Back to the Rat-Race

After four great days in "endless summer" So CA, the party is over. Back to work. See below for any forthcoming details. Bummer. Yuck.

http://soswift.blogspot.com/

Soapbox video - day late Thurzday Thotz

http://info.org.il/irrelevant/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf

The good, the bad & the ugly

The Good - free barbecue! Windmill & Pollock if you want it. The Bad - illegals hiding from my camera, waiting for day labor at jobs. (I wouldn't be surprised to see legal-gringos doing this same thing soon.)

The Ugly. Test drive an old truck for sale & have it break down. (No, he didn't want my help pushing it out of traffic.)

I said very little, as 'a picture is worth a thousand words'...but you could supply a comment applicable to any photo above and I'm sure it will work (as long as no butterflies are involved).

Wardrobe malfunction

Maybe I shouldn't say anything. After all, no one will know. But I will, I can't let it go and allow the women to have all the fun in the blog world. (two different shoes sound familiar?) In my haste this morning, and my hung-over feeling from this cough/allergy/cold bug, while in our, dark, scary walk-in closet, I put on my unmentionables this morning - backwards. I thought they felt a little different, but, old age and me have grown accustomed to different feelings every now and then and I wasn't concerned. Only while standing up against a porcelain wall object a few hours later, did I discover this malady. Quandary quickly solved though ~ with age also comes patience and problem solving abilities generation X'ers won't enjoy for a few years yet. I wonder what those knights in armour had to do?

Why I like golf in Southern Utah

The red hills, blue skies, the mixture of man-made and natural beauty creates the serenity only found on a golf course.

Gorgeous views, clean air, no graffiti, no sirens, no barking dogs and the cell phone stays in the cart to be used only for emergencies or order pizza :)

Taking in the views waiting my turn.

Stay out of the water, get over the sand and hope for the best. But it's still a nice setting.

Above ~ gotta make it over the ravine, both directions (can't see it, there's a cart bridge over this) and I get to wear the latest golf fashions and spend time with good friends ~ below.G.O.L.F. is erroneously thought to stand for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden. Like most modern words, the word "golf" derives from older languages and dialects. Golf comes from medieval Dutch and old Scots. The medieval Dutch word "kolf" or "kolve" meant "club." It is believed that word passed to the Scots, whose old Scots dialect transformed the word into "golve," "gowl" or "gouf." By the 16th Century, the word "golf" had emerged. Thanks for the lessons, Carol, now I'm hooked . . . . . . .

On Father's Day

This grouping of haphazardly taped together pictures of our four perfect young'ns, is shown exactly as the way they have been taped to the inside door of no less than four of my lockers (while at Metro at different stations) and now on the inside of my medicine cabinet. Since I can't go back in time, I have been able to see them perpetually in the simpler stages of our lives - both mine and theirs. I can see them everyday just as they once were: lovable, agreeable, able to get on the floor and wrestle with, attend daddy-daughter or father & son events, homemade father's day cards, graduations, driving instructions, semi-ornery teen years, and IRS tax deductions. No rhyme or reason for the way I'd taped them together; I can vaguely remember doing it. Without them even knowing it, they've always been a part of my police-life, both before shift while putting on the uniform and at the end of shift, changing back into "street clothes."

No comment on the hair styles. . . oops, I already did. You can't see it, but Jason had a tail.

Then the piano protege', although we didn't know it then. The spoiled, last baby of the house.

For ME, it's part of what being a dad is all about; the love of my kids and desire for their health, happiness and successes in their own lives! I wanted to be a better dad to them than my dad was to me ~ this is probably true of most dads, it's not a slam to my dad. These pictures also represent my legacy, and thousands of events and memories to include, but far from inclusive: watching them sleep at night when I got home from work, fishing trips without catching any, Disneyland & beach trips, traffic tickets, minor car accidents, taking driving privileges away, broken bones, removing a bedroom door to cure door slamming, surgeries, prom nights, calls with flat tires, a missionary send off, wedding dances, grand babies and son-in-laws.

True irony: By the time I figured out my dad wasn't always wrong, I had kids of my own thinking I was. Happy Father's Day to me. Thanks, Carol :)

Two unrelated topics

1. Will we ever find Osama?...alive - We already have an Obama. (not that I see any similarities in these two) Can you imagine the media getting tongue twisted discussing these two? Note: In 2006, the CIA announced that its task force on locating Osama bin Laden and bringing him to justice has been formally disbanded. W H A T ? ?

2. Treadmill, stationary bike or StairMaster? ... or other?

Thurzdays Thotz

Any Tom, Dick or Harry can display a business sign. Why would anyone call this number and expect quality work? ~ carpet cleaning: $8 P.R. (per room)
This guy (below) gave me a business card with twelve different trades listed. No, not even a business license. He is an ex-New Yorker and said it was "entrapment" when I asked him for his business card. I told the driver of this gas delivery truck I thought the, This Driver Carries No Money disclaimer was strange. He agreed, and added it should read: "This driver is married, he has no money."

*Maybe I need to be in the sign business. . . . . .

If you look real close . . .

. . . you can see Bruster looking out the window at me. (take my word for it - the parted vertical blinds are caused by him) He's not in the Norman Bates Psycho Mansion like Buzz in Carol's blog, but he's there. FYI, I only wanted to take a picture of the lillies I planted several years ago and only bloom like this maybe one month out of the entire year...must be too hot here. "Lilly of the Nile" are the blue ones, the orange ones are "Orange Day Lilly." Disclaimer: this is still a man-blog :-) . . . this is horticultural stuff.

Illegal immigration & the economy

Saw these two tidbits today and thought I'd share them.

The latest telephone poll taken by the California Governor's office asked whether people who live in California think illegal immigration is a serious problem:
29 % of respondents answered: "Yes, it is a serious problem."
71% of respondents answered: "No es una problema seriosa."

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Extended Birthday spot light of Jason

I wanted to do my own post for Jason's Birthday but didn't have any photos like Carol does. (she's a good mom.) So today, I stopped in where he used to work, back when he still lived in Vegas and we'd see him often...and I saw these pictures on their bulletin board. He reminds me so much of my dad when I look at pictures of him. Something must be true about genetics, although, he seems to be much happier than dad, but the looks continue on... like the Mechams, Barkers, Faughts, Kennedys', Clintons, etc etc.....
He always had a knack for having friends and hope he continues to do so.

These pictures are a few reasons

why we live in HOA/CCR community. Photos below speak for themselves. If your home is one, oops, sorry.

"Honey, are you sure the color chart looked like this?"
Everyone needs dinosaurs in their front yard...

and you can't sell the old vehicles that have such fond memories of . . .

and why would anyone want to control the Bermuda grass ??.

and here is Bonnie & Clyde's car mixed in with red-neck, front-yard-day-care....

This last one must be homeowner who is a frustrated artist with access to leftover material from various job sites he works at. . . He has to be single!

I've seen worse examples, but the puke green house and this last one have been buggin' me. The others I just found while at work and threw them in here.

Thurzday's Thotz

Not to bemuse Flashback Fridays (which I enjoy and is utilized quite effectively by a few great bloggers) I felt the need to cover Thursdays. Hence: Thurzday's Thotz. note ~ after writing this first draft, I decided to google "Thursday's Thoughts" and found it has been taken; already thought of, used by another, as in: "this saying's taken, nyaa nyaaa nyaa nyaa nyaaa nyaaaaa." (If I change the spelling is it plagiarism?) Well, I'll use it for at least for this Thursday, anyway, don't know if I'll continue.
We, (and I include myself) as a society, have become communication connected addicts. Driving around town I see four out of five drivers on their cell phones. (or some are talking to themselves if I don't see a Blue Tooth). I see pedestrians and even kids on skateboards gabbing away. Distractions abound. I wonder how many folks on the other end of their conversations hear the tire skidding, breaking glass, a thunk of metal against body and last words: "Oh, craaaaaap!" One can't stand in line ordering a Rubio's Fish taco without hearing anothers cell phone conversation. More than once I thought someone was talking to me while shopping in Von's, stopping the words of reply from coming out of my mouth just in the nick of time. Heres a thought: as texting gets easier I hope to hear less of these annoying conversations. I'd just rather the drivers don't text while they drive. (did you know the word texting isn't even in spell check yet it's so new?) Why can't Oprah do a show on cell-phone-etiquette? Look what she did for KFC!!

Oh No! Another reason to lose sleep.

Because of this blog (see below) which gave us the terrible news of the closing of yet another local, specialized eatery in our community, I thought I'd seek one of these thing-a-ma-jigs that made it so popular. (umm, if it was so cool, why did it close?) I know Carol and I had been given at least one of these as a wedding gift, but dang if I can find it. I know we never used it but held on to it for all these years, "just in case" but its location remains a mystery. I hate it when that happens.

If you have an unused one and are willing to part with it, a new home or place of storage for it may be available... serious inquiries only please. http://dallachi.blogspot.com/

Anything is possible

with a doughnut in each hand.

Friendly's Doughnuts in Henderson - map above - are best in the valley!

Then there's these two ~ too greasy or too dry, but are still yummy under the right circumstances.

And who can forget Winchell's? The place for cops in the 70's & 80's.

Breakfast: Lunch:

Dinner:
"Okay, boys, let's go to work."

Anyone hungry yet? (not recommended for those on a diet, high cholesterol, dental problems, diabetes, work in an office, don't wear a cop uniform, are concerned with their health, can't eat and drive at the same time, who live near the beach, or are pregnant or are nursing or are on heart medication.)

To blog or not to blog

With the recent passing anniversaries of two noteworthy events in world history, my thoughts went to how easily and effortlessly we blog, twitter, e-mail, correspond, etc and openly put our personal thoughts out there for the world to see. (Well, okay, no one in Budapest is gonna read my blog, but you get my meaning.) I’m talking of D-day, June 6, 1944 during WWII and the famous standoff in Tienanmen Square in 1989. When those 150,000 men stormed Normandy beaches on D-Day under insurmountable odds, and when those thousands of Chinese stood their ground on Tienanmen Square in defiance of their country’s censorship, besides being scared of the unknown, I wonder if any of them shared the same thoughts to the real meanings of their actions? At Normandy, no doubt, most of them thought merely of survival and maybe believed what they were doing was a beginning of the end to war. They were following orders. I have no idea what that lone man thought as he stood his ground in front of tanks in Tienanmen Square, an inspiration to others, hundreds of who were massacred or jailed for their beliefs. Even Cyberspace censorship by the government was imposed, we only know a portion of it all. They were following their consciences driven by hope and desire. Twenty years later they still live under scrutiny and censorship, lives I can’t imagine living, lifestyles and freedoms we take for granted. Since D-Day, some 65 years later, our freedom continues; we’re not speaking German or Russian, and we relish, and some even abuse, the First Amendment.
These two events, being approx fifty years apart, have the same meaning to me: determination and fortitude of the human spirit. My time in Vietnam was selfish. Initially, I wanted to go thinking I was saving democracy. Later when reality set in, I merely wanted to make it back to “the world” as we called it then, and enjoy freedoms and a lifestyle I had taken for granted. I was too young to grasp the reality of it. I just wanted to drive my car anywhere I wanted, eat a hamburger, have a coke with ice in it and live a life full of tomorrows and put this third-world county experience behind me.
The contrast and outcome of these two events cause me to reflect and get on my soapbox, on how easily we blog without fear of retaliation or prosecution, how great our country really is and how some choose not to use this freedom of expression. But, we still have the choice. I can go on about the LDS persecution in the early days of the Church, but that’s a whole different topic. Likewise with personal marriage rights of individuals. I just wanted to rant about our freedom of speech & its formats.
I watched parts of "Saving Private Ryan" the other night, specifically the heart-tugging & thought provoking end. (I’d seen the entire movie a few times before) In the movie, Tom Hanks (who plays the captain), told Private Ryan, “make it count,” referring to his life being saved and the sacrifices and deaths of those who found him and removed him from the war zone. I thought of my life, my family, my career, my fellow bloggers. I thought of Normandy, Tienanmen Square and the countless other countries in the world today who don’t enjoy our freedoms. (tune your imagination to hearing The Battle Hymn of the Republic being played )
We may not all agree with the state of our country but we all agree we have the right to voice our opinions about it. I can't imagine Cyberspace censorship in the USA!!
Blog on, fellow bloggers!

My bucket-list (partial)

In no particular order of importance and not inclusive. . . .

1. Obtain a masters degree in wife-psychology.
2. Hit a hole-in-one.
3. Bicycle across New England in the fall.
4. Be a stunt man in an action adventure movie.
5. Be a philanthropist/create a charity foundation.
6. Attend a New England Patriot’s game.
7. Carol & I take just our grandchildren to Disneyland and the beach.
8. Hang-glide & Sky dive.
9. Ride a unicycle.
10. Publish my book.

Alternate and just as unrealistic, quasi-attainable aspirations :)

11. Be the nice guy Carol’s dogs think I am.
12. Personally, locate Osama Bin Laden.
13. Host and cook a gourmet barbecue dinner.

14. End world hunger, genocide and traffic jams on I-15.

15. Add to this list as prompted.

16. Collect retirement longer than I paid into it.

I realize some of these are unrealistic, but then again, so is life itself sometimes. I kept this list short on purpose as I've seen more years than I will yet see. . .

Save your marriage for $39.95

We all know marriage is no game. Knowing what our partner will say what he/she thinks you'll say is not always easy. But, fortunately, there's no guessing when it comes to protecting your vehicle from theft. Kim G's loss and subsequent blog shows us how vulnerable we all are. I've lost track of the number of stolen cars I'd recovered in my career, sometimes drivable, sometimes not. One good one was when a guy left the keys in the ignition (with engine running) of his classic Cadillac De Ville parked in front of the 7/11 at Maryland Pkwy and Karen. It was never a nice neighborhood that I can remember, but common sense was lacking on his part! Typical job security. He saw it speeding away, called it in and I was one of two cops who were lucky enough to be nearby, and after a short pursuit the driver crashed it into a power pole in an alley off Sierra Vista and Cambridge (another ghetto). I drove back to pick him up a the 7/11 so he can retrieve his car...badly damaged, but drivable. I remember him cussing out the scum bag who took it and in the same breath wondering how he'd tell his wife how it happened!

It could have been worse as I'd found several like this one below. Or, wheels and parts missing.

I never took a stolen car report when an anti theft device was used; like dead bolts on front doors; they're only good if used. Some were just "joy-ridden" and left trash, dirty and missing all the c.d.'s, personal property, tools, check books, coins in the ash tray, etc. At one point the judges became reluctant to severely punish stolen car offenders if they didn't take the car with intent to permanently deprive the owner of it! Hence, a lesser degree of auto theft was added to our state's thousands of laws. I had a few who'd "cold plated" the stolen car... does this show enough intent Your Honor?!! Not always. Oddly enough, my last pursuit before I retired was a stolen Cadillac where it was left running in a home's driveway, to warm up on a cold morning. I found it and followed which soon turned into a pursuit. As he made the right turn at I-95 to Salt Lake City, the driver lost control, skidding sideways. I thought of ramming him, but knew I had too many witnesses. He took advantage of this and drove over the curb, down the hill and crashed the fence in the drainage ditch just missing the homeless, and continued onto the streets below. (where only four-wheeled trucks should go) Other units intercepted it near Jackson and F street and he abandoned it, getting out to run on foot. I ended up following him as he ran down a street yelling, "Look, the white poleeeece are gonna shoot this n_ _ _ _ _ !" I got a conviction in court months later when it was learned he was certified an adult on a prior stolen car arrest. He was 18 when I arrested him. The Cadillac had front end damage, steam bellowing out from the engine area and had two flat tires.

Anyway, anti-theft devices: I used to use one, I think it's in the garage, somewhere. . . . used it when my 4X4 Toyota was new. Hmmm. Anyone believe in Karma? Hope not. Let's hope since school is out, some rambunctious youngn's will not be too bored. Majority of crime is committed by the male, ages between 16 and 26. Disclaimer: no referral to RM's boys :)

Let's be safe out there fellow bloggers and please comment if you have any crime awareness/prevention tips. I could go on and on and on and on.