Ride Along conclusion

this is all you get to see of O1..the side of his badge

*Policemen, and I say policemen because I have no contact with policewomen, talk. They talk and talk and talk and talk. They talk to the bad guys, they talk to the good guys, they comfort, cajole, convince, and shout. They also gossip, and chat and chatter. I once again refer to this post. It was very odd, for me, a woman with daughters, who works almost exclusively with women, is friends with mainly women, to spend the evening with so many men. Odd and amusing. As with ethnicity and race, men and women are completely alike. Sometimes we just choose to allow our differences to come between us.
*Our last call wasn't a call at all. We were heading back to the police station. As we turned the corner, O1 said, “Man, that guy is messed up!” Naturally, I was still thinking traffic stops and couldn't’t figure out what the little red car was doing wrong. (because the person was a minor, a victim not a bad guy, I am going to mix up the gender. Some of this may sound awkward because of that it’s the only way I can figure to keep some modicum of privacy.) We rounded the corner, pulled up on the curb of the underpass and he shined the light on the girl. “Oh %^#*%! ” was all O1 said. The girl was beat up. His face was a bit bloody, eye swollen and he had a generally beat up face. She was talking of the phone. O1 spoke to an out of town parent on the other end of the phone for a minute before the battery died. The child was upset, beat up and very, very drunk. He kept stumbling downward towards O1. O1 would calmly push him back to the pillar and tell him to lean against the pillar. After a lot of negotiating and getting the child to sit on the ground, O1 called for an ambulance. O1 walked away to talk on the radio to whomever he needed to talk to and the girl slumped to the ground. She had passed out. That is when the ambulance pulled up. EMS started talking to him, wiggling his foot and wanting to help but he started to get agitated. O1 had to go to his car about the same time that EMS arrived. Suddenly, the EMT is yelling, “Officer, Officer!” and pointing to the child who decided to get away and was standing in the middle of the turnaround lane. O1 and the EMT got to him, and O1 put his hand on the boy’s arm to get him out of the street. This only agitated him further so O1 put his arm around him to help move him. Wrong! This really upset the child and O1 had to link into the kids’ arms and force her to walk on back on the sidewalk. She would not stop trying to get away. The next thing I knew, the child was on the ground and O1 had his knee in her back holding her down, calling for backup. I was amazed at how quickly things deteriorated. I was also amazed at the agility of O1 to put the child to the ground without slamming, dropping or hurting him. Well, remember the whole respond as a team thing from the last post? Well before you could say tiddlywinks, there were more two more sets flashing lights joining the fray! Another Lieutenant this time. They finally got the child on a stretcher, restrained but things continued to deteriorate. She decided to spit on the EMT. Not once, but twice. Bad move. Out came the spit mask. All the while she was struggling and acting up, O1 was trying to tell her to calm down, she was the victim not the criminal. It didn't help. The Lieutenant told O1 that he had to accompany the boy to the ER and find someone to release him to. The child’s phone was dead, he didn’t would’t tell of anyone here……it was a conundrum! Off we go to the trauma hospital. All cities have one. It’s the one where they take the gunshots, stabbings, etc. O1 showed me all the hot spots Friday night because I had never been there before either. I was dying to use the restroom but if you think I was going to lose sight of him in the ER of that hospital, you’re nuts! I followed like a puppy! This poor kid was all kind of upset, struggling, spitting and just making a ruckus! I was right there in the hallway! O1 kept trying to calm him. At one point another officer came out of the room and attempted to clear the hallway. “YOU! Are you with them!? He was pointing at me and another patient. NO, I’M WITH HIM!!! Thank goodness!!! I just tried to stay out of the way. Luckily the out of town dad called the in town mom and she was at the hospital. Problem solved. We went out to talk to her and again I got “WHO”S SHE?” (All night long people were wondering who I was and why I was standing there.) Whew. Time to go home. O1 just looked at me and smiled as we walked out to the car. First he asked if I had fun, then he asked if I wanted to wait around for the gunshot wounds on their way to the hospital. I declined! What a way to end the night! So ya see, when he flashed the lights and sirens (see the last post), I told him that was just gravy!

The thing that impressed me the most about the entire evening was the proactive approach O1 had. He was the kind of officer I would like to help me if, g-d forbid, I should ever need it. We were together for nearly 12 straight hours and the time just flew by! Sometimes I get bored with myself after so long!!!! He made a fatal, fatal mistake though…. He said that I could go out with him again……….

Ride Along continued

*The computer screams and dings, the flashing lights are blinding, the speed you zoooooooom down the road, making zippy in U-turns for traffic stops, listening to the radio, listening to the police radio, calling in license numbers and listening for answers, chatting, getting in and out, in and out of the car, dealing with life’s problems, dealing with those that MAKE their life a problem, being on edge at the beginning of a call….it’s was a very sensorial evening.
*One woman called 911 for personal assistance. (I don’t want to go into to great of detail about what calls were about called because these are people’s lives here. I was basically a voyeur into them.) O1 & O2 couldn’t do anything for her. O2 had already spoken to her once before. (there really was nothing they could do to help her.) She got mad. She was also filled with attitude, a bit belligerent and didn’t seem completely in control. She was holding all of her belongings in a grocery bag under her arm.
She kept saying, loudly, “YOU aren’t doing your jobs!!
O2 - “Lady, I can’t help you with this.
Lady- “YOU AREN’T DOING YOUR JOB!
O1 - “Did you do X”? Did you do Y? Yes. Well, then we cannot help you. You
have to go to court to take care of this.”
Lady - YOU AREN’T DOING YOUR JOB! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO YOUR
JOB!
O2 - “But lady, we cannot do this!
Lady - FINE then, give me your badge number. I’m going report that you aren’t
doing your JOB!
O2 - “You already took my badge number on the last call!”
Lady - She turns to O1, “fine give me YOUR number!”
She reached into the bag and pulled out this itty bitty receipt. She searches for a pen.
O1 - “Here, let me write it down for you!”
Lady –“Do you have a phone”?
A phone? O1 points across the street
O1 – “You can use the payphone at the convenience store there.
Lady - “Well, do you have money”?
O2 - WHO are you going to call”?
Lady - I'm calling THE POLICE!!!!
O2 - LADY WE ARE THE POLICE!!!!
Lady – “ BUT YOU AREN’T DOING YOUR JOB!!!!!!
I nearly cracked up when she told the police that she was going to call the police!!!!!! OMGoodness. It ended with them sending her on her way.

*When there were no calls needing attention, O1 and O2 did traffic stops. Now let’s not confuse traffic stops with handing out tickets. They actually didn’t hand out even one ticket. As O1 said, they are looking for drugs and thugs. Well, in the meantime, any itty, bitty infraction was cause for us to zooooooom down the road, throw on the flashers, pull the car over and give them the once over. O1 and O2 took turns being on point and most of the time I had to ask why we were stopping this car or that. Trust me; take a look at the lights that illuminate your license plate. These traffic stops got to be kinda funny because they didn’t hand out one ticket. When they weren’t stopping cars, they were running license plates. I looked at O1 and said “You don’t give out tickets.” He jokingly said, ok fine, next traffic stop, I’ll give them a ticket, just for you! It was a little lady sitting right on top of her steering wheel, peering over the dashboard. I looked at him. Nah, he didn’t give her a ticket.
*when we finished with dinner and got back into the car, O1 looked at me and said “You ready to go have fun!” These guys LOVE their job. They spend half of their day playing counselor and half of their day enforcing the law.
* I was really hoping that we would get a chance to go with lights and siren. We didn’t. The police must have a certain level call or be given permission to use sirens. O1 was pretty funny because we were nearly back to the station, he was talking on the phone, he put the phone to his shoulder said “hang on” and turned on the lights and sirens for about 1 sec.! He then went back to his phone call and said, “ Yeah, she wanted to go lights and siren and we never got a chance!” I thought that was pretty nice! Not quite the same but really nice.

One more entry on this topic….It was the most interesting call of the evening and the reason why I got home at 4 am…….

Ride along

I decided the only way I can report about my ride along on Friday is through random bits & pieces. It will be so much easier to document. (This will be long and I'm going to divide it into more than one post. Remember, I use my blog not only for quilting but also for journaling) Needless to say I had a blast. The officer I was with is a parent at our school. It calmed my nerves a bit to be with someone I knew. I wouldn't have been able to breathe had I been with a total stranger.
* I was so nervous as I walked out the door of my house that I thought I might have a tachycardia episode. I had to keep taking deep, calming breaths all the way to the station. My biggest fear was that I would have a tachycardia episoide during the evening. It happens rarely but OH that would be awful!!!
* I had to sit through the briefing. I was told where to sit and did as I was told. It was sooooo uncomfortable. The officers are working buddies and chit chatted, and razzed one another. (We will refer here over and over during this post!) Looooodadoooodadoooo. I sat there. Loooodadoooodadoooo. I looked at the walls. I fiddled with my purse. I smiled. I thought the 15 mins of waiting would never pass. Finally the Lieutenant walked in, look at me, said nothing and began the briefing. More razzing, more discomfort. Finally the briefing. Time to go. I stood up and looked around at the 8 officers around me. I could be their mom! They were all so young! Big sigh...
* First call-sad. A minor. She ended up having to go to the juvenile detention center. Just sad.



** The funny, not police work, part of the call - There was myself, the officer I was with, let's call him O1 and another officer (we spent a good portion of the evening with him) and we'll call him O2. The mosquitoes were vicious. We were standing outside and swatting and swatting. The mom/woman in me had to keep from walking up to the two of them, while they were talking to those involved in the call, and brush the off the mosquitoes that kept landing on their backs! It was killing me. We discover that O2 has bug spray. They start spraying. Sniff, sniff....uhm....sniff, sniff....."ya know," I say, this stuff DOES come in UNSCENTED!" It was some tooty fruity smell! O2 laughingly informed me that he liked the fresh and fruity smell! I'm sure we smelled just delish the rest of the night.
* We were called to a grocery store because someone was standing at the door asking for money. We were literally in the parking lot when the call came in. We only had to drive from the back to the front. In the time it took us to drive around the shopping center, there were already 3 other police cars! It looked like there was a major event happening at this little grocery store when actually it was just a woman panhandling! O1 gets out along with O3 and the store security. I tag along behind as we begin walking the store looking for the panhandler. The security guard shoots me a look and I think nothing of it. Panhandler caught, given a stern talking to, sent on their way. The security guard looks at me and says, "are you with her?" meaning the panhandler. "NO!, I'm with him!" as I point to O1. The security guard laughs and says, "we were walking through the store and I saw you tagging along. I couldn't figure out what you were doing!"
*Police officers may work alone in a car but they operate as if they were all in one the car together. If one gets called, anyone that's not busy shows up! I used to always wonder WHAT was going on whenever there was more than one police car with their flasher on. No more. I realize that they are just helping each other out/waiting for another call to come in/curious/in the same area/waiting to help a fellow officer....any of these reasons. It doesn't necessarily mean that something big is going on just because there are 4 police cars in one little grocery store parking lot! Firemen operate in the same way. We once called because our hot water tank caught on fire. THE ENTIRE department responded....two trucks, the cheif, all the fire fighters,the paramedics.... because they were having a meeting when we made the call! They thought they'd all come and see what was going on!!!!!
* another call - at a gas station on the corner of the freeway and major a crossroad. Ug! It's Friday night! I can jsut imagine a parent driving by and seeing me surrounded by 3 police cars and the prisoner transport truck! As I stand there O4 comes up and begins to talk to me. Ah! Finally, an officer with bifocals!!! Someone my age! He was very nice. He pointed out this and that, showed me what all they needed to do to impound the truck there and then showed me the transport truck. It's a scary thing lined in metal and metal doors in addition to the outside doors. There was a prisoner inside and I jumped to the side so that I didn't need to embarrass him and he didn't see me. It turns out that O4's wife is in our Citizens Police Academy Class. Small world. Remember O4 because he comes in the picture later in the evening.
*lunchtime aka MIDNIGHT at I-Hop, sitting at the table with 3 police officers, is at the very least, awkward! I was fading by the time we stopped. I was thirsty and getting very tired. Water and diet coke perked me back up to face the rest of the evening. Luckily O2 was there and since we'd spent so much time with him already, it was a bit less uncomfortable.

* called to a fight – we zooooom down the road to get to this fight. Down the residential street we go, behind another officer. The street is very narrow and lined on both sides with cars. Bumper to bumper cars. Once we pulled down the street, there was no way for any other cars to go in or out. The car in front of us pulls to the left of the cul-de-sac, we stop at the edge and another car pulls behind us. O2 jumps up, grabs his keys, locks the doors and takes off!!!! Locks the doors???!!!! “OMG! HE LOCKED ME IN! HE MUST WANT ME TO STAY HERE! I BETTER STAY HERE! OOOO THERE ARE 5 OR 6 OFFICERS NOW! STAY IN THE CAR! HE LOCKED YOU IN TO KEEP YOU SAFE! STAY IN THE CAR! DID HE TAKE THE KEYS? YES. OOOOOO THEY ARE SHINING FLASHLIGHTS EVERYWHERE, IN THE CARS - ON THE HOUSE, THEY ARE POUNDING ON THE DOOR TO GET THE OWNERS TO COME OUT! OOOO LOTS OF POLICE NOW! STAY PUT! Tap, tap, tap on the window! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH I nearly had heart failure! Come on!!!!!!! It was O4. He was tapping on the window and telling me to get out and join them. “BUT HE LOCKED ME IN!” I say. Come on! Says O4! It’s ok! #1 - O4 nearly gave me heart failure. #2 – How stupid did O4 think I was thinking I was locked IN the car! I never did explain to him my reasoning but man! I must looked like a doe-doe! I get out and hear the Lieutenant’s voice….Oh boy I really don’t want to be in the way now. I stand off to the side. We get back in the car. “Hey, you locked me in.” “I did????, said O1! I didn’t mean to lock you in. Now I feel like a real ditz!!! “I thought it was your way of telling me to stay put until it was safe for me to get out! “ Nope.” It seems he was just doing his job! What a dingbat!

More in my next post.

What am I thinking - Non quilty this time

I am waiting for the afternoon to go by because tonight I am going on a ride-along with a police officer. I'm excited. I'm scared. I'm nervous. I'm..........OMGoodness! What am I thinking! I am the original scareddy cat. I thought for sure I was going to be required to stay put in the car but NO! He told me to bring along a flashlight. Why????? I asked. "So you can see where you are going!" He said, followed by, "We are going to have fun!" Now I'm scared. He then told me "Maybe we'll get in a foot chase." A FOOT CHASE! Do I LOOK like I run??????? I'll be the official car watcher!!

Random bits about tonight
-if/when he needs to go fast AND turn on the sirens....my sister says "You'll be giggling the entire time!"
-if/when he needs to drive fast my daughter said "MOM! You CANNOT hit the imaginary brake on the floor and tell him to slow down!"
- I want to ask another officer to take a picture of us but am waaayy to embarrassed to be so...so...well, I don't know the word but just that it would be embarrassing. I am however taking my camera in case I can get random shots for my blog.
- I told him that all of my friends are going to be standing on the street waving as we drive past....he said, "we can go visit them." What is this a 6th grade field trip!?
-I was told by another police officer that the "bad guys" tend to talk to the ride-alongs because they are just regular people. AHHHH!!!
-being invisible, discreet and unnoticed is just not possible for someone my size

Oh my It's time to leave......

What am I thinking?

I don't know where my brain was when I made this or why I made it! I found it in my huge pile of untrimmed 1/2 square triangles.

You know the ones....they are the itty bitty waste triangles you cannot bear to throw away. ( read a great line in another blog that was something like...I have yards and yards of fabric. WHY am I muddling about with these itty bitty things that could be thrown away!! We all know the answer....we paid for them!!! But I love the sentiment. It's how I feel exactly).

These are 1.5" big. That means they will finish at 1" each. Am I nuts?

Men

Men are so funny. They would never admit that they gossip, chit chat or chatter. If you ask them, they would say that they go in, get a job done, and get out. THEY LIE!! I'm sitting here at a friend's house while some work is being done. The guys are in the foyer, doing their work, but the chit chat and chatter abounds! I bet if you would ask them if they chat while they work, they would say no. True, they are negotiating how to best get this job done, working out the details ect., but once they are each doing their own jobs....their jaws start to flappin'! LOL!! I'm quietly sitting at my laptop and chuckling.

I have had this same observation at work. We have off duty police officers on our campus. Let me tell you ....THEY GOSSIP! Oh sure, rough and tough, carry a gun and all but man o man. Let something happen at school on Monday and by the time the Friday guy comes to work, he knows all about it....with details! They don't even work in the same office.

I am the product of a man that had few words. "Had" I say because over the past few years, since my mom died, his shell broke. It is a wonderful thing to be honest. However, I was raised by the part of him that didn't talk alot. He certainly didn't verbally express emotion. Now is different. To be fair, he fairly bubbles with words now.

The same goes for men when it comes to their children. They would never admit that they are as soft as they are. I see alot of men with their children at school. Dads are no different than moms, they just won't admit that they have the same emotions!!! These are two stories of men not realizing that others could see their love and devotion.


....again, one of the policemen. This guy is a very muscular guy, He calls everyone "ma'am" and is someone I wouldn't want to meet in the dark (on the wrong side of the law! LOL!!!!!LOL!!!) He has two little girls. One morning, as I waited to turn into the lot, I watched him and one of his daughters, about 3 at the time, walk across the parking lot. In one hand he held her hand. In the other, he held her little pink backpack. I don't know what they were doing but all of a sudden he skipped! Just one or two skips but it was a sight. This big man, complete with a police uniform, gun, bullet proof vest, a little girl and a pink backpack, and skipping! It was a priceless image!

.....my dad. When I was pregnant with my oldest child my dad had a party for his employees. I was very pregnant. I remember him tracking me down, dragging me around and introducing me to his employees. The look in his eyes. I'll never forget the glow of love. He was so pleased that I was having a grandchild! Remember, this was the man that would rather do ANYTHING than EXPRESS emotion.

Why do men work so hard to make us believe that we are so different? What's this macho business about anyways? Every man from my father & my husband to the guys at work, are no different from the women I know. It's just that the women are not afraid to admit that they have emotions or gossip. I really think that it comes down to image. What the men don't realize however, is that we see right through them. We'll let them keep up their charade.

Batik nickel quilt

The batik nickel quilt that I showed on my design wall has been in "row" form for at least 3 years. I have hung the rows on my design wall at various times over the last 3 years thinking I'd work on the quilt. Two weeks ago, I finally attached the rows together, hung the flimsy on the wall, sat down, inspected my work and was very pleased with myself. The next day, the NEXT day, I looked up and discovered that one of the blocks was assembled wrong.



See the middle top. It is supposed to look like a flying geese, not two half squares side by side! Now, I had looked at these blocks and rows for weeks and weeks. How did I miss it? I considered leaving the mistake because the block was in the center of the row. In the end I fixed it. I can't guarantee that I didn't curse and mumble but I did fix it.

Doesn't it look so much better? Here is the worse part. I went through the entire process...AGAIN....with a different block last week. Again, AFTER I had assembled the entire thing! If there are any more mistakes, I'm leaving them!

Design wall Monday

I have been working on this quilt for at least 5 years. I should really say that it has been sitting in the drawer that long. I have been slowly working on it over the past few weeks. I am only showing a bit of it because I hate to show things until they are completed. It is hanging on my design wall. It is the dusk to dawn pattern from the 2nd Nickel Quilts book. I am in the process of growing a 72" top to a king sized quilt without making more blocks.






It's all set up at the machine and whenever I get a chance I make another border block.

Halloween

October 31 - check

Nightfall - check

Candy - check, check, check


Children......

Children......

Children.............even Minkee was wondering where they all were....



Sigh. Double triple sigh! I was going to skip candy this year, or at the very least buy a small quantity, but DH insisted. The last few years he has been in charge of the candy dispersion and INSISTED that each year he runs out of candy. I had my doubts. I have the most lackluster neighbors...they usually don't even turn on their lights so no kids come down our street, but ok. Buy extra candy this year.
We had 7 trick or treaters! SEVEN! Ahhhh!! Now I see his plan!




On a different note, I have a night blooming jasmine outside my front door. The smell has been overpowering and wonderful at the same time. It seems that just as butterflys like to drink nectar, during the day, of good smelling plants, so do moths, at night. My plant was vibrating with moths. Add to this that the light was on for the trick or treaters and it was attack of the moths when you walked outside. I tried to get pictures but it was too dark. I resorted to using the garage door to exit the house and warded off the unsuspecting children. I don't think they would have appreciated being pummeled by moths.