“Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.”

“Logic is the beginning of wisdom. Not the end.”

“you get the behavior you are willing to put up with”

“Who’s the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?”

“Every man dies. Not every man really lives.”

“Some people are worth fighting for. Be one of those people”

“I don’t need luck, though. I don’t want it. I’ve always had to struggle and fight, and that’s made me strong. It’s made me who I am.”

“Rats are the lowliest and most despised of all creatures. If they have a purpose, so do we.”

“People remain the same until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change. “

So I normally shoot with some older guys on Tuesday mornings.

Nothing hard, rimfire rifles at 50 yards in the summer, and indoors at 50 feet in the winter .

Several of the regulars have dropped out, either due to being gone over the winter months to warmer climates or simply because they are old and don’t like to go out in the cold and such.

But Bob (not his real name) and I were pretty much always there.  If I was undermotivated, he hassled me to get out and shoot. He was better than me, so he motivated me to improve.

Anyway….

So last Tuesday he cancelled due to snowy weather ……I did see him at the normal Thursday meeting, and he said he was planning on shooting on Tuesday……and so this time, I texted him on Monday night, just to see if we were gonna shoot. Forecast was for cold and light snow.

Anyway, he didn’t answer the text on Monday evening. Nor the follow up text on Tuesday morning. Not usual, but hey, maybe he forgot to charge the phone or something……

I went to the range, fired up the heater (he’s 78 years old so he likes it when the range is warm before he gets there) and wait for him. Normal time is 9 AM, and he is usually 10 minutes early.

Bob does not show. Strange. I call his cell phone….no answer. Unusual for him.

I am starting to get that bad feeling. I call him several more times, and they ring but go  to voice mail with no answer….

The feeling is getting worse.

I call another member of the Range  (the secretary) to get his address, as I have only been to Bob’s house once, and that was like 4 years ago.

I drive a half hour to his house….no one is there, the snow is undisturbed just new fluffy snowfall covering the tracks in his driveway and from the garage to the house, no one has been in or out of his house nor a car in or out of his driveway… by my estimate, for at least two days. (I don’t do well on tracks in snow, I have a hard time telling the age of them as there are way too many variables…..) But I can’t tell if the tire tracks are of a car going in to or backing out of the garage….

More Bad Feeling.

I call the local police and ask them to come over, and do a Welfare Check. They don’t do more than bang on the door. Then Dispatch calls on the radio and says that he is in the hospital 3 towns and 25 miles away (apparently this is an SOP for when someone calls for a welfare check, they call the local hospitals). Ok, so I call the hospital and verify that Bob SoAndSo is a patient there, not sure of DOB but aged 77 or so. They say yes, he is there. I call the room number, but no answer. Call back and talk to the nurse’s station, yes he is there but is sleeping, they take my number and say they will give him the message that I called.

I go home, but that nagging feeling just won’t go away. Like a dog worrying a bone, it just keeps on.

So 12:45 ish, I call the hospital again and speak with the nurse: “He doesn’t know who you are and doesn’t want to talk to you”….

I again verify that we are talking about an elderly man in his late 70’s. She says yes.

I can’t shake the feeling that something is amiss here. And I just can’t let it go.

So I call the police again and ask them to do another check at his house….In the meantime, I drive the 50 miles to the hospital where Bob is supposed to be. I go to the room and the person there is indeed a man with the right name…but he is like 35 years old. I refrained from slapping the nurse for her uncaring failure and walk out of the hospital, trying to figure out my next move….I KNOW something is wrong, I just can’t tell what or how to fix it…..

As I am leaving the (wrong) hospital, the cops called. They decided to break down the door (Maybe they heard something, I dunno) and found Bob. He had apparently “fallen” and was being transported to his local hospital.

I drive there. Go to the Emergency Room desk.

They never heard of Bob SoAndSo. Suggest I wait for a few as sometimes the data takes a while to be entered into the system. I sit in the waiting room and get a pen and a piece of paper and make a list of all the local hospitals and call them, one by one. For a 70 mile radius. No Bob at any of them.

My friend has, apparently, vanished. WTF.

I go to the counter and show them the list and ask if I have missed any hospitals. The lady who I had spoken to earlier says no, I have not missed any. I ask what else could have happened to him? She says “We have been on “bypass” for the last 2 hours, so they might have taken him to a separate “emergency facility” (not a hospital) nearby, which isn’t on your list”……Really? Why didn’t you tell me that you were on “bypass” for the last two hours when I FUCKNG ASKED about my friend THE FIRST TIME 35 minutes ago???  (I must admit that I came pretty close to losing my shit at this point…..Luckily for her, I maintained….But it was indeed a close run thing)

I call that facility and yes, Bob is there. Yes, he is an elderly late 70’s white male….I drive there. And yes, he is indeed, there and yes, it is Bob, not looking good, but still, alive at least.

I think he had a stroke. He seems disoriented and is slurring his words….However, he was able to give me some names so I could call his family….

They took him away for a CT scan and some other diagnostics…..So I left because it was gonna be hours ’til he returned.

I called some people who got in touch with his family.

Jesus Christ on a Pogo Stick. What a frustrating day. And what totally incompetent, uncaring (some of them) people. Others were extremely caring and helpful.

If the Nurse at the first hospital would have listened to what I asked, (and I was VERY clear) then Bob would likely have been under care hours before. Might or might not make a difference. I dunno. I don’t know how long he was laying there before the cops broke down his door, but still, the additional 3+ hours waiting for care could not have helped.

But at least my friend is alive and getting help.

ETA: I heard from his Brother in Law, and the Emergency clinic folks think he did not have a stroke, but they think an infection…..Bob thinks he “fell” Sunday evening. His disorientation is likely from dehydration and malnutrition.  He’s being transferred to a hospital (a real one) sometime later tonight.

Keep an eye on your friends and neighbors that live alone. Call them a few times a week. Make sure they are ok.

This could have been much worse that it turned out to be.

“Never make snow angels in a dog park”

Except, of course, that Europe is different and not necessarily better:

The poorest US state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is higher than that of Europe’s top five economies, except for Germany. However, Mississippi competes closely with Germany, with a difference of just €1,500.

People in Mississippi, ferchrissakes, have more purchasing power that people all across Europe.

Think about that. We think Poor folks in Mississippi are poor, and economically disadvantaged….and they are……But compared to Europe, they are not. They are wealthy, in fact.

But they should….in every school in every class, in every grade.

Think “Hope and Change”

Think “Build Back Better”

and for that matter “Make America Great Again”

I think they would never show the kids today anything like this, simply to keep them from recognizing the tricks so that they are more easily led.

Take a few minutes and watch this.

PROPAGANDA For High School Kids In 1948! Would They Show This Today?

Just a tad over 7 minutes.

and I might think you wanted to be a citizen…..

If your signs were in English rather than Spanish. The fact that you failed to learn the predominant language tells me you are invaders rather than immigrants.

Chicago illegals protest planned deportation 

Sprinklers work just fine….

(and apparently helped his neighbors as well.

Who woulda thought….using water to prevent your home form burring?

Or maybe use a hose and spray things down as they start burning

I guess that people in L.A. are (generally) not very smart?

Meta and Amazon have both announced that they are terminating their DEI programs.

I guess they don’t think they have to appease any leftists anymore then, huh?

I expect that the past 4 years, having a DEI program was just the cost of doing business. Now, not so much. They don’t have to pander to the “Woke” politicos any more. White Women and Democrats no longer matter…..

Shows what a real farce the whole thing was, really.

So Saturday about noon I went for a walk in the winter sunshine. Not much wind, and it was clear as clear can be. Cold(ish) but not bad for January in Northwestern Indiana.

I walked around town and finally entered the park, I sat down and watched the people. It was calming. Kids playing, families out together, lovers walking hand in hand, older couples enjoying each other….that sort of thing. Peaceful.

Then this fat dude in his 40’s sat down next to me on the bench….loudly. Kinda broke my calm. Disturbed my Wah, if you get my drift…..I pretty much ignored him, for a while. He kept eyeballing me though.

So, without turning my head, I said, calmly, in my best voice: “Did you bring the money?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him stiffen up, his eyes widened. He looked at me sharply, but I did not turn my head.

“Just slide it over and everything will be fine” Says I, calmly.

Dude got up in a panic and hurried off.

It made a great day even better.

Students

Yep, the DEI department, where people make upwards of $300,000.00 (Plus benefits) per year (doing what, exactly?) of Ohio State University has salaries and benefits that could pay the tuition of well over a THOUSAND students…..Students that could then get better jobs, earn better salaries, and improve their communities.

But no, it goes to a bunch of academics who produce nothing, change nothing, and essentially waste the money. (Which pretty much describes the whole DEI movement…..it is pretty much a transfer of wealth to those favored few who can’t earn a living any other way)