Category Archives: Personal

So it’s been making the rounds as of late as noted by A Girl, she does seem to be a conversation starter.  Here’s the post that started it all.

I figured I’d chime in since A Girl did mention me and my text to her.  You see I’ve had someone else’s blood going through my veins as well as the wife.  You see we had a pretty nasty wreck at one point with bad enough injuries that yes, blood loss was a serious concern.  My wife had no appetite and was a total, how do I put this nicely, equivalent of a cranky female dog.  After giving her 2 units of blood, her attitude and appetite shifted immensely and immediately.

Total I ended up getting 3 units of blood, two while in surgery and then an additional one a couple of days later since I was obviously a little low in the gas tank.  A pulmonary embolism did not help in that department.

But overall those two incidents pale in comparison to what happened with my Father-In-Law.  Let’s just say there was an industrial accident and just about everything below the knee on one leg was hamburger by the time it over.  Reflexes saved him overall so the damage was done to the leg and not the torso.  But he now had an open valve on the lower leg.  He was airlifted to the hospital and ended up getting 8 units of blood.  The human body contains 10-12 and loss of life occurs at approximately 5.  Yes, you should now understand the full gravity of that situation.

He even got some Edison medicine to keep everything going while en-route*.  Given the severity of the trauma and his condition, I can tell you with great certainty there was one particular blood type used in that instance.  In this case it was the universal donor and life saver, O-, without it the story would have had a much different ending.

This picture would have looked considerably different without blood donations.**

So, if you donate blood. Thank You! If you have never tried, think about it.  It doesn’t require any special skills or abilities, but quite easily you could save a life and not even know it.  It is most definitely worth it and more people are affected by it that most probably realize.

*I asked to double check, neither TMW or her dad can remember exactly.  I do remember hearing the story for the first time and promptly chuckling and saying, “And my dad wondered often if the work he did actually made a difference and there’s a reason he preferred to work on medical equipment.”  More specifically my dad worked on the Life Pack series of defibrillators from Physio Control. That sticks out enough I’m reasonably sure yes he was shocked, but it was a minor player in the story, because without the blood it wouldn’t have mattered.

**I realize I look like a grump in this picture.  It is honestly what happens if you take my sunglasses and put me in sun light and then face me towards the sun.  The act of squinting makes me look like a pissed off Gorilla… Not that I mind that look, it’s just yes, it was my wedding day, and yes I was happy… SEE!

Look very carefully in between us…. Kitty! This kitty actually.

If you look closely there’s something that resembles a smile across my face… It’s just not really visible in most of the photos.

TMM

TMM is the owner, editor, and principal author at The Minuteman, a competitive shooter, and staff member for Boomershoot. Even in his free time he’s merging his love and knowledge of computers and technology with his love of firearms.

Many know his private name and information however due to the current political climate, many are distancing themselves due to the abandonment of Due Process.

www.the-minuteman.org

So last week we lost the last fish in one of our fish tanks.  It was sad but the tank never fully recovered after we got some bad fish and ick ran wild.  That incident crushed the morale for the wife and I on the tanks.  When the last fish died I felt bad because the last fish was a beautiful Plecostomus.  One which we named Gunga Din. So we started disassembling the tank to fully clean it and scrub it down.  The wife and I are wanting to only deal with one tank at this point.

We finish cleaning and scrubbing it down and we get under the other tank and well crap, some food fell over.  I reach in to clean it up, why is my hand wet?  There should be no water here.  Oh !@#$.  I start running my hands around the canister filter and discover a small drip leak out of the return line.

I promptly turn off the pump close the intake and return valves and drain the lines.  Ends up a seal on the return line came loose.  I’m not sure how long the leak was going on but feeling the carpet behind the tank provided an immediate “oh fudge” moment.  Except I didn’t say fudge.

We promptly got the other tank set back up and moved the fish over, we didn’t put any of the stone in the transfer tank since it’s temporary.  We got the fish moved last night and the tank empty so I could move the stand.  Below is what our front entry way looks like now.

Putting the carpet back down is going to be a pain in the ass, but it definitely needed to come up along with the pad.  Re-stapling the pad will be easy since I have an pneumatic stapler.

So, I didn’t really take pictures of it, but you can see my cat sitting on top of the base of the tank.  It’s currently upside down.  Before we put the tank back in place I will be making some modifications to the base.  First up I will be lining the interior of the bottom in plastic.  This way any leak becomes obvious as we go in and out of the cabinet.  Secondly it will prevent it from getting into the carpet.

The other alteration will be putting a back on the cabinet.  One particular cat likes to try and get in where she isn’t supposed to be.  This will help solve that problem.  It’s been on the list of things to do but never had a reason to fully drain the tank.  This also allows us to rearrange the front entry.

Fish tanks are awesome, they’re pretty, and they’re a big pain in the ass.  They do help keep one particular kitty cat entertained and out of trouble… some of the time.

TMM

TMM is the owner, editor, and principal author at The Minuteman, a competitive shooter, and staff member for Boomershoot. Even in his free time he’s merging his love and knowledge of computers and technology with his love of firearms.

Many know his private name and information however due to the current political climate, many are distancing themselves due to the abandonment of Due Process.

www.the-minuteman.org

It’s apparently defective.

So I wake up this morning earlier than usual, why, because the weather outside is nasty and the wife would rather I drive in with her.  IE she sits in the passenger seat while I drive through the snow.

The drive in is fine, evidently we were not far behind the plow as we caught up with him in Pullman.  So I think, well it’s not going to be that bad today.

Drop the wife off, get to work, and evidently my keys did not actually make it into my pocket.  They’re either hiding in my rig or the 6 inches of powder on the ground.  I’ve gone around the rig many times and haven’t found them so I’m hoping they’re in the rig.  (Strike 1)*

Thankfully the wife has her keys with her so all is not lost.

Get into work, sit down at my desk and move my computer mouse.  Screen doesn’t turn on, odd I left it on over the weekend.  Push the power button, nothing happens.  Unplug and plug it back in, nothing.  Push the PSU reset, nothing.  It appears at this point my PSU is DED dead.  (Strike 2)

And to top it off I get to sit around waiting for the wife to finish her staff meeting tonight instead of just going home.  I have a strange feeling tomorrow, I’m not going to want to get out of bed.  I’m hoping I don’t get a 3rd strike today, it will make it exceptionally miserable.

Update: Found the little bastard in 6 inches of powder.  Wohoo for stepping on them and activating the keyfob.

Update 2: And I get to spend 4 hours in a meeting tomorrow. *Headdesk* Someone please make the bad man stop.  A few of you know the hell that is this type of meeting… You know who you are.

TMM

TMM is the owner, editor, and principal author at The Minuteman, a competitive shooter, and staff member for Boomershoot. Even in his free time he’s merging his love and knowledge of computers and technology with his love of firearms.

Many know his private name and information however due to the current political climate, many are distancing themselves due to the abandonment of Due Process.

www.the-minuteman.org

You want to know how I know, it’s quite simple really.  29 years ago tomorrow hell froze over, a blizzard hit the Pacific Northwest and made the Seattle area down right miserable.

In the middle of all that misery I punched through my moms uterus and abdominal wall that I can only hope looked something like this:

Dance and all!

I was born defying all the odds, weighing in at a whopping 4 lbs 2 oz and was 6 weeks early(I was reminded it was actually 6.5).  My mom still refers to me as her gift from god.  I know there are certainly some people in this world who wouldn’t consider me a gift.  Frankly I don’t care, there’s a phrase I’d use to describe it but some would consider it gratuitous in its use of expletives.  The gentler version is “Screw ’em”

So for all of you who think the world ends tomorrow, I hate to break it to you but it wont, at best that process actually began 29 years ago.  For some their political end is at hand, and I will have no heartburn at all if some how my name comes up yet again before them, repeatedly, until they crash into the wall so hard they disappear into the wastebasket of history.

It is kind of nice though that by the age of 28 I became despised and called out, by name, by some of the most despicable people I’ve ever seen or heard of.  Yeah, this year was a good year, now I just need to best it next year.

TMM

TMM is the owner, editor, and principal author at The Minuteman, a competitive shooter, and staff member for Boomershoot. Even in his free time he’s merging his love and knowledge of computers and technology with his love of firearms.

Many know his private name and information however due to the current political climate, many are distancing themselves due to the abandonment of Due Process.

www.the-minuteman.org