Truly Unusual

      This week has been an experience. So as you know, I started the new job this week. Doing security for an apartment complex, or in this case a condo complex, is quite a bit different than working for a large aero-space company. It's defiantly much more active, which is why a couple of former co-workers said I was crazy for making the change. Here is the thing though, I got my "G" license to use it and make more money as a result of it, and the more money part is a much needed part of it. I could have sat back and more than likely eventually became the supervisor of one or maybe even both of the sites I was working at, but I would have still been making less there as a supervisor as I am currently as a security officer.

     I've been getting the lay of the land this week and will start enforcing rules a little more as the next couple of weeks come along. Really there isn't much that I've seen that I need to enforce. I was told that the weekends would be the most active of the days and from a sense that was true, but not quite the weekend day that I had expected. I was thinking Friday and Saturday nights would be the most active, it turned out that last night, Sunday was a bit wild. I should give a little background for the property. Once upon a time my brother lived there briefly and I would go on the weekends and swim in one of the pools, so I know the property pretty well. maybe 10 years after that time, it became a pretty bad area. The owners at that time let it fall into disrepair and allowed a lot of bad elements in. It became a sort of blight in the area; murders, drug dealing, rapes, burglary. The current owners cleaned it up, put a little money into it and are continuing to weed out the bad seeds. The history that it had, still reigns over it and there are some things that will continue to improve. One of those things was why I am there now as opposed to the former security officer. He and a police officer ended up shooting a tenant. I do not no the final results, but from what I've heard from tenants, I don't think they killed the person. Reason I believe that is, that I was told that one of the stray cats in the area had the tip of it's tail shot off. Bad aim means that suspect more than likely lived. This was an isolated incident when it comes to something that extreme and there were other incidents with the SO that made them want to move him to another site. All of this is why they wanted me kitted out to look like I'm going on a tactical raid. It was even pointed out to me by a few of the tenants when they saw me.

     I've done things quite a bit different than the last SO and I'm getting a lot of feedback from the tenants on how they like what I'm doing. I walk a lot. I can tell you that in the last week I've averaged 25,000 steps each day. That is about 7 miles each day. My goal is to be an active presence in the community and by doing that becoming and active deterrent to anything going on. I'm being told that it is working, but I can't trust that word on only 1 week of work. Time will tell if I'm truly doing the right thing.

       Back to Sunday night now. There were only 2 big events but they were quite the doozies. The first was a commotion over a handicap parking spot. One tenant accused the other of falsifying their temporary handicap tag, and then proceeded to park illegally next to the handicap space pinning the car in without access to the driver side door. I attempted to get the one tenant to move their car and they yelled and argued and then we went to the other tenant. They asked If I wanted to see all their documents and I did, because if I didn't verify than I wouldn't be doing my job. I checked all their documents and verified that their tag was authentic and that they were rightfully parked in the space. The other tenant begrudgingly accepted the result and moved their car with a lot of shall we say "fanfare". The tenant that was rightfully parked called the police which I told her she should do, just so that we could have an official response.They showed up just as the other tenant was angrily walking back to their unit. The police talked with us and I explained the situation in detail, they agreed with us and then had a quick word with the other tenant. Situation was almost calmly resolved. I did have to get in between them at one point as one tenant lunged at the other one. I do think it was more of a show rather than a real attempt to attack. One of those "you better hold me back" moments, which I did. I told both of the tenants at separate times that I was going to make sure I patrolled the area a bit more often than usual just to keep the peace and everyone calmed down. The overall problem is that there are 3 handicap people in that one building and only 1 space. That breaks it down to a first come first serve situation, and the angry tenant had free range over that spot for a long time and now they have to sort of fight for it, and they are unhappy. I told them that I understood their anger and frustration, but it is an unfortunate event and they will have to try to get to the spot earlier than they have been in order to have it. I wrote my report and mentioned the lack of needed handicap spaces, but the management is within their rights with having the required amount of handicap spaces on the property. 

     Ok, second incident of the night. As I was walking past one of the buildings a tenant I had met earlier in the week came out and caught my attention. They told me that there was a squatter hanging out in one of the units on another building and that I should check it out. I walked around and attempted to knock on the door and even tried the door, but there was no answer and the door was secure. I then noticed that the blinds were moving as if from a fan, so it showed signs of someone being in there. I contacted my chief to ask for his advice on how to approach further and he told me to put it in my report and get with building management the next day. I did that and then did a little more investigating and checked the back of the window to see if I could see lights in that unit, I didn't see any, but I did find a missing AC unit in a different unit which would allow access into it. I also found a footprint underneath that hole, so I added it to my list of potential squatter sites. Since I wasn't told about that unit I couldn't check it as I did the other one. I'm security and not police so I just can't try to gain access to a unit without a strong reasons, and speculation isn't strong enough. I can only observe and report at that point, which is what I did.

     All in all, if that is the worst of the situations I get involved in there, then I'm going to be just fine. I'm sure the future has more in store for me though.

      Oh, I can also tell you that it is a very odd thing to have a gun strapped to your hip as you are talking to law enforcement. I don't know if that will every seem normal to me. I guess that is all me sense of people needing to be trained and licensed to own a firearm. It always stuns people when I tell them I'm not a 2nd amendment guy. I truly believe there needs to be restrictions on who can own and how you get a gun.

     Ok, it's time for Favorite Song of the Week. I've been going back and listening to my current favorite band and just have bee overly drawn to this song off their last album. It is of course Twenty One Pilots, and this song is such a groove. I'm just going to get on with it and present to you Twenty One Pilots with their song, Bounce Man". 

     That's all I got for today. Have to get ready soon and I still have clothes to dry. Have a wonderful week. Peace in and goodnight.

A New Chapter Begins

      One era is over and a new one is about to begin. I finished up my final shift with the former company on Sunday and then went in today to return my uniforms. I start the new job tomorrow. I'll be working 7 days a week for the time being. I was told to give them advanced notice to when I was beginning to get tired. I'm going to shoot for going through the month of January at the least, just so I can catch up on things. I'll be working 8 hour shifts but they will change every couple of days or so. It seems that for the majority of the week days I'll be going in at around noon and leaving at 8, then on the weekends I'll start a little later since those are what are going to be called the busy hours. This is an apartment complex, so you would expect most of the activity to happen on the weekends when people are generally off work, hence the later hours on those days, but that schedule could change every two weeks or so. I say two weeks since that is the current schedule I have, it is for the next two weeks.

     I'm looking forward to this new experience. I've been preparing and almost have everything I need, but the fundamentals are in place: firearm. duty belt, holster, tactical vest, badge, first aid kit, as well as a few other things. Still have a few things to get, but they can wait and aren't quite as important as the stuff above. I did have to trouble shoot something this morning. I was going through a routine with my firearm in what I have planned for my daily, well routine. I had a magazine loaded, placed in the gun, racked the slide then holstered my gun. I did what is referred to as an administrative unload, which is taking the magazine out of the gun while it is in the holster. I then put the magazine in a spare mag holder, drew my gun and attempted to eject the chambered round. My slide had become stuck and I had no idea what was going on. It was clearly the cartridge in the barrel, but I had no way of removing it. The first thought was take it to a gunsmith to get it taken care of, but since everyone is observing the new year today, that option was out, so online I went. Found a few different internet ideas, one of the worst one being, just fire the round and see if it ejects with the slide goes back to slide lock. Yeah, that wasn't happening. Second worst but not as bad, was bang the slide trying to avoid the front of the barrel on a piece of wood until it knocked the slide back. That is just some redneck science right there. The option I went with seemed the safest and most reasonable, which was to just use as much physical force to pull the slide back into slide lock to eject the cartridge. With a mighty effort it worked. The cartridge still didn't fully eject but I was able to pull it out. I then checked that cartridge with others that I have and even though they are both 9mm lugar and 147 grain, they are very different. I then pulled the slide off and took the barrel out so I could see just what was going on. I took the new cartridge and slid it in the barrel and there was a little play, which is what I expected, the one that was jammed slid in, but was very tight and took a little effort to remove form the barrel. I then put the cartridges side by side and the stuck one had a much bigger bullet and the casing was just the slightest bit wider. Now there is a chance that it would fire and extract with the force of the gases and spring on recoil, but I can't take that chance, so I immediately unloaded the magazine and placed all those rounds back in their respective box. I will use the ones that I know will cycle through the weapon. I don't need a potential malfunction when it comes to my life or protecting someone else's. The goal is still never draw my weapon in defense, but in the event that I do, I need to know that it will works as intended.

      Ok, on to stuff that isn't work related. I received a few comments on the last post, and as always they are greatly appreciated, but sometimes I have no idea who they are from, so I'm going to give a little tutorial on how you can put your name in, or some other identifying monicker. When you hit on the comment bar, it will open the area for you to write the comment and also a little pull down window that has Comment as next to it. If you hit that tab it will open options for Google account, Default setting of Anonymous, and Name/URL. Now it used to use the your google account information if you were signed in, but it no longer does that and I have no idea how to get it to work. The anonymous is what we are trying to avoid so that just leaves Name/URL. This one isn't as daunting as it seems, that is the one I use to leave my name as Counterfeitsquirrel. Simply click on that one and type what of identifier you want, just ignore the URL line and write in a name. It doesn't have to be your own name, but please leave something that I might know you by. Like I said I really appreciate the comments, but it's always better when you actually know who they are from. Of course I do have one friend who always leaves little easter egg type of language so I always know why they are. You know who you are kiddo, so they can just keep on keeping on. I really do wish it were easier, but that is the best I can do to help out.

     Oh, just a reminder of just how lame my life is now. I spent New Year's Eve building the lower half of a new gun. I think I mentioned that I was going to build a gun, mostly so I can have the experience of doing it. I have no plans for this other than it being a range weapon. Just cause I built it, well especially because I built it, I don't plan on using it for a home defense weapon. I got real lucky around black friday and found everything I needed for what is referred to as a complete lower receiver, by getting it in pieces and an absurdly reduced price. Mind you, I bought this before all these crazy bills began hitting out of no where. It was a bit of a struggle to build since the videos I was watching, although  really informative, they could have done two things much much better, and that is camera angles and giving full explanations of exactly what they were doing. I think it was more of a case of them knowing very well what they are doing that they don't realize that the majority of the people watching have no clue what they are talking about. With that being said, after completing this part of it, if I ever do it again I can do it without the video help and do it much faster than I did this first time. I guess the hidden blessing in the videos not being incredibly thorough, was that I had to do quite a bit of trial and error, which can sometimes be a better teacher than actual instruction. The other reason I'm doing this is so that I have a better understating of the weapons that I'm using for my own job. By building a gun I know every part of it rather than just knowing how to field strip it for cleaning. You know those scenes in movies were people are blind folded and they strip a gun down and then put it back together. Well, I won't be able to do that, but I can strip it all the way down to a full disassembly and be able to put it back together. That goes far beyond field stripping.

     Ok, I feel like I'm rambling on about things that will probably bore you to tears so here is a picture of my puppies waiting for me to finish burgers today.

     No, The Chonk is not dead, he just simply knows that it all takes time and I will eventually give him something to eat, he just wants to be in exactly were I have to step in order to make sure he is there to receive said food item. Oh, and Morty always looks like he is guilty when food is involved, and Ri Ri is just Ri Ri.

     Ok, that's it for today. I still have no idea why I still have internet, but as long as I do I'll be able to write and update you. The next couple of weeks should change my financial situation so everything should get back to some sort of normalcy, hopefully. Until next week, peace in and goodnight.

I Got The Job

      Well, as I write this, I only have 1 more week with my current company. That means only 4 more days out at the Space Center. It's been a fun ride, but it's time to move in a somewhat different direction. I will miss it out there as well as the people that I met. Some of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure to work with.

     I've decided to kind of just emerse myself in the experience out there and just soak it all in. The only thing I didn't get to actually see that I wanted to, was the crawler actually moving. It always seemed to happen either late at night, or early in the day when I wasn't there. If that is my only missed experience, I'll take it. I did get another creepy photo last week as the front moved in for what has been the coldest snap of maybe the last decade here. The VAB always looks incredibly spooky when you can't see the top of it.

      I did get to hear a few stories of the inside of the building from a former security officer that worked over there. I thought my building was active. He told me about a night on a New Years Eve when he was the only one in the building, and he stood at the bottom in the very center and what was happening. He said it was like the first day of the Apollo mission, with voices being heard from all directions, footsteps running around and, elevators going up and down all by themselves. I would really like to spend a night in that building to experience that just once. I did get a little action on Friday night in my building. I went into an area and climbed to the highest point of a set of stairs and just listened, then I heard it. It sounded like to men talking about something in the very far corner of the room. The thing is, you can never understand what they are saying, it's just words that you can't quite put together. I stayed up there for a few minutes listening, and then walked back down, when I hit the floor was when I lost track of the voices. It was wild. People that I've mentioned this to have each asked me if I was scared, and the simple answer is no. I've always thought of it this way, as long as I'm not touched, I have no problem. Now, the first night which was Thanksgiving night when I experienced the voices and what not for the first time. I do think it drained a lot of energy from me. I felt physically ill the next day, but it only lasted a single day. From all the paranormal shows I watch, they always say that you should deny spirits permission from doing such a thing, so that next day when I was feeling ill, that's exactly what I did. Yeah, you feel really weird talking to open air and saying, Hey that wasn't cool what you did, and you can't do the any more, but if it works it works.

      Enough about the ghost stories, As I said, I have one more week with the companies and then it's on to the new armed position which just happens to be 11 minutes from my house. I will be making quite a bit more money than I have been, which is sorely needed, and I will also save money on gas going to work each day. From what I can gather, I'll more than likely be working 7 days a week for a while. I have no problem with that. I have a lot of bills to catch up on and get things moving in the right direction. The new boss has already told me that I should tell him when I feel like I need a break and then he will hire someone else to come in. This property I'll be on, I will be the only officer on duty. They have been going without for a few weeks or even a month now. He also mentioned that he wants me to be there on the weekends because that is the busiest time and then even if he hires someone else, I would be the lead officer on the site. The site was considered a rough area not too long ago, but it has been cleaned up quite a bit and is looking good. They just opened a brand new fire department across the street, so that is really convenient. My schedule is going to be sporadic, which means that I will be working in the morning to afternoon some days and then afternoon to night on others. It's just to create the illusion that there is an officer always there despite me being the only officer. I know, it's a little bit of a weird situation with me being the only security presence there, but it's going to be ok. 

     My uniform is going to be quite a bit different from the military style shirt and slacks that I've been wearing. I think I mentioned that I'll be looking like Meal Team Six. I'm really hoping you get that reference. It's the look that you see most of the, how should I put this delicately, the racists pieces of garbage that protest with military gear and long rifles. That seemed delicate enough. Anyway, the basic uniform is khaki cargo pants, a black polo (company insignia on it) a plate carrier ( or tactical vest ) and a duty belt with my weapon. He did mention that he wants me kitted out to look proper. Not that I would have to use any of the items, just that the more stuff I have on my vest and belt, the less likely anyone will mess with you. I get the idea. I will mostly have medical supplies with mine. Useful tools so to say. I will of course have my firearm and magazines on my belt with my baton and handcuffs as well. No, I don't have arrest privilege with this job, the handcuffs are more that decoration type of thing, but if an incident does arise where the police are on scene, I can have them at the ready for them to use if they need multiple pairs. My vest will have a blowout kit ( trauma kit ) with the proper supplies to save a life, a not pad and pen, and of course a flashlight. I'll probably stow a knife or two on there as well. Oh, and before you ask, you probably will never see a photo of me in uniform. It's just not my thing. Unless you see me in person, you will never know what my work attire is like.

     Ok, it's been a while for this, but I have a Favorite Song of the Week. I know, I've been a bit lazy with this part of it all. Anyway, it's that time of year again when Kurstin & Grohl get together to celebrate jewish artist and Chanukka. Each year the post 8 videos, one for each night with a different song written by a jewish artist. Last years was the first year that Dave really got his daughter Violet involved and she was outstanding. I have become a big fan of Violet and her ability to simply sing anything. She has a bit of a mimic quality to her, that she will take whatever cover she is singing and not only sing it in the style but in the voice of the original artist and this year's song was no exception. I proudly present to you Janis Eddy Fink's classic, "At Seventeen", Preformed by the one and only Violet Grohl.

     I am so looking forward to Violet's first album. I should remind you that Dave has said that he really wants to be in Violet's band. Anyway, if you enjoy that, you should really go on the deep dive and watch all the years that they have done this. I believe this is the 3rd year. They started during the pandemic to make music and celebrate something that generally isn't celebrated by the whole, and music is always something that can bring people together and expand horizons. 

    Ok, that's it for this week. I'm not exactly sure what my schedule will be next week, but I will try to write again on Monday either after my first shift of the new job or before. I hope you have a wonderful new year full of new adventures and great success. Peace in and goodnight.

New Ventures On The Horizon

      It's been a few weeks, cause I needed to save things up. Not a lot happening in my life with still a good deal happening. I know that is a very odd juxtaposition. No I didn't just want to use that word, which is why I'm not typing it out again. I do have a picture for you from the job site which I thought was pretty cool and I can share with you, I just can't tell you all the juicy details that I know about it.

     That is the Mobile Launch System, that was holding the Artemis rocket. You may have heard that it took some damage during the launch which is why it too them so long to move it back to the VAB. They had to make sure it was stable for transport. Speaking of transport. If you zoom in at the bottom, you can see NASA crawler 2. If that isn't one of the biggest examples about how massive the Artemis rocket is, I don't know what else to show you. The crawlers are massive vehicles. Easily the size of 8 city buses in 2 columns of 4 side by side, and I think I'm understating there. This also shows just how enormous the VAB is as well. That is getting ready to go inside Bay 3 of the VAB and you can't even see the rest of the structure in the picture. It has truly been a pleasure and an experience to get to see these types of things up close like this. Not everyone gets to see stuff like this, and I will miss it.

     Yes, I said miss it. I may be in for a change of scenery. As I sit here writing this this morning, I'm preparing for an interview for an armed officer job. I'm really hoping to get it because the pay is over a third more than what I'm making now, and I kind of need it. I've been in some pretty desperate financial situations lately, and this can start a change in the right direction. I always saw my current job as getting my foot in the door of security, and now it's time to step through that door a little more. 

      There's also the fact that my old supervisor that moved on to another site has put in a transfer to have me move to his site. It would be a pay increase with a supervisor that I really enjoyed working with, but not quite as much as the armed job. The benefit is of course the supervisor and the general safety of the position. I know the armed job brings a level of risk but I knew that when I pushed myself to get my armed license. This is what I worked so hard for, plus I feel I can bring something to an armed position that will perhaps change the culture of the area in a positive way at least in the regards of how they see security officers. I did it at my current location. I can see it when I'm at the desk with other officers and people say hello or good bye to me and the other officers look perplexed. I see a security officer as someone that is there to protect life and assess of the client. We are also a representative of the company and have to be a positive reflection of that. We can't be some smug bossy asshole that is just telling people what to do. When I approach people I'm usually asking them what I can do for them, rather than telling them what they can do for me. I think that approach goes a long way in how someone responds to you and I've proved it with how people see me even though I'm the security officer with a sleeve of tattoos, shaved head, and stretched lobes. Instead of all of that, they see my professionalism and how it lifts their opinion of the position I hold.

     Enough about the philosophy of security work. Oh, on a quick note, I will get a cooler uniform if I get the new job. The Chief wants his officers looking the part, and is going to have me in khaki's (cargo preferred), polo, and a tactical vest. So basically I'm going to look like Meal Team 6. I joke, but I actually make it look good, cause I'm basically physically fit. The tactical vest or plate carrier if you will is there mostly for form and not function. I want be carrying ballistic plates in mine, it's there for holding my badge, and a few other items I may need. Namely my flashlight and tourniquet. I of course will also be wearing a duty belt that will hold my weapon, magazines, and baton.

     As I stated before is that my goal is to never have to actually draw my weapon. I will default to deescalation first, baton, second, and then my firearm as an absolute final resort. I would much rather use my tourniquet and life saving skills long before I ever use a weapon. I'd prefer to save a life than take a life. That's why I'm continuing to seek out life saving training. If I can get my financial situation under control I'm really going to look into going to EMT school, not to become an EMT or Paramedic, but to further enhance my skills as a security officer. Did you know that there is an actual position known as an Armed AEMT Officer? That is an armed officer that is trained in Advanced Emergency Medical Skills. There are even higher levels of EMT training like TEMT, which is a Tactical EMT. I can't remember the acronym but there is even a teaching EMT that is trained to be able to train. They are not only the ones that train other EMT's but they are the ones that offer the public outreach courses like "Stop the Bleed". Did I ever mention that I think it is a truly valuable class and that everyone that has the time and desire to be a force to save a life in an emergency situation should absolutely take that class. Anyone can take it and they are generally free to the public, because hospitals want people that are on scene that can provide simple trauma care in an intense situation. Most of the victims that die in active shooter situations die from bleeding out. If someone was there that had taken a "Stop the Bleed' class, as least 1 life could have been saved with the potential of many more, because you could provide simple instructions for others around you to help out other victims. It is a truly worthwhile class to take.

     Ok, I'm going to call it a day here and hope that I can write next week to update you on how this job interview goes. The problem is that I may not have internet next week, so I may not be able to post anything. Regardless of what next week brings, I will get internet back at some point and will update you then. Peace in and goodnight.

Is It Haunted.

      Ok, so I didn't write last week, and for a very simple reason. I didn't have anything at all to write about. This week however, I got stuff. 

     First a little update. I'm heading for that "Stop the Bleed" course on Thursday, and I'm pretty excited about it. I still don't really fully know what to expect, but I'm hoping for practical application of wound packing and applying tourniquets. You can watch videos that tell you how to do it, but without real life application it's really hard to know exactly if what you know to do is really what you are to do. I really hope that makes sense. I have purchase a couple of CAT tourniquets, which are the mostly highly approved tourniquet to use, and some packing gauze which is the second highest approved type of gauze. Hemostatic gauze is the highest, but it is super expensive, and studies have shown that regular packing gauze can be just as affective, but may take a little longer to actually stop the bleeding. The hemostatic gauze is quicker because it has a clotting agent embedded in the gauze itself which will speed up the process of stopping the bleeding. I would still like to get a couple of SOFTT Wide tourniquets which are highly approved as well, but they can fold down to be a little easier to conceal on your person. I would use those as my daily carry tourniquet. Right now I haven't fully figured out how to carry the CAT 7 on my person without a very large holster that is very obvious. For my range bag, I just got a simple Molle style loop system that slides onto my bag and I just slide the CAT 7 through the elastic bands. I really don't care if someone at the range sees it, but when you are in public you might create a bit of a stir if someone notices that you are walking around with a bright orange tourniquet. The packing gauze is simple, it is vacuum packed in a plastic bag that is the size of a standard wallet. I can slip it in my back pocket without anyone even knowing. Now, when I'm on duty, I just slide my belt through the TQ holster and not really care if anyone sees it. People seems to not know that security officers are more than likely the first person that is going to be on any type of scene, and we are trained in life saving procedures. I'm just trying to take it a bit further. I did get a very minimal training on wound care and tourniquet use, but no to the extent I'm willing to an wanting to learn. My goal is to basically become a field medic, but trying to find classes that are with in my time and price constraints is incredibly difficult right now. The course I'm going to on Thursday happens to be free which is incredible, but I do have to take the night off of work, and then drive to Orlando, so it's still costing me, but I'm placing a much higher value on it than what I'm losing in gas and time off of work. I will of course figure all of this out and find a way to learn what I'm wanting to. It will just take some time.

     I'm going to share this picture of the VAB last week which will be the segue way into the rest of this post. 

     I posted some day time photos on Instagram that duel posted on Facebook as well, but those weren't as creepy as this one. This was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and there were still several people in the area, finishing up their days before the holiday break. This shot is approximately 200 yards away from the VAB, and as you can see, you can only see about a third of the building. I can remember telling people that it looked like a horror film outside and I believe the word creeptacular came up as well. It was spooky to say the least. Little did I know that was a precursor for Thanksgiving night. Now as a security officer I have to work on holidays, which is fine by me, but it means that I'm in completely empty buildings, and buildings that were built in some cases in the early 60's. I know that doesn't seem like a long time for a building, but you have to remember, theses buildings are all attached to the space program from its inception, so they have seen a lot. 

     I went in for my usual shift on Thanksgiving which was a bit weird in itself because there was almost no one in the entire area. I'm talking maybe a grand total of 10 people in a mile radius from where I was. The shift went rather nominal until the sun went down, then stuff started getting wild. As I would walk around the building, I could here voices and conversations every where. Almost every portion of the building had some sort of voices or conversations going on and they would always make me stop in my tracks to turn around. I'm sure if anyone was watching the cameras, they would think I was insane constantly turning around and walking back to an empty area. I can't really tell you much about what all went on, but I will tell you about the most intense moment. I was walking out of an area that has double doors, and then right outside of those double doors is another door that leads to some bathrooms and a training area. I walked through the double doors and heard them close behind me, as I continued down the hallway, I heard a voice call out to me. Now when I say call out to me, that is a pure assumption since I can never understand anything that is actually said, but it was loud and seemed directed to me. I turned around and looked at the double doors and of course, nothing was there, so I turned and continued down the hallway. When I did I suddenly heard the door that leads to the bathrooms close. I turned again and walked back, opened that door and searched around. There was nothing there which I knew, but I had to look.

      When my relief for the night came, I mentioned everything that was going on to him, and he concurred that he has heard things as well. He had even had some more intense experiences than what I had. He also o told me that the ongoing belief is that the spirits in the building belongs to the unfortunate souls of the Challenger and Columbia accidents. The building I am in is one of two buildings that were Shuttle processing facilities when they were active, so it is very likely that both Challenger and Columbia were last in that building before heading off to pair with the boosters in the VAB.

      This all leads to the other building I work in. Now that building I've had experiences in for some time now. I've heard conversations that I couldn't really pinpoint their location. I've walked into rooms and instantly smelled perfume. Mind you, I've looked around those rooms for wall mounted scent emitters and things like that, and found nothing. There was nowhere or anything for the smell to be coming from. A couple of the other officers have told me about experiences that they have had as well, which back up a lot of what I've experienced. In that building the bulk of the activity is on just one floor, even though I've had one experience on one other floor and the others officers have mentioned some things happening on other floors, but for the most part it is the 3rd floor where everything happens. Now, on Saturday when I was there, there was a special project going on and the building had the power cut off to have the work done. That took half of my shift and then everyone was out of the building for the rest of the weekend. Saturday went by without even a strange feeling, and I should mention that form time to time, even without activity, you will still have a vibe when you are on the 3rd floor. It's still quiet but the vibe is kind of like someone is watching you but from right over your shoulder. Sunday came around and I was a little disappointed that the building was so quiet, so when I was walking on the 3rd floor in the middle of my shift, I spoke out loud about. I mentioned that they were dropping the ball and that they didn't have anything on the other building, because much more happened to me there than at the current building. Hindsight, that may have been a mistake or maybe a little of, be careful what you wish for. I went on patrol near the end of my shift and purposefully skipped the 3rd floor just to mix things up a bit. On my way back down I reminded myself that I had to hit floor 3 but somehow simply forgot as I walked passed it in the stairwell. When I hit 2 it hit me that I had to cover the 3rd floor and quickly turned around and went back up. As I exited the stairwell, I heard a noise like a machine powering up. Let me tell you, that stopped me dead in my tracks and shivers shot from my toes all the way to the top of my head. Once my wits were about me, I heard it power up again and realized it was the sound of a printer. so I walked to where it was and sure enough the printer had powered up as if it was ready to accept a project to print. No remember, the day before the power to the building was complete shut off. The printer I use for my reports, I had to physically turn on since it was off and not in sleep mode. This printer should have been exactly the same, but it was now online. At the other end of the floor is another printer, so I quickly headed that way to check and sure enough, that one was on too. I called out, "Oh, that is good, you are definitely upping your game now.", but even with that, I still wasn't sure it wasn't just one sort of automated reaction, even though I knew you had to physically turn them on, so once I finished checking that entire floor, I quickly went back down tot he second floor to check the printers there, and they were all completely offline. I can tell you that while I was on the 4th floor I made a mental note about the printers being off up there as well. It's just something i alway notice when I'm in the building. When I'm there on the weekend I"m generally the only person that is ever there, so it is an oddity if there is anything on, like for example, a printer. 

      I have to say, I was a little proud of the building after that, and appreciated the display of weird power. When my relief came I had to fill him in on what had happened. I even took him up to show him. We hit the 2nd floor first and showed him that I had to turn the printer on, which I did. It powered up and then went to a standby screen, which is the normal thing for it to do. Then we went up on the 3rd floor and showed him that even though the screen was no longer on, the standby light was on, showing that it was powered up and ready. I mentioned that I had not touched them at all. Then we went to see the printer at the other end and as we walked, we went through a cloud of perfume, which as I mentioned I smell from time to time, so I don't think much of it anymore, but it hit him as well, and it freaked him out. We made it to the printer and the same standby light was on and all the time he was talking about how he smelled something. I asked him, was it a floral perfume, and he agreed and then he had to walk back where we had come form to find it. It of course was no longer there, but without asking him where he smelled it, I backed up to where it hit me and asked him if this was the spot, and it looked like his head exploded. It blew his mind that I knew where he had smelled it, because I had smelled it as well. I asked him if he remembered the printer screen on the second floor, which he did, and then I told him what the screens on the 3rd floor looked like. They weren't the start up screen, they were the ready to receive screen, and that once again blew his mind. We went back down to the lobby where our desk is and talked it over a bit before I left. I then asked the spirits to not bother him, since I was the one that stirred them up, and that they could have it out with me next week when I showed up. When I said that, something very strange happened. Before I tell you what it was, I have to tell you about a normal occurrence in the building. We have those automated toilets in the bathrooms, and from time to time, they will flush for now reason. The first floor has it happen all the time, and every now and then, you can hear the second floor do it. Now, when I said what I said, we heard a flush come from the women's room on the 3rd floor. The important thing about that, is that even though I can't pinpoint where the conversations are coming from, I can get it down to 2 general areas, one of which is near the women's room. Either in there or in the office space to the side or the lobby area in front of it. 

     I have a passion for the paranormal and always have. I've had some strange experiences in the past, but nothing compares to this last week in those two buildings. You can believe if you like it doesn't matter to me. I will always try to find an explanation for what happens, but sometimes you just have to accept things for what they are, and for right now, all those occurrences, I can't explain at all. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy this weird ride I'm now finding myself on. I'd like to get a digital recorder to just leave on that floor for about a half hour and see if it gets anything, but that costs money, which I currently don't have. I could leave my phone up there, but I just feel like that would be a horrible idea. I'll just have to bide my time and wait until I have the money to get a recorder to do it. In the meantime I'll just try and document any really extreme things here when they happen.

     I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and the holidays that are descending upon us. Peace in and goodnight.

A Storm By Any Other Name

       I got a little busy yesterday evening and didn't really have the time to write, but this might work out better. Monday is my day off so I think I'll be switching to every Monday for now anyway. As you know, Hurricane Nicole hit us this week and it was quite the experience. I didn't suffer any damage other than a few small limbs down in the yard, but the adventure was at work. On Tuesday I was at the Space Center location and my relief decided that they weren't coming out since the Space Center was suspending operations and only essential personal could be on property. That meant I had to stay until midnight and shut the whole building down. It was a little strange being one of only a few people left in the entire area. I didn't see any other person until I was on the road on the way out the gates. It was like a ghost town out there. 

     As for the storm itself, as far as I can remember I've never experienced a CAT 1 storm that was that windy and noisy. With the massive size of the storm and the fact that we were on the worst side of the storm it's not out of the norm to get hit with the strongest winds, but with it being so big we got hit with the highest gusts for an incredibly long time. These storms are getting bigger and with that size comes more damage even for a CAT 1 storm. I think NOAA is going to have to recategorize theses storms in the future. Wind strength isn't a defining characteristic of them anymore. You have to take the size into consideration now.

     I did lose power but it was only down for about 16 hours. I honestly slept through most of it. Just a relaxing day with the doggoes. They enjoyed it cause they got to hang out on the front porch most of the day. They like barking at people, I'm not a fan of it, but it makes them happy.

    I'm not really sure what I have left to say today. There are a couple of things that are rocking my foundation right now, but I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about it just yet, so I'll leave you with a picture of The Chonk and say Peace in and goodnight, even though it's still early on a Monday morning.

Let's Save A Life

    Ok, so it's been a while. I really just didn't have the desire to write, despite there being a lot to write about. Let's see if I can get you up to date quickly. I've applied to a ton of different places with very little to show for it. I'm in the process of an investigation for a clearance for the one job that is still a potential. This process will take quite a while, up to 90 days. The job is great, just doesn't pay what I really need to truly survive, but the rewards of personal experience make it worth while. I'll discuss those in a bit.  I have maintained and even upped my training with my gun. I think it's incredibly important as a responsible gun owner to know everything about the gun and improve on how you shoot it. I've made a ton of small changes that have improved my shooting, and I've also learned a lot about tear down and maintenance of weapons in general. I'm considering building a gun, for the simple reason that I will appreciate it even more knowing every little piece of it. That's a ways of though. The dogs are great although they are buttheads a lot of the time. The Chonk hasn't tried to escape at all lately, but I still don't trust him in the yard alone yet. That about sums up what you've missed.

     That's just a little puppy appreciation photo. Ok, now on to those personal rewards. This week they came about especially because of a small event that took place. My supervisor went on a short vacation , and he brought in a person that I'm not a real fan of. Well it turns out most of the people where I work are fans of them either. It was kind of an eye opening experience for them, you would say. I got a ton of compliments on everything from just my general personality to how I handle things. One contractor that is on site a lot even went out of their way to stop by the office and literally yell out. "The A Team is back!". That was in part to me having to go to another site for 2 hours one day instead of my normal site to start the day, but it was also because they really didn't like the fill in. I was also on the phone with someone that I deal with quite a lot in dealing with the public experience there. Basically tours at the facility. They felt the need to tell me on that day that they reached out to one of my supervisors to tell them, and in their words, " He is really great at what he does.". It meant a great deal to me to hear that. I think I do a pretty good job, but it always is a big deal when someone else that is rather important notices. I'm sure my other supervisor that went on vacation is going to hear an ear full on Monday when he comes back about putting that person as a fill in. I'll hear it on Tuesday. Oh, I'm currently working 6 days a week right now. I actually enjoy it.

     More new news. I've been looking at ways to improve my skills and performance as it relates to security but in ways that can benefit in other areas, and that has lead me to looking into some basic types of EMT training. I can't, although I kind of would love to now, go to a full EMT course, but I can learn some civilian things that most people don't even consider. I of course know basic first aid, CPR&AED, but I want to up my game so I started looking into courses on packing wounds and applying tourniquets. After talking with a great friend who is in the medical field, he pointed me in the right direction to find really good courses that would give me the skills I'm looking for. I found a 2 part course that teaches in essence an immediate responder trauma course. It's just what I was looking for. Assessing wounds then caring for them in a manor that could prolong life. I already finished the online portion and crusted it with a perfect score. I just have to take an in person course that will apply that knowledge on Dec. 1st. Once I complete the course I will be certified to apply tourniquets properly, assess and pack wounds. With being in the gun community now, I'm in areas where simple accidents can lead to life threatening incidents, so once I have this class under my belt I will be able to handle some of these incidents. I will also begin caring a simple trauma kit with me where ever I go. Turns out EDC trauma kits are a thing. Oh, EDC stands for Every Day Carry. Most people use that in reference to concealed weapons and what they have them each day. For example; watch, wallet, phone, keys, concealed weapon. Personally for me, it's; watch, wallet, money clip, flashlight, knife, phone, and concealed gun. That's not when I'm on duty of course. although I have a knife somewhere near me at all times. I just thing a knife is a very valuable tool to have.

     Once I finish this class, I'll let you know what I think about the whole experience. Right now, I'm thinking it's something most people should try and learn. They way the world is now, it's not a matter of if you get involved in an active shooter situation, its when. Knowing not only what to do to save your own life, but what you could potentially do to save other lives is a good thing. The one important fact I've learned form the material I've studied so far, is that most deaths are a result of bleeding out, and if you know how to stop that bleeding, you can give them a chance to get to a medical professional and a chance to live.  That's no small thing.

    I guess I'm keeping it short tonight, but I'm going to try my best to write every week again. Let's start off small and see where it goes. Peace in and goodnight.