Red White Big Batta Boom

Even though the vast majority of Army installations cancelled their 4th of July celebrations due to sequester and furloughing of GS employees, our Garrison Commander decided being remote and isolated that we should go forward and provide families with a reminder of what it all means. So on one hot and windy 4th of July we held our 3rd annual Red White and Boom. The template was the same as last year, kids events, beer, food, music and kick ass fireworks. We changed up the musical lineup this year. Last year we hired cover bands and they did a great show. This year, I decided we needed some original music. I received band suggestions from every corner of the installation, some very inexpensive, some ridiculously costly reaching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Garrison Commander seemed to be teetering in which way to go. He of course WANTED a huge name act to help make up for our Luda loss, but that financially appropriate devil on his shoulder won out and we went with more local options.

Starting off the music was Matt Shockley returning again, he was at our Winterfest back before Christmas and is a wonderfully talented guitarist. I felt bad for him, since he had the opening spot, the sun was up and the air hot and the field nearly empty. He still rocked it out like the professional champ that he is. Next up was a country rock group out of Vegas, Against the Grain. They did a rocking little set, albeit a little short. Our headliner for the event was White Buffalo. These guys are on the verge of  going big. they've had music featured in surfing videos, Sons of Anarchy and recently on Deadliest Catch and now on the new Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp. I think being somewhere in the middle of folk, classic rock and country in terms of genre, it is hard for people to figure out which shelf they belong on or which time spot on the radio. Either way, my friend Moonglow, turned me on to them and I love their music. So I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Garden State Fireworks came back for a return engagement and this year's show was even better than last. We were afraid we'd have to cancel due to the wind, but the Fire Department, brought out the big guns and made sure that they went off safely. We were just across the street again and the fireworks were literally in our laps again. Beautiful. And the finale was a 5 minute continuous volley of amazing. All in all, a great celebration for the founding of our country. If only the Founding Fathers had known how hot it would be at our events, maybe they would have declared independence in October. We hit 113 for the day. Ick.

'Merica.......Heck yeah!!!!

Matt Shockley feeling patriotic.

Against the Grain

Very Patriotic with the bunting.

 Jake, White Buffalo, played like a possessed man for our show (see the red eyes)

The wind is having its way with his coiffure.

 Rocking it out

The Gout- 1799 AD.

The above entitles masterpiece clearly defines how a bout o gout can feel. Only difference being the little fella with the sharp teeth is INSIDE your big toe joint, ankle or knee. Apparantly this stuff has been around a long time and it used to be considered a "rich" man's or "king's" disease. It is on the rise in America. Huh, I wonder if it has anything to do with the 'Western' diet of overconsuming horrid crap. I'm sure that's where mine comes from, too much beer, too much soda, too much fried chicken, too much, too much. Allopurinol keeps it at bay for the most part but it sure doesn't mix well with all the scar tissue in my joints. Well, that's enough whining for today. Hasta Manana. Theres a nya in there someswhere.

Rude Much

I'm not sure if it is California or all of society, but I've noticed a trend toward rudeness lately.
I was at a chinese buffet a week or two ago, a guy came in and looked at the buffet, then waited up front for a few minutes just to tell the little old asian lady that works there that he wouldn't feed her food to his dog. What an asshole. He could have just left, said nothing and taken his business elsewhere, but he made a point out of being a complete ass.
Maybe it is me. Maybe I don't have the tolerance for it anymore.
I just don't get it. Just don't get it.

Four Tens

Well I tried it. 4 tens with 3 days off every weekend. It lasted all of 1 week. With the hour commute and buffer time, I was gone 13-14 hours a day. It was just too much. I was up at 5 and coming home at 7 to eat dinner and go to bed. So I am back to 8s and loving it. I get up at a leisurely 530, go for an hour walk, get into work early, grab a coffee and chill and the day just flies by. I will miss the extra day every once in awhile I'm sure, but for the most part it was wasted on me sleeping in, eating bad food, napping and being lazy. All great things, but detrimental to my overall well being.

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.