Evening, everyone.
Larry, I'm glad to hear the funeral is over and went well. I know what you mean about packrats. Both my parents were the same and they had stuff like toothpaste that would have lasted another lifetime. My mom just couldn't resist buying what was on sale.
Rex, I figure that that guy must have been way up there on the most wanted list for them to spend that much time searching. We usually gave up after about 45 minutes and went to lunch for the ordinary bad guy. Probably not a good idea to go out armed in a situation like that unless you have a badge hanging around your neck. Did you hear any of the traffic on your scanner? That's your best freind when something like this going on. It sounds like you and the neighbors did a good job keeping track of the thug and helped getting him cornered. I'm glad the officers stopped by to thank you. Most of the bad guys we caught was because citizens went out of their way to help us.
Bob, some cops are a little more nervous than others. It's always hard when you walk up on a situation with two citizens with guns but it sounds like they should have been able to figure out sooner you were the good guy. Still sounds less dangerous than a hot zone LZ though.
Barry, we had a check the welfare call on an old woman who hadn't been heard from in a week. We tried to force our way in but the door was blocked by piles of newspapers. Couldn't see in any of the windows because it was nothing but trash to the ceiling. Had to get the fire department to go in through the attic. It took us about a half hour to find a path through the accumulated trash to where her body lay. She had a heart attack several days before, it was hot, the house had no air conditioning...not one of the better calls I've been on.
There are an amazing amount of really mentally ill people out there.
Matt, how did the races go? I'm sure glad I don't have to keep those black fire trucks waxed! It sounds like they committed an amazing amount of manpower and resources to track down a moose. did they ever catch the thing?
Karl, I remember you saying it was going to take a while to clean out your parent's house. I didn't realize it has already been 18 months. I guess they do win the packrat award for today. It would be kind of nice if all of us had a few nice, uneventful weeks, wouldn't it?
David, you have lots of dope growers up there in the foothills. California has a task force called ASaLT that concentrates on finding pot plantations in the foothills and in coastal counties. The two planes you described are both from that task force. The Cessna is actually owned by the CHP but has the markings removed for the fall harvest season. The black Hughes 500 is from the DEA. We used to work with these guys all the time. There must have been something that looks too green around your place that attracted their attention.
Ken, I hope Vicky is doing better but it will be a while before you're not the main cook and bottle washer.
Losing the income hurts but you can survive that. The main thing is you still have a wife, even if she's malfunctioning right now. I really hated the winters up north and used to get what's now called Seasonal Affective Disorder. It's a real from of depression caused by not enough light and too many hours cooped up in the house. We had two days of sunshine and now it's raining again. It looks like it'll rain or be be cloudy all of next week. All the natives say they've never seen a winter this cold and gloomy. Figures.
I think this bead string I got would work for the heavy telephone cable too. It comes in black in sizes up to 2mm and it will sag realistically or be perfectly straight, depending on how much tension you put on the next pole. It's practically a miracle worker for telephone or telegraph wires. I'm really amazed no one I've ever heard of has tried it.
Jeffrey, I told you that wound sucker was a good thing, even if you do have to drag it around. Your wound should be healed in the next 10 days or so. I hope you don't have to go through this again any time soon.
Chris, those black helicopters are just practicing on you. It's always fun to get the locals riled up and wondering what they've done.
Of course, in your case, you're lucky they don't really know who was that guy yelling "liar" from the back of the Senate that night.
Since this is the day for strange stories, I've got one too. Dianna and I were coming out of a local restaurant the other night. There was a really creepy looking guy in one of those hooded sweatshirts hanging around the sidewalk. He had the hood pulled up so you could barely see his face. He was the type that set my cop instinct to "High". We walk back to the car and I could hear him following us. Our car was parked next to a big SUV where so I couldn't see him for a few seconds. I told Dianna to get in the car and lock the doors. I drew my weapon and held it by the side of my leg. The guy came around the SUV and we were almost face to face. I never raised my weapon but he could see me holding it. He took one look, turned around, and took off at dead run without saying a word. I don't know what his real intentions were but I suspect, at the very least, my wallet would have left with him if I hadn't been armed. This is another one of those case that won't ever make the paper but one where an armed citizen prevented what could have been a violent crime without ever firing a shot.
As I said, it's been raining here again...all day. It's also been windy but at least the temperatures have stayed in the 60's, a lot better than the 30's we had last week. Still, I'm getting sick of the rain and clouds and it looks like we're in for a prolonged bout of it again since we now have a nice zonal flow set up. This means all the storms that will be hammering California will be making it here five days later. No sign of anything severe on the horizon, though, so that's a blessing.
Compared to what the people in Haiti are going through, it's just another day in paradise here. I can't imagine how that situation is going to be bought under control without a lot of US soldiers on the ground. Haiti is lawless on a good day, and things are going to get much worse there without enough force on hand to keep things down to a dull roar. It was tough enough doing rescue work during the San Francisco earthquake but at least we had a functioning government and infrastructure. I've got to give a lot of credit to our USAR teams that are risking their lives to go down there. The rescue work is dangerous enough with worrying about robbed and shot. This is going to be 10 time worse than New Orleans and I hope Obama learned from that and we get a lot of troops there quick.
) I went to the front yard and the neighborhood was full of U.S. Marshalls and Detectives from the Sheriff's department; all in unmarked cars (oddly, I didn't see in city cops). While talking with the neighbor across the street, one of the fellows stopped and explained that they had tried to serve a warrant on a guy about 1/4 mile away and he bolted from them and headed into our area. The fugitive was unarmed and not thought to be dangerous. These officers were everywhere: in and out of backyards, in and around bushes and brush, jumping fences and avoiding nasty dogs, etc. They were not giving up the chase and this part went on for couple of hours.
