Bloggy Bayou

The deputy was shot with a shotgun when he entered a bathroom where a mental patient had holed up.  They'd had a negotiation team on site, but the patient had failed to respond. I hadn't realized this guy had escaped numerous times before.

The mental health agency I volunteer with was getting really bad publicity and getting blamed for the incident earlier in the week. I'm relieved to see further information is indicating it wasn't their/our fault.

A 'Baker Act'  means the man was involuntarily sent/taken to a mental health facility for evaluation and treatment.

The deputy is from Niceville and I know at least one person who knew him and his kids. We had a flyover by fighter jets a few minutes ago which was, I'm sure for his funeral.


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After his second escape, he went to his deceased father's home on Plymouth Avenue and shot and killed Okaloosa County Sheriff's Deputy Anthony Forgione when Forgione and other deputies entered the house to retrieve him. Rohlman then took his own life.

It was revealed later that Baker Act detainees escape from Fort Walton Beach Medical Center fairly regularly. Records indicate the hospital had called the Sheriff's Office to report escapes 45 times since Jan. 1, 2007.

Deputies have their own guidelines for dealing with Baker Act detainees, who are considered patients rather than criminals.

"Taking a person into custody under the Baker Act, is a civil, not a criminal, procedure," Okaloosa County Sheriff Charlie Morris said. "Even if someone is charged with a misdemeanor, if they are a Baker Act patient, the priority is to get them to a state-receiving facility for mental evaluation and help, not to throw them in jail.

So...............The Democratic Party just called begging for money so they could elect Democrats.

I told her that I was so furious with the Demoncrats caving in on FISA that they weren't going to get one stinking penny from me and they should just stop calling NOW!

Instead I'm going to give my pennies to  Strangebedfellows

If anyone else is as pissed as I am at how the US constitution has been eroded not just by the asswipe in the White House but by complicit politicians on both sides of the aisle, please consider giving.  And no, I'm not associated with them in any way other than supporting the Constitution I swore to protect.

I'm rather disappointed they weren't playing Jimmy Buffett - Okay, no I'm not.

The Boathouse is, to be frank, a dive. A nice one, granted, and the food is not bad and fairly cheap for being in the center of the tourist area. It is right next to the Destin Fishing Fleet and actually leans over the harbor a bit.

It was totally wrecked during Hurricane Opal as you can see if you look at the pictures. It's small, it has no windows, only screens, has no airconditioning and all you can get to eat are basic kinds of food stuffs and, of course, oysters and beer.  The walls and ceiling are covered in one dollar bills with notes written on them, there are two groupings of women's bras (some actual bras some bikini tops) and a few other assorted odd tings hanging from the ceiling.

I had a pulled pork sandwich which was excellent. Jim had a dozen oysters and a hamburger.

We also did a quick stop at the state park just up the way.




It was HOT so we didn't stay.   90F/32C

Nice outing for the day

Millenium Falcon birthday cake!



And apparently I need a starwars icon...

An Oklahoma church canceled a controversial gun giveaway for teenagers at a weekend youth conference.

Windsor Hills Baptist had planned to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle until one of the event's organizers was unable to attend.

The church’s youth pastor, Bob Ross, said it’s a way of trying to encourage young people to attend the event. The church expected hundreds of teenagers from as far away as Canada.
....

Aaaaaaaammmmmeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnn!

"I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don't expect to be a great communicator, I don't expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need... I don't e-mail, I've never felt the particular need to e-mail."

-- Sen. John McCain

"I hate the bloggers." - John McCain

An there be a clearer statement on how far out of touch this guy is?  Obviously he hasn't a clue as to how many of us there are...

So... I've been getting adventurous in my old age and checking out my options for different tastes in iced tea.

I already liked Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zinger as iced tea but I prefer real tea to herbal so I began looking around.

Celestial Seasonings has real tea!  Who knew!!!  Anyway, I ordered the Peach and the Raspberry and love them both. They are made with cold water, so no heating and then cooling back down.

I also got some Ashby's Ginger Peach and Raspberry.  LIke them both, but they require boiling tea.

Wanted to look more so did.  Turns out Stash Tea has the best selection of iced mixed fruit flavors I've found so far.

I ordered several and have so far tried:

Blueberry Iced tea.  Quite good!

Mango Passionfruit Iced Tea ;  A bit different, and very mango-y

Yet to try:

Tropical Fruit
Peach
Raspberry.

So, there are options for your Fourth of July party sipping kids!

So enjoy your Fourth 'Muricans and the rest of you stay cool or warm as the case may be!

At least the charismatic christian church down the road seems to think so. Their entire property as well as their walkways lined with miniature Stars and Stripes for the 4th of July.

I know. I'm probably the only person who finds that offensive.

So today was Jim's last turtle herder morning for awhile because he will be having neck surgery tomorrow. And, I'm so delighted for him, he got his first turtle nest discovery today!  They've been having turtle nest discovery over much of the month, this being the 10th nest.

As to his surgery he is having discs 3&4 fused. Fifteen or so years ago he had 5&6 fused, so it isn't something we haven't had to go through before. And, just like last time, it's in a hurry because they are worried about nerves being damaged.

I was thinking about the last surgery and remembered that he was diagnosed and set for immediate surgery while I was staying in central Florida with my mother who'd recently had a heart attack. I was trying to figure out how I could get up there to take care of him and yet take care of her at the same time (it's a 7 hour drive so it was a problem)

Then, suddenly, my mother died of a blood clot, and there I was stuck down there alone, and him told not to drive or travel. He drove down anyway to help me, since i was down there alone - well my aunt and uncle were there, but both of them were dingy as crap so I did not want to deal with them too.

We drove back as soon as we had mom taken care of and Jim had his surgery. I don't remember much of his recovery since I was, needless to say, a mess over my mother's death.

Let's hope this one goes well.

my once monthy posting of what my screen looks like at the moment

Yesterday, the DCCC (the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) called me asking for money to help elect Democrats.

I gave it some thought and then said, more or less, that they were not going to get any donations out of me until I calmed down about the House cave-in on the FISA immunity bill (sorry if this makes no sense to non-USians).  The cave-in is about immunity for telecoms who broke laws about snooping on US citizens.  That's my beef, that just because they went along with the Lawbreaker in Chief, doesn't mean they should get a pass and be forgiven. I want 'em all to testify at the very least!  Jail is optional for me.

Anyway, to my surprise, the guy making the call, agreed with me, and we spoke for about 10 minutes on how disappointed he himself was and how he completely understood my disgruntlement and how he'd pretty much expected the day to involve a lot of folks like me who pay attention to these things and who felt betrayed, and that he did too.

Neither of us could figure out the sense of the thing, and both of us had been reading and looking at blogs and such to try to make sense of it.

Anyway, today, I see that Senator Chris Dodd is vowing to block the bill from coming to the floor of the Senate and even the Senate leader Harry Reid is having second thoughts, so there is some slim hope the will not cave - at least not this week.

Chris Dodd has long been my hero. I'm from Connecticut, his state. I voted there and called it home until we moved to Florida in 1983, and still call myself a Connecticut Yankee transplanted to the mad mad South.

Keep your fingers crossed and the phones smokin'

So, Heather  has talked me into posting fan fiction... She writes the Highlanders and I'm writing a love interest for Methos.

If you know the fandom and like it, please come read.  I love the way she writes Methos!

Immortal History Lessons

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.

Umberto Eco

So I went on base yesterday to go commissarying. Just past the gate guards ( having navigated the swirvy entrance used to deter bombing trucks from breaking onto base and showing my ID - everyone in a car now has to show ID all the time despite the stickers on our cars)  there is a large, computer generated bulletin board.

It generally touts high-profile visitors, any major base happenings, and the terrorist threat level.

Yesterday morning the message of the day was, "Think before blogging."  Which I found infinitely amusing.

Military bloggers = the new terrorist threat!

So Jim went out on a friend's boat yesterday. The guys dive 50 or so miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.  They dive some specific places there and go spear fishing.

Jim brought home two of these, called shovelnose lobsters.

This one is a different color than the ones we just ate for lunch, they were redder, but same idea anyway.  You just eat the tail, maybe 3 or 4 oz of pure lobster heaven.

I made a clarified butter sauce (with garlic powder, paprika and lemon in it) and we took the lobster out of the shell and wrapped it in tin foil. Baked it for about 13 minutes and voila. Used the rest of the melted sauce for dipping.

Great stuff!

For sale at Republican state convention.

Lovely.

Molly went to the vet yesterday. I'm sure others who have dogs know the problem. They shake their heads, bang their ear flaps into something, break a blood vessel in the ear, and the flap fills with fluid and off to the vet we go.

While she was under Scott, who is our friend as well as our vet, and also Molly's hunting buddy, took off a mole that had grown recently. Actually, he took off three.

We had to reapply the bandage about 10 times since she kept getting it off. Thankfully today she doesn't have to wear it since it stopped bleeding.

She goes back in 10 days to have stitches and staples removed.

All together... Awwww. Poor Molly...

She looks more yellow than most times, as she's wet from being out in the rain...

What a little sweetie. And she's only chewed up two things..

bailey is staying with us. At five weeks old she was fished out of the bay trying to swim to shore. She's now about 18 weeks old. Maybe eventually she'll grow into her tail.

The grandkids adore her and we're puppy sitting while Kendra is at the specialists in New Orleans.