Changes

One: I've started adjusting my sleep schedule for the mid-shift. I managed to stay up until 4am thinking I would sleep in... I was at before 8am. It looks like the changes will need some chemical assistance (Red Bull injections for on duty and Tylenol PM to sleep).

Two: I'm a fat ass. I haven't seriously exercised since I got out of the academy. I've found my MP3 player and charged up my Forerunner. I can't let this rain make me puss out.

New Shift

This past week was interesting. We got a huge dumping of snow and since most of us had already switched to summer tires we were hosed. But I spent a good portion of the day sitting on a body that had been dead for at least three days.
The next day I helped look for two knuckleheads lost in a 'baseball field with nothing nearby and the van is stuck'. Turns out the 'baseball field' was a railroad track covered in snow. The crashed through a cemetary, a fence, crossed three railroad tracks, hit and broke a railroad crossing arm, and then proceeded another half mile down the tracks before they got stuck. They were there for 1.5 hours before calling and saying they were lost. We searched every open field we could think of just to find them a stones throw from a hardware store. One kid was wearing shorts and a t-shirt (no shoes or socks, and note the huge snow fall the night before. I pulled up as this kid started running out of the van up the hill towards me. I thought he was running from the other officer. When the other officer didn't seem to concerned I walked over to my vehicle, opened the back door and the kid jumped right in like a well trained dog - He was running for the nearest warm location. Medics transported him and I transported the driver to jail for his path of destruction.
Later in the week I had a 17 YO kid who blew a .221 brac. I took him in on two warrants for Failure to Appear for Minor Consuming and gave him his third Minor Consuming. From contact with him, through the medical clearance, until I dropped him off at the kiddie jail he cussed me out.

I'm moving to mids. I hated mids during FTO so I'm a little nervous about this move. I'm sure it'll be different since I won't have someone sitting in the passenger seat but I know the sleep schedule will kick my ass for a few weeks at least. Once I get use to the schedule I'm sure I'll outlast all my friends at the bar... when they want to tap out at 3am I'll let them know the night is just beginning, laugh maniacally then run out into the street naked... or something.

The Girl Who Tolerates me begins Mids too and we'll have some of the same days off so hopefully we can see more of each other. I figure now that we'll see more of each other it'll be a good tell for our relationship in the long term.

Oh, and today I'm off probation.

Tip - To the civilians II

Kojak's comment about his state's 'Move over law' got me thinking about this state's 'Give A Lane' law. I've only enforced it once or twice so far but it will be on my hit list for now on. In Alaska if a law enforcement officer has someone pulled over on the side of the road and you are approaching from behind you must yield the lane closest to the officer if you are able to do so - ie three lanes of traffic going one direction and the officer is with a person on the right shoulder, you need to move to the left two lanes.
So for now on I when I cover an officer at a traffic stop and he says I can go I'm going to hang back and wait for the first 'Give A Lane' offender... and I know a couple of officers that if I talk with them we can plan it out and just leap frog each other down the highway enforcing this one.

All to avoid this:

Tip - To the civilians

When you finally see that police car behind you with all his lights and sirens on (and I'll be yelling at you from my drivers seat, not that you can hear me above your music) do not stop in the middle of the road. Move to the right... it is highly suggested in 'Laws'. Again, don't stop in the middle of the road, don't move left, don't slow way the fuck down... just move right. If I follow you to the right then stop; otherwise get the fuck out of my way because I have someone important to see. Someone important may include someone deserving of my pair of cuffs, someone injured in a collision, or another officer that wants friends with big guns to help him with the person who deserves his cuffs. MOVE TO THE RIGHT! ITS THE LAW!

Global Warming Stance II

And people wonder why I'm up for Global Warming

Friends

Since I've started this job friends like to send me cop pictures. For instance:

With friends like these who needs enemies?

Time Spent II

After a few sips of that wine I realized it wasn't as good as beer. So I went to the post office then the store (cute cashier wasn't working) and picked up some beer. When I got home I watched lesbian pornThe L Word.

My mom will be so proud if she reads this post. /sarcasm

Time Spent

I spent this afternoon cutting and hauling three truck loads of firewood and stacking it all beside my house. I'm tired and a bit sore now. So I'm debating how to spend the rest of the evening... I thought I could go to the post office and pick up my three DVDs of House from Netflix and while I'm out I could stop by the grocery store to flirt with that cute girl at the register and pick up some beer... Or I can kill the rest of the bottle of wine and watch another episode of The L Word that The Girl Who Tolerates Me left.





I'm such a pussy. Though for scale... I wear an extra large glove.

For those not familiar with The L Word: The Girl Who Tolerates Me made me watch some of it. After the pilot episode I was hooked. It's basically soft-core lesbian porn! There is some plot to it all but so what... there's naked chicks making out on almost every episode (especially the pilot)!

NSFW

More Blogs

There are some new people added to the sidebar.

First up is CrazyRN2be. She's working on becoming an RN (Registered Nurse?), which is better than a CNA (CardioNeuro... Apostle?). Alright, I obviously have no idea how the medical world rank structure works. I need to work on that; I plan to siphon as much knowledge from her blog as I can so I can understand the medical world in the hospital because there are some hot medical women at the hospital I occasionally get dispatched to. I don't even know if they are doctors, nurses or the janitor so I better learn something quick so I can sound at least a tiny bit intelligent.

Also up is The Quest for Valhalla. He's a soldier recently returned from Iraq who is also new to the Cop job. I found him through RMS and I think he's a cousin or something in the blog world. So check it out.

My Global Warming Stance

I saw this on a bumper on the way home this morning. I liked it for two reasons... first it showed the white wash of snow was starting to die down (only for a minute though). Second, I've said many times that I'm not going to worry about Global Warming until they start growing bananas in Alaska.

Tip IV

When you live in a shitty cold place that gets lots of precipitation and an email goes out that the tire shop is now open to change out your winter tires for summer ones on your patrol car, wait until the end of the tire changing period. If you are one of the first to change your tires it will snow again and then you will be fishtailing everywhere, stuck on a road not going anywhere, or completely out of control jumping a median, crossing the oncoming lane, up onto the sidewalk and then into the snow covered grass. Should this happen then pray no one is around, throw it in reverse and get the hell out of there. - I'm not saying it happened to me, but it might, so be careful.

Updates

I made a few updates on the links on the right. A few went away after not updating for a while and some more were added. When I starting blogging cop stuff I was debating if I would include any of the Dispatchers' blogs under the Cops listing. I finally decided 'yes' despite the occasional frustration with them though I'm sure they have a much greater frustration with us. Dispatchers are a constant source of knowledge for me out on the street. They know about the piles of paperwork and some of the forms. Dispatch has also been a great help when I need to research a name, location or vehicle (more information than I can get at my computer). So through the day I try to share a laugh with Dispatch about the calls and I try not to yell at them through an unkeyed mic to often (and never through a keyed mic!). So I have to be nice to Dispatch, because they are the ones that allow for a break so I can go eat lunch.

Thievery

I hate theft reports... I'm not sure why but I just hate them. So it's ticking me off that I've had a few of them in the last few days. Even though you know who took the stuff it is difficult to prove... so I'm suggesting a new way to regulate this issue... give the victim your baton and allow them one strike per $10 in value stolen against the thief.