More Writings.
"Hello, and welcome to the YVC Rescue Hotline.
If you know the name of the felony being committed, Press 1.
To choose from a list of felonies, Press 2.
If you are being murdered or calling from a rotary phone, please stay on
the line..."
Alaska Flagging Handbook
Page 2. Tools.
Flaggers should have the standard "Stop" / "Slow" paddles,
which are at least 18 inches wide with letters at least 6 inches high.
Page 3. Flagger’s Position.
When on duty, flaggers should remain out of sight of approaching traffic until the last possible second. Then flaggers are to suddenly appear "as if out of nowhere" and stand at the side of the road holding the "Stop" / "Slow" paddles in a non committal manner.
Page 4. Flagger’s Behavior.
As the first car(s) arrive and the drivers are looking at you to determine whether or not to proceed by looking at your sign, turn the paddle sign facing them.
Then switch the paddle sides in an abrupt manner, followed by turning the paddle sign so that it is "Edge On" when facing oncoming traffic.
This action should confuse the first few drivers and elicit car horn honks and gestures from the annoyed vehicle occupants.
Page 5. Driver Contact.
When performing as a flagger, you should always be ready for those inevitable moments that a driver or passengers will leave their vehicles and initiate conversation with you.
Memorize the following Suggestions and use them as templates for future contact you may have on Alaska’s highways with Alaska’s drivers.
If you are a female and another female with a small dog on a leash approaches.
Squat down on your heels and gesture at the small canine.
Say; "oohh.... my husband & I were stationed in Japan for 6 yrs and we loved these!! They taste great with kalamari and rice."
Attempt to coo and coax the dog into your arms.
If you are a female and a man with his wife approaches you.
Say, "I’m really glad the tax season is finally over, what with being cooped up in the office all spring.
My partner isn’t so lucky though, he’s in prison in the lower 48 for 10 years!
And I’m enjoying the sun and great scenery. (Inhale deeply and stretch)
No more pesky clients or their lawyers calling me.!!"
Another suggestion for females is to say.
That you "only do this on the weekends" and your "other job is as a dancer at Crazy Horse 2's" but your true ambition in life "is to attend cinematography school and direct."
If you are a male and a woman with two teens approaches you.
Say, "That you couldn’t work in your sisters daycare because she thought you might
mess up by giving your mood inhibiting medication to one of the kids by
mistake."
That your probations officer "doesn’t think it’s a good idea for you to be around the general public anyway."
Briefly fake a neck twitch / tremor and jerk your head and drool.
If an old couple approaches you step up to them and announce loudly,
"They said about 15 minutes."
Then walk to the next car in line and say "They said they’re almost finished!"
Walk to the next car or group of people and say. "Anyone here from Connecticut?"
as you whip out a note pad and glance at the plates muttering something about an important emergency message that was to be given to a certain vehicle....
Then walk away.
More Writings
Prompt As You Go - (Displays Suggestions As You Type);
We Got It Yesterday! Already I have printed out the Dictionary and commissioned it into a fodder.
I've panted out the other word category too. I like the Before You Know It (BYKI) program! It's easy to import the wood lists and when I click on a word I hear the clamor without another provoking media player window unveiling up.
I'm sure you've heard this beforehand but when mother observed a few words from the dictionary she didn't concur with a few pronunciations.
Parents are like that aren't they? Don't worry though, there are no cuss words or graphic descriptions of what to do with yourself in our dialect of the Sioux tongue.
But universally the work done on this CD ROM is magnificent. I am well-known with the basics of the language as indoctrinated to me by my clan.
I will be requisitioning more materials in the looming future. Keep in touch.
FYI; Up here in AK my mother espoused into the Ahtna Athabascan's in this hamlet over 10 yrs ago. And I've been present in AK for 4yrs 7mos.
Most recently here in our village of Chistochina the colony leaders have been jostling for Ahtna language classes to be incorporated in the local grade schools of Chistochina, Mentasta Lake, Copper Center etc.
When I've been Teachers Aide in the school, I've observed the teachers coach the language as well as witnessed the other village council language reps tutor the language.
The nucleus of AK belongs to the Athabascan Indians who more closely take after the Native Americans in the lower 48. Anchorage, Bethel, Nome, Wainwright and Barrow belong to the Aleuts & the Eskimos. Each town & village has it's own vernacular of
Eskimo or Athabascan.
When I endured in Minto and was nearby the Elders each day they conversed in Athabascan to each other but sadly seldom anyone else was learning the lingo.
And sadly the invert discriminating human beings here in my mother & dad's village are frustrating the spread of their own culture.
Query; Any ideas on how this hamlet could get their language on CD's like you did?
Unfortunately most of the Chistochina group leadership is hoarding with their funds and services and with apportioning their friendship, their language classes with us Outsiders; namely mum & I as well as a smattering of others.
Repeatedly our input and ideas for just about anything is discounted and not recognized.
But I don't let a few negative people waylay me from being active in village happenings and working in the school. The last thing I want to do is to frustrate the culture that the Natives here are trying to keep operative.
Thanks. Samuel L Flyinghorse Sunka kha kiyon (his horse that flies)
Coming soon......theSam on Spell Check!!!
This Space Left Intentionally Blank
Burning Down the House
Summer 2004 is upon us once again, but what with the smoke from the massive forest fires to the North and North east of us here in Chisto....You wouldn't recognize the season.
The sky is hazy all around and over us, the sun is a red disc in the sky as it journeys overhead. Visibility for us here in the Copper River valley is less than a mile. Normally Mt Sanford and Mt Drum are clearly visible to the East with Mt Blackburn and Mt Wrangell in the background all commanding the skyline but not since last week when the fires from the North east sent smoke down this way.
There's about 56 active wildfires here in AK yet the most media covered fires are North of Fairbanks and South east of Fairbanks / North of us. I printed up all the latest stats and can't find the papers. Sorry.
You have to feel for the villagers that are closest to those forest fires.
One Native village is only 3 miles away from the latest fire line and as a last resort the villagers will gather on the wide dirt runway strip and wait out the inferno as it burns around them. They aren't in any mortal danger because of several EFF (Emergency Fire Fighter) crews are onhand and also BLM (bureau of land mis- management) and AFS (alaska fire service) crews are there to help the villagers.
All of the fire crew efforts are being sent to the Interior of AK regarding the main fires I just mentioned. Crews are there with many more on rotation list to be sent there and helo's and aircraft are dropping water and retardant on the fireline that is around the above mentioned village in a crescent shape. Up here in AK we all pull together in times like these and help. I'm glad to see the concern others feel for
the fire victims. Most people I see in Glennallen are discussing the
fires and who they know is up there.
A few years ago the eyes of the Nation were upon the jagged skyline of New York, well for us here in AK we keep an eye on the fire news and to us; fire is an enemy to suppress.
Just last month I endured 3 lesson packed days regarding wild land fire fighting and I took the Pack Test and got my "Red Card".
Now I am calling the nearest Fire Service station which is in Tok, just north of Chistochina, every day and bugging everyone there at TFS to let them know that I am available and can show up in 2 hours at Tok with my 45lb duffle bag of clothes ready to be sent out on the next available rotation crew that needs an extra hand.
Alaska EFF (emergency firefighting) crews need 16 people. 12 workers and 3 squad bosses and and 1 crew boss. Most of the towns and villages in AK have EFF crews picked out at the start of each summer but other crews come and go.
Chistochina and Mentasta Lake had the best EFF crews in the state only 6 years ago I am told. But apparently some of the villagers climbed into a bottle or a pipe and never got out.
And stragglers like me who have nothing to do at the moment, take the EFF certification classes and hope to get hired on with somebody during the summer fire season. My step dad is currently home for a few days from Survey work on the AK pipeline and he bought me a $200 pair of Wights brand allleather work boots.
So that if I am able to work on an EFF crew I can at least show up with the required all leather footwear. Everything else will be issued to me by AFS and for 2 weeks perhaps even up to 21 days my life is not my own but just work and get very little sleep. I think I can do that for about $5000. Can you?
wow, even the trees 100' away from the apts here are in a haze. Fairbanks is the hardest hit city, visibility for them is less than 1/2 mile. I haven't been out on the road to run for a week now, not since that cow moose and her newborn red calf were spotted down by the airstrip. He is a cute calf allright, big head with bulbous nose and LONG legs with a tiny body.
Idle Hands
Today I looked at those cheap CD cases that the Army recruiters were giving out to the kids in my old village of Minto when I was VPSO. I took a few of those CD cases for myself and used them to hold my music CD's and photo CD's too.
Well, today I cut one of those CD case covers almost in half and took some black ripstop nylon and made a cover for the CD case cover. As you look at the CD case cover it folds upon itself like a hard taco shell.
I just made an Inside the Waistband holster for my Glock 36 from that cheap Army CD cover. Only a small portion of half side sticks out from my waist and naturally folds over my jean top but I cut it just short enough so that my belt (that holds up my pants) covers IT up.
Personally I don't like wearing big loose shirts with the tail hanging out free. To me that is my red flag to watch that person because they could have something hidden behind their back or by their sides. Most people are alarmed by black people or by hispanics or natives, I just watch the sloppy dressers with baggy clothes. LOL. (tossing my long hair) Ever since I was little I've always watched people and guessed if they were carrying or wearing under their clothes.
For a few hours today I wore this holster I made and I liked it. My Glock stays seated snugly in the holster by friction, cupped on both sides by ripstop nylon encasing a cheap CD holder cover.
Being a Navy Parachute Rigger and sewing everything under the sun
(yes I know how to mend broken hearts and can darn socks too, I even made outfits for the "3 ugly ones" at one of Seattle's Showgirls clubs)
has been a blessing to me. And today I made something out of necessity. I can wear a T-shirt tucked inside my pants and won't arouse suspicion from anyone.
Little Green Gumby
"He was mean and tough and chewed cactus & stuff
and used a rattlesnake bullwhip for floss.
He wasn't intimated by anything animated and he
aimed to show Gumby who was boss."
That is a comical song sung Western style, a ballad of Gumby and the evil mean villain that ended up facing the green figure of clay in a gunfight.
The villain shot Gumby, but missed his head because his head "slopes a-that-away" when the shot went "this away". The towns folk ran the villain out of town.
I can't help but peg certain people I meet into certain genres and molds straight out of central casting. But our village CPO (community police officer) is just that sort of person that would fit into an old Western style movie. He stands about 6' 9",
is a white male with short white hair and has a long white mustache.
He'd make a great Sheriff or else an old Prospector. I like our CPO though in secret I call him 3 CPO. Not after the Star Wars movies but because he's the 3rd CPO I've met and known ever since my arrival here in the village.
And that is sad news to state to you my friends because it is not good for a Native community like this one to have had 3 officers in 4 yrs.
As I have let you all know, this village is headed by Native tribal entities and staffed by the leading families from the surrounding villages. The tribal entities get all the $ and divvy out to themselves and to immediate family and then dole out to various relatives or people they can control.
Various villagers and relatives of the fraudulant leaders eventually speak out in private and everyone finds out about where funds went to and what happened to this and that.
One month there was a few days of events going on here involving my mother, my dad and me where one tribal entity was sending out threatening letters and email and basically lashing out at everyone else.
I spoke out. I wasn't about to be threatened or to have others threaten mother's safety and welfare but everything is ok for now.
And our latest 3-CPO apparently found out the hard way that the Native village entities aren't the kind of people he wants to work for.
Office politics and back stabbing occur and most people just accept this behavior and strain under the yoke. I don't.
Our fine 3-CPO left the village today for good and I wish him well. I liked
the old man. I hate to see him treated unfairly.
Let's hope that this Officer picks up his hat, realizes that the "bullet hole" missed him and that he jumps back into the Public Safety / Law Enforcement fight some
place else that will treat him better.
Sam Quiote, Tilting at Windmills
Our current village leaders are women and as much as I LOVE young beautiful
women, these women are not my type. They're middle aged and hate white
people, they're drunks and some use drugs.
They're so petty with daily events. I get a head ache thinking of them. But I wanted to work for this village and for it's sister village down river too. I wanted to be the CPO at one time but not anymore.
I still carry my LEO (law enforcement) tools with me but now I hide them or keep them close at hand. Honestly, a few times I felt strongly tempted to pull my baton
and beat someone about the head and shoulders severely.
I think that our Fed Gov't should monitor grant & fed aid funds recipients more closely. My gripe with AK is that none of the Native corporations and village councils-tribal entities are required to be accountable to the state or fed gov't for their actions.
Such attitudes held by Natives foster fraudulent actions and wasteful spending & living and hurts the Natives in the long run.
Here in our village it's only a small group of people that live in fine homes and drive nice pickups and have all the jobs available and no one bothers them.
I'm at least happy that my mother is the manager to this cluster of 8 apts here at the end of the lane just off the highway. All the other houses in our subdivision are individually owned.
Mama has been watering the lawns and cutting the grass each day. She planted new flowers and is always on top of tenant complaints and service requests. Especially in the winter, when the heat goes out in an apt in the winter it gets cold fast and I'm glad that River Valley Housing Authority is good on sending up workmen at any hour to fix or replace something broken.
Mama is married to a man that earns 70K in 4 months. I'm glad that she doesn't work for the village tribal entities and I'm glad that she doesn't have to depend on them anymore like she once did.
My first loyalties are to my family and then to my dad and his immediate family here in the village. To hell with everyone else.
Up In Smoke
I think I wrote another paragraph once entitled Up in Smoke. I forget what it was. Today my dad & I almost completed erecting a smoke housefor the apts complex.
It is not for our family nor is it solely for another family but is for the apts here that will get fish this summer.
Here in AK fishing has always been a Native activity and it continues still. We don't fish for the Big One and hang it on our wall. We fish and hunt for food.
Each family in the village may have a "Fish Wheel". A device that when placed in the water will (acting like a water wheel) scoop up fish in it's baskets and deposit them in a holding box.
Right now my Uncle is checking the village fish wheel 5x a day. Just yesterday 86 salmon were caught! The circumference of a fish wheel is about 15', and is 4' wide. Each catch basket is 50 gallon drum size.
This evening mama was cleaning 18 fish as my dad & I were finishing up the days work on the smoke house.
Basically the smoke house is a small wooden structure that will be used to hang strips of fish meat and moose & caribou meat and a smudge fire will be built inside the house to catch and keep the smoke thus "smoking" the meat and flavoring it.
After we sized up the entry way and put a door on it I was joking that we needed to make the doorway just big enough so that a person could make an easy fast escape out of the smoke house with their arms full of stolen fish / moose meat and they wouldn't have to turn sideways to get out.
I mimed sneaking in the house and grabbing meat off the racks and running out the doorway, getting stuck and attempting another run out the door way only to get stuck again. I stopped and "turned sideways" and "escaped".
Mama was in stitches laughing and dad was smiling at me. All 3 sides...all 4 sides
of the smoke house are up and we just have to finish putting the screening in.
Think of a "see through" smokehouse. The walls are halfway up and halfway down with open sides about 15". The open sides will be covered in mosquito netting and window screening (that way we can look out at the smoke house and observe if any meat is gone or still on the racks) I joke.
Don't ask me why it's that way. Up River where I worked as CPO the villagers basically made enclosed structures and burnt wood to smoke the meat and never let anyone Near their smokehouses, not even me.
It took 3 village council meetings, two referendums on the addendum that ratified the resolutions needed to... oh hell. Not even YVC (my old employer) and AST (the Troopers) could get me into a Village smokehouse.
Today mama was beheading, betailing and gutting the fish that my uncle brought to her. I picked up a fish head and started "talking" to mama with it moving the mouth.
"how was yor day??" "mine was Crappy"
"I said to all 18,000 of my sons the other day...You Hooligans!!"
"You'll never amount to anything but just a worthless pile of bear dung on the river bank"
After I started singing "tiny bubbles" with two salmon heads mama pushed me out of the kitchen. Playing with fish is fun I hate fish slime.
Well my friends. My bag is packed and I'm ready to be called to go join an EFF crew. Basically it's like camping.
Except we'll also be working, all hunched over cutting tundra down to bare soil and moving trees, brush and other fuels out of the way to make a line that fire cannot cross.
We'll be up 18+hrs a day and living and sleeping in our smoke stenched clothes, eating MRE's 3x a day. I can hardly wait.
Happy 4th of July 2004 and for once I don't envy any of you (in the lower 48 states)because ever since this smoke has blanketed us, the nights are now darker (late evening) and the temperature has dropped a few degrees.
It's actually cold now outside. I hope that you all are safe and sane. I know that being a LEO is a hard thing. It is taxing and no one appreciates the work we do.
No one cares and yet everyone needs us. The village leadership here is messed up and getting worse and some people are staying away from me but I will not forget anyone here when an emergency happens. Even before that, I do not forget and still wave hello to everyone, still smile and attempt to converse. Likewise, you don't forget anyone in your care and custody either.
Always, your friend. Samuel L Flyinghorse
If you know the name of the felony being committed, Press 1.
To choose from a list of felonies, Press 2.
If you are being murdered or calling from a rotary phone, please stay on
the line..."
Alaska Flagging Handbook
Page 2. Tools.
Flaggers should have the standard "Stop" / "Slow" paddles,
which are at least 18 inches wide with letters at least 6 inches high.
Page 3. Flagger’s Position.
When on duty, flaggers should remain out of sight of approaching traffic until the last possible second. Then flaggers are to suddenly appear "as if out of nowhere" and stand at the side of the road holding the "Stop" / "Slow" paddles in a non committal manner.
Page 4. Flagger’s Behavior.
As the first car(s) arrive and the drivers are looking at you to determine whether or not to proceed by looking at your sign, turn the paddle sign facing them.
Then switch the paddle sides in an abrupt manner, followed by turning the paddle sign so that it is "Edge On" when facing oncoming traffic.
This action should confuse the first few drivers and elicit car horn honks and gestures from the annoyed vehicle occupants.
Page 5. Driver Contact.
When performing as a flagger, you should always be ready for those inevitable moments that a driver or passengers will leave their vehicles and initiate conversation with you.
Memorize the following Suggestions and use them as templates for future contact you may have on Alaska’s highways with Alaska’s drivers.
If you are a female and another female with a small dog on a leash approaches.
Squat down on your heels and gesture at the small canine.
Say; "oohh.... my husband & I were stationed in Japan for 6 yrs and we loved these!! They taste great with kalamari and rice."
Attempt to coo and coax the dog into your arms.
If you are a female and a man with his wife approaches you.
Say, "I’m really glad the tax season is finally over, what with being cooped up in the office all spring.
My partner isn’t so lucky though, he’s in prison in the lower 48 for 10 years!
And I’m enjoying the sun and great scenery. (Inhale deeply and stretch)
No more pesky clients or their lawyers calling me.!!"
Another suggestion for females is to say.
That you "only do this on the weekends" and your "other job is as a dancer at Crazy Horse 2's" but your true ambition in life "is to attend cinematography school and direct."
If you are a male and a woman with two teens approaches you.
Say, "That you couldn’t work in your sisters daycare because she thought you might
mess up by giving your mood inhibiting medication to one of the kids by
mistake."
That your probations officer "doesn’t think it’s a good idea for you to be around the general public anyway."
Briefly fake a neck twitch / tremor and jerk your head and drool.
If an old couple approaches you step up to them and announce loudly,
"They said about 15 minutes."
Then walk to the next car in line and say "They said they’re almost finished!"
Walk to the next car or group of people and say. "Anyone here from Connecticut?"
as you whip out a note pad and glance at the plates muttering something about an important emergency message that was to be given to a certain vehicle....
Then walk away.
More Writings
Prompt As You Go - (Displays Suggestions As You Type);
We Got It Yesterday! Already I have printed out the Dictionary and commissioned it into a fodder.
I've panted out the other word category too. I like the Before You Know It (BYKI) program! It's easy to import the wood lists and when I click on a word I hear the clamor without another provoking media player window unveiling up.
I'm sure you've heard this beforehand but when mother observed a few words from the dictionary she didn't concur with a few pronunciations.
Parents are like that aren't they? Don't worry though, there are no cuss words or graphic descriptions of what to do with yourself in our dialect of the Sioux tongue.
But universally the work done on this CD ROM is magnificent. I am well-known with the basics of the language as indoctrinated to me by my clan.
I will be requisitioning more materials in the looming future. Keep in touch.
FYI; Up here in AK my mother espoused into the Ahtna Athabascan's in this hamlet over 10 yrs ago. And I've been present in AK for 4yrs 7mos.
Most recently here in our village of Chistochina the colony leaders have been jostling for Ahtna language classes to be incorporated in the local grade schools of Chistochina, Mentasta Lake, Copper Center etc.
When I've been Teachers Aide in the school, I've observed the teachers coach the language as well as witnessed the other village council language reps tutor the language.
The nucleus of AK belongs to the Athabascan Indians who more closely take after the Native Americans in the lower 48. Anchorage, Bethel, Nome, Wainwright and Barrow belong to the Aleuts & the Eskimos. Each town & village has it's own vernacular of
Eskimo or Athabascan.
When I endured in Minto and was nearby the Elders each day they conversed in Athabascan to each other but sadly seldom anyone else was learning the lingo.
And sadly the invert discriminating human beings here in my mother & dad's village are frustrating the spread of their own culture.
Query; Any ideas on how this hamlet could get their language on CD's like you did?
Unfortunately most of the Chistochina group leadership is hoarding with their funds and services and with apportioning their friendship, their language classes with us Outsiders; namely mum & I as well as a smattering of others.
Repeatedly our input and ideas for just about anything is discounted and not recognized.
But I don't let a few negative people waylay me from being active in village happenings and working in the school. The last thing I want to do is to frustrate the culture that the Natives here are trying to keep operative.
Thanks. Samuel L Flyinghorse Sunka kha kiyon (his horse that flies)
Coming soon......theSam on Spell Check!!!
This Space Left Intentionally Blank
Burning Down the House
Summer 2004 is upon us once again, but what with the smoke from the massive forest fires to the North and North east of us here in Chisto....You wouldn't recognize the season.
The sky is hazy all around and over us, the sun is a red disc in the sky as it journeys overhead. Visibility for us here in the Copper River valley is less than a mile. Normally Mt Sanford and Mt Drum are clearly visible to the East with Mt Blackburn and Mt Wrangell in the background all commanding the skyline but not since last week when the fires from the North east sent smoke down this way.
There's about 56 active wildfires here in AK yet the most media covered fires are North of Fairbanks and South east of Fairbanks / North of us. I printed up all the latest stats and can't find the papers. Sorry.
You have to feel for the villagers that are closest to those forest fires.
One Native village is only 3 miles away from the latest fire line and as a last resort the villagers will gather on the wide dirt runway strip and wait out the inferno as it burns around them. They aren't in any mortal danger because of several EFF (Emergency Fire Fighter) crews are onhand and also BLM (bureau of land mis- management) and AFS (alaska fire service) crews are there to help the villagers.
All of the fire crew efforts are being sent to the Interior of AK regarding the main fires I just mentioned. Crews are there with many more on rotation list to be sent there and helo's and aircraft are dropping water and retardant on the fireline that is around the above mentioned village in a crescent shape. Up here in AK we all pull together in times like these and help. I'm glad to see the concern others feel for
the fire victims. Most people I see in Glennallen are discussing the
fires and who they know is up there.
A few years ago the eyes of the Nation were upon the jagged skyline of New York, well for us here in AK we keep an eye on the fire news and to us; fire is an enemy to suppress.
Just last month I endured 3 lesson packed days regarding wild land fire fighting and I took the Pack Test and got my "Red Card".
Now I am calling the nearest Fire Service station which is in Tok, just north of Chistochina, every day and bugging everyone there at TFS to let them know that I am available and can show up in 2 hours at Tok with my 45lb duffle bag of clothes ready to be sent out on the next available rotation crew that needs an extra hand.
Alaska EFF (emergency firefighting) crews need 16 people. 12 workers and 3 squad bosses and and 1 crew boss. Most of the towns and villages in AK have EFF crews picked out at the start of each summer but other crews come and go.
Chistochina and Mentasta Lake had the best EFF crews in the state only 6 years ago I am told. But apparently some of the villagers climbed into a bottle or a pipe and never got out.
And stragglers like me who have nothing to do at the moment, take the EFF certification classes and hope to get hired on with somebody during the summer fire season. My step dad is currently home for a few days from Survey work on the AK pipeline and he bought me a $200 pair of Wights brand allleather work boots.
So that if I am able to work on an EFF crew I can at least show up with the required all leather footwear. Everything else will be issued to me by AFS and for 2 weeks perhaps even up to 21 days my life is not my own but just work and get very little sleep. I think I can do that for about $5000. Can you?
wow, even the trees 100' away from the apts here are in a haze. Fairbanks is the hardest hit city, visibility for them is less than 1/2 mile. I haven't been out on the road to run for a week now, not since that cow moose and her newborn red calf were spotted down by the airstrip. He is a cute calf allright, big head with bulbous nose and LONG legs with a tiny body.
Idle Hands
Today I looked at those cheap CD cases that the Army recruiters were giving out to the kids in my old village of Minto when I was VPSO. I took a few of those CD cases for myself and used them to hold my music CD's and photo CD's too.
Well, today I cut one of those CD case covers almost in half and took some black ripstop nylon and made a cover for the CD case cover. As you look at the CD case cover it folds upon itself like a hard taco shell.
I just made an Inside the Waistband holster for my Glock 36 from that cheap Army CD cover. Only a small portion of half side sticks out from my waist and naturally folds over my jean top but I cut it just short enough so that my belt (that holds up my pants) covers IT up.
Personally I don't like wearing big loose shirts with the tail hanging out free. To me that is my red flag to watch that person because they could have something hidden behind their back or by their sides. Most people are alarmed by black people or by hispanics or natives, I just watch the sloppy dressers with baggy clothes. LOL. (tossing my long hair) Ever since I was little I've always watched people and guessed if they were carrying or wearing under their clothes.
For a few hours today I wore this holster I made and I liked it. My Glock stays seated snugly in the holster by friction, cupped on both sides by ripstop nylon encasing a cheap CD holder cover.
Being a Navy Parachute Rigger and sewing everything under the sun
(yes I know how to mend broken hearts and can darn socks too, I even made outfits for the "3 ugly ones" at one of Seattle's Showgirls clubs)
has been a blessing to me. And today I made something out of necessity. I can wear a T-shirt tucked inside my pants and won't arouse suspicion from anyone.
Little Green Gumby
"He was mean and tough and chewed cactus & stuff
and used a rattlesnake bullwhip for floss.
He wasn't intimated by anything animated and he
aimed to show Gumby who was boss."
That is a comical song sung Western style, a ballad of Gumby and the evil mean villain that ended up facing the green figure of clay in a gunfight.
The villain shot Gumby, but missed his head because his head "slopes a-that-away" when the shot went "this away". The towns folk ran the villain out of town.
I can't help but peg certain people I meet into certain genres and molds straight out of central casting. But our village CPO (community police officer) is just that sort of person that would fit into an old Western style movie. He stands about 6' 9",
is a white male with short white hair and has a long white mustache.
He'd make a great Sheriff or else an old Prospector. I like our CPO though in secret I call him 3 CPO. Not after the Star Wars movies but because he's the 3rd CPO I've met and known ever since my arrival here in the village.
And that is sad news to state to you my friends because it is not good for a Native community like this one to have had 3 officers in 4 yrs.
As I have let you all know, this village is headed by Native tribal entities and staffed by the leading families from the surrounding villages. The tribal entities get all the $ and divvy out to themselves and to immediate family and then dole out to various relatives or people they can control.
Various villagers and relatives of the fraudulant leaders eventually speak out in private and everyone finds out about where funds went to and what happened to this and that.
One month there was a few days of events going on here involving my mother, my dad and me where one tribal entity was sending out threatening letters and email and basically lashing out at everyone else.
I spoke out. I wasn't about to be threatened or to have others threaten mother's safety and welfare but everything is ok for now.
And our latest 3-CPO apparently found out the hard way that the Native village entities aren't the kind of people he wants to work for.
Office politics and back stabbing occur and most people just accept this behavior and strain under the yoke. I don't.
Our fine 3-CPO left the village today for good and I wish him well. I liked
the old man. I hate to see him treated unfairly.
Let's hope that this Officer picks up his hat, realizes that the "bullet hole" missed him and that he jumps back into the Public Safety / Law Enforcement fight some
place else that will treat him better.
Sam Quiote, Tilting at Windmills
Our current village leaders are women and as much as I LOVE young beautiful
women, these women are not my type. They're middle aged and hate white
people, they're drunks and some use drugs.
They're so petty with daily events. I get a head ache thinking of them. But I wanted to work for this village and for it's sister village down river too. I wanted to be the CPO at one time but not anymore.
I still carry my LEO (law enforcement) tools with me but now I hide them or keep them close at hand. Honestly, a few times I felt strongly tempted to pull my baton
and beat someone about the head and shoulders severely.
I think that our Fed Gov't should monitor grant & fed aid funds recipients more closely. My gripe with AK is that none of the Native corporations and village councils-tribal entities are required to be accountable to the state or fed gov't for their actions.
Such attitudes held by Natives foster fraudulent actions and wasteful spending & living and hurts the Natives in the long run.
Here in our village it's only a small group of people that live in fine homes and drive nice pickups and have all the jobs available and no one bothers them.
I'm at least happy that my mother is the manager to this cluster of 8 apts here at the end of the lane just off the highway. All the other houses in our subdivision are individually owned.
Mama has been watering the lawns and cutting the grass each day. She planted new flowers and is always on top of tenant complaints and service requests. Especially in the winter, when the heat goes out in an apt in the winter it gets cold fast and I'm glad that River Valley Housing Authority is good on sending up workmen at any hour to fix or replace something broken.
Mama is married to a man that earns 70K in 4 months. I'm glad that she doesn't work for the village tribal entities and I'm glad that she doesn't have to depend on them anymore like she once did.
My first loyalties are to my family and then to my dad and his immediate family here in the village. To hell with everyone else.
Up In Smoke
I think I wrote another paragraph once entitled Up in Smoke. I forget what it was. Today my dad & I almost completed erecting a smoke housefor the apts complex.
It is not for our family nor is it solely for another family but is for the apts here that will get fish this summer.
Here in AK fishing has always been a Native activity and it continues still. We don't fish for the Big One and hang it on our wall. We fish and hunt for food.
Each family in the village may have a "Fish Wheel". A device that when placed in the water will (acting like a water wheel) scoop up fish in it's baskets and deposit them in a holding box.
Right now my Uncle is checking the village fish wheel 5x a day. Just yesterday 86 salmon were caught! The circumference of a fish wheel is about 15', and is 4' wide. Each catch basket is 50 gallon drum size.
This evening mama was cleaning 18 fish as my dad & I were finishing up the days work on the smoke house.
Basically the smoke house is a small wooden structure that will be used to hang strips of fish meat and moose & caribou meat and a smudge fire will be built inside the house to catch and keep the smoke thus "smoking" the meat and flavoring it.
After we sized up the entry way and put a door on it I was joking that we needed to make the doorway just big enough so that a person could make an easy fast escape out of the smoke house with their arms full of stolen fish / moose meat and they wouldn't have to turn sideways to get out.
I mimed sneaking in the house and grabbing meat off the racks and running out the doorway, getting stuck and attempting another run out the door way only to get stuck again. I stopped and "turned sideways" and "escaped".
Mama was in stitches laughing and dad was smiling at me. All 3 sides...all 4 sides
of the smoke house are up and we just have to finish putting the screening in.
Think of a "see through" smokehouse. The walls are halfway up and halfway down with open sides about 15". The open sides will be covered in mosquito netting and window screening (that way we can look out at the smoke house and observe if any meat is gone or still on the racks) I joke.
Don't ask me why it's that way. Up River where I worked as CPO the villagers basically made enclosed structures and burnt wood to smoke the meat and never let anyone Near their smokehouses, not even me.
It took 3 village council meetings, two referendums on the addendum that ratified the resolutions needed to... oh hell. Not even YVC (my old employer) and AST (the Troopers) could get me into a Village smokehouse.
Today mama was beheading, betailing and gutting the fish that my uncle brought to her. I picked up a fish head and started "talking" to mama with it moving the mouth.
"how was yor day??" "mine was Crappy"
"I said to all 18,000 of my sons the other day...You Hooligans!!"
"You'll never amount to anything but just a worthless pile of bear dung on the river bank"
After I started singing "tiny bubbles" with two salmon heads mama pushed me out of the kitchen. Playing with fish is fun I hate fish slime.
Well my friends. My bag is packed and I'm ready to be called to go join an EFF crew. Basically it's like camping.
Except we'll also be working, all hunched over cutting tundra down to bare soil and moving trees, brush and other fuels out of the way to make a line that fire cannot cross.
We'll be up 18+hrs a day and living and sleeping in our smoke stenched clothes, eating MRE's 3x a day. I can hardly wait.
Happy 4th of July 2004 and for once I don't envy any of you (in the lower 48 states)because ever since this smoke has blanketed us, the nights are now darker (late evening) and the temperature has dropped a few degrees.
It's actually cold now outside. I hope that you all are safe and sane. I know that being a LEO is a hard thing. It is taxing and no one appreciates the work we do.
No one cares and yet everyone needs us. The village leadership here is messed up and getting worse and some people are staying away from me but I will not forget anyone here when an emergency happens. Even before that, I do not forget and still wave hello to everyone, still smile and attempt to converse. Likewise, you don't forget anyone in your care and custody either.
Always, your friend. Samuel L Flyinghorse
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