Would You Buy a Donut From This Woman?

I sure would! As a matter of fact, I'd travel to Boston to spend a day or two with Ms. Maggie Moo and that's exactly what I'm doing this weekend! Even though the forecast is calling for an 80% chance of rain in Bean Town on Saturday, that's okay by me as I'm sure we'll find something fun to do and it sure beats the heck out of spending another Saturday in dispatch answering 911 calls from hysterical mothers who have no idea how to remove a tick from their hysterical 7-year old son's neck or mothers whose child cut his hand an hour ago and doesn't have a car to get to the hospital to have it looked at even though it isn't bleeding anymore ... sigh!

Yep, I definitely need to get away for a day or two. It's been a hell of a week and I need some adult time with an adult friend in an adult city! I promise pictures when I get back!

Everyone have a great weekend! I know I'm going to! Oh, and if you haven't looked at the tree in the post below this to try to tell me what kind it is, please do so!

The Return of the Tree

Back on Friday, April the 4th, I wrote a post titled If This Tree Could Talk ... and included the following picture that I took while standing underneath a tree that stands in front of the Norton Alumni Gym on the Norwich Free Academy campus where Amanda attends high school.

In the post I had stated "I'd be willing to bet that by the time Amanda's next concert rolls around, you wouldn't be able to see a bit of the sky through the branches which will then be covered with leaves. I'll have to remember to check it out in May." It's obviously May and tonight was Amanda's next concert so before it started I took a walk over to the tree and took this picture while standing underneath it -

I was almost right as there is very little sky to be seen now that the leaves have all popped out and covered the branches so I'm going to say that I won that bet with myself. While taking the picture I couldn't remember the exact angle of my previous picture but I think I got pretty close to the one above.

This is what the tree looks like from a distance and - trust me - it's HUGE! You can barely see the building it stands in front of it's so BIG! If anyone out there knows trees at all, can you tell me what this one is? It's not a weeping willow, though it looks like one, and I have no clue what it is - other than big!

Stay tuned for a concert post which I'll be doing as soon as I get the video uploaded!

"I've looked at clouds from both sides now ..."

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air

And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone

So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow

It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and Ferris Wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel

As ev'ry fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way

But now it's just another show
You leave 'em laughing when you go

And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away

I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow

It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say "I love you" right out loud

Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way

But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed

Well something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow

It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow

It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I've Got a Question - You've Got an Answer

It's been a rather frustrating couple of days for me what with way too many hours at work, a bit of teenage drama at home, and other things that I am not going to bore you with. Something as simple as loose cabinet knobs in the kitchen this morning were enough to just about push me over the edge. I decided to retreat to the front porch to water my overabundance of flowers and sit on the glider swing for awhile in an effort to regroup and straighten out my thoughts a bit.

While I sat there, I saw a couple of squirrels scampering amongst the trees in the woods across the street. They seemed to be playing a game of tag as they jumped from one branch to another and I rather envied them their carefree capering - they didn't need to worry about bills or teenage drama or the rising cost of gas. Maybe being a squirrel wouldn't be a bad thing?

Looking up in the sky I saw a couple of hawks floating around in the warm air currents over the river; "making lazy circles in the sky" as the song from Oklahoma! goes. I bet they weren't worrying about the next car payment, what to make for dinner, and the next upcoming 16-hour shift ... maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be a hawk either.

That's when I got to thinking about the question I want to pose for you in this post ...

If you could choose to be an animal, what would you want to be and why?

I'm not sure what the answer to that would be myself at the moment even though right now I'd like to be anybody but me. Perhaps a bird but then again maybe not as I'm scared of heights ... maybe a cat because they're independent and can stand on their own four feet regardless of the situation ... or better yet, maybe a dog so that I could be someone's loyal companion. Hmm, I think this calls for sitting on the porch with a drink and thinking about this some more while I ignore everything else ...

Insane Clowns - No Posse!

Knowing how much I totally dislike clowns and knowing that I've been losing some sleep lately, my darling daughter sent me this via email the other day just to make me smile. It did make me smile but know it's got me thinking about clowns while I'm trying to fall asleep, too, so let me tell you - my dreams have been downright weird lately! And creepy ... have I ever mentioned that I don't like clowns??

Your Chance to Win a High-Definition Holiday

I am apparently so out of touch with what day it is and what's going on around me that it totally did not occur to me that Father's Day is coming up and it's coming up fast! In my defense, though, this isn't a holiday that I tend to give much thought to these days anyway as my own father passed away in February of 2003 and Amanda's father ... well ... let's just not go there, shall we?

For those of you, though, who do still have fathers who are alive and kicking and active in your lives, I came across a great contest that you could enter so that your Dad could have a truly high-definition Father's Day. Actually, he'd have more than Father's Day in high-definition, he'd have a whole year of it as this contest gives you the chance to win your Dad not only a Flat Panel 65" LCD HDTV but the Charter Bundle Biggest Value Package with Charter HD® from Charter Services that includes Charter Digital Cable® with 100+ Digital Channels featuring thousands of movies and shows, Charter High-Speed Internet®, and Charter Digital Telephone® - all free for one year!

You have to admit, something like this really beats the heck out of another tie! So, how can you win this really cool prize for your Dad? Easy! Just go to Father's Day in HD and submit a brief story in 250 words or less telling Charter why your Dad deserves to win such a fantastic prize. In addition to the one Grand Prize winner four finalists will be chosen who could win their Dad the Charter Bundle + HD for one year. Still not a bad prize at all - especially if your Dad already has an HDTV of his own or needed an excuse to get one!

Don't have a traditional Dad but still want to enter the contest for that special 'father figure' in your life? Absolutely, you can! Before entering, though, please be sure to check to see if your Dad or 'father figure' lives in an area that can receive Charter Services. If you'd like, you can even include a photo to illustrate to Charter why your Dad is such a great guy - it's optional but if included it could help drive the point home to the judges at Charter why he's such a deserving guy for such a great prize. Stacking the odds in your favor is never a bad thing!

Contest entries can only be submitted through 11:59:59 EDT on Friday, June 6, 2008 so don't waste any time if you want to make Father's Day truly special for that truly special man in your life!

Accidents Account for Two More Line of Duty Deaths

The Kern County Sheriff's Department in California lost an officer in a line of duty motor vehicle accident this past Friday, May 23rd, when Deputy Sheriff James Throne collided with another officer while both were en route to back up other deputies in a foot pursuit following a theft.

Fourteen firefighters responded to the accident that occurred around 11:35 p.m. on a highway north of Bakersfield. Deputy Throne was driving a marked patrol car without lights and siren on when he pulled into the path of fellow officer 30-year-old Deputy Doug Swanson of Bakersfield, who was driving a marked patrol car with lights and siren activated. Deputy Swanson was taken to Kern County Medical Center with multiple injuries but is expected to survive.

Sgt. Mike Dunham, supervisor for both Deputy Throne and Deputy Swanson at the Lamont Substation, who responded to the scene of the accident said “Your only thought while you’re trying to get there is ‘How are they?’ What happened or how it happened is at least secondary.” He described the mood amongst the other deputies as one of disbelief: “It’s a universal feeling that one moment everybody is thinking about the future and the next moment it’s gone.”

Deputy Throne, age 29, was a two and a half year veteran of the Kern County Sheriff's Department after previously serving with the Taft Police Department. He is survived by his wife Amanda and three sons ages 12, 10, and 7.

On Sunday, May 25th, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office in Georgia announced the death of Deputy Sheriff Michael Sean Thomas who passed away as a result of injuries sustained in an accident that occurred on April 26th. Deputy Thomas, a motorcycle patrol officer and eight-year veteran of the sheriff's department, had sustained multiple injuries when he collided with a 1999 Chevrolet pickup truck while on duty almost a month earlier. The pickup failed to yield the right of way while entering the highway and Deputy Thomas was thrown from his motorcycle when it impacted the side of the pickup truck.

Deputy Thomas was only 26 years old at the time of his death.

Please remember these young men and their family and colleagues they leave behind as well as offer up thoughts and prayers of recovery for Deputy Swanson who remains hospitalized.

What Are People Looking For on Your Blog?

Alright you other bloggers out there - have you ever taken a look at your stat counters and looked at some of the search terms that bring people to your page? Of course you have! It's what we bloggers do as we like to know what it is that brings people to our blogs, to see what interests people out there so that maybe we could write about it again, am I right? Of course I am! Just agree with me here!

I was taking a look at my searches the other day and in addition to the usual people looking for certain traffic reporters who shall remain nameless or the movie that shares its name with my blog (and certainly not the other way around!), I found that an awful lot of people were looking for tactical gear; in particular tactical socks!

I guess it makes perfect sense that I'm not the only one who needed to find new socks to wear with my work boots but I never knew there would be so many of them! My socks are going on way past five years old and are starting to show some wear so they really should be replaced - thankfully I'm easy on my socks! - so perhaps I should write more about shopping for new ones. After all, if people are going to be stopping by looking for tactical socks, perhaps I need to mention them more often!

“For love of country they accepted death...” - President James Garfield

“Let … no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”
– General John A. Logan

Today is Memorial Day here in the United States, a date that was originally set aside as a day of remembrance for those who died on active duty in our nation’s service. Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day had many separate beginnings in towns all across the United States as people gathered for spontaneous or planned ceremonies to honor those who had died during our country’s Civil War.

The growing movement culminated in General John Alexander Logan, National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army who had served in the American Civil War), officially proclaiming the first observance of a national Decoration Day to be held on May 30th, 1868. In his General Order No. 11 that was issued on May 5th of that year in Washington D.C., General Logan proclaimed in part that:

"The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from hishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation's gratitude, the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan."

On that first official observation in 1868, flowers were placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery by members of The Grand Army of the Republic. Five years later, in 1873, New York became the first state to officially recognize the holiday and by 1890 the day of honor was recognized by all of the northern states. The Southern states, however, refused to acknowledge the day and chose instead to honor their dead on separate days until the end of World War I. At that time the holiday changed from honoring just those who had died during the Civil War and expanded to encompass those brave Americans who died fighting in any war or conflict. The name of the day was officially changed to Memorial Day in 1967 even though it had been called as such since 1882.

Unfortunately, in 1971, Congress changed the date of observation for Memorial Day from May 30th to the last Monday in May as part of the National Holiday Act to ensure a 3-day weekend. Shortly after that the reason for the holiday began to slip away as many Americans seemed to forget the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day – a day that was set aside to honor those who fell in service to our country and not just any and all dead or, worse yet, just an extra day to kick back and enjoy cook-outs, camp-outs, and hanging-out from work or school without any thought as to why such a day existed.

Here in Norwich the city still holds a Memorial Day parade each year with participants marching from the Cathedral of St. Patrick on Broadway to The Point at Chelsea Parade where official ceremonies will take place. It is here that one can find monuments “in solemn remembrance of those who paid the supreme sacrifice in all wars, actions, and conflicts.”

Across from the monuments at the Point, on the north end of the Great Plain - as Chelsea Parade used to be known - one can find The Soldier’s Monument which was dedicated to the 140 men from Norwich who gave their lives during the Civil War. The monument was dedicated on April 23rd, 1875 and stands as a tangible symbol of honor and respect paid by the Norwich community to its sons who died in the war. Topping the impressive 27-1/2 foot monument is a 12-foot tall soldier made of granite from nearby Westerly, Rhode Island who looks slightly down and to his left as he stands perpetual guard duty over Chelsea Parade and the nearby Norwich Free Academy grounds.



In another part of Norwich, at the eastern end of my favorite cemetery, stands another monument to Norwich’s Civil War dead - this time for the native sons of Norwich who perished at the notorious Andersonville Prison Camp in Georgia. At the Anderson Memorial Gun in the Yantic Cemetery one can find concentric circles of soldiers’ graves with a 30-pounder Parrot rifle mounted on an iron carriage at the center next to an American flag that flies day and night.

Of the 30 men from Norwich who were captured and interred at Andersonville, 15 died from starvation, exposure, disease, or execution. In early 1866 Norwich became the first Northern city to retrieve the bodies of its soldiers who had perished there when they brought back the remains of 9 of the 15 soldiers who could be identified. A public service for their re-interment was held on February 1st, 1866 which was preceded by the closing of local businesses and a parade then followed by an 8-course dinner at the Chelsea Hotel.


Over the years, in addition to the original nine Civil War veterans from Andersonville whose gravestones carry the name of the prison where they died, 62 other soldiers have been buried at the veterans plot with the last burial occurring as late as 1925. Of those 62, seven gravestones mark the final resting places of veterans of the Spanish-American War. It is a very solemn place and whenever I visit this monument, I say a thank you to all those who repose beneath the gravestones for their service to our country and the freedoms that we oftentimes take for granted.

At 3:00 p.m. today, I ask you to join myself, and hopefully many others across the country, as we observe a National Moment of Remembrance, a movement that began in 2001 when a resolution was passed for all Americans “to voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps’”.

At the observance of the very first Memorial Day on the sacred ground of Arlington National Cemetery on May 30th, 1868, President James A. Garfield said:

“We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and virtue."

Though he spoke of our fallen Civil War dead, those words ring true for all of the men and women who have died in service to our country. The least we can do in return is give our fallen heroes a moment of silence while we enjoy the holiday they fought and died for us to have.

Clouding My Vision

I've had this fixation with clouds lately and there have been some totally fascinating clouds in the skies over Norwich that have been feeding that fascination. This weekend was supposed to be one of those perfect May weekends without a cloud in the sky but, as it turned out, there were some rather interesting ones marching across the sky.

One of the best places to spot clouds is from the window in dispatch at work and even though I had initially thought about bringing my camera with me this morning, I foolishly believed the weathermen and left it at home. As I was kicking myself for not having brought it with me, I remembered that my cellphone has a fairly decent camera so I dug it out of my lunch bag (we aren't allowed to have cellphones on us in dispatch anymore due to a new policy) and snapped this picture really quick.

Absolutely beautiful clouds, aren't they? And not bad with a cellphone camera! I can only imagine, though, how nice they would be if I had one of those really nice cameras like Misty Dawn has!

Hope everyone is having a nice Memorial Day weekend and enjoying the long weekend that comes courtesy of our United States military and the men and women who served our country and gave you not only Memorial Day but the freedom to celebrate it!

Now go eat another hot dog and then go play my Pain at the Pump Meme!

So ... This One Time on Vacation ...

As you'll all remember, I recently got to go spend some time in California visiting a good friend of mine as well as having the chance to meet two bloggers whose blogs I have read and loved for quite some time. It was a great vacation and a great time - except maybe for that part where I got stopped by the California Highway Patrol Officer in San Francisco for making an illegal left turn! Thank goodness she took pity on an out-of-state tourist and didn't issue me a ticket for a sign that neither myself or Cyndi saw. As a matter of fact, we went back and looked again and there was no sign so how was I supposed to know that either I turned right to go over the Golden Gate Bridge or I would get pulled over by the police cruiser that was behind me? Cyndi thought it was quite hilarious herself but I have to admit that I was totally appalled as I consider myself to be a good driver and there's also that whole former police dispatcher part of me that was mortified that I was being pulled over. Add on the fact that I'm a Virgo and Virgos don't get pulled over!

Other than that we had a good time driving through the City By the Bay and checking out Fisherman's Wharf, the Presidio, the Museum of Fine Arts. and even Coit Tower. There really are so many things to do in San Francisco that we could have spent a lot longer there if a) it hadn't been so windy and chilly and b) I'd been able to find a place to park! Maybe next time I'm out that way, we'll try one of the sightseeing tours instead and let someone else do the driving. Chances are good that a tour bus driver would know that whole "no left turn" thing and wouldn't get pulled over or, if he or she did, I wouldn't be the one to be mortified!

When the time comes, I'm going to check out Trusted Tours & Attractions as they offer some great tours of bigger cities and take all the guesswork out of trying to figure out the best places to go. So many people are afraid to be seen as tourists by the locals but the way I look at, that's not a bad thing. Being a tourist can be fun and isn't that part of the reason we go on vacation? To be tourists somewhere new?

If you're kicking around the thought of a vacation but aren't sure where you want to go, try signing up for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter so that you can get all the latest news on great places to go and things to do when you get there. And if you sign up before next Saturday, May 31st, you can enter to win a $150 iTunes gift card which would give you the chance to download a lot of great music to take on that great vacation.

Perhaps next I'll check out some great Things to do in New York City and maybe take a trip down there this summer. It's only a bit over two hours away, I know my way around, and if I get arrested for any traffic violations down there it will be easier to call someone for help to bail me out!

Pain at the Pump Meme

Here it is, Memorial Day weekend - the kick-off to summer and a time when a lot of people generally hit the road to take a much-needed end-of-winter break. Well, at least that's the way it's been in the past but I get the feeling that a lot of people had to think long and hard about hitting the road this long weekend due to the prohibitive cost of gas.

I have absolutely no plans to go anyplace this weekend what with having to work an 8-hour day Saturday, a 14-hour day Sunday, and a 12-hour day on Monday. However, I thought it might be a good idea to top off the gas in my car before prices went up any higher as the last time I put gas in I paid $3.83 a gallon. What I ended up with was this -


I've got to say I'm counting my blessings that I have a very short ride to work (about 3 miles roundtrip) because I'm able to get away with filling up about once every two weeks. I'm not sure how people who have to drive further than that are affording to put gas in their tanks while also buying groceries and paying their other bills. The worst thing is - there doesn't seem to be any end in sight and I've got no doubt that gas will either be at - or hovering around - $5 a gallon by the end of the summer.

The thought occurred to me (blogger that I am!) as I was grimacing at how fast the sale numbers were flying by while the gallons inched along that there was no reason we couldn't try to have some fun with this while biting the bullet. After all, the rising cost of gas had to be good for something other than the bank accounts of oil executives, right? Maybe I could do something creative with this? Maybe I could write a post? Maybe I could start a meme? Yes, that's it - a meme! A "Pain at the Pump" meme! Brilliant!

A meme needs some sort of rules and structure though or it's not actually a meme (at least I think that's written in the Royal Book of Meme Rules somewhere) so here we go ...

• Rule #1 - Take a picture of the gas prices in your local area.
• Rule #2 - Post that picture on your blog to share with other readers.
• Rule #3 - Tag other bloggers as you like - or not! It's entirely up to you!
• Rule #4 - If you'd be so kind, refer folks back to me at my Pain at the Pump Meme so that I can either feel envious of or sorry for people in other parts of the country/world and their cost of gas!

That seems pretty simple, right? So, when you're done barbecuing those hamburgers and hot dogs, finished eating that last bite of potato salad, and disentangled your fishing gear and put it all away until next time - join in and show us your Pain at the Pump!

For my contribution, this is what Amanda and I found while en route to the grocery store this afternoon. Made me glad I paid only $4.12 a gallon at my local Cumberland Farms!

As for tags, if you're on my sidebar consider yourself tagged and if you're not on my sidebar but stopped by to visit, consider yourself tagged, too! Or not!

Out of the Darkness and Into the Bright!

There was a time - not that long ago - when my darling daughter and wannabe artist would wear nothing but black. Black jeans, black t-shirts, black socks, black shoes, black eyeliner, black hair ... she wasn't over-the-top Goth or anything like that, she just liked black.

There was nothing to do about it except get used to the fact that if I brought her home anything that had some color to it she'd never wear it and resign myself to being the mother of a Johnny Cash clone. Which I did. It was shortly after that when Amanda changed her mind and decided that she wanted some color in her life. But not just any color ... she wanted bright colors ... very bright colors ...

For example - see these shoes? These very brightly colored shoes? These shoes that are anything but black? These are Bape Neon Green & Hot Pink Bapesta shoes and these are the shoes that Amanda wants for her birthday next month. Never heard of Bape shoes? Neither had I until yesterday when Amanda let out a squee from behind her computer in the dining room (which is running just fine since I completed the System Recovery on Tuesday - yay!). The squee was quickly followed by an alert on my Yahoo Messenger that told me an IM had arrived from the other side of the house. I clicked, I looked, I choked!

"I want those shoes!"

"You're kidding me, right?"

"No, I'm not! They're perfect!"

Perfect for what?? I wasn't really sure I wanted to know that!

A quick search of the internet uncovered that Bathing Ape clothing, who produces the lovely shoes above, was launched in 1993 in Tokyo, Japan and the brand was the first of its kind for Japanese urban/hip hop clothing. Huh? Apparently there is a huge market for urban clothing, even in Japan, so when the company decided to market shoes they took their inspiration from Nike Air Force Ones and then put their own spin on them. The goal of Bathing Ape shoes was "never to be an athletic shoe, but rather a limited sneaker that no one else would have ever seen or dreamed of." Well bravo to them as I'd have to say they got that right! I never would have dreamed of wanting a shoe that looks like this one does - never mind actually wear them out in public! A little more research revealed that these shoes are probably not authentic "Bapes", though, as they're only - gulp - $85 and the real Bapes are made in runs of 200 and less and cost upwards of - bigger gulp - $300!

Somehow, I don't believe that Amanda shall be getting a pair of genuine Bapes shoes regardless of the fact that this will be her 16th birthday and it's supposed to be special. Sorry, kiddo! Unless I win the Powerball sometime between now and the 18th of June I just can't see myself skipping the car payment to buy an expensive pair of kicks no matter how hip hop and urban they may be! However, because Amanda dares to be different I have to applaud her for having the gumption to want to stand out a bit in the crowd and I will do my best to find something a little less cost prohibitive. After all, there aren't that many urbanite hip hoppers strutting around in Norwich that one of them would put the recognize on Amanda's shoes as not being official Bapes and dime her out!

Oh, and if you're wondering just what these shoes would be perfect for other than giving her band instructor yet another reason to look at her askance (he's never gotten used to her hair color!), the answer is the July 2nd Mindless Self Indulgence concert in Hartford that she's looking forward to. Apparently it's tradition for concert-goers to dress up as outlandishly as possible for these concerts in the hopes that Jimmy will pick them out of the crowd to come up on stage with the band for a bit and that's Amanda's goal. She did a quick drawing on MS Paint of the outfit she has in mind for the concert and after looking at it I can see why she said the shoes above would be perfect. After all, what better to wear with a neon green and hot pink outfit than a pair of neon green and hot pink shoes? I mean, come on, anything else might clash with her hair!

I feel so old ...

Looking for Something to Do This Summer?

With summer fast approaching and gas prices fast rising, people are probably in a quandary about what to do for their summer vacations this year. No doubt a lot of people are looking to do something closer to home that would be more affordable as well as not cost the entire vacation budget to get to.

If you live in Southeastern Texas or close by, I'd like to suggest a trip to Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas - a small town about 2 hours east of Houston. The museum, a vision of its founders H.J. Lutcher Stark and his mother Miriam Lutcher Stark, houses one of the nation’s most significant collections of American Western art. The museum opened on November 29th, 1978, and continues to acquire new works of art today adding to one of the finest collections of 19th and 20th century Western American art and artifacts in the country.

Lutcher Stark always had a passion for the arts and began building his collection as an undergraduate at the University of Texas. In 1943 he married Nelda Childers and together they continued to build their collection of art, furniture, and decorative items with an emphasis on the American West. In 1961 they founded the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation to enrich the quality of life in Southeast Texas through education and the arts and it was this foundation that opened the Stark Museum of Art after Lutcher Stark's death in 1965.


Their current exhibition, Celebrate Shangri La, runs through June 28th and features artistic representations of flora and fauna found in the newly opened Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange. The exhibit vividly portrays plants, birds and animals through the works of art by artists such as Dorothy Doughty and John James Audubon as well as many nineteenth century rare books with important natural history illustrations.

In August the Stark Museum of Art will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a special exhibition that highlights treasures from their Western Art, American Indian Art, Decorative Art, and Rare Book and Art collections as well as works that have not been previously exhibited. This exhibit will run through the end of October after which a new exhibit for the holiday season will open on November 20th and run through January 6th.

If I lived near Orange, Texas or was going to be passing through I'd definitely want to check out the Stark Museum. Wouldn't you?

Meanwhile ... Back in the Bay

With no more birthdays of rocks stars to post about it's back to EMS Week and more pictures of people I work with! Even though yesterday was my day off and I normally like to spend a good part of the morning relaxing around the house and recovering from my 16-hour shift the day before, I managed to get motivated enough to get up, get dressed, and get out of the house in time to attend the EMS Week Breakfast that the managers were preparing. Not only did I want to try one of the omelettes that my supervisor had promised was going to be really good but I figured it would give me the chance to take a few more pictures. Who needs sleep when there are pictures to be taken?

As I made the short drive over to work the thought occurred to me that this blog certainly had me jumping through hoops at times - or at least jumping out of bed when I would have preferred not to! No wonder my friend Cyndi has still hesitated to really get going with her own blog - she probably wants to keep control of her life! Oh well, enough whining and on with the pictures!

These two fine upstanding gentlemen are Chris on the left, an EMT, and Pete who is a paramedic. Pete has been with American for a long time and also teaches classes in our educational department while Chris started awhile after I did and also works as a patient care technician in the Emergency Room at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital.

This is Bruce who is in charge of making sure everyone's paperwork is done correctly. Occasionally we have to pull him out from under the mountains of paperwork he's usually hiding beneath and put him on the road as an extra EMT when the call volume gets too high and available ambulances get too low! I figure he could use a break from paperwork from time to time but I doubt Bruce agrees as it puts him even more behind!

Jason is one of our four "white shirt" supervisors and I bet you can't guess why we call them that! In addition to being a manager, Jason is also a paramedic and has two young ones (very young ones!) at home. I took this picture during Morning Briefing which is when the crews that aren't already out on calls gather around and catch up on new policies or news.

As you can see from this picture, the crews are very excited about attending Morning Briefing! Listening intently are from left to right - Billy Jo who is a wheelchair van driver, Bruce and Pete, Andy who is an EMT that has just completed paramedic school and is in the process of testing for his certification, and Nicholas who is a very, very new employee and probably only a few years older than Amanda!

This picture is my favorite of the group and I think it's pretty easy to see why! Not only was everyone happy to pose but they got a chance to ham it up a little bit, too! Robert and Nicholas, both EMTs, are on the left with Justin and David, also EMTs, on the right. In the middle is JM who is one of my very favorite EMTs and a guy who makes me smile constantly. Not only is he ridiculously cute (they did not make guys who looked like that when I was his age!) but he has the personality to back it up. I have never once heard him complain and the patients he treats absolutely love him as he is definitely a people person. Hiding behind JM and holding his ears is Mark, one of our part-time paramedics who also works as a paramedic at the Mohegan Sun Casino. He's a little camera shy!

I know I've said it before but it bears repeating that I work with an amazing group of people at my job and I can't tell you enough how much I admire and respect them for the careers that they have undertaken. I couldn't do what they do, I wouldn't want to do what they do, but I'm glad they do it as you just never know when you or someone you love might need an ambulance.

The next group of pictures should be really interesting as I gave my camera to another of my favorite EMTs this morning with instructions to get me some good pictures to post. I have no idea what Seth is going to hand me tomorrow but I'm sure that it shall be interesting! Hope you come back to check them out!

Another "Mindless" Birthday

Approximately seven years ago there was a band that was in need of a new bassist as the one they had decided to leave to become an astronaut (or was that start a family?). To that end the band held auditions in New York City where a young woman who had moved to the city from Connecticut to study art was told about the chance to try out for the band and decided to go for it. Even though her previous experience as a bassist was to simply "bang on the E string the entire time" and she had never heard of the band she was going to audition for prior to listening to a CD given to her by their manager, the young woman decided she simply had to audition to become part of the band. But what to do? How to win them over when she knew she really wasn't a very good bassist?

Not quite panicking yet, she called up a friend of hers who was a fabulous bass player to teach her the basics with the first lesson being "this is tablature" - something every guitarist knows! When she got a phone call and was given three songs to learn and an audition date, sheer terror did kick in and she came to the conclusion that there was "no way she was going to get into this band on bass talent alone" so she was going to have to do something more. At the audition the band had her play the three songs she was given through and then again a second time but she knew the audition really wasn't going very well (especially considering the guitarist wouldn't even look at her). It was time to do something to show them that even if she wasn't a very good bassist at that point, she was definitely a fantastic performer.

Knowing that there was a spot in the song Tornado where the bass dropped out completely for ten seconds, the young woman decided to pull out the stops - along with a film canister filled with Bacardi 151 rum she had stashed in her bra and matches that were hidden in her hair. When the short break in the song began she took the shot in her mouth, lit the match on the strike pad she had glued on her bass, and blew fire all over the room almost setting the entire place and the lead singer on fire! Everyone stopped what they were doing, dropped everything, looked at her with shock and delight, and it was at that moment when Lindsey, the artist from Connecticut, became Lyn-Z, the new bassist for the New York-based band Mindless Self Indulgence!

The reason I tell you this story today is to give you some background on the picture above that Amanda drew in honor of Lyn-Z's birthday - which is today. It just didn't seem right to post the picture of her holding flaming matches without giving you the reason why! You've got to admire a woman who knows what she wants and then goes out and gets it against the odds, a woman who might not have the skills of other bassists but who certainly has performing down to an art. To this day Lyn-Z has no delusions of grandeur about her place in the world of musicians but she has always had the courage to put herself out there while having a good time and a great sense of humor during the learning process. And fans of the band love her which is what really matters.

If you'd like to see a colorized version of the above picture that Amanda did, you can check it out by clicking here and if you'd like to watch the YouTube videos where Lyn-Z tells the story of her audition with Mindless Self Indulgence, you can find them here and here - though I should warn you that the language is not for those with delicate ears!

Lyn-Z - wherever you may be (Amanda tells me the band is touring in the southwest), best wishes for a very happy birthday and a fantastic year! May all your wishes come true no matter how out there they are and we're looking forward to seeing you perform in Hartford in July!

Weighty Wonderings

I have been noticing in my bulk mail folder lately that I have been getting one after another emails for Phentermine no prescription. I have to wonder whether the non-prescription Phentermine is anywhere near as effective as the prescription variety used to be or whether it has been made ineffective by being able to be bought over the counter. Is this the real stuff or a knock-off formula?

Years ago I took Phentermine for a little while (not the Phen-Fen combination that put a lot of people's hearts at risk) and it worked really well for me. Lots of energy and a lack of appetite was a great thing but alas, when I got depressed and had to go on Prozac for awhile I regained all the weight I had lost and then some. That was enough to depress me even while I was on anti-depressants!

I know that diet pills are merely a crutch and not the way to go when one wants to permanently lose weight but crutches are designed to help until a person can walk on their own again so why not be able to take medication for the same purpose? Well, either that or maybe I could try stapling my lips shut for a little while!

This Contest is a No-Brainer!

My friend Connie @ Brain Foggles is holding a contest from now through May 30th with the chance to win yourself a really nice prize - an SEO optimized Wordpress blog valued at $125. This great prize comes with the following:

1. Hosting for one year
2. Keyword research
3. Advice on picking a profitable niche for the blog
4. Complete set up of Wordpress and associated plugins
5. Your choice of SEO Theme
6. Technical support and continued advice through the Advisory Panel
7. A custom header made by Lori of A Cowboy’s Wife who does some awesome work.

This is Connie's very first ever contest and she's pretty excited about it - as she should be! The contest is open to everyone regardless of where you live but you do have to be able to write in English if you want to take advantage of the advice and support. Of course, if you're here reading my blog then you probably have a pretty good grasp of the English language already or else you'd be reading nothing but a lot of gobblity-gok so I'm quite sure you've got that requirement under control! The other rules are simply as follows:

1. Leave a comment on Connie's post announcing the contest HERE. Only one comment per person please. Please leave one comment including all that you’ve done as this will make it easier for Connie - who likes easy! (This is worth 1 entry)
   
2. Fave Connie's Blog on Technorati by either looking for the green link on her sidebar or just going HERE. (This is worth 1 entry)
3. Blog about this contest or about Connie's blog on your blog and include a link back to Brain Foggles. (This is worth 5 entries).
4. If you include a banner in your post that’s another 1 entry. Connie has three banners for you to choose from which you can get HERE.
5. Put up a banner for the contest on your sidebar. Choose a banner HERE. (This is worth 3 entries).

The contest will be open until Friday, May 30th, and close around 10 p.m. that night with a winner announced the following morning. If you're the winner you could have a brand new blog up and running within a day or two of winning this great prize which is perfect for anyone looking to either start a new blog or make the jump to Wordpress. The best thing is, you wouldn't be wandering around lost in the land of Wordpress on your own as this prize comes with that great technical help and support mentioned above. And who amongst us, by a show of hands please, could not use a little help and technical support from time to time? Uh-huh, that's what I thought!

Go check it out and enter Connie's first contest and tell her I sent you. You've got nothing to lose but a lot to win!

Allow Me to Introduce You to ...

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, this is National EMS Week; a time which has been set aside to say thank you to the men and women who are referred to as "first responders", a term which is used to describe the first medically-trained people to respond to - or arrive on - the scene of an emergency, accident, natural or man-made disaster, or similar event. As an Emergency Medical Dispatcher who has been trained and certified in call-taking protocol and pre-arrival instructions for medical emergencies, I am what's called a "first" first responder as I more or less arrive on scene first via telephone, long before anyone has been started to the emergency. However, I believe that the people I send to the scene have a by far much harder than job than I do as they have to physically deal first-hand with the suffering and/or pain of the patients they are treating. I hide behind a phone line and radio console while they're out there in the trenches doing what they do best - helping people in times of need.

The Dispatch and Scheduling Department, though, is definitely part of the EMS team as without us our EMTs and paramedics would drive around aimlessly in their ambulances waiting for a medical emergency to happen in front of them. That's not to say that this doesn't happen from time to time or that's what the crews would prefer but someone has to make them earn a paycheck and that's the job of those of us who work upstairs in the "Ivory Tower" - so called because our building is white and we're on the third floor in a part of it that does actually resemble a tower with a great view of the city though lousy air circulation as the windows don't open!

The three people above are the rest of my Monday evening shift team and I really enjoying working with them. Liz, who is known as Chica or Mamacita, is a Scheduler who takes routine phone calls from facilities for ambulance or wheelchair van transportation as well as handling the nightly paperwork and other duties. Chica is originally from Ecaudor, the mother of two gorgeous children, and teaches us all to say unrepeatable sayings in Spanish from time to time! She's assisted by Frank who is a part-time Dispatcher and Scheduler, former EMT at American (back in the day!), and currently a full-time Fire Inspector at the Mohegan Sun Casino. Frank has an extremely sharp wit and dishes out the snark just as well, if not better, than I do! His oldest daughter is the same age as Amanda so we can commiserate on the "joys" of raising teenagers! Sitting in front of Liz and Frank is Kevin, one of my Dispatch partners who also works the road as an EMT and is a volunteer for his local fire department. Kevin started out at American as an EMT, switched over to Scheduling for awhile, and then made the leap to Dispatcher. He leapt so well in fact that he was awarded Employee of the Month for February! Not bad for a guy who'd really rather be working on the railroad as he loves all kinds of trains which he takes pictures of when he isn't taking pictures of his beautiful two-year old daughter.

This is Andrew and when he isn't catching the biggest weed in the lake or saving cats from burning buildings with his brother Bob, he's doing his job as a paramedic at American or sometimes - if I'm lucky - filling in as a Dispatcher with me. Even though he's been an EMT since 1992, Andrew didn't become a paramedic until June of 2003. He was originally hired as a Dispatcher at American in December of 2000 and began medic school in 2002 after rethinking his career goals and deciding he wanted to do even more to help save lives. In addition to becoming an Associate Supervisor with the company 18 months ago, Andrew also volunteers for his local fire department where he has achieved the rank of Captain. His wife, Bethany, is the school nurse for Plainfield Memorial School and teaches both EMT and Paramedic Classes for American Professional Educational Service with courses that range from IVs to Med. Administration to Med. Math to a whole host of other skills needed by emergency medical personnel. Andrew and Bethany have two children; a son who is someday going to be scientist or astronaut and a daughter that they are going to have their hands full with when the boys come beating down their door because she's so cute!

Down in the ambulance bay is where you'll find not just the ambulances - duh! - but also the people who staff them. The three ladies pictured above are all EMTs with American. To your left is Amy whom I have mentioned many times in this blog as she is step-mom to Cate, Amanda's friend that she spends lots of weekends with. Amy started out at American as a wheelchair van driver (which was actually the first place I met her when I did my road time as a new Dispatcher) then got her EMT certification and switched over to the ambulance side of the company. Next to her is Angela, who prefers to work the overnight shifts as she attends college classes during the day. Angela is also one of my friends on Facebook and we've been known to play a game of Scrabulous or two. Next to her is Kayla, a fairly new member of the American family that looked at me like I was crazy when I asked her to pose for a picture but good-naturedly joined in even though I think she was a little leery of the whole "it's for my blog" thing!

Last but not least for this round of pictures is Amy once again with her husband Jason - the "Jason & Amy" that I refer to quite frequently! Jason was one of the very first EMTs that I met when I started at American as I spent the first two days of my "ride time" with he and Mark, another EMT. As a new Dispatcher with the company, you spend four days on the road getting a feel for what it is you're dispatching people to and I think it was a great idea as even though I was a 911 dispatcher for years, I was totally clueless when it came to emergency medical services. Jason taught me a lot of good stuff that I believe I was able to take up to Dispatch with me and utilize effectively to make me a better dispatcher. He wasn't too thrilled with the idea of posing for a picture but when I threatened him with using Halloween pictures that I have where he's wearing a mullet wig, he acquiesced and posed nicely with his lovely wife! They are a fantastic couple, great EMTs, and people I am proud to call friends. Plus they're great fun when playing "Rock Band" or "Guitar Hero"!

I hope you've enjoyed meeting just a few of the people I work with at American and I hope you'll join me in thanking them for the fantastic job they do everyday - if I wore a hat, it would be off to all of them! Now let's see who I can get pictures of for my next post!

Celebrating EMS Week 2008

May is a month for celebration, recognition, and remembrance. Last week saw the celebration of National Police Week while yesterday kicked off the 35th annual Emergency Medical Services Week. The week, with the theme “Your Life is Our Mission”, is set aside to honor the dedication and thank the men and women who provide the day-to-day lifesaving services of medicine’s “front line”. The theme was chosen “to recognize the commitment that emergency medical personnel make to the communities they serve”, according to Linda Lawrence, MD, FACEP, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) who help promote the week.

At American Ambulance where I work, plans for the week include a special breakfast on Tuesday cooked by the managers along with contests, raffles, and daily prize giveaways as well as a different type of edible treat each day (my supervisor is in charge of the food this year so it’s guaranteed to be good!). EMS Week is a chance for the company to tell its employees thank you for all of their hard work and dedication as well as give everyone a little bit of a break from the day-to-day routine and stresses of being in a career field that oftentimes goes overlooked.

I thought it might be nice to do something a little special myself this week by doing posts about some of the exceptional men and women of EMS that I have the pleasure of working with. Having close to 200 co-workers, it’s not possible for me to write about all of them but it I’d like to put a face to at least some of the people who have chosen Emergency Medical Services as their profession. Some of these folks you may have read about before in one form or another on my blog while others may be totally new. No matter whether I’ve written about them in the past or not, though, they are all great people who do an amazing job.

Tracy Chapman, a fantastic songwriter and singer, wrote the words, “I’ve seen and met angels wearing the disguise of ordinary people living ordinary lives” and that certainly applies to the people I work with. They do a job that I could never do as I was lucky just to be able to deal with my own sick or injured children never mind rush to the scene of an accident where people are broken and bloody, provide care to a weak and debilitated patient who needs transport from a nursing home, or perform lifesaving measures for a person whose heart has stopped beating. People’s lives often depend on the quick reaction and competent care of the emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics that I work with and they have my utmost respect for the jobs that they do.

I hope you’ll come back by throughout the week to meet some of the people of American Ambulance where our theme is “Dedicated, Professional People Committed to Excellence, Caring for YOU!” no matter what week it is!

Just some of the ambulance fleet.

Clouds, Color, and Completion!!

I've taken a major liking to clouds lately but apparently am not smart enough, despite almost two years of blogging, to carry my camera with me at all times should I see some interesting ones. Thankfully my cellphone has a fairly decent camera, though, and I was able to capture the above shot yesterday morning. After a full day of nasty rain on Friday (my day off - typical!) the clouds were starting to clear out a bit before noon.

I took this picture from the sunroof of my car while on my way home from work and waiting in line with traffic. The formation reminds me a bit of the pictures I took of Lake Tahoe from the plane on my way out to California. Speaking of California, I'm glad I'm not out there now as it's apparently been hotter than Hades this past week. I'm all for warmer temperatures but not 100+ degrees in mid-May!

Meanwhile here at home, the azaleas out front have finally started blooming and the front of my house is awash in pink. That should make Amanda happy as she has taken a major liking to pink lately just as I've taken a major liking to clouds. And yes, that's the same Amanda that would only do black not that long ago!

I went a little crazy with the flowers on my front porch this year (I'm guessing I'm trying to make up for last year's total lack of flowers) and they're starting to look pretty good if I do say so myself! If you're in the neighborhood, stop on by and we'll sit on the porch amongst the flowers and sip some iced tea!

There's nothing like a few flowers to brighten up the place and make one smile! Did I say "a few" flowers? Hmm, remind me to show you more pictures later! I think I bought out half of the local greenhouse!

Oh, and speaking of smiling, I finally and at long last got that darned backup done on the PC even though it took me until 1:30 this afternoon to do it! So far the computer is running okay so I've got my fingers crossed that I don't have to do a System Recovery but the true test will be when Amanda gets home later and puts it through a teenager's paces. Keep your fingers crossed for me as - honestly - I don't want to spend another two days playing Geek Squad!

Alright then - back to work for me on this Sunday afternoon. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

This Backup is Getting My Back Up!

As a single woman, there are things that I have learned to do on my own or they just don't get done. When the washing machine started to act up, I took it apart and tried to figure it out; when the shower stopped working properly awhile back, I went to Home Depot and got the parts I needed to fix it; if the lawn needs mowing, I'm the one to go out and do it; should I need a hand in the bedroom ... with turning the mattress or moving the furniture around (get your minds out of the gutter, people!), then I'm the one to do that, too. Granted, there are times when I need to ask for help from one of the guys at work or from my son (I have to draw the line at a putting in a couple of the air conditioners as my bad back doesn't like it when I try to do it myself) but for the most part, I'm pretty self-reliant and manage to get most things done around the house without too much difficulty.

For the past two days, though, I have really wished for a guy with some hard drive knowledge (ahem, back in the gutter again?) as our desktop PC has been giving me some grief. If you'll remember, I did a post awhile back on the computer locking up in the middle of doing things and I wasn't sure what was causing the problem. It has gotten a lot worse lately and Amanda was really getting frustrated so I decided I needed to try a few things to get it running properly again before having to haul it into some over-priced computer repair shop.

I spent almost the entirety of yesterday afternoon running a registry cleaner as well as using Spybot to make sure that there were no viruses or spyware hidden somewhere. It took even longer than it should have because the darned thing kept locking up in the middle of things and I'd have to restart the computer and begin again. I finally got that done but it wasn't running any better so I sent a couple of texts to one of the paramedics I work with who also builds computers. After telling him what was going on he said it sounded like the hard drive was having issues and I'd need to take it in for repair. That was a pretty dismal prospect as that meant they'd have to extract all the files from the hard drive before replacing it and Lord knew what that was going to cost me.

After taking a short break to pick Amanda up from her band competition, I booted the computer back up and ran a hardware diagnostic which didn't indicate any problems with the hard drive, the network card, or the memory. Hmmm? Now what? Next step was to get in touch via on-line chat with someone from HP (the computer is a Compaq). I spoke to Sandey who I'm sure was in India somewhere and after using such great computer lingo as "it stutters" or "seems like it's thinking", she suggested I run a SFC Scan. Huh? No worries, she said, she'd tell me exactly what to do and that would tell me whether or not there were any problems with any of the Windows files. It was easy enough to run but took the better part of forever so while it was running, I ran Amanda over to Jason & Amy's so she could spend the weekend with Cate.

Back home, back to the computer, and back to the the scan which was finally finishing up with the pronouncement "Verification 100% complete. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS Log." Say what?? That's not the message Sandey told me I should get so it was back to the HP Help page and on-line chat support where - lo and behold! - I got Sandey again. After giving her the details of the scan she came back with the not-so-good news that I needed to do a System Recovery and take the computer all the way back to the factory presets. Did I mention that I had a headache at this point?

Of course, before I could do that I needed to backup everything that was on the hard drive because I sure as shooting was going to lose it when I did the System Recovery. According to Windows Live One Care, which is a royal pain in the back end, I was going to need either 42 CDs, 6 DVDs, or an external hard drive - none of which I had on hand to backup the 26.6 GB of information that's on the hard drive. At this point it was 11:00 at night, I needed to go to work in the morning, and I had been sitting in front of the computer for way too long and starting to babble in code. It was definitely time to go to bed where I had strange computer dreams!

After work I stopped by Staples, picked up a 50-pack of DVDs, and sat down in front of the computer again ready to take on the backup task confident that I could get the computer fixed for sure. That was at 4:00 and it's now 11:45 and the backup is still not done! This has been the most frustrating, drawn-out process that I have ever had to put up with as it will get part way through only to tell me that either a) there's no disc in the drive when there is one or b) the disc is corrupt and I need to insert another one. From what I can tell from Live One Care Help, this whole program is very temperamental and sometimes just doesn't like the disc you put in. Duh? Ya think? I've had to restart the backup three times now and so far I've managed to get only about half of the files backed up. Let me just say that this is ridiculous!

In the meantime, while the backup was backing up, I contacted HP Help again and this time I got a hold of some guy claiming to be Seth. He referenced my chat session with Sandey from yesterday and then had me delete all of my temporary internet files and change my start-up options. I asked him what on earth that had to do with a corrupt Windows file and he said that the locking up and freezing could be from a myriad of other reasons. Now I'm not sure if he's really a Seth or not but wonder of wonders - the computer hasn't locked up since I made the changes he told me to! Of course, I've only been running the backup program and nothing else so I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not. I've got my fingers crossed that perhaps it was something as simple as that and I don't have to try doing a System Recovery and then reloading absolutely every program we have on there because somehow I just get the feeling that it isn't going to work like it's supposed to and then I'm really going to get frustrated and wish even more that I didn't have to be the competent single woman but had a man in my life to take care of stuff like this.

Of course, that's not to say that all men are computer geniuses but most of them like to think they are and I'm happy to let them do so plus maybe I could get the oil changed in the car and the rest of the air conditioners put in! Come to think of it, there are a few other things I could use a man for but this is a G-rated blog!

In the meantime, I think all of this frustration has earned me a small dish of ice cream while I wait to see if this new disc I just put in works or not! I will not be holding my breath that it does!

Fast + Free = Good!

For as long as I can remember I have loved music - all kinds of music from classic to country to pop to rock to electronic punk (or whatever the heck it is Mindless Self Indulgence calls themselves!) to show tunes to even - dare I admit it? - even a bit of rap and disco. Now that isn't to say that I'll listen to just anything, mind you! It's got to be good or I'll be the first to change the channel, turn down the volume, or cover my ears and howl - whatever it takes! I've got an extensive collection of CDs, an iPod full of stuff, and a lot of music downloaded on my computer but I'm always up for more because there's just so much good stuff out there! But how does a single mom on a single income afford all that good music and still afford to feed a hungry teenager?

Lucky for me, I just found a new place to get free music downloads and so far I've been very impressed. At MP3 Rocket they have over 12 billion songs to search and download for absolutely free so if I can't find what I'm looking for there, it probably doesn't exist! MP3 Rocket is a legal file-sharing network and the music is compatible with all iPods, MP3 players, and CD players. Download all the music you want and then either burn it to a CD or download it to whatever portable electronic music device you own and you're good to go! Did I mention it's free?

After downloading the software, which is very quick and easy to do, onto your computer you can then search to your heart's content with a screen that looks like this one -

Just choose which file you want to download, hit a button, and the music loads just as fast as they claim it does. And yes, I was looking for a little Justin Timberlake in case your eyes are better than mine! I found exactly what I was looking for, too, and have been happily listening to it along some other songs I found. So far so good! Check it out and I think you'll find you like it, too!

I've Got a Question, You've Got an Answer

It's been an absolutely crazy week for me at work as I worked double shifts on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. If I'm doing my math correctly, that means from Monday morning at 7:00 until last night at 11:00 I worked 48 hours out of 88. Methinks I just spent way too much time sitting behind a dispatch console but I guess that's what happens when I decide to spend a week off gallivanting in California! No wonder it was six years since my last visit!

As I was thinking about dragging myself out of bed this morning (after a very strange dream about a plasma tv mount!) to accomplish a few things on my day off - including making some blog rounds! - a couple of questions popped into my head that I thought might be a good basis for this post:

How many of you work crazy hours like I do?
What's your normal work week consist of?
Do you have a normal work week??

Anyhow, I'm off today but back to work tomorrow with shifts through until Tuesday so I'd best get going on that blog reading I'm so behind in. Why do I have a feeling of dread about opening my Google Reader?

Update: Good grief, people, there are 257 unread posts in my Google Reader! Please forgive me if I hit "Mark All As Read" and start over! Aiyee!!!

National Peace Officers' Memorial Day

Today is National Peace Officers’ Memorial Day, a day that was designated along with National Police week - the week in which May 15th falls - by President John F. Kennedy on October 1, 1962 when he signed Public Law 87-726 into affect. It wasn’t until May 15th, 1982, however, that the first National Peace Officers' Memorial Day Service was held in Washington D.C.

The 27th Annual Peace Officers’ Memorial Day Service, which is sponsored by the Grand Lodge Fraternal Order of Police and the Grand Lodge Fraternal Order of Police Auxiliary, will be held today at noon on the West Front Lawn of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Following the two hour service, the Wreath Laying Service will be held at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial which was dedicated in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush.

In a special proclamation issued on the 9th of May, President George W. Bush stated the following:

“Across our Nation, law enforcement officers carry the great responsibility of protecting their fellow citizens. On Peace Officers' Memorial Day and during Police Week, we honor these brave public servants who fight crime, violence, and terrorism, and we pay homage to the heroes who have fallen in the line of duty.

With valor and devotion, our country's law enforcement officers stand watch on the front lines and help make our communities safer and more secure. Fulfilling their duties with courage and commitment, they work tirelessly and put themselves in harm's way, exemplifying the good and decent character of America.

As we observe Peace Officers' Memorial Day and Police Week, we pause to pay tribute to those who serve in law enforcement. On this occasion, we especially remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and we pray for the families and friends they have left behind. We thank all the extraordinary American men and women who have answered the call to serve in law enforcement for their commitment to justice and to their communities.”

Last year, 181 federal, state and local law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty, one of the highest fatality figures in recent memory. As of this writing, 37 men and women have died in the line of duty during 2008 – 14 of them in the month of January alone. The numbers are staggering, the deaths heart-wrenching, and the losses stunning to the families, departments, and communities of those men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

I would ask you to join President Bush, those who have gathered in Washington, and myself in taking a few moments today to remember and thank the more than 17,500 Peace Officers who have been killed in the line of duty dating back to the first known death in 1792, as well as those Peace Officers who continue to protect and serve in communities throughout the United States.

Thank you one and all for your dedication and fortitude and may God bless you and protect you as you carry out your duties. Stay safe out there.

Moments of Melancholia

One week ago today I boarded the return flight for my trip home to Connecticut from California - the first half of the flight taking me from Sacramento to Minneapolis via Northwest Airlines. I wasn't anywhere near as nervous as I was when I boarded the flight in Philadelphia to take me westward bound. Instead I was somewhat pensive - ruminative if you prefer.

My trip to California had been a wonderful time and a break that I really needed as I could tell that the stresses of my job were piling up around me a little too high for my liking and I needed to get away for a bit. The six days that I spent in Stockton were good for me as they gave me a chance to do something for myself - to relax, to revisit parts of my past, and to reconnect with Cyndi and Grandma Edith - two people who are very important in my life. My trip afforded me the chance to meet four more wonderful people - Sandee and Zane and Katherine and her man; to pay respects at the grave of a fallen friend; to see how Stockton had grown and how it was attempting to revitalize; and the chance to fall back, regroup, and recharge the batteries a bit. All good things.

What my trip didn't provide me - and there are those of you who have asked about this - was a chance to speak to the person from my past who has always been, and will always be, special to me. After asking what you all thought, I did send him an email informing him of where I would be and how to contact me should he desire to do so but I had the distinct feeling when I sent it that it was going to go unanswered. Call it a hunch, call it intuition, call it knowing this guy pretty well even after not speaking to him for six years. I would have been pleasantly surprised had he actually contacted me but I was bound and determined not to be disappointed if he didn't.

He didn't but I didn't let that dampen my happiness of being back in Stockton and spending time with my best friend. My seeing him or speaking to him was never the basis of my going to Stockton to begin with even though I can't be in that city without, as Cyndi says, "all the triggers being there." That didn't mean I had to let those triggers screw up my vacation and I didn't. I didn't even think much about the whole thing until the time I boarded my flight home, sat down in my seat, and watched California grow smaller as we climbed to 36,000 feet on our way East.

The problem is that I think too much on airplanes. There isn't a whole lot else to do when you're susceptible to motion sickness and can't read books so as I listened to the songs on my iPod shuffle through their rotation, the thought occurred to me that I should be proud of myself as I had just spent almost an entire week in Stockton - land of major heartache for me - and I hadn't even come close to crying once. I had no sooner finished that thought when next thing I knew my eyes had filled with unbidden tears. Oh good Lord, I wasn't going to cry in front of a plane full of strangers, was I?

A feeling of melancholy seemed to drop down on me much like the oxygen masks in the overhead bins would drop down should there be a sudden change in cabin pressure but the only change in pressure was in my heart as I felt it grow heavy under the knowledge that I now knew for sure that I no longer meant a thing to the man I can no more remove from my heart than I can remove that heart and continue to live. Oh sure, I had a feeling I had ceased to exist six years ago but there's that whole "hope springs eternal" stuff and I guess the least cynical part of me had hung onto that tiny shred of hope in spite of the rest of me knowing better.

There is nothing worse than telling yourself "I told you so" but I spent most of the trip between Sacramento and Minneapolis telling myself that very thing over and over as I beat myself up with it hoping that eventually I'd be lucky enough to beat it right out of me. Logic told me I had no reason to be sad or melancholy while common sense told me to take a big get-over-it pill and move the heck on but sometimes logic and common sense are useless tools - especially in matters of the heart.

When we landed in Minneapolis, I called Cyndi to let her know that I had made it safely through the first part of my trip home and, because she's a good friend and knows when I'm lower than the treads on my sneakers, she passed along words of support and encouragement as well as concern that this would set my heart back a few years. I assured her that it wouldn't, that I still believed in true love and romance though perhaps not for me, and that I'd be okay once I could wrap my head around being a non-person where a certain individual was concerned.

Shortly after I hung up, the second leg of my flight boarded and while the plane shuttled through the air at 500 mph heading towards home I came to grips with the situation, sucked it up, and managed to swallow that big get-over-it pill that common sense had been encouraging me to take. In all honesty, nothing had changed, things were still the same, and when I got back to Connecticut my life would continue just as it had before I took a much-needed break. The only difference was that I had no reason to say that I would never return to California, or Stockton in particular, as I faced the past head-on and was none the worse for wear because of it.

As for the song ... seems kind of self-explanatory even if not entirely accurate. I'll always care - I just won't always hurt.

"Let Me Call You Sweetheart"

So - you're a teenager, your mom is going to California for a week, and you're going down to New Jersey to stay with your best friend - what do you do next?? Go to a concert! Better yet - go to two concerts!!

Actually, that's not exactly the truth. Amanda's plans for the concerts came into fruition long before my plans to go to California - which actually evolved around Amanda's plans to go to New Jersey. After all, bands tend to book concerts a lot further in advance than I would ever book a vacation and heaven forbid Amanda's favorite band, Mindless Self Indulgence, play a venue even close to somewhere nearby and she not be there!


This time around MSI was playing at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia followed by Bamboozle at the Meadowlands in New Jersey and Amanda and her friend Darci had been looking forward to both concerts the better part of forever (in teenage time). The last time Amanda had seen the band was at Projekt Revolution in August and in that time they'd put out a new album, If, and grown quite a bit in popularity.

Amanda had become even more of a fan than she was before, if that was at all possible, and she was a nervous wreck as to whether or not LynZ, MSI's bassist, might remember who she was from when she met her backstage in Hartford. She called me several times in California wondering what she should say.

Turns out that she didn't have to say anything as LynZ recognized and remembered her right away and all of that fretting was for naught as nervousness turned into exuberance and excitement and a myriad of teenage emotions that I have probably long forgotten over the years but am sure I would remember in a New York minute if the bassist from my favorite band remembered me by my first name! I've never had the opportunity to hang around with the members of my favorite band (hmm, do I even have a favorite band?) and talk to them like they were normal people but I would imagine that it was pretty darned exciting for Amanda - so darned exciting that she talked about it non-stop from just outside of Philadelphia to the other side of New York City on our way back to Connecticut on Tuesday night!

After MSI's set at Bamboozle, Amanda had the chance to talk to LynZ as well as get pictures taken with Kitty, the band's drummer, and also with Jimmy - lead singer and performer extraordinaire. Regular readers will remember Jimmy from my posts of last year's trip to Projekt Revolution as well as the excitement of JimJamz, the plushie doll Amanda made for Jimmy, making his own stage debut. Jimmy immediately remembered Amanda as "the plushie girl" and later referred to her as "sweetheart" and gave her a big kiss, something she was totally thrilled about. As for this picture, no - Amanda isn't wearing a scarf and Jimmy isn't constipated! It just looks that way on both counts! Regardless she sure looks happy, though, doesn't she? She might have looked happier had the security guard not been rushing them along and she could've gotten a better picture but for now, any picture with the flamboyant lead singer of your favorite band is better than NO picture with the flamboyant lead singer of your favorite band! Oh, and for the record, Jimmy still has JimJamz on the tour bus!

Of course, I can't leave out the other member of the band, Steve Righ? who is the guitarist and occasional back-up vocalist. Again, regular readers might remember the saga of the pantless plushie that Amanda had made in Steve's likeness and who eventually became fully clothed last November. She was finally able to proudly present the panted plushie personally and Steve was quite taken with the little guy (but not the pins she had used to hold his pants up with!).

All in all, Amanda and Darci had a fantastic time and they are now looking forward to July when MSI will be performing in nearby Hartford, a concert we will be attending along with Jason, Amy, Cate, and Amy's mom. I'm sure it's going to be a great time and I can guarantee you that there will be a post or two that comes out of it! At least!

Happy Mother's Day 2008!

The bucket of flowers above is the Mother's Day gift I put together for my own Mom but I thought it was so pretty that I wanted to share it with the rest of the moms (and not-moms!) out there! Not to pat myself on the back too much and sprain my hand but I think I did a pretty good job with it!

I hope that all the mothers of the world have a glorious day today with lots of special times to create special memories! Now I'm outta here to go to a cook-out with Jason and Amy and Cate and Amanda and whoever else shows up! Behave yourselves while I'm gone!

Driving Traffic to Your Blog

Correct me if I'm wrong but one of the reasons that we all blog is so that other people can read what we write, correct? We all take pride in our posts and the content of our blogs and if we were just writing for ourselves, we'd have a private online journal versus a public web log, right? Consequently we, as bloggers, are looking for traffic to our blogs but not just people who are clicking through from one blog to the next - we want repeat traffic from people who come to our blogs, read our posts, and even sometimes - gasp! - leave a comment or two.

One of the ways that we create traffic and keep people coming back is to write new content so that people have something to come back for but unless someone has subscribed to your blog in a reader or constantly check back on a regular basis, how do they know that a new post is up? What if there were an easier way to let people know that you've got new content? What if you could create a newsletter with a summary of what's new on your blog and then send it out on either a daily, weekly, or monthly basis directly to the email in-box of people you know are interested in reading your blog? And what if you could do all that for free?

Well, there is a way to do all that by simply registering with Zookoda, an email marketing application designed specifically for bloggers that sends quality email newsletters that help you promote and keep readers up-to-date with your blog directly to your reader's email boxes. Zookoda works with any existing blogs that are managed by Blogger, Yahoo! 360, MovableType, TypePad, WordPress, Bloglines or MSN Spaces and signing up is quick and easy. Once you register for an account, you identify which feed you wish to broadcast, select a template, schedule a broadcast, and then place a piece of code for a Zookoda subscription form on your blog. Your readers subscribe by entering their email address, Zookoda stores these details and adds them to your mailing list, and then you sit back and track the results. If you've got more than one blog, as many people do, you can manage, support and promote multiple blogs with just a single Zookoda account. The best part is - no hardware or software is needed to use Zookoda and you don't have to be an IT genius either!

If you're looking for a great way to keep people apprised of what's going on with your blog and keep them coming back for more, then check out Zookoda and see what they've got to offer - it's free, it's easy, and it drives that all important traffic that we bloggers so love right to the place we want it to be - on our page!

It Was the Best of Times!

It's hard to believe that it was only one week ago tonight that I was on the West Coast and meeting two of my favorite bloggers at my favorite Mexican restaurant but that's exactly what it was. As cold and rainy as it is here in Connecticut tonight, I find myself wishing I was right back there not just for the warmer weather but for the fantastic company that I found myself amongst when I got to meet Sandee from Comedy Plus and Katherine of Wading Through My Stream of Consciousness.

I had posted a few pictures last week of our meeting but hoped to have more once our personal photographer/videographer (Sandee's husband Zane) had a chance to forward them to us. He has now done so and now I get to share a bit more of the night with you. Bear in mind while looking at these pictures that we got to the restaurant while the sun was shining but it was fully dark by the time we called it an evening. All told we spent almost four hours together but it hardly seemed like one!



In addition to the slideshow, I've got a video clip that I thought I would share with you that you might find amusing as - what do bloggers talk about when they get together? - blogging of course! Unfortunately I was sitting right next to Zane so my voice (which I hate!) is the loudest but I think you can hear everyone else, too.


I had an absolutely fantastic evening with Sandee and Zane, Katherine and The Teamster, and - of course my good friend and sidekick, Cyndi. The food was good, the margarita was great (and not tiny!), and the chance to meet two people in person that I've come to know through our adventures in blogging was the best part.

I have met so many wonderful people since I started this blog and my life has been enriched by all of you no matter whether I've met you in person or only virtually and I want to take this time to thank you all for being a part of my life - you're the best!

Happy Birthday to My Son!

Isn't it funny how when you go on a vacation, once you get back from that vacation you feel like you now need a vacation to recover from the vacation that you were just on?

That's how I'm feeling at the moment but there's simply no time to just kick back and lounge around the house as there are things that need to be done such as grocery shopping (Amanda seems to think we actually need food in the house!), finding a Mother's Day present for my mom, putting together the last of the pictures from my vacation, and making potato salad for a cook-out I'm going to on Sunday at Jason & Amy's for a late celebration of Jason's birthday. I'm sure there's more in there, (stopping in for quick Lasik surgery would be nice but I can't afford it!) but that's enough of a list for now!

Speaking of birthdays, it was 27 years ago today Sgt Pepper taught the band to play ... uhm, no wait, I got sidetracked by random Beatles' lyrics! ... That wasn't what I wanted to say! ... It was 27 years ago today that I gave birth to my first child and only son - Michael.

Looks like he should be a bouncer on the Jerry Springer Show, doesn't he?? Actually he may look all tough and mean but he isn't really and in spite of the fact that he always said he was never going to get married and have kids, he's done a darned fine job with both his stepson Christopher and his own personal version of the Energizer Bunny - Mathew.

Mike and Laura, his wife, should be stopping by later on tonight to pick up his birthday present that I got in California (where he was born by the way!) on their way to see the new Speed Racer movie so perhaps I'll pick up a birthday cake while I'm out and about getting those groceries Amanda seems to think we need! After all, what's a birthday without cake - right, Miss Bee??

Help yourselves to a virtual slice - there's coffee around here somewhere, too - while I go take care of some errands. I'll be back later with more pictures from my evening at Cancun with Katherine and Sandee and other assorted stuff!

Three More Officers Fall in the Line of Duty in May

The Orangeburg Country Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina lost one of their own on Saturday, May 3rd, when Deputy Sheriff William Howell Jr. was shot and killed while responding to a domestic disturbance. As Deputy Howell arrived to assist a female victim with removing clothing from a residence, her husband opened fire with a rifle striking the Deputy in the neck. As the suspect attempted to flee the home, he was run over and killed by his wife but not before Deputy Howell died from his wounds.

A three year veteran of the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Howell served in law enforcement for a total of 16 years having previously served as a jailer at the Berkeley County Detention Center, with the Moncks Corner Police Department, the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office, and as an officer with the Jamestown Police.

Deputy Howell, age 46, leaves behind his wife Michelle and three sons.

In a second Line of Duty death on the same day, Sergeant Stephen Liczbinski, a 12-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, was gunned down following a bank robbery at approximately 11:30 a.m.

Sergeant Liczbinski encountered the suspects and stopped their car but as he exited his patrol car, a suspect opened fire with an SKS carbine striking him several times. Several citizens who witnessed the shooting rushed to assist the fallen officer who told them “I want you to tell my wife I’ll miss her” before he lost consciousness. Another officer and a citizen carried Sergeant Liczbinski to a patrol car and transported him to Temple University Hospital where he died from his wounds.

The third Philadelphia police officer to be shot and killed in the past two years, Sergeant Liczbinski was assigned to the 24th District and would have turned 40 on May 6th. He leaves behind his wife and three children.

A deadly week for Line of Duty deaths continued with the motor vehicle death of Special Agent Aaron Garcia of the Union Pacific Railroad Police Department on Wednesday, May 7th.

Special Agent Garcia, a 2-1/2 year veteran of his department, was killed in a single vehicle accident in Mecca, a small town south of Palm Springs, California while on patrol shortly before 12:30 a.m.

Agent Garcia, age 39, leaves behind his wife and children.

Please keep the families and Departments of these brave men in your thoughts and prayers as you have for the others who have gone before them.

I Just Flew In From California ...

... and boy are my arms tired! Groan ... Sorry, couldn't help myself on that one, I've always wanted to do bad stand-up comedy and trust me - it would be really, really bad stand-up comedy!

Truth be told, it's the day after I flew in from California and then proceeded to drive another 230 miles from New Jersey back to Connecticut so ... yeah ... I'm a little tired but not too bad all things considered. I got to bed around 2:30 a.m. Right Coast time after getting up at 5:15 a.m. Left Coast time so that's kind of weird but it's all good and now I'm back home safe, sound, and shocked that it all seemed to happen so fast.

I have to be at work in about an hour so this post is just to let everyone know that I arrived home uneventfully and I will return to making all of my blog rounds and posting a few more California pictures hopefully tomorrow after work.

Oh, and lest you all think that Amanda missed me or was bored to tears while I was gone, there's also going to be a post about her adventures at Bamboozle where she got to meet up and hobnob with the members of her favorite band - Mindless Self Indulgence. Just as a preview of that post, here's a picture of her talking to LynZ, bassist of the band, that was taken by a guy that Amanda knows who goes by the name of Fith on the Mindless Self Indulgence Underground board.

Amanda, some bodyguard guy, and LynZ

It took Amanda from the time we left Darcy's house down near Philadelphia all the way to New York City to fill me in on how great the concert was and everything she talked to LynZ about (none of which was about natural acne treatment - go figure!) so there's plenty of stuff for a post there as soon as I can fully recover from my jet lag and get caught up!

In the meantime, thank you to everyone for putting up with my non-blog-visiting during the past week while I was out indulging in a Mexican food, friendship, and sunshine!

Now to get back to work ... sigh ...

And Just Like That, It's Time to Go!

Monday was my last full day on the Left Coast and it was another beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the San Joaquin Valley in the mid 80's. I can't believe that it's time to go already but tomorrow is my return to my real life and today was the last day to enjoy my vacation. Cyndi and I set out mid-morning in search of a few things for me to bring back with me and ended up out in the middle of Lodi grape country tasting a little more olive oil and even some mustard.

From there we went back to Stockton and, because it was Cinco de Mayo and you can't not have Mexican food on that day!, we stopped off at another favorite Mexican restaurant - Miguel's. This restaurant was actually the very first Mexican restaurant I ever dined at in Stockton way back in 1980 when I made my very first visit out here with my first husband.

This time I ordered a chicken taco and enchilada and a chili relleno - things I hadn't had yet while I was here and, of course, some guacamole to go along with it. I know it looks like a big brown mess on the plate but it sure was good (though not as good as the food at Cancun in my own humble opinion!).

After gorging ourselves, Cyndi and I then went to spend some time visiting with Grandma Edith before we did a little more exploring around Stockton. As Cyndi put it, she saw more of her own city while I was here than she has in ages but I think that's a good thing as Stockton has made a lot of positive changes and I don't view it with the same cynical view that she does. Of course, I'm not a native Stocktonian so that probably accounts for a lot of it!

I need to quit procrastinating and get things packed for an early departure tomorrow morning but when I get back to the Right Coast, I've got plenty more pictures to share from my much-needed and much-enjoyed vacation. I'd promise to post one of myself and Cyndi but, idiots that we are, we neglected to take one so I'm hoping Zane has one from our night out at Cancun that Sandee can forward to me! Well, it's either that or I'm going to have to come back again soon to get a picture!

California Cruising on a Sunday Afternoon

With no particular agenda and nowhere special we wanted to go, Cyndi and I set out Sunday morning I pointed the car in a westerly direction to see where the road might take us ...

We crossed the first span of the Bay Bridge in Oakland

Then crossed the second half of the Bay Bridge into San Francisco.

This was our view of San Francisco from the Bay Bridge and the clouds were looking a little ominous!

Buildings in San Francisco can certainly make a person feel small!

We drove past Pier 29 near Fisherman's Wharf

Before stopping to take a picture of Alcatraz, aka "The Rock", in the middle of San Francisco Bay

And then taking in the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the marina.

This was my very first time ever driving over the Golden Gate Bridge.

After crossing through Marin County into Sonoma County, we stopped in to do some olive oil tasting.

The Olive Press had some very tasty olive oils!

Continuing on we drove past vineyards in the Napa Valley

And of course I stopped to take a closer picture of the grapevines!

Turning down Route 12 towards Rio Vista, we saw windmills outside of Fairfield

While the clouds and blue sky were lovely on our way back to Stockton.

One picture I don't have is of the California Highway Patrol Officer who pulled me over in San Francisco for making an illegal left turn even though she was very nice and didn't give me a ticket. She said that it was marked for "no left turn" but neither Cyndi or I saw that posted and after the unexpected traffic stop, we backtracked to the intersection and still didn't see a sign anywhere! Oh well, guess it's all part of the California experience though I have to say that's most definitely a first for me!

Chasing the Echoes of My Past

Palm Trees near the Stockton Channel

The past few days in Stockton have been a time of meeting new friends and reconnecting with parts of my past that, to be perfectly honest, I never thought I'd see again. It's been an opportunity to see how much has changed in this city I used to call home and how much has also stayed the same over the years. As I told Cyndi when we were driving around on Friday, she probably can't see the changes as much as I can as she's lived here all of her life and sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees, as the saying goes.

In the past few days I've seen a Stockton that has grown way beyond the northern boundaries that I used to dispatch to and a downtown that has been attempting a revitalization that is quite impressive compared to what it used to be. It boggles my mind a bit to know that I used to know pretty much every street in this city as I'm sure I'd be totally lost behind a dispatch console here now. Still - as I drove around both Friday and Saturday, I saw so much that was still so familiar to me and I found myself actually missing being a part of this community whether Forbes has ranked it as the second most miserable city in the country or not.

My former home on Lincoln Street

One of the places I made a point of going by was the house I used to rent from April of 1984 to late 1985. As I sat across the street in my rental car and looked at it, I was flooded with so many memories of my time there but I have to say that they were almost all entirely good. My parents came out from Connecticut to visit me when I lived in that house, I had the best roommate ever named Scott when I lived in that house, I had many a conversation over a cup of coffee with Cyndi in that house, my son Michael started kindergarten at the school across the street from that house ... It was a good house in a good neighborhood and Michael and I had been happy there. Too bad my landlord sold it and I had to move elsewhere!

After reminiscing on Lincoln Street for a little while I then drove over to visit Grandma Edith, who had no idea that I was in California. I wanted to surprise her and I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I did! At 85 years old the poor dear has pretty lousy eyesight so she had no clue it was me at the front door that her little dog Precious was barking so furiously at. When she asked if she could help me I said, "Well I certainly didn't come 3,000 miles to be barked at!" "Linda??" she asked incredulously before she opened the door and gave me a big grandmotherly hug. We spent a lovely afternoon together and she made sure to take me around to all of her neighbors and introduce me as her granddaughter even though technically I hadn't been that for a very long time ever since her grandson and I had ended our marriage while he went out to chase single women. Grandma Edith is as good as they get, though, and I will always consider her to be my grandmother no matter what. When I left I promised her that I'd be back on Monday and would bring Cyndi with me as she's met Cyndi before and really likes her.

Grandma Edith and Precious

Before coming back to my hotel, I decided to drive around Stockton a little more and take some pictures. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the high 70's - low 80's and the sun was shining brightly in the sky. Considering that it was raining and in the 50's back home in Connecticut I was planning on taking full advantage of the beautiful weather! I've put together a slideshow and placed it at the end of this post if you'd like to see a little bit of Stockton.

Once I finished traipsing around town it was time to head back to the Courtyard Marriott and consider doing some laundry. Yep, I'm in California on a Saturday night and I'm in my hotel doing laundry - what is wrong with me?!? Prior to that, though, I needed to consider what to get for dinner as I'd rather neglected to eat all day. Hmm, what to get that I couldn't get back home that wasn't Mexican? Carl's Jr? In n' Out Burger? Manny's California Fresh? No ... wait ... I knew just the place - Jack in the Box for an ultimate cheeseburger and seasoned curly fries!

A burger you can't get in Connecticut!

I brought my cousin Amy's favorite California cuisine back to the hotel with me and as I took it out and - of course - took a picture for you, my readers, I decided that I wasn't even going to think about the calorie and fat count of such a delicacy as that would certainly suck all of the treat out of eating it. After all, they don't call it an ultimate cheeseburger for nothing and the fries aren't half bad either!

I'm not quite positive yet where our adventures will take us today (I'm pretty sure it won't be to the poker tables in Tahoe or Jackson!) but Cyndi and I will be back on the road and exploring somewhere in California. No matter where it is, though, rest assured that there will be a post with plenty of pictures! In the meantime, I hope enjoy these -

Yes, Cyndi. There Really Are Bloggers!

I doubt the Cancun Restaurant in downtown Stockton will ever be the same after last night when myself, Sandee, and Katherine descended upon the establishment to finally meet after having known each other virtually for quite some time now. Rumor has it that they've posted a sign on the front door stating that they reserve the right to refuse service to bloggers or people with cameras but I haven't been able to verify that yet!

Sandee brought along her handsome husband Zane who took pictures and videos all night long in order to document our historic meeting, Katherine arrived on the back of a beautiful black Harley Davidson with her hunky Teamster, and I brought along my bestest friend Cyndi who, like Virginia with her Santa Claus, was skeptical that bloggers really existed. Ah but yes Cyndi, they really do exist and they are even more wonderful in real life than they are on the web page!

Big hugs were exchanged all the way around in the foyer of the restaurant (and it didn't even occur to me that I'm not necessarily the hugging type) before we took over a table smack in the middle of the restaurant and ordered drinks and dinner. When my margarita arrived I immediately thought of Mags and our first meeting when the margaritas we ordered turned out to be tiny little things hardly worthy of the name! Much to Cyndi's bemusement I immediately whipped out my camera to photograph my drink but I think she was finally getting somewhat used to the idea that bloggers take pictures of absolutely everything and anything!

Naturally I had to take a picture of my dinner when it arrived, too as I had been talking up the great Mexican food at Cancun for way too long NOT to post a picture of it so that people could see what I was talking about. Cyndi again shook her head thinking I had totally lost it while Katherine and Sandee knew exactly what I was doing and why! Sometimes I think being a blogger is somewhat similar to being a member of a society or group as there seems to be some sort of unwritten Blogger Code starting with "Thou shalt have thy digital camera with thee at all times and photograph non-stop"!

Sometimes we even make people repeat things as I did when Sandee and Zane toasted each other and then kissed when their glasses of wine arrived. Apparently it's a tradition for them and, being the overly romantic type that I am, I thought it was just the sweetest thing ever and I definitely needed a picture! They were more than happy to oblige and do a repeat for a photo op and I got the distinct feeling that it was a ritual that they participate in quite frequently - and I don't blame them in the least! Ah, love!

It's funny how when you meet a blogger in person, you don't feel like you're meeting someone for the first time as you know so much about them and their lives beforehand. I felt like I was spending an evening with old friends as we laughed and joked and shared stories and I think that Cyndi felt just as comfortable as she added her own brand of "snarkasm" to the conversations. I'm sure it was easy for Sandee and Katherine to see why I would break my oath of "I'll never go to California" again to visit the friend who knows me better than I know myself.

The time just flew by and before we knew it it was 10:00 and, with The Teamster having to get up at 4:30 to go to work, it was time to go. As we walked outside, the sky over Stockton lit up with fireworks - just for me! Well ... okay ... maybe not just for me but for The Ports, Stockton's minor league baseball team who had apparently just wrapped up their game but the timing couldn't have been better. I think that fireworks should be set off whenever blogging friends are able to get together and meet!


We posed for a few more pictures and then exchanged hugs again before Katherine and her beau saddled up and got ready to make the trek south. As Sandee and Zane and Cyndi and I walked to the parking lot we talked about how wonderful it was to have finally met and how much fun it would be to someday have a Blogger's Convention where we would have the chance to meet so many more of the dear friends that we've made through this pastime of ours. It really is so special when you finally get to meet people that you have come to think of as friends and I was so happy to have met two of those very special people last night at one of my favorite restaurants with my favorite friend along for the journey.

This trip has really been wonderful so far and I'm so glad that I overcame my hesitations at coming West as meeting Sandee and Katherine along with Zane and The Teamster was truly an honor and one of the highlights of my life. It appears that I've got two very good reasons to come out to California again!

My Journey West

After a lot of anticipation and more nerves than were probably necessary, Amanda and I finally started out for New Jersey Wednesday afternoon around 3:45 when we began our trek down the Connecticut Turnpike from Norwich to Marlton and the home of her friend Darcy. Traffic was typical for I95 in Connecticut (way too much of it!) but it flowed along quite nicely until just about the New York border when the word "delay" first came into play for the trip. As we crawled along in traffic outside of Stamford, Amanda decided to take a couple of cell phone pictures - one of which is this one. And no, I wasn't driving sideways!

We finally arrived at Darcy's house almost 230 miles later and with only one wrong turn along the way. Not bad I'd say! I got to meet Darcy's family who had graciously offered to let me stay there and drive me to the airport in Philadelphia the next morning rather than having to pay parking fees. Darcy lives with her mother, father, grandmother, and her 9-year old brother Dylan who is a special needs child who is confined to a wheelchair and has his father's beautiful curly hair. After a late dinner of pizza, salad, and strawberry shortcake I crawled into bed with the alarm set for the un-Godly hour of 5:30 in order to get to the airport on time.

Darcy's mom got me to the Philadelphia airport in plenty of time and despite what I had heard, going through security really wasn't too bad. I chatted with another lady in line who was going to Los Angeles for 11 days and it turned out that she sat across the aisle from me on the very same flight I was going on! Unfortunately I got seated on the aisle for the first leg of my flight and not only that but it was the row in front of the emergency exits so the seats didn't recline. Argh! On the good side, though, there was no one in the middle seat so the guy by the window and I lucked out there as the plane was pretty packed.

We pushed back from the gate at exactly 8:00 when our flight was due to leave and then sat in line for almost 45 minutes while 14 other planes took off ahead of us. This would be the second time the word "delay" came into use. As I sat there listening to my iPod and trying not to think about windsheer and the risk of too many planes taking off one right after the other I wasn't too nervous as I figured from here on in it was up to the skills of the flight crew and God to get us to Denver safely. As a matter of fact, I nodded off I was so relaxed!

Take-off, which is the part of flying I hate the most, turned out to be so smooth I barely knew that we were in the air (especially not being in the window seat) and the remainder of the flight was quite smooth with the exception of some bumpy air over what I think might have been Kansas. As we approached Denver with almost all of our time spent waiting to take off made up, the Captain announced that it was snowing there. Huh? Snow? In May? (I guess people in Denver have no use for pool toys yet!) I hadn't listened to any weather reports so that was quite the surprise to me. We landed with no problems at all and I unboarded the plane into the airport only to find out that the plane for the rest of my trip was the one I had just gotten off of! I had enough time to stretch my legs, send a couple of text messages, and take a few pictures before getting back on board.

Again, we pushed back from the gate right on time and that's when the word "delay" came into play for the third time when we had to wait to be de-iced before take-off. The Captain explained the whole procedure and told us that it was going to be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before we would even get to the de-icing pads. This time I was lucky enough to be in a window seat in row #1 right behind the bulkhead and again there was no one seated between myself and the guy on the aisle (who was a little strange, I might add). My camera was in the bag in the overhead compartments so I couldn't get to it but I used my cell phone to take the picture of the planes next to us being de-iced. It isn't the best quality but I still thought it was definitely a "blogging moment". After an hour and 15 minutes we finally taxied out to the runway for our turn to take off but I really didn't mind the delay as I figured better safe than sorry, especially when it comes to being in an airplane!

Once we climbed to our cruising altitude of 36,000 feet the clouds were merely fluffy puffs of cotton below us and even though I was bit disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to see the Rocky Mountains, I still loved the view from my window as I surveyed the clouds below us and the blue sky above us. Even though I'm not real keen on the take-off part of flying, once we're in the sky I absolutely love it as there is nothing like looking at your world from a high altitude and marveling at the beauty of it.

Having criss-crossed the country numerous times over the course of my life I've got a pretty decent grasp on the geography and had a pretty good idea of what we were flying over based on what I could see below me such as the Great Salt Lake and Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. I was delighted when we flew past Lake Tahoe, one of my most favorite places in the country. It might be kind of hard to tell from that altitude but it really is gorgeous!

We finally landed at Sacramento Airport a good hour plus behind schedule but the sun was shining, the temperatures were in the 70's, and it was beautiful. After waiting for my bag to appear (apparently it was the first on in Philly and the last off in Sacramento!), I made my way over to the Hertz counter where I found a pretty metallic blue Mazda 3 5-door waiting for me. Considering I drive a Mazda at home - though a sportier version - I should have no trouble driving this car at all.

My hour drive from Sacramento to Stockton was uneventful, which was good as it was now a full 12-hours after I had started out in the morning and I was starting to feel just a little bit tired around the edges. Upon arriving at my hotel the guy at the front desk was extremely friendly and curious as to what on earth would bring me to Stockton for a vacation? Good question I suppose as I'm guessing a lot of people don't vacation in Stockton! I told him that I was here for friends and Mexican food and he said that sounded like reason enough and wished me a great stay after giving me a cookie and the key to an absolutely fantastic room.

The Courtyard Marriott is just as nice as I remember it from my March 2002 stay and I couldn't be happier with my room which, with a posted rate of $199 a night on the door, is a real steal at only $50 a night! It's roomy, comfortable, has a glorious king-size bed with six pillows, free internet access, and the shower alone was more than worth the 3,000 mile journey! Ah, now this is a vacation!!

Cyndi is on her way over shortly and once she gets here we plan on going by the Stockton Cemetery to pay our respects at our friend Timmy's grave (Timmy is one of the police officers I used to work with who was killed in the Line of Duty in February of 1990) and I always try to get by his grave when I am out here. After that, it's lunch somewhere with food I can't get in Connecticut and then tonight I'm going to be meeting up with Sandee of Comedy Plus and her hubby Zane and Katherine of Wading Through My Stream of Consciousness and her significant other at my beloved Cancun Mexican Restaurant. The place may never be the same! I'll keep you posted and I promise pictures! Now - on to the fun!

Honoring Three Fallen Heros

I crossed my fingers that I was going to get through April with only one law enforcement line of duty death but sadly, such was not the case with the death of two more men over the past several weeks.

Corrections Officer Kenneth Duncan, a 17-year veteran of the New York City Department of Corrections, was shot in the face and killed on April 22 while off-duty and in his own driveway. Officer Duncan and a friend were working on his motorcycles when they were approached by two males who drew a firearm and attempted to steal the motorcycles. Officer Duncan drew his off-duty weapon and identified himself as a corrections officer. The suspect opened fire hitting Officer Duncan once in the face who was able to return fire, but was not able to hit the suspects. The wounded officer was transported to Brookdale Hospital in New York City where he died.

Officer Duncan, age 40, was a former Marine and is survived by two children.

Trooper James Scott Burns of the Texas Highway Patrol was shot and killed on April 29th during the course of a traffic stop in Kellyville, Texas, about 135 miles east of Dallas. Trooper Burns had attempted to pull over the suspect's vehicle when the suspect vehicle took off and led the Trooper on a short high-speed pursuit. Suddenly the suspect stopped the vehicle and then, according to a spokesperson for Texas Department of Public Safety, "The suspect quickly exited the vehicle before our trooper could even do anything, He proceeded to fire rounds into the patrol vehicle, striking and killing our officer."

The suspect, a former law enforcement officer who had been previously arrested on drug charges, fled the scene and committed suicide two days later.

Trooper Burns had served with the Texas Department of Public Safety for 5 years and is survived by his wife, Michaela, and 5-month-old daughter Micah.

In addition to the April losses, May 1st saw the death of yet another law enforcement officer when a traffic accident claimed the life of Deputy Sheriff Robert Griffin of the Decatur County Sheriff's Office in Georgia. Deputy Griffin was responding to the report of a juvenile threatening suicide when his vehicle left the highway and struck a tree on the driver's side of the vehicle killing him at the scene.

Deputy Griffin was a U.S. Navy veteran and had served with the Decatur County Sheriff's Office for 3 years where he was a member of the Sheriff's Emergency Response Team, SWAT. He is survived by his wife, three children, and his mother.

Please take a moment to say a prayer for the family, friends, and colleagues of this brave men.

Eureka! I've Arrived!

Quick post tonight because I am what one might call totally worn out after my jaunt across the country with Stretch over there to the left that started with the drive from Connecticut to New Jersey after work yesterday afternoon and ended with my landing in Sacramento this afternoon. I at least wanted to post tonight and say that I am safely in California and ensconced in a really great hotel room with a bed that has a mattress that I'm sure I'm going to absolutely love in just about ten minutes or so just as soon as I hit the publish key on this and call it a night!

I've got lots of pictures and stories to tell already so am going to try to get a post put up tomorrow morning while waiting for Cyndi to take care of a few things before we get together to get caught up on the last six years (or as much of it as we haven't kept ourselves informed of via telephone that is!).

One of the highlights of tomorrow is also going to be dinner with Sandee and Katherine and I'm really looking forward to that and meeting two more bloggers in person! I get the feeling Cyndi is in for a quite a shock ... as is Sandee's husband and Katherine's Teamster! I'll let you know but for now, that bed is calling and it's been a long couple of days!