published by Jean Apr 4, 2010
thistooshallpass, thistooshallpass, thistooshallpass…
Neo
Y’all may remember Neo as one of Gerard’s close friends. Neo also OK’d the formation of this web site to carry on with Gerard’s followers. Neo’s ex is doing poorly and as Neo states: “It’s more of a vigil now.“
Drop on over to her site, The New Neo, and read her story; comment as you wish. She was the foundation of this site and is headed for some rough times ahead.
Suicide: View From A Victim
Author: Jean; Intro: DT
Jean’s husband committed suicide almost 30 years ago. Ten years later, in response, she wrote of her experience in a 6-part series on her blog site, Pondering. She suggested it might be appropriate to re-post here.
This is a subject intensely personal but Jean was willing to share her experience that others in the same situation might gain some degree of peace.
“I think there’s value in knowing what people will do to others and often, eventually, to themselves. What they end up doing to themselves is also doing to others. The others are the ones who have to live with what happened and deal with it for the rest of their lives. The others have to choose how much guilt they will allow themselves to live with and for how long. It is often a long process.
Guilt is often not deserved or necessary. Even forgiveness isn’t always necessary because the others probably did nothing to cause the suicide. The others still have a life to live…for themselves. The best they can do is to live their life outside the shadow of what happened. Live in light.“
The subject is disturbing to some so the (very long) article is not directly posted. If you wish to read the article, you can access it here.
Tunesday: Bob Seger System – Train Man
A sample of some obscure – and maybe not obscure – tunes from my strange and off-the-wall collection.
Today’s selection: Bob Seger System – “Train Man” 1969
The album was originally named “Tales of Lucy Blue” and when I was not a kid but not yet an adult (I expect to become an adult any year now), the band would spend time in my home town – “Peppy”, the drummer, lived in a farmhouse not far from where I lived. I met Seger then, but not much more than that – I was several years younger but pretending I was kind-of in the music business (light shows and bass guitar). The band’s equipment truck was painted with the art of the album cover. Which came first, the album art or truck art is unknown … by me. But it was before the national release of the LP.
note the spelling …
Silverbell was also a ski “resort”
Fleetwood Mac played here in 1969
Nothing remains of the site – not even the hills
The album was released in 1968 locally; someone caught the cut “Ramblin’, Gamblin’ Man” and the nation became aware of the Bob Seger System (Glenn Frey was 19 when he performed on this album as his first studio appearance). This was Bob Seger’s first national hit (his first local hit was “East Side Story”. The better known “Silver Bullet Band” didn’t form until 1973.
This album remains one of my favorite Seger albums; this is one of the lesser known cuts (“2+2=?” and “Ramblin Gamblin Man” are much better known). Likely more of very early Seger to come.
ain’t no sunshine…
originally posted by Jean Oct 9, 2011
it’s been days and days.
many
many
more than one day.
so many days that
memory did forget
any other days that
were not as this day.
gray
dull
listless, lifeless,
soundless swirl.
blending endlessly
each day
into
every day.
some day
begins.
no day
ends.
Just Another Day In The New America
suggested by Joe (long ago but could be today)
Four Amish Men Killed in Crash Caused By Kyrgyzstani Semi-Truck Driver Paroled into US Under Biden
Debra Heine February 5, 2026
A semitruck driven by a Kyrgyzstani national slammed into a van carrying four Amish men in Indiana on Tuesday, killing them all.
Gert Pretorius, 44, was reportedly driving a semi eastbound when he slowed for traffic ahead. Behind him, another semi, a 2022 Freightliner driven by 30-year-old Bekzhan Beishekeev, did not stop.
Instead, the truck reportedly “swerved left, crossed the center line, and struck a westbound Chevrolet van head-on.”
Inside the van were four Amish men from Bryant, Indiana: Henry Eicher (50), his sons, Menno Eicher (25), Paul Eicher (19) and family friend Simon Girod (23).
The three Eichers were pronounced dead at the scene and Girod died later at the hospital, all of them suffering severe blunt force trauma injuries.
A fifth unidentified passenger is reportedly being treated at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne.
The van was driven by Donald Stipp, 55, who underwent surgery Tuesday night and is now listed as stable but in critical condition.
The Stipp family shared a message of appreciation to the community for the prayers, calls, and support during what they described as an unimaginable time. A GoFundMe has been created to help with medical and recovery costs.
Beishekeev and Pretorius were apparently not injured.
“Four Americans were tragically killed and lost their lives this week, yet again, from an illegal alien — an individual who was paroled into the country by the Biden administration, using the CBP One app… that’s not how immigration in this country should work,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated during the White House press briefing, Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Thursday that Beishekeev entered the United States through the Biden administration’s CBP One app on December 19, 2023, at the Nogales, Arizona port of entry. He was paroled into the U.S. under Biden’s “humanitarian parole program” and later obtained a commercial driver’s license in Pennsylvania.
Biden’s CBP One cell phone app reportedly allowed 50,000 to 60,000 otherwise inadmissible aliens to enter the United States every month for two years until President Trump terminated the program on day one of his administration.Approximately 350,000 aliens were released into the interior of the country and quickly given work permits under the Biden era program. DHS under Trump repurposed the app into “CBP Home,” which encourages self-deportation.
“Not only was Bekzhan Beishekeev released into our country by the Biden administration using the CBP One app, but he was also given a commercial driver’s license by Governor Shapiro’s Pennsylvania,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “These decisions have had deadly consequences and led to the death of four innocent people in Indiana on Tuesday.”
“It is incredibly dangerous for illegal aliens, who often don’t know our traffic laws or even English, to be operating semi-trucks on America’s roads,” McLaughlin added. “These sanctuary governor’s must stop giving illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses before another American gets killed.”
Beishekeev was arrested on a bench warrant related to prior court obligations, not directly for the crash, and was initially held in the Jay County Jail.
He is now in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and will remain in federal custody pending immigration proceedings.
According to Freight Waves Beishekeev’s truck’s logo indicates that it belongs to Sam Express Inc., a Kyrgyzstani-owned, interstate freight carrier based in Palatine, Illinois.
Sam Express Inc. is linked to a suspected “chameleon carrier network” of trucking companies operating out of the Chicago metropolitan area. Sam Express Inc. is also reportedly registered as a foreign corporation in California.
The company openly displays a Kyrgyzstan phone number on its website and on social media, as well as both American and Kyrgyz flags, Freight Waves noted.
The network has been tied to 91 documented crashes, and one of its entities, Tutash Express 1 LLC, operated under revoked authority while reporting over 128,000 miles driven in 2025.
The evidence points to “an active overseas dispatch operation and a driver recruitment pipeline connecting Kyrgyzstan to trucking operations in the Chicago area,” Freight Waves said.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) calls these types of operations a chameleon carrier network: “multiple authorities sharing equipment, drivers, and management, while maintaining separate DOT numbers so that, when one accumulates too many violations or crashes, they can shift operations to another.”
According to the Government Accountability Office, chameleon carriers are three times more likely to be involved in serious crashes than legitimate operators. From 2005 to 2010, the GAO found that 18% of carriers with chameleon attributes were involved in severe crashes, compared to just 6% of new applicants without those red flags.
The Indiana State Police Critical Incident Reconstruction Team is investigating the crash, with federal scrutiny focusing on the network’s use of shared vehicles and Kyrgyzstani names and recruitment pipelines.
Lenticular Cloud
illinoisbeekeeper took this photo Oct 4, 2014. I-70, MP 255 west of Denver.
Now, for extra bonus points – which way is he headed ?
Catch Up
When I got back from my travels, I dug into the NAD files and emails I’ve received. A number of suggested posts got … misplaced, and have now been found. So many of the next several posts will be those suggested earlier … in one case, from 11 months ago.
Ooops.
Anyway, if I missed someone’s suggestion in the past, those posts should be coming up soon … starting later today. Let me know if I missed something else … this is an open site; if you submit or suggest something, with few exceptions (only 1 so far – with the author’s agreement), it will be posted.
Assassination
Muslim NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were seen laughing as the names of the honored dead were read aloud at the 9/11 memorial on Friday.
Zohran Mamdani and AOC giggled while victims’ families wept.
Something like this is going to be the trigger …
They Won
