The alarm went off, I opened my blurry eyes and reached for my phone. Click… click… 03?!?!!?

I started looking. I log into my server from my phone, clicking away to get a status. The database engine is in a crashbackoff loop.

About that time, I noticed that Miguel had contacted me with a very polite 503? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

As I have talked about, I’m upgrading the infrastructure that GFZ uses. The previous round of downtime resulted in me opening tickets with Linode and escalating to the point where less than a week ago I got an update, “We resolved the issue you reported”. They had known about the issue for over a year. It just wasn’t important enough to fix until their client, me, raised a fuss.

One of the side effects of this upgrade process is that I’ve had to increase the number of nodes and the size of nodes. All of that is going well.

It is unclear to me why the database engine crashed, only that it did.

To that end, I have removed that database engine from production. Moved all the data to the larger, more stable, database engine. This database engine is using the new persistent (CEPH) storage engine. While it is not “crash proof” it is less prone to failures because of the way the data is now stored.

In addition, it is much easier to get backups of the data.

I’m going to take the plunge later today and move the assets from the storage it is currently using to the new storage system. This offers numerous benefits, not the least of which is that I can do rolling upgrades of the software.

Yesterday I upgraded ‘WordPress’ on multiple sites. With the new infrastructure being used by some of those sites, there was zero downtime. K8S started a new pod with the new software. When it was stable, it terminated one of the old pods. It then started a second pod with the new software. When it was stable, it terminated the last old pod. Zero downtime.

For GFZ, using the older infrastructure, the old pod was terminated, the new pod was started, once it was stable, service resumed.

Regardless, I’m hopping for a quiet day.

My wife was at work today at a mandatory staff meeting. They were going to be doing some team building, setting up team goals, and in general introducing management to the staff.

My went to sit down and managed to crush her finger in the moving parts of the folding chair. Instant pain and blood.

Being a trooper, she snuck off to the restrooms, cleaned up the bleeding, bandaged her finger from her IFAK. She reports it was “a lot of blood.” When she got back to the staff meeting, they were doing a team build exercise that required a bunch of standing and sitting.

She decided it wasn’t a good idea to do it. Her supervisor noticed her not participating and asked why. My wife told him that she felt a little woozy. Like she might faint.

Staff noticed my wife turning white, rushed and got her to the floor safely and her head on padding. No clunks. No head bangs. She did pass out/faint.

EMS was called, she came around to EMTs doing their thing. EMTs asked if she wanted to go to the hospital, but they didn’t see anything that required an ER visit. Told her about the local urgent care.

She declined the ambulance trip. Her supervisor sent her home. Which actually meant that I went to get her and youngest child drove the car back.

That’s the end of the setup.

We got the wife into see her doctor. X-Rays done. No broken bones. But she needs the finger splinted. The X-Ray doc wasn’t in to read them, so she was sent home to wait for a call.

At home, we dive into the “comprehensive” medical kit to grab the SAM finger splints. No joy. The medium and large are there, along with the wrap and everything else required. No small splints.

We next hit up the hiking FAK. It is smaller than the comprehensive but still more complete than IFAKs Sure enough, it has the medium and large SAM splints, no finger splints.

Ok, I’m getting irritated. I grab my EDC bag. This bag has an IFAK in it with blowout support. It is not “just” a blowout kit, as it has single dose medications and band-aids and the like. It has a C.A.T. on the top of the kit and an Israeli bandage in the side pocket. Both quick access. The SAM splints are right there. In medium and large.

At that point, I just gave up. Did the Popsicle stick splint, picked up the real deal from the local CVS. Her finger is properly splinted now.

And I have two sets of 3 on the way from Amazon.

The damaged finger was in the in-between space. It wasn’t big enough to be part of my standard inventory process. It wasn’t so small that all the kits had the right gear. It was in the evil Goldilocks zone.

To be clear, if this had been an “emergency” I would have just cut a finger splint from one of the larger SAM splints. That’s an excuse for why I didn’t notice the missing finger splints.

The splints were used when a friend really messed up her thumb. The SAM splints were the only thing that gave the right support, comfortably. We handed her the 3 or 4 we had on hand and expected the replacement. The replacements never showed up.

There is a great deal of thought that goes into our medical kits. They are designed to ramp up. The IFAK on my ankle is not there for anything except blowouts. Stop the bleed, plug the hole, get the victim transported.

The next step-up has more. While the ankle kit has a SWAT-T style of Tourniquet, the blowout kits have CAT TQs or equivalent. ALL name brand and all from a reputable supply house, NOT Amazon.

The next step-up is the car kits. Above that is the group hiking kit. Finally, there is the house kit.

Each step adds more capability and more duplicates. The house kit has a box of gloves instead of the one or two pairs in the smaller kits. It has bottles of OTC medications instead of single dose packets. It has the suture kit and the gear to make a semi sterile work environment.

Am I qualified to use all of that gear? No. Do I know people who are capable and qualified? Yes.

Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul, and Mary told a story about going to Russia with a tourist group. One of the guys in the group approached her and asked, “Should I bring my guitar?” He didn’t intend to offend her by assuming she would be singing songs with them, but wanted to offer. Mary said “sure.”

They make it to Russia and the group is having a fun night and the singing starts. Guy hauls out his guitar and goes to hand it to Mary. She looks at him and says, “I don’t play guitar.”.

She didn’t play guitar, neither did the guy. He just assumed she would be able to use the tool he brought to the rumble.

There are things that are in my kits that I don’t know how to use. That’s fine. If there is somebody that can, I have the tools. There are a remarkable number of highly trained medical people that don’t have the medical gear I have on hand. They know that they will just go to the office/hospital and the gear will be there.

I also have the manuals on how to use these things and the practice gear. If I have to, I’ll learn damn quick.

So go take the time to inventory your medical gear. Replace the batteries while you are at it. Test that all the battery-powered things still function. Compare that list with what you think is in that kit. Update the list to what should be there and restock.

If there are meds that expire, make sure you replace the expired meds.

Then put a reminder to do it next year, this same time. And every year thereafter.

Oh, when you find gear that is expired and needs to be replaced, that is a good time to use the expired gear for training purposes.

Gridlock between House and Senate leadership continued as the Tennessee legislature began the second week of the special session.

The week started much like the last one ended: the House continued passing bills into Monday evening, while the Senate once again adjourned without taking up legislation.
…
Only one bill has been passed by both chambers after more than a week of work: a measure that would require the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations to create a new, updated report on the state of human trafficking in Tennessee. Representatives from the TBI told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that the agency already reports the data to be contained in the new report. The bill is now headed to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.

Monday evening, after the Senate again adjourned business without considering any legislation, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, declared the Senate effectively closed.

TN special session: House, Senate deadlocked as Lee tries to intervene (tennessean.com)

There were the usual demonstrative fireworks brought by the Mommies Demanders and their legislative Liberal Pets, but even they know this session “delenda est.” There are 12 bills (none anti-gun) that the House is pushing with the apparent blessings of the Governor, but short of a legislative miracle, they are going nowhere.

Again, it is a pity that the couple of good bills did not make it, but there is always the next regular legislative session for that. And rest assured the Disloyal Opposition is planning on coming back with the same bull we saw on this session.

I thoroughly enjoy songs that tell a story. Unfortunately for you all, that means bluegrass and country. Either that or I’ll have to torture you with musicals.

The version from the album:

And an extra:

I found this musical accidentally.

A 20-year-old University of South Carolina student was fatally shot Saturday when he accidentally tried to enter the wrong house on the street where he lived and was mistaken for a burglar, according to police.

The student was identified as Nicholas Anthony Donofrio, according to the Richland County, South Carolina, Coroner’s Office. Donofrio was from Connecticut and had just started his sophomore year last week at the university, school officials said.

College student fatally shot in South Carolina after trying to enter wrong house: Police – ABC News (go.com)

I am going to speculate intoxicants were part of the issue that led to the death of the young man, as we all have done stupid stuff at that age under involving alcohol or other stuff.

Now, they are trying to reprise this as part two of the shooting of Ralph Yarl some months ago, but it does not pass the same smell test. For once, the Yarl shooting has been tried to be passed as a hate crime by the media but seems not to get a whole lot of traction. Then there appears to be one big difference between both cases: Yarl never attempted to break in and the homeowner shot anyway, while in Donofrio case, albeit not mentioned by the talking heads and not played in some outlets, you hear in the recording of the police dispatch that the perimeter have been broken.

This changes the perspective of the shooting tremendously. We are no longer entertaining the idea of a trigger-happy racist guy, but that the sanctity of the house was violated and what seemed appropriate action was taken. It is still a sad ending, but the Media needs something to blame and if not the homeowner, then it is the law:

South Carolina’s “stand your ground” law allows people to use deadly force in self-defense if they are not breaking the law and in places where they have a right to be, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit advocacy organization. The state does not require gun owners to be licensed to own or purchase guns, it says.

University of South Carolina student fatally shot after trying to enter the wrong home (nbcnews.com)

And in the video of the NBC article (00:55), the “reporter” tells us that: “South Carolina does have a Stand Your Ground Law, also known as the Castle Doctrine, which allows someone in their home or place of business to not retreat and use deadly force in self-defense.”

I believe here is no excuse other than to purposely misinform people to confuse both very well discussed legal terms. Wouldn’t it be a beautiful thing for a bad government to eliminate both Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground? Hell, they used Gigabytes of memory and tons of ink trying to badmouth SYG and if they can get Castle Doctrine in the mix and get rid of them troublesome rights, they will do so.

If it is confirmed that Donofrio broke in a two in the morning, then we just have a sad case in which nobody is intentionally guilty of crimes, but just a sad misunderstanding that resulted in a tragic death.

Nobody won here.

PS: The photo allegedly shows the door of the home where event happened. No bullet holes in it. I checked other videos and none of them show damage consistent with shots fired through the door.

PS2: CNN fully makes it about Stand Your Ground.

To take this further down the rabbit hole, the below post was from the Book of Faces. I had originally responded to a Dem friend’s statement regarding Republicans and hate (I do not have permission to share her post or the resulting comments, unfortunately). I am sharing it here, along with my commentary that I moved to my own wall. I am so tired of the yawning maw of division.

***

On another wall, a discussion was ensuing. In an effort not to pee on that person’s virtual carpet, I am bringing my part of the conversation here. No, I do not have permission to share what the other people said. So the only “side” I can present is my own, sadly.

I wrote (as a response):
“So it’s a lot deeper than that. And reducing it to what you did basically is repeating what you think they’re doing to you. How does that fix anything or make anything better? I’m not Republican and I’m not Democrat, because of statements like this on both sides. It’s also why I don’t talk about politics with people very often. There are tons of nuances on all sides of this and I agree with some of what the Republicans have to say and some of what the Democrats have to say. Largely though, I don’t agree with either side has to say, and I’m frustrated and tired and depressed over watching people that I love reduce really complex issues that have real facts and feelings and depth to them, to basically… “They are bad and we are good.” ?”

 

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When I write about cases, legislation and events, I use the term “state” or “the state” to represent the Government. It doesn’t matter if it is the federal, state, or local government. It doesn’t matter if it is a rule promulgated by an agency or a city ordnance. In all cases, it is still “the state” that is doing it.

When we discuss cases, we speak about the case and the court’s opinion. We speak of Heller, Bruen, or Caetano we know the opinion. We might even know which Supreme Court Justice wrote the majority opinion.

Do you pay attention to the lawyers that are arguing the cases?

You should know Paul D. Clement. He argued McDonald and other 2A cases, and won.

Alan Gura argued Heller and won the biggest Supreme Court case for the 2A ever. Bruen was more about slapping down rogue courts and spoon-feeding the inferior courts how to handle 2A cases.

If you go look at west cost cases, you will find the firm of Michel and Associates with Carl D. Michel arguing for us.

It is highly unlikely that you have heard of J. Matthew Wright. He is the counsel of record for the Rahimi case.

He is ably assisted by Jared Guemmer, Jason Hawkins, Kevin Page, Rachel Taft, T.W. Brown.

They all work for a gigantic entity. Guemmer is part of the Federal Public Defender’s office of Oklahoma. The rest are part of the federal public defender’s office of Texas.

That’s correct, the federal government lawyers are arguing against federal government lawyers.

And the Public Defender’s are doing a great job.