The new campfire thread...ooooh purrrrty!!!!!!

[Fenlason]

We did meet with the Police Chief yesterday. He was a nice guy and the meeting was of some help. It had appeared they had sort of dropped the ball on what they said they were going to do.

The Chief thanked me for my restraint. He could tell I was steamed and said in the same situation it would be really tough for him.

The subject had been trying to avoid the police. The first officer Laurie dealt with put some effort in trying to find him.. he did finally find him at home. The guy didn't even want to answer the door.. He did eventually and was a mouthy ass to the officer… and all that is on video from the officer's body cam. The chief said the guy is an asshole… and a bully. The Chief did talk to us about choosing our battles and such.. but also said this guy would back down if stood up to. Laurie had not been engaging the guy at all.. no eye contact or anything.

Here there is another step.. before the protection order. [People were abusing that] hmm I don't know if the "subject" gets Laurie's info from that. He did say he didn't feel this guy was a threat.. as in come to our house etc.

Yesterday afternoon Laurie did choose to walk in the other direction. Part of it is on a busy road.. but then there is a little dead end road off to the side.. she "ran" into some real friendly dogs.. and friendly people.

I would like to walk with Laurie some.. to meet up with the guy.

We still want to talk to our other 2 state police friends… should Laurie have protection.. and what? The mace seems a pretty easy thing to add. Hand guns still aren't off the table either. [Not just for this guy.. but in general] CD the firearm wasn't or wouldn't be to try to intimidate this guy.. It would be a last resort to STOP the guy. 2 of these instances Laurie was scared for her life.

[Fenlason]

Think long and hard before carrying a gun. Once you pull it out, you have to be 100-percent committed to pulling the trigger. You can't count on the sight of a gun to scare an unreasonable person away.

Pepper spray is a lot easier to commit to using.

Just a thought.

CD

hmm this is sort of where Gary [the first friend.. ex-officer we talked with] was going, when we asked if his wife carried. He mentioned about worry it being taken away from her.. and having to make that choose for lethal action. Pepper spray.. at least the good stuff.. is VERY debilitating.

[Fenlason]

Think long and hard before carrying a gun. Once you pull it out, you have to be 100-percent committed to pulling the trigger. You can't count on the sight of a gun to scare an unreasonable person away.

Pepper spray is a lot easier to commit to using.

Just a thought.

CD

hmm this is sort of where Gary [the first friend.. ex-officer we talked with] was going, when we asked if his wife carried. He mentioned about worry it being taken away from her.. and having to make that choose for lethal action. Pepper spray.. at least the good stuff.. is VERY debilitating.. but of course not lethal.

[toypusher]

Think long and hard before carrying a gun. Once you pull it out, you have to be 100-percent committed to pulling the trigger. You can't count on the sight of a gun to scare an unreasonable person away.

Pepper spray is a lot easier to commit to using.

Just a thought.

CD

hmm this is sort of where Gary [the first friend.. ex-officer we talked with] was going, when we asked if his wife carried. He mentioned about worry it being taken away from her.. and having to make that choose for lethal action. Pepper spray.. at least the good stuff.. is VERY debilitating.

Have agree about guns as last resort. If she decides to carry, MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that she knows the laws there on use of deadly force, etc. Have heard of too many cases of the person with legal carry getting caught up in not understanding the law correctly and they are then in trouble. Restraint to use ONLY as last restore is the best policy with regards to guns.

[toypusher]

In other news, it is in the low 30s this morning with wind chill in the mid 20s and windy (of course). I have to go pick up a prescription sometime today and also make up a grocery list so we can go first thing in the morning. Want to get out for a walk today, but not sure I will with the wind.

[Fenlason]

Fairly recently they enacted an open carry law here… but anything we explore in that direction would be with advice from our state police friends.

She is out in the woods alone a bit..so for something like a rabid or anything..

[Fenlason]

We actually had a little sunshine yesterday. After our meeting I headed out to the shop. I just wanted a little mental diversion. It was a good day there. Things are moving forward.. and there is excitement there.

We are cooler this morning.. and cloudy again. I am not sure what's up for today? I might move closer to plastering.. to check on my materials.. and gather my tools.

I might go walk with Laurie at 3:00

[caseydog]

A late night here at the doghouse. I had a neck/head ache today, and took too long of a nap while the ibuprofen kicked in.

Just looked out to see what the engine noise was on the street. There is an ambulance and fire truck a few doors down (in my town, a fire truck always goes out with an ambulance call). A man who lives there has had two stokes, and suffers early onset dementia. The FD arrived with no lights or sirens. Not a good sign.

It's been kinda' chilly here. It is supposed to get better over the next few days. I'm ready for March to get here, so I can start planting my garden, and spend more time on the patio. Winter without slopes and snow to ski or sled on is rather pointless, to me.

Psycho-poodle sits by the fireplace just begging me to light it up. He LOVES a fire in the fireplace. But, it is such a money pit. I can't use real wood, because as the fire dies, the draft dies, and the house fills with smoke. So, I have gas logs. They are the best gas logs on the market, but they draw intake air from inside the house, and send most of the heat they make up the chimney.

I snagged a USDA Choice chuck roast today for $2.77 a pound. That my be my Sunday project. Sous vide, then on to the Weber for a couple hours of smoke.

CD

[Fenlason]

I don't recall much about Friday. I have wanted to make something for a workout / self defense tools for some time. A type of hammer made out of black iron pipe. I had the bigger parts out in the barn. I swung by Laurie's store… picked up the rest of the parts, then went to my shop to assemble them. I did go to Laurie's work.. to walk with her. [ she didn't know I was coming] she had walked earlier in a different area.

I wasn't feeling great, but Laurie wanted to ride [bkool] and I said I would ride with her.. and let her choose the ride. It was a live ride just starting. I had no warm up so played it cautiously at the start. I did end up in the lead early on. I had another that stayed a threat.. so kept me pushing it. I then noticed it was suddenly someone else in second.. an Elite ranked rider [they are the top level… a level above the Pros] He stayed around 12 seconds back for quite a while, until the last "big" hill, where he started closing hard. I valiantly tried to hold him off.. but it was fruitless. I did finish well. In the overall rankings I am right up there. I am 2nd on the over 60 group [out of 40 something that have done it] Of course I am second to my friend Bill Out of 1100 and something that have done this race [all ages] I am 22nd.

I found I had moved up another 3 levels in my ranking.. and if I had put out 2+ more average watts I would have moved up another. The one "problem" with moving up in rankings.. they give you stronger riders for future rides.


Yesterday Laurie and I went for a trail ride. We went from Laurie's work. The snow was amazing. We had received that 5" of tightly packed sleet.. then rain.. then freeze. We could ride almost any where. The was a lot of ice and and some flooding but it was not as sketchy riding as it other icy ride was. We checked out a new trail on the Clinton end.. and did some other exploration. We had a great ride… and found some other connecting trails.

[toypusher]

It is about 40degrees up from about 33 this morning and partly sunny today. Have not been feeling to good today, but we went grocery shopping and have been making up meals for my wife's folks. Will be taking them over sometime after 4 today.

If I felt better I would get out for a walk today, but that will not be happening. Will try tomorrow. We might get a dusting to about an inch of snow overnight, but not really looking like we will get any.

[Fenlason]

I woke early.. but did eventually fall back asleep.. and then woke up late. I haven't felt that great either.. I woke with a headache and have had one all day. I haven't done much… some house work… and such. Angela had asked about snowshoeing with Laurie.. So they headed out at about 1:00.. and I joined them on my bike. It's been my first time on most of my trails since snow. It would have been better earlier in the day, for it had started getting soft in some places. Even with that the riding was pretty awesome. One could ride any where. "Oh look.. a downed tree is blocking the trail.." you could easily ride out around it. In a few places it was hard to tell exactly where the trail was.. but it didn't matter.. again you could just ride where you wanted.

I was just dubbing around… having a casual ride… it was fun.

[caseydog]

Dear Diary.

I sous vide that chuck roast for 16 hours, and smoked it for two more hours. So, I had BBQ and tater salad for supper.

More fire trucks tonight. I took psycho-poodle outside, and my yard was full of smoke. Not BBQ smoke, either. Nasty smoke. I heard sirens, and two engines, a tower ladder and a quint drove past behind the house (I live near a pretty well traveled intersection, especially for the Fire Department). That's a lot of big-time hardware! I wandered out and found the source. Huge house fire about a half mile West of me. No active ambulances, so probably nobody hurt.

It was 68-degrees today, and it is supposed to be in the 70s tomorrow through Wednesday. That means walks with psycho-poodle.

CD

[Fenlason]

Dear Dairy http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1 ... /image.jpg



The conditions are pretty sweet for trail riding right now. Although after a pretty hard week on the bike.. I don't know what I have in the tank?? We have more snow coming..which will change these conditions. Memories on this day.. came up in my Facebook feed.. and 2 years ago I did a 51+ mile ride.. it was a road ride, but it was on a mountain bike with studded snow tires… on a snowy road.. [in a snow storm] Thats a pretty significant ride for this time of year.

I have some exploring I want to do.. and I would love a long ride.. but that's not there. I think I will head out and ride though.. in the direction we did saturday.. I will play it by ear.. see how I feel.. for how far I go. I am not sure if I will try to connect the little loop at the end of our last ride.. where I got "lost", or to head from the new trail toward the bigger loop.

[toypusher]

28 degrees and snowing hard right now. Most grass, etc already covered. They say we might get an inch or so, then warm up and have some rain. What fun.

[Fenlason]

I had a great ride yesterday. I opted for exploring the bigger loop. I was going to go a few miles beyond the store… and then turn around. Either the loop has changed or I missed a turn. I ended up going much further north than I was "supposed" to. I went quite a ways without hitting a road.. and when I did.. I still didn't know where I was. I was sort of compelled to keep going, even though I had planned an out and back… it is always tough. I got quite a ways out there and came to insections with NO signage.. and then later.. no trail markings at all. There was a little apprehension a few times out there… but overall an excellent ride. In most places the conditions were as good as it gets.

I had forgotten my garmin yesterday so I don't have a gps trace of loop. I was sort of hoping to ride it again today.. but I don't want to push it.. and I have some other things to do.