rlfj: Blog

I was hoping that there might be some suspense as to who the bad guy was, but that just didn’t work. Practically everybody figured it was Hamilton. The second choices were fascinating, though! I got suggestions ranging from the idiot lieutenant in Honduras to the three guys in the Bahamas and going all the way back to the three guys he beat up on the school bus in 1968. I had never thought of any of them.

I can also say that very few of you predicted what Carl would do about it. There was a lot of stuff about capturing him, or beating him up, or letting him escape and calling the cops. Not too many figured Carl would just blow him away.

Hamilton may be gone, but he will never be forgotten. He leaves a legacy that will be bugging Carl for years to come. More on that in future chapters.

I had some interesting comments regarding ‘The People’s Republic of Maryland’. The situation in Maryland can be quite extreme at times. I had one response from an ex-Maryland cop stating that there was actually a definite possibility that Carl would be arrested and charged with murder, since some Maryland jurisdictions hold that shooting somebody, even if they have invaded your home, requires that you first attempt to retreat out of the home. The simple act of picking up a loaded gun indicates intent and since Hamilton is crazy, then he must be innocent, etc., etc., etc. A number of people have gone to jail after pleading to lesser charges to get it behind them.

On a personal note, although we don’t own any guns (my wife and I agree we’d probably just shoot each other) we don’t have any problems with them, either. Most of our friends and neighbors have them, and we just don’t care. My father had two guns from when he was young and after he passed, my brother took the.22 single shot rifle and a 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun went to a cousin.

I was surprised by the number of people who though that Hamilton’s comment, “You’re not supposed to be here!” meant something special. Quite a few thought that meant that Hamilton had figured out Carl was from a different time/dimension/existence/whatever. Some of you are over-thinking things! It’s like I said in the story. Carl was setting Hamilton up by swapping cars. Hamilton thought it was Marilyn and Charlie at home. He even complained that they weren’t there.

There was one comment that it would be impossible for a bullet to nail the sternum, heart, and spine. Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe the first shot moved things around. Maybe it just nicked everything. Maybe I’m not going to rewrite that line. There’s a really big fucking hole in the middle of Hamilton’s chest, that’s for sure!

We’re taking a break for a few days from Carl Buckman and returning to Grim Reaper. I’ll start that up again in a few days. Enjoy!

There have been a lot of comments over the last few chapters. Carl needs to watch for his brother. Carl needs to watch for his mother or his father. Carl needs to hire security (preferably ex-Mossad/Secret Service/Spetznatz types, only meaner). Carl is naïve and stupid.

Carl is neither naïve nor stupid. However, Carl has consistently shown that he doesn’t think like a zillionaire. He still thinks he can live like a normal suburban dad. Chapter 80 shows that is no longer the case. More on this in the near future.

One interesting, and probably accurate, complaint was about cops responding to a suspicious vehicle complaint. The response, by a cop, was that it would be unusual to respond with the lights flashing, and unusual to leave them flashing while talking to people. That sounds realistic, but I think I am going to claim artistic license on this one. It would screw up the cliffhanger, wouldn’t it?

While researching this chapter I learned just how difficult it is to get a carry permit in Maryland. Maryland is one of a handful of ‘may issue’ states, where the state may issue you a permit if they decide you have a reason to carry. This is opposed to the ‘shall issue’ states, where they automatically issue the permit unless they can find a reason not to (you’re a felon, you’re crazy, etc.) This isn’t just about the law in 1983. This is current Maryland law as well. Maryland carry permits expire after 2 years and then must be renewed. If they feel you are no longer in danger, they will yank your permit. Also, Maryland does not recognize other states’ permits.

I learned the following from my email responses: “A swamp is a place where the plants that make up the area covered in water are primarily woody plants or trees. Woody plants would be mangroves or cypress trees. A marsh, on the other hand, is defined as having no woody plants. The non-woody plants would be saltmarsh grasses, reeds or sedges. Also, marshes are typically not as deep as swamps.”

Very interesting. Not sure whether Washington was woody or non-woody in the late 18th century. Thanks.

Huge amounts of email responding to the reappearance of Carl Buckman’s family. Hamilton and Mom really are fan favorites. Just a reminder, my own family is nowhere near as fucked up as Carl’s! I took some people I know, took their personality traits, and pushed them up a notch or two. In real life, my mom and brother and sister all still live in the Baltimore area, and my eldest daughter spent two weeks with them at the time I posted this on SOL. The only complaint I get is that I don’t call home enough.

Chapter 75 introduces us to a new member of the family, Dum-Dum! Many years ago we had to put down our dog, a beagle-pointer mix, due to kidney failure. After a few months, we decided to get another dog. When my wife and daughter asked my opinion I said that as a good ole boy from the South, I wanted either a small hound like a beagle, basset, or black-and-tan, or a hound mix, and she had to be free. They promptly found a family with puppies in the neighborhood and went to visit. They came back very excited.

When I asked what it looked like, I was told, “Just like a beagle!” Two weeks later they went back and I asked again. “A lot like a beagle.” Two weeks later it was, “Pretty much like a beagle.”

You can see where this is going. When they brought her home, I said, “That’s a beagle?”

Boxer-beagle mixes are known as bogles. The name is appropriate, in that it truly boggles my mind that ours generated enough brainpower to move around the room at warp speed. Most of the time I thought she was incredibly dumb, but my wife thought she was too smart for her own good. She was one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever owned. When you read about Dum-Dum’s idiocies, you are reading about the real-life Daisy Mae.

In other news, everybody writes that they want Carl to reconcile with his family. Well, that didn’t work out, did it? Everyone’s favorite character, Hamilton, crawls out from under his rock, cementing his place in all our hearts. I haven’t mentioned him since Chapter 69, and people still love to hate him.

There was an interesting correction I got. “Washington, D.C. shouldn’t be called a swamp. It is actually a marsh.” I must be getting old, because I don’t have a fucking clue what the difference is. I can state that part of the reason for the long summer Congressional recess was the desire by everybody to get the hell away from the malarial marsh at the height of mosquito season.

Only one reader had an issue with the investment size. He managed to find an investment history of the period that indicated my $5 million for 5% valuation was too high. All during the writing, and going back to my MBA finance days, I had been worried I was too low! We’ll do a quick renegotiation later. Very interesting, though!

Remember how a couple of chapters ago I mentioned the Buckmans were taking a vacation in Hawaii and visiting their friends at Schofield Barracks. Well, I’ve said it before, but it remains amazing to me. I can’t believe who all reads these stories! I got an email saying the reader had worked at Schofield Barracks and still lived in Hawaii. Did I want a fact checker?

Wow! Definitely! So, I bundled up a couple of chapters and emailed them for a quick edit. It’s a good thing, too, since Chapter 74 needed a complete and utter rewrite! We went back and forth through a couple of edits. Infinite thanks to Slider for his info and edits.