It's not hell, but you can see it from here.

I had another lovely commute surprise the other morning. This wonderful burnt out car parked in an abandoned parking lot right next to the road. The last time I saw something like this was when 2 teenagers were shot execution style in Decatur back in 1993, their car driven across town and burnt as a message to others.  I was hoping there would be a story with it but I haven't seen anything in the paper. It might have just been an accident, thing overheated, caught fire and burned down. Either way, it looks very foreboding and ominous. cold chills time. It wouldn't surprise me if it had been a message to someone. 

Barstow and Victorville aren't the most prosperous places in America. Routinely on my drive to work I see vagrants, druggies, prostitutes, thugs, gangsters and other assorted antisocial types. It's entertaining in a social experiment kid of way, but I need get back to small town America and out of the desert. Today, I wanted to go to Walmart to pick up shotgun shells and it was closed, as in went out of business closed, A Walmart. The only other time I've seen that was in macomb where they closed a small one and built a bigger one next door. This one is less than a mile from the highway but its little shopping center is dead. Really spooky.

morning commute surprise

Earlier this week, on my morning commute, I had a surprise as the title of this blog suggests. I rolled up onto the scene below. Another car was there just before me, and she was helping a small child of 4 into her car after she had crawled out the back window. I immediately parked and ran up to offer assistance. The mother of the children was already standing up inside the car across the front seat. She was talking but all in spanish and I only caught the prominent word, hijos, or children. I assured her is spanish, esta bien, as best i could, but she had a wild eyed determination. Our efforts to get her to relax and stop moving were for naught. She was coming out of that car for sure. So I help untangle her from her seatbelt and squeeze between the steering wheel and the roof to get out the front windshield. Once she saw her small children, she was fine and began asking for a phone to call her husband. 911 was called and within about 10 minutes a firetruck and ambulance were on the scene. They decided to board the whole family since the car had flipped over a couple times, good idea. the father arrived on scene while the kids were being loaded into the ambulance and immediately began crying which got the kids crying and the mom on hearing all this began wailing too. We worked to calm them down but all involved were rightfully shaken. What had happened? She said she passed out at the wheel. All in all, they were all very lucky and thank God for seatbelts. 

County Fair

I made it out to the County Fair with my friend Tony and his family. We were going to go for a couple hours which of course turned into 5. All in all it wasn't bad, how could it be, it involved fried food and beer. 

3D printer demonstration. you can manufacture gun parts in your house without supervision. Oh no, how dangerous.

Amazing sculpture for a high schooler. We paid $11K for one at fort jackson that wasn't half this good. 

There were several rides from michael jacksons Neverland ranch on hand. The kids paid $25 for wristbands for unlimited rides. They more than got their money's worth. 

Deep fried oreos were enjoyed by all. Tony only had a bite for fear of going into diabetic shock. I think I did. 

Uh, can you say copyright infringement?!

Another MJ great. 

Check out this high school shop project. hell yeah. 

Pinnacle visit

Pinnacle had a trail clean up day, so I cruised over to hang out and lend a hand.
We ended up only doing about 3 hours of picking up trash but it was a worthwhile pursuit and a ton of hikers thanks us for our efforts. The clean-up coordinator, Arian, surprised everyone with homemade ice cream sandwiches at the end of the day.
That night, the local wildfire station had a barbecue and cooked about a hundred pounds of chicken and tri tip. We took my world famous guac, which got absolutely slammed. Since we were at the fire station, beers were a no no. but we had a good time none the less. The firefighters got called out a couple times and the helicopter even took flight, so the ladies were bummed because they couldn't flirt anymore :)
Sunday, after a breakfast of blueberry pancakes, we headed out on the trail to see if we could find some wildlife. We cam across some turkeys and deer as usual and a gaggle of vultures. Moonglow showed me a nice deer skeleton with an intact rack. A six pointer of decent size, probably around 120 pounds live weight.  Looked like it was like a poached deer that ran off, but since it was fully bleached out, no way of knowing for sure.
Moonie and I played 5 games of cribbage and the punk beat me 4 of 5. We drank quite a few tap beers from his homemade kegerator.
I absolutely love the first couple hours of driving through San Benito county. Wide open vistas of ranchos. Lots of wildlife all throughout the valley.Twisting and winding roads that are just fun to drive.
I'm sure I'll be back soon, especially since I am going to 4 10s next pay period. That's a lot of 3 day weekends. Anyone interested in a long weekend visit??

Soldier Show 2013

The United States Army Soldier Show was moved up to May this year because their European leg was cancelled due to government funding cutbacks. So the Friday of Memorial Day week we hosted them at Fort Irwin. it was another great show this year. This year they brought a stage and all of the backdrops were done with a high intensity projector. They used a phone app called "sarge" that helped them find their way through the first weeks of being on base and walking them through what to expect of Army life. These guys work their ass off, they unload the trailers, set up the stage and sound, put on the show, tear it all down and pack it all up. That makes it a 16 to 18 hour day for them. And they usually do 3 shows a week. That's a lot of dedication.

Sarge

 Battle Rattle

 Justin Timberlake's Suit and Tie

 LMFAO 'Strong and I know it!"

Aretha with a little Respect

Commanding General and NTC CSM

 the Painted Rocks plaque, our standard gift. 

Randomness on the smartphone camera

The pics in this post are just some random shots. Each has its own little story. I will try to keep them short and concise so as not to bore anyone too much. 

This is the caboose of a hoopty train in Victorville. I was listening to music on my phone, so by the time they all passed me (I was in the slow turn lane) I missed all of them but this one. This is what car culture has become in Cali. Just kidding, there are some cool cars rolling along 66 still. 

Who says the desert doesn't get cold?! It dipped down into the 20s this night but the farmer left the sprinklers on in the field. As I drove by on the way to work it was already in the 40s but this ice refused to give in. The light reflecting off it looked like a pile of diamonds from a distance. 

As I walked out of the theater i heard a familiar squawking above me, I looked up and these two were walking ON the bird spikes. They had even built a nest there. Nature will overcome. 

they grown em big in Palm Springs

but they wear some granny panties. 

I wonder what Marilyn would wear today?!

Palms in Palm Springs

Sign in one of our child facilities. I wonder if this is too deep for most like kids to fully grasp. Most adults still don't grasp it. 

There is a chain restaurant called Pappadeuxs New Orleans kitchen. The first one I went to was in San Antonio. This one is in the Dallas Fort Worth airport. When I fly through there, I make a point of stopping by. On my way to IL in May, I hit it up again. As I walked a few gates out of my way, I passed lines at chain restaurants and it brought a smile to my face knowing these beautifully decadent oysters were waiting for me. There are 2 kinds. One with crab meat, spinach and hollandaise. The other with bread crumbs and ooey gooey melty italian cheeses on top. Oh so good. If you are passing through, check it out at Gate A24 in the A Terminal. They were even playing Kermit Ruffins on the radio. 

This beauty was in the parking lot in Decatur IL. Land rover pick up. Oh so lovely.

I tend to break things and then have to fix them. This trip home was no different. i helped mom with the lawn and broke the riding mower, the electric weed eater and the push mower. Personally, I think they were all waiting for me to show up to break. Getting a replacement belt seemed a herculean effort. We bought 2 wrong ones first before finding the right one at Farm and Fleet. 

Ammo was selling like hotcakes, but I was there when this shipment showed up. They said boxes were basically sold out the same day for 22lr and pistol ammo. I think these manufacturers are happy every time Congress starts talking gun bans and background checks because there is a virtual run on the stores. Craziness. 

This was in grandpas garage. Its an old circuit tester. Imagine hauling this thing around as an electrician years ago. The new ones are so much smaller and more convenient. 

Grandma busted out the history of Nokomis IL and showed me the pages about her parents. Very interesting, especially since my friend lives less than a hundred miles from the place they came from in Italy. Gotta go see him soon and look up some distant relatives. 

I was very fortunate to make it back to Illinois for Mother's Day. I had a wonderful visit and things just seemed to fall into place when it came to scheduling time to see everyone I missed at Christmas. I certainly miss my family. Just gotta be patient and eventually I'll find something close to home with the Army. Until then, bring on the adventure.