dawgdoc

I have two 50 gallon rain barrels, but I made a 5-gallon bucket sand and charcoal filter to clean it if I get to the point of needing to drink it.   I have various qualities of water stored.  For a short-term problem like in West Virginia, I have a bunch of 1 gallon sealed distilled water jugs.  I then have a bunch of re-used water and other jugs that I filled with tap water.  I figure these would be for flushing toilets, pet water, washing hands, cleaning, and human consumption after boiling (in case anything was growing because they aren't hermetically sealed).  If I really needed to flush the toilets, but I thought the water would be off for a while, I would use rain barrel water for that and save any of the safer water.     The rain barrels are mainly for the garden, but I think the water could be safe if filtered by the sand filter or a hiking filter and then boiled.  For any long-term disruption, it will either be the rain barrels or a bit of a hike to a nearby creek.   The problem I see with those connected barrels is cleaning them.  If the pipes are sealed to the barrels, then its hard to tip them over and clean them each year.  I have one barrel's overflow going into the next barrel so that they share the same downspout but are not physically connected.  It requires that the second barrel be lower than the first, but the grade of the yard allows it.

I just saw this story on the news ticker this morning:  http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/24454404/tn-legislature-loads-up-on-gun-proposals   Forgive me if this already being discussed, but I couldn't find it on here today.  Not being from Tennessee, I would like y'all's opinions on these proposals.  From the brief descriptions given in the story, they sound good (except the last one about not enforcing federal gun laws, which probably has a snowball's chance of doing anything).    I decided to go ahead and write the Rep and Senator from the area where I work.  I know my voice literally has less meaning to them than one of their voting constituents, but I thought I could at least give some rational arguments for overturning the ban on carrying in parks.  At least in the Chattanooga area, it seems like all the local governments have "opted out" and ban guns in their parks.  

I know a guy who worked as a photographer at Walmart who had people use EBT to pay for family photos.   Once, I was behind a woman at Walmart who was trying to pay with and EBT card.  She had a cart overflowing with stuff.  The only thing that the computer rejected (as in, EBT wouldn't cover) was Monster Energy Drinks.  The customer and the cashier seemed to have some trouble figuring out what was being rejected.  When the cashier realized it was the Monster drink, he then proceeded to explain that they shouldn't get them anyway because the Monster symbol was Hebrew for "666."   She didn't seem to interested. He confirmed that it was true because it was on the Internet.   Usually, I hate shopping at Wal-Mart, but that day was entertaining.  The EBT user looked like she stepped out of the "People of Walmart" book--overweight, wearing shorts with dirty white ankle socks and sandels, which allowed one to see the large rebel flag tattoo on her calf.

  I work in Tennessee, so depending on how many days I work in a given week, I spend almost as much time in Tennessee as Georgia.  I originally came here to check out the prohibited places.     It can be frustrating to see many issues (not just gun related) that affect my life nearly as much as a citizen of Tennessee, but have no political voice to effect change.

Rain barrels, and then a way to filter what comes out of the rain barrel (you can make a sand filter).  If you are going to have to haul water any distance, some type of cart.  My son is too big for our bike trailer, but I'm keeping it just in case, because I figured it might be useful.   Either books or print outs from the Internet with anything that could be useful later.  It's best to have a skill before you need it, but since not everyone can devote their life learning bushcraft, good references with pictures might be second best.

Anyone think that if the guy had actually been disturbing the public by running around, waving his arms, and hooting loudly (but with no guns), the most that the police would have done would be to ask him to stop, or at worst, eject him from the mall?   Instead, because he has a gun, and a few people noticed it and said the right words, they charge him with a crime?  What should have happened is this:  sheepish people call to report a man with a evil gun; cops respond; cops question him and realize he is not on the verge of a mall rampage (as evidenced by the fact that he responds to their questions and does not try to kill them); cops tell him he is free to go, but possibly give non-binding legal advice that the man's actions could be considered alarming.   Our whole justice system is based on innocent until proven guilty; that concept has been corrupted in modern times.  It should be that the LEOs use actual investigative skills to determine if a crime defined by a specific code has been committed.  Only then should the person be arrested.  Instead, many LEOs seem to adopt the mindset that if someone called the police, then someone else must be guilty, and the encounter must end in an arrest.  A simple conversation and review of the relevant code (that we have all seen) should have told them that no crime was committed.     Instead, "to be safe," they get a warrant to arrest him and let the courts sort it out.  By the time it gets to the court, you have already lost, even if you are found not guilty.  The authorities should be making much greater effort to only arrest the truly guilty (even at the expense at letting some people go), rather than arrest any innocent person.     I would probably not carry an rifle into a mall just because I don't wont to be hassled.  However, my decision is solely for me.  Some nervous nellies calling the cops because they see a man carrying a slung rifle is as bad as someone calling the police because they see 4 black guys that they are afraid may start a Knockout Game.  In both cases, the fear is unfounded without further information.    If we feel that we must hide our guns to protect the delicate sensibilities of the uninformed, where does that slippery slope end?  So many states require guns to be hidden, as if they were a dirty thing.  Once you start requiring those dirty things to be hidden, then you start punishing even accidental exposure.  Even in Florida, which has a law protecting against accidental exposure, I have no doubt that there are those in power who would punish you (formally or informally) for revealing your weapon; perhaps they will use "disturbing the peace" as the charge.  Eventually, society slides down to a point that even owning a gun is a sign of mental illness.   I can honestly say that if I saw a man carrying an AR-15 slung on his back with his arms full of other objects, I would watch him as something interesting and unusual, but I doubt I would be on high alert if there are absolutely no other signs that he is a potential mass murderer.  Granted, I have never been in a mall mass shooting, but I suspect the demeanor of those perpetrators were a lot different than this man in Texas.

In regard to fish antibiotics (from a guy who actually took a fish medicine course):  there are very few FDA-approved drugs for fish.  All those fish antibiotics that you see packaged as individual capsules in blister packs are illegally re-packaged generic antibiotics.  Most likely, some company is literally taking a thousand count amoxicillin bottle and repackaging it as if it were an actual fish drug (and probably marking it up a gazillion percent).  The FDA just has not made it one of their enforcement priorities.  My fish med professor said that at one time, it was an open secret among special forces guys about using these antibiotics, until one guy got a resistant infection, and then the medical community was suddenly aware of what was going on in aquarium stores.  But no one with enforcement authority seemed to care.   So if you choose to take one of these "fish antibiotics," you can probably feel safe that it is an actual human drug.  You can always Google the code on the capsule to be sure.  However, for fish diseases, these antibiotics are mostly useless and potentially harmful.   In regard to resistance bacteria, I blame people like my childhood pediatrician who always prescribed amoxicillin regardless of what I had.  Sometimes it was probably warranted, but I bet I got overtreated as a child.   As for the people who don't take a full course of antibiotics--the research is evolving as to what a "full course" actually is (one study showed clearing UTI in just three days), so they may not be to blame.  I think the flushing of unused antibiotics from the unfinished treatment could be as bad as not taking all the antibiotics.   Edit:  And epinephrine is one of the few drugs that actually goes toxic after its expiration date; I think that was in the military study cited above.

Not too long ago, a group of human specialists did some research on insulin and expiration dates.  They found that all insulins were still potent up to the actual expiration date listed on the bottle.  And the expiration date is more of a "guaranteed fresh" date; its not like any drug instantly goes bad after the expiration date, but the potency may start decreasing.  In fact, epinephrine and tetracyclines are the only drugs that I know of that actually become toxic as they age.   The only reason for the discard after 28 day warning is because of theoretical contamination issues.  In other words, if you kept using the vial past 4 weeks, the manufacturer does not want to be blamed if all those repeated needle sticks leads to bacterial contamination.  In veterinary medicine, we regularly use Lantus insulin for cats, but the average cat gets 1-2 units twice a day.  It would be prohibitively expensive if people actually discarded the vial after 4 weeks.  So veterinary internal medicine specialists recommend using the same vial for 3-4 months, and keeping it refrigerated to decrease bacterial growth.  The only reason to discard is because by 4 months, the vial has been punctured approximately 240 times.  That being said, I have had clients use a vial until it was actually empty, which took at least 6 months.    I had heard that humans do not actually require a prescription for insulin (the idea being that they needed to be able to get a refill whenever), but I don't have any personal experience with that idea.  I always write a prescription for my patients, because any off label use of a human drug requires a prescription for animals.

I went to the Brainerd Army Store about 2 weeks before Christmas.  My impression is that they got the "surplus" right (a bunch of old military equipment that smells musty) but forgot the surplus prices.  For example, .50 cal ammo cans were $25, and BDU pants (or shirts, I can't remember which) were like $43 or something.  It just didn't seem very cheap for used stuff.  Maybe I am cheap and expect too much.  There was nothing in any section that was a steal or a deal to me.

  Pancreatitis is often associated with eating fatty foods such as ham, bacon, steak trimmings, and ground beef.  Some dogs, like schnauzers are more predisposed because they already have high triglyceride levels in their bloodstreams.  I have had people tell me they feed bacon grease to their dog everyday and see no problems.  The other extreme is the dog who gets pancreatitis from just one bite of food.  In between are the dogs who have eaten this kind of food before, but suddenly get pancreatitis.   We tend to see more pancreatitis at this time of year because people like to share their holiday meals.  I always tell people to not feed the above foods (even if the dog has had it before), because pancreatitis can be deadly (and even when it isn't, it is often expensive).  If person must feed human food, try fat-free chicken breast and rice.

I have lived all over Georgia.  I was born in Atlanta, moved to the Savannah area, went to two different colleges, and I just realized the other day that as of this year, I have lived in northwest Georgia the longest.  The quiz pegs me as being most similar to Jackson, Birmingham, and Columbus, which are geographically distance from where I am "from" but kind of make sense.  I can trace my ancestors to as far back as Alabama and Mississippi.   Some of the answers I knew the answer as one way, but it's not how I normally speak.  Like the question about the road on the side of highway.  If someone asked me to define it, I might call it a service or frontage road, but I don't generally call it anything other than, "a road."

I went to Academy in Dalton, GA this morning. I got there about 5 minutes before opening, and there were about 15 guys there waiting. It was a very polite, single filed line walking to the gun counter; at least two different guys insisted that another person should be ahead of them. I guess everyone is more polite when you know everyone else is a gun owner. They had a cylinder-shaped bulk pack that was sold out first, then Federal 525 boxs for $18, and 100 round Mini-Mags for $7.49 (limit 2). Only the Mini-Mags remained after the initial opening rush.

It was already in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution and on a Nashville news station.

The botched decapitation was straight out of the comic book, only with a different character.  I think a small part was to show that Michonne is actually skilled in its use (she has a lot more practice, and usually is taking on rotting corpses), and the Governor was so macho that he thinks he can do anything a skinny girl can do.   I wonder if the young girls stashed Judith in the prison for safety, and if the two sisters from the Governor's camp will eventually find and adopt them or her.  The lesbian sister did not see her girlfriend get killed, as far as we know (she was hiding behind the tank, and then just disappeared).  So presumably, her and her sister may stick around the prison, as long as they can dodge walkers.

The Rainbow Push Coaltion is going to ask the deceased's family to join a lawsuit against Georgia's Stand You Ground law. I guess they can't let a tragedy go to waste.

One year my nephew wanted to go to the Toys R Us Thanksgiving sale in Morrow, Georgia.  For some I reason, I volunteered to take him.  We left late, so we only got there 30 minutes before it opened.  We didn't see that the line stretched entirely around the store before we parked.  As we searched for the end of the line, we turned the corner into the side alley of the building, and we came upon a mass of people.  They were all swaying slightly because they were cold and trying to see the front of the line, and the bright lights only partially illuminated them.   The first impression that I got was a horde of zombies, just like when someone rounds a corner in Walking Dead and stumbles upon a herd.  

I should also add, that were it me, I would have stayed inside.  In my case, I would have to go through several obstacles to try to outflank a person at my front door.  Any intruder intent on getting in could make it through the front door or a window before I even got to the side of the house.     Also, we had very similar situation in Catoosa County (a guy circled around to an outside entrance to his house and confronted two unarmed teenagers who were stealing from the basement).  He fired a shot when they approached, and one burglar later died.  The difference of the support (on the news comments section) for that situation and the Alzheimer's patient situation is dramatic, even though there is about as much information publicly available.  I assume that because in the latter case the victim turned out to be an actual criminal, they don't have a problem with it, even though it appears the basic facts (man shoots person who wasn't supposed to be there) are essentially the same.

Also, at this point, no one except the cops know what the shooter said happened immediately before the shooting.  In other words, there are several situations possible (some favorable, some unfavorable to the shooter), but no one knows for sure. Some of the reports indicate that the victim was rattling the door knob, knocking or banging on both front and back doors.  These are all normal actions for someone who was confused and thought he was locked out of his own home, but would be quite alarming to the rightful occupants. The Sheriff has stated that he did not think the man should have left the house, but it wasn't illegal either.  He is also quoted as saying there is no doubt the occupants felt threatened.   I can imagine two extremes that resulted in the shooting:  On one extreme, the shooter could have been nervous and ready to pull the trigger at the slightest twitch, which resulted in the death of an innocent man.  On the other extreme, the shooter may have given several commands to stop, displayed his weapon, backed up a few feet (i.e. retreated), and only shot when the man made some type of threatening motion (lunging, acting like he was pulling a weapon, ordering the dog to attack, etc).  In between these two extremes are myriad of possibilities, but we are left with an absence of information on which to judge.

  I think the survivalist made the mistake of trusting the two military guys, who lied that they were going to help him, raped his wife, and killed his family.  I think he put the Murderer sign on himself before committing suicide because either he felt that he murdered his family by letting in their killers, or because he murdered the other two guys.  Obviously, the keeping of the re-animated heads and his zombie family indicated he had a screw loose, just like the Governor.   I imagine the survivor's guilt would be especially strong for a guy who was supposed to have been a rugged survivalist living away from society whose family ends up dying because he didn't keep to the mantra of "Trust No One."

I feel sympathy for your situation, and I can't offer you any other solutions tham what has already been posted. I would suggest you keep a log of all the costs and difficulties that you face on your quest to legally carry. Then, write a letter to all the law makers to illustrate why mandatory training is a barrier to more people carrying. Most of them might not care, but they should know what a burden the law is.

As a Georgian who goes to Tennessee daily, I can only offer my moral support to the cause (I really hate that the local governments can prohibit carrying in their parks; makes me feel so safe).   In regard to the sign law--I know that once a law is passed, it is very difficult to abolish, but it might be easier to change.  I hate that signs can make me an instant criminal just because I walked in without seeing it.  I recently took the South Carolina Concealed Handgun Permit class.  One of the interesting things was their sign law.  The short summary is that signs carry weight in South Carolina.  However, it appears that their pro-carry group, as part of the compromise, managed to get such specific sign requirements, that very few places have the proper sign.  Without the proper sign, carrying there is not a crime.   Their sign law specifies the font, the height of the letters,the specific dimensions of the sign, the specific placement of the sign (the maximum and minimum heights above ground at all entrances); it even specifies exactly what the gunbuster symbol must look like (must have the slash running from lower left to upper right, for example).  For a park or other place without doors to be posted, the sign must be huge (3 ft x 4 ft) and located very few hundred feet around the perimeter.  It has half a page of specifics.  If any of these particulars are not met, then it is not properly posted.   Knowing that I read on this board that some official had given an opinion that a person in Tennessee might still be prosecuted even if the sign was not "correct," I asked the instructor if there was anything similar in South Carolina.  He re-iterated that if the sign was wrong, then only the regular trespassing statute applies (like in Georgia).  He showed us lots of signs and pointed out some very tiny details that made them invalid.  It really seems like they tried hard to make it difficult to comply with the sign law.  He said there are some places with proper signs (Goodwills, I think?), and that there is a guy who specializes in selling proper signs.  Obviously someone who has a vague notion that "signs carry weight" in South Carolina might be intimidated and not carry into a place without proper signage, but they seem to have less worry over there about breaking that particular law.  South Carolina has a bunch of other screwy laws, though.   So although repealing the sign law in Tennessee would be ideal, neutering it might be an alternative.

In regards to the limited capacity of the revolver:  you can always have your husband leave the Glock loaded for you (round chambered) and keep that in addition to the revolver.  Then you could use whichever one you are most comfortable with, and use the other one for a  "New York Reload" (using a back-up gun instead of actual reload).   When my wife and I first started considering her carrying a gun, she had a lot of difficulty racking the slide of a LC9.  We considered just having me load it for her, and then all she would have to do was pull the trigger.  Eventually she just learned to rack the slide in a different way; there's a video (on You Tube) for women that presents a different way to rack the slide that made it easier.

I should change it to  "...had a chance to leave Florida and returned."   

Probably the only effective way to deal with this type of laziness would be to randomly choose one of the slackers and immediately fire him.  The modern employment equivalent of Roman decimation.  That might get the attention of the others for a while.  And assuming that the girl who did answer the phone was never part of the slacker group, she should be commended because she might have being doing actual work somewhere and rushed to do the job of one her co-workers also.   If I had loads of free time and this had happened to me, I might come again on the same night, same time the next week and see if they had fixed the problem.  Only this time film it for the manager.

Anything he does wrong for the rest of his life will be under the microscope, and anybody he wrongs for the rest of his life will have the perfect formula for getting even with him.  Look at that incident with his wife--no charges were filed, but just by her calling the police, it brought down 10 times the heat as it would for a normal guy.   I have to wonder if all these incidents are true, but don't reflect the guy he was before the TM shooting.  In other words, is he cracking under pressure?  If I had been him, I would have moved somewhere gun-friendly, far away, and sparsely populated.  Instead he stays in Florida, gets his picture taken at Kel-Tec, and may have threatened (or at least intimidated) two different women.  You would think that he would realize that his prospect for a normal life in Florida, with anyone from Florida, would be dim.  It may not be fair, but it's the truth.  So the two theories that I have seen is that he has a superhero complex (and thinks no harm can come to him), or he has a death wish.  I would like to think that neither is true, but either theory could explain a lot of his publicity post-trial.