Another Darwin award candidate

A vehicle was in the parking lot of the Valero, located at Montrose at Westheimer. We ran the license plate on our MDI, and discovered that the vehicle registration had expired in 2008. That fact gave us probable cause to stop the vehicle. Since we had already left the parking lot before the MDI information came back, we sat in the right lane of Westheimer and waited for the vehicle to pull out. Sure enough, the vehicle also pulled out onto Westheimer and into the left lane. We were in the right lane stopped at a red light. The light turned green, we stayed stopped and so did the suspect vehicle. We sat for two minutes, so did they, about 5 car lenghts behind us. Other vehicles began honking at the suspect vehicle. So, that was the motivation they needed to move. They finally passed us and we activated out lights and stopped the vehicle on traffic.

 The vehicle pulled over into a business parking lot. A very strong odor of marijuana was emanating from the vehicle As we walked up to the vehicle, a female passenger in the backseat wearing a wife beater tank top had both of her hands inside her bra. She was moving her hands around and fiddling with something. We told her to be still and to put her hands on her lap. We then asked the driver for his drivers license. The driver stated that he did not have any identification. That is an arrestable offense, driving without a license. During this time, the female was still messing with her bra. We get the driver out and ask him if everything in the vehicle is his. To which he replys "yes". We handcuff him, search him, and put him in the backseat. In plain view on the center console is three marijuana cigarettes. An easy possession of marijuana case. Then a female officer gets out the female and searches her. She finds a plastic baggie with Ecstacy and Zanex pills, shockingly enough, in her bra. I would have never thought to look there. Easy felony.

 These two scholars had at least 2 minutes to get rid of the drugs while they were sitting behind us in traffic. They could have easily rolled down a window and thrown out the drugs. Then, just the driver would have gone to jail for new traffic. Policy states that someone driving without an ID will be arrested. However, these two decide to risk it and end up with possession cases. The female tells us on the way to jail that the male told her to hide the drugs in her bra. Brilliant. Maybe if I make a spectacle of playing with my bra they won't think to check there. This was another example of why I have very high job security.

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Not a tough choice

$40 cab ride or $5000 DWI defense?
 
Sent from my iPhone

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Strange days at work

I am a field trainer/evaluator at work. That means I teach probationary officers how to do the job and I evaluate them after their training to see if they can do the job. If I am training, I have the trainee in the car with me for three weeks. If I am evaluating, I have the trainee for one week. Our academy has been pumping out classes of probationary officers at a brisk pace. The city is trying to increase the number of officers, but is actually barely keeping up with attrition. The fact that five to six academy classes is just keeping us even should scare the citizens since the city has plans for only two classes this fiscal year. Since we have had lots of probationary officers in need of training and evaluating I am rarely riding by myself at work. This has it positives and its minuses. One of the pluses is I have a little free time at work while the probationary officer writes reports. I do my required documentation while they write, but I still have a little free time. Some trainers use the free time to beat/complete iPhone games. I typically use the time to browse the Internet or even write this blog. Yesterday evening, my father asked me why I did not write the night before. He said that I had been writing almost nightly, so he wondered what kept me from it last night. Work actually.

It seems that Patrick, the last probationary that I recently evaluated has decided to ride with a friend in 2 district. I was finished evaluating him, and my next probationary has not come to night shift yet from evening shift. I completely understand. Two district tends to be a little more exciting than 1 district, and the officer that he is riding with is a lot closer to him in age. You see, Patrick is the first probationary that I have trained or evaluated that I was old enough to have been his father. Patrick turned 21 with 2 weeks left in the academy. His mother actually purchased his pistol for him, because in Texas you have to be 21 to purchase a firearm. His mother is an officer as well. Come to find out, she is my age.

So, with Patrick in 2 district and my next probationary still on evening shift, I am riding by myself. I actually get to drive. That also means that I have to do all of the paperwork and report writing as well. And last night, I was busy. We had 10 units in 1 district and it was a Thursday, so you would think that I would not be real busy. Wrong. It seems that my shift commander has decided to leave the comfy confines of his office and try to be the po po again out on the streets. He thinks that the fourth ward, which is in my beat, needs to be cleaned up. So, the commander gets our sergeant and 5 units, 4 from 1 district, and puts them all out on a special assignment at 1:30 AM. That takes those units out of the calls for service loop. Meaning they can not be dispatched to calls for service, the primary duty of the patrol officer. Two other 1 district units are busy on calls in 2 district and 2 other units are busy with report calls. That left two units to cover 1 district during the busiest time of the night. The two hours around when the bars and clubs close. I was one of those units. So, I was a little busy. Luckily, my commander is off on Friday and Saturday nights, so he can not take half of the units in the district and put them out of service to play on the real busy nights. I asked my sergeant what arrests the 5 units, 1 sergeant, and 1 lieutenant made while cleaning up the ward that night, none. Outstanding.

Fun with photos and Jen is blogging!

Here is another photo that I took of Austin on the morning of his first day of third grade. I used my Canon 30D and then I ran the RAW image through Aperture 2 on my MacBook. I used a Topaz Labs plugin, played for a little while, and this is the result. I downloaded trial versions of Aperture and the Topaz plugin last night. I can already tell that using them will be a slippery slope for me. It is amazing what can be done with the RAW image file.
 
Now for the big news, after a lot of encouragement from me, Jen now has her own blog. It can be found at http://jen7079.blogspot.com/. Everyone that receives my blog through email will also receive hers when she posts. She wrote last night before I had a chance to set up the email, so please click on the link and check it out. I am sure that she would appreciate some feedback.

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If a tree falls...

Patrick and I were dispatched to a major accident this morning at 3 AM in the 1500 block of Kirby. The dispatcher said that two vehicles had run into a tree. Now, we get drunks that will hit trees fairly regularly. But two vehicles hitting a tree, that just sounded strange. We arrived to find something strange, indeed.  An approximately 100 year old, 75 foot tall oak tree had split and fell to the ground in two large pieces. The tree survived Hurricane Ike, but insects brought it down. Large black insects were swarming all over the bottom of the tree where it had been in the ground. As bad luck would have it, when the trunk came down on Kirby, a silver Volvo was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tree hit the Volvo right where its windshield meets the roof. Luckily for the very good looking female driver, the canopy of the tree kept the trunk of the tree from falling all of the way to the ground. The female was not injured, but was crying hysterically. She was on the phone with her mother who we could hear yelling at her. The mother was saying "nothing good happens when you are out after midnight". I wonder if the mother knows that her daughter is a bartender? 

The Volvo took on the tree like a champ. Maybe there is something to Volvos and crash ratings. Right after the tree hit the Volvo, a '99 Jeep Cherokee traveling on Kirby slammed into the tree, barely missing the Volvo. The drunk driver climbed out of the passenger door and walked away southbound on Kirby according to a witness. To the drunk guys credit, Kirby is very dark at night in that area and anyone could have run into that tree. Being drunk just assured him that he would not be able to react. The tree appears to have been sitting on the property line between two residences. One homeowner came outside and the other homeowner did not answer their front door. Of course, the homeowner that we spoke to claimed that the tree belonged to his neighbor. The homeowner who claimed that the tree was not his, asked us who was going to clean up his yard. Patrick said "you, I guess". I could not have said it better myself. Our dispatcher called public works who as of 4:30 AM still had not arrived on the scene to begin the cleanup. So, we parked our patrol vehicle blocking southbound Kirby and put on the strobe lights to prevent more accidents. I allowed Patrick to light a flare and place it in the road. He was excited, you would have thought he just found $100. Apparently he had never lit a flare before. Sometimes it is the little things in life.       

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Wow, third grade!

Since the end of second grade, Austin has been less than enthusiastic about the start of third grade. I understand that kids are looking forward to the summer and not to the following school year. However, he has been very anxious and nervous about the start of the school year. The TAKS test (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills), which he has to pass to go to fourth grade, is the source of his anxiety. The TAKS test is the Texas version of a basic skills test. It is taken very seriously in Texas and school funding is tied to student performance on the test. Therefore, there is a great emphasis placed on the test. Apparently, so much emphasis that second graders are nervous about it.

Austin has recently shown signs that he is getting a little excited about the school year. He went shoe shopping in Corpus Christi with Jen and Nana and then later at Baybrook Mall with us and the new shoes have helped.

Last night was meet the teacher night at Austin's school. Before then, we had no idea who his teacher was and had no way of finding out. They post lists on the wall by grade. You scan the lists, find your child's name and head to that classroom. This year Austin has Mrs. Collins. She made a very good first impression on Austin. She has two turtles and two lizards in the classroom. Austin asked what their names were. The turtles have names, but the lizards are nameless. Austin hopes to correct this. We gave him some ideas, Cagney & Lacy, Tubbs & Crockett, or Maverick & Goose. Mrs. Collins told us numerous times how much she loved kids and how she missed them over the summer. Austin was very excited about the school year after meeting his teacher. Good news.

We did encounter one problem. Towards the end of the school year, the school sends home an order form asking if you want to purchase school supplies for your child for the next school year. We always fill out the form and send in the check immediately. We do not want any part of buying school supplies at Walmart. The school does not send home any type of notice or receipt that the order was received. This year we noticed that other students had the supply pack on their desks, but Austin's desk was empty. We were told to check with the office. At the officer Jen was told that our order was never received and that they were sold out of supplies for third grade. Jen was handed a huge list of supplies that Austin would need. To say that we were frustrated and a little upset is an understatement. Fast forward to today. After dropping off Austin at his classroom, I went to the office and spoke with Joan, the school secretary. She is in charge of the ordering and allocation of the school supplies. Our name was not on her list, apparently our order form and check never made it to the office. She said that she only orders the same number of supply packs as she gets orders for. In spite of this, Joan was very helpful, she took down my name and phone number and said she would look into the matter for me. She told me not to go on a wild goose hunt for the supplies, at least not yet. She called me at 12:30 and said that she had found some extra supplies and that Austin had what he needed. I was very thankful. It was very nice of her to go above and beyond to help us out.     

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Why drinking and driving do not mix

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The top vehicle, a Lexus RX 330 was north bound on US 59. The bottom vehicle, a Chevrolet Tahoe was south bound, in the north bound lanes. The Lexus tried to swerve, but could not avoid the head-on collision. Each vehicle was going about 60 MPH. The driver of the Tahoe jumped out and started running down the shoulder of the freeway leaving the injured driver in the Tahoe. Luckily, witnesses saw him run and gave a good description. We snatched him up and returned him to the scene. A DWI task force unit came and took over that part for us. The drunk guy ended up blowing a .25, three times the legal limit. The driver of the Lexus had minor injuries, she was lucky.
 
A funny side note, we found hundreds of condoms in the Tahoe. Literally, a cardboard box on the backseat exploded and condoms rained down. Not sure what the drunk guy had planned, but he did not get see that plan through to it's fruition.
 
Sent from my iPhone

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A side benefit

Friday morning my PPO and I were dispatched to a minor accident FSGI. The FSGI part occurs when a driver involved in an accident does not stay at the accident scene to exchange information. The accident occurred on the North Freeway. When the other driver did not stop, the caller continued driving to work. He is a Federal Reserve Bank officer and works at 1801 Allen Parkway, the Federal Reserve Bank of Houston. We arrived at the bank and watched as they lowered the first set of barricades and opened the 20 foot tall gate. We passed through that and once the gate closed and the barricades were raised, the next set of barricades were lowered and we met the officer whose vehicle was hit. We quickly got his information for the accident report. Then he asked if we wanted a tour of the bank. Absolutely, we replied.

He took us from the parking garage across a catwalk to the main bank building which is a huge four story brick structure. Our tour started on the third floor. We got off the elevator and entered a plushly carpeted enormous hallway, probably 25 feet wide with 20 foot ceilings. He first showed us the scale model of the property. Then came the Fed Store where you can buy souveniers. Followed by the cafeteria and serving line. Then the gym and locker rooms for the employees. Next was all of the meeting rooms, lecture rooms, and ball rooms. It was amazing how much meeting space and entertaining space was in the bank. Our guide told us that they have a lot of events at the bank and quite a few training classes for the Feds. He showed us the terraces and the large bar that are used for entertaining. Flat screen TVs and large pieces of art are all over the walls throughout the third floor. We then descended in another elevator, passed through more security and entered the vault building. It is the large building that faces Allen Parkway with the arched green roof. Here they have a display area of all the paper currencies that have been used in US. They also have a large display area that depicts the history of the Federal Reserve Bank system.

Then came the cool part, the vault. The money is kept in metal boxes with wheels. The boxes are about three foot squares. The boxes are moved by robots and are stacked on shelves by other robots. The shelves extend upwards from the main floor about 50 feet. There are counting rooms, printing rooms, and shredding rooms. They prohibit picture taking of all of the sensitive areas of the building. In fact, cameras and phones are not allowed in the vault area. Then we headed to the control room. This is where the officers have access to all of the buildings functions. They have about 30 monitors that show views from all of the eyes in the sky. They can monitor every inch of the building and grounds from this room. They have an armory and shooting range right off the control room. Overall, a very impressive building. All of the officers were very friendly and more than happy to show us everything. They do give public tours and the officers said that they are worth the trip. It was unfortunate that the officer was involved in an accidnet, but I was glad that we were dispatched to it.

The picture is of a 10 foot tall cylinder display filled with shredded money that is located in the bank history area.

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From the backseat of the patrol vehicle...

Suspect W: Ppo Morrissey by Rusty Sumner  
Download now or listen on posterous

Suspect w: PPO Morrissey.mp3 (2731 KB)

Patrick, who I am evaluating, and I were dispatched to a suspicious person at 1700 Westheimer around 1 AM Thursday morning. We arrived and were immediately flagged down by the reportee (the person who called the police). He quickly whipped out his dispatcher ID card and pointed towards the suspect. He said "that man ran up on me and called me a faggot". I wanted to say "well sir, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it is probably a duck", but I refrained. Instead, I said "Patrick, fetch". Patrick spun the shop around and we jumped out on the suspicious male. He was a black man wearing an off white shirt and pants and he was sweating profusely. Patrick asked him for his ID and he said "I know my rights". Patrick asked for the ID again, and he said "you are bothering me because I am black". He took out his ID and held his arms out stiffly in an effort to keep us away from him. Patrick asked me to run him on the computer to see if he was wanted. While I did that, Patrick patted him down for weapons, just liked he was trained to do. He did not have any weapons and he was not wanted. I asked him where he lived, "Missouri City, bitches and whores". I asked him where he was spending the night, "not at your house" was the reply. That was something that we could agree upon. Patrick asked some other basic questions and received some  strange answers. Patrick looked at me and said "PI"? PI, pronounced pee eye, stands for public intoxication, a catch all for someone that you want to arrest but have no other reason for the arrest. I said sure, the suspect smelled like alcohol of course. I also suspected that he had recently smoked crack due to the amount he was sweating. Crack elevates your internal temperature. The suspect was sweating like he had just finished a marathon. Steam was rising from his bald head. Patrick arrested him and we transported him to jail. Patrick asked him what kind of music he liked, I suggested 94.5, the Buzz. The audio is excerpts from the trip to the jail. I recorded him with the iPhone and edited it with Garageband on the Mac.         

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Happy Birthday Dad and Joanne

I thought that you two might enjoy this poster. It can be purchased here. Fixed the link.

>

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An adventure with Mike

I have previously written about my affinity to listen to podcasts. For the past year, one of my podcast subjects of choice has been Apple computers. A few of the podcasts espoused about the virtues of the Apple Users Group. This is a group of geeks that gets together about once a month to talk and learn about Apple computers. There will typically be a main presentation along with a couple of smaller presentations covering a variety of topics, but all tying into Apple computers. Well, I recently became the happy owner of an Apple MacBook Pro 15" laptop. I was curious about the local Apple Users Group. The name of the local group is the Houston Area Apple Users Group, HAAUG (pronounced HOG) for short. The main meetings are typically the third Saturday of the month at the Belliare Civic Center. I persuaded Mike, another Apple user, to attend the meeting with me.

The meeting was scheduled from 9 AM to 2 PM, with the main presentation to begin at 11:15 AM. The topic was Mastering Your Email. We arrived fashionably late, a little before 10 AM. We walked in the atrium of the civic center and were greeted by three people sitting behind a long table with a couple of laptops opened, Macs of course. They asked us if this was our first meeting and then asked us to sign in. We were handed a piece of paper with the meeting schedule and offered a donut. We looked at the schedule and a presentation about digital photography was about to begin in a side room. We are interested in digital photography, so we entered the assigned room and signed in again. So good, so far. We joined to other 2 people in the audience and took a seat. Four others walked in a little later. The presenter began and stated that the topic was night photography. He gave his Keynote presentation (the Apple version of Powerpoint), which consisted of about 20 slides, mostly sunset?? photographs. I thought this was night photography? He gave us a few tips for night photography as well, such as this gem, "keep the camera still". His presentation lasted about 10 minutes, and then he asked what topic we would like for next month's meeting. Someone mentioned HDR, a photography technique, and we had next month's topic. Then came some uncomfortable silence. Well, thankfully, a crazy cat lady was in attendance. She started to ask questions about her point-n-shoot. The highlight being her statement in regards to camera modes. It seems her camera has a dial on top that you turn depending on what type of photo you are trying to capture. Landscape, portrait, sports, night, auto, are a few examples. Cat lady stated that her camera's dial turned all by itself. If she was shooting a landscape, it turned to landscape. If she was shooting at night, it turned to night, by itself. When the presenter said the dial must be getting bumped accidentally, Cat lady adamantly said "No, I keep it in a case and am careful with it". To his credit, the presenter said, "ok". I would have said "does it turn to cat mode when you are shooting the special photos of your kids that eat meow mix?" I am glad that I encountered her at the HOG group and not at work. Otherwise I would have had to take to her to the Neuropsychiatric Center for evaluation and figure out something to do with her 30 cats.

At 11 we all went into the main assembly area for the email presentation. There were three presenters and all of them seemed to know their stuff. If they we allowed to actually stick to their presentations, it would have been been a useful time. However, the other 30 people in attendance had other ideas. Almost immediately, 5 hands were in the air with questions. As soon as one question was answered, 5 more were at the ready. Even better, the three presenters were not always allowed to answer. Others in the group felt more qualified to answer. Now, they might have been qualified. But, I imagine that the three presenters were presenting for a reason. Of course, Crazy Cat lady had a few questions as well as a few answers for others. At least the wifi signal was strong and free. Mike and I used the time to check out ESPN and see if Newegg had any hard drives on sale. After 45 minutes, Mike asked "when is lunch?" How about now? We packed up and left the auditorium. We were caught by the membership director on our way out. He asked if we learned anything. We politely avoided the question. He told us how to join and said I hope to see you next month. We left a little disappointed. I was definitely expecting more. If I am going to spend a few hours on a Saturday every month, the meeting needs to knock my socks off. Oh well, Mike and I made the best of it, as we normally do.

             

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A strange one...

Wednesday night I was dispatched to a special assignment/other division. I read the call slip and the homicide division wanted me to return to a scene that an officer had left less than an hour ago. It seems that the officer was dispatched to that scene, arrived, heard the story, decided it was a hoax, and cleared the call unfounded without writing a report. There are many reasons why an officer would not make a report. In fact, the majority of calls are cleared without a report being written. After the officer left the scene, the caller contacted the homicide division and relayed his story to the desk officer. That officer then relayed the story to his lieutenant. In this case, a report should have been made according to the homicide lieutenant, so I was sent to do just that.

 Here is the story. On Wednesday at 9:30 PM, the phone rang at the Ibiza Food and Wine Bar which is located on Louisiana in Midtown. One of the owners, Larry, answered the phone.

 Larry: "Hello, Ibiza Food and Wine Bar."
caller: "Hello, is my daddy there?"
Larry: "Pardon me?"
caller: "My daddy said to call this number if he is not back in 45 minutes."
Larry: "Who is your father?"
caller: "My daddy's name is David Green."
Larry: "Who am I speaking with?"
caller: "My name is Lori Green. I am six years old. I am locked inside the car and I can not get out of my car seat. Daddy left me a cell phone and the card for your restaurant. He said to call if he was not back in 45 minutes."
Larry: "What does your daddy look like?"
caller: "He was wearing a blue shirt and he has brown hair."
Larry: "Hang on for a minute, I will look around the restaurant for him."

 Larry put the call on hold and briefly looked around the restaurant. There were not many people inside at the time. At this point, Larry is thinking this is some type of hoax. He gets the other owner, George, and they discuss the phone call. In the mean time, Mary, the 21 year old hostess and nanny for George's children, picks up the phone and starts talking to the little girl. Mary asks Lori a series of questions to try and determine where she might be. What kind of car are you in? What color is the car? Are there others cars around you? Do you see any buildings nearby? What do they look like? Are there any cars next to you? Among others. After Mary gets some information, she relays it to Larry and George. They go out into the parking lot and surrounding area looking for little Lori. A little while later, Lori asks Mary to tell her a story. Mary asks her what story would you like to hear? Lori says "I do not care, but I am getting scared and I think a story would help." So Mary tells her the story of Cinderella.

 After the story Lori says that there is now a man sitting on the curb next to the car.

 Mary: "What does he look like?"
Lori: "He is a dark man."
Mary: "What is he doing?"
Lori: "Just sitting there. Well, now he is standing up and coming toward the car."
Mary hears what sounds like loud thumping through the phone.
Lori says frantically, "He is beating on the glass with his hands."
Mary: "Stay calm, is he doing anything else?"
Lori: "He just pulled out a long silver piece of metal from his pants and is sticking it in the door. Should I open the door?"
Mary shouts "NO!"
Lori: "The lock is moving, what do I do?"
Mary: "Put your hand on the lock to keep it from unlocking."
Lori: "Ok, but now he is moving around to the other side of the car. I can not reach that lock."
Mary: "Do not open the door. Do you see anyone else around?"
Lori: "No, I do not see anyone."

 Then Mary heard Lori scream and shout "He is in the car, he is in the car." Mary then heard what she described as a growling sound through the phone and then the phone went dead. The first officer arrived shortly thereafter. That officer searched the area and after finding no sign of the car or Lori, cleared the call and went back to the station. Needless to say, Larry, George, and Mary wanted a little bit more done. When I arrived, they were all visibly shaken by the ordeal. I listened to their story and we talked about possible scenarios. Hoax? Drug deal gone bad? Kidnapping? What if? Their imaginations were running wild. So, I did what I do. I talked them off the ledge, gave them a case number, and wrote the report.

 Chances are, I will never find out if this was a hoax or a real incident. It will be investigated by homicide, and with a minimal amount of effort, I could follow the investigation. But the truth is, odds are I will not even think about this call again. Often times, I am asked by friends to tell a police story. It generally takes me awhile to come up with one. Very few of them stick with me for very long. And that is probably a good thing.

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Take that, sis

This evening I took Austin to karate. It was belt test night. Austin was not eligible to test. But, since he is a big, bad red belt now, he was asked to come and help with the administering of the tests for the other belts. He was not looking forward to it. He wanted to go to the neighbor's house and play. They called about 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave and invited him over. That gave me a teachable moment about following through with committments. After the belt tests, Austin said that he had a great time helping. As the lead instructor would call out the techniques, Austin would demonstrate the technique for the group. For his efforts, he got two handfulls of candy.

 While we were at the belt test, Jen took Addy to the neighbor's house. While Addy and Lexie played, Jen talked with Julie and her college roommate. The older girls were back in their rooms playing as well. A short time later, Morgan stormed into the living room and declared "Rylee just peed on the floor in my room". Julie's mouth fell open in shock, which seems like a reasonable initial response to me. Rylee explained that Morgan had been messing with her and had stolen her pants as she was trying to use the restroom. Rylee's response was to pee on floor in Morgan's room. Rylee sure has some spunk to her! Julie was not sure who to be more upset with, Rylee for the act or Morgan for announcing it to everyone. Both girls were sent to bed early.

 I asked Jen if she had ever peed on the floor in Courtney's room? She responded that if she had, she would be dead now. I had to agree with that assessment.

 Sent from my iPhone

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Addy at dance class

07-27-2009 Addy at dance - 7_27_2009 - 111456 - 30D - 0030

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Golf update

About a week ago I wrote about my poor behavior on the golf course. Well, this past Sunday I played again at the same place, Southwyck. I played with my dad, Mike, and Terry. Austin went with us as well. (By the way, we found his Nintendo DS, in the Tahoe, under his seat. We found it Monday evening during dinner. We asked Austin to again think about what he did with it after being told to put it away. We asked if he took it to the restaurant, and he did not have a good answer. He said "no, maybe, I don't think so, possibly". So, Jen went out and looked and there it was.) I was in a good frame of mind when we reached the course, even after dealing with Austin losing his DS and then not being able to get any refreshments at a nearby Exxon due to a gas spill.

 It started raining on us on the first tee box, and luckily stopped by the time we reached the first green. I parred the first two holes and things were looking good. Then, on the third tee box I hit my drive left of left. One bounce and it was out of bounds in a backyard. I finished the hole with a 7, triple bogey. I usually struggle with putting bad holes like that behind me. I let it affect the next hole or two and compound the mistake. Not this time, I roll in a 20 footer for birdie on number 4. A routine bogey on the difficult par 3, 5th followed by another birdie on number 6. Starting to see a pattern? Easy par on 7 followed by a bone head bogey on the easy par 5 eighth. Another opportunity for me to compound my mistake, and this time I do. I hit it in the water on 9 and make a double bogey. So, 2 birdies and I still am 5 over par through 9. The back 9 went much the same way. I made 4 birdies and 3 others (other being at least a double bogey) and zero pars. The inconsistency was maddening. One the one hand, 6 birdies in 18 holes is great. Only three pars is not so good, and 9 bogeys or worse is horrible.

 However, throughout the ups and downs, I held my temper in check and did not show any obvious outward frustration. Sure, the bad shots still bothered me. They even affected some of the following shots. But, at least no clubs were slammed or thrown. After we finished, I started thinking about golf and paying to be frustrated. It is very interesting that I will consistently pay money to go out for 4 hours and at times be frustrated with myself beyond belief. I love to play and I enjoy being outside. I especially love playing with my dad, cousin, and great friends. It is such an interesting game. Just you, a ball, and the course. There are no teammates, no excuses, and no one else to blame. You sink or swim all by yourself. Golf has taught me a lot about myself. Some of the things I was not pleased to learn. It is a maddening game, but one that I will play for the rest of my life.

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Cows & free chicken

We begin our story on Saturday afternoon. It is time for us to get ready to leave the house for dinner. Jen asked Austin to put up his Nintendo DS game system. Quick side note, as you all know, everything in our house has a place, and there is a specific place for everything. We assumed that our 8 year old son had done what he was told and went on with our evening.

 Fast forward to Sunday afternoon. My dad, Austin, and I are leaving our house to play golf. We are trying to leave early enough to get lunch and snacks for the day. Austin gets in the back seat and opens the plastic box that holds his DS. He exclaims that his DS is not in the box. We spend the next 20 minutes looking for the DS and do not find it. Needless to say, I am a little frustrated that the DS was not put back in it's proper place where it could be found.

 Fast forward to this morning. For some reason the stress level in the house is high. Austn is not listening to his mother and is constantly antagonizing his sister. Austin's behavior continues to raise the stress level. Then we load up to visit what seems to be the busiest Chick-fil-a in the world. I was not in the best state of mind for the adventure. We get our food and sit down to eat. Austin looks at his bag and with a big smile on his face says "Dad, if we dress up like cows, we can get free chicken". All of the stress melted away.

 At times, it is difficult for me to find the balance between enjoying my children and correcting them. I do not want their memories of childhood to be dominated by remembering me telling them that they are doing something wrong. I want to be their parent and not their friend but I also want them to have my high self-esteem. Just another part of the joys and challenges of parenting.

 Sent from my iPhone

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Apologies for the extra emails

I started trying out a new web service today. It is called Posterous. It works like this, you email text, audio, video, or photos to Posterous and they post and host the various media for you. I have set up Posterous to automatically update my blog when I send anything in to Posterous. That is why the audio clip and video clip showed up in the blog today. I was trying out Posterous. It seems like it works just as advertised. After I finished my "Here is the rest of the story" blog post, I got a little impatient. I sent it to Posterous, and it appeared there immediately. I then checked the blog, and it did not show up. I waited awhile, checked again, and then sent it again to the blog. The post did not show up again. This time I copied and pasted the post into the blog itself. Then I checked the blog, the same post was there three times. I have the blog set up to email 10 people every time something in posted. So, 10 people received the same email 3 times. My apologies. I was impatient.

 So far, I am liking Posterous. It is very easy to share anything and everything. I like the flexibility to easily post photos and videos. I would encourage you all to check out Posterous. You can post to Posterous from anywhere that you send an email. It is a free service to this point with a paid service with premium features yet to come. You can find my Posterous site at http://will7079.posterous.com/.

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Austin groovin to Rockband

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From the cabin of the Camry

  
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Here is the rest of the story...

A Houston man was attacked and shot, possibly with a pellet gun, while taking out his trash early this morning, police said.

The man was outside around 2 a.m. near the intersection of Driscoll and Sul Ross in the Montrose area when he said two cars pulled, four men emerged and tried to rob him.

When the victim resisted, he reported being pistol-whipped and his shirt was torn off as he fled. As he neared his front door, police said he was shot three times in the back.

The victim, whose name was not released, was in stable condition at Ben Taub General Hospital.

Houston police did not immediately have descriptions of the cars of the attackers.

Chronicle news partner KHOU-TV provided this report.

via chron.com

This is a story in today's Houston Chronicle. It describes events that more or less took place early this morning. They got a few facts incorrect, but conveyed the overall story. Here is what actually happened.

This was my call. It was sent to me as a burglary of a motor vehicle. I arrived to find the victim bleeding from his face and talking to a very drunk woman. Not what I usually find at burglary of motor vehicle calls. I had the dispatcher send an ambulance my way and then asked the victim what happened. He stated that after he put his trash in the trash can, 4 black males (suspects) approached him. They all had guns. The suspects threw him on the ground and demanded money. They threatened to shoot him in the head. He got up and gave them his wallet containing an ATM card, but no cash. The victim made the mistake of looking at the suspects and got hit in the face twice with a pistol. The suspects then got into an argument. It seems one of them wanted to kidnap the victim and force him to get them money from an ATM machine. Other suspects disagreed, and they argued.

At this point, the victim was left with only one suspect who was holding his shirt. The victim decided to make a break for it. He shrugged out of his shirt and started running. The suspect then shot him three times in the back with a pellet gun. The victim kept running and the suspects did not chase. The victim retuned to his apartment complex and got the attention of his drunk neighbor who called the police. This is the description of the suspects given by the victim, 4 black males, all with pistols, in a light or dark small sedan. The description did not really narrow things down very much. HFD then transported the victim to Park Plaza Hospital so that the pellets could be removed from his back.

After shootings, or robberies, or car jackings, or other violent crimes, we usually send the dispatcher a description of the suspects so that she can send that information out to the other units citywide. I did not have very much information to send, but I did it anyway. It read: Be on the look out for 4 black males, in either a light or dark small sedan, armed with guns, took the victim's wallet and shot him three times with a pellet gun. About three minutes after sending the message, I was called over the radio by a unit from another part of town. I called his cell phone, he happened to be the brother of a good friend. He had a small stolen sedan run from him and crash. When it crashed, 4 black males jumped out and ran. They found pellet guns inside the sedan along with my victim's credit card. With the help of a police dog, they arrested the suspects, who were juveniles. They were charged with a variety of felonies including auto theft, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, aggravated robbery, and evading arrest in a vehicle.

A positive ending to a horrible experience for the victim, one that the Chronicle missed.

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Unacceptable behavior

The British Open took place a few weeks ago. Tiger Woods played in the event. If you do not familiar with golf on TV in the Tiger era, I will enlighten you. If Tiger is playing in the tournament, that tournament will get good TV ratings. If TIger is in the mix to win the tournament, that tournament will get great TV ratings. So, if Tiger is playing, they show him during the TV coverage more than any other player. I estimate he is shown almost twice as much as every other player. This means that a camera is on him constantly. They show his pre-shot routine, his shot, and his post-shot reaction. They show his huge fist pumps after making an important putt and they show him slamming his club on the ground and spewing f-bombs after a poor shot.

In the British Open, Tiger missed the cut in the event (the field of players is divided in half by score after the first two rounds with the bottom half going home and the top half playing the final two rounds for the championship). It was only the second time that TIger has missed the cut in a major championship since he turned pro. As you can imagine, to miss the cut he had to hit some bad shots, and a few horrendous ones. After those shots, he reacted. Those reactions were more severe than I remember seeing from TIger in the past. As hard as he slammed a few of his clubs into the Scottish soil, I expected them to snap in half. He did this on a number of occasions usually while saying a wide variety of curse words, punctuated with f-bombs.

For better or for worse, Tiger is a role model to kids that watch him on TV. The kids watch how he reacts to bad shots. I imagine after watching his reaction, those kids think that it is ok to react that way after a bad shot. It is not.

This brings me to yesterday. I was fortunate enough to play golf with my Dad and Terry. Lately, I have been playing fairly well. Yesterday, I did not play well. One club in particular took the brunt of my frustration. I did not slam it into the ground. My reaction of choice yesterday was to toss/throw the club in anger. I probably cursed one or twice, but no f-bombs. I am sure that I looked like a complete idiot, spoiled brat, jerk, and any number of other unsavory things. My reactions were embarrassing. Sorry Dad and Terry, no excuses, I behaved poorly.

According to fellow officers, at work I am known for being very calm and level headed. I very rarely get excited and am a model of politeness. I am very patient with citizens and the probationary officers that I train. While calling out a chase while driving too fast, I am cool as a cucumber. When unexpected things happen, or after crazy decisions by supervisors, I just move on. But, put me on a golf course and watch me hit a bad shot, and something snaps inside me. I need/hope to get this under control. I am reading a golf psychology book that has helped, but not yesterday.

Austin has gone to the golf course with me a number of times. An amazing thing happens, 99% of the time, I stay under control. Maybe I need to take him with me more often? Or just get myself under control.

Alone for a long weekend

Jen took the kids to Corpus Christi on Thursday to vist her grandmother, Nana. They plan to return on Monday afternoon. That means it is just me and the dog for 4 1/2 days. I am writing this early Sunday morning after 3 days of being a quasi-bachelor. Here are a few of my random thoughts so far.

I love not needing to make the bed until Monday morning. The fact is, I live with a beautiful, but compulsive bed maker. Knowing that I have yet to make the bed will not make her happy. Relax honey, it will be made for your arrival back home.

I do not eat very well when on my own. So far, I have eaten dinner twice by myself. I had an ice cream bar for one and a bowl of cereal followed by Oreos for the other dinner. Lazy sums up those choices.

The house is VERY quiet without the kids running around. I sure do miss the noise.

I have had a little time to kill, and playing Halo 3 has come to the rescue.

Big thanks to my parents and Courtney and Mike for inving me to dinner.

I was able to go to the gym and not feel guilty. Since I work quite a bit, and strange hours at that, I do not like leaving Jen with the kids while I go to the gym.

Avery, our dog, does not like being left alone at home all night. She is a snuggler, with no one to snuggle with at night.

I miss talking to my wife. Cell phones calls and text messages are nice. But I love to make her laugh and I want to see the smile.

That is all for now. Time to get back to work.

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