaired to serve.. We cannot use radios and phones.. Maybe others can.. I'm told you have to relearn sounds when switching from aide to implants.. ....for me to hear and enjoy music on my home made 75 watt speakers headphones, nobody/nothing is in the room with me too loud or just right gor a party..

you know, blown ear drums happens, the recovery is typically tinnitus and talking loud for the rest of ones days. Ringing sounds, alter that actual level of the noise one is surrounded with...they don't get kicked out often.

I have been there for 20 years. I am reminded how loud I talk very often. I love my quiet time, for days..not just a few minutes. In fact the hearing stuff, that is a theory on my teeth gone exploding: ear drums. symmetrical loss.

a friend got a waiver for the ear loss, the training was in place, and that costs the gov't money..like a shoe in, they kept him. He ended up lucky, they did not work him as much.

I was thinking, I'd rather have a peaceful ear problem, than work airplanes with a metal plate in my body. That is the real truth.

[Deaf Bob]

Hindsight is always 20/20.... I hear booms and noises that are not there.. Some make me jump.. I listen to music to rid myself of tinnitis.. A kid I grew up with at he school made his world very quiet (to him) but the ear noises drove him to suicide.. I find being around noise to drown out the ringing helps best.. My son plays a stereo while we wrench. If I'm near the speakers, can fainly hear it..

[tedly]

Hindsight is always 20/20.... I hear booms and noises that are not there.. Some make me jump.. I listen to music to rid myself of tinnitis.. A kid I grew up with at he school made his world very quiet (to him) but the ear noises drove him to suicide.. I find being around noise to drown out the ringing helps best.. My son plays a stereo while we wrench. If I'm near the speakers, can fainly hear it..

Tinnitis, quite familiar with it. I usually have the radio or tv on for background noise to drown it out some. Mine hasn't progressed more than an annoyance - even with the accompanying nerve damage. Friends have it so bad it keeps them up at nights. Can't wait for that stage of it. Yeesh.

[Barry Donovan]

Hindsight is always 20/20.... I hear booms and noises that are not there.. Some make me jump.. I listen to music to rid myself of tinnitis.. A kid I grew up with at he school made his world very quiet (to him) but the ear noises drove him to suicide.. I find being around noise to drown out the ringing helps best.. My son plays a stereo while we wrench. If I'm near the speakers, can fainly hear it..

Do you ever find the ringing is a bonus?

I have reeled in computer problems, bi-metal window screens, car ignitions..
after gaining what would be "normal", that extra has never left.
I know electric going crazy before a gauge, etc etc.

Subconscious things emerge. I love the screaming overhead fan of the stove on, when I go to bed... why?
it sounded like the plane at altitude, only quieter. I slept in the bunk nearly every trip.

Sound does alot of things, does not need to be typical for sure.

Still reviving some military stuff... 15 years ago, I was told to look for missing orders, if there was any. This may be triggers than an officer was pulling rank, over simple mistakes or whatever.

sure enough, the pile I got is missing the same orders as back then. A wisconsin trip, and orders one might get for a medal or award.

we flew into barnes, mass one day, and two of us are out on the side of their rinky dink taxi way with a runway in the middle of a suburban neighborhood with a kc135e screaming behind us...

could not fit on the pavement. As if the landing wasn't scary enough as we looked out at our own shadows blipping across the rooftops seeming 10 feet away.

So here we are one on each side of the ramp plucking landing lights out of the ground so the engine doesn't spew metal all over the neighborhood behind it... they were probably wondering why there is a space shuttle sized ship in their backyard in the first place, we kept going down the ramp, one light at a time..some of which were still lit for some reason.

the lead crew chief was literally f*ck sh*t as* p*s and c*nt, all over the microphone...not even the pilot got mad at him.

Fresh off my operation, and back to work..that was not a good time. That altered my leg and hip... it has not gone back the same. We jumped off the plane, and non stop ran the whole freaking length of the taxi way...I concluded some years later, I must have been getting lit to break the ground away from whatever ran the lights. That trip scared me into the life and death I was at. the metal plate in the body...its no good. Now a good thing about the lead crew chief that was there, we had confided in each other about other things. I told him.. "after I am gone, I wish this on nobody."

We had gone to the point in the past laughing about our mortality. We were both on one plane when an APU went berzerk. Blowing fire in every direction, and the battery cable popped off in the latrine.,,it not only overvolted itself, the engine itself had a completely separate problem. What are the freaking odds? The whole plane rocked back and forth to the backfiring.

We laughed some years later... 2 nanoseconds from death. We shoulda gotta medal for that quick thinking.

At that moment, we both went machine...that as it turns out, is a damn good instinct. For real. That was 1993. He predicted I'd be there for decades. that event was proof I was what a military needs. To reel in the details... he was yelling something at me from the other end of the fuselage. the error in the jet engine apu was so loud, I not only could not hear a word he was saying, the smoke made sight not so easy. I held the battery cable wrapped in my jacket... avoid leaps of spark, if it meant going through me first. I watched as he ripped the cover off and shut off the fuel... we waited for the spool down. It got both of us in the ears. He had stuff coming out of his eyes. I was down low with the cable, the entrance to a kc135 was not far off... I had air, he did not. I was 20 years old then. The sight was non-existent now. Smoky exhaust. For a split second I wept... could not hear foot steps or a reply. Was not sure if he was alive back there. He came though yelling.. "I wanted you to pull the fuse."
"No labels and..could not hear you."
the silence for a minute. He wept too. My first lesson of noble decisions in the military.. it is a thread of truth that may never be on earth, but with flying eternal friends instead.

my scar bled that day at barnes... the operation with the steel plate was very young.

No orders to be found. Go figure. I had an intuition there was a bad apple, among the officers.. I caught two arguing one day. Flight line related. I am glad to have stayed lower rank, I am sure of it now today.

I realized that was not only a liability problem that day, the plan right into logistics in every way was a bad one...then orders were nonexistent. I only got paid nothing for "annual training days", all for that crazy ass trip.

Today? that is literally something to laugh at. once again, something to chaulk up to "never to be replicated" never ever again. Glad to have been there.

I am actually saving this post for official reasons. A cut and paste into notepad...I'd rather talk to the planet, than some place demanding evidence.

[Casper]

How is it doomsday preppers end up on TV instead of a nut house?