From Car Meme To Reality

You've likely seen this meme about the wisdom of placing decorative items on your steering wheel:

Most people would chuckle at the pic thinking people can't really be that dumb.

They would be mistaken. 

Apparently, people putting objects over their steering wheel airbags is a real current concern.

The Detroit News: Feds urge people not to put decals on steering wheels after a driver is hurt by flying metal pieces

The warning from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration comes after another driver was severely hurt by a flying emblem during a crash. The air bag inflated and sent two pieces of metal from an aftermarket decal into the driver's face and neck.

The agency said it couldn't say where or when the injury occurred. But it said the injury was the second it is aware of involving an aftermarket decal. In the previous case the driver lost sight in one eye after being hit by a rhinestone-adorned decal that hit them in the face, NHTSA said in a statement Tuesday.

Yeah, that's gonna hurt. 

Placing any object - whether metal, stone or otherwise, over the casing of an airbag that will move towards you rapidly and with explosive force during an accident is just a stupid idea.

Omoplata in Portuguese Does Not Translate To

"A monkey making sweet love to a football."

But it probably should, at least in regards to the Omoplata in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Instead, Omaplata is Portuguese for the scapula, derived from the ancient Greek word for shoulder rather than the Latin word scapula.  The Omoplata in BJJ gets its name as it is a shoulder lock, and a very effective one it is, too, once you actually maneuver in place to lock it in.

Here's a video demonstrating the Omoplata:

 As you can see, there's a fair bit going on.  Once locked in place however, the Omoplata is a pretty surefire way to get your attacker to give up or disable themselves.

With my hip still not being 100%, my finish was more of a pull myself up to the opponent's other side shoulder than the graceful hip flip to upright you see in the video.  The video makes it look easy - for me learning it the first time, not so much.  

In short, me and the monkey were having a romantic time with a football learning this technique. I made it work, but it wasn't pretty getting there.

There are variants, and we learned a few of them.  I found I could get into the Omoplata a lot easier when holding the attacker in 3/4 guard, and it's a great opportunity to do the move if you're in that position and the attacker turns their head the wrong way, thus creating an opening for the move.

We then learned the Go Go Plata, which is the response you use when the attacker tries to sit up and pull away from the Omoplata - you adjust your feet and they get choked out rather quickly from your feet fully choking their neck.   Rather fun, if a tad vicious as it sets in real quick and hard.

You can also shift the opponent into a triangle choke if they try and move their arm to protect it from the Omoplata, and then shift back to the Omoplata when they try and defend the triangle.

BJJ, after all, is all about leading your attacker down a path to worse and worse options to make them regret their bad life choices, with attacking you being one of those bad life choices.

So yep, I need a lot more practice with the Omoplata to make it effective and I'm rather sore from my initial lesson learning it  as my hip is not appreciating moving that much, but will be doing a lot more practice with it later this week.

I Used To Be An Adventurer Like You.

Then I took a knee in the face.

Which happened tonight at jitsu.

We were doing side mount sparring and wall drills.

A wall drill is a fiendishly clever workout.

As you might expect, there's a wall involved.

2 practitioners are on the mats, in this case lying down, the remaining practitioners are lined up. on, you guessed it, the wall.

How it works: 2 people on the wall take top of side mount on the 2 on the mats.  If the one on the bottom of side mount escapes they get to remain on the mat and the person on top heads back to the wall, and another person immediately comes off the wall to try and get them.  If the one on top gets a submission,  they take the place of the person lying down on the mat and the next person comes  off the wall tries to submit them. As soon as someone escapes or submits, someone comes off the wall to replace the person leaving. You keep going round and around until time is called.

It's fun, fast-paced, and it's a ridiculous amount of energy spent defending and attacking. It's a great way to hone techniques against a lot of resistance and different opponents as everyone wants to stay out on the mat and off the wall as long as possible.

I managed my personal best tonight - I submitted the opponent on a time when I came off the wall, and then fended off and escaped two other practitioners who were the trying to submit me.

That was happy-making.

Then I took a knee in the face.  

Not intentional, but in the scramble my opponent had his knee connect to my face and I managed to get a nice bloody lip and saw a few stars to boot. Ouch. 

I held on for a bit being nice and effectively defending, but noticed I was bleeding, which is a stopper in the action.  Got up, cleaned up and stopped the bleeding and got back at it after. Since then, I've had some ice on it and some lip balm, and we'll see how bad it looks tomorrow. No pain, no gain I guess.

Even with the bloody lip, it was still a good night and my techniques were on point, and it was nice to be the windshield rather than the fly for once.

Learning Fun, More Learning Fun, Ouch

Saturday, I attended a Jiu Jitsu seminar at the training center.

Visiting was Chet, a 4th Degree Back Belt who is an incredibly skilled practitioner, an engaging and wonderful teacher, and an all-around nice guy.  

To say he really knows his stuff and can make a technique understandable and effective is an understatement.  Always an amazing time when he visits, even if it feels like you're drinking from a fire hose.  You always get more than your money's worth from any seminar he instructs.

We started with something that seems simple, but with a few little tweaks becomes a lot more effective - the initial clinch.

Basically in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu the philosophy when your being attacked is you're either in or out.  Out meaning far enough away you can't get punched or kicked, or In - you're close enough that the attacker's punches or kicks lose effectiveness as you're already too close for them to generate power in their punches. You typically don't want to hang out at arms-length absorbing your attacker's punches.

Clinching is being very In. Basically, you're attached to them smothering their attacks and in close enough to then do a takedown or other technique to stop the attack or get away.

The two tweaks sound really simple and then made a huge difference.  They were: Look up and leg pressure.

Simply by looking up while you're cinching changes your body posture and helps break the opponent's posture.  Putting pressure on their leg further reduces their stability and further breaks their posture.  Not very comfortable for them and it absolutely makes the position more effective with these two very tiny modifications.

I was teamed up with Jesse, a 4-stripe white belt.  Jesse is quite a bit bigger and stronger than I am, which is great practice. After all, it's most likely that in real life you're going to be attacked by someone who is bigger and stronger than you rather than the other way around. This can get uncomfortable with all his weight on you during ground techniques, but it helps to learn to be comfortable while being uncomfortable, and knowing you can still handle yourself with a big heavy guy trying to smother you.

The only downside, is that while practicing dynamic clinching, all his bigness and strong-ness accidentally came down on the 2nd little toe from the end of my left foot and it came down just right (or just wrong) that there was a snapping sound and some rather instant pain. 

Weird accidents happen.

So, with one broken toe later, with it immediately turning black and blue, I taped it to the next toe and carried on, albeit being careful with that foot.

The rest of the seminar dealt with some really neat ground techniques.  These included a sneaky arm triangle choke you can do when the attacker on top of you decides to put his forearm over your throat and press down trying to choke you. Instead, they get choked out and get to reevaluate their life choices and regret their choice of being so rude as to try to shove their forearm through your throat.

After the teaching portion of the seminar ended, we had some free rolling time, and along with rolling with my friends, I got an opportunity to roll with Chet. This was pretty incredible as he can see what you're trying to do about 20 moves ahead of you actually doing it. He moves so well and smoothly it is just fantastic to experience. This was a fun time and it was very neat to again experience how good someone at that level can be at this. Learned a lot rolling with him. 

In short should you decide to try and attack a 4th degree BJJ Black Belt, my best advice is instead to run in the opposite direction as fast as you possibly can. This advice also applies to BJJ Black belts of all levels; also Brown Belts; Purple Belts; and any Blue Belt who is better than me -- which is just about all of them, just saying).

A lot of fun and learning occurred.  Toe is still rather sore today, and I've iced it and re-taped it to the next toe. 

After the rolls, a bunch of us headed out for tacos and camaraderie with Chet and it was an end to a great seminar.  It was a darn good time, even with the ouchie.  Worth it.

No, Really, Don't Do That With Your Pistol

Texting while driving is bad.  Shooting yourself while driving is even worse.

Fox 2: Man accidentally shoots self with unholstered pistol while driving on I-94

The fellow had a CPL, but apparently lacked the sense to carry in a holster. He apparently then "shifted" the firearm while driving and shot himself in the leg.

No information is provided as to what kind of pistol it was, but I'd suspect it was a striker-fired pistol of some sort, and with the trigger unprotected by a holster, he likely nudged the trigger enough while moving the firearm in his pants to cause it to fire.

Firearms and holsters are like peanut butter and jelly - a great combination and one is not great for carrying alone by itself without the other. 

Shoving a firearm down your pants without a holster to protect the trigger is highly sub-optimal.  

Then playing with it as it likely moved from where you shoved it as you don't have it in a holster makes it worse.  That messing about with it opens opportunities for you to discharge it in a manner you would not expect nor desire. In addition, not having it in a holster and having it move about as it may will cut down on your ability to effectively access it should you need it to protect your life - having to find it after it has fallen down your pants leg and potentially got stuck there probably doesn't give you quick access to it at your moment of need.

If you carry a gun, have a quality holster for it that not just protects the trigger but also protects you and keeps the gun where you placed it so it doesn't go flopping about just anywhere.  

If you can afford to carry a gun, you certainly should afford to carry it in a decent holster.  The leg (or other body parts) you save might be your own, or your passengers, or an innocent in another car.

Yeowch - I Was Not Expecting That

So yesterday I went to do some jitsu.

The lesson was on the overhead sweep from guard.

First time learning it, and it is a very fun sweep.

In short, the attacker stands up in your guard or runs into your guard, and decides while doing so to grab your throat, jacket etc. You basically get your feet in his hips, grab his arms, and basically can get him up in the air with his weight on your feet like a leg press and roll him north above  your head in a somersault-type maneuver, and if you hang on to his arms while doing so you end up on top.

The sweep can be stopped by the attacker if he knows how to shift his body to counter, but it then opens him up for two other sweeps if he persists in standing up.

Much fun, and I did the sweeper but not the sweepee side of things and having people's feet leg pressing into my hips lifting me into the air would be a bad idea. Still not allowed to fall, and the sweepee does do a definite fall onto the hips which is contra-indicated.

So that was good and went well.

Then we did some rolling which went well until . . .

I was in my second  roll of the night with an opponent and had a good opportunity to do a trap and roll maneuver to get him off of on to of me. The problem is as I extended by hips up in a bridge, he in reaction brought his foot down hard right on my right hip to get a hook in to stop me rolling him.

He hit a rather unpleasant spot on the leg, pretty much right on the surgical scar as my hips were fully extended, which unpleasantly triggered a reaction I did not know could happen.

Basically, it felt like 240 volts of electricity coursed through my entire body and I collapsed nicely.

Ow, Ow, Ow.  Basically every nerve in the hip area went absolutely bonkers and I could not move.

After a bit, I discovered I could actually move again, and was able to move the leg and hip.  I was able to get up and move around.  Hip joint seemed ok, but the muscles around the hip were not happy.

I sat out the rest of the rolling and watched, and then helped with cleaning the mats afterward. Got changed, went home, had a hot shower, and took some Tylenol.

Rather sore and a bit limpy this morning, but no serious damage done, still same range of motion as before and no excessive pain. 

So, it turns out I'm not quite as healed up as I thought, which is a bit disconcerting. 

I'm going to need to take it a bit easier, and not do trap and rolls unless I have my training partner know not to try and stop it with the non-rolling side hook, but that was the first time that has happened. All prior rolls to date have only resulted in some soreness, not electric, body-frying pain like that. 

Good to know and certainly a corrective as I thought I was healed up and well past the point that kind of thing happening, but apparently not. Will just carry on, but being a bit more careful as we go here.

Tax Day

While a fine is a tax for doing bad, a tax is a fine for doing good.

If that's truly the case, we were rather good this year. As a result, we're paying for it.  Between the two of us this year, we paid more in state and federal income taxes than the salary from my first full time job.  Ouch. We won;t even discuss property taxes, sales taxes, cell phone taxes, and gas taxes . . .

Elections really should be held the day after Tax Day when people realize how much of their money they're giving to the government and they can consider what they and the nation receive in return.

PT: So, How About Ouch For An Answer?

In addition to flying, I Did a PT session today.

Apparently it's not just my IT Band that is a bit cross with me.

There's a piece of my leg south of the incision where the surface nerves are completely out of whack.  Pressure is felt, but not much other sensation in that spot which is about a palms-width in size.  Feels really strange but it should resolve itself eventually.

 Had a good workout set of the exercises, gave it my all, then got to lie and enjoy some heat on the leg and then the Therapist comes by as it's my turn to get manipulated.

So I'm getting worked on and I mention this dead spot to the physio therapist.

So he starts putting some pressure in the area.

"Does that hurt?"  "No"

"Does that hurt?"  "No"

"Does that hurt?"  "No"

"Does that hurt?"  "N-Yeargh!"

Don't think I caught air on that, but only because he was pushing down into my leg at the time. 

The surface nerves may be fried, but the nerves deeper in the quad muscle are present, still pissed off at being man-handled during the surgery, and absolutely not afraid to let me know that. 

This is part of why I'm having trouble sleeping through the night, as they occasionally fire off to let me know I was a jerk for letting them get moved around, and the muscle tends to be stiff and sore in the morning.

This will apparently all settle down in time, but they're not done messing with me for now.

Ow, What The Heck?

So, no ice machine yesterday, much sadness.

As such, I didn't put on the ice gel pack I've bought as a replacement at night, as falling asleep wearing it is not a good idea.  In short, you should ice an area for up to only 30 minutes at a time. Then  you need to give the icing treatment a break.

Swelling does continue to occur in the lower areas.  

Before the guys go "swelling heh, heh, cool" -- Well, it's not so much fun nor is there any swelling in that area, get yer minds outta the gutter. 

Generally, the swelling occurs lower down as the swelling around the quad muscle and hip seems to trap the blood farther down in the leg.

The right ankle again swelled yesterday night to the size of a softball.  Likely the heavy PT had something to do with that. Very productive PT session where I was walking around and doing exercises without a cane or any support or safety belt at all (kinda scary, and wobbly, but I did it)  - quite the workout.

Normally and unfortunately, I'm awoken in the middle of the night because of the right big toe swelling up and feeling like it had been sliced open and bleeding at the top, even though it is not actually doing that.  But it sure feels and hurts like it does.

But last night it wasn't the right big toe that woke me up, this time, it was the  Big Toe on my LEFT LEG.

Seriously left big toe?  Your leg wasn't even involved in this surgery! Knock that off.

Got the gel pack out, iced the right leg at the hip for thirty minutes which felt darn good, and everything settled down.

More outpatient PT today. More icing to come too. Time to go get better.

Well That Cleared A Year's Worth Of Deductibles In A Month.

Got the bill in the mail for the surgery, which I have now paid.

Reading the top line I almost passed out.  Bottom line was quite a bit better by comparison, which is likely why they do it.

Our medical system is kinda crazy in terms of billing, but the level of care is rather great. 

A $60k top line, but then there's an insurance reduction of $47k.  Then followed by the  insurance company  payment of $10,842.82 and our deductible of $1,577.18.  So for a $60k charge, they actually got paid $12,420.00.  This is probably what they actually wanted to make from the outset in order to get a decent profit for a few rather intensive and high quality hours of care, so they had to raise the stated price to be able to get to where they wanted to be.

If anybody can make sense of this kind of system where the insurance company's contractual reduction is the majority of the stated charge, good luck with that.

Note that was just the surgery center and didn't include the separate bill from the surgeon, who, just like the surgery center, definitely deserved the money. So, understand that I'm not complaining at all, just remarking on the inanity of how the system works and how the top line price just has nothing to do with the actual final price paid.

Between the two invoices from them alone, we cleared our insurance company's annual High Deductible Health Care Plan out-of-pocket deductible for the entire year and all in the month of January! Ouch. 

We've only cleared that deductible in a year once before - last year when some other serious family health care problems occured and had to be dealt with, but then we hit the max in September, not January. 

Of course, some things aren't covered by insurance at all, such as the ice/compression machine so we paid that out of pocket, but the rental fee  for the 3 weeks for it was really, really worth it. Highly, highly recommended if you get offered it, do it.

Well, the rest of the year now has services without out of pocket deductibles so we've got that going for us, and that's nice.

How Very Not Good

Apparently, every happy event must be matched with a not-so-happy event.

Well, my business accounts at Chase got hacked at around 5:30 last night and they had a lot of money taken out via ACH and no one at Chase is telling me how it happened. Good thing I happened to check the account as In was finishing work at 6 and saw it - aside from the heart attack from seeing it that is.

Apparently it was not a password breach as my password and even the username for the business have been changed before this occurred, shared with no one, I do regular weekly anti-virus and malware scans are done on my computer, I don't go to strange sites on this computer, and they're not saying there was any suspicious sign-ons at all, so it's likely they got in some other way - but Chase is not saying.

The scumbags somehow managed to do online transfers to take money out of my account and send it to Discover and to Voyager (apparently some kind of crypto-currency thing) incredibly quickly and without so much as a by your leave.

Chase security last night was decidedly unhelpful.  It appears their call center is off-shore and while they were a bit hard to understand and times it seemed they didn't understand much either.  You would think the security division would be a bit more competent.  Over three hours on the phone and I ended up feeling worse rather than better and now believe the bank's security for its customers  from such acts is somewhere from inadequate to non-existent.

The person on the phone stated that if someone has the routing number and account number they can wire money out of the account no problem.  Since that information is on every check that's rather worrisome and there better be better safeguards.  The criminal made to minor deposits of a few cents each and then immediately pulled out a lot of money from the account in two big pulls which is rather bad as that's got me in a bad spot.

The person on the phone then stated it was ok and she would do the dispute claims contesting it for me but I should go into a branch to change the account numbers when they open this morning.

Welp, wouldn't you know the person on the phone did not actually do a dispute claim for the monies that were taken out.  Oh, no  - she did it only for the two tiny deposits put into the account!   Both I and the Branch Manager looked at each other in disbelief when we found that out.

So  I'm rather hosed as it will be at least 15 days to process the claim and return the money at  the earliest.  My account numbers , and username and password have all been changed so I have no checks to pay the bills that are coming up and need to order new ones and it's a rather problematic mess having to change all sorts of things including everything that is linked to those accounts.

Rolling With Boulders

A major part of Jiu Jitsu is rolling.  It's where you get to practice all the techniques.

This can lead to happiness or frustration, especially when rolling with someone younger and heavier than you and you quickly learn your limitations and the limitations of the techniques you know.

Take rolling with Will for example.

Will is in his 20s and weighs in at 275 pounds or so. 

So he's got 20 years and seventy-five pounds on me. Makes a difference. 

He is described by most other people at the center as rolling with a boulder.

I can't disagree.

Here's what it typically looks like when I'm rolling with Will:

 I can often hold him off and defend and fend off a lot of his attacks, I can stalemate him in a roll and stop him from tapping me out, and even sometimes get a submission if I can exploit a mistake, but I often just get crushed even if it ends in a stalemate.  

Doubly unfortunately, he tends to be a little overenthusiastic and loses a bit of control. This happened on our last roll Monday night and sadly I got a good whack to my left eye.  Ouch.

Woke up the next day and the eye was still hurting and it has caused some floaters and the eye doc has said no jitsu for me for awhile due to the accidental hit to let it heal up, and also no contact lenses, which sucks as that means no flying either.

So unfortunately no jitsu for me until this heals up a bit.

Lots Of Money Doesn't Replace Good Judgment And Experience

Otherwise known as how to Smack Up A Multi-Million Dollar Aircraft The Easy Way.

Flying: NTSB Reports Don’t Always Reveal the Complete Story

In short, a pilot with all of 46 hours in a Cessna 172 immediately transitions to a Piper M600.  

The Piper M600 is a whole other breed of aircraft compared to a 172, it's very high performance, retractable gear, and did I mention high performance? -  It demands an experienced pilot who can keep up with it.

So the very newly minted pilot rejects Piper factory training and doesn't have an IFR rating.   In the two and a half months he has the plane, he gets 56 hours of training with an instructor on the M600 which apparently isn't enough.

On his first flight on his own, he has a very bad landing, and since the insurance industry understands risk -   he has no insurance on the aircraft.

He manages to have the nose-wheel depart the aircraft due to a high speed landing and incorrect technique, and cause substantial damage to the aircraft.

To paraphrase Ferris Bueller:  He didn't deserve such a fine aircraft.

Everyone Has A Plan 'Til They Get Punched in The Face

This is Fight Sim week at the jitsu training center I attend.  Fight Sim week is done at the end of each chapter in the training cycle and is about the most exhausting week you get to enjoy.

The general program at the center begins with basics that are applicable to street defense through getting your Combatives belt.  Then the next phase, Master Cycle, which is Combatives belts and up, adds both advanced self-defense techniques and advanced sport jitsu moves as well, and it adds Fight Sim for high intensity self-defense.  

Fight Sim is where the combative and other techniques get put to use in a simulated street-type encounter. Fight Sim deals with jitsu being used to defend yourself in a street fight and the attacker is throwing punches.  Lots of punches. Happily, they are at least wearing 5.5oz gloves that cover the hand fully but you can get your fingers out to do grips and other techniques (or accidentally stab someone in the eye, but more on that later).

At lot of Fight Sim is learning to get through the attackers punches safely to close and effect a take-down, and also learn to be able to reduce the effectiveness of punches an attacker is throwing when they're on the ground. Because they're going to be throwing a lot of punches. 

Punches tend to get your attention.  Knowing how to handle incoming punches matters quite a lot.

Even at 10-20% power (the limit we use for training in this class), a shot to the face makes you eager to want to sharpen your defenses.  Occasionally your attacker gets a little overenthusiastic in the melee and you receive a little more than a 20% hit.  Stings a tad.  Generally Fight Sim is set so the "bad guy"  is not supposed to use jitsu techniques but instead acts as either be an untrained puncher (think wild swings trying to knock you out) or more of a skilled striker with jabs, crosses, hooks, etc.

Jitsu can be for both sport and self-defense.  For example, a Butterfly guard is great for sport jitsu v jitsu, but if you try to use a butterfly guard in a real fight, you will get you bell rung with punches.  Knowing what techniques to use where matters quite a bit and our center always wants us to stay sharp on the self-defense side of the equation.

Very good training, and a 5 minute round defending yourself from someone intent on punching you is rather exhausting.  

You need to close the distance through  punches, or in anticipation of a punch, execute a take-down, maintain control of someone who is using all their weight to buck or throw you off and who keeps trying to punch you even when down, and then get a submission if possible. Like I said, it is pretty darn exhausting but good training.

Unfortunately, I had one session yesterday with someone who got a tad overenthusiastic and his hand did a nice ricochet off my blocking hand and then went on to smack me right at the right eye with a finger poking out of his glove,  so I have a rather impressive shiner right now.   Not intentional at all, but minor injuries do happen.   I've iced it and its overall ok, just doesn't look great.

Aside from that it went well, but I can say that being paired up with someone stronger and bigger than me as a bad guy makes for an exhausting bout. 

Of course, this is good training as it is unlikely that someone smaller and weaker than you is going to pick a fight and attack you in real life. 

But, it got hairy and I had to work hard to avoid getting pounded even at 10-20%, especially when in one case my bad guy started in mount position as part of the scenario.  Being mounted when punches are flying just plain sucks. Managed to get out of it and establish a good defense, and then control him, but I was pretty much spent after that 5 minute round.

The class then ended and we then spent 15 minutes doing standard jitsu rolls afterwards which felt pretty easy by comparison as no punches were flying.

Heckuva good class and great training.

The Best Knife Defense Is Using Your Feet - As In Run Away!

Learned some knife defense techniques in Jiu Jitsu last night.

The best and safest defense, bar none, is to run out of effective knife distance as quickly as possible.  Highly recommended.

All other defenses are less effective and more last resort options due to being unable to run away or create distance to break away or bring a firearm to bear. It is highly likely you're going to get tagged when you're in close against a determined attacker armed with a knife.

The good news:  If they're coming at you with an ice-pick type grip, the close in defenses are pretty straightforward, work really well, let you establish control, and really reduce the likelihood you're going to get tagged in a fatal area.

The bad news:  Even doing the ice-pick defenses perfectly, the likelihood you're still going to get cut at least on the outside of your arm is still pretty high.  The nice thing is even executing them at full speed and less than textbook execution against someone trying really hard to stick you, they still work pretty darn well.

The ugly news:  About 60%+ of knife attacks aren't using ice pick holds, they're instead using  hammer or saber type holds and they grab and keep you in close with their off-hand while they use the knife in a sewing-machine like motion with your stomach and vital areas as the cloth getting perforated by said sewing machine. 

This doth suck.  

There is a defense to it that works, but the likelihood of getting seriously tagged even when you do it right can be pretty high.  

We started doing these techniques slowly and then picked up the pace.  Slowly to learn the technique and then go faster to actual attack speeds using rubber knives. 

Defenses from ice pick type attacks did work really well, but yes some outside arm hits were felt.  

Hammer/saber grip attacks while they hold you in close with the other hand generally meant at least one if not more solid hits to the body.  This was especially the case when for example Spence, who is a head taller than me and built like a mac truck came in on me with full speed and power, while I eventually got control but I certainly took a solid and only slightly deflected initial hit more often than not - that type of attack is hard to stop.  With my other bubble partner who is a head shorter than me but basically built of muscle and reflexes, I could mostly stop the initial attack with the technique but not always.

Oh, and doing all this while wearing a mask truly sucks.  Talk about breathing hard and really sucking in the O2 while the CO2 doesn't get dispersed.

In short, you're always best off getting out of range of a knife attack when possible.  

All these defensive techniques, while they can and do work, are the not-as-good options for when you can't get out of knife range as opposed to running away to a safe distance.

Well, That's Is Some Spendy 9!

Went to a local gun shop, not "my" local gun shop mind you, as this one is rather out of the way typically for me, charges a transfer fee over twice that which my local gun shop charges, is known for high prices and so-so service even in normal times. 

But figured I'd look inside anyways on my lunch break.

Well, it was hopping.

New Glocks were being priced at around $799, with a few used ones in the high fives.  One Glock 19 Gen 5 and One G17 and a G43 and that was it. Other firearms were similarly on the high end of the cost index and nothing even getting down to MSRP.

Ammo, however, was where the mark-ups really got crazy.

They had 50 round boxes of 9mm fmj for $40 a box, limit 2, and 100 round boxes of Winchester White Box for $80 - limit 1.  That's $800/per thousand rounds - for WWB.  Most LGS shops by comparison have it in the $19-$24 range per box of 50.

That is the highest I've seen locally so far.  Only Cheaper Than Dirt beats that with their "we're lower than dirt" price of $59.89 for a box of 50. 

There's a lot of new gun owners out there who have no idea what normal prices for ammunition are like when we're not in the middle of both an ongoing civil disorder scenario and an election year with a candidate running on a campaign of banning guns. 

So, they're happily paying that.  Ouch.

Abby And The Man O' War

On the last day in Florida we headed to Pompano Beach.

It's a very family oriented beach, not hoity toity like Miami beach but a very nice spot with a lot of families hanging out and having a nice day at the beach. We rented a sun umbrella and spent the day there swimming, snacking, and doing some beach volleyball, and then more swimming and jumping in the waves.

While on our second time swimming Abby suddenly went "Oww!, what is that!?"!

She had something on the back of her leg that she immediately reached out and moved away with her hand, and her hand promptly began to hurt as well, and the ouchies grew more vociferous.

Yep, she had been stung.

Stingers still in place and stuck to her leg and hand, I got her out of the water and figuring that it was a jellyfish type sting and remembering my Scuba diver marine life training, as well as observing the sting travel from leg to hand quickly decided trying to get it off with bare hands would be a bad idea.

So I grabbed a towel and gently removed both tentacle pieces with their nematocysts from her hand and leg.

Her leg and hand had already started turning very red and it was quite painful.

The life guard nearby had heard her exclamations of pain and came over to see what was going on. Turns out it was a Portugese Man O' War.

He complimented me for having the sense not to try and remove the stings barehanded. Apparently he deals with lots of multiple persons stung from the same tentacle as people try and remove them barehanded.

He had a nice freeing spray that made the pain subside.

Almost immediately after, a fair bit farther down the beach, a large Man O War was found washed up on the beach and the lifeguard marked the location off so people wouldn't step on it. It might have been the one that got her, if so to heck with it.

Man O War stings are definitely no joke.

And of course to demonstrate how they are no joke, an Australian man deliberately stung himself with predictable results for your viewing pleasure, because, Australia Man:

That was a small one, imagine a larger one getting you, and the one that got Abby assuming it was the same one was larger than that with a float about the size of a tennis ball with long tentacles.

The pain from the sting went away after about 12 hours and icing it helped.

Certainly an interesting last day, but still a great day at the beach and we all got sunburns to prove it, and Abby got a close encounter with marine life.

Just Remember One Thing When Falling Backward....

Winter, every time it comes around, as is its wont, tries to kill me.

For the latest attempt, at about 11 pm last night, I'm taking the dog for his night-time walk and taking the garbage bin to the curb at the same time as the next day is garbage day.

So with the dog leash in one hand, the big full garage bin on wheels in the other, I head down the Driveway of Doom™.

Just before the end, on a black driveway on a pitch-black night there's a patch of black ice.

Both feet go up in the air.

This is about to suck, thinks I.

When you're already falling backward there's one thing to do: tuck your chin to your chest. Another way of remembering is to focus on looking at your belt.

Tucking your chin or focusing on your belt gets your head curved in and away from the pavement that is trying to smash it in. Your head is important, so keep it off the ground at all costs.

Next, try to roll with the impact and dissipate it by hitting the ground with your hands and forearms without reaching back with your arms so you don't throw your shoulder out. Having your head tucked tends to also tuck the rest of your body into a ball so you can roll with the impact a bit which helps a lot.

I dutifully tucked my head in and as both arms were occupied, ended up doing at least a roll rather than a flop down on the asphalt. The garbage bin ripped out of my hand and hit with a bang, the leash also fell out of my grip on impact and Jett waited for me to get up and get him. Good dog.

Aside from a back muscle ache from impact, no serious damage happened in the fall. Winter has failed yet again.

So remember, when you're falling backwards, tuck your chin to your chest and then roll for the best.

This public service announcement is brought to you by the letters O, U, C, and H.

Snakes On A Park Trail - A Michigan Rattler

Yes, Michigan does indeed have one poisonous snake: The Massassauga Rattlesnake.

One kid found out this interesting fact up close and personal when she picked one up by the Stony Creek Metropark Nature Center.

The snake is indeed a part of Michigan's nature.

The Detroit Free Press: Madison Heights girl recovering from rattlesnake bite at Stony Creek Metropark

When Caylee Kapa picked up the 9-inch snake, she never imagined it could be venomous.

The 13-year-old Madison Heights girl says she didn’t even know Michigan had rattlesnakes. She was simply out for a walk with family at Stony Creek Metropark on Tuesday and picked up the snake in an effort to keep her younger brother, Anthony Kapa, 10, from stomping on it.

“My little brother was going to try to kill it, (so) I was going to try to pick it up and it bit me,” said the eighth-grader at John Page Middle School.

Luckily for her, the bite while painful, was not fatal and she should be fine.

So, if you see a snake with rectangular patches, a triangular head and a rattle on the tail, back away and leave it alone.

Really, Stop Playing With It In Public.

In yet another demonstration that you should not play with your firearm, another person has managed to shoot themselves in the leg.

The Detroit News: Pontiac man reaches into pocket, shoots self in thigh

A Pontiac man accidentally shot himself in the thigh while reaching into his pocket for his handgun, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office said Monday.

Deputies said the man, 25, drove himself to McLaren Hospital after the incident, which occurred at 5:49 p.m. Sunday in the 300 block of Nelson. Police said the man tried to pull the gun out of his pocket as he arrived at his home and forgot it was cocked.

Yet again folks, the solution is simple: Don't play with it. Don't try to take it out of your pocket while in a vehicle for no good reason, keep your finger off the trigger when touching the firearm, and use a pocket holster at the very least.

His statement that he forgot it was cocked makes me believe he tried to get some in pocket trigger time or was manipulating the trigger at the time of removal, and it ended badly.

Be careful while carrying and remember Rule 2 should not be treated as an optional suggestion.

If you're carrying in a pocket, use a pocket holster that can be removed with the firearm to prevent such negligent discharges. The thighs and other parts co-located there that you save may be your own.