Park memories - beyond the obvious

Here we have an average looking neighborhood park, Essex Circle Park. Notice the curb is painted red. The red curb has story behind it, a history of violence, narcotics, and other normal teen/young adult debauchery.


I was on a police squad that this park was within our jurisdictional patrol responsibilities. In the late 1970's, it became a problem. Calls for service were increasing each month, at and around the surrounding neighborhood. Calls from citizens fed up with teenagers run-amok. After school the park filled up. The trees on the left were smaller then, and it wasn't uncommon for me to find baggies of dope in the lower branches or around the roots covered in a feeble attempt of hiding with grass & dirt. I'd find young adults nearby and usually find the associated paraphernalia on them. I made it a point to patrol this park often during my shift in an attempt to curb the events that cause the neighbors to call and complain. (I arrested one guy three times in one week there once, but that's another story.) Plus, these calls were a nuisance to us. We'd have to leave Winchells' Donuts sometimes to respond here. :-)


Our squad was given the task of cleaning up the neighborhood and see how we can lessen the calls for service. Since most of the dopers, burglars, low lifes we found at the park lived elsewhere, I came up with the idea to paint the curb red....no parking. We passed on our request to the City Public Works Dept who obliged us fairly quickly. (a week or two at the most as I recall) Viola! It worked. Calls for service went down to "normal" for a residential neighborhood.


One of my hardest one-on-one arrests was with a guy in Essex Cir Park. I saw a guy in the center of the park with several bags of dope on the grass in front of him, he was laying them out as if taking inventory, and then methodically putting them inside his coat pockets. He saw me as I approached and tried grabbing it all at once and avoid me. He knew I was there but he didn't respond to my verbal commands, as if he ignored me, I'd go away. I kept trying to get him into handcuffs, keeping him on the ground, (me on top of him, he on his stomach) and he kept trying to hit me, get away from me and throw his dope away all at the same time. (he was so high, he was in another world) When he pulled out the hunting knife, it got serious. I used my baton on him, but it didn't phase him, but I did get the knife away and tossed it out of reach. We both struggled until I got cuffs on him...but hands in front of him. I was winded and thankful I got cuffs on him, drug him over to my car, stood on his cuffed hands and reached into the car and grabbed the radio mike. (I'd driven over the curb and onto the grass between others knowing if I got out an walked to him from the street, he'd run and I hated foot pursuits.) After help arrived, three of us got his hand behind his back with cuffs, the proper way. He was high on PCP. No wonder my hits didn't hurt him.

As an added note, while I was on the ground with this guy, a park local walked over and calmly laid down on his side, resting his head on his hand, elbow in the grass and watched. I called him by name and asked him for a little help. I knew he wouldn't but was desperate. After the three of us got my bad guy in the patrol car I turned to Chuck Z, (one of the cops who helped) and said to arrest him...referring to the doper who laid down and watched. Charge: failure to assist an officer - under the Posse commitatus statute(sp? ~ it’s Latin).

How I spent my birthday

A friend of mine who lives in Mesquite, NV had booked us a tee time at the Casa Blanca Golf Course for 3/23. (you can see part of it from I-15 on the way into Mesquite) We'd been talking of playing someday for a few years now. It was my birthday and had off from work, so we made plans. Sadly, he couldn't make it but found two others to join us to make it fun foursome. It was really fun; it helped that it was free. . . comp. This picture is Mark and me on the first tee. The sun was behind us, which explains the poor iPhone quality. We got a late start due to early morning frost that delayed those in front of us. Our 7:50 tee time ended up being more like 8:45. But who could be mad when it's free? (Tracey said we make a cute couple. . .) Later that night my honey took me to the Outback where I enjoyed steak and lobster. Linda and Mark joined us. I had to share my birthday ice cream sundae. Not a bad thing.

All and all a good birthday. I wondered what makes a good birthday? It's not the presents, it's not breakfast in bed and certainly not being toasted at some bar (as in my single younger years) or having restaurant employees sing and clap a stupid happy birthday song to me; I feel it's knowing I'm still alive and have a family and wife that loves me for who I am, even with all my faults and the hard of hearing us old men get. . . I read this somewhere: Having birthdays is the only way I know of living longer.

Corpses, carcasses, stiffs or dead bodies… code 419 for Dead Body.

They’re all the same thing; sometimes smelly sometimes not so, as with a more recently deceased human being, which is a sad thing when you think about it. But it’s a fact of life, and by statute, all dead bodies are investigated by law enforcement. That would have been me between 1974 & 2003. Before this, I’d never seen a dead body. By request from a loyal reader (EM) I’ve dug into my memory bank (actually, some of this may be already in written format) and came up with a few that are etched in my mind of the many dead-body calls I went on as a cop. I lost track of them. My first was an older man in a small travel trailer in a run down, old mobile home park on Boulder Highway. More dirt and wild Bermuda grass than lawns. Dirty, bent up garbage cans and junk cars lined the old paved street. I was a rookie cop, not even any academy experience yet. My training office told me to go inside, see what I could determine without touching anything then report back outside to him. He sat in the air-conditioned patrol car. The odor was apparent from outside the trailer, the flies on the inside of the screen door should have given me a clue how bad he was. The park manager hadn’t seen the guy in a few days. It was August. Got a visual yet? Let me help. I took a deep breath in anticipation of a short stay once I got inside. The guy was in his boxers and tee shirt, on his side, overweight and looked to me like he dropped straight to the floor, wedging himself in the small space between the wooden paneled walls of a mini hallway, a very uncomfortable position. I didn’t see any knives sticking out of him or bullet holes in him and quickly backed out, let out the old air and took in fresh. I told my T/O what saw. He told me to go back inside and get a better look. Look for lividity, make sure it’s on the bottom part of his body. Lividity? New to me… so I went back in, cupped my hand over my mouth and nose (which didn’t really fool my nose) and stepped over the body to see his back side. I reached down and barely moved his tee shirt, and yup, his skin was dark purple all along the lower part of his side nearest the floor. He hadn’t been moved since dying, the blood settling along his side by gravity, better known as lividity. Flies walked all over him as if in search of something important. He died where he fell. I was just short of gagging and went back out to report what I’d seen. We awaited the mortuary and coroner. The mortuary guys (think of Lurch) had to really struggle to straighten him out do to rigor mortis and his weight to get him on the gurney and strapped on. I realized that was a job I could never do. The coroner guessed heart attack, but I never knew for sure. We determined he died of natural causes and cleared ready for the next call. Simple as that. I had a brief lesson from my T/O on 419’s. I lost some of my rookie-ness.
There many other dead bodies all in various degrees of decomposition, smell and condition, both male and female. Some suicides with brain matter and blood splatters, a few carbon monoxide poisoning sitting in their car, some homicide victims – gun shot was most prevalent and a few accidental deaths to include, one industrial accident where the victim was run over by the front end loader he had been operating at the gravel pit alone, after hours, so we could only speculate what caused him to be in front of it when it bent him in half like a Raggedy Ann doll and disfiguring his skull shape. One of the worst; a 5 yr old girl hit by a car who appeared to be just sleeping in the street, a most unusual place, surreal in every aspect. I remember thinking of my little girls at home.
After a few years the shock of seeing a dead body lessened, but not the morbid sense of wanting to investigate and see all I could, not so much playing Joe Friday but helping ensure I wasn’t missing something obvious. I had to determine if it was suspicious in nature before I called the coroner or the detectives, normally, I didn’t call them both. Once I called the coroner only to quickly recant and call for paramedics. The guy only looked dead and was still alive; barely. I’d jumped to conclusions forgetting my lesson from my first dead body… But he smelled bad but not from rotting. No details here, but it was kind of funny at the time… cop humor. Just picture a guy in a bathtub full of putrid reddish brown water who had been in it for several days.
Okay, enough. Hope I can sleep tonight.

Can you eat chicken frozen for two years?

Yes, you can safely eat chicken that's been in the freezer for two years. (without saying, lets hope this freezer is still running...) it just may be a little dry and not as flavorful.

Also, you can also freeze pancakes for later use, something I knew but don't do.... Just arrange the pancakes between layers of wax paper, tightly wrap in aluminum foil or freezer bag. Reheat in microwave, uncovered, for 1 to 1 1/2 mins or until heated through.

All this and more at www.stilltasty.com/. Visit the site as there's numerous questions you may have that are answered for you; such as:

How long can you keep thawed ground beef? (Duh, until it has the odor of a corpse found after three days inside a house or vehicle isn't the answer; an odor I've experienced and cannot forget.) Do we have to refrigerate ketchup and mustard once opened? Is bottled water safe to drink after the expiration date? (I knew this! I knew this!) How to tell if a watermelon is ripe? (I thought I knew this; "thunking" isn't mentioned)

Bon apetite, all.

Just for kicks - update on life

As I hadn't blogged awhile (I'm no match for those who blog religiously) so I thought I'd just put down random events to let the world know I'm alive. For instance, I write this while in the spare room, both dogs with me as Carol has two monkey boys with her for the night. We "boys" enjoyed popcorn, TV and blocks earlier, so I had my time. Starbucks trip in the morning for choc milk cartons and donuts, yep, healthy breakfast for any grand kid. :-)
I was feeling pretty good about work the last few weeks; had some extra ordinary sucess locating and identifying some unscrupulous, low-life, scum-of-the-earth unlicensed contractors and filing case(s) on them or giving them citations, filed two felony cases on a licensed pool company who lost their license but had commited numerous criminal acts in the process, dealt successfully with two Armenian groups - one the victim one the perps (I didn't trust either), spent a long day in court to finally testify and win a case, had a week long Interview and Interrogation class - did well at that, but not as good as the guy on "Lie to me" TV show, received a positive email from one victim for my prompt solving of her case - later had her $2362 back in an envelope left for me with no return address on it, and scored my best golf round ever last weekend! . . then, a coworker who has been less productive than he should have been, gave his two week notice to quit. I was down to 8 active cases. (they are distributed evenly as the come in) I acquired 12 of his after they were divided up... I just don't understand the lack of work ethic of some people. Or is it me? Am I too driven? I felt like a blood hound yesterday, acquiring new information on two of these new cases while out of the office and just want them resolved.
On the plus side, I was asked today by an acquaintance for my phone number and suggested we play golf sometime. He said he thinks he would enjoy our time together. (this guy is battling cancer, we are similar in age, he was an USAF pilot) Some good news, Mark and I are already scheduled for Boulder Creek golf 2/17/11....11 AM tee time for $10 cheaper rate.

Eye floaters, runny noses, roaches and bananas

Since I haven't blogged recently I thought I'd provide some interesting facts:
Like, what causes “eye floaters”. For those who’ve never experienced this phenomenon, eye floaters are little oddly shaped objects that appear in your vision, often when one looks at bright light such as a blue sky. These are not optical illusions, but rather something your eyes are actually perceiving. In most cases these eye floaters are caused by pieces of the gel-like vitreous breaking off from the back portion of your eye and then floating about in your eye ball. As you age then, pieces of the still gel-like collagen/hyaluronic acid network will break off and float around in this watery center. When light passes through this area, it creates a shadow on your retina. This shadow is actually what you are seeing when you see the eye floaters. Children and teens rarely experience these, 50% of us will by the time we're 80.
On another note and on an average day, a typical person’s nose will produce about one quart of mucus/fluid (just under one liter). Most all of this snot generally gets passed back into your throat and swallowed, often without you even really being too conscious of it. When you’re breathing cold air though, the rate of mucus production goes up significantly, causing some of that snot to come out the front of your nose, rather than back in your throat. TMI? (Think of the movie Titanic, the scene with Leonardo DiCaprio teaching Kate Winslet how to spit off the ship. Or, that uncouth idiot in the Von's parking lot making all that noise, etc etc.)
A cockroach can live without its head for up to a week. While many have commonly heard cockroaches are the species most likely to survive a nuclear war, which isn't entirely accurate by the way, and they are well known as being among the most adaptable creatures on the earth, it’s still somewhat of a surprise that any creature can live for so long without its head. So you gotta squish them.

Lastly, Americans eat more bananas than any other fruit with an average consumption of 26.2 lbs per year. (Monkey Boys like them.) In fact, Americans eat more bananas than both apples and oranges combined. I can't imagine an "orange or apple split". . . . duh. But, they're also radioactive due to the high amounts of potassium, a chemical found in radioactive compounds but not enough to harm us...

My top secret source for all this and for more indepth information of above and much more-than-you-wanna-know, see:

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/category/today-i-found-out/

I'm a believer!