You Can't Silence Us

Mud

Today, I woke up to the first sunny morning in the past five days. A week of clouds and rain (more than 5 inches of it). I had to drain water from my pool on five different occasions to keep it from overflowing.

When I walked outside this morning, humidity was at 100% with a dewpoint of 74degF. It smells like mud outside. Now that it’s sunny and the ground is wet, the grass is going to grow like it’s mutated, but it will be hot, humid, and the ground too muddy to mow for the next few days.

Because the hurricane passed to our west, winds are now out of the southwest, and we are back into heat and moisture being blown at us from the Gulf. For the next week, we are back to hot and humid, with temperatures in the upper 80s.

I like it much better when storms pass to our south or west. That side of the storm pulls the cooler, dryer air towards us.

People who have read this post: 105
By Divemedic, ago

Enemy Combatant

I have long said I am opposed to the death penalty on practical grounds. That is, I support the death penalty in principle, but don’t trust the Government to not execute the innocent. The case of Nidal Hasan doesn’t fit into my opposition.

According to The Washington Post, Hasan made a presentation titled “The Quranic World View as It Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military” during his senior year of residency at WRAMC; it was not well received by some attendees. He suggested the U.S. Department of Defense “should allow Muslim soldiers the option of being released as ‘Conscientious objectors’ to increase troop morale and decrease adverse events.” He explained “adverse events” could be refusal to deploy, espionage, or killing of fellow soldiers.

Hasan represented himself in trial and admitted responsibility for the shooting, claiming to have switched sides in a “war on Islam” waged by the United States. Unrepentant, he bragged about striking a blow for Jihad. That admission is good enough for me.

He killed his comrades in arms, and I hope his upcoming execution hurts like hell.

People who have read this post: 137
By Divemedic, ago

Smug

Some Americans pretentiously think they are better than you because they can pronounce names from foreign languages like native speakers of that language:

Just like the people who insist on pronouncing the name of our current hurricane as if they speak Spanish:

Then there are Americans who don’t give a shit:

People who have read this post: 108
By Divemedic, ago

Better Than You

One of the things I don’t like about some of the dickheads in the military is how they denigrate their comrades in the service. The “You weren’t in the shit like I was, so your service doesn’t count for as much as mine did” bullshit. Like this:

Everyone who served had a job to do, and none of those who served could have done their job as well without the contributions of every one of those who were there. The Army can’t fight without tanks, fuel, ammo, and other supplies. That takes a Navy to keep sea lanes open.

The Marines open the beachhead. They need follow on heavier troops from the Army. The Air Force and Navy provide air support. It’s a cooperative mission. Stop tearing down the others who served. You did your job, so did they. It’s not a dick measuring contest.

I had an Army guy at a previous job tell me my job didn’t count because he was Army, and my service in the Navy was just sitting at sea, watching TV.

People who have read this post: 153
By Divemedic, ago

Regret

One regret I still have is not following my gut. There was a day, I think it was in 2001 or 2002, when an old lady came to the fire station. She pulled up on to the driveway while another firefighter and I were doing some training with our brush truck. (We were standing on the back of it, playing with the water.)

She told me her husband, a Vietnam war veteran, had passed away. She told me she didn’t know what to do with some of his old things and decided to bring them to us. In the trunk of her car was an ammo can. Inside of that can was half a dozen hand grenades. I still regret letting the cops know about it. The bomb squad came out and took possession of them.

I also know a guy who was a Combat Engineer. He had a few blocks of C4 and some detonators located in ammo cans in his garage. I forget the guys name, but I am sure he turned them in. yeah.

I am thinking there is a lot more military ammo and ordinance out there than anyone knows about. Remember the M60 that turned up in a Chicago buyback? How about the time that National Guard unit lost an M240? (It was never found) In fact, the US military loses about 200 weapons a year, on average, that they know about. Many times, a weapon goes missing and it’s covered up by people who don’t want to get in hot water.

People who have read this post: 137
By Divemedic, ago

Hurricane

We officially got our first hurricane of 2026’s season at 2330 Eastern Time on October 7. 23:30 EDT on October 7 is 03:30 UTC on October 8, which is the time NHC confirms it upgraded Isaias to a hurricane. Hurricane records use UTC, so its official date is October 8. That means 2026 ties 1905 for the latest first Atlantic hurricane on record by calendar date, matching a mark that stood for 121 years, making it the latest first hurricane in the Atlantic basin since we began spotting them with satellites.

While we here at Sector Ocho always monitor Hurricanes that are near Florida, this one is forecast to strike LA (Lower Alabama), which is what we here in Florida call the Panhandle. For us here on the Florida Peninsula, it will be a rain event only. We aren’t even forecast to get any wind from it. There is nothing to get excited about unless you are in the central path of a storm that’s a CAT 3 or higher when it makes landfall. For that reason, our daily routine here at Sector Ocho will remain as normal. I will not be activating any of my storm checklists or plans at this time.

What *has* happened this week is a cold front has been stalled over the central part of the state, and my rain gauge says we have received a steady rain for the past three days- four inches of rain. Since the area has been in a rain deficit for the year, this is going to nearly completely erase that problem. We were nearly 7 inches of rain below normal for the year, and the combination of stalled cold front and tropical moisture from the hurricane will erase nearly all of that deficit.

On a side note, this is a fall more like the one from my Florida childhood: lots of rain. I remember one year, we had a cold front stalled over us for over a week, and it completely ruined our Thanksgiving break from school. A week off of school, and stuck inside watching it rain.

People who have read this post: 225
By Divemedic, ago

Misspent Youth

As yesterday’s story probably hinted at, I was a bit more reckless and prone to doing stupid things. As further proof, I point you to a post I first made back in 2012 about an incident that occurred back in 1991, where I used the same shotgun as yesterday’s story to confront some teens who claimed to be members of a street gang.

Part two was posted here.

Part Three is found here.

I am a lot more circumspect in my older years, but I also have to say that I still rarely back down from a fight. I’m pretty good at tilting at windmills like that. There have been times that trait of wanting to right wrongs and rescue damsels has cost me. I am glad my current wife moderates my wilder tendencies as much as she does. Even though she did get in my way while I was getting robbed in Las Vegas. We will retell that tale tomorrow.

People who have read this post: 199
By Divemedic, ago

Adventures of Divemedic

I told you I was in business when I first got out of the Navy. The Navy trained me to be an electrician. Navy power systems are, by the nature of being on ships, industrial in nature. Many of you will be passingly familiar with the Army’s MOS system. The Navy has something similar called Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC). While your rate may be something like Electrician’s Mate, you can attend specialty schools within that rate to add specialization to it. The NEC code from attending a particular school gets added to your personnel file, so it can be used to fill the needs of future command assignments.

I earned three of them while I served:

  • 4632 (Auxiliaries Electrical System Technician)
  • 4615 (Electric Motor Rewinder)
  • 4613 (IMA Outside Electrical Journeyman)

Because of that, I was uniquely qualified to work on electric motors, generators, and motor controls. It’s also why I ran my own business for a couple of years. I’m not sure how good I would be at this point, it’s been a number of years (OK, 30-something) since I have rewound an electric motor. While I was in business, I had a guy working for me that would pickup and deliver repair jobs for me. I had one of those small pickup trucks that I let him use to do the job for me.

One day, he just didn’t return from making deliveries. A couple of days later, I got a letter from the state, telling me that, as the registered owner of the vehicle, someone had declared the vehicle abandoned on his property, and they would be issuing a new title in that person’s name in 14 days.

I went looking for him and my truck. When I arrived at his house, he told me I couldn’t have the truck back, and chased me from his property with a 2 foot length of metal pipe in his hand, telling me if he saw me on his property again, he would knock my teeth out. I went to the Sheriff’s office to make a complaint.

The Sheriff himself explained to me that, because I had given him the keys, it was a civil matter and I would have to take him to court. Since the truck was over the limit in value for small claims, it would require a lawyer and a bit of money and time. I asked him what he would do if one of his deputies quit and refused to return his patrol cruiser. The Sheriff replied: “That’s different.” Then I was told the police wouldn’t get involved, so I would have to deal with it myself.

So that’s what I did. A friend of his told me that he had gotten a new job at a company making roofing trusses. I went to that workplace, and there was my truck. So I tried to start the truck with my keys, but it wouldn’t start. I popped the hood, and the wire from the distributor to the spark plug was missing. That’s fine, I had my wife drive the vehicle we arrived in, hooked a tow rope to both vehicles, and was about ready to drive off.

That’s when my former employee came out with a bunch of his coworkers in tow, saying: “I told you what would happen if you came near my property again,” and began advancing towards me with a hammer in his hand. I pepper sprayed the living shit out of him.

As he was rolling on the ground, I was about to get in the truck to be towed off, when his coworkers began yelling and advancing towards me. So I did the most direct thing- I pulled a Remington 870 from my vehicle and pumped the slide. “Who wants to be a fucking hero?”

No one did. So I drove away as they yelled about calling the cops.

An hour later, I got a call from the Sheriff, who said he wanted to talk to me. I met him at his office.

  • Sheriff: “That boy you attacked had to go to the hospital. He might be blind.”
  • Me: “It’s pepper spray, he will be fine.”
  • Sheriff: “I could arrest you for armed robbery.”
  • Me: “It’s my truck, registered in my name and it was self defense. Besides, you told me to deal with it myself. I dealt with it.”
  • Sheriff: “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I should arrest you.”
  • Me: “We both know it won’t stick. Look, no one was permanently injured, no laws were broken. I got my truck back.”
  • Sheriff: “I don’t approve of your actions, but you’re right. No laws were broken.”
  • Me: “OK, I guess we’re done here.”

I sold the truck. The sheriff retired more than a decade ago. I don’t know what happened to the ex employee. Haven’t seen him since.

People who have read this post: 475
By Divemedic, ago

The Botched Execution

I’ve made no secret of my opposition to the death penalty, but I remain opposed to it only for practical reasons: that is, we can’t trust agents of the government to fuck it up somehow. Perhaps they fake DNA evidence like the FBI crime lab did, or maybe they try to kill someone and can’t manage to do it without botching it.

People who have read this post: 372
By Divemedic, ago