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BigUn

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Big’un@Big_un

February 11, 2026

Family Man

The left, not just in this country, but in the west and most developed nations, have been pushing this narrative.
“In order to be ‘truly fulfilled’, you need a career, and lots of disposable income, to buy ‘things’ to make you happy.”
Whether inadvertently, or purposely, it has caused a dramatic drop in the birth rate. After all, children aren’t cheap, and they require an investment of time.
These things make being a high earning, selfish consumer, problematic.
The solution to this, according to western Progressive Governments is to import the third world, because they are still having babies.
Not having children, in my humble opinion, is an act of selfish denial.
I was once there myself.
I was afraid of being a father.
What the hell do I know about being a ‘Dad’, I’m still a ‘kid’ myself.
I, in my opinion, had horrible selfish parents. If birth control was readily available in the ‘50s and early ‘60s, I wouldn’t exist.
That made me afraid that I would be the same. I really didn’t have an example of how to be a parent.
I had a horrible temper, I was a very powerful man, and I was afraid of being a child abuser. That I wouldn’t be able to control my anger, and I would hurt one of my children.

When our eldest child was born, I was 25.
I was a police officer that worked midnights in the worst district for crime in the county. I walked around in a semi-rage.
On one of my days off, I was left to take care of my 8 week old daughter, by myself.
My wife had just recently returned to work from maternity leave.
The baby began to cry.
She had a fresh diaper.
She had been fed.
She was screaming, screaming so hard, and so loud, that her face was purple.
I didn’t know what to do.
I was frustrated.
I was angry.
I called my wife at work, and screamed at her.
“This baby is spoiled! She won’t stop crying! Why did YOU do this to me!”
It was not one of my better moments.
I made my poor wife break down and cry at work.
She was 40 miles away, and a mad, violent man was alone with her baby.
I scared myself.
I began to cry.
I was afraid I was going to hurt this sweet little girl.
I took her into her nursery, placed her into her crib, walked out, and closed the door.
She was still screaming, but I needed to calm down.
What the hell was I going to do?!?
I got an idea.
She, until my wife went back to work, had been a ‘breast fed’ baby.
Therefore, she really didn’t like bottle nipples or pacifiers.
My little finger tip was approximately the size of a nipple.
I went back into her nursery, picked her up, stuck my little fingertip in my mouth to wet it, and put it into her mouth, nail down, on her tongue.
She immediately stopped crying, and sucked my pinkie.
She needed comfort, and I just learned how to do it.
She fell asleep, and I gently laid her in her crib.
I called my wife at work and told her;
“We are all good now, I’m sorry, she’s sleeping in her crib.”
My wife sobbed anew.
From relief this time.
I had just become a ‘Daddy’.
I never had another issue with a baby, I had figured it out, and now had confidence I wouldn’t hurt a child.

Fast forward about 30 years later, my step-nephew/adopted brother (long story) turned to me and said;

“I never understood how much a father could love his children, until I saw you, with yours.”

On another note…
My favorite ‘Nicolas Cage’ movie is ‘Family Man’.
He is a single successful Wall Street investor, that missed his chance for a family.
On Christmas Eve, he does a good turn and gets to see what his life could have been.
As his ‘view’ is coming to an end, he decides he doesn’t want to go back.
He has become a ‘Daddy’, and it is more fulfilling to him than all of the money and status he had in his ‘real life’.
He is an example of the propaganda we’ve fed our children.
They, by not having children, out of fear, or selfishness, don’t realize what they are missing.

Being a parent, was the most fulfilling and satisfying job, I was ever allowed to have.

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Big’un@Big_un

8 hours ago

Day 8

Of the 2026 cavalcade.

1473 miles

“The only difference between an Ordeal and an Adventure?
Attitude!
Now change yours!”

Ships Capt. Lt William Bligh, HMS Bounty

We finally were able to get out early.
We rode the short distance to a local ‘Drive through tree’. The ‘original’ tree fell several years ago.
A gentleman from Quebec, an actual Quebecois, kindly offered to video us driving through the tree.
We of course accepted and thanked him profusely.

We then headed over to the Legget CA terminus of CA-1 (the PCH).
We immediately observed a sign that informed us that the next services were 28 miles. As we only had a little over 1/4 tank of fuel we decided to find fuel first.
We found a Chevron 13 miles south of Legget in Layton, so we headed there to top off our tank.
On our way to Layton, our right tire on the trailer blew out.
I’ve pulled a trailer for over 30 years, never had a blow out pulling one until I retired. I’ve now had 10.

No big deal, I pulled over to a large pull off on US101 (the 101 for you ...

00:00:43

Big’un@Big_un

September 25, 2026

Day 6

Of the 2026 Cavalcade

1060 miles

We are staying two nights here so that we could go to the Redwoods National and State Park.

My lovely bride collects National Park stamps.
She also thinks she’s a re-incarnated Druid because she loves trees. Especially Redwoods.
They are amazing.
We rode a dirt road to the ‘Grove of Giants’ and did the 1.7 mile hike to the grove.
We didn’t realize that ‘Banana Slugs’ were a big deal, we saw one in our campsite yesterday morning.

Last night was a downpour, even after it stopped raining it dripped like rain for hours because of the Redwoods around us. It was cold and wet.
She also broke the table we have in the little camper. It’s the kind with the metal pole, and there’s a metal cup in the floor to hold the pole, and the table has a corresponding cup on the underside. She knocked the bottom out of the floor mount several days ago. We’ve been using it any way as the table pole just sat on the ground under the trailer.
She then fell on the table ...

00:01:36

Big’un@Big_un

September 24, 2026

Day 5 Video

My ‘GoPro’ software made this video up from some of today’s stills. I’ve lots of footage.
The California sign, and the view of us Riding are from my 360 camera mounted on my handle bars.

00:00:29

Big’un@Big_un

March 02, 2022

This is my Darth Vader voice

For you doubters…
😂🤣😂😂🤣

Big’un@Big_un

September 27, 2026

Photos

From yesterday.
I used @The_CINC ‘s phone because mine was being used for navigation.
I’ve footage of driving through the Redwoods I’ll try to get posted.

Big’un@Big_un

September 26, 2026

Day 7

Of the 2026 Cavalcade.

Note: ‘Mules’ or ‘Ana-Mules’ (animals) as my brother from another mother, Miguel, calls them.

We were hearing Elk bugling all night last night. Now we know why the area is called ‘Elk Valley’.
Of course the Black Tailed deer that crossed the road in front of us while driving back from the Grove of Giants.
Last evening, a covey of 15-20 Quail ran through our campsite.

1292 miles
182 miles today, still almost 4 hours of seat time.

We left Crescent City around 11:00.
We stopped in Orick to get fuel and try to get some Butane cartridges for our single burner stove (coffee). We went to a Tractor Supply, after I checked the web to ensure they carried them.
Nope, the manager told me they quit carrying butane all together because the homeless steal them all. Target doesn’t carry them either, although we did finally find them at a local outdoors store.

We jumped off US101 and rode old US101, which is two lanes, was bypassed when they increased 101 into 4 lanes.
It’s now called ...

KeeperOfThePark@Pmyles277

12 hours ago

Yes or No game

Big’un@Big_un

November 30, 2022

The Day I Retired

Its almost the sixth anniversary...

Some of you may have looked at my photos and thought; what young looking handsome man… He couldn't be old enough to retire …

Thank you Mama

Anyway, I am 60 and I retired at 55 in July of 2017. I was given a retainer for two more months in order to be on call. I couldn’t always get a reliable Internet connection and I can’t take someone’s money for nothing, so I shut that down in Sept 2017…

So you are thinking, what day in July did you retire? I didn’t really retire in July 2017. I quit going to work then…

I retired Thursday, around 1:35 PM, December 15, 2016…

Life was good for @The_CINC and I.

It was shortly before Christmas 2016. Tiny dancer, our surprise baby was a junior in college. We had a 4K sqft house on 7 acres, 40 miles south of Washington DC. It was our second house in 33 yrs of marriage. We had lived there for over 20 yrs. The final house payment was due Nov 10, 2017.

The CINC was at the highest point you can achieve as a civilian Govt Employee without going into the Senior Executive Service. When she was offered SES, the CINC had gotten to the point at which it would have meant more work, more time away from home, for no more money (because of the pay structure) for at least five to seven years. We also knew we wanted to Retire, so it made no sense to invest the time required for an SES position.

She worked for OSD, DOD, WHS (The office that runs the Pentagon, they are the ‘Landlords’) for 34 years. At one point she ran a division that had a yearly budget of $1 Billion.

She would be eligible to retire in April 2017. We really hadn’t decided what we were going to do. My top-secret NSA/DOD clearance was supposed to be coming through anytime. One of my specialties was encrypted secure communications.

I was a subcontractor for IBM and they were paying $50,000 for my vetting. It had been 2 years because I was a traveling consultant that didn’t associate with my neighbors… I was gone all of the time and I couldn’t see any of them from my house anyway..

Once that clearance came through, I could double or triple my salary which wasn’t small in the first place.

Here we were, at the top of our earning potential, few bills, house almost paid for, kids all gone…

Life was good…

Then Thursday, around 1:35 PM, December 15, 2016, happened…

I was in Birmingham AL, working at the US HQ, of a regional US bank that had been acquired by a Spanish bank. I was digitizing and updating their manual and electronic bank and treasury transactions. I had been on this contract for three years. The last 10 months or so I had been mostly remote, working from my lazy boy.

They wanted me to come in for some end of the year meetings and Christmas parties.

I flew in Monday mornings, getting to the office around 10:00 AM. I would work 10 hours Monday, 12-14 Tuesday and Wednesday, 6-8 Thursday and then catch a flight home around 4:00 pm Thursday. I would have 40-45 hours in 4 days by the time I caught my flight home.

I was sitting at my ‘station’, there weren’t really ‘cubes’, just tables with 3-4” dividers that had plugs. It was basically a giant open room, semi closed at each end by meeting rooms. My seat was near the meeting rooms. Behind me to my right was a large opening which led to a spacious elevator lobby.

The bank of elevators were the divider for another large working area. If you really tried, you could easily get 150-200 people in the elevator lobby.

I had just come back from lunch. I was trying to wrap a few things up before heading to the airport. A woman calmly walks behind me and says “Does anybody know first aid?”

I stood up “Excuse me?!?” She pointed to the elevator lobby behind her.

So I walked that way to see what was happening…

I am a trained first responder. I was a police officer at the pentagon and I was a FFX County VA police officer. I am also a trained BSA leader with back country first aid training.

As I entered the elevator lobby I saw an extremely obese man laying partially on his back. A woman by his side rubbing his hand looking concerned. Another man near his feet watching. I looked around, there were about 10 gawkers.

“MA’AM!”

I startled the woman to look at me…

“We have to treat him for shock”

First thing I could think of, get him flat on his back, elevate his feet.

"Go get that footstool"

That gave her something to do and think about.

I looked at the gentleman "Find me something to keep him warm."

I got him on his back. He must have weighed 400 Lbs.

I ripped his shirt open, put my head on his chest.

No Breathing, no heartbeat.

I took his pulse at his carotid artery to make sure.

No, pulse, his face was white, blue lips, his eye lids were partially open, his eyes were already clouding over...

He was already dead.

I looked up for a second...

At least 175-200 people were watching me...

I could hear people sobbing..

Where the hell did they all come from?

So I measured up his sternum, and began compressions..

If you've never really done CPR...

The first time will gross you out. I broke every bone in his chest away from his sternum. It sounded like I was crushing a bag of potato chips.

Another gentleman, kneeling beside me asked "Shouldn't you do the breaths?"

I was doing this for show. I knew he was dead. I have seen and handled many dead bodies. He was already dead, he wasn't coming back.

I looked over at the decedent's face, my compressions were forcing his lunch out of his mouth.

"Turn his head to the side, sweep his mouth, knock yourself out."

About that time a woman came over with an automatic defibrillator.

As I was giving compressions, I talked her through placement of the electrodes. She was so upset, she couldn't read the instructions.

She placed the electrodes, hit the switch, and audible countdown started from 15. When it got to one, it would send the charge.

I kept doing compressions until the Defib audibly said 'CLEAR', at which time, for some reason , I through my arms up like a touchdown. As soon as the cycle was over, I started compressions again.

I was starting to get winded, when I heard the elevators open and EMTs emerged.

one immediately kneeled across from me and took over.

I simply stood up, and walked away.

I didn't want to be there anymore.

I walked back to my station, and packed my stuff.

I was going to the airport.

As luck would have it..

I followed the gurney down to the lobby, one of the EMTs on the guy's chest still giving compressions.

On the drive to the airport, the shakes hit... I can stay extremely calm in the most stressful situations, but it takes a heavy toll later.

After arriving at my gate, I sat down, my cell phone rang. It was my boss from the bank "I just wanted to let you know that the guy didn't make it."

'I know" I said, "I knew that before I left, thanks for letting me know"

I called @The_CINC and told her everything. I then said "I don't want to die in a cube farm. Let's retire"

The Bank, and my employer tried to do some kind of ceremony for me. I told them not to, it was a dumb idea. If he would have lived it would have been a celebration of his life. He died, there was nothing to be proud of.

That was why they gave me the retainer...

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