A beautiful lady lost her fight with cancer this week and now she is at peace. Barbara, the mother of my best friend from high school was also my surrogate mom. My partner Rocky also adopted her as his surrogate mom and her passing is especially difficult for him. She was very young at heart and touched everyone she knew in such a positive way.
Rest now lovely lady.
I don’t get to do a lot of real police work anymore. At some departments the sergeants are front line supervisors and that is about all they do. They are there mostly to supervise street calls. In our department sergeants do much more administrative work. Many days I don’t even get out of the office. We still have to manage the patrol officers and I often do respond to high priority calls but seldom am I directly involved in the call. Usually only when things go to shit.
When I do get out and it is quiet I like to make a few traffic stops. It keeps you alert and up on the statutes. Today I saw a couple of people in a vehicle parked and it just set off that little cop thing inside. I knew something was not just right so after checking the vehicle plate and finding the tags had been expired for four years I just had to stop them. I just thought I would get a warrant or suspended driver.
I ended up getting a big mess of an ID theft operation. Not a super big one mind you but not too bad of one. The funny thing was they were making payroll checks of the company the guy worked for, oh and I stopped him as he was returning to work. His boss saw it and came out and after finding out what was going on, he fired him on the spot.
I admit I enjoy getting to do some real police work again, albeit I must also admit I am a little rusty. Thanks to the great guy that work with me and helped me through it…. The bad part is that now I will be tied up with a long report, logging evidence and doing some follow-up investigating. I will get even more backed up on all the admin stuff.
Still I am very glad that I got them both off the street, at least for a little bit. Both of them are either on probation for ID theft or awaiting a trial for ID theft. ID theft sucks and it can really screw up a persons credit. Well I have to get back to writing my report. Brought it home to work on… a little rusty remember
Rocky and I just got back last Saturday from five great and relaxing days camping on the Metolius river. After I got back from Las Vegas we loaded up the RV and headed out to Candle Creek camp grounds. We actually didn’t stay in the camp grounds but at a site just outside the actual camping area. This is a little camp site I had seen on previous trips up there and it is much nicer than the ones in the camp grounds.
It is more private, larger and has better access to the river and most important it is free. The little access road to get into it is a bit tricky to navigate with my 5th wheel but I managed to get in without any mishaps. I took my new Honda generator and put it to the test. It worked flawlessly and is so much quieter than my other cheep one. The fuel economy was amazing. I think we must have run it about 75 percent of the time we were there and only used about seven gallons of fuel.
We took Duke of course and we were not there five minutes and he was totally covered with dirt. After about an hour his white fir was so grungy he just looked dull and he didn’t really seem that dirty anymore. His fir is so short and tight that you can just brush off any real thick dirt before he gets into the RV. Duke is turning out to be a very good traveling dog. He rides in the front of the truck and is fairly well behaved. I think he likes traveling.
We didn’t do to much other than lounge around and do some hiking around during the day. Rocky did drive into Sisters one afternoon and I took about a three hour drive around the area on the forest service roads. One afternoon I took Duke for a walk and we tried to cross over Candle Creek on a log. Duke slipped off the log and got stuck so I had to step into the creek to get him off. When I did he knocked me totally into the creek and I got soaked. All I could do was lay there and laugh. It was a bit cold but fortunately we were only about a quarter mile from camp and the sun was out.
Well it was great fun and I am ready to go again. I am hoping to take the RV over to Central Oregon with some coworkers near the end of October when they go elk hunting. I don’t hunt but it will be a good excuse to go camping again. It should be interesting as they tell me the temperature often dips near zero degrees at night.
I just got back from a weekend trip to Las Vegas this afternoon with three friends from work. Well, one that still works with me and two that have been retired for a few years. We stayed at the Flamingo Hilton and had a great time. I lost a little money but managed to have enough to get home on….
We went to Bareback, a show at Harrahs and the guys (and gals) were hot. If you like County music I would recommend it. We also ate dinner on Saturday night at Steakhouse46 in the Flamingo. The food was very good but it was a bit pricey. We all had the Porterhouse steak. Mine was cooked okay but everyone elses was overdone. They sent them back and the second ones were perfect. The service was very good and that is much of what you are paying for.
I spent a lot of my time playing Texas Holdem at O’Sheas just next door to the Flamingo. It’s not a real fancy casino but I always find it a fun place to play. I got into a game and played both Saturday and Sunday until the table closed the next morning at 5am. It’s Monday evening now and I haven’t slept in about 36 hours. I should sleep good tonight.
Just something from our garden to brighten up your day.
I grew up in a Oregon City where my parents owned a flower shop and raised azaleas. We owned almost an entire city block which had several greenhouses, the business front and our home on it. It was like living on a large farm in the middle of the city. The house was huge, at least from a child’s perspective and there were many places to play, to hide, and to explore.
It was a three story house not including the huge attic which actually had a stair case that went up to it…. so does that make it a four story house?? I had a bedroom on the upstairs floor. The floor plan was kind of strange as I think back on it. You walked up the stairs which was about in the center of the house and at the top you waked into a large open room. This was made into a bed room but most of the time my mom used it to do her sewing and other projects. Straight ahead was my first bedroom and just to the left was another bedroom which was much larger. My ageing grandmother stayed in it for many years and after she died I moved into it.
There were also three large storage areas which I guess were kind of like attics but were on the same floor. One of them had the stair case in it to the top story attic. That storage was a favorite place for me to play. My father had built a door going into it that was quite interesting. It was kind of shaped like a large bank vault door. It was about ten inches thick and the outside was a book case. You couldn’t tell it was a door unless you happened to see the hinges which were visible on the outside.
As I said inside was the stair case to the top floor attic. I didn’t like to go up there too much and found it kind of creepy. Lots of cob webs and it only had some planks across the rafters to walk on. I was always afraid of falling through the ceiling. What was great about this area was I had found this hidden little room. There was a small crawl space between one of the bedroom walls and the roof. It probably ran about ten feet then opened up into a small little area. I made it into my little retreat and hiding area.
If you look at the photo of my room above you can see the area where my hidden room was just behind the TV.
It’s a wonder I never burned the house down as I used candles for light. Later I was able to connect into the back of an electric outlet and had power for a light. My parents both worked in the family business which was on the same property and even though it was just next door to the house, it was like being home alone most of the time.
Well, that’s about enough for now as I want to save some things to bore you with later. Stay tuned for more…..
I had training at work today. It is a yearly event we have done since the terrible incident at Columbine High School in April, 1999. Back then the standard thinking in incidents like that was to contain the area and wait until a special unit like SWAT arrived and took over. Unfortunately it can take quite a long time for them to arrive and during that time many people continue to be injured or killed.
Today our response is much different. In such an event we will not wait and the first three or four officers that arrive will go into the building and search for the assailants and stop the threat by what ever means are needed.
I am glad we do the training but I pray we never need to use it.
My partner and I live on about five acres in a rural part of the county. I say about five acres because the property was originally exactly five acres but somewhere in the past the County came in and decided that we didn’t own to the center of the road and they claimed the road was a “private county road”. We had a meeting with the County and they told us that yes, the County owned the road but No they would not improve it or keep it up. That was our responsibility, go figure.
It’s a gravel road and required quit a bit maintenance but between a few of us we seem to keep it up. There has been some talk in the neighborhood about trying to get the County to give the property back to us and we would then have a “private road” but we haven’t taken any action yet.
We have very good neighbors and most of them know we are a couple. They all accept us for who we are and we sometimes party with a couple of them. Our neighbors to the south of us are a Russian family and just great people.
A while back at the end of their Russian Easter observance we happened to just go over to chat for a few minutes. We ended up getting quite blitzed and stayed until way after midnight. They lit a fire and made food on their grill. Jeff (neighbor) brought out a bottle of true Russian vodka (the label was written in all Russian, no English) and we did several straight shots. When we finally went home, I had to almost carry my partner Rocky home. The next day he didn’t remember coming home. I had a weeee bit of a hangover.. I don’t get them very often. Continue reading »
Please meet the newest member of our family, Duke. Duke is a Harlequin Great Dane and is just seven months old. He stands about 32 inches at the shoulder and may grow a couple more inches.
We had decided not to get another dog for a while after Sampson and had talked about getting a Golden Lab pup when we finally did however things seem to have a funny way of changing. When we went camping in LaPine we met Duke for the first time. His parents, a guy I have worked with for a long time and his wife, got Duke as a pup but found that he was just too much of a dog for their home and lifestyles. They live in the city in a residential area and their back yard is not that big. While Great Danes are house dogs and very gentle they do require a lot of exercise and attention. If they don’t get it they can become very bored and restless which can lead to all kinds of behavioral problems.
We both fell in love with Duke while we were camping. I walked and played with him as much as anyone. The other day my co-worker asked me if we wanted to take Duke. I asked my partner and he was very excited so here we are now just one big happy family. Well, except for Morgan the cat. The jury is still out for him but he is warming up to duke.
Actually Duke has adjusted very well to the change. I had expected him to have some problems getting use to his new home but it is like he had been here since a puppy. I think he likes all the attention and especially having five acres where he can run free.
Well, more about Duke and his antics later. I am sure if you are a regular reader you will become bored with my constant writings about him.