to our many veterans today, those still here and those who are not. Our world would be shaped very differently if not for the courageous men and women who have served in the past and those who serve today.
Think, and be grateful for a moment...
The Code Talkers, 420 men who helped win WWII, 30 seconds at a time
http://www.navajocodetalkers.org/code_talker_story/
The Women Airforce Service Pilots
http://www.wingsacrossamerica.us/wasp/jacqueline_cochran.htm
Ace Pilots: The Tuskegee Airmen
http://www.acepilots.com/usaaf_tusk.html
and to the many others....
thank you
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
How to annoy your local friendly po-po
We have a lot of rural area to cover. So there are a lot of mostly un-occupied camps and there are also a lot of "summer" homes. This means that there are often burlaries that are not discovered for weeks or even months.
Recently we had a burglary in which a 4 wheeler was taken from a summer home. Yesterday, that vehicle and some other things taken in thefts and burglaries were recovered. We always attempt to let the owner know when their items have been recovered and yesterday was no exception. In this case the investigation had not been closed yet so the owner had not been paid by the insurance company, which means we contact the owner not the insurance company. The recovery had happened on the daylight shift but had not been completed yet, the cars were still at the scene. At shift change the owner called to ask some questions about what would happen next and lucky for me, the outgoing dispatcher picked up the phone as I was on another line. She carefully, and completely explained what she could then told the gentleman that the officer would get back to him as soon as the details were known. Mr. Owner was a talkative man and kept her on the phone for another 10 minutes. She explained to me what was current and left. 30 minutes later, Mr. Owner called again. I explained the same thing to him again and had to put him on hold 3X because of other calls. He was polite and patient. I finally got off the phone with him after 15 minutes. An hour later Mr. Owner called again. This time he wanted to know if we knew where the 4 wheeler was going yet, were we going to put out something to the newspapers about the recovery, was there going to be a hearing and how did he find out when and where. Now, we are required by our regs to put out a news release for most of the incidents we take (we do not put in the names of juveniles, we do not always post the names of suspects or accused and if it's a sensitive subject like a suicide we are often do not make a news release). Mr. Owner wanted to know if we were going to put out a news release that we recovered his vehicle. Normally we don't do that, news media tends to want the drama of the burglary/theft, but don't care about the recovery and such. They have usually moved on. He felt it would be news worthy and wanted to discuss this at length with me. I had a crash to dispatch, a buck that had been hit by a car and was on the road, a plastic lawn chair stolen off a back porch so it was a tiny bit difficult to talk to him and be patient. I finally explained to him (yet again) that the officer would get back to him as soon as he could but he was out on the road and would not be back till toward the end of this shift or possibly even tomorrow. Then I told him I had to go. Perhaps a tiny bit more firmly and a tiny bit short. Yet an hour (ish) later Dude calls back yet again. Same deal. What's going on? Where is his stuff? Can he do this or that? Why hasn't the officer called him back yet? Good grief Dude! Leave it alone already whydoncha?
Honestly, most cops don't ignore phone calls. They want this stuff to be returned just as badly and just as quickly as the owners do. But they have their shift to work and they don't just bebop in for coffee and donuts as often as TV shows. In this case the officer had zones to work that covered an area of 14 miles north and south, 21 miles east/west. You do the math. If he had 2 incidents at each end of his zones, between getting there and taking the report, that pretty much takes up a lot of his 8 hours. In addition, the guys work traffic when they can and this particular guy does his best to make at least a few traffic stops during every shift he works. He doesn't just sit on station.
So, if you are a victim, do yourself a favor. If some of your stolen items are recovered, when you are called, return the call promptly....leave accurate call back information (good phone #'s, what is a good time to call etc), and WAIT. Don't bug the cop or the station too much, they usually have more going on than that one incident.
Recently we had a burglary in which a 4 wheeler was taken from a summer home. Yesterday, that vehicle and some other things taken in thefts and burglaries were recovered. We always attempt to let the owner know when their items have been recovered and yesterday was no exception. In this case the investigation had not been closed yet so the owner had not been paid by the insurance company, which means we contact the owner not the insurance company. The recovery had happened on the daylight shift but had not been completed yet, the cars were still at the scene. At shift change the owner called to ask some questions about what would happen next and lucky for me, the outgoing dispatcher picked up the phone as I was on another line. She carefully, and completely explained what she could then told the gentleman that the officer would get back to him as soon as the details were known. Mr. Owner was a talkative man and kept her on the phone for another 10 minutes. She explained to me what was current and left. 30 minutes later, Mr. Owner called again. I explained the same thing to him again and had to put him on hold 3X because of other calls. He was polite and patient. I finally got off the phone with him after 15 minutes. An hour later Mr. Owner called again. This time he wanted to know if we knew where the 4 wheeler was going yet, were we going to put out something to the newspapers about the recovery, was there going to be a hearing and how did he find out when and where. Now, we are required by our regs to put out a news release for most of the incidents we take (we do not put in the names of juveniles, we do not always post the names of suspects or accused and if it's a sensitive subject like a suicide we are often do not make a news release). Mr. Owner wanted to know if we were going to put out a news release that we recovered his vehicle. Normally we don't do that, news media tends to want the drama of the burglary/theft, but don't care about the recovery and such. They have usually moved on. He felt it would be news worthy and wanted to discuss this at length with me. I had a crash to dispatch, a buck that had been hit by a car and was on the road, a plastic lawn chair stolen off a back porch so it was a tiny bit difficult to talk to him and be patient. I finally explained to him (yet again) that the officer would get back to him as soon as he could but he was out on the road and would not be back till toward the end of this shift or possibly even tomorrow. Then I told him I had to go. Perhaps a tiny bit more firmly and a tiny bit short. Yet an hour (ish) later Dude calls back yet again. Same deal. What's going on? Where is his stuff? Can he do this or that? Why hasn't the officer called him back yet? Good grief Dude! Leave it alone already whydoncha?
Honestly, most cops don't ignore phone calls. They want this stuff to be returned just as badly and just as quickly as the owners do. But they have their shift to work and they don't just bebop in for coffee and donuts as often as TV shows. In this case the officer had zones to work that covered an area of 14 miles north and south, 21 miles east/west. You do the math. If he had 2 incidents at each end of his zones, between getting there and taking the report, that pretty much takes up a lot of his 8 hours. In addition, the guys work traffic when they can and this particular guy does his best to make at least a few traffic stops during every shift he works. He doesn't just sit on station.
So, if you are a victim, do yourself a favor. If some of your stolen items are recovered, when you are called, return the call promptly....leave accurate call back information (good phone #'s, what is a good time to call etc), and WAIT. Don't bug the cop or the station too much, they usually have more going on than that one incident.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Some of the toys put out at TSC for Christmas. I clearly remember buying things like this for my kids when they were younger.
There was a point in Sarahs life when she was in love with piggies. She got lots of piggy things for her birthday and Christmas that year.Monday, November 9, 2009
Macro Monday, 11/9/09
The common burdock
This plant causes much anguish to many horse owners as the seed heads often get tangled up in manes and tails. The barbed seeds are sticky and pointy and when I had massive amounts of them to remove, they often would stick in my fingers which was very irritating to my skin.
This time of year, before the snow flies, I used to go around and pull up the plants by the root and burn the stems and seed burrs trying to reduce the number of them. The plant has a long tap root so you can't get it out of the ground till it dies and goes to seed. You must be careful not to shake the stem, dropping those seeds everywhere or you will make the problem worse.
as always, click to make the photo bigger
This plant causes much anguish to many horse owners as the seed heads often get tangled up in manes and tails. The barbed seeds are sticky and pointy and when I had massive amounts of them to remove, they often would stick in my fingers which was very irritating to my skin.
This time of year, before the snow flies, I used to go around and pull up the plants by the root and burn the stems and seed burrs trying to reduce the number of them. The plant has a long tap root so you can't get it out of the ground till it dies and goes to seed. You must be careful not to shake the stem, dropping those seeds everywhere or you will make the problem worse.
as always, click to make the photo bigger
Common burdock is found in places where the soil is not disturbed; therefore, it is not commonly found in cultivated areas. This is due to the fact that it is a biennial, so it needs areas that are not severely disturbed on an annual basis. Such areas include: farmlands, pastures, waste places, open or disturbed woods, road sides, fence rows, barnyards, abandoned fields, and stream banks. F. Swink has stated that common burdock, "is especially common in weed patches where there has been previous cultivation or extensive abuse by livestock" (Gross, et al. 1980).
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Sunday Stills, Currency
Due to old age, my memory just "ain't what it used to be" and I totally neglected the Sunday Stills Challenge till this morning.....so we have a rather uninspired post today. Sorry folks! This is as good as it gets today.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Just, general *stuff* and Hammie Cat
Sometimes I find my job a bit....tiresome. I try to keep in mind that I'm lucky to have it but there are days when that is not the thought foremost in my mind. Today is one of them. I have no compelling reason to wish to be elsewhere tonight, but there it is. I need to keep in mind that I don't work hard (most of the time), that I get paid a decent wage and that it's a permanent, full time position with retirement and good health benefits. It's just that some days I handle the stress better than others. Today does not seem to be one of them.
Which brings me to another recent incident. Last week I was having a great deal of difficulty breathing. Now, I'm prone to asthma/bronchitis/allergy related issues and for the past 3 weeks or so that is what I put the cough and shortness of breath down to. However, it's hard to justify that when you are sitting on you assets at work doing nothing. And it's flippin' hard to ignore the fact that you aren't even moving and you have trouble exhaling without triggering a cough. So Wednesday night I decided that I would call the Doc in the morning. I got an appointment for 1:30 pm and in I went. Figured they would find nothing out of the ordinary, would send me home with a script for an inhaler and be done.
I did not account for a through physician. She listened very carefully to my description of what it felt like, listened carefully to my lungs, took a detailed history and decided that she would send me to the ER for an EKG and a lung xray. Goody. The EKG and 65 million tubes of blood all came back negative (thank goodness), but as I was sitting up on the table after the xray I got a quick glimpse of the picture and did a "which one is not like the other" take. The bottom of my right lung was not there. The left lung had the usual outline of a complete lung but the right one had the bottom neatly sliced off in the xray. Uh oh.....now...obviously I am still here so the bottom of the lung must be there but when the ER Doc came in he said "all the bloodwork and EKG came back normal, but the xray showed a mass in the bottom of your right lung, so the next step is a cat scan". Okee dokee.....I'd never had one of them before so when questioned if I had ever had an allergic reaction to shellfish and answered "yes" they also decided they had better be pro-active, in case I reacted to the iodine based dye, and gave me some Benedryl IV. What wonderful stuf....*thunk* and I'm nearly out like a light. Turns out that my diaphragm on that side is lifted up. They don't know why, all the organs that might be pushing up on it, are where they are supposed to be, look to be normal sized and normal shaped but there you have it. So....I got sent home with 'script for a blister pack of oral steroids and an inhalter with orders to follow up with my regular Doc which I did this week. Except because of the Benedryl, I can't drive now so the Childrens must come and get the Jeep and the Momma. *insert snore* from the benedry. Slept like a baby!
Which brings me to another recent incident. Last week I was having a great deal of difficulty breathing. Now, I'm prone to asthma/bronchitis/allergy related issues and for the past 3 weeks or so that is what I put the cough and shortness of breath down to. However, it's hard to justify that when you are sitting on you assets at work doing nothing. And it's flippin' hard to ignore the fact that you aren't even moving and you have trouble exhaling without triggering a cough. So Wednesday night I decided that I would call the Doc in the morning. I got an appointment for 1:30 pm and in I went. Figured they would find nothing out of the ordinary, would send me home with a script for an inhaler and be done.
I did not account for a through physician. She listened very carefully to my description of what it felt like, listened carefully to my lungs, took a detailed history and decided that she would send me to the ER for an EKG and a lung xray. Goody. The EKG and 65 million tubes of blood all came back negative (thank goodness), but as I was sitting up on the table after the xray I got a quick glimpse of the picture and did a "which one is not like the other" take. The bottom of my right lung was not there. The left lung had the usual outline of a complete lung but the right one had the bottom neatly sliced off in the xray. Uh oh.....now...obviously I am still here so the bottom of the lung must be there but when the ER Doc came in he said "all the bloodwork and EKG came back normal, but the xray showed a mass in the bottom of your right lung, so the next step is a cat scan". Okee dokee.....I'd never had one of them before so when questioned if I had ever had an allergic reaction to shellfish and answered "yes" they also decided they had better be pro-active, in case I reacted to the iodine based dye, and gave me some Benedryl IV. What wonderful stuf....*thunk* and I'm nearly out like a light. Turns out that my diaphragm on that side is lifted up. They don't know why, all the organs that might be pushing up on it, are where they are supposed to be, look to be normal sized and normal shaped but there you have it. So....I got sent home with 'script for a blister pack of oral steroids and an inhalter with orders to follow up with my regular Doc which I did this week. Except because of the Benedryl, I can't drive now so the Childrens must come and get the Jeep and the Momma. *insert snore* from the benedry. Slept like a baby!
I followed up with my regular Doc this week and since I was feeling MUCH better she decided to take a "wait and see" attitude for a month or so, after extracting a promise from me that if I went downhill again I'd make an appointment immediately. I solemnly promised to do so and got another appointment for the beginning of next month. Anyone else ever have weird stuff like this happen to them?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
