Good morning Mississippi and to all who visit.
I got off to an early start today.

I happy to see that plans are in the works for folks to attend this years Cruzin' the Coast.
I hope to be able to help with the arrangements again this year.

 

If you're down that way & have a moment, snap a pic of 4302 W beach Blvd. Supposedly brand new Wingate by Windham. All I see on Google Earth is empty lot, dated 2011.

Terri & I are scheduled to drop down to Hattiesburg on the 17th to visit with Steve & Norma. I'm sure the subject will be chewed on extensively.

 

we suppose to have a room booked for that week. i just forgot where. i'll have to look it up. a fairley good price for a week at a time. i could not find a room just for 2/3 days like last year. but where we stayed last year was not real good. just across for the Bo. i"ll have to look up for this year. davis tell gator we said Hi.bryan we'll be looking for you also.

 

The Superbowl is not really my thing this particular weekend, but I hope all who are getting into the swing of it have a great time.

 

David the Windham Wingate is fully booked this weekend.
Rooms and rental cars are taken up by people in for the Superbowl.
I stopped by to get some pictures for you but was diverted from my mission for a PD call.

The place is as nice as you could expect a new hotel to appear.
I'll get back on task later today.
There is a Waffle House next door and several good restaurants close by.
If the price is right I would consider it a pretty good choice.
The Wingate is approximately 3 miles from my home.
I drive past it everyday.

Today is going to be a traffic nightmare as several Mardi Gras parades will be rolling in the various towns and cities here on the coast.

There is no way ( other than for a great deal of money ) that I would venture into New Orleans this weekend.

 

Thanks Bryan. Its no great shakes to have pics. I just wondered if it was a fairly good sized joint & if it was set WAY back like so much of the new construction is. I knew the waffle hause was there on the corner from Google & remember a good bit about the area from several trips in the last couple of years. I knew it was right on the edge of Long Beach. We managed to get it for $95 a nite Thur-Sat which I suspect in respect to CTC & being on Beach Blvd, is a steal. Plus there's no cancelation fees which seems to be unheard of.

Hope the weekend is profitable & safe.

 

View from the Wingate lobby.

 

Here is the view of the west side of the Wingate.

 

Wow. Thanks man, Above & beyond. Somebody rep that masked man for me.

 

Stacy >> Give me a call. My son has a friend from Nashville, that is a music agent. Eric Welford is a country singer and my son is part of his new video. They are looking for a old truck for the video. I dont know what it pays. Let me know if you want me to let them know.
They dont need any old men. Sorry (Steve - Bryan - David). Dang it

 

My day today was a bit out of the ordinary.
First the backstory.

Just over a week ago I received a call at 10:15pm that the yard dog from work was out and about.
I hurried to the work place where I found dear Rock waiting to get back behind the fence.

I then proceeded to do a security check which led me to discover where a couple of fence boards had been displaced leaving an access point into the impound yard.

A survey of the property and vehicles therein revealed that there had been a despicable miscreant about.
The evident damage was that a couple of batteries had walked away from the vehicles they had arrived in.
One of them had struggled so desperatly to escape it had ripped its terminal post off.
However the two batteries were only able to escape as far as the outside of the fence where they awaited my arrival.
The trickle charge battery maintainer that was attached to the battery that lost its post was much more vigorous in its journey.
It was no where to be found.

I summoned the constabulary and outlined the situation for the uniformed gentleman.

I then proceeded to make a temporary repair of the fence pending a more complete solution being applied during daylight hours.

Yada, yada yada, etc. etc. etc.

That brings me to today.

I arose and proceeded to complete my morning ablutions whereupon I proceeded to the work in order to provide sustenance to our aged and mild mannered "WATCHDOG".

As all seemed to be in order I then departed.

Now that task was executed in the 6:45 to 7am time frame.

At 8:25 I received a call from the neighbor who lives adjacent to the impound yard.
She informed me that there were some fence boards down and they were leaning against her fence.

I immediately notified the businesses owner that we had once again been the subject of our visitor from the previous week.

This time the thief was able to motivate the batteries to flee with greater vigor and 7 of them had vanished into the wild never to be seen again, most likely.
Joining them were two radios that had decided to accompany their source of power and depart also.

Here's where my tale takes a twist:

I repaired the latest fence damage.
My boss had resigned himself that the loss was permanent.
He told me not to bother making a report as it would be time wasting for all involved.

I was halfway home when the phone rang and, after having consulting with a contact within the police force, my boss had come to understand that a report did indeed need to be made.
I returned to the shop and made a call to the Gulfport Police Department.
A unit arrived some 20 minutes later.
It sure seemed to me that it took an inordinate period of time for the response but as there was no real rush what did it matter.

Well I proceeded to show the responding officer the surveillance video I was reviewing.
When I described the lost property he suggested that I might want to accompany him to an address a couple of blocks away from our present location as he had some things for me to look at.
Upon our arrival at a rather run down trailer park I was presented with a view of several batteries; two of which I recognized immediately.
The police in investigating matters uncovered several more items that were reported stolen from other locations in the radius covered by the distance from my place of work and where we were at, at that time.

The investigating officers determined that there was one individual that they really wanted to speak with.
He had last been seen disappearing in the direction of the woods just to the north of our location.
A couple of Boys in Blue proceeded to see if there was a chance of persuading the subject of their interest to return.

When next I observed the officers they were in possession of a male who was belligerently berating them for having the audacity to have discharged a Tazer in their apprehension of himself.

As the investigation progressed to its conclusion I was disappointed to not have the battery charger, that had gone missing in the original break-in, recovered.
I made mention of that loss to an officer who responded by asking for a description of the item.
I proceeded to give a detailed description of the charger that I knew quite well as I had owned it for more than 5 years.
He returned to the residence and retrieved the very item that I had given up for lost in the first break-in.

You see the battery that had the post broken off and the charger were from MY PERSONAL VEHICLE.
It was stored in the impound yard so as for me to have easy access to it that I could do work upon it at my leisure.

All in all the 7 batteries and 2 radios that were stolen last night were recovered as well as my charger from the previous burglary
.
I'm still out the battery but as it was the original from my '07 Taurus I'm not feeling to bad about it.
I still have the damaged battery to use as a core when I purchase a new one.

The fact that the police were recovering the items as I was reporting them stolen was a twist that only happens in my strange world.

 

Great story Bryan. Way to go generating a laugh out of a crappy situation. Sorry bout the damage to all vehicles, especially yours, but glad it worked out in the end.

Best wishes that all who pass here have a good week. Off to my G.I. Spec. in a few for a follow up. Doing black coffee only this morn (bleah... ) in case she wants to do any tests.

 

Good morning all.

Been working on tillers & chainsaws this week, mostly for neighbors. Managed to wash some of the green growing on my truck for the first time since about July. Pine straw has found its way into every crack & crevice as well.

Take comfort that you've managed to make it over the hump of yet another week.

 

I took a call from the county sheriff office at 12:40 am.
They needed a tow truck for an evidence impound.
The pick up point was just about as far from my house as I could go and still be in the county.
The scene was on a dirt road in the woods of northeast Harrison county.

There was a Toyota with a body in it.
The victim was seated in the drivers seat slumped to the right.
The window of the drivers door was shattered.

After the body was removed I loaded the car and transferred it to the sheriffs facility.

All in all the run took 2 hours from the phone summons 'till my return to home.

I would have liked to have gotten some more sleep this morning but that comfort eludes me.

 

Thomas & I had lunch yesterday at "Old Timers" BBQ. ( Just right for us ) Although a BBQ joint in MS with Greek music & pics on the wall is somewhat strange. None the less it was tasty. He was glad to see I didn't look like I was at death's door like the last time we saw each other. We tried to brainstorm some ideas for retaining members, including a "work day" when members would GTG and jointly work on folks trucks.... but we gotta' have the people first . We've also talked about road tripping north & south to visit with our other ford truck brethren.

Need more of the central state folks to participate though.

Yall' have a good weekend before the bottom falls out.