Gun Crisis at UMASS

Peeps....
These reports of a man with  gun at UMASS seem overstated.
Did someone flash a handgun?  Was He/She licensed to carry?  The press is acting like having a gun is a crime.

Reminds me of my own crisis when I was a Freshman at UMASS Amherst, which never hit the public airwaves fortunately.  I posted this back in 2010.

Grenade Pin

Clammers found cases with 126 grenades in New Bedford.  Some were live.   They were safely detonated and no one was hurt.
~
That reminds me of an old college incident, in James House at UMASS.  The Vietnam War was in play, and a crazy vet was visiting his friend in the dorm room next door.
~
In those days, a lot of guys would come back from the war, fresh from firefights and other horrific shit that only happened a week or so ago.  One day, you are on patrol, firing off your M1 in DaNang at VietCong hell bent on killing you, and the next week you are hanging out on campus at Amherst, MA.  I always felt bad for these guys who didn't have a college deferment, and was enrolled in Army ROTC preparing to go myself.
~
This guy was really jacked in a lot of ways, and we all were leary of him.  It was my freshman year and he used to drill Aaron Boykin and myself when we had our uniforms on to go to ROTC class.    But that's another story.
~
One day, he came into my room with a grenade in his hand, stuffed it into the hand of my roommate, Jeff Middleton, pulled the pin, and told him to hold the lever, or we would all die.  Then he left the room.  Jeff and I stood there with a WTF look on our faces.
~
After about thirty seconds of standing there stunned, I said to Jeff that we should carefully take the grenade outside, walk it across the athletic fields, and heave it into the woods.  Jeff stood there ackwardly holding the thing with his hand clasped on the detonation lever.  We were too dazed to be afraid.
~
Before we got the plan into action,  the crazy vet came back, put the pin back into the grenade, quietly took it with him. and left without a word.    We never mentioned it again.... like it never happened.
~
I often wonder whether that grenade was live, and what would have happened if it blew up on the edge of the intramural field.  My guess is that if it was a dud, the vet wouldn't have come back so soon to take it back.  He would have let us sweat a lot longer.
~
It's one of the many things in my life that could have gone drastically wrong...... but didn't.... so I'm sitting here blogging today.  There is enough stuff that could have gone wrong and did.... but I'm here anyway.

MattyL said...

this blog is the ultra balls.

-- Matthew Lyons

Nope to the Pope

So Pope Francis says that Donald Trump is not a Christian if he wants to build a Wall on the Mexican Border.

A stupid move Pope.   And I'm not defending Trump.

Are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Christians while they support the abortions of Planned Parenthood????

Pope, you have poured oil on a slippery slope. If you are going to call out one, you have to call out the other.

Now it seems that you are injecting Christian doctrine into American politics while a Socialist is running for President.   And you are known to have Socialist leanings.

So the people that you like are Christians and the people that you don't are not?

There are a lot of flaws in my Catholic faith, and you've just added another.

Survival

Peeps....
Lately getting old has been occupying center stage in my thoughts.

My mother turns 90 next month, my father-in-law is 92, and my mother-in-law is 88 and in the hospital after having surgery for a brain aneurysm.

When I was growing up, I thought that people in their sixties were old.  All four of my grandparents died young... I only briefly knew my Maternal Grandfather.

But since then, things really have seemed to change.


Now with my parents in their nineties, and some of my best friends in their seventies, I'm starting to think that our kids and grandkids will see centenarians as a matter of course.  Not sure of the reasons for the uptick in longevity.  Probably a mixture of the availability of food and shelter as well as medical technology.

Most likely, my Mother-in-law would had died without her recent brain surgery, and a number of other family members and friends have recently had medical procedures without which their lifespan could have been threatened.

So getting old is not the challenge.  Surviving is no longer the issue.  The emerging concern is quality of life.  What will you do with that survival?

Time's Up for H

The Democrat Spin-Doctors are now saying that a win for H in New Hampshire would be to lose to Bernie Sanders within ten percentage points.

That is quite a stretch of logic.... since she led Bernie Sanders by over 40 points in the early going.

Looks like the original strategy... to keep Hillary out of the public eye and away from the press as long as possible.... was probably well founded.  Too bad she had to eventually have some light shed upon her.   But who would have thought that a Vermont Hippy in his seventies would be the first to take her down???

How do you think all of the Dems who, were scared off by her initial "coronation" feel now?  They didn't have the balls to take on the Clinton Syndicate, and let a Crazy Commie fill a widening chasm.

You have to believe that Jawn Kerry is in a loathesome quandary.  He could have had it all if he had the fortitude to break ranks and fulfill his destiny.   These Lefty Loonies have treated the Clinton's like Moonbat Royalty with only one problem.... young voters don't recognize the narrated legacy, and don't trust the despicable H.  All they needed was a guy who knew the words to "KumBaya" and promised free tuition, and H was history.

Your MOAM is feeling a bit elated.  It's time for the Clinton's to retire to their New York estate and stage fundraisers to keep H out of a Federal Penitentiary.

I'm thinking that she loses by at least twenty points tonight in New Hampshire.... which proves the old adage... "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time... but not all of the people all of the time."

Time's up for H.

Off Grid Solar Equipment Breakdown

Item	Specification	Cost	Amt	Total
Inverter	KRIËGER® 2000 Watt 12V Power Inverter Dual 110V AC outlets and Dual USB 2.1A car dc 12v to 110v ac adapter laptop charger notebook adapter dc charger	$    189.99	1	$         189.99
Inverter to Battery Cables	# 2 Gauge- Came with Krieger		2	$                  -
Inverter Positive Cable Fuse	Case and 200 amp fuse - Came With Krieger		1	$                  -
Inverter Ground Wire	10 gauge AWG Green Ground Wire 50 ft Solid Copper UL Listed CABLE SATELLITE by Allied Wire	$      21.95	1	$           21.95
Ground Rod	Skywalker Signature Series Ground Rod, 4ft by Skywalker	$      19.50	1	$           19.50
Ground Rod Wire Connector	Morris Products 90629 Ground Pipe Clamp, For Direct Burial, 1/2 - 1" Water Pipe Range, 2 -10 Wire Range, 1/4 - 2/0 Screw Thread by Morris Products	$         8.46	1	$              8.46
12V 100 Ah Batteries	12V 100Ah Battery for Minn Kota, Minnkota, Cobra, Sevylor other trolling motor	$    171.68	2	$         343.36
Battery Parallel Connection Cables	Camco 47480 Red 3/8" Stud 18" Long 2-Gauge Marine Battery Cable and Tinned Lug Assembly by Camco	$      10.68	2	$           21.36
Controller to Battery Cables	RENOGY® 8' long 10 AWG Wire Copper Tray Cable-Connect Charge Controller and Battery by Renogy	$      16.99	2	$           33.98
In-Line Controller Positive Cable Fuse			1	$                  -
Solar Charge Controller	P30L LCD 30A PWM Solar Panel Regulator Charge Controller with Digital Display and User Adjustable Settings	$      49.99	1	$           49.99
12v Lamp connected to Controller	TINYPONY® LED Flood Wash Light Outdoor Lamp Ip65 Waterproof 10W 12V 6000~6500K White 900 Lumen by hossen	$      11.98	1	$           11.98
Solar Cable to Controller	50' solar cable Bulk Black copper #10 AWG 1000 volt PV Wire with Tough XLPE insulation by CIE Solar	$      32.68	1	$           32.68
Solar  Cable Positive Fuse	Odyssey 30A MC4 Solar PV In-Line Fuse Holder Waterproof w/ Fuse 30 Amp by Solar Odyssey	$      15.00	1	$           15.00
Solar Cable Crimper	Signstek MC3 MC4 Solar Crimping Tools for 2.5-6.0mm2 Solar Panel PV Cable by Signstek	$      19.99	1	$           19.99
MC4 Cable Connectors	RENOGY® 5 Pair MC4 Male/ Female Solar Panel Cable Connectors Double Seal Rings for Better Waterproof Effect by Renogy	$         9.99	1	$              9.99
MC4 Solar Lines Connector	Signstek Y Branch MC4 Parallel Connector Adapter 1M2F+2M1F (1) by Signstek	$         7.99	1	$              7.99
MC4 Solar Cable	50' solar cable Bulk Black copper #10 AWG 1000 volt PV Wire with Tough XLPE insulation by CIE Solar Products	$      32.68	1	$           32.68
Electrical PVC Conduit	Home Depot	$      20.00	1	$           20.00
100 Watt Solar panels	Renogy 2 Piece 100W Monocrystalline Photovoltaic PV Solar Panel Module, 12V Battery Charging by Renogy	$    282.92	1	$         282.92
Panel Pole Mount	Missouri Wind and Solar Top of Pole Double 100 Watt Solar Panel Mounting Rack	$    197.99	1	$         197.99

Need to get Grounded

Jill's Blog

New Blog from Pretty Jill Phillips... a special peep of the Nestor Family.

http://wickedglossblog.com/

Please give it a look.

An Iowan Evening

It's only 6:30 in the morning.

Could you neurotic Peeps please refrain from this constant barrage of cell calls, voice mails, emails and message texts just to find out what the MOAM take is on the Iowa Freaking Caucus Results??!!!!!

For Chrissakes.... it's only Iowa.  Since when does a bunch of white, flatland farmers arguing in gymnasiums get everyone so riled up?????

I sure am glad that they don't have the caucus system in Massachusetts where I am registered as an Independent.  The last people I would asked who I should vote for as POTUS are my crazy neighbors.

But that's me... the good US Citizens of Iowa have spoken.... or some of them have anyway.

For the Republicans, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio have topped the ticket... none with an overwhelming plurality.   They have established themselves as the frontrunners, and if this is duplicated next week in NH, the others should step out.  I actually wish that Jeb Bush would leave now.   He is a praiseworthy candidate, but has not caught the imagination of the electorate and I kind of feel embarrassed for him due to his level of funding and family legacy.  Throw your support to your upstart Marco, and move out with class, Jeb.

The Democratic race is really intriguing.  Despite the early coronation of Hillary Clinton by the DNC, with a rigged debate schedule and money flowing in from all the usual sources like Soros, etc, the lowly Socialist Mayor of Burlington, Vt, Bernie Sanders.... a 72 year old Commie with a Brooklyn accent and no SuperPAC support has virtually tied the disgusting H in a too close to call contest.

The Democratic Party Sheep Herders are really wringing their hands over this one.  Their corrupt candidate, who was assurred of continuing the largess that keeps Dem Hacks in business over the underclasses, is on the proverbial ropes by a candidate who was supposed to be a complimentary diversion.

Yet, this most unlikely candidate, Bernie Sanders, is giving Queen H a huge scare.  And next week, the fine voters of NH are scheduled to give her a double digit ass kicking.  The Democratic Propagandists at ABC Good Morning America, George Steffy and Co., are loving the Trump loss and are saying that Clinton won.  They are transparent Sheepherders.

Damn that "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy"!!!!!  Once again they have taunted the Clinton Syndicate.

Bring on the FBI Indictment..... That should complete the job.

Overall, the evening shaped up pretty well in Iowa.

Grace Oliver Run

Peeps...
This morning, your MOAM was feeling a little frisky so I put on the sweats and took the three mile run down to Grace Oliver's Beach and back.

That is something that I never thought I would blog about again,  Then, after our White Mountain ride for Honduras where I was too crippled to get off of the bike, Wayne Webster turned me on to his Chiropractor, Dr. Ralph Palumbo, and bada bing,,,,, no more leg main, no more knee pain, no more back pain.... and I just finished a non-stop three mile run.

I have no idea what he did, but he ended up prescribing me a pair of inner sole orthodics that I wear every day now.   I remember how shitty I recently felt as late as just before Christmas walking from the Parking Garage to Boston City Hall in Government Center.

On Friday, I made the same walk, and actually enjoyed the stroll.  Plus I got most of my permits approved, which has nothing to do with Dr. Palombo, but I'm just saying.  Apparently my feet were causing my body to be out of alignment, and the orthodics fixes it.   Dr. Palombo also pokes and jabs a bit here and  there, which I don't understand... but he can poke away for all I care.... within reason.

Ironically, the good Dr. would be pissed at me if he found out that I went for a run.  He wants me to avoid any rash movement.

But when the spirit moves you, you have to respond.   Course, I barely was able to pass some female powerwalkers down by Peaches Point,   And I probably overly paid attention to my heart pounding away in my chest cavity.

But WTF.  I ran three miles.  The MOAM is back!

Multitude of Morons Amidst Us.

Peeps...
A Mountain of a Man has to be able to handle disappointment once in awhile..... to be able to move on when things don't flow his way.

So it is now that the Pats are not advancing to the SuperBowl.   Do you see me whining, or moping around in a funk of despair????  Hell no.  It's just freaking football.   If they won every year, it wouldn't feel so good next year... when they take the league by storm and pummel everyone in Brady's righteous path.

Now, I'm gearing up for the Presidential Primaries.... with the Iowa Caucuses just days away.  The race that I'm most interested in is the Democratic contest where I hope that Bernie Sanders embarrasses and demoralizes the evil, corrupt, and generally disgusting H.  When you lay out the shit she has put down in a career of duplicity and corruption, it is so hard to discern why anyone with a conscience could lay down their vote.

Scientifically, the percentage of people who vote for H will be the exact percentage of  immoral morons who don't care about truth and think that H will line their pockets or worse.  We will then know the multitude of morons amidst us.   And there is some value to that.

H is about to get beat by a 75 year old Socialist who has been serving Kool Aide to Kollege Kids for his entire professional career.  She couldn't pick a more vulnerable opponent, and he is kicking her ass.

Even though the Patriots lost.... there is a God after all.

Pats Pizza Prep

Lots of anticipation here in Marblehead for the Patriots Game in Denver at 3:05PM this afternoon.  Both the Patriots and the Broncos are 12 and 4 this season, and another classic Brady v. Manning quarterback duel is in store.  The victor advances to the Super Bowl two weeks from now.

The MOAM is doing his part to insure a PATS win.

We'll be making Pizza on the Breville Pizza oven complemented with Ribs and stuffed baked potatoes.  No possibility of running out of beer and wine either.  Sammys in abundance.

With everything on the line, you can't take any chances.   I want to leave it all on the field.

Priorities

That Bernie Sanders ad featuring the Simon and Garfunkle song "Gone to Look for America" is very powerful.  It creates a wistful emotion of hope and is a nice association piece for the old Hippy candidate.

Good for him.  He will only draw from the people who "feel" and vote with their hearts.  If you give any other rational thought to his candidacy, you can't lend serious support.

But if this is what it takes to level the evil Hillary... then I'm on the Bernie bandwagon.

Dealing with a crazy Socialist for a few years would be a lot better than seeing the wave of corruption wash over the Federal Government with the Clinton Syndicate in the White House.  The overall priority is to defeat H, preferable with a Conservative, but otherwise with anyone else

Regardless, the important thing this weekend is seeing whether the Patriots can prevail over the Broncos for the AFC Championship in Denver.   Let's keep our priorites straight.

Toning Down the Rhetoric

Peeps....
In less than eleven months, the United States will have chosen a new President.
~
Your MOAM has ranted long and hard on this topic for quite a while now... mostly about the inadequacies of the Democratic front runner, Hillary Clinton.
~
Now, Bernie Sanders, the Socialist Mayor of Burlington, VT., is taking her down and has a lot of  naive Dems singing the praises of his plans for doling out free stuff and redistributing wealth from the makers to the takers.
~
Peeps... Socialism doesn't work.  If I have to spell this out to you, don't bother to read this pathetic blog anymore.   When you sap personal initiative, and personal responsibility...then productivity goes down the shit chute and nothing works properly anymore.
~
I'm not going to rant further about Bernie.  He's a 75 year old whack job who has made a career out of selling sugar to college kids, and if you want a sugar rush, there is little I can do for you.
~
A few days ago on Facebook, an old friend of mine told me to "relax" after he caught me in a ranting frenzy about Hillary being a Criminal and Bernie being a Commie.  It was good advice.  There is no sense flapping your cyber-lips over stuff that should be readily apparent to you.  So I'm cool with toning down the rhetoric for the time being.
~
But I personally would like to see a Donald Trump vs. Bernie Sanders contest for POTUS.
~
It would be a classic battle between Capitalist and Communist ideology.   And so many of my Lefty friends are petrified of a Trump victory, and the staightforward policies that he would engender.
~
Does this mean that the Nanepashemet Nod is going to Trump???
No Nod ... yet.  There is a lot of ground between now and November....

In the pursuit of learning,
every day something is acquired.
In the pursuit of Tao,
every day something is dropped.
Less and less is done 
until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone.
The world is ruled by
letting things take their course.
It cannot be ruled by interfering.

~ Lao Tsu ~
Tao Te Ching

Obama's Legacy

Pages in the Book

Time flies when you are having fun.

These are my boys from college, Joe Collins and Bob Towne.   We could do some damage at UMASS Amherst on the weekends in those days,   I remember it like it was yesterday... but it was quite a few yesterdays ago.

Tying Back In

Thinking of how to link a solar System to a home service panel.

Solar Equipment Storage

Powerball is up to $675 M.
Just biding my time.

Winning Powerball

Powerball is up to a $240 Million take home jackpot this Wednesday, so I'm going to spend $4 for two tickets.

There is a pretty good chance that I won't win, but even so, I've taken the time to prepare what I will do if my ticket turns out to have all of the numbers.

I'd hate to be in a situation where I get caught winning a couple hundred million and I haven't figured out where I would put it.

Course, the first step would be to hire accountants, financial advisers, lawyers and security guards.  And it would be cool if I could keep the publicity to a minimum, but that is probably not the deal.  So I definitely would go dark for a couple of months, to make sure that everybody wasn't bothering the crap out of me.

And while I would be doing a lot to make my  family and close friends take the glint off of their personal financial situations, I would be very cognizant of the need to avoid transforming people that I care about into entitled assholes.

So there would be a little bit of personal relationship fallout.  Naturally, I would be establishing education trusts, paying off people's mortgages and other stuff, but there would be strings attached and hurdles to get over before people could get their hands on the money.   Personal responsibility boobytraps to make sure that a sense of self reliance was still intact.

During the euphoric first year or so, I would develop a dream home on some ocean front acreage in New England and also buy a Caribbean Island vacation home.

In business, I would capitalize Nanepashemet Telecom and get it to a point where our expertise and services are not hampered by financial constraints, without regard to the bottom line for a few years.

And I would do some cool real estate development projects. as well as start up aquaponics, solar, and boat building businesses.

But a good part of the deal would be to find philanthropic subjects to invest in.   I would like to find people who a have a strong sense of personal responsibility, and help them to fast forward their business and service visions.

There are quite a number of other things that I don't want to disclose to you.... $240 million goes a long way.

I've got it all down on an Excel spreadsheet.

Peep of the Year - 2016

Tom McMahon ~ 2007
Lauren Rathbone ~ 2008
Michael "Murph" Murphy ~ 2009
Jeremy Johnson ~ 2010
Tommy O'Shea ~ 2011
Kerry D'Orio ~ 2012
Brady Boyle ~ 2013
Kim Nestor ~ 2014
Pam Nestor ~ 2015

What do these names mean to you, Peeps?

Aficionados of this Pathetic Blog will note that the beginning of the year is a sacred time for those whose lives require frequent reaffirmation from your Mountain of a Man.  It is a time of reflection, inspiration, hope, mixed with ample portions of nausea and disgust.

The above revered individuals achieved what few of you could ever aspire to in the last nine years.  They met the requisite criteria.... the ultimate standards required to be named to a position of Honor/Distain.... the coveted/dreaded Peep of the Year (POTY)

How, you ask, does a MOAM make such a  momentous choice?Over the the years, the criteria has remained religiously consistent.

The successful/lacking candidate must be....

• Either annoying or inspirational.

• Cannot be dead.

• Cannot be an animal.

• And the case of the POTY - A case of Lagavulin given to me prior to this moment would have been an automatic.  (The Peep of the Week Auomatic is given after only a single bottle gift of the King of Scotch.

And diligent Peeps know that one can never ask how the criteria matched the ultimate POTY.  That would be bad.

This year... the tenth year for which this controversial  award has been bestowed.... the Nanepashemet Peep of the Year is....

Nathaniel Clarke.

Nathaniel is in for a powerful life changing year, as previous POTY's can attest.  Join me in wishing him the very best as he wields the POTY Power throughout 2016.

Merry Day

It was a nice Christmas.

Christmas is such a time marker.  You remember all of the things that you did on this day throughout your life.  Memories of you as a little kid, as a young adult, as a new parent, and now as a grandparent come crashing through, without much of a sorting.

It is a day of mixed emotions.... thinking of times in your life that are changed forever, and people as well as pets, who have left for another dimension.   My father died on Christmas Day.  I always relive that event on Dec. 25th also.  I remember that it was so cold that day, that the wine that my mother had in her trunk was frozen when she brought it into our house in Lynn.

This year was the opposite.   You could have had Christmas Dinner outside on the Marblehead deck.  It was uncomfortably warm.  I'm grateful that my Liberal friends didn't start in with a "Global Warming" chorus.  I like to drop the political rants around the Holidays.  There will be many times ahead to resume that debate.

Traditions have changed over the years.  They have to as families change, and people move to different locations for their homes.  We started some new ones this year that I hope will continue.

When I was kid, I was always so excited about the Christmas presents that I was about to get.  The big change now is that I appreciate gifts that  I receive, but the greatest joy is in seeing the people you love open the presents that you have given.  This year, it was jewelry for the daughters, Kreg tools for the sons, and Kindle Tablets for the grandkids.   Will and Ethan checked out with their Kindles.... there was no more conversation as they lapsed into an online game focus.

The star of the day for me was someone that I didn't even know last Christmas.... my 11 month old Grandson Connor.   His joy to be around people spread pure joy to everyone that he was around.

My brother, Jamie,  was in the Hospital in Florida, and calls to him and my mother made me feel sad that their Christmas was not exactly tidings of comfort and joy.  My new year's hope is for health for them soon.

Joanne again served the fifteen people at our Christmas Dinner table with incredible culinary skill and Bam and Bampy seemed to enjoy the Fixings as they have for many years now.

In some ways, this Christmas seems to be a landmark shift.  With our kids all happily married and building traditions around their homes and growing extended families.  The circle of life seems to be in full swing this year.

I hope that all of you Peeps enjoyed the day.... and that the mixture of memories and emotions have left you on the up side.   Looking forward to wishing you a Happy New Year.