Wednesday, January 28, 2009

You know, it gets old taking complaints about police, police officers, police departments, police enforcement, police non enforcement, anything related to police that happens, either in our town, local department, or anywhere else for that matter, I have to hear what is wrong with the system. It doesn't matter what it is, I have to hear in a heated tone of voice, what they are doing wrong, what they SHOULD/shouldn't be doing, how they should be doing it/not doing it, when they should/shouldn't, and how they should/shouldn't. Tonight I said I wished I worked at a Circle C so I wouldn't have to take complaints all the time. So, I was told that nothing would be said again against 'your police department'. It just gets old. I don't complain about what mechanics, postmen, or real estate brokers do. I imagine there are scum in all jobs everywhere. I don't complain about carpenters, people who work at GM, or vending machine stockers. I don't complain about trucking companies, teachers, or computer geeks. But, you know what!?! Let anyone in a police department anywhere do anything, and I'm going to hear about it. Don't mistake me, or my intentions. This has nothing to do with right or wrong, did or didn't, or guilt or innocence of police officers/departments/policies. My complaint here is about MY having to take complaints all the time. In my own home! By someone who knows that I have police in my blood, who even helps me collect police things. I used to have to deal with this every time I went to a certain relative's house, until I was 'accosted' at one lunch about how a police chase had gone bad. The tone of the conversation was accusatory. It finally got to me, and I said that I wouldn't begin to try and explain why someone would do what was done any more than I would try to explain why someone went 'postal' and blew away everyone in their post office. That pretty much took care of that house, with some few exceptions lately. I told them that I could only offer what I would/did do in the same situation, not second guess someone elses' motives or good/bad sense. It really steams me. Let someone know that you work at a police department, or that you like police related things, and the first thing that will happen usually is, "Let me tell you what I heard about _________ (Fill in the blank with "police situation, police officer, police department, police policies"). Not good things, just the bad things. I take complaints from the public all day long. Whether or not I am the proper person to take them. I take complaints at home that I try to pass on. I can't even answer right. If I don't take the bait and answer, it just goes on. If I do react and say something it starts an argument. Oh, well. Guess that goes with the territory. I just hate the accusatory, "You oughta' tell them" idea. I think in the future, if anything police related in any way is mentioned, I'll just say, "Ok, whatever you say." Not that this will stop it being accusatory. Whatever.

January 21, 2009

Today was a tough day on a lot of fronts. Can't make everyone happy, and shouldn't try. When you try to do things that you really don't want to do, just to make someone else happy, things backfire. Then when you get fed up, you will say more than what you mean to. OOPS! Best thing to do is when you feel like, "MANNN, I don't want to do that", DON'T! Then you won't have people with hurt feelings because, against your better judgement, and taking time away from things you SHOULD be doing but don't quite have time to do, you agree to do something that is NOT in your best interests! Well, now, if I am asked to do something, or if I read an email that sounds like someone is EXPECTING me to do something for them, and I don't want to, I WON'T! And that is all I'm going to say about that. Grrrrr. This day has to be over soon.

Sunday, January 17, 2009

This morning we went to the grocery store to get some more of the foods I can have on the Weight Watchers eating plan, and like always happens, a little old lady parked her cart on one side of the aisle, then went to the other side of the aisle to look at what she was seeking. She piddled and piddled and piddled, and I did what I normally do, and said to her, as I pushed her cart a little, "I'm just going to move your buggy over just a little", and she went nuts! "No, my cart, my cart", and I said, "Well, you're blocking and my husband is trying to get by". Why do people get so insensitive as to put their cart on the other side of the aisle than the one they are on, instead of the same side of the aisle?!? If she was scared about her purse, then she wouldn't have had her back to her cart, so she was just being a road hog. I have to assume she drives like that, too. It was very irritating. People are really uncaring about how they drive, walk, etc., and it's everywhere.

Yesterday was the Memorial talk for my friend, Carol Battle. It was at the Spanish Kingdom Hall on Winchester Road, and I met Tammy, and her daughter Aubree', and Aubree's friend, Carly Silvernail, and then we drove both vehicles to the Memorial, because she had to go drop the girls off after the service, and then take Arik to work. It was very interesting, because Brother Alton Williams gave the talk, and he said at the outset that he was going to talk in English, then translate in Spanish, because it was at the Spanish Hall, and yet there were so many English speakers there. It was the only Memorial talk I've ever seen where there were about 6 rows down the middle saved for family, then the immediate family and the other relatives came in when the speaker went to the podium, and then they left when the talk was over, and everyone else was asked to stay seated while they left the building, then sere invited to go to a reception at the Richard Showers Center about 5 minutes away where they could visit with the family. It works, but it was different. Tammy and the girls and I sat together. Tammy, Aubree'and Carly are all beautiful. I wasn't able to get pictures like I hoped. I was running late. The neighbor came over just as I was getting dressed, and told me he had a problem, and thought he needed to call the police. He said his wife told him there was a man looking through their fence into the house at her, and it scared her. Now, Angeles is a little tiny girl, and might weigh 100 lbs., soaking wet, and she has 2 year old twin girls, and a year old girl. She is home by herself with those babies all day, and has a reason to be scared. So, he came to ask for help. He said that when he walked back there with his pit bull, the man started saying, "no, no, no", and then asked if the dog bites, and Nahm told him yes. He described the man to me, and I told him to call the police and make a report in case the man came into his yard and got bit, or in case the man came into his house, either way it would be on record that he called, and that the man was unwanted. I told him that last week when I had my police radio on at work, that several officers were looking for a man of the same description, wearing the same red sweatsuit, right behind our house on the next street. So he called, and then handed me the phone, and the 911 operator said since the man was already gone, she would give me the Alternate Response (AR) number, to call and make a report. I told her this wouldn't work, because since he didn't speak very clear English that the officer would likely have trouble understanding him, and that I was going to have to leave shortly for the funeral of one of our Public Safety Aides, and wouldn't be around to translate more than about a half hour. She sent two officers, one of which speaks Spanish, and we got a miscellaneous report made. So, I was running late to the Memorial Talk. I called Tammy to tell her, and she was already at my office waiting for me. So, we had no time to take pictures, and it wasn't appropriate once we got inside. I will have to get pictures later. Tammy and I am going to go to lunch one day this week.

Maybe tomorrow will be better than the last couple of days. I have to do some heavy duty cleaning tomorrow. Did laundry today, and cooked for some of the meals next week. I actually got pretty close to Grandma Bentley's recipe for chicken fried rice. It was GOOD. I am so pleased. It doesn't taste the same, but it reminds me of hers.

Wednesday, January 15, 2009

Ok, now, today was the day scheduled through work to start the weight management class. I was looking forward to it, and got there, signed in, and went back to be weighed (yuck)and have my blood pressure taken. While I was in there with the nurse, a very thin woman came into the room, and reached down, at what I thought was a drawer. She started taking her shoes off! I looked at her and she said, "Oh, I guess it's ok for me to be in here, I won't look at your weight or anything." And I said, "Oh, the way you went past all the people who were waiting in the lobby to come back here, I just assumed you were a nurse!" She said, "Oh, are they here for the same thing?" And I said, "Yes, why? Didn't you sign in?" And she said she didn't think she had to, and that she hoped it would be ok, because she was supposed to be in the 12:00 class, but she was in a hurry. That got all over me. We did what we were supposed to, got there before our 11:00 class, and waited, and little butt came waltzing in there, like she owned the place and like no one would mind that she felt she was more important. She turned to the nurse and said, she was hoping she could go ahead since she was there, and the nurse said, "I don't know, I have only been here 3 days." So, naturally, Ms. I-Am-More-Important, went ahead, and don't you know, she left by a side door, not the lobby. When I went back and sat down, someone said something about her, and I told them what I had said. 2 different women in the group said that she needed to take her little toothpick butt and get gone. I couldn't believe the b*&^s on her! I didn't even say what all I wanted to. When I have been in line with people standing behind me somewhere, and some Busier-and-more-important-than-you has sidled up and said, "You don't mind if I go ahead of you, do you, I'm in a hurry", I have been known to say, "No, I don't mind, but some of the people waiting their turn might, so you need to get a signed note from all of them, and then I will let you in front." I have also stopped someone who just cut in and loudly told them, "Excuse me, I know you didn't cut in front of all of us busy people on purpose, but the end of the line is back there!" I get really ill at bad mannered, ill brought up people. Oh, well. Enough of that. The class was great, and taught by one of our City Nurses. His name is Dennis, and we had to choose a name for our group, and someone suggested The Achievers, and I thought, oh, yeah! It sounds like a singing group, Dennis and The Achievers. We all had to tell everyone what we had for breakfast, tell what and why our goals, and set an action plan. I went home from work and joined Weight Watchers again. I joined in June, and in 2 months had lost 20 pounds, but then went to help my daughter when the baby was due, and then we had the hurricane, and had to stay at a relative's house with 17 people, so we pooled foods that were likely to spoil, then back to the hospital, and lots of eating whatever whenever, and I got off of it. I still am under what my beginning weight was when I started in June, but it is edging up there. I'm tired of being tired, I'm tired of not getting admiring looks, I'm tired of feeling like I'm ten years older than I am. I want to wear clothes that DON'T look my age, I want to be healthy and with some energy again. So, for my action plan, to be sensible, I said that the first week, I want to completely cut out added sugar and processed sugar. That is doable, done it before, and can do it again. I am pumped for this! I want to feel like going to see my older granddaughter dance in June, I want to play with the younger, and most of all, I don't want to have a massive heart attack and die, like a friend of mine did this past week. I went to work on Friday, and one of my co-workers, who is a Sgt. was crying. I knew something horrible had happened, because this Sgt. is Susy Sunshine normally. She pulled my arm and told me to follow her, and we went to her office. I asked what was wrong, and she still had my arm, and told me my friend had died. A cold chill went all over me, and I had to grab the desk and lean over. I got upset, and honestly felt like I had to hold on to the desk for support. This friend was 4 years younger than me. She was 50. This friend had been heavy and lost a great deal of weight through stress of taking care of an aging father, adding a room on her house for him, taking care of a husband and a 12 year old daughter, and working. Recently they had to put Dad in a nursing home because of his health. She had lost the weight without surgery, and appeared to be in very good health now. But, I think, and from things that I have been told since, and her family thinks, that her body was just worn out. The heart attack that killed her woke up her husband at about 5am, and now, Saturday I have to go to her funeral, along with my cousin and her daughter. I will be very glad to have their company. We will be surrounded by friends, and she is in Jehovah's memory, and just resting now, but it is still very sad, and very sobering. Makes it just a little easier for me to leave off the junk food, and get just a little more sleep. People who say, "Hard work never killed anyone" don't know 'that of which they speak'. I guess it be said that it depends on what kind of hard work, and what else you have going on.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Today I went to an Excel class, part 1, to learn how to use the Microsoft program to do spreadsheets, etc., and I was actually excited because the teacher taught exactly what I was hoping. Right now I'm wolfing down my lunch of split pea soup, crackers, club soda, orange, and Poptart, so I can get started playing with the Excel program on a report that I have due shortly.
I know that sounds geeky, to be excited about a computer program, but I have been adding all the figures on an adding machine, and multiplying the officer's normal pay rate to get their overtime rate, then multiplying by the number of overtime hours they worked, and doing this for the whole division every month. 57 Officers in the Division, getting overtime every week (some, not all of them every week), keeping track for each week, and getting a report ready by the middle of the following month for the Commander's meeting. Now, I can use formulas to do what I have been doing by manually. Now, I know this is old hat, and I should have already taken this class, however circumstances didn't allow. So, I am excited.

I have to rant and rave a little bit. This morning on the way to work I was met by several cars with their lights off in the rain. Now, in the State of Alabama it is mandatory for cars to have headlights on in the rain. Let's digress a little and back up. When I was policing, I stopped a young person who didn't have their lights on and it was getting dark. When I pointed out their lights weren't on, I was told, 'well, the law says a half hour after sunset lights go on, and a half hour before dawn they go off'. I asked the young person if they realized that the idea wasn't for them to be able to see, but for the driver who needed to see them. They hadn't thought about THAT. I didn't call this person a moron, but wanted to. People don't realize that they set themselves up for a lawsuit at the worst, and inconvenience at the best, when they insist on their 'rights' under law to interpret the laws, and especially traffic laws under their own understanding. Ironically enough, and I haven't figured this out yet, the worst offenders are the ones in a gray/taupe/champagne/silver car, on a rainsoaked silver road, in cloudy silver weather, and they don't realize that if they can't be seen, they are likely at fault, and especially if they are breaking the law. If I choose not to put my lights on, and my taupe car is involved in a wreck which would at any other time be the fault of the person who hit me, by my breaking the one law of not having lights on, I may have just changed the fault to mine due to road and weather conditions. People like to quote the normal, like for instance, 'you hit me in the rear; it's your fault', but that is not a guarantee. If you are driving at dusk, in the rain, in a neutral color car, with your lights off, and I don't see you, this is considered your fault. We had a situation here recently with a motorcyclist who hit the driver's side door of a woman who pulled out in front of him and he was killed instantly. It was his fault. Reason: It was dark, he was doing a wheelie right at the time she chose to pull out of a side street, because she didn't see him. It wasn't her fault she didn't see an unlit object after dark. He had his headlight on, but being pointed straight up in the air didn't count. The thing that saved her, and possibly the thing that cause him to show off like that was that there were a number of people exiting a ball stadium right when it happened and this collision was witnessed by several people who witnessed it and gave their statement to the police officers. Ok, now I will stop my ranting about people who don't really care to do the spirit of the law.

Izzy, the Rat Terrier

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Well, today is Saturday, and I have a lot to do, but decided that first and foremost, I would color my hair. I've been trying not to, because I got so many comments from the ladies at work about how good the gray looks through the blonde. Sometimes I think it looks good, and sometimes I think it makes me look tired. This morning, it made me look tired. I am going with the lightest color I could find, because I want to let it look as natural as possible. I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms, but then when it is done, I will streak it with lowlights. This is something my daughter used to do to my hair, and I really liked the way it looked. It grew back in much more natural looking. Ok, well, now that the color is washed out, I have to wait until it drip dries a little bit more so that I can blow dry and see if I screwed it up. Now I'm listening to Izzy the rat terrier being jealous and whining. She is the most jealous dog I've ever seen. She is Butch's dog, no doubt about that, and she is fine according to him when I am gone, but when I am here, she is vying for each of us to pay attention to her. If we are both doing our own thing, and not paying attention to her, she can't stand it. She has decided just now to go to sleep to ignore us. Her half-hour of whining didn't get her anywhere, and now she is just napping. Yesterday when the same thing happened, and she napped, she started having doggie nightmares, and was twitching and semi-whining, semi-yipping at the same time. We have thought about getting either a kitten or a puppy for her to 'mother' to see if that would help the jealousy, however it might backfire, and she wouldn't let us near it. So, lots to think about. She is a funny dog, and can jump straight in the air 3-4 feet, which is great for frisbee whenever one of us can humor her. But, one of my resolutions is to take her for a walk 3 times a week, and that means a run her until she is ready to drop. I guess today will be the first day. I'm getting anxious about my hair now, and will go blow dry it. We'll see what we'll see.