10-10-12 – Thick as a Brick

The MPs were probably thinking to themselves, “I got pulled off my lunch break for this?”

I was actually fishing when it happened to me 😀 I was stationed at Beale AFB CA which is basically one huge wilderness preserve, so I would spend slow Sundays fishing in a little river than ran through the base, I never caught much but I spent many a pleasant day doing it. Plus, as a dog handler my job was to be off in the boonies looking for bad guys, so no one thought a thing about my being in back of nowhere for hours on end.

I hated being IN the military, I loved being in the military, if that makes sense. In these days of terrorism, the quite peaceful life of post Cold War soldiering is long lost and much missed.

Yeah there’s no prohibition about photography on bases in general, just certain parts of the bases.

And thank God for that… a few years ago we visited Fort Monroe, which is still an active military facility as well as being a historical site of some importance. I’ve got a whole bunch of photos from that trip, and no one gave me a second look. Later, we were on the outer banks, trying to take photos of lighthouses and there’s one at the north end of the outer banks that’s on a military installation. While I, as a long-haired civilian with generally Mediterranean features in the first couple years ofter 9/11 was nervous about the guard’s reaction, he gave me no weird looks or anything, just let us on base after careful scrutiny of the drivers’ licenses.
Every year when we go to the Adirondacks, we drive right past Fort Drum. There’s some really neat abandoned buildings behind the fence right off the road, and every year I threaten to stop the car and go shoot ’em. And every year my wife (former AF brat) warns me about the MPs. She makes it sound like a Turkish prison system.

Thanks Els and everyone who voted, and congrats to swampa2 on the sweep of individual and combined! It was neck & neck there for a while but I’m glad we ended tied. (Is it just me or does that seem to be more the norm than the exception lately?)

Y’all might think this is weird, but what’s exciting for me (maybe even more exciting than the win) is my 11th place! It was the last spot I needed to complete my “1st-25th card” (1st-31st technically). I don’t know why 11th took so long but every time I thought I had it, I’d end up in either 10th or 12th instead.

And damn you CauseISaidSo *shakes fist*

Moi? Should be the other way around, methinks! I thought I had the sweep wrapped up Thursday and then outta nowhere you’re on me like a dropbear on a tourist! 😆

Y’all might think this is weird, but what’s exciting for me (maybe even more exciting than the win) is my 11th place! It was the last spot I needed to complete my “1st-25th card” (1st-31st technically). I don’t know why 11th took so long but every time I thought I had it, I’d end up in either 10th or 12th instead.

Here ya go CISS:

I now have to wear shirts with this on it:

That’s hilarious! I need to find a larger copy of that, put it on an official looking website and then show it to my youngest. I was just warning him about the dangers of dropbears last week, but he was pretty skeptical because 1) he’s 16, and 2) I’ve walked him down Shenanigans Road several times already so he’s quite the wary traveler.

Here ya go CISS:

Awesome! Thanks fluffy! I’ll print it out and sew it onto my merit badge sash. 🙂

Pfft…noobs! 1 – 114! wheres my badge? LOL!

I thought you were joking, but I checked and… nope, he’s not! 😯 Thanks a lot man. Way to rain on my parade. 😛

I can’t wait for the Boy Scouts to update the merit badge design to either modernize the flash unit depicted or just replace the whole camera with an iPhone. 😛

Pfft…noobs! 1 – 114! wheres my badge? LOL!

Those who’ve been around me here for a while had to have seen this coming… Of course, my “accomplishment” and NBD’s blatant boasting 😉 got me wondering – what is the record for having an entry in sequential places? No real surprise, it’s hard to beat 114 and NBD holds the record for longest streak. My measly 31st barely gets me on the top 25 list:

Rank   UserName          Place

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1    I'm No Big Deal    114

2    Mopsy               96

3    olavf               94

4    SilverStag          86

5    sleeping            80

6    orionid             73

7    corsec67            69

8    Elsinore            63

9    swampa2             63

10    Ennuipoet           57

11    U-Man               57

12    soosh               55

13    MorningBreath       53

14    bucky_bacon         49

15    millera9            48

16    Ranger Joe          48

17    ravnostic           48

18    markie_farkie       41

19    harpo               36

20    idle_hands          36

21    veruca              34

22    BecauseISaidSo      31

23    monkeybort          30

24    Lord Ezekiel        19

25    Logomancer          18