Killin' Time

I'm sitting in my patrol car behind an abandoned white Chevy car waiting for the tow truck to arrive. My necessary paperwork has been filled out so now I just have to wait for the tow guy. Ho hum!!

It's been exciting day - I'm going on a road trip. In September. I haven't been on vacation in a while and I actually will get one this year because I have a big person's job with benefits and everything. I decided to take off the second week of September. I figure the last traveling rush of summer will be over after Labor Day weekend and all the annoying kiddos will be back in school by then!!! That and Radio Man and mine's 3rd anniversary lands in the middle of the vacation!! Perfect!

Tow truck guys have arrived!! YAH! BAck to work, I go!

Cats and dogs

It's definitely spring time!! It's been raining for two days now! I love it! Everything should start really turning green and all of the flowers should be blooming soon. I love April showers! I'm not a huge fan of working in them but oh well, makes the day interesting. I'm sitting here at 10:47 in the AM, drinking coffee, and watching it rain. Not too shabby of a life!

I had a long day yesterday. It started off right from my parking lot with an abandoned vehicle call. Then I had a stolen vehicle recovery which dragged itself out through most of the day. Collecting and logging evidence is time consuming! I had to swab a syringe found in the vehicle. That was nasty. Gives me the willies just thinking what that person must have looked like and what they did to themselves. After I got done logging the evidence, I had to get right back out on the street because the accidents were rolling in. I didn't get lunch break which makes me a grumpy CSO. I went to two accidents and then had a short break. Then I worked on the report from the stolen vehicle recovery and was sent to an accident with 15 minutes left in my shift. It was pouring rain!! Someone should have issued a small cat and dog warning! I hurried through the accident, er, I was efficient. Then I headed back to PD to turn in my paperwork. I slept very well last night!!

Oh, and I've just decided I need to buy an umbrella - so I can take Brink for a walk when it's raining like this!

The Unlikely Disciple

Kevin Roose writes an entertaining and informative book in the The Unlikely Disciple. As a student at the uber-liberal Brown University, Roose decides to do an experiment with journalistic motivation. He transfers, for one semester, to Liberty University, the uber-conservative Christian college founded by the infamous Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell. The book follows Roose through his semester, from telling his Quaker parents about his plan to attending the funeral of Falwell a week after the semester ends. Its an enlightening book and not in the spiritual sense. Roose shows that putting yourself in another's shoes can open up your eyes to your own narrow mindedness. If anything, The Unlikely Disciple provides an insider's look at a unique university, evangelical culture, and Jerry Falwell himself.

In other news... on to another book. My schedule change has been wonderful. I've been taking morning walks with Brinkley Miles and reading. The work day is a little strange. It's more quiet than normal. I've been given the north end of town as my area so I probably won't see as many accidents per day as I would have had I been given the south. I try to keep myself busy by writing parking tickets to college students who don't understand the logistics of angled parking in a residential area.

Even more news... I have sprouts! I planted some basil seeds a week or so ago. And I have sprouts!! They are little and fragile but they are growing with gusto!! I just need to keep from naming them or I won't be making any fresh pesto!!

Goodbye 5 AM, I will not miss you!

It is a great day! At least the first 45 minutes have been...I don't have to wake up at 5 again for a long time! Last day of training!!! I'm so glad it's here. It's been a long five months since my first day on the job. I may not know everything there is to know, but I have the tools in the toolbox to get me through whatever may come my way.

I'm still incredibly bummed that I only get two days off every week. I'll adjust. It will be nice to know that I can schedule weekends with friends again!

Sigh. I suppose I should get ready for work!

Montana 1948

Sometimes I go to the library and just wander. I'll walk in with no plan at all and walk out with nothing in my hands. I'll browse. I'll go down every aisle, pick up books, flip through them, and put them back. I'm not one to judge a book by its cover. Picking the next book the read is quite the trial. I have to be in the right mood or I'll have heartedly start a book and never finish it. I went to the library a few weeks ago and found this gem - Montana 1948. It was on the Staff Pick shelf. The cover caught my eye, then the brief synopsis on the back. I started it and could hardly put it down. It was a short, quick read, but very powerful. Small town Montana, a young boy, his father the Sheriff, and an uncle who is caught molesting Indian women. It's a book with an underlying moral to the story that is reminiscent of To Killing A Mockingbird or Summer of the Monkeys. I was so impressed with my Staff Pick that I picked up another at the library today. This one is written by a local author and has Colorado/Wyoming as the landscape!

Also on the list of recent library selections is Unlikely Disciple, Eiffel's Tower, and Tallgrass!

Last 3 day weekend!

With all the joy of being done with training and finally being on my own also comes sadness. I'm the low CSO on the totem pole which means that I get stuck with the crummy five day work week schedule. That means this is my last three day weekend for a long time. It's very sad. I've been loving my three days off. It will take some time to adjust to the 12-8 schedule. Hopefully it is a blessing in disguise. I won't have to wake up early!! Brinkley should get morning walks!

Tomorrow is Easter for my family. Too many people were working last Sunday so we're making tomorrow our Easter. It should be fun. Moxon should be old enough to be a blast when it comes to hunting eggs.

Yawn! Long week...ready for bed now. Maybe I'll just call it a day and head that way! Zzzzzz.

A Worm's Word spinoff???

Another day of no work means another day of thinking up random ways to pass the time. One way that keeps coming back is thinking about the future. I like to think about the future. Not because I don't like the present - it's just I think the future is going to be a blast. One day, Radio Man and I will own some land. That's the plan. We'll somehow manage to build a house and then the fun really begins. I get to have chickens. Brinkley Miles gets to have a yard. And Radio Man gets a big workshop and his own radio tower. It really is an idealistic type vision that I have in my head. The vision may not include a white picket fence but it does have a trout pond and a perfectly sized kitchen for entertaining. It's a life that includes city money to pay for a country living. And I think the whole process of Brent and I essentially becoming homesteaders (minus the free land, of course) could be quite entertaining.

I envision myself herding chickens, or being cornered by chickens, while Brent laughs from a rocking chair on our back porch. It all sounds very domestic, but not in the 1950s Donna Reed Show variety. It's a hybrid of the 1870s and today. I won't have to pee in an outhouse, but I'll bake my own bread!

The thought of making our homesteading adventure into a blog crossed my mind. We'll see. The learning process has already started - Radio Man is learning about green building and I've already read up on raising chickens and organizing a root cellar. Bit by bit it will come together. Anywho, like I said, I like thinking about the future. I look forward to the day that I can dip my toes into my own pond or make scrambled eggs from eggs collected from my own hen house.