I’m not super-extensively well-travelled. I’ve been to portions of Europe several times, but in a touristy capacity. I’ve never been to the ‘stans or that region. But..I can say that I’ve seen varied living conditions to give me a pretty broad base of experience.
So, I ask with all sincerity, why…why…WHY,,would anyone live in Texas? I just spent a couple days in the Houston area and I have never, ever, EVER!!11!11111 seen a climate less hospitable to human life. There was heat, humidity, fire ants, scorpions, and unrelenting sun baking everything. People say “So what? You just go from one air-conditioned building to another.” Dude, if you want to live in an artificial environment because the natural one outside your door will freakin’ kill you then you may as well be living on Mars. SpaceX needs volunteers to colonize Mars? Send the Texans…theyre already living in a climate that will kill you just as soon as look at you. They actually went to war with Mexico for that place? You know that saying, “All my exes live in Texas?”…well, yeah..because most people tell their exes “go to hell”. Well, there you go!
So..why was I there? I was helping someone move. I volunteered. And since I had to fly, I mailed a Glock and S&W 642 to myself ‘just in case’. What I did not mail ahead, and I should have, was one of my IFAKs. I didn’t want to take one in my luggage because I didn’t feel like having the grepos at TSA rummaging through my QuickClot and Dermabond. Bad move. Why?
Well, after several hours of unloading a storage unit into a rental truck in 103 degree heat, being covered in dirt, bruises, scrapes, and sweating faster than I could powerload on Gatorade, it was time to wrestle a ginormous fridge up the ramp to the truck. And….at the top of the ramp, it went sideways. I jumped clear to avoid ‘death by Frigidaire’ and I rolled up to my feet. The fridge missed me but I was a tad bruised.
- Them: are you okay?
- Me: Yeah. The only thing that can kill me is me.
- Them: are you sure you’re okay?
Me: Yeah, my heel feels a bit weird though.
And I took off my shoe and beheld this:
A close look showed a hole in the bottom of my shoe. When I leapt clear of the ramp, one foot landed in a bin of tools. Something drove right through my shoe and tore a hole in the bottom of my foot.
So, NSTIW, sitting on the curb by the storage unit wondering why I stupidly sent ahead my pistols and not my first aid kit. I had to scrounge through the storage unit…found some ancient Bactine, an elastic bandage, and a clean paper towel. Well, you do what you can, where youre at, with what you have.
SO..bandaged it up as best I could and carried on until I could send someone into a Walgreens and, like some scene in a gangster movie, have them go to the checkout clerk while carrying an armload of gauze, pads, tape etc, and trying not to be suspicious.
After that, it was..better. But it needs to be..ah..trimmed..in a few places. Hence, the doc in the box. (also some tetanus shot and keflex.)
So, other than wearing a more resilient pair of shoes, what could I have done differently? I should have been smart enough to realize that doing something like loading/unloading a truck could lead to this sort of thing and I should have mailed one of my first aid kits ahead. Failing that, I should have gone to Walgreens before I started the job and purchased materials to be prepared ‘just in case’. Honestly, I shoulda sucked up the $60 to ship and just mailed my Bag O’ Tricks to myself. That woulda covered me for bloody near anything that might go wrong.
Moral of the story: ‘remote’ preps don’t start and stop at guns.
And I shoulda just swung by Home Depot and grabbed a few Mexicans to unload /load the stupid truck.
Also, Texas might as well be the surface of Mars.
Well, my relatives that I don’t like that mention moving to Texas I recommend Houston as the place to be. I also recommend they check out the gators in the local parks but neglect to mention the bad-tempered Cottonmouths……
You are so right – the appropriate kit that one has in a car or bag seems ever-ready. And then you realize – uh, not my car, no bag in sight, now what? You adapted and overcame. And that fridge was trying to kill you. It is not to be trusted.
Well, you survived it, which is good. We could use more ‘handy’ folks here in Texas. The economy is almost always better than everywhere else, and cost of living is relatively low. Taxes are fairly low, and freedom is fairly high, although there are exceptions in both. The heat and humidity is just miserable. I have hats and cool vests that help. The wonder fabrics like ClimaCool help a lot. No more cotton for me. I could never have gotten to the position I’m in in life anywhere else, and certainly not in SoCal, where I was. I’ll bitch about the heat for a couple of months in order to have the economic benefits 🙂
When I fly I move my ‘blow out kit’ from my range bag to my airplane carry on backpack. I’ve never been hassled. Even the CAT (carried in an outside pocket on the backpack) only ever got on question and all I said was “Remember Ft Lauderdale baggage claim?” Trauma shears are specifically allowed under the rules, for at least a couple of years, and the rest is all good too. I do not have any type of blade in the blow out kit.
n
From my posts elsewhere —
And I’ve got my ‘blowout kit’ right here in my range bag.
Small samsonite toiletries bag, about 2.5x4x7 inches, that unzips in a clamshell and lays flat.
Loose in the middle,
israeli bandage
trauma shears
medical tape
maglite (if you use led, it must have good color rendering)
3 pr gloves
in the loops on one side
4x sterile pad, 3×3 folded in half
1x roll kerlix
1x roll gauze
4x sterile pad, 3×3 folded in half
extra shears
in the zippered mesh pouch on the other side
8x assorted size and shape fabric bandaids
4x alcohol prep pads
2x single use Povidone-iodine ointment
4x kleenhanz antimicrobial moist towelettes
1x envelope of wound closure strips (steri-strips) 8 @3 inches
2x maxi-pads, full size, generic, no fragrance
1x package, 2 @4×4 topper dressing sponges
1x 4×4 Exuderm OdorShield (what I had handy as a chest seal)
1x black sharpie marker
1x sheet of paper, folded for notes
So there is some stuff in there that is not strictly gun shot treatment, but then I don’t have to carry another ‘boo boo’ kit
You need triangular bandages every one needs triangular bandages.
It all goes to what environment you know, Commander. After living in Texas all my life, I’d probably freeze to death in mid October in Montana. As a teenager, I was able to square bales of hay during the year of the day, Not because of climate change,just 45 extra years. I also remember growing up in the ranch without AC until I was 13. Like any survival it’s 80 percent attitude and 20 percent knowledge.
Never seen a scorpion in Houston. When I lived in San Angelo, that is a different story.
Only 103 degrees? Must have been a cold front come through that week.
Yes, I am a Texan and yes I live just outside of Houston, which is now the third largest city in the country and one of the biggest shit holes in the world. I am retired Army and will retire from this job within 10 years and I DO NOT want to retire anywhere near Houston but the wife wants to be closer to the grand kids. You know when our kids were still young, we went to see the grand parents not the other way around. What the hell has changed? Anyway, the lesson is don’t come here on purpose. To the Houston area anyway. The rest of our country we call Texas is awesome.
@Andy, I’d have to disagree with you on “one of the biggest shit holes in the world.” If you truly believe that, you couldn’t have been to much of the rest of the country let alone the world. Houston is paradise compared to Detroit, Baltimore, Hartford, Chicago, most of LA and the surrounding area, and paradise compared to most of the places I’ve been outside the US too, even though those were mostly the best places- tourist places, or thriving cities of industry.
There are plenty of places in Houston that qualify as ‘shitholes’ but go another mile and it gets better. Most of those places are easy to identify, as the natives are very good about marking their territory and their spoor is unmistakable once you know what to look for.
I’m not sure you could find two square blocks of Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez that WEREN’T shithole, just to name two cities in our neighbor to the south. Cancun has a very thin veneer over the violence and poverty and you don’t want to stray on any number of islands just a few hundred miles south of Florida…
I’ve never been to Haiti, but I’m pretty sure EVERYWHERE in Haiti is worse than Houston. Liberia? Nigeria? Lebanon? Anywhere ‘guest workers’ are living in the Middle East probably qualifies as shithole, although I’ve only got direct experience of the UAE. India, most of China, all of Africa, in fact most of the big cities in any non-western country in the world qualify in whole or in part as shitholes.
Houston doesn’t even come close.
n
(I’ll grant that it is worse here lately. Lots of illegal dumping, lots of debris on the roads, and lots of imported people living in the same conditions they left, moreso than a year ago anyway.)
If you do not like Texas in August. For goodness sakes stay out of Florida this time of year. Just as hot but twice the humidity and bugs. We have a population of alligators higher than people and lots and lots of snakes of all varieties. However it is said, If you cannot stand the Summers, You do not deserve the winters. Welcome to the South. This is why we call them, Snow Birds. North in summer and south in winter. Enjoy all the snow this winter up north You All.
For the record, Houston Texas is NORTH of me, by about 350 miles by road. I live up hard against the Rio Grande River in the RGV, the Mexican border region adjacent to mouth of the river. Yeah, gets pretty hot alright. Imagine road crews putting tar on the road in this crap. Or roofing contractors. Heat will kick your ass and pouring water over shirt while working outside is not unheard of.
Sorry to hear about foot damage, that does look nasty. Heal up sir.
A quick note on your footwear. In an especially hot place (Alabama in summer) the soles of your shoes can get a bit softer than you might expect. I was on a range in Birmingham in late July one year and after being out there all day, I stepped on a piece of brass that was sitting mouth up. It cut a perfect circle out of the sole of my shoe (merril). Hot rubber+hot metal = hole
I walked across the flight deck of an LPH on a cloudless summer day and thought my feet would burn off. The soles of my footwear got so soft I could swear I could feel every bump of the non-skid surface coating through my shoes.
My wife got stung by a scorpion in our Dallas apartment about 2 weeks after we married. The day we started riding bikes it was 104 and topped 100 for the next 30 or 40 days. If you can get used to Texas, you can get used to anything.
You’re multiple types of snowshoes would make great conversation pieces.
Houston strikes again.
The very last line in your posting.
I tend to read a bit fast, I saw furnace, not surface.
Keep in mind you were in the absolute worst place to be and worst time in the summer in Texas. I would note it’s just as brutal in the winter in your area as the summer is in Texas. I would also note that from a pure survival standpoint there is less effort and resources in keeping cool than in keeping warm.
You can always add more layers – you can only take off just so much.
I used to say that until I spent a winter in Chicago, I put on so many layers I looked like the Uniroyal guy. I was cold and uncomfortable for the whole time. Fortunately it was only a temporary assignment and I was transferred in early spring..
Cold, wet, windy and cold, I know I said cold twice, makes for very difficult survival situations. Much more difficult IMHO that hot ones……… YMMV …….
How old are you? Once I turned 30, I stopped helping friends move homes for pizza and beer. The cost of a moving crew is a one time pain. Back injuries are for life.
It’s kind of like how the first rule of avoiding trouble is not to be there in the first place. The first rule of avoiding household injury is to hire someone to do the dangerous stuff.
Comfort and safety make you weak. You won’t move a fridge and you follow prepper sites? Pussy.
You must know your limits BFYTW! Injuries make you a liability and not an asset. However, sounds like I found my cannon fodder for end of the world and no doctor available situations. Thanks, for stepping up BFYTW!!! lol
You seem nice.
True. I once helped a friend move out of a second floor apartment that had a 90 degree turn in the middle of the stairway. When they asked me to help with the piano, I tried to give it a push to get a feel for the weight. I told them they needed to get a crew in the know how to do it. They were very upset with me, but I insisted that a crushed hand or worse is just too high a price. They wound up leaving it there. I don’t want to even think about how bad that could have ended up.
Back in my single days, a group of us helped a single lady move out of her 3rd floor apartment to another 3rd floor apartment. She had a piano. I opted out of that portion of the ride.
The derecho blew through my area a week ago. Many homes around me were without power for days, and we lost a lot of trees and bins.
You saw a lot of overly confident guys out there trying to take down broken limbs from trees, standing on unstable ladders with chainsaws in hand. And a lot of equally foolish people holding ropes, thinking they’ll pull a 2,000 lb. tree in the direction opposite of gravity.
I’m not afraid to run a chainsaw or haul wood, but I know my limits. If you don’t realize you have limits, you’ll wind up injured or dead pretty quickly in a WROL world.
I don’t even want to think about the guys trying to torch-cut a collapsed bin into pieces.
Hire a fully insured and bonded professional. It’s not worth the injury or death.
Or learn how to do things for yourself. Which is pretty much the core idea when it comes to surviving. When the SHTF, who are you planning to call?
Peter does seem to be an overly concerned about boo boo type.
It’s important to have a base knowledge in a broad area of skills, but it just isn’t practical to have the knowledge or the gear to tackle every single complex task.
Should I own a chainsaw and know how to use it? Yes. Should I own four chainsaws of various size, ladders, ropes, harnesses, etc., so I can climb and cut down any tree of any size in my region? Probably no.
I have been in Houston most of my life and have never seen a scorpion. However it does get really hot and humid here. If I am working outside I usually do it in the morning or last afternoon to avoid a heat stroke. I also dress for the weather.
We have four seasons here, but it rarely gets very cold for long. Hot! Yes it is very hot.
Houston don’t get that hot. Too close to the gulf. We did have a couple days that got a bit warm but it has gotten nicely cooler this week. And you did not mention the rattlesnakes. They are under just about every bush and rock.They are particular to Yankees. They just don’t like them for some reason…………or the cali fruit and nuts. Yankees best stay up north. You best don’t stay in air conditioning much. Better to just get use to the warmth. Shade works a treat. Can’t abide the cold. We can only swim in July and August here, otherwise water is just too cold.
Good Morning Zero!
My first duty station in January 1968 was Laredo AFB. Ah Texas! Sure there were a few tarantulas and a scorpion on my dear wife’s desk at school one morning but the real problems were the rattle snakes and wild rabbits. The snakes would come out in the cooler time of year and wind up around the landing gear of jets parked on the apron as well as around the landing lights on the runways and the rabbits were so numerous that we used to conduct drives at night to heard them and shoot them from trucks. They would get onto the active runways and cause problems with aircraft landings
Good News however was our introduction to TexMex food at Lala’s in Encinal a short drive down the highway that at night had rattlers on it for the warmth
Beer was 25c for an 18 oz mug and Bacardi was $1.25 a quart across the River life was good Except for the summer heat and humidity never went below 100 from April to October with summer highs routinely at 115-118 and 50 percent humidity
You’re lucky you did not get a real infection like my former boss a now retired Navy Captain did when he fell while dip netting in the Keani River and got water in his waders
Almost lost his foot to the resulting infection
Best
George
Funny timing, CZ. Yesterday I was helping my daughter and her family move
Put my foot through the floor of a trailer. Got a nothing kind of abrasion, started to develop a hematoma, round about 4 cm in diameter. Since I’m on anticoagulants, I anticipated this was a dramatic foreshadowing.
I did not really want a bruise/hematoma the size of my head, and so got into my medic bag.
It turns out that vacuum sealing Coban, compresses it into a solid mass. As in, there is NO end, from which to peel a bandage.
Fortunately, I had elastic bandage in the bag, which served.
Im discovering that Ace bandages are really unsung heroes in a first aid kit. Very versatile.
I’ve had ace bandages in my kit since my infantry days never had to use one yet but it’s there if I need to. Hope you heal quick.
Heck yeah.
There is an ace bandage right next to the Israeli bandage in each of my kits. Even in my messenger bag, (man purse), that is always with me.
Coban is the shiznits.
Arguably an ace-type elastic wrap is really good too but it lacks the ability to stick to itself like coban can.
I just dealt with a chest wound last week where, athough there was no penetration into the viscera or thoracic cavity, there was a big ass hole going into the muscle and a saucer sized hole in the skin. ABD pads, coban and then packaged the patient and got him onto transport to the boo-boo factory. The coban stuff is great but a bitch to start if it’s compressed.
Ace-type wraps for the re-usability factory, but if re-supply isn’t a problem, coban FTW.
Long hot, humid summers vs long frozen bitter winters, hmmm what a choice.
It’s all a matter of perspective and what your body accumulates to. I have a good friend from the Liberty, Tx area that moved t north northeastern North Dakota, about 8 years ago. The first 2 years he froze through the winners complaining constantly about never being able to get warm, today he laughs about winters there and complain about the heat and humidity when visiting his family in the summers….
As we get older it gets harder acclimate….. It’s easier to grow a garden and raise livestock down south though if that sort of thing is important to you.
“Also, Texas might as well be the surface of Mars.” – I’m guessing more Venus or Mercury than Mars, the later too far away. Mars may be more like Montana in winter time.
The funny thing about Texas is in dead of winter, the Texas Panhandle, a blue norther blowing through is rather brisk. How can the same location be so damn different ?
I’ve lived in both Amarillo and Houston. Amarillo wins hands down. Same state but NOT same place (532 miles apart as the crow flies). After spending most of my life in the dry climate of Amarillo, Houston’s humidity was an eye opener. Moved back to Amarillo after two years. Now in Kansas City. Still too humid for my likes, but way better than Houston. Besides, I wouldn’t want to risk running into Maxine Waters. Houston deserves her for being stupid enough to keep electing her. Maybe she had heat stroke and her brain never recovered.
I think you mean Sheila Jackson Lee, not Maxine. Both idiots so it is very difficult to tell them apart.
I’ve lived in Houston or the nearby suburbs for 66 years. My wife moved to the area for her job and expected to stay for 3-4 months…36 years ago. Your description was pretty much spot on and I apologize, but we laughed and laughed. No scorpions in Houston, but we do have poisonous snakes…Copperheads, Coral, and Cotton Mouths. The scorpions and rattlesnakes are more Central and North Texas.
I am sorry that you got hurt and hope you heal soon. There is no way I could handle Montana Winters (or probably Fall either). I do enjoy your blog.
so does that mean Houston is so bad the scorpions moved away?
Yep.
I live in Texas, but I avoid Houston. It’s one of those liberal strongholds. Also why would mail your firearms for such a short trip, when you could have just put them in your check luggage? I travel all the time myself and have had no problems checking them in. Than again, I’m not a big fan of mailing firearms.
I can mail my guns for $14. Otherwise, I have to check a bag and they charge for that.
Roger that!!
Last time I checked a bag it cost me $25. A little more money, but much less hassle to collect and I was armed about 5 minutes after I picked my bag up off the conveyor belt at the terminal.
With your luck the guns would get their safe but your plane would end up in a different city. I know of some one who this happen to on 9/11 now they travel with a economical handgun, I think it’s on of those Rugers you love so much
I don’t know what I find more more shocking, that you would volunteered to travel so for to help someone at this time, or that you know some one who could not lend you a gun when you got there.
Your presumptive commenting knows no bounds, hm?
I’m glad to hear that you were able to improvise and overcome!
What shoes were you wearing? I wear boots, preferably steel toes, whenever I’m moving anything heavy, pointy, or rough… In the past I have had trouble because I didn’t wear sturdy enough footwear…. Another example of planning ahead.
I keep an old pair of boots in the car in case problems come up when I’m not wearing boots (like the spare tire I had to change in the rain last week).
Always wear boots when flying. A bit more trouble going through the security theater performance with the TSA, but if something goes wrong on the plane you do not want to be trying to get out wearing flip-flops.
I’m surprised no one has asked yet, so I will: Did ya shoot the fridge ’cause it was so badly damaged from the fall, or did ya shoot it out of spite?
I pray your foot heals quickly and without further ado.
Big Bend National Park is one of my favorite places on the planet. The rest of Texas, not so much.
Got a bit lost on a bit of “freeway spaghetti” in Huston as it had many levels to it and my cars GPS had no idea which level I was on. The sprawl’s so bad that I ended up driving about 5 miles out my my way before my GPS could figure out where I was and how to get where I need to go. I’m usually fairly competent at navigating, but on that bit I was completely lost.
I liked the Big Thicket Country between Huston and Shreveport until I made the mistake of going hiking without bug spray or a bug jacket in late November. It never occurred to me that Death By Mosquito was a thing that could happen a week before Thanksgiving.
CZ sorry you were hurt. Good of you to help. I live not far from the old Gilley’s. Very quiet area. Whenever I go into Houston, I carry. It is a liberal hole. I love Texas, even Houston. It still better than Austin. Sorry you caught us in a warm spell. Take it easy. Need to learn this trick of mailing to myself. Thanks!
Careful with that injury. Keflex is not drug of choice for that injury. The bottom of your shoe can carry some rather nasty bacteria.
I think they prescribed the Kerflex for the possibility he nicked a bone. My brother stepped on a nail and damn near lost his life as he got a bone infection.
Texas summers have nothing on Alabama, Mississippi or Florida. You can tell things are bad when your boots and shirt turn white from all the salt in your sweat.
Lots of truth in your statement…
The only part of Texas I’ve seen was Fort Bliss in the middle of summer before heading to Iraq. I was underwhelmed with the climate in both places.
Glad your fairly ok. Moving is problematic. I often end up scratched or bruised or something. Last time niece scratched the heck out of nephew and my sister had already moved all her first aid shit. I had a bag in the car thankfully.
Still curious about the bag of tricks. You should do a post on it some time with a general inventory.
TEXAS… we like it like that Hot &Humid,,,Hot& Dry,,Hot& Windy..Hot & Hot, tornadoes, snakes,all the plants will either stickyou or poison you..
Keeps the riffraff out…..heal up and come back
Yep, Houston. BTDT, through it’s not too bad, weather-wise, in the late fall/early spring. Hope you are well on the mend; those pics make me cringe, and I’ve had my share of leakages and dents.
From one of the most bizarre TX movies…
https://youtu.be/hvU10OzGDv4
I was also going to question the mailing of the guns but you answered that above.
FWIW, I fly between 160-240 times a year for work and always, without fail, pack a pistol. I have never had a lost or misdirected bag, and that’s on Alaska Airlines, Delta, United, SouthWorst and American. When you ask for a firearms declaration they treat your stuff with kid gloves, it seems.
I gun up in either the baggage claim restroom (the family style single holes) or when picking up my rental car as my Leatherman and holster ride in the checked bag right next to the pistol case. One of my associates was mugged at gunpoint of wallet, phone, birthday Rolex and work laptop outside of the rental car place in FLL…
I also carry a full IFAK in my carryon (sans needle) and literally the only thing that’s ever been said about it was a TSA drone asking what kind of TQ I had in it. I gave him North American Rescue’s info and told him to make sure he went to their site on payday.
Urban legend has it that some airlines (I’ve heard Alaska and Delta) will bestow elite level status on you for the next calendar year if you heed the call when there’s an inflight emergency and they come on the PA system asking for anyone with medical training for assistance. It hasn’t happened yet but then again I’m Gold 75K with Alaska and Platinum Medallion with Delta.